Page 34 of Own It

Not to mention, Josias had to work for Kasia’s affections whereas Tarin was so fucking thirsty for his attention that it was effortless on his part. It was why he couldn’t leave the latter alone, though he swore that wasn’t the reason.

“Nigga, you ’posed to be working!” I banged on the office door and immediately heard them scrambling, afraid I was about to enter.

Usually, I would let the nigga finish, but him fucking a bitch in this bakery, which was our main source of income legally and illegally, had pissed me off. Josias was reckless like that though.

In another fucking world, I would never have him working such an integral part of my business, but that was my baby brother, and I would never be out here eating good while he had to fend for him-fucking-self. Plus, once I got in his ass, he usually got his shit together for a few months before we had any issues again.

As for Zaire, he was what I liked to call my reinforcement. If I needed to threaten a nigga about my money or simply dead his ass, that was where Zaire came in. He was an addict, though, and got high too frequently for me to have him on some consistent shit. It was a rarity that muthafuckas played with my money, or me period, so it wasn’t often I had to pull him out.

And speaking of Zaire, I needed to hurry the fuck up with Josias so I could get back to Daylin. I didn’t trust Zaire to be on his shit for long. He’d eventually get an itch he wanted to scratch, and his addict mindset would have him leaving Daylin unattended to feed it. Like I said, my brother was only good with short, quick tasks like threats and dropping a muthafucka.

I could do everything Josias and Zaire did my-damn-self but I wasn’t a greedy nigga. Without me, it’s possible they would be broke or out here doing shit that would have them locked the fuck up like I had been, and I couldn’t have that. They survived while I was locked up because of that life insurance payout from my mama.

“My bad, bruh.” Josias finally emerged from the back hallway that led to the offices, with Tarin on his heels.

“Nigga, you can’t wait until you off the fucking clock to smash a bitch you been fucking for years?” I frowned, leaning up off the stainless steel counter I’d been resting on.

“Excuse me?” Tarin rolled her neck, but I acted just like her stupid ass wasn’t in the room.

“It just happened.” Josias pushed his locs back, flustered. “But I got everything handled, so don’t trip, my nigga. Chill out.” He half smiled, and I could only shake my head, irritated as fuck.

Noticing Tarin was still here and staring up at me, I lifted my brows to hopefully coax her to speak up or get the fuck out.

“Donna said what’s up, Rah.” She grinned.

“Who?” I felt my forehead crease as Josias told Tarin to leave me alone.

“My best friend.”

“And why is she asking me what’s up?” I probed further, confused and making Josias crack up as he soaped his hands.

“She wants to know what’s up with you and her!” She giggled, rolling her eyes as if to say I was pathetic.

“Ain’t nothing gon’ be up with me and her,” I replied, causing Tarin to suck her teeth. “Go so yo’ baby daddy can do some fucking work.” I went to open the back door for her, and she rolled her eyes before strutting out.

As soon as the door slammed, Josias said, “Donna fine as fuck though, cuz. Ass is super fat. I tried to fuck, but she threatened to tell Tarin.”

I just stared at Josias for a minute before sniggering subtly at his antics.

“You ain’t gon’ be satisfied until Tarin kill yo’ ass.” I started pulling some of the packages down like Josias had already begun doing.

“She love a nigga too much for that. But I heard Donna got some fire ass pussy. You may not wanna pass that shit up.”

“Not really interested in a woman whose pussy can be heard about.” I stayed focused.

Laughing, he asked, “Since when you care about body counts?”

“I don’t. But there’s a difference between fucking twenty niggas and fucking twenty niggas who talk.”

Niggas who bragged on the pussy they got were some lame muthafuckas, so if a woman had ten niggas talking about how they hit, she was clearly attracted to lames, and that wasn’t me. However, even players fucked up—me with LaMia—so I gave women a two lame minimum in their adult years before a nigga lost interest.

“That’s facts.” Josias agreed, bobbing his head and turning on music.

“Keep that shit low, nigga. I need to be able to hear,” I called out, making Josias sigh dejectedly and lower the volume on his Bluetooth speaker.

When his stupid ass wasn’t looking, all I could do was shake my fucking head.

josias godfrey