Page 19

Her thick hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves, dark as hell until the light caught the slight wine-colored tint running through it. She had dimples too, although I only caught a glimpse of one when she sucked her teeth and turned her face away from the glass.

The white dress she had on hugged the fuck out of her. Shorty was thick. Not the kind of thick where motherfuckers called anybody with a little ass thick either.

Nah, she had some real weight on her. Full breasts, soft stomach, a waist that still dipped in, and wide hips, and thick-ass thighs that filled that little dress out exactly how they were supposed to.

She was definitely my type. But the longer I watched her, the more I noticed something besides how good she looked.

She wasn’t enjoying this shit.

Her arms were folded across her chest, and every few seconds her eyes moved over the black glass like she was trying her hardest to see through it. Her lips were pressed together, and from the way she jaw kept tightening, I could tell shorty was pissed.

I glanced at the men bidding on her before looking back at her. Something about that didn’t sit right with me. Especially when I looked over at my pops and caught his ass watching me instead of the auction.

I turned my head toward him. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

His smile grew wider. And right then, I knew my ass hadn’t been called down here just to fucking chill.

My pops definitely had something up his sleeve, but I didn’t know what the fuck it was yet. As I sat there listening to the niggas go back and forth, the bidding slowly started dying down until only one man seemed willing to keep throwing money at shorty.

He was an older nigga with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed like money and sitting comfortably in his seat like he already knew he had this shit in the bag. Every time somebody raised the bid, his ass came right behind them with something higher until, eventually, everybody else started backing out.

“One point eight million, going once. One point eight million, going twice…”

I looked around the room, waiting to see if anybody else was going to say something, but there was nothing.

This nigga had damn near outbid everybody in the room, and normally, I wouldn’t have given a fuck. But I knew exactly who this old motherfucker was, and more importantly, I knew the type of reputation he had when it came to women. Most of the females who ended up with him eventually got passed around between him and his people like they weren’t shit.

My eyes shifted back to shorty behind the glass. She was still standing there with her arms folded, unable to see any of us on this side.

Yeah nah, I wasn’t rocking with that shit.

Shorty looked like she had an innocence to her, and she didn’t need to be caught up in his bullshit.

“Two point five.”

The room went quiet so damn fast, and I could feel my pops turn his head toward me.

The older nigga twisted around in his seat and looked directly at me. I couldn’t read the expression on his face, but I didn’t give enough of a fuck to try. I wasn’t worried about him. He knew who I was, and I knew damn well he wasn’t stupid enough to step to me over this shit.

“Three point five!” he shouted, turning back around.

A laugh slipped out of me as I shook my head. This motherfucker really thought we were about to sit here and play this little back-and-forth game all night.

“Seven million.”

This time, I didn’t shout it.

The whole fucking room went silent. I leaned back in my chair and looked at the back of the old nigga’s head, waiting to see if he wanted to keep going. I had the money, and if his ass wanted to play, we could play. But I wasn’t about to nickel and dime this shit with him all night.

I was done playing.

“Son, what the fuck are you doing?” my pops asked, cutting his eyes at me.

I looked over at him. “What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?”