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forty-three

. . .

“Why the fuck are my phones tapped?” Anzel hissed as she burst into her sister’s office.

In true Mama fashion, she had a bitch on her knees, face between her obese thighs, paying a debt. Mama blew smoke and looked toward the entrance. Anzel snapped her fingers. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“Don’t listen to that bitch,” Mama grunted, pushing the stripper’s face back between her things. “Yeah, that’s that shit.”

Anzel frowned with disgust etched over her tight face. She hated the life she lived in Trae Way, and the first out she got, she took. Raising her voice as she threw a paperweight at the back of the woman’s head, “I said get the fuck out. Smells like dirty pussy in here!”

“Ouch!” the stripper gritted, staggering to her feet and looking down at Mama with weary eyes.

“Priya, don’t take your ass too far now. This pussy ain’t gon’ eat itself. Matter of fact, find Augustus, I want to have some fun tonight,” Mama grumbled as she shooed Priya away and put herself back together.

Anzel looked at Priya. Too young to look so old.

Her face looked like it’d been beaten repeatedly, sewn back together, and injected with fillers.

Her BBL didn’t match her legs, and it looked like there was an infection setting in.

For Priya to have fallen from being on top of the pole to her knees seemed like karma, but Anzel wasn’t worried about that.

Once the door closed, she posed her question again. “Why the fuck are the feds on me, Moriah?”

Mama sat back down and smoked her blunt, not impressed by her sister.

“You know that bitch that just took her ass out of here used to be my money maker. She fumbled the bag. Fuckin’ with a nigga’s brother and their opp.

Had the brother kill that nigga and then set the other brother up.

You know, the one you signed and then gave him a five-million-dollar advance with my money. Money, I want the fuck back.”

“Your money?!” Anzel screeched. “Every dime going through Urban View Entertainment is mine!”

Mama threw her head back in laughter.

“What the fuck are you laughing at?” Anzel posed. “Do you know what I had to do to pay off the debt-”

Mama’s laughter quieted as she zeroed in on her baby sister.

“You think that life you took was enough to clear your fuckin’ debt?

Wasn’t enough dicks you could suck, fuck, trick or otherwise that would give me back what you took from me.

My son was in the fuckin’ car with your baby daddy. After I fuckin’ told you!”

“The nigga is fuckin’ dead now! I did that.

What the fuck you want from me? I left my girls to pay off that debt.

I rushed my mother’s death to pay your debt.

I killed the only man I ever fuckin’ loved to pay off your debt.

Now the feds are about to take my shit. I have a roster of artists that are about to be wrapped up. My daughters-”

“Oh, bitch please! You never gave a fuck about those girls! You treated them like shit. So bad, in fact, Eden had to come in here and twirl around a pole because Staysha got caught tricking an undercover. Don’t bring your bougie ass in here pretending to be better than everyone.

I own you, I own that fuckin’ label, and everything you got going in and out of it.

I own fifty-one percent of it. You didn’t look at your shareholders?

You thought all the money flowing in was legit?

That’s Trae Way money. Drug money, you simple bitch.

My fuckin’ money you gave to MB. I’ve already sent his momma back to the streets, now the question is, do you want me to put your precious girls back on the fuckin’ pole or on their knees? ”

Mama closed the casket and drilled the bolts to their vault shut.

Typically, Anzel hadn’t ever gotten a reaction out of her sister, but tonight, Mama handed the feds their case.

The wire she wore sealed the deal. Now, her only prayer was that her daughters weren’t touched by the destruction headed toward her and her sister.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I run the most dangerous gang in Waynesville.

My dealers are supplying niggas like Rico and his friends.

Nothing goes through 3W without coming through me.

Look at the bitch that just ran out of here.

I turned her lover into a crackhead and his momma, too.

What makes you think I won’t do it to you or them girls? ”

“Mom is turning in her grave.”

Mama scoffed in laughter. “The early one you sent her too. Get your ass out of here. And when you see my daughter, tell her to come see her momma from time to time.”

Anzel shook her head and turned to walk away.

Saying anything else was going to expose her hands and have a bullet between her eyes.

She needed to save her girls from the storm and the only way to do that was to put MB on ice and quietly release him from his contract.

She hadn’t been a mother worth mentioning for as long as she could remember.

Anzel was completely incapable of that. But she could do this, and hopefully, when everything fell, those girls her mother had grown into women would understand. If not, at least she tried.

Rushing back toward the UVE building, Anzel snatched her mic off and tossed it on the passenger seat. The feds had been on her case for years, no fault of anyone but herself. She tried to set up the wrong man, and now, they were all in a situation no one could get them out of.

“Aysha, call MB and Keon in for an emergency meeting. Cancel everything else for the rest of the day.”