Page 37 of A Hood Wife And A Rich Goon

“So you say.” Eazy turned his nose up and reached for the half a blunt tucked behind his ear.

He dug a BIC lighter out of his pocket and sparked it.

“You can’t smoke in here,” Toni chastised, reaching for a chair and pulling it closer so that she, Bull, and Eazy sat in a semi-circle together.

“Open a fucking window.” Eazy exhaled right in her face.

She snatched the blunt from him and tucked it between her slim fingers, surprising him and Bull.

“You got something you want to say to me?” Toni inhaled and examined the blunt in her hand before releasing a cloud in his direction.

Leaning forward, Eazy snatched the weed back, keeping his eyes locked on her. He grilled the shit out of her, sending a streak of ice up her spine.

“Toni,” Bull warned, tone even.

“No. He looks like he has something on his fucking mind.” She crossed one leg over the other and brought her face closer to Eazy’s with a pinched brow.

Eazy remained composed, releasing a light laugh before shooting a warning stare at Bull about his bitch.

“I’m gonna tell you like I’ve told him a hundred different fucking times!” She was looking at Eazy but aiming a finger at Bull. “My story hasn’t changed up. The only fault in what I did was letting them know where the stash was. I thought I might just walk away with my life if they were compensated. I didn’t see them. I didn’t recognize their voices. Bronx never brought me around anyone in his life that meant something. So, side bitch has some accuracy.” She shrugged and did that madwoman laugh chicks did when shit wasn’t really fucking funny, and they were trying to keep from tearing a motherfucker’s head off. “He obviously didn’t trust me enough. I’m sorry about what happened to you… and to your girl. I understand losing that.” She whispered that last sentence, finally breaking the challenging stare between them.

Now, envy brewed in Bull’s chest. After all this time, Toni still had some kind of skewed loyalty to Bronx. It was like she walked through every fucking day pretending he was going to come back, and suddenly, everything would be okay.

Something softened within Eazy. He took another tug from his blunt and passed it back to her. Toni didn’t smoke in front of Bull or her kids, but she was known to pinch off his stash through the years, and she enjoyed a decent bottle of wine. Sitting in silence, they smoked, and when they were done, she brought herself to her feet.

“I’m going to check on the kids.” She moved toward the door but stopped. “There is one thing I remember.” It was like it was suddenly bright as day in her mind, and she realized it was there all along. She hadn’t thought about it since that night.

“What’s that?” Bull’s brow furrowed.

“One of them had a tattoo on his hand,” she described, facing them. “It was a skull with an X as one eye and an empty socket as the other. Like the one on Bull’s hand, and Bronx.”

“You mean this?” Eazy held his hand up as well to show her the exact same tattoo.

“Yeah.” Toni nodded. “I don’t know what any of it means. I just know… I didn’t do that to him.”

“The phone call,” Eazy muttered, memory suddenly jogged from that night. “I called Bronx when me and Niva got hit. He didn’t answer, but I heard something. You said ‘help me.’”

Toni paused, tears flickering in her eyes before nodding.

“Yeah, I did. That was you on the other side of the phone?”

“I was trying to warn him.”

Toni didn’t say anything else. Instead, she sauntered quietly from the room, leaving the men in a brief moment of silence.

“I ran this shit over a million times,” Bull described, pressing his fingertips against the oak tabletop in front of him. “Everything she said, she’s said that shit every single time. Her story has never switched up. Bronx ain’t here. Oracle won’t talk to me. Jewel doesn’t remember shit because he was off them fucking percs. I need you, Eazy. It’s the only way we figure this shit out.”

Eazy could smell that shit. Something stank underneath all this. He had a feeling they were all collateral damage to some other shit. Easing back in his chair, he brought his arms to both sides, and Bull did the same on the couch. The goon he knew was tucked behind the domesticated father and husband, but he read that shit in his eyes. Bull was trained to go since he was a little nigga.

“Only our crew has that tattoo,” Eazy acknowledged, giving Bull something to think about. “So, the fuck is going on? I get protecting her for Bronx and his seed, but… nigga, you put one in her too?”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” Bull swiped his beard.

“Yeah, no shit,” Eazy surmised, shaking his head.

He’d seen Toni with his own two eyes, though. If that was shorty after two kids, he didn’t need any further explanation.

“But what you know about her?” Eazy queried.