Thicker Than Water (9 page)

With her face nestled between his neck and shoulder, she found comfort. She let out all of her tears of everything that had happened. The guns in her face, the death threats, the hospital, everything, she let it all out.

“I’m sorry princess, I should’ve been here.”

Sasha didn’t answer, instead she just thought to herself,
‘Hell yeah you should’ve.’
Chauncey kissed her forehead, and rocked her in his arms.

“Princess I’m sorry. I fucked up, I should’ve been here.”

Neli stood at the door, pissed off and hurt. She couldn’t believe how Chauncey just catered to Sasha’s dramatics. She thought that he would at least acknowledge her in some way, but he ignored her and catered to this little spoiled bitch’s antics.

Get the fuck out of here
, Neli thought to herself but soon was hearing it out loud.

“You hear me, get the fuck out of here!” Chauncey screamed at everyone, including Neli. The only person that he didn’t scream at was Tatum. He stormed out into the living room.

“Get out! Get the fuck out!”

Everyone jumped up quickly. They knew Chauncey said what he meant and meant what he said. They also he knew he was going to flip when he found out what happened to Sasha so this was not a surprise. The nigga was a loose cannon.

After everybody cleared out, Tatum headed out, followed by E who promised to have names for Chauncey by tomorrow. When he didn’t get a response from Chauncey, he didn’t trip. He didn’t expect one.

Chauncey locked the door behind E and headed back into the living room. The apartment was just like home to him, he had spent so much time there. And even though Sasha’s parents had money and kept the apartment fully stocked with whatever she needed, Chauncey had purchased most of the furnishings, including the 42” plasma TV and the King XL rounded bed that they enjoyed many nights.

It was quiet, and before he went back into the room to face Sasha, he sat down on the couch to take a moment to think. He took off his tee and placed his head in his hands wondering who was responsible for this and who would ever think to disrespect him in this way.

He thought about a lot in those couple of minutes. He hardly ever had time to think. Lately things had been so hectic in the streets, partly because they had to be, and partly because that’s the way he wanted them, to keep his mind off of Sasha. He thought of how he had been so stupid. He wanted to be with Sasha and he knew he could be, but he was a nigga used to having control. Whenever he put himself in a certain situation that made him feel vulnerable, he had to do something to fuck it up.

Now it was too late, he couldn’t go back to Sasha after what he had done. Neli would never let that happen. And he couldn’t tell Sasha, he just couldn’t hurt her like that. He just had to let her go.

Sasha walked out of the bedroom and studied Chauncey in his sexy wife beater with his dark muscular arms that were once her security blanket. She missed him so much, all those nights she lay in her bed, pretending that her fingers were his. All those nights, wishing that she could have him again. Wishing that she could wake up and he’d be right in that next room, right on that couch like he was now.

“Hey,” her soft voice quivered.

Tears formed at her heart and she prayed that they didn’t come to her eyes.

“Hey,” he answered, looking up at her.
Beautiful.
“So tell me what happened.”

She wanted to tell him that one of their names was Rico, but she was too scared that he would leave to go find the guys. She needed him tonight.

“Please Chaunc, I don’t want to relive that right now. Can I talk about it in the morning?” She took a pause before she continued; she wanted to choose her words carefully. “You
will
be here in the morning, right?”

Chauncey caught her insinuation and took it for what it was. He had every intention of being by her side all through the night.

“Yeah, I’ll be here kid. Don’t worry, I aint going nowhere.”

I heard that before.
Sasha thought to herself. She walked over to the couch and stood in front of him. He placed his head on her stomach as she rubbed the back of his neck and down to his shoulders. She could feel herself becoming weak as his breath tickled her belly button. Nice.

Next were light kisses along her midriff that made her moan in ecstasy. He stood up and looked into her brown eyes. God he loved her. At that moment he realized that he needed her, she made him whole, and he had to find a way to get back right with her. He looked at the marks on her beautiful face.
I’m gonna kill those mothafuckas.
She was still the baddest chick he had ever seen, and he’d seen a lot.

He kissed her with his eyes opened. They kissed slow and soft at first, then hard and passionate. It was as if they were making up for all of those lost kisses over the weeks. They kissed for what seemed like an eternity as his hands reintroduced themselves to every curve of her body. Then he carried his princess into the bedroom and made sweet, sweet love to her, over and over.

Tatum had planned on going back to Ree’s after leaving Sasha’s. She knew with Chauncey there, Sasha would be okay. She thought about how Sasha got herself into this situation, dealing with a hustler. It was nothing that she did wrong, but she just loved the wrong kind of man, and Tatum once upon a time swore she would never get caught up like that.

But damn, Ree, he was irresistible. Earlier she had gone to his house after class and had fallen asleep immediately. She didn’t realize how tired she had been from working and school, but Ree understood and rubbed her hair as he watched her fall asleep peacefully.

Just when she was in a state of calm, she got a phone call about Sasha from Neli and had to leave immediately. She told Ree she would call him when she got a chance but now he wasn’t answering.
Oh well
, she thought.

Meanwhile, Ree had just gotten off of a phone call with E when he made a connection. Apparently Chauncey couldn’t take that trip to Plainfield tonight that Ree wanted him to, because something had happened to his girl. And Tatum had left earlier because of something that happened to her girl, which now came together as being the same girl.

What blew his mind though is that when Ree told E that he already knew about what happened to Sasha because he knew her friend Tatum, E let him know that the nigga Chris that had come to Ree a couple months ago for a job, was also Tatum’s brother.
It’s a small fucking world.

Now Ree was really starting to dig Tatum but he had become too successful these past years and he didn’t like mixing business with pleasure. Tatum also didn’t know exactly how deep and heavy in the game he was and he wasn’t sure if he wanted her to. She was a strong, educated black woman, and the way they vibed, notorious drug lord status never came up in the conversation.

The worse thing was that he wasn’t feeling the nigga Chris. In Ree’s eyes he was a snake, lazy, and an all around bad worker. He wanted to be the boss, but there was only one boss, and that was Ree. No questions asked. If something ever came out of his suspicions and he had to do away with Chris, then that would be a problem in itself with Tatum. Nonetheless, it was too late to debate getting involved with her; she already had his full attention.

After seeing that Tatum had called while he was talking to E, he dialed her back to see how she was doing.

“You know, I should treat you like you treat me and not pick up the phone,” she sassed with a fake attitude mixed with her signature coolness.

“C’mon Ms. Lady, you know I could never intentionally ignore you. I’m just a very busy man, sometimes I get caught up... How’s ya friend?”

“She’s fine, just a little shook up.”

There was a little silence. Tatum didn’t want to just re-invite herself over. She thought about just saying forget it and going home.

She headed home and threw a whole bunch of everything into her Louis Vuitton duffle, and then headed out for what was her first potential sleepover at Ree’s.

Ree had just poured himself a shot of Hennessy from his bar when he heard a knock at the door. He didn’t usually drink, but Tatum put him in that mood to let go a little, she relaxed him. He opened the door and was greeted by her smile.

“What’s up Ms.Lady?”

He already knew it was her at the door due to his top-notch security. He had cameras all around the outside of the house at every angle. At his status, he had to be extra cautious. Not only for jealous niggas or enemies, but also The Feds wanted him so bad they could taste it.

“How are you Mr. Knights?” Tatum asked as she placed her bag on the floor. She had learned his last name and was way ahead of any female he had ever dealt with.

She walked in and placed her bag on the floor. She loved his house. Whenever she came there she pretended that it was her own and it made her feel like a queen. The black and white color scheme was astoundingly gorgeous. The contemporary furniture of the dining area and bar made the living space look like a five star hotel lobby. Ree had paid the top interior decorators in the tri state area to put together his place.

Not only was decorating not an interest or craft of his, it was time consuming none the less, and Ree barely spent enough time at home to even consider the task.

Tatum made her way to her favorite room in the house, the study, which stood at the top of the double stairway. The room held all African American art, vintage books, and even framed pictures of Malcolm X, Bob Marley, and Huey Newton that Tatum had never seen before.

Ree followed behind her and once inside the room, Tatum turned and gave him a hug and a light kiss. He held her long after that and she let him, while they held a silent eye contact for a minute longer. Tatum stared daze-like at him, wondering how she fell so easily. She had always had complete control over her emotions and had never been like this over a guy.

“You alright?” Ree asked, leaning against his wood grain desk. Tatum nodded her head in response and smiled a bright one at him, like a school girl with a crush. This was so Sasha like, she had to laugh.

Neli left Sasha’s apartment feeling defeated. Something inside of her wished she was the one that got assaulted and pistol whipped just so she could have the reward of Chauncey’s affection. If only she could get him to feel the same way about her that he felt about Sasha. She once heard someone say drastic times call for desperate measures, and that is exactly what Neli planned on pursuing.

She whipped out her blackberry that Ray had bought her and hit up Chris, Tatum’s brother. She had kept him close to her just to keep her close to Chauncey. Not to mention he was a sucker for her, and all she had to do was fuck him right.

Perfect
, she thought to herself.

“Alright, I’m coming through.”

When she showed up to Tatum’s house it was a little after eleven and she knew that Chris’ daughters were sleeping. She had purposely kept him waiting for her, building up anxiety and keeping her control over him.
The more control I have over him, the more info I can milk him for
. After calling and letting him know she was downstairs, Chris hastily opened the door with a big ‘I’m about to get some’ grin on his face.

Neli played along, giving him a lustful eye as she slowly sashayed her hips down the hallway. Chris didn’t have any time for the cute shit; he had to get it while his daughters were sleep and while Tatum was gone. He grabbed Neli and began tearing at her clothes, giving her dry ass kisses all over her body. He was no Chauncey.

After they finished, about six minutes later, they lay in his bed smoking a blunt, as Chris began razor blading coke and bagging it up. Neli began to put her plan into action.

“I’m saying Chris, why do you still live here? If you work with Chauncey and not
for
him, why don’t you have everything he has?”

Chris looked at her and wanted to tell her to go fuck herself, but lately he had been thinking the same thing. Even though Chauncey was Ree’s right hand man and it was no mystery that Chauncey was taking his steps into moving up in status, he still wasn’t the boss nigga in Chris’ eyes that everyone else saw.

To Chris, Chauncey was too flamboyant, attracting too much unwanted attention. He had his young niggas killing motherfuckers left and right, attracting bodies, attracting police. He was greedy with territory, never putting niggas on and never giving Chris his own shit to run.

Even E, Chaunc’s man from NY, was doing it bigger than Chris, he was in charge of the whole area of Fairmount, and Chris had known Chauncey longer.