Around the Way Girls 10 Page 6

  Mario wasn’t accustomed to tricking off one third that amount on the rats from around the way he’d been running with as of late; but he could tell this female was like Sasha: different. “Okay, then, love, see you at six-thirty. I’ll be on time and waiting.”

  As Mario left through the door, bag in hand, Angie V hated herself already but knew a real, true mother did what she had to do for the sake of her kids, right or wrong. She had no idea what she was getting herself into with dealing with him, but she knew she had no choice. It was fuck or starve. The decision was easy.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Regina traveled the same road her little sister had been on weeks earlier. She felt every pothole Sasha did and passed by every restaurant as well. The only difference was Regina was not in handcuffs and she was more than free to stop on that long, bumpy road when and if she pleased.

  Finally arriving at the prison, Regina found a place to park. After emptying her pockets she got her driver’s license out and stuffed it in her rear pocket. Leaving her purse stashed on the rear floor behind the passenger’s seat, the older sibling was ready to make her first of what would be more visits to come. Going through the unsettling process, Regina was led to the visitor’s room where Sasha was waiting, sitting off to the side.

  “Oh, my God, Sasha. I’m so glad to see you. I miss you and so does Mom and Daddy.”

  “Me too. I miss you and them.” Sasha was overcome by seeing a member of her family. She fought it, but she could no longer hold back the flow of waterworks. “I needed you so bad when I lost the baby. Regina, it was awful. This place is awful! I swear, you have no idea.”

  Regina dropped tears as well, seeing her sister go through it firsthand. “Sis, I can only imagine. I almost wanted to turn around and leave as soon as I saw that big-ass gate closing. But seeing my little sister is the only thing that matters to me. So I’m good.”

  The sisters hugged it out as other prisoners greeted their guests as well. No more than five minutes into the visit, Regina started spilling her guts. Not dry snitching on her brother-in-law, she came directly out, telling her little sister what Mario had been up to. Not one to mince words, Regina didn’t leave out one single thing that she’d heard the womanizer had done over the past month or so. The multiple women he had been rumored to take to hotel rooms, the low-budget shopping sprees of sneakers and T-shirts, popping bottles at the club, taking strippers to his and Sasha’s home, and his gambling losses. Regina gave her sibling an earful of Mario’s indiscretions, leaving her almost in shock.

  “Regina, are you freaking serious? Please tell me you lying. Please tell me this is a joke and you just pulling my leg.”

  “Naw, sis, I wish I were. But that nigga you married and all up in here doing time for is a no-good sack of shit! The whole city knows it but you. It ain’t no big secret. He ain’t even trying to hide his dirty-ass deeds.”

  Sasha was enraged but she knew she had to hold her composure. She couldn’t run the risk of getting any tickets, which would add more time to her sentence. She’d already avoided two when she’d first arrived, thanks to the nurse and the guard letting her slide. However, she knew she had no more chances. Instead of screaming and yelling like she wanted to do, Sasha suffered in silence, knowing one day she’d get revenge on Mario for being the dog he was.

  Trying their best to relax her mind, Sasha and Regina both enjoyed the rest of the visit, having come up with a plan to stop Mario from taking everything that Sasha had built and running it straight into the ground. When it was time for the visit to come to an end, Sasha sadly said her good-bye.

  When Regina was let out of the secured visiting area, inmate Eubanks was led to the back then searched before returning to the common prisoner living area. Sasha rushed back to her unit with one thing and one thing only on her mind as she lay back on her bunk: plotting on Mario.

  Minutes after the evening count time was completed, Sasha headed toward the phones. Punching in her pin code, she then dialed her supposedly loyal husband’s number and waited for him to answer. This motherfucker got me and the game twisted. If he think I’m just gonna sit back and let him play me, he dead wrong as two left feet. Sasha’s new beastlike attitude and disposition since arriving at prison was shining through and Mario was about to get a taste of it once more.

  * * *

  Regina rode back to the city, content that Mario would soon be relieved of all things he was in charge of that solely belonged to her little sister. At this point, it would be up to him whether he wanted to relinquish the power he felt he had the easy way or the hard way.

  Regina was nothing like her sister. She was far from naïve and not ever in the mood for games of any sort. Although she had small children to tend to, she always found time to show up and show out at the Black Union Zodiacs, a motorcycle club she’d been a part of since being a teen. After trying for years to coax Sasha and Kat to join the club, known citywide, Regina finally stopped going every week after giving birth to her first child. But rest assured if she ever needed her brothers and sisters to come to her assistance they would have her back.

  Snatching up her cell off the passenger seat, Regina placed a call to Kat, informing her how the visit went. Shortly after that, she was swinging by the babysitter’s and then she was on her way home. I can’t wait for Sasha to call tonight and give me the word, ’cause when she do that’s Mario’s black ugly ass! He gonna feel me for fucking over my damn sister and running game.

  * * *

  Kat was almost as ecstatic as Regina that Mario had been exposed. She wished she could have been there to see the expression on Sasha’s face when she got the bad news and was forced to face the truth. It wasn’t that she had any ill will toward her best friend; it was just that she had been telling Sasha for days, weeks, months, and even years that Mario was no good. That he was fucking her over and would never change. Time and time again, Kat had given Sasha ample opportunity to catch her beloved, cherished husband red-handed in some bullshit she had stumbled upon on the humble; but Sasha had declined, not wanting to face the obvious. At times Kat wondered if Sasha was just slow and dumb or just scared to face the truth. Whatever the case, Regina claimed she had finally broken down that naïve wall of denial that her little sister had when it came to Mario.

  Rubbing the scar the bullet had left on her lower leg, Kat sucked her teeth and shook her head. She looked at the time on her cell phone, knowing that if all went as planned, Mario would be getting his eviction papers from her best friend’s life once and for all. Like dominoes falling, Mario in turn would be going on what could probably be his last all-out, “balls to the wall” addicted gambling excursion with Sasha’s finances later as well.

  Calling her uncle, Kat gave Big Dae Dae a heads-up that Mario would be in the dice spot one final time, and to make sure he was there to break his pockets.

  “Yeah, Unc, no doubt that slime ball nigga Mario probably gonna be betting big tonight. He about to get cut the fuck off so I know he gotsa go hard a few more times before my girl cuts the cord for good. Then you know when she cut him off, he done. So hit that fool in the head good!”

  Big Dae Dae laughed at his niece. Over the years he’d seen both her and her mother hold a grudge over some of the simplest things a man could imagine. But Kat was going overboard with the hate and wanting revenge so he had to ask why. “Damn, Kat, I know the young’un a little clown with his shit, but you going extra on li’l homie who looked out for you back in the day. As far as I know he slanging them pills from time to time and a li’l bit of weed, but as far as his ass getting that bread from Sasha, that’s between them two, Kat; don’t you think?”

  Kat shook her head as if he could see her through the phone. “Hell naw, it ain’t between them when she too dumb to see the truth. What kinda friend would I be if I didn’t put her up on his ho-ass shit?”

  “If she was crazy enough to actually go to jail and do time for that lame, trust me, she already knows he ain’t shit and she must like it. I
’m telling you, Kat, you can’t beat a couple no matter what kind of good intentions you may have.”

  “Fuck all that you talking about, Unc; and fuck Mario. Bust that nigga’s ass later and share some of that cheese with your family!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “You have a call from Sasha, an inmate at the Michigan Department of Corrections. If you feel that this call is harassing in nature or unwanted, please press one. In order to accept calls from an inmate at the Michigan Department of Corrections, press two.”

  Mario had just jumped out of the shower and he was drying off when his cell rang. Praying it was not a call from his mixed-breed soon-to-be jump-off cancelling their “paid date,” he grabbed his phone. Recognizing the strange three-digit exchange flashing on the screen, he knew it was a call from prison.

  Even though the last time he had spoken to his wife he’d gotten handed his ass on a silver platter, Mario still wanted to hear her voice. He assumed she received the JPay payment he’d put on her books earlier while at Walmart, and he hoped that she was pleased. Sure, he was going to bang another female’s lights out shortly, but that didn’t take anything away from her and them. He was still going to hold her down the best he could just like she’d done for him. Fuck what her sister and best friend thought; he would have his wife’s back and make her believe she was the only one for him. Excited, he pressed two so they could be connected.

  “Hello.” Sasha’s seething attitude could automatically be heard through her voice.

  “Hey, baby doll. I was hoping you’d call a nigga.”

  “Oh, yeah, is that right? You was hoping I was calling you for what? To tell you where some more money is stashed at that you can lose to Kat’s uncle? To tell you where I got another SUV at that you can tear up? Or to give you my blessings for fucking around with all them hoes I heard you been running with since I been gone?”

  It was apparent that her best friend, or Regina, or someone else from the outside had made a visit, sent a letter, or something because the cat was out the bag, so to speak. Mario couldn’t get a single word in. Sasha had been going off on him since the word hello and she had not let up. She was hell-bent on getting her money’s worth for this fifteen minutes and Mario was not going to stop her, even though he tried.

  “Bae, stop—”

  “Don’t ‘bae’ me. And don’t tell me to stop. You fake as fuck,” Sasha raged as her voice got louder and more determined with each passing word. “So since you out in the real world being so damn fake, I got a good-ass idea for your black ass. Why don’t you do that shit on your own dime?”

  “Say what?” Mario stopped drying off and sat down on the side of the bed.

  “You heard me loud and clear, Mario. We done and so is you using my money.”

  Mario had to think quickly to hold on to what he had. He had grown accustomed to doing dirt and getting away with it, so for Sasha to check him, even from behind bars, he was shocked. The last few times they had spoken, his once tame-mouth wife had been coming out of her bag and acting a fool. He knew he had those verbal attacks and so much more coming for all the stunts he’d pulled over the years, but hearing her say she was done with him was still a blow to his ego. “Look, bae, I’m confused. How am I supposed to be using your money? I’ve been doing exactly what we talked about when you was back in the county. I paid the light bill. I paid the water bill. I paid the summer taxes on the house and I paid the SUV note.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Sasha stopped yelling long enough to listen to Mario’s claims of responsibility.

  Mario knew his wife like the back of his hand. The con man husband knew that if Sasha closed her mouth long enough to hear what he was saying, he could run game like he always did. “Yes, bae. I’ve been out here doing everything I’m supposed to do. I love the shit out of you. The only thing I forgot was a few days I forgot to water your flowers and when they looked weepy and shit a nigga went to Home Depot to get some spray for them.”

  “You’ve been watering my flowers?” Sasha’s rant slowed down and Mario took that same window of opportunity to get in where he fitted in.

  “Of course I have, bae. I know how much those crazy growing plants mean to you. And I’ve been making sure to pay the lawn people to keep your parents’ grass cut every week just like before. I’m doing everything right, Sasha, and you keep hollering at me and now accusing me of bullshit. I know I should’ve stood up, but I was fucked up in the head. I wasn’t thinking clear. I’m sorry, Sasha. If I could take it all back, I would. I even asked the lawyer, but he said it was too late. You can ask him. He ain’t gonna lie.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s just that to my understanding you been out there shooting dice, getting drunk, and dealing with all sorts of females.” Sasha’s original tone had come down at least three or four octaves and her husband kept laying it on thick.

  Mario grinned, knowing he was making headway. “Yeah, you mean like the old lady at Walmart who helped me send that money to you today? Is that the type of females you talking about?”

  “Money? Walmart? What are you talking about now, Mario?”

  Mario stood up from the bed and started to get dress in his new fit. He knew his wife was back on his line and she was ripe to hear, accept, and eat any bullshit he was serving. “You know, baby doll, the same way you used to put money on my books through JPay with your debit card? Well, they got the shit hooked up so a nigga can just slide through Walmart and hook they peoples up. That’s what I did today, earlier.”

  “You did? On your own without me asking you to? I can’t believe it.”

  “Yes, bae. And yeah, I ain’t gonna lie. You know me. I have been shooting dice, but I been winning. I swear on everything I been knocking niggas in the head. The money I sent to you today was mine. I won that shit. So whichever one of them bitter-minded bitches who been filling your head with that garbage about me is just hating,” Mario proclaimed, lacing up his new sneakers that had just been purchased by Sasha’s settlement check from the first of the month.

  “Well, I heard differently. I heard you lost big time and pawned my damn SUV to Kat’s uncle and he had an accident,” Sasha suspiciously quizzed, wondering why her sister or best friend would lie on her man.

  “I did what? Girl, that’s fucking lie! Your nosey-ass sister came over here early one morning talking that mess Kat had told her. And I bet she can’t tell you she saw that SUV with one dent on it.”

  “Well, she didn’t say she actually saw it firsthand, so—”

  “So there the fuck you have it. More of Kat’s famous fables and lies. Look, Sasha, I might not be the best husband in the world but I’m always gonna have your back from this point on. I know you love a nigga. I see you’s a straight-up soldier.” Still running game, he sprayed on some cologne. Ironically it was his wife’s favorite scent on him. As Mario stood posted in the full-length mirror admiring himself, he was glad when the prerecorded voice timer cut in, alerting them there was only one minute remaining in the call. He was close to running late in meeting up with Angie V and he didn’t want to run the risk of missing out on banging out her back.

  “Well, it’s almost count time, so when it’s over I’m going to call you back so we can finish talking and I can figure out what I’m going—”

  Seconds later Mario smiled as Sasha was cut off. I swear that dumb bitch be getting on my last nerve. I’m trying to be cool, but she pressing me too much about what the next ho say. Her sister’s and Kat’s good grimy asses need to go get some dick and chill the fuck out. Grabbing the SUV keys off the dining room table scattered with mail, Mario set the burglar alarm and darted off the front porch.

  * * *

  Mario pulled up in the parking lot. After driving around for five minutes, he finally found a space somewhat near the entrance. Checking his cell phone, the married cunt hound was glad Angie V had not hit him up to back out of their impending date. Taking a quick look down at the time then back at the door repeatedly, his manhood started to jump. Since Sasha w
as gone he’d gotten more than his fair share of pussy, but was truly anticipating this.

  It was nearing six-thirty and Mario now had his eyes focused on the door. Hoping there was no rear employee door, he counted down the seconds turning into minutes. Ten minutes went by and he was just about to give up hope when Angie V emerged from the double door exit. Holding a few bags in her hand, she headed to what Mario knew must’ve been her car. Amazed that the rust bucket she’d opened the door of even started, let alone was safe to drive on the street, he drove around, blocking her path. Blowing the horn twice, Mario signaled to her.

  “Hey, Miss Lady. What’s going on with you?”

  “Oh, hey.” Angie V acted as if she barely wanted to speak or even hold her head up to look Mario in his face.

  “I know you ain’t forget about me, have you? A dude like me been waiting all day. So what’s the deal? We good or what?” Mario tapped the side of his hand on the steering wheel, watching every move Angie V made.

  Wanting nothing more than to back out of the reckless impromptu arrangement she’d made, struggling single mother Angela Vega was seconds away from doing just that when her babysitter called. The girl was demanding to get paid this evening when the kids were picked up. Wanting to take the money owed to the babysitter and pay the overdue portion of the light bill, Angie V knew that was no longer an option. The girl had been more than patient. She’d been waiting for weeks, allowing Angela to get caught up on some other bills she claimed she had to pay. But enough was enough. The babysitter knew if she didn’t put her foot down she’d never see a dime, because it was clear the mother of three would never be debt free. So having run out of ideas of how to keep her little family out of the dark, Angie swallowed her pride. Her pussy now officially had a price tag on it.

  “Yeah, we good.” She tried to smile at Mario but her jaws hurt to do so.

  “Okay, cool. That’s what’s up. So you gonna ride with me or what?” Mario clasped his hands together and started rubbing them as if he was scheming on a come up.