Shattered (14 page)

The next night I did pretty much the same routine, but this time when I looked around the room, my eyes locked on Rich’s.
What the hell was he doing here?
He smiled and winked. For some reason, I ain’t feel embarrassed, though. When Plies’s “Plenty Money” came on, instead of being pissed cuz it was one of Ryan’s favorites, I moved to that shit like I was the dirty, bad girl Ryan must’ve wanted me to be. I watched Rich hard, like I was dancing just for him. I laid on my stomach so that my ass was in the air. I twirked each cheek just for him. He licked his lips. I crawled toward him and straddled his lap. Rich wanted me bad, but not more than I wanted every single dollar in his hand.

After I danced, I was supposed to go work the floor for lap dances. Hell, anything to get more tips. I was on a mission to find Rich and his money-having friends but was blown when I ain’t see him nowhere. I felt a little crushed that he ain’t wait for me. I focused on the task at hand, working the club, giving lap dances to a handful of dudes scattered around the room until the night was finally over. Five hundred and twenty dollars richer, I packed my bag and waited for Meeka so we could head out the door.

Once we walked out, Meeka lit a cigarette and handed me the lighter so I could light mine. Two seconds later, a sleek black S-Class Mercedes sitting on spit-polished twenty-sixes pulled up. The passenger window rolled down. I looked at Meeka, who smiled at me.

“Aye, KiKi. Come here real quick.” It was Rich.

Meeka mouthed, “Who is that?”

“My barber, girl.”

She pressed her lips tight like she was impressed. One look at his ride, and I knew Rich had more paper than I thought he’d had. I swished my hips over to his Benz, the same way I used to do back when I worked the Fourteenth Street strip. “Hey, Rich.”

“What you ’bout to do?”

“You,” I purred.

“That’s a bet,” he smiled. “Get in.”

“Can you drop my girl off first? I was her ride tonight.”

“No problem.” Upshur Street was only like ten blocks away.

“Okay. Come on, Meeka!” I called over my shoulder.

She sashayed over to the car like she wanted to hit Rich, too, but that shit wasn’t even happening. “He said he’ll drop you off for me.”

Meeka looked hurt. I gave her a look that said this was personal, not business, and no, she couldn’t have none. She nodded and relaxed. Once we dropped her off, I looked over at Rich and smiled innocently. He shook his head and smiled back.

“Damn, KiKi. I ain’t know that’s how you rolled.”

“What you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

Of course, I did. I laid my head against his plush leather seats and watched him drive downtown. The music and the lights from other cars forcing me to stay awake. Rich lit a blunt, took a hit, then offered me some. I took a pull, hoping it was laced with something stronger. But this was nice, too. ’Dro would do just fine. My face instantly started feeling numb. Rich headed toward the Third Street Tunnel, and soon we was pulling up to one of the brand-new apartment buildings near the Nationals baseball stadium.

“You live here?” I asked.

He nodded and drove into the Axiom parking garage. My mind was running a hundred miles a minute. On the elevator ride up to his apartment, I studied Rich’s face. Even though I always thought he was handsome, I wouldn’t have put him in the same category as Kareem with his Laz Alonso pretty-boy look. Rich had a smooth brown complexion, a strong jawline, and lots of confidence like he dared somebody to cross him. He kinda reminded me of Amar’e Stoudemire, except he was about six feet even.

“What you thinking ’bout?” he asked.

I raised my eyebrows. “Just surprised I’m here with you right now.”

He nodded. “I don’t bring just
anybody
to my domain, either,” he said, winking.

Rich led me out the elevator when the doors chimed open, and then he walked to the end of the hall and unlocked the door. I followed behind him and couldn’t believe how laid out his apartment was. I mean, straight-out-a-magazine nice. The view was to die for. From one room, you could see the Capitol building, and the other, you could see the peak of the monument. Rich was really surprising me with every step.

“You want something to drink?”

“Yeah. Whatever you got,” I said, admiring his taste.

Charcoal gray, plum, and buttery yellow was everywhere. He had a pool table in his living room like Audri had, but it was much larger. Everything was plushed out like his huge charcoal-gray sectional sofa that faced the gigantic flat screen on the wall. I was too confused. As soon as Rich handed me a Long Island iced tea, I had to get in his business.

“Okay, Rich, wassup? I’m stuck. How the hell can you afford this?”

He smiled. “See…you all in my business. Ain’t nobody ask you why you stripping at Macombo.”

Well, damn.
He had me on that.

“But…since I fucks with you…I do all right. Me and my partners own a couple businesses, including the shop.”

I hadn’t even realized that. I mean, I thought he might’ve been a manager or something, but I ain’t know it was his spot.

“I own Diamond Kutz on Minnesota Avenue, Rough Edges on Martin Luther King Avenue, a Laundromat in Capitol Heights, and a car wash in Hyattsville.”

Jackpot.
“For real? You seem too young for all that. How old are you?”

He sipped his drink, then said, “Twenty-nine. How old are you?”

“I’ll be twenty-one soon.” I took another sip, still confused. I was too impressed. “And you still cut hair, even though you own those businesses?”

“I like cutting hair. I get to be creative and talk shit with my friends. It don’t even feel like work for real. Shit, I only work three days a week.” He sat his drink on a coaster. “Let me ask you something since we doing interviews and shit.”

I prepared myself to talk about the elephant in the room.

“Why you come in the shop yesterday and have me chop all your hair off?”

He surprised me with that one cuz I just knew he was gonna ask about me dancing at the club. I shook my head, not sure how to answer. “For a lot of reasons, I guess.”

“Name one.”

“Um…” I paused, wondering how deep I wanted to go. “I got a lot of drama going on right now, and I just wanted to feel like I was starting off with a fresh slate, but I think it backfired. I look crazy.”

“Take that shit off,” he commanded.

I froze, feeling insecure but knowing Rich had already seen my hair, I pulled the short blonde wig off and ran my fingers over my low cut.

“Come here.”

I stood up and walked over to where he sat. He took my hands in his, and then he said, “Why you keep looking away when I look at you?”

I shook my head. He was making me feel nervous. He stared at me for a long time.

Then finally he said, “You are beautiful. I tell you every time I see you cuz I mean it. Shit, I been feeling you ever since you came in my shop. I was rushing like shit to get you in my chair,” he said, smiling. “And then that day I saw you leaving Ibiza…man, I wanted to leave behind you, too. I told my boys, ‘The chick I want just left.’”

I blushed and looked away. He turned my chin back to look at him.

“I know I don’t know much about you, but I’m trying to get to know you, you feel me?”

I smiled, even though it wasn’t the first time somebody said those words to me. I had so much shit with me. Rich ain’t want no part of Shakira Alexis Scott for real. That was just his dick talking. I kneeled down in front of him, then ran my hand across his rock-hard dick and squeezed. Rich pushed it away and lifted my chin with his hand.

“Nah, KiKi. I want you to believe me,” he said, locking his eyes on mine. “Trust me.”

I was speechless.

“The more I look at you, the more I just wanna protect you. For real, you look lost and like you on the brink of doing something real stupid to yourself.”

A tear slid down my face. How could he know all that?

“I don’t want you to add me to whatever drama you dealing with. You hear me?” He wiped away my tear with his thumb. “Starting right now. I don’t even wanna know about your drama. All you need to know is that the drama stops here and now, okay?”

I nodded, and then he pulled me up from the floor and sat me across his lap, my legs outstretched on the long, luxurious couch. He kissed my forehead, and I buried my head in his chest. Tears came from nowhere. I tried to sniff them back, but they just kept falling. For the first time in a while, I ain’t feel like I had to worry. Rich rubbed my arm and hushed me to sleep.

T
he next day after breakfast, Rich drove me to Meeka’s so I could get whatever I wanted. He told me that he ain’t want me working at Macombo’s ever again, that I should just focus on going to school, and that he would take care of me. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why Rich wanted to do so much for a girl he barely knew. I ain’t feel like I deserved it. I tried to ignore the urge to snort. Part of it was cuz I ain’t know where to get none from besides Peaches. The other part was cuz I ain’t want to ruin whatever it was me and Rich was starting. Coke was what destroyed me and Audri. Wasn’t no way I was gonna let it spoil this new thing with Rich.

Over the next few weeks, Rich took me to all the best places to eat across the city, Lauriol Plaza, B. Smith’s, Citronelle, and Adour for dinner, and shopping in Georgetown, Arlington, and Bethesda. Him keeping his hands off me only lasted two full weeks. All it took was for him to find out I loved sleeping naked, and he was up inside me with my legs on his shoulders. After messing with Audri, I had forgot just how good dick was, especially the way Rich hit every corner and curve inside me. He paid attention to my every need and watched me as he stroked in and out. He asked me how I felt in a way that made me know he cared that I was satisfied just as much as I wanted to make sure he was, too. Rich was the first guy I ever squirted with, and he killed me at how
unsurprised
he was that he made me do it.

Rich was spontaneous enough to keep my mind from wandering to the dark places that usually left me thirsty for coke. I noticed him staring at me once when I felt a little antsy and was digging through all of my old purses, hoping I could find a vial that I had somehow forgotten about. It was almost like he knew there was something I wanted that he couldn’t give me, but instead of asking me what I was looking for or what was wrong, Rich told me to hurry up and get dressed. “We’re going to a cabaret so put on something sexy,” he said. I ain’t wanna disappoint him, so I stopped searching long enough to pick out a cute black dress. Rich looked sexy as hell putting on his fresh black button up. I threw my arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.

“What was that for?” he asked, smiling.

“Just because,” I said.

Rich kissed me again, then said, “Hurry up and get five starred up.” He smacked my butt and turned me toward the bathroom. An hour later we was dancing our asses off to the Lissen Band out Lanham. We had met a couple of his friends and their dates there, too. I felt so happy.

After a few weeks, I realized pretty quickly that Rich’s businesses wasn’t as legit as he had made it seem. Him and his partners met up way too much in the parking lots behind the businesses. I sat in his car watching them swap packages out their trunks, wondering what was in them. Things started making more sense about where he lived, the cars he drove, and the money he spent. Of course, I never asked him no questions. Hell, since Rich never asked me questions about my past, I wasn’t gonna ask him questions that ain’t concern me. I figured the less I knew, the better off I’d be.

One weekend in October, Rich drove me to southern Maryland so I could taste what he swore was the best crabs ever. He said it was in a place called Solomons Island, and I remembered Peaches telling me about it before. There was lots of shops, spas, and bed-and-breakfasts, but people mostly loved the marinas. Rich said him and his boys came down a lot to go crabbing and fishing. I couldn’t believe he said that he actually owned a boat. I had to see what all the fuss was for.

Our first stop, though, was in Calvert County. The orange, gold, and burgundy leaves of the different autumn colors looked so pretty. I was surprised when we drove down a dirt road, and Rich pulled up in front of a tan house with a big porch and a white fence going around it. There was a blue-and-white boat attached to a red Ford F-150. It was parked beside a pearl Cadillac. Rich parked and opened the car door for me. I never asked questions cuz I felt safe with Rich, but I was tense when I noticed the floor mat outside the door said
THE MALLOYS.
Rich’s last name. As soon as the door swung open, I saw a slim woman with gray-streaked hair waiting with a big smile on her face.

“Boy, come on and get in here. It’s a chill in the air,” she said.

“Hi, Aunt Pat,” he said, giving her a hug.

“Hey, Richie. Why, hello,” she said to me.

“Hi. I’m Shakira.”

“Girl, you need to give me a hug. You know how many times Richie brought somebody to meet me?”

I blushed and shook my head.

“I can count on two fingers and that includes you so you must be some kind of special.”

And I still had no idea what he saw in me. She hugged me tight with the type of hug Mommy used to always give when I first came home after being separated for so long. My nerves started to get the best of me, but I fought the urge that had been calling me for some time.

“Come on in. I done steamed a heap of crabs for y’all.”

I gave Rich a playful pop. He could’ve told me I was coming to meet some of his folks. She was so funny, telling me we couldn’t sleep in the same room and that she had a nightgown for me to wear.

“I’m just teasing, baby,” she said two seconds later. “When I was your age, a lot of things was different. Make yourself at home.”

Rich clearly did, popping open bottles of beer and carrying them to the table. We broke into those juicy crabs and loved every bit of the lump meat spilling out of each one. Aunt Pat even got busy. She was a pro. There was stories she told me about Rich, him learning about crabbing and fishing with his uncle Roy, and about the summers he used to spend with her. In between bites, she told me to look at pictures she had around the living room of all her grandkids. In just about every picture where Roy or Pat was, kids hugged all over them. I thought that was sweet. After Daddy died, me and my family never really had that kind of affectionate relationship.

After we ate, Rich led me to the backyard where there was a lighted stone path that snaked down to a small pond, carrying two beer bottles in his other hand. We sat on a bench and watched the turtles, goldfish, and frogs play around while we sipped.

“Is that your boat?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yep,
Bonita Applebum
. Me and Ty come down here like twice a month.”

I was surprised. Not too many people I knew even knew how to fish, let alone owned boats. We sat quietly for a while sipping our beer, and then to break the silence that made me nervous, I said, “Can you tell me one thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Why me? I mean, after you seen what I was doing in that strip club…why you still want me?”

Rich swallowed more beer before he spoke. “I guess cuz I knew you before I saw you there. I wanted you way before I knew that part, and for real, that shit just turned me on a little bit,” he said, smiling.

I pushed his leg away playfully. I was truly confused. Out of two girls, I happened to be one he introduced to his aunt. I still ain’t understand what he saw in me. I mean, with all the shit he had going for him, I had to keep knocking bitches back. Thank God, Rich ignored all the late-night phone calls here and there and bitches grinning in his face at every shop he rolled up in. What was it about me that was so damn interesting? “I still don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head.

“KiKi, you act like something wrong with you,” he said, looking at me suspiciously.

I looked at the bottle.

“I’m not the first person who’s dated a stripper before,” he said, looking me directly in my eyes. Thank God that was the only part he knew about me.

“Okay. Fine. Since you gotta know…I like that every time when you used to come to my shop, you had your head in your textbooks. That you ain’t pay no attention to none of the niggas trying to get at you or none of the bullshit going on in the shop. I like that you out here trying to make it on your own. I like the way you treat me and the way you let me treat you. You never complain when plans change. You never doubt what I say. I like that you’re open to doing new shit. That you take chances.”

I smiled a little.

“I like how you don’t blame your mother for what happened to you when you was younger and how you make sure she’s straight before you do anything else with your day. I just want you to feel like you deserve every good thing that comes your way. Just because you’re you and not for nothing else. Baby, please just stop asking why I’m with you. Just know that I am cuz I wanna be. You feel me?”

I smiled, even though I still ain’t feel so sure. I knew I had a habit of ruining relationships when I felt like they was too good to be true. It drove me crazy that I did that in spite of myself. Rich rubbed my knee and took another sip of his beer. “Now, you know where my aunt lives, you know where I live, you know where I work. You starting to learn way too much about me. You know if you hurt me, I’ma have to hurt you, right?”

I looked at him crazy, and then he smiled and kissed me. “I’m just playing with you, girl. I’d never hurt you…even if you hurt me. I’ll walk away first. You understand me?”

I believed him so I nodded and let him kiss me even though I was more worried about me hurting him. I closed my eyes and prayed that I never did.

The next morning we woke up early to go for a ride in
Bonita Applebum
. It was cool. He showed me how to crab, using a metal crab trap, a thing he called a dip line, and pieces of chicken and turkey necks he got from Aunt Pat. It was weird seeing how the crabs latched on to each other, snapping arms and legs off of other crabs, fighting not to get pulled up. Those suckers was not coming at their own free will. After we caught a crateful, we rode the boat back to the shore and headed to Aunt Pat’s house. By the afternoon, we showered and changed into different clothes before heading to Eagles’ Landing Gun Range. Rich was a trip, laughing at me every time I jumped cuz of the gunshots going off around me. The people running the joint made me get internal and external headsets to muffle the loud noise.

“You supposed to be from the hood. How you gon’ be jumping every time you hear gunshots?” he teased. But my nerves was bad fucking with that place.

“When I hear gunshots in the hood, it’s cuz they meant to kill somebody. Not to be shooting at no damn paper man,” I told him. I looked around at the other people shooting. They was so at ease, taking their time to aim and hit their paper targets. “Look at how relaxed they is. They be shooting deer, they don’t get shot at.”

He just laughed and tried to show me how to hold the gun the right way. As sexy as he said I looked, that part of the day wasn’t fun to me at all.
What the fuck I need to know how to shoot for?
Rich took me to Solomons Island Winery. He bought me two bottles of that Sauvignon Blanc that Toya let me taste at her apartment that time I visited.

“Look at you, knowing your wines,” he said, surprised. “And you not even legal yet.”

I stuck my tongue out and sashayed to the truck. Before we went back, he took me to a restaurant on the waterfront and then for a walk on the boardwalk. I was having so much fun, but I was so exhausted from the long day since we had been up at the crack of dawn to hit the bay. On the ride home Rich told me to listen to some old-school hip-hop song he loved. He turned it up:

It was sweet, and I was surprised Rich was digging it. He winked and rapped along with Common. By the time we rolled back to his aunt’s, I was too tired to even get out of the car. Rich parked, then carried me from my seat to the doorstep.

“And just think, I was gonna take you to see the wild ponies in Assateague last weekend. You wouldn’t have been able to hang,” he whispered in my ear.

I curled closer to his neck and held tighter. “Maybe next time.”

He kissed me, then opened the door.