When a Hood Legend Claims It All 4 Page 3

  I barely threw the car in park before I jumped out and rushed to him. Snatching open the door, I climbed inside and wrapped my arms so tight around him. The adrenaline running through my body was dying down and the tears finally escaped my eyes.

  “I’m so sorry, Mar. I really am,” I sobbed.

  He didn’t say anything, and his stone faced expression confused me.

  “How you get away? Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head. “I broke loose from my zip tie and then I found something to hit him in the head.”

  “Is he dead?”

  “I think. I don’t know,” I stammered.

  Amare stared at me blankly for a few seconds, before putting the car back in drive and went back the direction he came. My first thought was that he was going to make sure he killed Trey, but he didn’t.

  Instead of questioning him, I sighed heavily and leaned back in my seat. This was the scariest moment in my life, but it was definitely a lesson learned.

  ***

  I can’t remember how long I was asleep, but I woke up out of my slumber when I heard the car door slamming so hard the toy car rocked back and forth.

  Blinking my eyes repeatedly, I noticed we were back at my place. I unbuckled my seatbelt and followed Amare to my front door. Stepping inside my home, I closed my eyes and thanked God I made it back alive.

  “So explain this shit to me. You thought it was a good idea to go fuck with a nigga you met at a club? What the hell were you thinking?!”

  “I wasn’t!” I shot back on the verge of crying again. The look in Amare’s eyes were dark and the veins in his head were popping out like he was a mad man.

  “Obviously. Then you had Corryn keeping it a secret. You know the moment I knew you were even talking to that nigga, I would’ve deaded his ass.”

  “That’s the problem!” I yelled. “You always try to keep me locked the fuck away. I’m not a little girl, Amare! This is why this shit happened! The first time a guy shows any interest in me I fell for the shit.”

  He laughed sadistically. “Fuck all that. I know you was fucking Wes. How long? We ain’t never keep secrets from each other and you managed to keep two. Were you even with Jake? Was he a cover up so you can sneak around with my best fucking friend?”

  Amare questioning me about Wes hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t know what to say.

  “Amare, I’m so sorry.”

  “You’ve been saying that shit since you got back in the car. You lied so much that I can’t believe that's true.”

  Storming off, Amare went to the bar in my house twisted off the top of the E&J and turned it up. I couldn’t even be mad because I knew how he was feeling.

  I went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of my fridge, twisted the top off and took most of it down. I hated that Amare was upset with me, but all this had to come to a head eventually. It just sucked that my life being on the line was what it took.

  Sucking up my fear of him spazzing on me, I went to the living room where he sat on the couch with his legs apart, the bottle resting on the floor between them, and his head facing down as he ran his hands through his hair.

  “Mar… I know we’re not in the best space right now, but I think it’s best we get this all out in the open.”

  He only lifted his head and peered at me with that blank expression.

  I sat down next to him and took a deep breath. Nothing came out, so I actually grabbed the bottle and took a swig of it myself. I screwed my face up from the liquid burning my throat so bad that it felt raw.

  “I’m not going to apologize about messing with Wesley because it was something that I wanted to do,” I stated, and he curled his lip up as he jerked his head back.

  “That’s a fucked up way to start off any conversation.”

  “It is, but I’m being real. I can admit I was yelling about how grown I am, but I actually wasn’t living up to it because I was so focused on what you would think or feel.” I blew out another deep breath of air and took another swig. “Wesley and I were dealing with each other for almost a year. No, growing up he didn’t do no weird shit to me. Back then it was only a brother and sister relationship. We only started messing around because I initiated everything to be honest.”

  “You think it makes it any better? That man had a whole girl. Not only that all the bitches he had? You really was willing to settle for that nigga.”

  I rolled my eyes hearing him refer to Kesha as his girl. “Are you going to let me finish or you’re going to continue to talk over me?”

  Snatching the bottle from my hand he turned it up and I continued. “I really love Wesley and I thought he loved me, but now that this baby is about to come he’s been acting different and it had me in my feelings. One day, the guy from the club was in the area where my office was, and we hit it off. I was a little uneasy with dealing with him, but it was hard to turn down his charm when I was lonely.”

  “How the hell you were lonely when you had Jake.”

  I eyed my brother with an incredulous look. “If you were me, you wouldn’t even want Jake.” This time he laughed. the liquor probably had to be mellowing him out because it was never this easy to get my brother to calm down after snapping.

  “Chill with that,” he responded cutting his eye at me and I laughed.

  “I’m just saying. He’s such a sissy. If you want me with someone it should be a man. Not a little punk ass that stomps his foot because he’s mad. I need a guy like you that’s strong, mentally and physically. That knows how to make something out of nothing…”

  “Like my best friend.”

  “Exactly.”

  He cut his eye at me again and I shrugged. “I’m just saying. I always wanted someone like you, Amare. You really took care of me when we had nothing. You could’ve said fuck me and lived your life, but you stepped up to the plate and made me into the woman that I am now. I can admit that recently I haven’t made the best decisions but I’m twenty-one, with a degree, my own business and no babies. Shit, I didn’t even lose my virginity until I was eighteen, and even that’s saying a lot.”

  He shook his head sighing. “You doing too much, Amena.”

  “What? How can I not open up and share these moments with you when I basically walked in on you pounding girls at the age of fourteen. Older girls at that. Don’t think I didn’t know.”

  “You’re nosey as hell, yo.”

  Mar passed me the bottle and I drunk some more from it. “That’s what little sisters are for,” I laughed.

  We both got quiet and he spoke up. “I get it that I shouldn’t have been so uptight with you. My intentions were only to protect you.”

  “I know,” I admitted. “We lost dad, then mom. Everyone around me was in love, I just wanted that for myself.”

  I waited for Mar to tell me the usual that I had my entire life for that shit, but instead he looped his arm around my neck and brought me into him and then kissed my temple.

  “You’ll get it. I rather you not be so desperate and settle for anything.”

  “Yeah… I know. Now, I do,” I added. “Were you really about to give up a million dollars for me? I know we got money but with most of it tied up in the business, how did you get it?” I inquired.

  “Your secret lover found a connect after I informed him you was gone.”

  I rolled my eyes. Amare was no longer upset but I knew he wasn’t going to stop with the sarcastic remarks.

  “Anyway… the guy he told me his name was Trey, but I heard him on the phone with someone and they called him Trevor. I also heard him mention a Sharita.”

  “There’s so many Sharita’s in the world. He could be referring to anyone.”

  I made a face. “How many Sharita’s you came across?”

  He didn’t respond because he knew our Sharita was the only one. “Exactly,” I retorted.

  “She was arrested earlier, but when I get up with her I will ask her about him. This shit may be connected.”

  “P
robably. What if he isn’t dead tho, Mar?”

  “He don’t have long to live. We’ll figure this shit out some other day though. It’s been a long day; I’m drunk as fuck and I need a nap. Go get me a blanket and a pillow.”

  “Wait, you ain’t going home?”

  “Not tonight. I need to personally keep an eye on ya fast ass. If Wes think he gonna be sneaking up in here he got another thing coming. I’ma black that other eye.”

  My mouth dropped. “Is that why ya lip busted? Were y’all really fighting?”

  “Yeah, we good though. Just go get the shit,” he snapped playfully leaning back on the couch as I rose to my feet.

  I traveled to my linen closet and returned with the pillow and blanket. Amare’s crazy ass was snoring with his gun rested on his chest. I smiled and placed a kiss on his forehead like he’d done me so many times growing up. He got on my nerves, but I now accepted his irking behavior came from a good place.

  CoCo

  The bed pressed down, from someone maneuvering next to me on the mattress. I popped up right away and grabbed the gun without thinking, but it was snatched out of my hand before my finger curled around the trigger.

  The light on the dresser was turned on revealing it was only Amare with a sexy ass grin on his face.

  “I’m glad you at least listen to me,” he stated placing the gun on the console.

  I blew out a deep breath with my hand on my chest.

  “Why would you do that to me?!” I pouted. With everything that was going on I was scared for my life. Even with us having Amena back I couldn’t rest easy.

  “My bad,” he laughed hovering over my body and placed a passionate filled kiss before he traveled from my lips, to my neck, both of my breasts, and lifted my cami top to trail down to my stomach.

  “I thought you were staying with Amena? You smell like liquor.”

  I tilted my head down to watch him place kisses on my stomach. It relaxed me instantly. I was only a few weeks pregnant and Amare was in love with the idea of being a father while I was still trying to wrap my head around not only being a fiancée but a damn mother. That was too many hats thrown on my head at once, but ready or not I was going to be playing those roles.

  “I was, but there was no way I could be apart from you and my baby. We sat on her couch having a heart to heart as we passed a bottle of some cheap shit back and forth.”

  I ignored the liquor part. “You mean your little big head bean?” I asked jokingly. “This thing inside of me is barely a baby.”

  “She get it from you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “She?”

  “Yes, it’s a girl. It gotta be a girl. I know the man upstairs must not think raising Amena was enough, so it’d be just my luck I get another daughter to raise, which I am cool with. I need a do over anyway.”

  Amare gently laid his head on my stomach and my hands found the soft coils of his head. “You did a great job at raising her. People don’t normally want a girl for baby number one but with a father like you, who can go wrong?”

  “Shit, don’t pipe me up like that. You see how I fucked up being so strict.”

  “Even though you were a little extreme, I can see why you were that way.”

  He got quiet.

  “How is she? Is she shaken up?”

  “She’s chilling. I got somebody posted up at her spot just in case ol’ boy comes around.”

  “I doubt it. He knows y’all are probably looking for him. Plus I told her not to let him know where she lives. I’m sure he found out on his own, but I know Amena wasn’t crazy enough to let him know.”

  “What you think about her and Wesley?”

  “Do you really want my opinion?”

  Amare moved from my stomach to his side of the bed where he laid on his back. I figured he wasn’t in the mood to be affectionate now that we were on this topic, but he pulled me onto his chest and ran his hand on my back.

  “Yeah.”

  “I think they do care for each other, but the situation is too complicated now that Kesha is pregnant. I don’t want Amena to get hurt, but you gotta let her make her own decisions on her own. That’s the only way she’s going to learn.”

  “She clearly made her own decision to fuck with that guy and look where it got her?” he shot back sarcastically causing me to shake my head.

  “You have a point, but with Wes it’s different. When it comes to matters of the heart, no one can make her feel any different about him. She says she's over him, but I doubt it and she will let go and heal on her own time. There’s a chance she might not ever, but that have to be her decision, not yours.”

  This time Amare didn’t say anything, only because he was stubborn as fuck and really wanted his little sister to live her life based on his terms, but the truth in the matter is that he needed to allow her the space to figure out who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.

  ***

  After the day we had yesterday, we all had a lot of decompressing to do. Needing to make up the time lost to my clients, I offered every one that had appointments yesterday a free service and every other client had 50% off for the day. All hands had to be on deck once word got around that we were discounting our prices for the day, so even Amena was in the salon helping.

  Every chair was taken, and a few people were waiting to be serviced. I was by my wall of polish helping a little girl pick out a color she wanted me to paint her toenails. She was so adorable and the more I talked to her the more I thought about giving birth to a beautiful baby girl.

  “I think this will be a pretty color,” I said taking the light purple off the shelf.

  “Hey, Corryn, I was wondering if you had a second.”

  My attention was now off the pretty four year old and on Ms. Margaret who was staring at my hand that was on my stomach. It wasn’t surprising that she came here unannounced. She was notorious for walk ins even if she had an appointment a few days later. I moved my hand away and passed my little special client her polish.

  “I will be with you in about five minutes, Princess.”

  The little girl smiled big and went to go sit next to her grandmother who brought her here to treat her to a girls day. Ms. Margaret and I watched her take her seat before she faced me again.

  “I know that grandmother must be happy to have her grandchild.”

  Here we go with the weird shit.

  “Yes, I’m sure she is. Is there anything I can help you with Ms. Margaret? We’re no longer accepting walk-ins. As you see, it’s kind of busy.”

  She looked around and exhaled a deep breath. “This might be the wrong time to tell you this, but I see you’re with child and I think it’s best that we get this out in the open now rather than later. I’ve been married to your father for over twenty years. He had his little fun with your mother who thought he was going to leave me for her. Once she found out she was pregnant, she tried to use you as leverage, but that didn’t work. In return she kept him away from you. I think this baby is a chance for you and your father to start a relationship you were held back from.”

  Even though Ms. Margaret was speaking so fast, I was able to pick up on what she said and was totally caught off guard.

  “Are you serious?” I asked her in shock only because everything she stated went against what my mother informed me. I had a feeling she wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but this wasn’t some news I was going to take lightly. My father choosing not to be in my life rather than walking out of my life were two different things.

  “Baby, yes I am. Your father doesn’t know that I’ve been here. I’ve done my research and I really want our family to be complete. Even though he never saw you, he always talks about you.”

  “Wow,” was all I could say. It was definitely a lot to take in at one time. As much as I wanted to know who my father was, I really wanted to run it past my mom to get her side of the story.

  Ms. Margaret must’ve took my silence as anger, so she quickly changed her approach.

>   “I didn’t mean to upset you, but I’m having a surprise dinner for your father in two weeks and would love for you to be there. He will be so happy along with your brother and sister.”

  Even though she was trying to wrap up her conversation she went on and on about the children they had together. I on the other hand didn’t know what to say. I was just shocked that my father actually did want to be in my life.

  When she finally caught her breath, the most I could do was exchange numbers with her. I had nothing against her and her excitement, however, I wanted to speak to my mom before I did anything.

  ***

  I have never been so happy to walk the last customer out and turn the open sign to “closed”. We were so busy we barely had time to sit around and talk, so around nine pm once the last customer left we sat around with our feet submerged in some warm water. It was the relief we needed with the kind of day we had. Sharita and Amena were sharing a bottle of wine, while I had a bottle of water since I was the pregnant chick.

  Giving out discounts could be overwhelming, but my customers were pleased and that was what mattered to me the most. Overall I was in a great mood but couldn’t settle my mind on the thought of having my father in my life and an open invitation to join him and his family for dinner.

  “Everything ok, mama’s?” Sharita asked snapping me out of my thoughts. “Amena and I have been talking all this time and you haven’t said a word. You were actually staring into space.”

  I had to think of something quick. My girls and I were close, but this news was something I wasn’t ready to divulge.

  “I was looking at those vans out front. How long do you think we’re going to have people sitting outside of the salon?” I asked nodding my head towards the window of the shop. Amare assured me we had nothing to worry about, but I didn’t think it would be this extreme. They were sitting out there since we opened.

  “Forever, once you get Mar started there’s no stopping him,” Amena stated with an eye roll lifting her glass and finishing off her wine.