“This is some stupid shit, Teo. Street niggas like him come to places like this tokill. The fuck he want us here for?” Tameka grumbled.
Teonny shushed her mother, and Prosper smirked as he led them into the warehouse.
His smirk widened into a grin when he saw Ghost chained up to a pillar right next to . . .
“Jerome! Oh my God, what the fuck?” Tameka brushed past Prosper and ran toward Jerome.
Lamar reached out to stop her, but Prosper held his hand up and nodded, a signal to his right-hand man to let her through. Lamar’s arm dropped, and Tameka made it to Jerome. She dropped to her knees and took his bloodied face into her hands.
While Tameka spoke to Jerome, Prosper noticed how nervous she suddenly became. It was a different kind of nervous than when they first pulled up and she worried for her safety. Her eyes shifted around, and she looked like she was trying to devise an escape plan. His eyes remained on her, even though he felt a tug on his arm.
“Patrick, what the hell is going on?” Teonny asked. He chanced a quick glance at her and saw tears in her eyes. He noted that she now seemed to be afraid, but he could tell that was from her trauma and distrust of men. Nothing in him believed it was because she felt she had been caught crossing him.
“That’s what the fuck I want to know,” Tameka said in a shaky voice as she stood to her feet in front of Jerome protectively.
Prosper stared at her and didn’t say a word. Tameka squirmed, but she held her stance in front of her low-life boyfriend. Irritation filled Prosper as he looked at them.
Another tug on Prosper’s arm stole his attention. He looked back at Teonny and realized he’d never felt so torn in his life. He wanted to kill the closest people to the woman he loved. That was a predicament he’d never been in and could have lived without.
“Patrick,” she pleaded. His heart broke slightly. No matter how this shit went down, he knew she would be changed for good.
Just when he opened his mouth to speak, Ghost felt the need to grate on his nerves just a little bit more.
“Aye, lil nigga, if you gonna kill us, just get this shit over wit’.”
“Speak for yourself, nigga!” Jerome’s voice came out in a high-pitched shriek, which caused Prosper to shake his head. He was sick of the bullshit, and oddly enough, he had to agree with Ghost.
The older man who used to run the east side of Ellwood was as pale as a damn ghost, which was a harsh contrast to the pitch black fro he rocked like it was still the seventies. He’d been in the game long enough to know how this shit went. Jerome, who looked to be around the same age as Ghost, should have known better too. He clearly didn’t. Neither of them niggas were leaving here breathing.
“This is ridiculous. Let Jerome go. He ain’t got shit to do with this,” Tameka snapped, but even her voice held a tone of pleading in it. The confidence she normally spoke with seemed to disappear.
Prosper ignored her and looked at Lamar. They nodded their heads at one another. Since they had known each other for so long and had a strong bond, they were able to communicate without words. Prosper just let him know to watch his back since he was going to take his eyes off Tameka, who was the only opp not chained up, and give his attention to Teonny. His peanut.The woman he felt had nothing to do with this, but he had to make sure.
“Did you know Jerome works for Ghost?” Prosper asked. He kept his eyes on Teonny so he could study her genuine reaction.
Her brows pulled in as she looked up into his eyes. She wasn’t avoiding him. She wanted answers, just like he did. One thing he knew about Teonny, without a doubt, was that she was a terrible actress. For three years she played hard to get and acted like she didn’t have feelings for him. She failed miserably. Prosper was just a patient man and wanted to be on her time, which was why he never pushed her.
If she had known Jerome worked for Ghost, he would have been able to tell. She wasn’t acting, nor was she lying when she said, “What? N-no.” She looked around him at her mother. “He works for Ghost?” Her eyes moved over to Jerome. “You work for Ghost?”
“That man don’t know what he talkin’ ’bout,” Tameka argued.
“Man, that nigga my cousin,” Ghost spat. Blood leaked from his mouth, and he spat it out at Tameka’s feet. “Meka knows that. She just tryna save face ’cause I know all her secrets.” Ghost grinned. The bruises that were already forming on his face, coupled with the blood leaking from his wounds, gave him an eerie look when he grinned like that.
“Mommy, did you know this?” Teonny asked, her voice shaky. Prosper could tell the weight of the situation had settled on her shoulders. He could feel her worry. Once again, he felt torn. Despite everything, he knew how much Teonny loved her mother. He knew how much she had already lost. The last thing he wanted—to be the cause of her experiencing more loss.
Prosper waited patiently for Tameka to answer. Her eyes jetted around the room, and then resignation seemed to take over. Hesitantly, she said, “Yes . . .”
Teonny took a step toward her mother. “But you knew we were at the safe house because of Ghost. You knew?—”
“I knew that I didn’t want to be caught up in this shit, just like I didn’t want you to be caught up in it.” Tameka walked over to Teonny and grabbed her hands. “Look what they did to Jerome, Teo. These aren’t the kind of men you need to be around?—”
“Cut the shit, Meka,” Ghost snapped.
“He keeps calling you Meka . . .” Teonny’s voice trailed off as she stared at her mother in confusion. “You know him, don’t you?”
Tameka waved her hand in the air. “I know of him?—”
Ghost laughed, and it sounded like a split between agony and amusement. “Bullshit. Me and Meka go way back, don’t we?”
