When A Thug Loves A Woman (8 page)

I stood over the stove as I fixed my and Majesty’s breakfast, trying to keep myself awake. Last night, Casino kept me up all night, talking about everything under the sun, literally. He told me what it was like growing up with his parents and how his dad often cheated on his mother, which resulted in her leaving him. He told me the story of how his brother Canaan just recently got out of prison for doing nine years on a drug charge. He was very open with me about aspects of his life and I really respected him for that.

In return, I told him about the situation with Dutchess and Majesty. I told him how my mother and I weren't close anymore because she blamed me for my older sister getting hooked on drugs because it was my ex-boyfriend that she stole her first rock from. Truth of the matter was, any issues that Dutchess had all stemmed from my mother's carelessness and her just not giving a fuck about Dutchess and me.

Both my sister and I had been through some fucked up shit in our lives but while I was able to live with it and get over it, Dutchess wasn't and she let the shit control her. I hate that's how it had to be and I didn't love her any less but Dutchess needed some serious help. Not just for her but for her daughter as well.

I was snatched from my thoughts when I felt little hands tapping me on my legs.

“What's up, baby? The food is almost done,” I told Majesty as I looked down.

My niece literally had not spoken one word since she'd been in my care but the child psychologist I had briefly spoken to said that was normal when a child goes through a traumatic experience. I damn near shouted for joy and caught the Holy Ghost when the doctors confirmed that she hadn't been touched. That was my biggest fear when Dutchess dropped her off because there was no telling what type of men she had around her when she was high.

“Is my mommy coming back?” Majesty asked, surprising me.

“Of course, sweetie. Your mommy's just sick right now and has to get better. Then she's coming back.”

All of a sudden, Majesty burst into tears. I'm talking this girl was crying like she’d just lost the best thing that ever happened to her. I was so confused that I turned the stove down so the food wouldn't burn and bent to pick her up.

“Aww, baby, don't cry. It's going to be okay. Why you crying?” I asked as I sat her on the counter.

“I don't want her to come back. I want you to be my mommy. I want to stay here with you,” she continued to cry.

Even though my heart fluttered, I had no idea how to respond to that. True enough, Dutchess did just drop Majesty off on my doorstep in the middle of the night and hadn't been heard from since after claiming she couldn't take care of her own child anymore, but the last thing I was trying to do was replace her in her daughter's life.

The only thing I was doing was giving her the love, attention and nourishment I knew she had been missing out on with her mother being on drugs. I tried to console Majesty as my phone started ringing.

“Hello?” I answered.

“What's wrong?” Casino asked.

“She's scared that her mother is going to come back for her and she doesn't want her to. She wants me to be her mommy,” I told him as I did my best to wipe her tears.

“Well, tell her you'll be her mommy then. Or at least until your sister gets back. I'm pretty sure she won't be back anytime soon.”

I just rolled my eyes at his words even though they were most likely true. “Anyway, what's up? I just talked to you a few hours ago,” I said, changing directions of the conversation.

“I got us a babysitter for tonight. Me, my brother and a few of the boys were going out tonight and I want my girl by my side,” he said.

I didn’t know what it was but for some reason, when he called me his girl, I actually caught butterflies in my stomach. I couldn't believe that I had finally given in and agreed to give him a chance.

“Casino, I can't. Majesty doesn't do too well around people she doesn't know and I—”

“Trust me, Choc. You'll give your stamp of approval once you meet her. If I trust her to watch Casiyah, then I can guarantee you she'll do well with Majesty. As a matter of fact, we're on our way now so you can check her out,” Casino said as he hung up before I could object.

His always doing something
, I thought as I sat Majesty back in her chair and went back to cooking. By the time I had finished cooking and placed Majesty’s plate in front of her so she could eat, there was a knock at the door.

I went to open it and was greeted with by a beautiful woman and Casiyah.

“Hi, Ms. Bambi!” Casiyah yelled excitedly.

“Well, hello, cutie. Long time no see.” I smiled as I stepped to the side to let them in.

“Hello, Bambi, I’m Adrina. Casino’s mother,” she said as she pulled me in for a hug.

“Casino’s mo…mother? Umm… Hi, I’m Bambi,” I stammered. “Oh wait, you already know that.”

I was so caught off guard that I wanted to slap the shit out of Casino. He didn’t even tell me that he was bringing his mama with him and here I was making a damn fool of myself. She chuckled and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. If I were light skinned, I would definitely be red right now.

“No need to be nervous, sweetie. I’m harmless,” she said.

“What y’all talking about?” Casino asked as he made his way into the house.

“I was just telling your
mother
that it was nice to meet her,” I told him as I cut my eyes at him.

“Ma, Choc said she don’t trust you to watch her niece tonight while we go out,” he said, throwing me under the bus.

“What! Casino, don’t play. That was before I knew she was your mom and I never said I didn’t trust her. I just said Majesty has some adjustment and attachment issues so I didn’t know how she was going to do.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“It looks like she’s doing fine to me,” he said as he nodded his head in Majesty’s direction.

I turned my head to see Majesty in a full blown conversation with Casiyah, and she was even laughing. I sat there a little stunned because that was the most I had seen her talk before today. It warmed my heart to see her actually see her be a kid for once and be carefree.

“Casimir, go find some business real quick and let me talk to Bambi,” Adrina told him.

“What?” he asked.

She looked at him like she wasn’t playing with him and he huffed like a little boy but got up like she told him to. Adrina waited until he was gone before she spoke.

“Now Bambi, I know you don’t know me but I would never do anything to put that baby, or any other child for that matter, in harm’s way. I don’t have traffic coming in and out of my house and nobody is there but me. It will be just me, her, Casiyah and my grandson Caner, who will be spending most of his time on the game all night. I would lay down my life for them like I birthed them myself and since she’s going to be in my care, the same goes for her as well,” Adrina said to me.

Even though she didn’t have to explain herself to me, I found comfort in her words and I believed everything she said. I didn’t know what it was about her but I felt as if I could completely trust her. Just the fact that she even took the time out to tell me that let me know that she was real about hers and I had nothing to worry about as long as Majesty was under her watch.

“Okay, thank you.” I smiled.

“Now, don’t you worry about anything. Just go out and have a good time and whatever you do, please keep that knucklehead in there out of trouble,” she laughed

“I’ll do my best,” I assured her.

-$-

You’d be surprised that by me working as a bartender in a strip club that I’m not really a club person but since I promised Casino that I would go out with him, I sucked it up. The bass blasted through the speakers as Yo Gotti rapped about how it goes down in the DM. We couldn’t walk an inch through the club without somebody wanting to show Casino some love, give him some dap or talk to him. I tried to let go of his hand and this nigga damn near cut my blood circulation off from squeezing it so tight, letting me know that he wasn’t letting my hand go.

“Where the fuck you going?” he whispered in my ear.

“I was just going to find something to do while you talked,” I let him know.

“Nah, that’s dead. Let’s go,” he said as he walked off.

I just shrugged as I walked beside him as Grizzly led us to some stairs. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why Grizzly was called that when he looked nothing like a damn bear besides the fact that he was tall as fuck. He was actually very handsome with smooth, caramel skin, a neat goatee, and built like he lived in the gym. But if he liked being called Grizzly then I loved it.

“Baby boy! It’s about damn time!” somebody yelled at Casino.

“I would’ve been here sooner but you know how long women take to get ready and shit,” he said, putting the blame on me.

“But I was ready a whole hour and a half before you, so what are you saying?” I asked him.

“Aw shit, nigga. You have always taken longer than a bitch to get dressed. No offense, ma. I’m Canaan, by the way,” he said as he extended his hand for me to shake.

“None taken, and nice to finally meet you, Canaan. I’ve heard a lot about you,” I told him.

“Don’t believe none of that shit,” Canaan smiled.

“I hate to interrupt but I need to talk to you to real quick,” someone said to Casino and Canaan.

He looked to me like he really didn’t want to leave me but I assured him that I was a big girl and that I would be fine. He told me that he was only going to be a few feet away before he and his brother left. I took a seat on the couch and a few seconds later, I felt someone sitting next to me.

“Ain’t that some shit,” Kendal said, his breath reeking of liquor.

I scrunched my face up in disgust at him and tried to move over.

“It’s crazy how your stuck up ass acted like you didn’t want me. but yet you end up with Casino,” he laughed.

“Nobody wants you, Kendal. You’re not even hardly my type,” I let him know.

“Oh, but Casino is?” he asked like he was offended.

“Obviously. I’m with him, ain’t I?”

He leaned over all up in my space and placed his hand on my bare thigh. This nigga had the audacity to try to kiss me. I slapped the shit out of his ass and threw whatever drink that was sitting on the table in his face before jumping up.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled.

“You stupid bitch!” he yelled before backhanding me.

He hit me with so much force that my ass ended up on the damn floor. When I looked up, Casino, Canaan, Grizzly, and everyone else were running in our direction. Casino ran right to me while Kendal was busy trying to get the drink out of his face.

“Did that muthafucka just put his hands on you?” Casino asked through gritted teeth as he gripped my arm to help me up

Still in shock, the only thing I could do was nod my head as I wiped the blood from my mouth. As fast as I blinked my eye, Casino was on Kendal.

“Casino. no!” I yelled as I tried to get him but Grizzly grabbed.

“Let him get him, he deserves it. He know better than to put his hands on a damn woman.” he gnashed.

“CASIMIR, THAT’S ENOUGH!” I yelled.

Casino was beating him so bad that I didn’t even think Kendal was conscious anymore. Finally, Canaan grabbed his brother and put him in a bear hug while whispering something in his ear. Whatever he said to Casino seemed to calm him down because he fixed his clothes and walked him out of VIP.

“Come on,” Grizzly told me.

I followed behind him as he led me out of the club.

Before we could reach Casino and Canaan, Grizzly stopped me and turned me towards him. He reached in his pocket and pulled out some tissue and gently wiped my lip. “Let’s take care of this before you set this nigga off again,” he said. “Alright, beautiful.”

We walked over to where Casino was pacing back and forth like a mad bull.

“You good?” Canaan asked me.

“I'm fine.”

When I got close enough to him, he grabbed me and turned my face so he could examine my face. He didn't say anything but I could see the cold look in his eyes as before he opened the door for me to get in the car. He walked around to his side and got in, still not saying anything. As he drove, I saw him clenching the steering wheel like he was having a hard time calming down so I reached over and grabbed his hand.

I kissed it and rubbed it to help reassure him that I was okay and I could feel him relax and the tension leaving his body. I noticed he wasn't going in the direction of my house so I figured he was going to pick up the kids.

I hadn't even realized I dozed off until I felt light kisses all over my face. I opened my eyes to find myself in a room I had never been in before and Casino sitting on the side of the bed.

“Here,” he said as he handed me one of his shirts.

I sat up and undressed so I could put it on. I noticed his hand had a bandage wrapped around it and memories of tonight's events replayed over in my mind.

“I'm sorry,” I said solemnly. “You've been telling me about my attitude and if it wasn't for me, none of this—”