Ruthless (11 page)

Admittedly, last night it was torturous being alone with him sitting up in my office watching him eat. Every time his lips wrapped around his chopsticks, I imagined it was my clit he was slurping into his mouth.

He smirks, shaking his head. “Yeah, aiight. I'ma go heat up my leftovers. You want anything while I'm in the back?”

Yes, nigga. You!

I swallow. “No, I'm good. Thanks.” I glance up at the clock. “I have some work to do in my office and need to run some errands before my twelve o'clock gets here.”

“Oh, aiight. What time you wanna roll out?” I tell him around ten-thirty. “Cool.” I eye him as he walks off toward the staff lounge. I stare at his muscular ass, clutching my neck and swallowin'.

Girl, you need to get your whore meter in check.

Luckily for me, any salacious thoughts beginning to take root in my filthy little head are quickly tossed aside the second Mona bursts through the door, looking disheveled and on the brink of tears.

“Ohmygod,” I say, my eyes wide with concern. “Mona, what's happened?”

“Pasha, we need to talk.”

Sometimes the truth slices deeper than a knife…

“P
asha,” Mona states as she steps into my office and I close the door behind us. “You were right.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. When she reopens them, they are wet with tears.

“About what?” I sit on the edge of my desk, folding my arms.

“About JT. That dirty bastard was down in that basement with you that night. Them fucking dirty niggas…” She covers her hand over her mouth, leaning over and clutching her stomach.

I am surprisingly calm hearing Mona confirm what I suspected, what I already knew, in my gut. “What about your cousin, Desmond? Did you hear anything about him being there to?”

I hold my breath, waiting, hoping that the father of my cousin Paris' son wasn't a part of it. That he wouldn't have to be…another name added on my list.

Another nigga brought down for violating me.

I am silently relieved when she tells me she didn't hear his name mentioned.

Still doesn't mean shit…

Mona takes a seat on the sofa, shaking her head as she swipes tears from her face with her hands. “I feel so fucking sick right now. I've been calling you all morning. Didn't you get any of my messages?” I tell her I hadn't checked my messages, but saw where
she had been trying to reach me and planned on returning her call later this morning.

“What I want to know is, where or whom did you get this information from?”

She tells me she stopped by her parents' house early this morning to check in on her mom because she hasn't been feeling well the past few days. And when she got to the house, Stax's car was in the driveway.

“Which I thought was odd,” she says, getting up from her seat to grab the box of tissue from off the desk, “because it was six o'clock in the morning and he's never over there that early.”

“Okay?”

“Well, after I checked in on Mama and made sure she had everything she needed, I went downstairs to say my hellos to Sparks and Stax before heading to work. But when I got to the bottom of the steps to the basement, all I could hear was muffled sounds coming from the other side of the door where Monty lifts weights and has all of this gym equipment. So I thought they were working out, or something. The closer I got to the door, I could hear the two of them talking.

“Then Stax started going off, saying how JT and the rest of them dumb-ass niggas were all fucked up for getting involved in Jasper's bullshit. That what Jasper and the rest of them niggas did to you was some real savage shit. And how it fucks with him every time he has to look at you. That Jasper's fucking reckless. He thinks he'd really try to have you killed for keeping him away from his son and for trying to leave him. He also said something about some money Jasper has stashed at the house that you won't let him get his hands on. I think Jasper is hoping Stax can somehow get it for him without you knowing it.”

I blink.
Oh, I know damn well Stax isn't even trying to play me!
Then again, if he thinks he is, stupid him.
I smirk, imagining the look on his face when…if…he tries to retrieve Jasper's money and comes up empty-handed.

Jasper's black ass will be in for a rude awakening when he learns his precious safes that he thought were so hidden from me have all been breached. And all of his money swiped by the same bitch he shitted on.

“Oh, really? Well, Stax can try. I'd like to see how he makes out with that.

“And that's all you heard? Stax didn't mention any other names other than JT's?

She shakes her head. “I only heard JT's name.” She pushes out a frustrated breath. “This shit with Jasper is messier than I ever imagined. That fucking nigga is crazy.”

I give her an “oh-really-you-think” look. But my expression goes unnoticed.

She shifts back in her seat. “Did you know those three houses that went up in flames last weekend were Jasper's? I overheard Stax saying something about them losing close to a million dollars in product, and over a quarter-million dollars in cash.”

“Really?” I say feigning ignorance. “I had no idea. Well, that's exactly what the fuck he gets.” I hide a triumphant smile.
And the motherfucker's about to lose a whole lot more than that by the time I'm done.
Jasper really thinks he can shit on me and get away with it. That I'd keep lying down, letting him treat me like some raggedy doormat he can wipe his size-thirteens. “Jasper's going to get everything his ass deserves. Karma's a real bitch.”

“It sure is. And from what I gathered from the conversation this morning, Karma is really fucking them good. I heard Monty
saying something about having to do some reorganization and cutting some niggas from their team now that they've lost those spots. They think it was an inside job.”

I keep my game face locked in place.

“Wow…that's crazy. Then again, I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it were true. Greedy, hating-ass niggas will turn in a heartbeat.”

“Yeah. You're right. It's just too bad innocent lives are getting caught up in all of Jasper's drama.”

I shrug. “I guess. It's a dirty game they play. Every last one of them niggas knows the risk going in. And they still choose to roll up their sleeves and get dirty, so they all get what they get. When their time is up, it's up. Jasper, Sparks, Stax, and whoever else all know they're gambling on borrowed time doing what they do.”

She nods. “You're right. Out of all of them, Stax is the only one who has fallen back from that life.”

I nod knowingly. Over the last two years, Stax has opened three fitness centers around the tri-state area. And has invested money in the production and distribution of his own fitness video. “Still, Mona. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how he's fallen back, he's still guilty by association. And, push come to shove, if niggas can pin shit on him when the heat gets turned up, they will.”

She agrees. “I've been telling Sparks and Stax for years to distance themselves from that shit, to stack their money, then get the hell out. Stax seems to be the only one halfway smart enough to do something to clean his money up. Sparks on the other hand.” She sighs, shaking her head. “I don't know. But I think he's finally starting to see that Jasper's a ticking time bomb.”

“Well, for his sake, let's hope so.”

She lets out another heavy sigh. “Pasha, to be honest with you. You don't know how relieved I am that my brother and Stax weren't
involved in that grimy shit Jasper pulled on you. I don't know what I would have done if either of them had been. It's bad enough JT's dumb-ass was involved.”

“Yeah,” I say ruefully. “And now look at his ass. Missing.”

“Correction.
Dead
,” she states grimly. “JT was murdered. And there's still no body, thanks to Cassandra. And there's still no closure for any of us.” She shakes her head. “And that bitch still wants to play like she doesn't know where his corpse is.”

“Maybe she really doesn't. Maybe she had someone else dispose of his body. At this point, it doesn't really matter what they did with it since we'll never know. Besides, there can't be a murder unless there's a body. So technically, JT's still considered missing.”

She rolls her eyes, sucking her teeth. “His body may be
missing
. But
we
both know he's
dead
. He's probably somewhere stuffed down in some sewer pipe, rotting.”

Right where the fuck he belong—with the rest of the trash. I hope the rats are eating his fucking eyeballs out.

It's two weeks, today, since he's gone
missing
, since his death—okay,
murder
, at the hands of Booty. And the family is still beside themselves with worry, rightfully so. Still, that nigga got what he deserved. However, for the life of me, I still can't wrap my mind around why Booty chose to have his body dumped when it was clearly justified. It was a life-or-death situation. She had to act quickly, or her children would have come home from school and found her dead.

That nigga barged his way up into her home and physically attacked her, then tried to rape and sodomize her. As far as I'm concerned, that was an airtight, open-and-shut case. Booty acted in self-defense; period, point blank.

Personally, I would have rather seen that nigga suffer a slow,
torturous death, instead of the swift killing he'd gotten. That's the one thing I feel I've been robbed of, exacting my own punishment on his ass for what he did.

Oh, how I would have loved to have seen the agonizing look on his face when Big Booty took that knife and sawed off his dick. I can almost see him now, his eyes wide in shock, his dark skin turning ashen and pale as his blood drained from his face while spurting out from his lacerated appendage.

If it had been me, I would have probably chewed and gnawed until I'd bitten his dick off. Then I would have ripped into his balls with my teeth until I'd torn them off of his body. In my head, I can practically hear his blood-curdling screams as I sink my teeth into his flesh, breaking skin.

I can almost taste his blood pooling in my mouth.

I swallow.

Mona stares at me. “Have you seen Stax?”

I think, decide whether or not to lie or share half-truths. I err on the side of caution, not sure what Stax has told her—if anything at all, and go with lying by omission. “Yeah, briefly.”

“Have you tried to…?”

Fuck him?

“Have I tried to
what?”

“Do what Cassandra's nasty, freak-ass suggested you do to try to get info out of him about that night.”

I push out a fake laugh. “What, fuck
Stax
?” I wave her on. “Girl, no. I let that crazy mess Cassandra was talking go right over my head.”

She tilts her head, twisting her lips. “I'm not talking about
fucking
. I know you wouldn't do
that
. Did you try to offer him up some of your oral services for whatever information he has?”

I cough, practically choking on my spit. “Ohmygod. There's no
way I'm going there. I know what I did while Jasper was locked up was some scandalous shit. And, yes, it is no secret. I love sucking dick. But sucking Stax isn't something I'm interested in adding to my list of sins. Besides, Stax wouldn't go for any shit like that anyway. You know how loyal he is to Jasper.”

“You're right. Stax is extremely loyal to Jasper's ass. Always has been. Sometimes I think he's too trustworthy to a fault.”

She studies me, narrowing her eyes.

I frown. “What? Why are you eyeballing me like that?”

She slowly shakes her head. “No reason.” She leans up in her seat, keeping her stare on me. “You know. On second thought, I overheard Sparks ask Stax something I thought was strange.”

I raise a brow, giving her a quizzical look. “Oh, yeah? And what was that?”

“He asked him if he had feelings for you.”

My eyes grow wide in disbelief. “Say
whaaaat?!
Why in the world would Sparks ask Stax something like that?”

Mona tilts her head, then shrugs. “I guess the same reason why I asked if you had taken Cassandra's suggestion and sucked his dick. He wanted to know.”

I give her a blank look.

“Pasha, please. Stax may not ever cross the line. But it's damn sure no secret, no matter how hard he tries to hide it, that he feels something for you. I've always suspected it long before that loudmouth bitch put it out there. I just didn't say anything. Everyone sees the way he looks, or tries
not
to look, at you whenever he's around you, which is why that messy bitch suggested you fuck him.”

“Well, I'm not going there.” I pause, sweeping my eyes and the lies pouring out of my mouth around the room before landing
my gaze back on her. “So what did you hear Stax tell your brother when he asked him that?”

Mona looks down at her hands, then closes her eyes.

The room goes silent for a moment, a kind of silence that only a room filled with secrets can take on. Dirty secrets.

I squint at her. “Well?”

There's a long stretch of silence before Mona finally opens her eyes and takes a long, slow breath. She glances in my direction, not quite meeting my eye. “That Jasper's trifling-ass is pressing
him
to fuck
you
.” She raises her brows slightly. “Jasper wants Stax to set you up for him.”

Mmmph. And here I thought I was the one manipulating Stax with tears when I fell into his arms last weekend, and pressed my warm, soft body into his hard, chiseled frame. I thought I was seducing him, throwing myself at him, reeling him in with a good dick suck. And he'd probably already come here, standing in my office, wrapping me in his strong arms, with a plan of his own, one devised by Jasper.