Page 40

Corleon

I walked into our hotel suite as I watched both Jeffie and Skyler dancing while singing into their makeup brushes.

A part of me was mesmerized as they continued to sing ‘Mary’s Joint’ by Mary J.

Blige. Shit made me miss my moms because this was her favorite song.

Any Saturday, I could hear her belting the words out to this song and doing that signature staggering dance that Mary always did while holding the mop in her hand.

Grief was funny like that. I could go months without feeling that pain in my chest, and when I thought I was healing and moving on, that shit struck like a knife in the back.

Making me miss everything about my mama.

This song brought up so many memories that I couldn’t bring myself to distract them from singing it.

The shit felt like a warm hug.

Estella was on the bed with her iPad as both of them continued to cut up. I bypassed her nanny on the way into the suite on her kindle reading. She always had her head in a book or kindle whenever she didn’t have to keep an eye over Estella.

As long as she made Geeky’s life easier, I was good with her. My only goal was to make both of my wives’ lives complication free. I didn’t want them ever having to think too long on a decision, because I was going to handle it for them.

Fuck being a passenger princess in the car, I wanted that to be their life for everything. Even when we started to have more kids, the minute they even looked overwhelmed, I was hiring a full staff to relieve their stress and allow them to be mothers that didn’t require stress.

I was raised by a woman that wanted to be a mother, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how stressful it was being a single mother. How much she had to sacrifice to give me the better life that she knew I deserved.

I saw her hide the tears during the day and shed them at night because it was hard. Even with a good job and strong head on her shoulders, being a parent was hard. You would always feel like you weren’t doing enough, or you could have done better.

My mother was there, but she couldn’t always be because work took over at times.

There were times when she missed a robotics tournament or chess tournament because she couldn’t get out of work early enough.

She had to choose between her career and making it across the city to see me move chess pieces across a board.

I understood the sacrifice, and I appreciated it because she set me up for life.

When it came to mine, I wasn’t going to have them feeling like they had to sacrifice anything for our children.

I wanted them to be happy and fulfilled, too.

Never questioning if they could have done more as mothers because they would already know.

When the song ended, they both laughed as they returned to the mirror and finished their makeup, never noticing me standing in the doorway.

“Get dressed sounded like having an audition for American Idol while doing makeup for two hours?” I looked at them as they both playfully rolled their eyes at me.

“That song legit brings something out of me,” Jeffie was the first to speak, pulling her locs into a bun and turning to use that toothbrush thing to do her baby hairs.

I was still trying to figure out why they called them baby hairs when the women were grown? “We may have had a few shots to get ready.”

“More juice, please,” Estella finally looked up from her iPad, and Geeky went to hand her the bottle of apple juice.

I sat on the edge of the bed, fully dressed and waiting for those two, and Estella crawled across the bed and wrapped her small hands around my eyes. “Guess who, Core-Core?”

“Umm… Skyler?”

“Noooo!”

“Umm… Jeffie?”

“Noo! It’s me… Stellie,” she sounded offended that I didn’t guess right, so I snatched her up and cradled her like a baby in my arms, kissing her head.

“I knew it was Stellie… my favorite person in the world.”

She squinted her eyes, looking like her mama. “Whole world?”

“Whole word, Estella… my star.” I smiled as I looked down into her eyes. This little girl was my entire world.

There was nothing that I wouldn’t do for her, and I hope she knew it. Even with Skyler still going through this bogus custody case, I would sit up in prison before I allowed him to take her away from her mother.

His pride was bruised, and he knew the only way he could fuck with Skyler was to go after Estella. He knew the kind of mother that she was and knew she would fight tooth and nail for full custody.

There was only so much time before I went ahead and handled shit the way I wanted. “You both are sickening,” Skyler teased, knowing she loved it.

She tried keeping her distance and keeping my daughter away from me, and I sent court documents to her computer. They were fake, but I told her I would take her to court for my child.

Stellie stuck her tongue at her mom. “He’s my Core-Core, Mama.”

Estella loved to tease her mother, and they had this thing where they would play fight and it would end in Estella being tickled and waving the white flag for her to stop. Before she could say anything else, Skyler hopped up from the floor and tickled Estella while I held her.

“He’s mine, Stellie.”

“Mine.” Estella’s contagious laugh hooted back to her as Skyler picked her up and tossed her onto the bed where she continued to laugh hard.

“Nope, he’s mine,” Skyler climbed into my arms, and I held her tightly, kissing her neck.

“I’m yours, Geeky?”

She blushed as she continued to tease Estella, who hopped down from the bed and went to tickle Jeffie who was already laughing at their little game. “Stellie, you cannot tickle me… I’m not ticklish.”

I stood up, tossing Skyler over my shoulder while she laughed and went over to Jeffie who was standing there. Kissing her neck, I slid my tongue across her neck as she shivered. She was so busy trying to be strong that she didn’t notice my hands, and I tickled her ribs.

“Corleon, that isn’t fair!” she broke out into laughter.

Skyler laughed. “Trying to stand strong… you could never.”

I put Skyler back onto the floor. “Neither of you can… stop fronting.”

Licking my lips, they both looked at me with those eyes. I knew they both wanted to be fucked, and I was sticking to my shit.

Me and Jeffie had fucked plenty of times, even before we decided to give this a shot with Skyler. It was never anything serious, just us being familiar and never wanting to do it with someone new. More of a convenience than anything. More so for Jeffie than me, because I always knew I wanted her.

She didn’t want what I came with, and I always respected that. Since losing the baby, we decided to take a break from trying. It was stressing her out and making her be someone that she wasn’t. I wanted her to heal before I planted another one in her womb.

I knew the next time my soldiers got inside of her, she was going to carry my seed full term. “Whatever, Corleon,” Skyler laughed.

Every time Skyler was around me, I could tell she wanted me to fuck her.

She couldn’t hide that shit and even begged for it a few weeks ago when she and Stella came to stay the weekend with me at my house.

Jeffie had experienced this ride before, and Skyler had never.

I wasn’t going there with her because I knew me.

I made that mistake with Jeffie and had to sit back and watch another man love her, and I couldn’t kill him. I was possessive and when I marked you with this cum, that meant you were mine. Skyler was so hot and cold.

One week, we were straight and a family; then the next week, she stopped answering my calls and told me she needed space. Jeffie was over us not getting it together, because it was her who had to get my damn daughter because Skyler didn’t want to be bothered with me.

I understood that she was younger than me, so I always gave her the space she needed. Whenever I got that call in the middle of the night, I always came through so she could climb into my arms while I kiss her face, hopefully making whatever she was going through better.

Adding sex into the equation would make shit ten times worse. I was a patient man and would continue to hold out on sex until I felt like we both were ready for that next step. This wasn’t a phase I was going through.

Aside from the Casellis and some random ass family on my mother’s side, I had no family. I wanted a family with both Jeffie and Skyler. If I had to put in the work to prove to them that this was what I wanted, I would do it.

Mercer got into his position and made sure that people knew he was better than them. The entire weekend was about honoring him, and I couldn’t wait to hightail it out of fucking Ashbourne because of him.

I sat at the hotel bar, waiting for his portion of the conference to start. Mercer and his wife were staying at the same hotel. Aimee was able to get into the hotel’s database, and she found out which suite they were staying in, which happened to be two floors above ours.

While Jeffie took Estella to some garden place here in Ashbourne, Geeky was waiting for the perfect moment to break into his suite and gain access to his computer. My baby was swifter and quicker on her feet than me.

A tattooed hand came into view with a fifty-dollar bill folded between their fingers, and the voice soon followed. “Whisky sour,” the rough voice said.

The bartender accepted the money and scurried to make the drink. I continued to nurse my drink while waiting for the doors to open so I could get in and out. I paid for a seat close enough to where he was speaking so I could gain access to his phone.

There was no getting closer to him, and I had to be next to him. The device I had designed only worked within the same room, so I couldn’t do it when Hassan was in his house.

“You ain’t drain my bank account or no shit like that, huh?”

I snickered. “Good seeing you, Tef.”

“Got word you were in my neck of the woods.”

“Does a fucking security alert gets sent to your phone the minute someone enters your city limits.” I turned to look at him.

Teflon had gentle, yet hardened eyes. They had seen some shit, still, he had some kind of feeling. He wasn’t completely numb to actually having feelings. Tattoos graced one side of his face by his temple.

In this five-star hotel, he was almost out of place.

I watched as he looked around, not wanting to be here. However, he was the king of Ashbourne, and like any great king, he was welcoming me to his city.

“Word travels… even to Ashbourne.”

I nodded my head. “Here on some important business… can’t get into it?—”

“Don’t need to. I spoke with Capone, and he told me about King Inferno needing to lay low here.”

“Flying is out the question right now. He needs to recover.”

“He not trying to hear that, though,” Teflon chuckled.

I took back the rest of my drink. “Hell nah. He wanna get up and get back to it, but his body ain’t allowing that shit to happen.”

“I owe Capo more than a few favors, so he always got whatever he needs when it comes to me and my brothers. Especially with him letting Knoxie come out there and work for him.”

“Do I wanna know those favors?”

He smirked. “Nah… a time and a place for everything.

“Heard you.”

“Shit funny, though.”

I looked over at him. “Enlighten me.”

“Always thought you favored Capone and Cappadonna. Anytime I saw you with Menace, always felt like you had their eyes… their aura or some shit. Funny how life works.”

“Life is a funny ass bitch… you good, though?”

He nodded his head and accepted his drink from the bartender. “I’m always good. You came alone?”

“Nah. Came with my wives and daughter.”

Teflon lifted his brow, now interested in what I had said. “Nigga said wives… you deadass?”

“Deadass.”

As if they were paid actors, I spotted Jeffie on her phone while holding onto Estella’s hand. Stellie turned her head for a quick second and that beautiful smile lit up when she noticed me sitting at the bar.

She pulled at Jeffie’s arm and pointed to me. Jeffie let her hand go, and she came running over toward me. I picked my baby up and kissed her head, as she sat on the bar with her feet kicking.

“This my daughter, Estella,” I introduced Teflon to her.

She looked at me, always making sure it was okay to talk to strangers. Skyler was real strict about her approaching or being so friendly to strangers. “I can say hi, Core-Core?”

“Yeah, baby.”

She smiled. “Hi!”

“Hi Sweets… you like gum?”

Her eyes widened like a damn baby crackhead. “Yes.”

Again, she looked to me and I nodded and allowed her to take gum from Teflon. “Menace is having a whole breakdown because the CPR instructor is trying to teach him how to save the baby’s life if needed… he took it as she was trying to kill the baby.”

Teflon broke out into laughter. “Ah, Mens… it’s always his ass.”

She held the phone to her ear. “No, I didn’t tell your business and give them the passwords to your accounts, Menace.”

Jeffie quickly kissed me on the lips and helped Stella down, as she happily chewed her gum while they walked to the elevator.

“Jeffie, huh? Always felt like you had some shit going with her.”

“Always felt like you were nosey.”

He chuckled as his phone rang, and he put the phone to his ear and listened to what the other person was talking about.

“Nah, it’s not a problem… when I’m done here, I’ll come by and run my fucking whip through your house.

Bitch, I bought that case of turkey wings and asked for one thing…

one plate and you sold out. Bet… now see how the fuck you gonna cook with no house. ”

He calmly ended the call. “For turkey wings?”

It was always hard to judge how crazy a nigga was when my best friend was Menace Caselli. Everyone always seemed calm and cool compared to his ass. Teflon was slightly different. Mostly because I knew how he and Menace went back.

His hands were in everything, and I heard how he got down in Ashbourne, which is why he was damn near the king of this city. Shit didn’t move without him knowing, and if he didn’t know, shit would never move again.

“It’s the principle, Bruster… I’m gonna let you back to your geek conference… hit me if you need anything while in my city.”

I dapped him up and watched as he left as quietly as he came in. The doors for the room opened, and I watched everyone file in while waiting for a bit.

After paying my tab, I grabbed my notepad and headed into the conference area to steal whatever I could off his phone while Geeky was doing his laptop.

Geeky: I’m in.

Me: Good girl.

Geeky: Good enough for? She sent an eggplant emoji, and I laughed.

Me: You getting this is all on you, Skyler… never been holding it from you. It’s you.

Geeky: Booooo! Don’t need a lecture. And there’s a charge on your card.