Page 2 of Can I?

She was right about that. You couldn’t depend on people to do the shit you paid them to do, and when you confronted them about it, they got an entire attitude like you were unfairly attacking them. I tended to stick to myself and hang around my family just so I didn’t have to deal with people. Maui was pretty good at graphics and shit like that, so she made all my flyers and specialty shirts I wore. Whatever I needed, someone in the family could always help me with it.

“So what’s up with you, girl? You been pretty quiet and somewhat withdrawn for the past week.”

I glanced at Ashanni and huffed. “Julius and I broke up last weekend.”

She rolled her eyes and mumbled, “’Bout time.” After taking a deep breath, she continued. “I always thought he was a bitch ass nigga, but you know that, because I never hid that from you.”

“You didn’t. I can always count on you, Maui, and Karima to give me the real. Being that I’m younger than y’all, I try to take heed, mostly. It was just something about him that made me want to find out for myself.”

Ashanni was almost twenty-four now, and Maui was twenty-three. While they weren’t that much older than me, they knew more than I did. I was always practicing and really didn’t get to live or have a love life until three years ago when I started college. It was like they knew more about men and sex than I ever could, especially Karima. She was twenty-eight.

“It was something alright. Well, I’m glad you left that nigga alone. When God made big dicks, he wasn’t the only one that got one of those muthafuckas.”

I chuckled as I turned into Exxon. Ashanni was just like Aunt Chas . . . loud and somewhat obnoxious. She didn’t give a fuck who heard anything she said and didn’t mind repeating it either. I was a little more low-key, and so was Maui. Although my mama could be loud and obnoxious as well, for the most part, she was only like that around Uncle Storm and Uncle Jasper. Uncle Storm worked all her nerves at times, so he brought it out of her often.

Pulling up to the pump, I hopped out of the truck and hurriedly grabbed the nozzle. I hated pumping gas. Had I not been in a hurry, my daddy would have pumped it for me. When he couldn’t, one of my uncles or male cousins were always around to do it for me. Henderson men were the real deal, and they took care of us with their lives. They provided an example for us to follow, so when we chose men, we had a fucking prototype. That shit went out the window after fucking around with Julius.

As I watched the screen, someone approached from behind me and said, “I knew I would eventually catch up with your ass. You a fucking bitch!”

“Nigga, fuck you!” I said to Julius. “You the bitch ass nigga. You just mad that I fucked over you better than you fucked over me.”

When he pushed me against my truck, my eyes widened.This nigga put his hands on me?I pulled the nozzle from the gas tank and sprayed him with that shit. After hanging it up, I quickly tried to get in the truck as Ashanni stood on the other side with a deep frown on her face. Before I could close the door, he pulled me out and pushed me to the ground.

“Nigga, I know the fuck you didn’t! I knew I should have brought my gun!” Ashanni yelled. “That’s okay though. My people coming to fuck you up, nigga!”

She helped me from the ground as people started paying attention to us and what was going on. Julius glared at me like he wanted to do more, but instead, he said, “This ain’t over, bitch. When I really get at’chu, you gon’ be begging a nigga for mercy. Put that shit on your calendar.”

“Nigga, get the fuck on!”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as he walked away. Ashanni hugged me. “You alright, boo? Why the fuck he messing with you like he wasn’t the one that fucked up?”

Ignoring her second question, I asked, “Who did you call?”

“Jacob.”

“Aww shit. I don’t want him getting in trouble. He already got bullshit on his plate.”

“Yeah, but that muthafucka ain’t scared to send a nigga straight to hell either. You know SS went to Houston with King, Kane, Crew, Ace, and Royal to turn up. Otherwise, I would have called one of them. SS would have sent his ass straight to them flames too.”

I didn’t want to involve any of my family in my personal business, but I guess that was all about to end, because I would definitely have to reveal why Julius did the things he did when Jacob got here.Fuck!

CHAPTER ONE

MILANA

Seven months later…

“Mama, please, can we talk?”

She cut her eyes at me. “Didn’t I say I didn’t want to see yo’ ass no time soon?”

“Yeah, but damn. I’m your daughter. That don’t mean shit to you?”

She slapped the piss out of me. I was stunned. My mama had never put her hands on me that way.

“Apparently, that don’t mean shit to you! You fucked up, and now my daddy is dead! You gon’ fucking make me snap and send you to meet him.”

My daddy and Uncle Storm came running out of Uncle Marcus’s house to get between us. My daddy grabbed me as Uncle Storm restrained my mama. The tears were falling from my eyes uncontrollably. “Mama! I said I was sorry! What the fuck more you want from me?”

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