Get your own girlfriend, you fucking loser!

  In the middle of their back and forth conversation about Devin’s new play toy, Kim, I interjected

  and asked Devin if he minded if I went into his room and laid down on his bed. He told me he didn’t

  mind, so I got up and left.

  While Neil continued to give jackass relationship advice, Devin’s Blackberry rang. He left it on top

  of his dresser, so I got off the bed, grabbed it and took it to him. But by the time I handed it to him, it

  had stopped ringing. He took it from me and then I returned back to his bedroom and climbed back

  onto his bed. I’m sure he knew I looked down at the screen to see who was cal ing. He didn’t mention

  it though. I laid there in silence and waited for him to cal Ms. Olivia back. I shook my head as I

  wondered how men, but him in particular, could fuck two and three bitches at one time. It just angered

  me that he could never be faithful.

  While Kim had questioned him about me, she needed to be worried about al the other bitches he

  was creeping with. Niggas wil never change!

  I dosed off for about an hour but Devin woke me up to tel me he had to make a run with Neil.

  “Don’t go snooping through my shit!” he warned me.

  “You ain’t gotta worry about that,” I assured him. And I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I

  wil admit that I used to go through his shit but it was only because we were dating. Believe me, he

  gave me many reasons to search his pants pockets and look through his text messages to see what

  new bitch he was fucking behind my back. But now, I wouldn’t waste my time. He’s shown me at least

  five times within the last ten hours that he had not changed and he had no intentions of doing so.

  I did however search his bottom drawer to see if he’d taken his gun with him. But he didn’t. I was

  relieved to know that if any funny business went down, then I’d be okay after I pumped a couple of

  rounds of those lead pel ets in a nigga’s ass.

  It’s crazy how guns and knives give muthafuckas false bravado.

  Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

  Zero Ways to Communicate-Chapter Nineteen

  Sleep is for the weary—the way to success is to wake up, get up and get moving.

  I slept for about another hour and then I became restless, so I got up. Devin’s apartment was

  completely quiet. I could hear a pin drop if I had one to throw on the floor. Since I didn’t, I headed into

  the kitchen to see what he had in the refrigerator to eat. I was so hungry I could feel my stomach in my

  back. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t have a damn thing to eat. The box of cereal he had was empty,

  but he had plenty of milk left. I noticed that he had a cartoon of eggs too, but when I grabbed it, the

  motherfucking thing was empty. I mean, who does that dumb shit? If we were stil dating I would be

  furious with his selfish ass right now. So I made do by getting a large glass of milk and then I stuck four

  slices of bread into the toaster oven and when they were done, I spread some butter on them and

  topped it off with a couple packages of strawberry preserve I found in his kitchen drawer. It wasn’t an

  International House of Pancakes meal, but it served its purpose.

  As soon as I started to enjoy my quiet time, I heard some chick fussing outside of Devin’s front

  door. It became apparent she was gossiping with her home girl on her cel phone, because I didn’t

  hear anyone else’s mouth but hers. After my so-cal ed breakfast, I took a sit in the living room so I

  could watch a little bit of TV. But then it dawned on me that she’d probably let me use her cel phone

  if I asked nicely. I immediately got up from the sofa and opened the front door. I realized I scared her

  because she jumped as soon as she saw me.

  “I am so sorry if I scared you,” I told her with a smile on my face.

  She smiled in return. “No, it’s okay. I’m probably talking to loud, huh?” she asked me. I wanted to

  tel her what I real y thought but I didn’t. I figured it would lessen my chances of getting her to agree to

  let me use her phone. Not only that, she was a big, heavyweight Amazon chick. She had to be every

  bit of six feet and weighing about three hundred pounds. And like true Amazon women, it was packed

  tight and solid on her body. I didn’t think the average nigga would run up on her. Aside from how huge

  she was, she was kind of cute and she seemed like a sweetheart.

  “Nah, you’re fine,” I lied. “But I do want to know if I could use your phone when you’re done.

  ‘Cause, see, the guy who lives here doesn’t have a home phone and since I left my cel phone at my

  best friend’s house, I was trying to get in touch with her to see if I could get her to drop it off to me,”

  Which was also a lie.

  “Oh yeah, that’l be no problem,” she said in a natural y loud voice. I couldn’t see her trying to

  sneak and whisper to anyone. She placed the phone back to her mouth, “Janet, let me cal you back

  in like five minutes. I’m gonna let this lady use my phone.”

  Immediately after she ended her cal , she gave me her cel . I thanked her after I took the phone

  from her hand.

  “Knock on my door when you’re finished,” she instructed me as she turned around and went into

  her apartment, which was directly across from Devin’s place.

  I looked down at the keypad of Devin’s neighbor’s cel phone and had no idea who I was going to

  cal . My mind drew a complete blank. “Come on, Lynise, there’s gotta be somebody you can cal ,” I

  mumbled to myself. And then it dawned on me that I had taken down Rodney’s cel phone number

  while I was watching Diamonds apartment.

  I rushed back into Devin’s apartment, leaving the front door open to retrieve Rodney’s number

  from my pants pocket. But when I dug inside al my pockets, I couldn’t find it. Damn, I was pissed at

  myself.

  I started to take Devin’s neighbor her phone back when I noticed Devin had left his car keys on

  the coffee table in the living room. I came up with the perfect idea. I knew if he al owed me to use his

  car for a couple of hours, then I would be able to make a few moves. Going to talk to those two

  homicide detectives was one-stop I had to make, since I no longer had Bishop around to help me sort

  things out.

  When I dialed his number I knew he wasn’t going to answer but it didn’t matter because I was

  going to leave him a message anyway. Needless to say, he did the unexpected and answered the

  cal on the second ring. I was shocked.

  “Yo’, what’s up, Kesha?” he said.

  “This isn’t Kesha. It’s Lynise,” I told him.

  “What's up?”

  “I was cal ing to ask you if I could use your car for about an hour or so.”

  “Where you going?”

  “I wanna run by my sister’s job and then I wanna go to the store to pick up a few things,” I lied. I

  knew I couldn’t tel him the real reason why I wanted to use his car. He would’ve told me no with the

  quickness.

  “Yeah, go ahead but you better not have a nigga riding around in my shit with you.”

  “Devin, no one does that trifling shit but you,” I assured him.

  “I don’t do that shit either,” he expressed. But I quickly cut him short by tel ing him thank you and

  that I would be putting gas in his car when I was done with it.

  “Have it there when I get back,” he instructed.

  “What time is that?”

  “I'l probably be back around four o’clock.”

  I looked at the time on his neighbor’s cel phone and noticed I had three hours to play with, so I

  promised him I would have it back by that time.

  “Lock my door. And don't try to make a spare key while you’re out,” he yel ed through the phone.

  “Al right,” was the last thing I said before ending the cal .

  I knocked on Kesha’s door and returned her cel phone as soon as I got off the phone with Devin. I

  thanked her about three times before she could close her front door. “No problem, anytime,” she said

  before we parted ways.

  Back inside of Devin’s apartment, I put back on the clothes I had on yesterday since they were

  completely dry. I made my exit from the apartment and jumped in Devin’s whip, a black, two-door

  Nissan 350Z with smoked gray tinted windows. This car was his prize possession, so it shocked me

  when he gave me permission to drive. When we dated, I can remember only driving it three times. It

  sat real y low to the ground, so I had to hunch down to climb inside. There wasn’t a lot of room inside

  of the car either. But I wasn’t going to let that deter me because al I needed was for this vehicle to

  take me from point A to point B. And that was it.

  Immediately after I turned on the ignition and revved up the engine, I put the little remote control

  car in gear and headed towards the highway. I was real y nervous about the idea, but I decided to

  ride by Katrina’s house. I had to see if Duke’s car was stil there or not. I wanted to see if Bishop’s

  truck was stil parked there as wel as see if there was any sign of Katrina. If her car was there and

  Duke’s wasn’t, that may be a good sign. However, that could also be a trap. What if Duke or Chris

  was hiding in the house, waiting on my stupid ass to return? Then again, who knows, Duke may had

  both of Katrina’s and Bishop’s vehicles towed away from the house, so the police wouldn’t link the

  tags to Bishop.

  My heart raced at a rapid speed while my mind thought of the many ways I could get caught by

  driving back to Katrina’s house. It was clear that I was treading on dangerous waters, but I knew of no

  other way to handle this. Maybe I was a glutton for punishment.

  It only took me twenty minutes to drive from Devin’s apartment to Katrina’s gated community. To

  get to her house was like traveling through a maze but I managed. And as soon as I made a left turn

  onto her street I noticed that Bishop’s truck was stil parked in front of the house, but Katrina’s Audi

  and Duke’s Porsche were gone.

  I wanted to exhale but I couldn’t when I saw the entire front part of the house was taped off with

  yel ow homicide tape. CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS. The black letters on yel ow background

  stood out. My heart sunk deep into the pit of my stomach as my eyes and mouth widened. I couldn’t

  fucking believe what I was seeing.

  A part of me wanted to stop at one of the neighbor’s houses to ask them what went on. But I

  knew it wouldn’t be a good idea. So I continued to cruise by the house without stopping. Luckily for

  me, Devin’s car windows were tinted to the point that no one could see inside, even if they got real y

  close to the car. This was one good advantage I had. I just hoped and prayed no one was looking out

  the window and decided to write down Devin’s license’s plate numbers. That wouldn’t be good at al .

  So I pressed down on the accelerator and rushed to get my ass out of this neighborhood.

  His crazy ass had kil ed his meal ticket! I could only imagine what he would do to me.

  Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

  My Eyes Playing Tricks on Me-Chapter Twenty

  Who said Christmas only comes once a year?

  I was almost at the end of Katrina’s street, approaching a stop sign, when the black Cadil ac

  Escalade pul ed in front of me and stopped my passage. Before I could I put the car in reverse, two

  niggas with guns jumped out of the passenger side doors and rushed towards the car. If I tried to get

  away, I knew I would be dead. My brain was tel ing me to gun it in reverse. The guns gave me second

  thoughts.

  Neither one of them said a word. One was big, at least six foot four, mean looking. The other one was

  shorter, not six feet but close, with a slim build. He was the leader of the two. I could tel when he

  signaled me to get out of the car with his index finger. I so reluctantly complied.

  I thought that maybe I could talk my way out of this situation. Maybe Duke would show some

  compassionate for what little relationship we did have. I prayed one of Katrina’s neighbors was

  watching out the window and cal ed the police. I also prayed that they would make it here before I

  was gunned down in the street.

  When I stepped out of the car, the driver side door of the Escalade opened. It was on the other of

  the car, so I didn’t see the driver when he initial y got out the car. I was hoping I didn’t pee in my pants

  when I saw Duke. As he walked around the car, it wasn’t Duke at al .

  It was Bishop . . . and he increased his pace as he rounded the front of the car.

  Suddenly my legs had life in them as I ran towards him. I don’t know what had gotten in me when I

  jumped in his arms as if this was an old-fashioned black and white movie. But Bishop was definitely

  my black knight. I held him tight . . . and equal y, I was happy to say he held me just as tight. His left

  arm held and caressed my back while his right hand was on the back of my head holding my head

  tight on his chest. At that moment, Bishop was my hero.

  I don’t know how long we stayed in that position. It could have been a minute or five minutes. I didn’t

  know and frankly, I didn’t give a damn. But reality has a way of fucking up golden moments.

  “We probably need to get out of here,” I said as I slowly removed my head from Bishop’s chest.

  “Whose car you driving?” he asked me.

  “A friend.”

  He looked like he was surprised. “Didn’t think you had any more friends?” he said in the form of a

  question than a statement.

  “Not many,” was my short answer.

  He turned to his guys and circled his finger in the air and walked towards Devin’s car. I stopped him.

  “Bishop, this car belongs to a male friend of mines. It would probably be disrespectful if I let another

  man ride in it,” I said. “Can you just fol ow me?”

  “No,” was his one word answer.

  What the fuck!

  He grabbed my hand. Not in a rough way but definitely in a manly, take control way. He led me to the

  passenger side and opened the door for me. Then he went on the driver side and before you knew

  it, we were on the road with his henchmen in tow.

  As we made our way to Devin’s place, I had to know how he had escaped the club before it blew up.

  I didn’t hesitate to bring the subject up. “Please tel me how the fuck you got out of the club. I just

  knew you were dead.”

  “When I went in and didn’t see Katrina in the front area or around the bar, I went to the back, the office

  area,” Bishop began tel ing me. “So when I didn’t see her in the office area, I became leery and went

  out the back door, not expecting that the whole place was going to blow up. I thought she was going

  to have a nigga run up on me and put a bul et in the back of my head, since I was the only one in the

  back part of the club.”

  I couldn’t respond to what he was saying because I was stil in shock that he was alive after al this

  time.

  “I’l tel you what, whoever planted that bomb knew what the hel they were doing because a lot of

  innocent people either died instantly or burned to death. Thank God I got out in the nick of time. But

  the explosion did knock me unconscious. Plus, some of the debris fel on me as wel . I don’t know

  how long I was out.”

  He paused and looked at me. He smiled and that one gesture told me al would be wel . And I don’t

  know why I did what I did next, which was I put my hand on his hand. He gave me a squeeze and shit,

  I damned near came in my pants.

  “When I came to,” Bishop started back talking, “the firemen were starting to check the debris in the

  back area where I was. I managed to sneak away without being detected. I got this chick to take me

  back to the hotel and immediately cal ed a couple of my guys to come down and help me handle

  business. The girl at the hotel told me you had come by, got a key and had left back out, but never

  came back.”

  He looked at me again. Something told me he didn’t need nor want an explanation. He flashed that

  smile again and I knew I was wet.

  “After I got cleaned up, I checked into another hotel,” Bishop continued. “I tried to get some rest but I

  couldn’t. Getting that bitch Katrina wore heavy on my mind. So I sat up al night and waited on my

  boys to get here, which didn’t take long since they were in D.C. The waiting gave me time to think

  about a lot of shit. And what I came up with was how I’m gonna make that grimy bitch wish she hadn’t

  crossed me. Al last night I couldn’t get her off my mind. And the fact that I know she set me up made

  me believe that she had my brother, Neeko, set up too.”

  As I looked at Bishop, I saw his facial expression change as the veins in his neck and around the

  temple of his forehead started sticking up through his flesh. It was a combination of sadness, hurt,

  anger and danger. It was at that point that I realized I had misread him. He was indeed a dangerous

  man. The fact he was alive should have told me that. But the true sign was how he smel ed trouble