Queen of the City 3: The Life of a Female Rapper, page 4
“Whatever, nigga. Yo, just let me know when you get to the crib, aight?”
“No doubt.”
With that, he was gone. He only spent about half the day with us, but that was long enough for me. I could only hope and pray that he was going to be alright back in Milwaukee and even though we both came up with logical explanations for the so-called weird shit that was happening back at the house, there was still those What if thoughts that flooded through my mind. When his car disappeared out of the parking lot, I headed back to the apartment and made my way up to my room to talk to Stacey. I figured that she finally wanted to talk about whatever was bothering her earlier that morning.
When I got into the room, Stacey sat on the bed staring off into nothing as Prince laid asleep right next to her. She was startled when I walked in just like she was earlier, “Oh, Lyric. My goodness, I didn’t even hear you come in.” I sat down on the bed right next to her and moments later, she reached towards my hand and held onto it firmly.
“What’s up, Mom?”
She sighed, “I have something to tell you, and I know you’re going to be upset, but it will explain a lot.”
I repositioned myself in the bed and waited for her to speak. “Well, you know back when I was telling you that I had a friend down at the police station, and she asked me if I knew anything about you or Nas?” I wrinkled my eyebrows at her, dreading what was about to come from her mouth next.
“I remember.”
“I did mention something to them. It was nothing about you, but I told them about Nas. I let them know as much as I could about him and that day he left, I described him to the police, and I even sent Serena outside to get the license plate number of the car he drove away in.”
Suddenly, my mind went back to that day. The argument we had outside right before he left when it was beginning to rain. I remembered Serena coming outside to check on me and then, it all started to click. The fact that, even though he denied it, I know Nas sent somebody over there to kill Stacey, and there wasn’t doubt in my mind that he was behind Allen’s murder. All of that, added to the fact that Nas was arrested around the same time, painted a crystal-clear picture in my mind. Everything was coming together from my point of view but at the same time, I felt like Stacey brought it on her. If she never said anything, then she wouldn’t have gotten Nas’s attention. I don’t know if the police began to sweat him shortly after he left Stacey’s house or what, but all I knew was he had a reason to come back at her, and if she had told me before, then she would have been the one that everyone pressed to leave the city.
“Mama, why did you do that? Why did you tell anyone? You lied to me.”
Her eyes watered, “I know baby, and I’m sorry. I was just worried about you and Prince. I was worried for your safety, and I figured I could get him away from y’all and keep y’all safe since it seemed like you weren’t ever going to leave the city.” The tears fell down her face as she began crying. “Now, I realize that I not only put myself in danger, I put my family at risk and I got Allen killed! It’s my fault! It’s all my fault!” she said as she began to cry inconsolably. I could relate to her pain more than she thought because I felt like I was the reason Uncle Stew had gotten strung out again and even worse, the reason the Prince had gotten kidnapped. I reached for her and held her in my arms as she let every bit of her pain out in the form of tears. Prince was still sound asleep through it all, and the strength of her cries started to cause tears of my own. “Mama,” I said, trying to calm her, “it’s alright. It’s going to be okay.” She released me,
“No, it’s not, Lyric. Serena called me earlier this morning and told me that there has been a guy asking for me at the house. She said he comes around once every other day, and he has been for the past few days.”
“A guy?”
She wiped her tears, “Yes. Some guy. She is not at home alone; she has a handful of her cousins with her, but she says she felt unsafe even though she had her gun. He just had all of these bad vibes coming from him, so I just told her to come out here.”
“Is she coming?”
“Yes. She packed up a few things and said she is on her way.”
I thought about Vinny in the same light, knowing that the weird things he was experiencing at Big Mama’s house were probably related to the guy that was looking for Stacey. The only thing I could hope is that she wasn’t being trailed on the way out here. In the dream I had earlier, Nas knew exactly where I lived out here and even though it was a dream, I knew that pieces of reality were scattered throughout. Stacey calmed down and wiped her eyes,
“I’m sorry for this, Lyric. Had I just kept my damn mouth shut maybe you guys would still be able to live in Milwaukee. He probably thinks you told the police to get the heat off you or something, but even more, my family would be safe, and my husband would still be alive.”
“Don’t put all of that on yourself, Mom. Don’t, okay? Things happen. Nas is just—”
“He is just the one that killed his own father and is trying to kill his own mother and sister. That is what Nas is, and just to think that I gave birth to my husband’s murderer is sickening in itself! I gave birth to the man that is now threatening my family and has been a menace to society. That came out of me, Lyric. Me!”
She yelled as her sadness quickly turned to anger. Her fists balled up, and a scowl appeared on her face as she sat in front of me, motionless. Just then, Prince opened his eyes and coughed, and as she turned to look at him her anger began to subside. She picked him up and held him in her arms and immediately, I realized that I was not the only one Prince had the ability to cool; he had that same effect on his grandmother. “Are you going to be alright?” I asked her as she held onto him. She shook her head yes, and I reached over and kissed both of them before I headed back downstairs.
I glanced out the front room window just to make sure everything was normal. The orange-ish colored sun was sending its last rays across the city, and a group of children were headed to the pool with beach towels and balls in their hands. They weren’t as loud as the kids on Big Mama’s block were, and if I didn’t see them, I wouldn’t have even noticed that they were out there. My phone rang seconds later. The number wasn’t saved in my phone, but I answered it anyway,
“Hello?”
“This Lyric?”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Malley. I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”
“About what?”
“Business.”
It was at that moment that I saw things differently with her. I knew what type of operation she ran, but I also knew what else it meant for me. Nas was coming one way or the other, and I had to handle it the best way I could.
“Aight,” I replied, “we can talk.”
Chapter 6
I met her just down the street from my apartment at a small, mom-and-pop burger joint. When I walked inside, she had already taken a seat in the corner of the restaurant.
“Whassup Malley?”
Her fire red hair seemed to glow while it was pulled back in a ponytail. Her full lips were heavily coated with lip gloss, and she winked at me when I took a seat next to her.
“Hey, Lyric. It’s good to see you. I was thinking you weren't gonna come through.”
“Nah, I don’t have a reason not to. You’re good people from what I can see.”
“Cool.”
The waitress came over to us, “Can I get you, ladies, anything?” Malley looked at me,
“You hungry?”
“I’m straight. I’ll just take a sprite.”
“Well, fuck what she’s saying, I’m hungry. Let me get a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a coke.”
“Okay. I’ll have that right out.”
The waitress walked away as Malley kept her eyes on her ass, “Damn, white girl was kind of thick, wasn’t she?” I looked in her direction while I could still see her. She was, and it caused me to think about the times I had with Keyonna before I killed Big Tuck. Malley snapped me out of it before I could think any further.
“So, you working again? You know you lit that store on fire with yo’ words that day you left.”
“Shit, I had to get out of that bitch. That chick was too much to deal with on a daily.”
“I feel you. I could tell she was an asshole when she walked over there.”
“Yeah, she was.”
“So, you’re not working?”
“Nah.”
She scooted closer to me, “Why don’t you stop fucking around and come with us. I’m telling you, you will make at least a couple thousand each night you come out with us. Easy money. Easy fucking money, Lyric.” She didn’t know that I had already committed to doing that in my mind. This operation she had going on was something I could use to my advantage in more than a few ways, especially since I knew Nas had to be dealt with.
“I don’t know, I mean, I’m not trying to get into too much trouble out here. That’s the whole reason I left Milwaukee.”
“Milwaukee?” she said with a blank expression on her face, “you lived in Milwaukee?”
“Yeah, why?”
Her eyes drifted off to my right as if some memory completely took over her mind. Her eyelashes extended far beyond the lids of her eyes and just as I was in the middle of my admiration of them, the waitress came back and placed our drinks on the table. Malley looked at her as she smiled and walked away from us again. I spoke up,
“Malley, what’s up with Milwaukee?”
“Oh,” she shook her head, “it’s just, a nigga I used to fuck with moved to Milwaukee a few years ago. He was fine as hell. Cute, nice body, he even had dimples and shit, but he was a thug ass nigga that produced and sold drugs. Nobody would have guessed it just by looking at him, though, he just didn’t have that type of aura, you know? He was actually making a lot of money both ways, but he just decided to stick with the drug shit over the music.”
Nas? I thought to myself, wanting her to continue but she stopped. “Oh,” I said, pushing her along, “I used to talk to a nigga like that, but I couldn’t fuck with him anymore. That drug shit wasn’t my thing, you know?” She smiled, “I feel you; it wasn’t mine either, but the nigga just hooked me in and shit. One minute, we were lovely dovely but the next the nigga just flipped on me.”
“He flipped on you?”
“Started treating me like shit. It is part of the reason, well, the only reason I don’t fuck with niggas anymore. I mean, I fuck with them sometimes because I need a real dick every now and then, but that’s it. I don’t fuck with them as far as relationships and shit go.”
I took a sip of my soda and kept prodding for information,
“I feel you. I’m kind of in the same boat. The nigga I was fucking with did me wrong, too. I mean, it wasn’t as severe as you or nothing. The nigga I fucked with was just a nickel and dime hustler, you know? He wasn’t a kingpin or nothing.”
“Well,” she said as she ran her finger around the top of her glass, “this nigga was a kingpin back in Ohio. Like I said, shit was going well until he flipped. The nigga,” she paused. It seemed as if she recollected some memory that was just too painful to bring up again. “He poisoned me.” She clenched a knife in her hand, and it began to shake. “That bitch ass nigga poisoned me, and he will get his and trust me, that bitch ass nigga is going to die, and it won’t be by anything but my own fuckin’ hands.”
The waitress came back and placed Malley’s food on the table and with that, she loosened the knife that was clenched in her hand. She relaxed and let the waitress know she appreciated her service.
“That bitch is beautiful,” she said as she placed a few fries in her mouth. She turned towards me, “I mean, she ain’t cuter than you or nothin’ like that, but she fine as hell in an everyday kind of way. You sure you don’t want nothing to eat?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
She ate a few more fries. “But back to the topic, you should really fuck with us. Like I said, we can use somebody like you.”
I took another sip of my soda as she dug into her food. I already made the decision in my mind; I just didn’t want to seem anxious by accepting what she was saying so quickly. She spoke in-between bites of her burger as I gave off hints that I was paying attention but my mind was clearly somewhere else. The man she described reminded me exactly of Nas. The way things were good in the beginning and then they suddenly flipped out of nowhere, and even the way she described his appearance was similar, not to mention he was doing his thing in Ohio before he came to Milwaukee. If I had to guess, she just described Nas, but I didn’t think that now was the time to tell her. It was too early, and I had to figure some more things out before I rushed into that. This was a game of chess, and if you move too quickly without thinking then the shit is going to be over before you begin, so I just let it simmer for now. The one thing that stood out to me was that she said he poisoned her. I remembered when I went to jail that he said I was going to die a slow death and even in the dream, the same sentiments were echoed. I wanted to know what that poison was because chances are, if she was poisoned then I would be too.
Chapter 7
For the next few weeks, I hung out with Malley so I could get a better idea of who she was. That was my purpose for it all, but hers was entirely different. I think she was feeling me in a sexual way, and she wasn’t shy about flirting. From smacking me on my ass when I walked by to stroking my hair when I was next to her, she did it all and everything in between. I was horny as fuck, though, so it really came down to whatever we wanted to do. There wasn’t a man that caught my attention in Rockwall, and the ones that did were either too young or they were too feminine. To me, there weren't many things much worse than a man who wore clothing tighter than a female or one who was too tied up in their own emotions. That was one of the main reasons I stayed away from so many bitches my whole life, so the last thing I wanted to see in a man were female characteristics.
The times that Malley could have fucked, she pulled back. “Nah baby, I want to but I can’t. Not right now.” That was her response and after a few times I just started to believe she was a tease, but Quandra told me that wasn’t the case because she had fucked other chicks inside their operation before. Even with that, I knew there was something else up with her, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Stacey decided to stay out in Rockwall with me a little longer and a day after she told me the shit that she did to Nas, Serena showed up with a few bags of her own. I made sure nobody followed her out here, and she said she had made a few stops before she came here because she was thinking the same way I was. I could tell she was a little shaken up about everything, but now she could at least rest easy for a little while. I thought it was funny how all of the people that said I should move out of Milwaukee ended up being the ones that would follow me out. All except Vinny. I’d talked to him a few times since he visited and he kept telling me he was all right when I tried to get him to come back out here for a while.
“Vinny, bruh, come on man. Just come out here and chill for a minute. At least until we get that shit with Nas situated.”
“Nah, fam, I’m good. I’ma come visit y’all again in a minute.”
Maybe I picked on him a little too much whenever I noticed him getting soft around me and that made him act like something he wasn’t. I laughed though because he and Cedrick were so much alike that I could’ve sworn they had the same parents, but I respected what he wanted and left him alone. Prince was growing like any other child his age would. He cried out for his dad from time to time and those moments were as hard for me as they were for him. I didn’t want to bring him up without his father around, but I knew it was inevitable, especially with the type of life that Nas lived. He could wind up dead or in prison at a moment’s notice, but I had always hoped for the best. I never would’ve thought it would come to this, though. Both of us at odds with each other and that was putting it lightly. As far as I knew, he wanted me dead, and I was beginning to think that his death was the only thing that would guarantee my life. It is the main reason why I decided to get involved with Malley. I knew she had weapons and the one man in the world she may have hated the most was the one person I needed to get rid of. Knowing that, I still played the game slowly, feeling her out as much as I could before I told her the news of us fucking the same nigga. She didn’t seem like the jealous type but with a hot head like her, shit could go from zero to one-hundred in the blink of an eye and right now, I didn’t have what I needed if it did. I had to play it as cool as possible.
“Aight Lyric, shit, you been kickin’ with me long enough. I guess you are feeling me out, and I respect that. I know you’re a boss bitch yourself, just like me, so I get it. I understand where you at and where you wanna be, so I’m thinking we come in and run this shit together. From what Quandra was telling me, you already had some shit going on in Milwaukee.”
“Quandra told you? What she tell you?”
Her eyes widened as she began laughing. “Calm down, baby girl, she just told me how you had niggas scared of you back in yo’ city and shit, that’s all. She didn't give me any details; she just told me that if you were behind me that I didn't have anything to worry about because you weren’t worried about poppin’ niggas if it came to it.”
She leaned back on my couch and crossed her leg one over the other, exposing a tattooed portion of her thigh. That was just one of the many that decorated her body, but the one right between her breasts was what I loved. They were cat prints, similar to what Eve had tattooed on her chest. The prints went from the middle of her breasts and trailed down her side, stopping just before her pussy. I licked the entire path, and just when I was headed to her box, she stopped me. No matter what I did or how horny I was she just never let it go that far.
