Page 16 of Deuce

The sound of my mama clearing her throat caused me to let the blinds slap back together.

“Who was that man, Salima?”

“A new acquaintance, Ma. I met him at work.”

“And he’s already coming over?”

I thought of a quick lie. “I lost my ID last night, and he brought it back.”

Just the mention of work left a sour taste in my mouth.

“How was your first night? You look exhausted, baby.”

“Iamexhausted.” I leaned against the wall. “I take it you haven’t watched the morning news.”

“I didn’t. I slept in until my doctor’s appointment for once.”

“You may want to sit down for this one.”

She held her chest as she took a seat on the couch. I began telling her the story of last night and she looked absolutely terrified. I made sure to leave out the part about Deuce putting a gun to my face.

Karen Navarro was alot of things, but she didn’t play about me. If I told her he pointed a gun at me, she’d be ready to call my uncles and cousins and ride the fuck out. I also hid the stack of money in the pocket of my robe. She’d want to know why Deuce gave it to me and what either of us did to get it.

By the time I was done, she had her arms around me, crying profusely.

“I can’t believe that happened! Oh, those poor babies! My poor baby! Are you okay, Salima?”

“I’m fine, Ma. I’m just tired. All I want to do is take my shower and climb into bed.”

“Go ahead, baby. You’ll have the house to yourself. Your Aunt Sarah and Aunt Cicely are taking me to lunch to celebrate my clean bill of health.”

“Have fun. Don’t get wasted off bottomless mimosas.”

She giggled. “Chile, I’m too old to get drunk. Now back in the day, I could throw them back.”

I believed her. Seeing younger pictures of her told me that she and my aunts were something else back then. Nothing but hoochie shorts, crop tops, big hair, and long fingernails. Mama was a baddie then, and she was still bad now.

“I believe you, Ma.” I hugged her and kissed her cheek. “I love you. Tell my aunties I said, hey.”

“I will. I love you too.”

Standing from the couch, I headed into my bedroom and locked the door. Pulling the stack of money from my pockets, I looked down at it. Ten thousand dollars. That would hold us over for a while if I budgeted it correctly. Deuce had to be crazy to walk around with this type of cash and not worry about getting robbed.

“The man is a cold-blooded killer, Salima. He ain’t worried about being robbed.”

I looked around the room and laughed. Ididtalk to myself. I had to rationalize with myself at times. I was never the type to tell people all of my business. Most bitches and niggas were trifling, but I always had a friend in me. Sighing, I dropped the money in my purse, making a mental note to deposit it in the bank later today.

I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower to heat up while I brushed my teeth and washed my face. Last night had me out here looking down bad. Once I was done with this shower, my pillow was about to get some serious head. Stripping out of my robe, I stepped into the steamy, hot shower.

With my eyes closed, I stood there releasing the tension from my body. I had scrapes on my knee and my hands were sore from that hard ass concrete floor. I still couldn’t believe I landed a job at a place that doubled as an underground pedophile ring. That shit was sick. I kept seeing those scared, innocent faces.

They were children. Somebody loved them. Somebody missed them.

They would never be the same after this shit. Even therapy may not help them recover. I couldn’t imagine that being me or my child. The whole thing was simply heartbreaking. Deuce may have been an arrogant, fun pointing asshole, but he saved those children. He made sure they were safe and sound before he took out their abusers. For that, he had a little… very little… of my respect.

Hopefully, today was the last I would see of him. If circumstances were different, I didn’t think I would mind running into his fine ass again. But right now? Right now it was fuck Deuce.

I’d gotten maybe four hours of sleep.

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