The pain that shot through Cleo's right side stunned the hell out of her, leaving her motionless for a couple seconds pinned to the ground under two heavy wrestling bodies. When awareness bitch slapped her back into the present, she wiggled herself free from the two tussling forms. Once on her feet, her bottom lip dropped. Why the hell was Ant dropping 'bo's on Taz?
"Bitch you been beggin' for me to fuck around and kill your ass," Ant growled, slamming his fist into Taz's mouth. "Ain't ya?"
Taz grunted, and then knocked Ant off of him by smashing a forearm into his midsection. He jumped to his feet to square off. "Fucks your problem, nino?" He asked, before spitting blood on the ground. "Why you tryna play C's position?"
At that Ant lunged, and Taz fired on him, landing a punch to the nose. Ant stumbled dazed from the blow as Taz moved to drill his ass again.
"Taz," Cleo yelled, stumbling off of the concrete deck to grab him from behind. "Stop. Why you wanna go through this with him? Why today? Of all days!"
"Me," he spun on her, pushing her away.
She shook her head and tears crisscrossed down her cheek. "We were wrong. He just reacting."
"Man get the fuck outta here with that shit," he said, waving her words back at her. "You motherfuckin' wrong. I'm living. What about my nino, though? Think he still breathing?"
The blow from his words knocked fire from her ass. Damn. The truth was a bitch, who'd fucked her man and snatched her bread. It caused more damage than a gun when its aim was accurate. Just thinking about Pep stretched out on C's front lawn all pale and still damn near stopped her heart.
Hurt that Taz would take it there, she could only stare at him in disblief, feeling a little betrayed. What happened to the connection from earlier? Had it even been real or had she just been tripping? Some of the fury subsided from his features, while rage still burned hell fire bright in his eyes. Despite being thirty-eight he took a step towards her, his hand extended out in front of him for her to take. Before insanity had the chance to put her shit on wood, Ant rammed Taz from behind and they both collided into her, sending them all crashing to the concrete.
Rolling and firing, they tumbled face first into the grass, steady swinging as they went. Cleo attempted to separate herself from them as she dodged blows, but before she could wiggle her way out, a hand gripped her by the arm and yanked her clear of the fight. Disoriented from the swift change of positions she stumbled forward, but didn't fall, because of the arm holding her upright by the waist.
"You alright?" Putt yelled into her ear.
She nodded, her eyes wide and lasered focused on C's, who'd just slung Taz off of Ant. Putt released her to body block Taz as he moved to charge C's.
"Let his ass go, Putt," C's sneered, while pounding his chest with his fist. "It's right motherfuckin' here if he want it. Square off with me bitch."
This caused Taz to buck against Putt's hold. "Naw now, cut this out, folk," Putt yelled at C's over his shoulder. "Too much is goin' on around here for this. Damn. Is this how its really goin down? They get half of us, and then we finish off each other? Come on, folk. We better than them. Not like 'em."
"Tell yo' punk ass cousin that shit," C's snapped, jabbing a finger at Taz as foams of spittle gathered at the corners of his mouth. "He out here firin' on my hermano with my got damn girl caught up in the mix. I should put his ass on his back, on general motherfuckin principle, and you know that shit, Putt."
Cleo took a couple steps back, giving C's five more feet. The last time she saw him that pissed, Ant was pinned to the front door like a welcome sign. Mess around and cross him and his meter jumped from zero to a hundred real quick. So what the hell would he do when he found out about her and Taz? He'd probably pop a few blood vessels. Right after he took their heads clean off of their shoulders. Man damn. Why in the world had she allowed herself to get caught up in Taz of all people? The one person who fucked with C's nerves the most. There'd be no coming back from this. Not for her. Not with him!
"Taz wasn't the only one swingin, Hombre. They both were matchin' blow for blow," Putt argued, using his shoulder and body weight to keep Taz in check. His gaze swung to Cleo. "What the hell were they poundin' it out for anyway?"
"I...um," she shrugged, as her mouth flapped open and closed. What the fuck was she suppose to say? Taz and her were having a moment and Ant jumped his ass in the middle of like he always did. Man daaayum! None of that shit sounded right. "Ant came out and um...he saw us...ah,"
C's gaze narrowed a fraction, while he slightly cocked his head to the side as if he were a snake about to strike. "Um—what?" He glared at her, and then drilled Ant with a tongue loosening unit. "The fuck you saw?"
"Shit," Ant growled, his chest rising and falling in rapid successions as he attempted to catch his breath. "He was yelling at her about Pep, getting all up in her face and shit. So I rushed his ass." He drilled Taz with a hate-maker. "This motherfucka knows what the fuck he did."
Cleo's jaw dropped. Is that what the hell he saw? Really? Was he blind?
"This motherfucka put his hands on you?" C's asked her as a vein pulsed diagonally across his forehead. "Did he threaten you in any way?"
At that moment the English language refused to have a damn thing to do with her. Not a sentence, not a word, not even a letter. So she shook her head hard enough to make her teeth rattle. Life was still too new for her to be playing with it by telling C's what had really gone down between her and Taz. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Besides he probably told himself the same thing when he was off chilling with one of his bitches. She refused to feel bad about what could've happened, while he was still waist deep in what had happened.
The tension in his shoulders eased as he rolled them and stretched his neck. "C'mere," he said, giving her the look, which at one time or another had been known to melt clothes and desecrate panties. She walked into his embrace without one thought to the first, allowing him to slip his arm around her waist to draw her into his side. When she was once again in his possession, C's leveled Taz with a tolerant glare. "Look. I know your nino is stretched out on a table somewhere opened the fuck up 'cause he decided to eat a bullet for my girl. Don't get it tilted, I'm grateful. She wouldn't be here if not for him. So I'ma give your ass a pass this time, but the next time you get in my chick's face," his fingernails bit into her side. "I'm takin' your ass off your feet, ya dig?"
"Man mother-fuck—,"
"He got it, homey," Putt interjected, cutting Taz's crazy ass, the hell off.
"Don't sound like he do." A sneer tormented the corners of Ant's mouth as he positioned himself on her other side to glower at Taz. "Sheeit, sounds like he got for real, for real, cash money shit to spit. Stop bein' a hoe, nigga."
Cleo rolled her eyes. Why in the hell was Ant still tryin' to kick shit up? "Wonder how Pep's doin?" That was enough to snake Taz's attention. "Think Angela knows anything by now?"
"Who the fuck knows, Trouble," C's said, brushing his lips across her forehead. "We can check before I take you home."
"Home?!" She snapped, damn near breaking her neck to look up at him. "I just got here last night, C's. Why you already tryin' to get rid of me?"
"The fuck," he frowned down at her. "It looks like the apocalypse out this bitch. Do you know how many body bags they got lined up in my yard? This ain't the place for you, bae. Too much shit is movin' for you to be around right now."
"I don't care. If you take me home now, I'ma run my damn self crazy thinkin' about Pep and everybody else out here." Why the hell didn't he get that? "Besides, if you take me home, all I'ma do is jump in a cab and come right back out here, so you might as well not even waste your time, C's."
She attempted to snatch away from him, but the grip around her waist tightened. "Chill. You can stay, but your ass is home bound for now, yo."
Her head bobbed as she exhaled her relief. The last thing she wanted to do was go ten with C's about him not allowing her to stay. She was too damn mentally exhausted to go back and forth with him. Today was her fourteenth birthday, and she already felt older than food-stamps. Dollars flat out refused to make cents.
Casting a glance around the backyard she noticed everyone had left, including Ant.When the hell did they duck out?
Her gaze returned back to C's only to find him watching her like a damn movie. The—blanker than toilet paper—expression on his face kept things 'G' with his thoughts, leaving her clueless about the inner workings of his mind.
Nervous, she shifted under the weight of his arm as muscle memory played her ass out, blasting her with bullshit recollections of being wrapped—burrito tight—in Taz's tattoo covered embrace.
Damn, his body had felt amazing next to hers. Not to mention how the brush of his soft plump lips felt against her impatiently anticipating mouth. Her index and middle finger found her bottom lip as she remembered the faint graze of his kiss.
"You alright?" C's asked, visually devouring her face inch by inch like private investigator fresh on a case.
Pushing thoughts of Taz from her head, she nodded and forced a fake smile to pretty up her guilt. "Yeah, just a little drove. Come on, let's go check in with Angela 'bout Pep. I'll feel better after I know what's up with him."
"Once we do, then I want your ass to sit down somewhere. Almost lost you today, bae. I'll lose my fuckin' mind if I have to go through some shit like that again. Promise you."
An emotion too damn raw to understand kindled the center of his irises, and then quickly faded away. If she would've batted her lashes then she would've missed it altogether.
Warmth set up shop in her cold empty belly and radiated throughout her body. A smile kissed her lips.Those times are what kept her strung out on her favorite drug of choice—him.
Cleo inhaled and exhaled for uncut moments when C's let his guard down. They were no more than a handful at a time and came far and in between, but when they did, his feelings were always laid bare, for her and her alone to peep; and for a couple of minutes all of her doubts and insecurities were shook to the left.
She knew way beyond the borders of the unknown that he was for her and she for him. Nothing would ever get between them. No matter what almost popped between her and Taz, she'd never allow herself to go there again. Never!
~ ~ ~ ~
Cleo waited a few minutes after C's pushed her into the house, for the Chevy to crank and back out of the driveway. When she heard the knock in his trunk fade to nothing, she turned and climbed the stairs, and then reluctantly shuffled over to Ant's door. If she was going to ever chill the fuck out about what almost went down between Taz and her, she needed to find out why Ant didn't put her on blast to C's.
Raising her fist, she brought it down on the hollowed wood twice.
"What?" Ant yelled, making her jump.
Rolling her eyes she answered. "It's me." When he didn't say anything, she smacked her lips and shot units at the door. "Well can I come in?"
"Sheeit, can you?" He asked with a tone packed full of attitude and sarcasm.
Not having time for his shit, she pushed his door open to find him stretched out on his bed glaring at the forty-two inch television, like it had bent Keena over right in front of him. Curious she glanced at the screen and instantly wished she hadn't. Two women, one black and the other Latina, were on their knees in front of a dark skin brother, taking turns popping his thing in and out of their mouths, while he held them each by the hair and supervised—the job.
"Why the hell did you tell me to come in if you were in here being nasty?" She snapped, turning her back to the television.
"Man I ain't tell your ass to do shit." He turned the volume up on the TV and moans and grunts bounced of the walls.
That was his way of refusing to let her ignore what the hell was going down on the television. "You didn't stop me either. At least you had enough respect to take your hand out your pants," she yelled to be heard over the television.
"Did you have enough respect to keep your hand out Taz's pants or was you like me? Didn't have enough time to make it that far." Ant smirked, and then began to stroke the bulge in his pants, like he was laid up in his room by himself.
She swung her gaze to a far wall, hating that he was trying to get a reaction out of her. "It didn't even start out like that with us. At first he was layin' me out about Pep, and then he just up and grabbed me out of nowhere. I didn't ask for it and I don't think he even really meant to do it."
"Man girl," Ant snapped, his tone strained. "Do it look like I care?"
"You cared earlier when you rushed Taz, and knocked both of our asses to the-," Frustrated, she swung her gaze back to him.
The sight Ant presented snatched words from her throat and air from her lungs. This dude had pulled his junk from his pants and was for real, for real stroking it like he planned to start a fire. She spun on her heel to face the t.v., but that was the wrong damn answer, because brother-man on the screen was pile driving the Latina while the black chick rode out on her face.
"Cleo," he groaned.
The way he said her name, snaked her attention. He never called her by her name. It was always either Lil Crazy or Man girl, he rarely ever said Cleo. Unable to resist her mounting curiosity she cut an eye at him, only to find him watching her through low hanging lids, while his mouth hung slightly open and damp from the tongue that darted across his bottom lip every so often.
Paralyzed and more than a little intrigued, Cleo's gaze tracked the lazy movement of his hands until he paused. "C'mere," he whispered, his voice sounding deeper and hoarser than usual. Fear seized her mental and jumped her ass like, a woman beating, dude in the streets. Not because she was scared to see what he wanted, but because she was about ready to trip all over her feet just to get to him. What the hell was going on around that camp today?
Ant lifted an eyebrow and she gave up fighting with herself to remain where she was. Slowly, she crossed the room to stand next to where he lay on the bed.
When she towered over him he jerked his head at his dresser. "Hand me that bottle of cocoa butter over there."
"Cocoa Butter?" She questioned scrunching her eyebrows together. That was the last thing she expected him to ask her.
His head bobbed as he ran the pad of his thumb over the head of his manhood, to rub in the clear fluid seeping from the slit. "Hell yeah. That bottle on the dresser over there. Bring it here."
Spinning on her heel, she closed the distance between her and the nightstand. When she located the bottle of Coca Butter on his messy dresser she frowned. It was the same exact brand she used. In fact it probably was the same bottle that went missing from her bag a few weeks back. Turned off and bugged the hell out she marched over to the bed, and glowered down at him. He grabbed for the bottle, but she raised it out of his reach.
"Why the hell didn't you tell C's about what you caught me and Taz doing?" She'd had about enough of his stunts, and she refused to become his entertainment. Besides her and his girl was cool as hell, and even though she knew Ant was doing all of this shit to put her in her place it still had the potential to hurt Keena and damn near C's if they ever found out how far he had gone to instigate a rise out of her.
"What?" He stared at her like she'd just told him she was white.
"Nigga, you heard me," she snapped, her temperature rising by the damn minute. "Ay, and don't look at me like I'm crazy, either."
Pissed he pushed his peedy pecker back into his pants. "Why the hell you didn't tell him?" He snatched the VCR remote from the night stand and clicked off the television. "He asked your crazy ass before me."
"Don't be stupid," she said, swatting his feet out the way so she could flop down on his bed. "What you think he would've did if I told him some shit like that. Do you really think I'd be sittin' here right now? Hell naw. Me and Taz both, would be our asses on the way to the morgue, and that's only if he decided to leave our bodies."
"What the fuck you do it for, then?" He asked tucking his hands behind his head. "You feeling Taz's bitch ass or something?"
She scrunched her face in disgust as she remembered where his hands had been. "What you think, dumb ass? I love C's." Dropping her gaze, she stared at the fingers knotted in her lap. "Other dudes don't exist for me." At least they didn't used to.
"Hope Keena don't love my ass the way you claim to love my boy." His mouth hitched in a sneer.
"Forget you, Ant." She elbowed him in the side. "Everything around here was wrong side up today and you know it. You think we planned for that to happen? Pep got clipped and we both lost our minds a little. It was a one time fuck-up. That's all. Shit'll never happen again."
"Yeah, that's what your mouth say," he said.
"Yeah well, what about yours?" She asked, drilling him with a unit. "Are you gonna keep your coochie licker closed, or are you gonna nut up and tell C's?" When Ant remained silent and just stared, she panicked. "I mean it ain't like he ain't fucked me over plenty times before. Hell, don't even get me started on the bitch he damn near dicked down on top of me. If-,"
"Man girl, calm your crazy ass down. If I was gonna say something don't you think I would've by now? You act like I caught y'all fucking or something," he said. "Hell I'm not even sure what the hell y'all were doing. Look like y'all were just staring at each other all stupid and shit to me."
"Good. Oh and..." She exhaled her relief, and stood, tossing him the bottle of Palmer's Cocoa Butter. "This is 'bout gone so your behind better buy me a new bottle."
~~~~
Three weeks had passed since Reyes ripped apart the block with his chopper. Two weeks and six days since Juan Alejandro put Reyes' ass in the dirt, and used his holdings to compensate the victims of his slaughter. Shit wasn't back to normal around his way, in fact it was far from it. The hood was missing too many soldiers for shit to ever be normal again. Hombres he'd known since the crib were just gone. Not to mention all of the kids who were lost to the nonsense. Even one of Juan's twin sons had caught his cut in the cross fire. The jit was barely two.
Only a few who'd been taken to the hospital that day were blessed to come out again. Pep's lil' 'bout it ass was lucky enough to be counted among the few who'd survived. Super jit had gone through surgery like a champ, and now was back on the block getting presidential treatment from Cleo. It didn't bother him though, his little sucicial ass deserved it for saving her life. He always knew yungin was crazy as hell, but he never thought his little wild ass had heart. But what did he expect? Nino was bred, born, and raised in the Circle, it was in him to boot the fuck up.
"So what's the word, Max? Holla at me," C's said, his gaze swinging from his girl who sat on his front steps talking to Keena.
Exhaling, to prepare himself for the bullshit, he cut an eye at Max, who sat in the driver's seat, drumming his index fingers on the Lexus icon on the steering wheel. "Reyes has been handled. Juan Alejandro-,"
"Come on, hombre," C's cut him off. "I already know that. Tell me some shit I don't know. My blocks are drier than an old bitch goin' through menopause. You gotta give me the word, because Maldonado tryin' to look out and I'm almost inclined to let him justa get my shit back on track."
Max gave him a side ways glance, and then his gaze strayed to Cleo on the porch. When his eyes lingered a little too long to be considered respectful he opened his mouth to speak on his recklessness.
Vato beat him to the punch, though. "Juan Alejandro is willing to put you at his right hand."
"That's what the fuck I'm talkin' about," he said as a smirk pushed at the corner of his mouth. "Need about twenty of them thangs up front, and then after I jump them we'll go from there."
"Before you start placing your orders, you need to know what it's gonna cost you," Max said, before his eyes drifted back to Cleo.
"I'm not payin' no more than twelve-five per bird, yo. Let me just put that shit in your ear from the gate," he snapped, ready to crank his shit from zero to a hundred.
Max shook his head, and his bitch ass curls swayed back and forth across is upper eyelids. "That's not the price he's referring to."
"The fuck other price is there?" He asked, hitting the clear button on his pager when it started to vibrate.
"The girl," Max nodded his head in Cleo's direction.
"What about the girl?" His back teeth clenched, and his hands fisted against his thighs.
"He want's you to stop seeing her. Send her back to wherever she came and he'll expand your territory to include South Georgia and all of Alabama," Max expression remained impassive even when C's jaw dropped. "In addition, your initial shipment will be a hundred and fifty kilos. Just so he can estimate how much product you're capable of moving in a thirty day span. If everything goes to plan during your...shall we say probation period, then you'll begin to receive a shipment of two hundred and fifty kilos per month, which is subject to change dependent upon routine evaluation. Is the beginning of the month acceptable for you first shipment?"
C's dick twitched in his jeans. Just mentally counting the dollar signs swirling around in his mind, turned him on like a motherfucker. Fuck he needed a caculator. Never in his wildest wet dreams had he ever expected to touch that type of bread or dope at his age. Sure when he got older, put in more work, and paid the hell out of his dues, but not now. By the end of next month, he'd be able to buy a house, for him and his chick. She'd never have to go back to that trife ass project again. Wait until he told Cleo...
His brain froze and his thoughts trickled to a stop. He wouldn't be able to tell Cleo a damn thing, because if he chose to deal with Juan Alejandro, then he'd have to wash his chick out. Break ties with her and never look back. Not possible! Baby-girl was his life support. He doubted his lungs could even function without her. Motherfuck his life! Why the hell didn't Juan Alejandro step to him with this before he reconnected with Cleo? Before he gave a fuck about anything other than the bottom line.
"I need some more time to think about all this," C's mumbled as he watched Cleo behind the tint of the passenger window, before cutting his gaze back to Max.
"How much time?" Max eyeballed him like he was joking
"As much as it takes," he said, pushing open the door. Taking a deep breath, he attempted to check his frustrations. Max was just a mouth piece. He had nothing to do with Juan Alejandro's dick moves and demands. The person who really had him thirty-fucking-eight was parlaying in a whole other country. So anger, justified or not, was wasted on an undeserving target. "Let him know I'll holla back in a day or two."
Not waiting for a response, he slid out the car and slammed the door after him. When Cleo spotted him she smiled. The dimple that grazed her left cheek jacked his attention and tossed him back to the day they first reconnected. Smiles barely ever found her mouth back then, and when they did she hid them away behind her hand. Now only a couple months later she blessed him with one whenever she got a chance. So how the fuck did they expect him to give that back, to give her back?
"You ready to go?" She asked, rocking from one foot to the other, like she was about to piss her pants. "Ant backed out the Neon, while you was in the car talkin' to ole boy."
"Yeah," he said, reaching out to place his hands on her waist. "Saw it parked at the curb, when I jumped out. Go ahead and get in, while I holla at Ant for a minute."
Balancing herself on the tip of her toes, she pressed her lips to the hollow of his throat. The sensation of her mouth on any part of him always tugged at his need to be deep off inside of her. Damn near drowning in her wetness and scent, while he laid pipe so fucking proper he'd have her twitching and tweaking like heroin addict who hadn't had a hit in three days.
That's how he wanted her when he finally took her ass down. Wild as hell and in beast mode, as she left blood trails all over his back. He'd always planned to turn her ass out and have her so strung the thought of leaving him would never tip-toe across her mind. She was his and he'd always wanted her to be that, and now after everything was chopped and served, he was the one contemplating goodbye. For what? For a swift rise. You wanna touch the top, remember? Something insidious whispered at the back of his mind.
Releasing the hold he had on Cleo's waist he spun on his heel and swaggered up the steps, passing Keena's mugging ass on his way to the door. When he slipped inside he found Ant sprawled on the couch with his feet kicked up on the coffee table, smirking at the TV. What the hell was his double slick ass thinking about?
"Ay, I'm on my way to go serve Chubbs fat ass," he said, not bothering to take his palm off the metal of the doorknob.
"Bet." Ant's gaze swung from the television to him. "The shit and your iron is already under the driver's seat. Put it there before I parked the Neon at the curb. So what the hell did Juan Alejandro's fake ass son want?"
C's waved him off as he opened the door. "Shit. I'll tell you about it later." Remembering something else he wanted to ask him, he closed it back. "You layin' up with Keena tonight?"
"Why, motherfucka?" Ant smirked. "You wanna watch or some shit?"
"Get the fuck outta here tryin' me," he said as he returned his smirk. "I'ma take Trouble to the room tonight. Think you can pick ma up from work in the morning?" Ant just stared at him for a minute without saying anything, nino didn't even blink. "Que pasa, yo?"
"She gonna bust it open for you?" He asked, returning his gaze back to the TV screen.
"What you think?" C's asked. "So you gonna get ma or what?"
"Yeah I got you covered," he said, waving him off. "Send Keena in here on your way out. 'Bout time I dived in them guts."
"Yeah I got ya."
Once again he opened the door. He stepped out on the porch and he looked down at Keena. "Ant said bring your ass in the house." Without stopping to front her ass any attention, he descended the stairs, and swaggered over to the Neon.
Inside, Cleo patiently sat flipping through his CD case. "You still wanna go to the movies tonight?"
Another smirk teased the corner of his mouth. Fuck watching a movie, he was about ready to make one. "Naw. I thought we'd do what we never got a chance to do on your birthday, with all that shit goin' down and thangs."
"What we ain't have a chance to do?" She shot him a sideways glance as her finger froze mid-turn.
"Stop actin'. You know what the hell we agreed to do later that night," he said, guiding the car away from the curb. "You still want it, right?"
He cut his eye at her, aggravated at how she was trying to play dumb and shit. Decisions had to be made. In order for him to do that, he needed to know her. All of her. What he looked like passing on the deal Juan Alejandro had offered, and his dick hadn't even tapped a wall to the fucking first, yet.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "But I mean...why tonight? It's like you hit me with this outta no where. How long has this been on your mind?"
"What you mean, outta no where?" He snapped as mild aggravation crossed into the borders of pissed the fuck off. "Can't count how many times I've fingered your ass and had to just sit there like a simp while you skeeted all over my hand and shit. And not once during all those nuts I kept your selfish ass drowning in have you ever offered to jack my dick even once. A vato has to go in the fucking bathroom just to finish himself off, because my wood makes you nervous and shit."
Cleo's neck snapped back, like he'd back handed her. "Hold the hell up pimpin' before you crash. Stop pickin' and choosin' shit you wanna remember. You're the one who said you'd wait until I'm ready before, you took it there with me. Don't get mad now because your patience done ran the hell out. And you act like I begged you to stick your hand in my panties." She sucked her teeth. "That be you. Talking about: Ooh bae, let me just touch it, all I wanna do is touch it. So don't be coming at me like I'm playin' you. Especially, when we both know you played yourself."
"Who the fuck you talkin' to like that?" He hissed through clenched teeth. "I know I let you ride on a lotta shit, but you need to chill the fuck out and respect my mind. Keep comin' at me like I'm Pep or some—motherfuckin'—body. Swear to god you'll catch your cut real quick. I got hoes on deck beggin' to come off the sidelines to play your position."
Cleo twisted around in the passenger seat to check the back seat, before glaring back at him. "Where they at, C's? Because if they want it, they can have it. For real, for real. The position you got me in is bullshit anyways."
C's pulled the Neon alongside the curb in front of Chubb's house, and then turned on her to verbally decimate her ass. Before he could part his lips to utter a sound, the back door was snatched open. Estevan lil' bitch ass slid in the back seat, and jammed the chrome barrel of a forty-five to the back of Cleo's head.
"Now let me see them motherfuckin' hands, vato." Estevan demanded, muggin' the hell out of him.
He shook his head, but raised his hands. "You betta kill me bitch, 'cause your dumb ass just committed suicide, yo."
"C's," Cleo whispered. Her eyes stretched wide, and brimming with unshed tears.
"Shut the fuck up, puta," Estevan said, jabbing her in the back of the head with the barrel of the gun. "One more syllable will get your motherfuckin' brains gone."
"Ay, bitch. You want it with me not my throwback," C's said, attempting to draw Estevan's attention away from Cleo. "So what the hell you tryin' to do. Hit my ass for the work, or waste my got damn time. Boot the fuck up! Let me know how this shit gonna go."
"Crank this bitch up and drive," Estevan ordered.
"Man hell fuck naw," Was his dumb ass insane? Whatever the hell he was trying to do, he'd have to handle his business on front street. If he left the block with his stupid ass, Cleo and he were done for sure. "Try that shit again, E."
"No you try that shit again, motherfucka," Estevan yelled, rage deepening his tone. "Or I'll blow this Puta Negra, brain clean out the front of her forehead. And don't try and play me by sayin' she's just a throwback. The street's rangin', C's. Everybody and their mama know you in love with this bitch. Keep buckin' and I'ma spray your ass with her blood."
The street's rangin'? The fuck? So now these bitch made vatos were using his girl to plot his downfall? Juan Alejandro words flooded his mental like coke hit the hood on the first of the month. She's your weakness. Her blood will bleed you out. Reyes knew this today and others will come to learn this in the future.
Slowly, C's reached for the ignition, snatching the keys out, he dropped them on the floor of the driver's seat. Pissed off, Estevan bashed the handle of the gun into Cleo's head. Not hesitating C's leaned down and snatched his nine from under the driver's seat. Without rubbing two thoughts together or ever even taking aim he pointed the gun in the backseat and fired.