Power (Romantic Suspense) by Kenya Wright Page B

next week. Lucky for the streets, I had two new suits delivered. Bad suits. Armani with the G-line trim. I’ll be looking nice. Platinum wrists and what not.” 305 raised his eyebrows at me. “What?”
    “Focus.”
    “Sorry, boss.”
    In this life, people treated funerals like the prom. Everyone dressed their best. Lots of deals were made after caskets were lowered into the ground. A lot of widows repositioned themselves with other guys, some rumored to have given blow jobs before the last shovel of dirt was thrown onto the burial ground.
    I shook my head. “Crusher said that Rasheed’s men are parked around the block.”
    “Yeah, I saw them, when we drove in. They’re leaning back like fake thugs. It’s about four full cars. Ten deep, if I had to guess. I swore I spotted a cannon in one of the cars. They’re about to blast the shit out of this place.”
    I glanced back at my childhood home. “No, they’re not. My god son is in there and many innocents. Get rid of them.”
    “Get rid of them?”
    “Tell them to go or kill them. Pick one. I have my own list. You have yours.”
    “Okay. Get them out of there. Dead or Alive.” He started to walk off and then stopped. “Yo, Boss. Something else is weird too.”
    “What?”
    “Lots of Butterfly’s girls are out here.”
    “Hookers at a boy’s birthday party?”
    “Yeah. Of course, they’re not strapped, just sitting around and chilling.”
    “You know how women are. They’re probably being nosy and reporting everything back to Butterfly.”
    “Brothels been losing business since our men have been dying in them.” 305 switched the chew stick to the other side of his mouth. “Anyway, do you have a particular way you want me to get rid of Rasheed’s men?”
    “Ask nicely, first. They just lost Rasheed. They’re definitely feeling some sort of way. Let them know that I’m handling it.”
    “And if they’re not satisfied.”
    “Then do what you have to do.”
    305 nodded and left.
    I signaled for Mary Jane to come my way and held her hand. Her soft fingers wrapped around mine. “You’re safe. Do you believe me?”
    Her voice came out shaky. “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    She scanned the whole area, taking in the men in the front yard and the twenty guys that I’d brought. A few of Butterfly’s women strolled around on the side and glanced at us.
    Mary Jane let out a long breath. “I believe you, because there’s a lot of big, bad guys all over this place, but every one of them is scared to even look your way. Especially those guys in front of the house. The one by the door looks like he’s having a seizure or something.”
    I checked the man she was talking about. His head bobbed in an erratic way. He kept murmuring something to himself and keeping his hand inside his jacket.
    She stared at me. “How bad are you, Noah?”
    Unease sat in my gut. “Why?”
    “I just want to know what I’m dealing with.”
    I guided her forward. “You’re not ready for that answer yet.”

Chapter 7

    Mary Jane
    An intellectual, falling sick, had promised to pay the doctor if he recovered.
    When his wife nagged at him for drinking wine, while he had a fever, he said: "Do you want me to get healthy and be forced to pay the doctor?"
    –Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)
    H ow did I get here? This morning, I was a college student daydreaming about performing punch lines on stage. Tonight, I’m walking arm-in-arm with a gangster I would’ve never met if not for my own dumb ass going to the wrong place. And earlier, I’d just popped out my tits for him and had been damned near close to sucking his cock.
    I’d actually been too damned close to sucking him off. That mushroomed tip bulged—all raw and big like some satanic sex god. As if power surged through the thick stalk and his sperm spurt more powerful liquid than the fountain of youth.
    His cock had all of my attention in that limo. As soon as he took it out, I could no longer think. The fact that he’d jumped