Messiah is funny and sarcastic with us, but to everyone else he isn't someone to mess with. I’ve never been scared of him, but I know plenty of people who are.
“So, I take it we’re going?” Cece asks, turning around to eye me.
I look over to Messiah who’s already changing his shirt and once he has his dark sandy blonde curls through the top of the pale orange shirt he looks at me with a big smile before turning to Cece. “I’m going, whether y’all go or not. I’ve heard wild shit about the one named Hollis and apparently Elijah is fucking dominating drugs right now and they’re only a few years older than us.”
“There’s no way someone bigger isn’t behind them, no one our age in this town is big enough to take down Benzo,” I say, shaking my head.
“I agree,” Cece says, sitting on the bed next to me and looking over at Messiah with me.
“There probably is and whoever he is needs to put me on,” Messiah tells us, laughing as he claps his hands to his last three words.
“Boy, shut up,” Cece tells him, rolling her eyes. “Ain’t nobody ‘bout to put your crazy ass on.”
His shoulders fall. “Why not?”
“Because I say so,” she tells him. “No brother of mine is getting involved with stupid gang shit. We are the only gang you need.”
“You two aren’t a gang, you’re like two little chihuahuas,” he says with a laugh. “All bark, no bite.”
“Um,” I say holding my finger up in the air, “actually the only dog I’ve ever been bitten by was the stupid ass chihuahua who used to live next to me.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “You’re always trying to ruin my jokes with facts.”
“I’m just pointing out even as two chihuahuas, we could be a pretty badass gang.” I laugh and so does Cece.
“Okay, whatever,” he says, laughing too. “But I still want to go to this party and see how these dudes work and see if I could vibe with them.”
“I’m not agreeing to go to any party for those reasons,” Cece protests, but Messiah just laughs and heads out of his room and we follow behind him all of us knowing good and well the night is going to be the biggest shitstorm ever.
Chapter Three
RUBY—PRESENT
Tasha saunters back over to me and the smile on her face is definitely one of conquest. My face matches hers as I look over to Lucky, her own grin sitting proudly on her face, too. We both know what’s coming.
“Tell us how much you got,” Lucky laughs, speaking loudly over the booming music in the club.
Tasha wraps me in a side hug and laughs as well. “Let’s just say, our rent is paid this month, ladiessss!” She is slurring her words, so the drinks she had with some random guy—who is apparently giving her all kinds of money—has kicked in.
“Your ass is so drunk,” I say, hugging her to my side too. Tasha is crazy, but her and Lucky are all I have, and I can’t afford to lose them, nor do I want to even think about not having them in my life. We are the three musketeers and have been this way since elementary school. They’ve been by my side through everything.
“If you’re saying those whiney words, bitch, then you need some more Patrón in you!”
Lucky hops up from her seat and pours more alcohol into my cup from the bottle Tasha’s mystery man bought and I quickly throw it all back. Tasha releases me and they both break into loud cheers as I laugh and wipe my mouth with the back of my free hand and flip my long dark hair over my shoulder.
When I notice him watching me from across VIP, a jolt of adrenaline pumps through me, and I wonder how long he’s been there observing me. His dark eyes bore into me, but my smile remains. I’m glad he’s here, because for some reason I feel safe with him around. I don’t know why though, because he is scary as hell.
When the girls stop cheering, I turn back to them and we all joke around, taking pictures together on the plush couches of the VIP section. We like it up here because we always get to have space to have fun without being overcrowded by other people. Tasha can always get us into VIP with ease, especially lately.
Whenever we go out I never know how we were going to get up into VIP, but it always seems to work out in our favor. Although Lucky and I have had our few nights of success, tonight it was Tasha who got us up here. Well, not Tasha, but her new sugar daddy or whatever got us up here quick, fast, and in a hurry. We didn’t even wait in the line outside.
I have a feeling she’s going to hang on to this one, he’s practically already proposed to her, but she says she’s just playing him like a fiddle. I’d told her so many times it wasn’t smart to do guys that way, but she never listens to Lucky or me when it comes to men, no matter how much shit we talk.
I’m not one to judge, because trust me I’ve done my dirt too, but guys who get too attached aren’t good for the lifestyle we like to lead. I can easily see her mystery sugar daddy flipping his shit if she ever told him no and I haven’t even met him. From the stories she’s told us about him, he’s batshit crazy, controlling, and to me screams turn around and run away.
I also think it’s super weird he’s yet to introduce himself to Lucky or I and we are practically Natasha’s sisters.
They both stay seated down on the couches around the heavy metal table in the center of the couch, but I have other plans. I figure if he is going to continue to watch me so blatantly from across the room, I’ll give him a show.
So I dance.
I climb on top of the table and move my body to the booming music. Lucky and Natasha erupt in profanities and I smile wildly as I meet his stare with my own, my hair whipping around me as I move. His serious face isn't as serious as before and for a split second I notice a tiny smirk play across his lips.
I close my eyes again and throw my arms in the air, dancing to the beat, continuing to hear my friends cheer me on as I turn.
“My baby is doing her thang,” Lucky screams loudly, at the same moment she slaps my ass. “Aye Mami! Baile!”
His presence is known before I turn around to see him because when I open my eyes the looks on my friends faces quickly change from happy to startled in the blink of an eye. I turn around and my smile doesn't falter at all as he continues to make his way over to us slowly.
Lucky and Tasha don’t make a move as he gets closer, and I only step towards the edge of the table, still swaying to the loud music. When I stop at the edge of the table just in front of him, his smirk is back. He speaks first.
“You seem to have wanted my attention,” he says to me, his deep voice over entwined into the music, sending chills all over my body.
“You seem to have a lot of attention to give tonight,” I tell him grinning back and still swaying my hips back and forth. His eyes travel down my body and they follow my hips for a few seconds before he looks me directly in my eyes. I feel like he is combing through my soul and it’s spooking the hell out of me.
I look away first, unable to allow him to make me feel so bare and he grunts in response. “If you wanted to give me a personal show, you should have come to me to get into VIP not a lame ass mother fucker like Benzo.”