A Thug's Wife (Full Length Novel) (13 page)

“Don’t try to run that line on me. Niggas fuck around on their ride or dies every damn day. It’s-“

Honk! Honk!

“We’ll talk abo
ut this later. Where is Zaria?” Devon cut Yessenia off upon hearing Quasym blowing the horn.

“She left and said she was going home.”

“I thought she told Quasym that she was staying over here for a few days.”

“Yea well you ain’t the only one pissed about w
hat happened at the mall. She went home.”

Devon shook his head and turned to walk out of the house. He walked down the two steps in front of his home and jogged to Quasym’s car. Quasym rolled his window down, and Devon leaned over inside of the car.

“She said Zaria got mad and went home.”

“Damn, I told her not to go home,” Quasym shook his head. “Then she wanna act stupid and not answer the damn phone.”

“Gone and check on your ol’ lady man. I’ll shoot back out to the trap and check and make sure these niggas acting right,” Devon told him. “Gotta keep a close eye on these new cats for a while.”

They slapped hands, and Devon stepped away from the car while
Quasym pulled away from the curb. Devon turned to go back into the house, but thought better of it. He didn’t feel like fighting with Yessenia after some imaginary bitch that she’d made up in her head. He patted his pockets for his keys and quickly walked over to his truck to leave.

***

It
’
s amazing I
’
m in this maze with you. I just can
’
t crack your code. One day you
’
re screaming you love me loud, the next day you
’
re so cold. One day you
’
re here, one day you
’
re there, one day you care.
Zaria increased the volume on the radio, nodding her head to Jay-Z’s song featuring Justin Timberlake
Holy Grail.

She pushed the end button on her phone for what seemed like the twentieth time in the past hour. She didn’t want to speak to Quasym and only wanted to climb in
her bed with a glass of Moscato.

Zaria had given her everything to Quasym and wish that they could go back to the days before their wedding. Things were good then. It was before she knew that the man she loved with everything in her was a liar. Back then,
she would have never expected the kind of betrayal that she had been experiencing lately.

Just last night after their lovemaking session, she was reminded of why her will and love was so strong for Quasym, but now she was beginning to wonder if she had m
ade a mistake by marrying him. Zaria wished that she would have at least pushed the wedding back to give herself more time to think.

All of this had her so confused and feeling like she didn’t know this man that she had shared the past seven years of her
life with. He seemed to have changed on her without any type of warning.

As she pulled into the driveway of her home, she killed the engine and then the lights. Her phone began to ring again, and she quickly ended the call, tossed the phone in her purse, and got out of the car. She fumbled around with her keys until she found t
he one that would open her front door.

“
Aye, lil’ mama!”

Zaria quickly whipped her body around to see who was calling her when she was met with a punch to her face. She was knocked off of her feet and into the concrete paved driveway. She brought her hand
s up to cover her face when the dude standing over her punched her again. He didn’t take any mercy when he took his foot and rammed it into the side of her face causing her to bounce across the pavement a few feet.

“
Plee-asse stop!” Zaria moaned.

Her bod
y tensed up as pain shot through damn near every part of her body. She wanted it to stop. Zaria didn’t know what she had done to anyone to deserve this, and immediately her mind had gone to Tianna. This had to be in retaliation for what Yessenia had done to her. This was the only thing plausible and seemed to make sense to Zaria.

When the blows stop coming at her, she got up the nerve to remove her hands from her face with hopes of being able to see the assailant’s face. When she looked up, her heart pract
ically stopped beating as she stared down the barrel of a .40 caliber handgun. She went to let out a scream when she was silenced before she could even get it out.

POW!

The gunman reached down beside Zaria and grabbed the keys that had fallen out of her hand. He tossed them to his partner, and the two of them quickly headed toward the house.

“Hurry up! Hurry up!” the gunman yelled to his partner.

“A’ight, trying to find the right key,” he said as he ran through the keys trying to find the right one.

“Ahh
, fuck. I think that’s her dude! Let’s go! Let's go!” the gunman yelled as he noticed a car whip into the driveway. He jumped down off the porch and fired two rounds at the car while making his way to his vehicle. “Come on! Come on!”

             
The gunman’s partner tripped over a dip in the grass and went crashing to the ground.  He debated with himself on whether or not he wanted to help his partner up or worry about his self.

He stopped in his tracks knowing he couldn't leave him behind, it wasn't just his partner in crime; it was also his little brother. He ran back over to him, and that decision had caused him his life.

POW! POW!

Quasym pumped two bullets into the gunman’s
chest and ran over to him as he hit the ground. He turned around to where the other guy had gotten stuck and immediately pounced on him. He grabbed him by his throat and slammed the butt of the gun into his face.

“What the fuck are you doing tryna go into
my house? Who the fuck sent you?” he yelled. He took the gun and pointed it at the guy’s head, shoving it into his temple.

“I’m not the one that shot that bitch man!”

“What?” Quasym asked with confusion riddled in his face.

“That nigga shot your bitch m
an! I was only paid to be the lookout. I’m only seventeen years old bro! Let me go!” he cried gladly snitching on his brother. This wasn’t for him. His brother asked him to come along to be a look out while he robbed a bitch for her car, and he ended being an accessory to murder. He wasn’t ‘bout that life in any sense of the word.

Quasym quickly jumped off of him. Keeping his gun pointed, he took a quick look around, and that’s when he spotted her. He had only seen the two guys trying to go into his house
when he first pulled up and figured he’d gotten there just in time. But now as he watched his wife lay on the ground in a puddle of her own blood, he suddenly felt ill. He turned back around towards the young boy just as he was able to pull his foot out of the hole in the ground. Rage filled him. He felt his whole body heat with fury and suddenly he-pulled the trigger, letting one loose into the young boy’s chest. Quasym watched as the youngn’s body jerked backwards and slowly fell back into the grass. 

Qu
asym tucked his pistol in the front of his jeans and ran over to Zaria. He didn’t know what to think as he looked for any movement. He hoped to see signs that she was breathing like her chest rising and falling, just anything that told him that she was still alive, but he saw nothing.

A whelm of emotions swept through his body. He quickly scooped Zaria up from the ground and carried her over to his car. He didn’t want to give up on her if there was a possibility that she could be saved.

Placing her in the backseat of his car, he hurriedly shut the door and hopped in the driver’s seat. As he pulled out of the driveway, he glanced at the two dead bodies in his yard knowing that it wasn’t some mere coincidence that they were there.

He was certain that they d
idn’t just randomly pick his wife to shoot in their yard and rob them. They didn’t even look familiar to him so knew they weren’t from around his way. The fact that he ignored Hova’s request to be paid for his loss, Quasym knew that it had to be him. Hova had hit him hard and didn’t waste any time doing so.

“
What shooters nigga? Yuh ain
’
t got no muthafuckin
’
shooters! Get me my muthafuckin
’
bands and do dat shit immediately. I want my shit by tomorrow morning or yuh gonna feel me and my muthafuckin
’
shooters young blood! Ya feel me?
”
 
Those words that Hova had threatened him with previously were suddenly loud and clear. Too bad that he hadn't listened to him and that Zaria was the one to pay.

Chapter 14 : Brick Money Boys
 

Quasym sat on the ed
ge of his chair struggling with the guilt he felt for not being able to protect his wife. He was for certain Hova was behind this shit. He’d struck him twice in a short amount of time and the stress of it all was getting to him.

He felt inadequate and like maybe he just wasn’t cut out for this life. The only thing that had been on his mind when he took the proposition that was given to him was the money. He hadn’t thought about the consequences that would come along with it or at
least he didn’t think niggas would be so cowardly like this. This was not supposed to be a part of the game, but he knew nothing about the game was fair. 

As much as he wanted to throw the cards in and say fuck it all, he just couldn’t. Today he recruited
a few block boys and a squad of niggas that he’d heard about through word of mouth, and they were all hungry.

There was no way he could tell them that everything he had talked to them about was not gonna happen. He found out that Dan-D was on some other
shit and that he hadn’t been treating his workers right. Dan-D would pay people when he felt like it, and when he did pay, it was on a level that most felt like they were being taken advantage of. 

From what Quasym heard there was a lot of animosity
toward Dan-D, and anybody could be responsible for his death. To know that a lot of people wanted Dan-D dead made Quasym feel better because at least no one would suspect him. Even then, he didn’t care that Dan-D was hated and that most wished death on him. Quasym still didn’t want anyone to know that he got his spot through force.

As far as he knew, Hova and whoever told him was the only ones that knew his secret, and he wanted to keep it that way. Quasym had to shut Hova up and not only shut him up, he h
ad to make him pay for coming at his wife. That was a must that Hova was bodied as soon as possible. The longer he was breathing the angrier Quasym got.

“Oh, my God, Sym!” Cherie yelled as she rushed towards him. She placed her hands over her chest in an
attempt to catch her breath and then covered her mouth as a flood of tears poured from her eyes. Quasym called her and her mother Tammy only thirty minutes ago to tell them what happened with Zaria. They immediately stopped everything they were doing and came over to Baylor Hospital where she was being taken care of.

             
“What’s up, Cherie? I haven’t heard nothing yet. They just keep telling me the doctor will be with me soon,” Quasym said with sweat dripping from his forehead. He stood to his feet and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

             
“What happened to her? Who did this?”

             
“I don’t know. I pulled up and caught some niggas trying to break in the muthafuckin’ house. Looked over, and she was in the driveway bleeding to damn death! Man fuck!” Quasym yelled. He covered his face with his hands and let out a ragged breath. He’d told Zaria not to go home and to chill with Yessenia for a while. Although he had hoped when he told her that that he was being a little overprotective, but he knew that something like this could happen. He was ready to walk out of the hospital and go after Hova right this instant, but Zaria came first. If she made it through, Quasym wanted his face to be the first one that she saw. “I told her to chill at Yessenia’s, man damn!”

             
“I’m here. I’m here. Cherie what are they saying?” Tammy said as she came towards them. She stuffed her keys into her purse and stared at Cherie for answers. She didn’t even acknowledge Quasym or even care that he was there. When dealing with him, her sole purpose was to make him feel as if he was nothing, because to her he was just a little peon who would never amount to anything no matter how hard he tried.

             
“I don’t know mama, Sym said they haven’t said anything-“

             
“Cherie, I told you to come up here and find out what’s going on! Of course, you won’t know shit talking to him! Move!” Tammy yelled as she pushed her way through Quasym and Cherie.

             
Quasym bit down on his tongue, doing his best to keep his composure. He had never been one to disrespect his elders and could normally ignore Tammy when she clowned him, but on a day like today, she could get it.