Married To The Game

C:19 | Look Alive

Glass laid all over the floor, along with shells of the bullets. I look over at JoJo, who was now laying lifeless on the ground, and at Snow, who was covering her head with her hands. The remains of JoJo's brains had splattered evenly onto me and Snow. The blood felt like it was drowning half of my face. "Bitch, get the fuck up. Both of y'all." The masked ski man said. His partner was steps behind him. The shattered glass had got lodged into my leg, making me collapse back down. "Bitch, didn't I say get up? Ain't nothing wrong with you." The first one said, snatching me up by my hair. We were now face to face, and I spit right in his for violating me like that. In return, he hit me in the face with the butt of his gun. Snow tries to help me out, before the accomplice draws his gun on her. "Bitch you better play it cool." He now had the gun front and center in Snow's face. "So what the fuck is this? Y'all shooting up shit and robbing bitches now?" I said, talking to the one who violated me. I was trying to see if they really knew who we were, or if this was just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. "Bitch you know what it is. Imani stand the fuck up." He barked at Snow, who was sitting helplessly in the barber chair at the will of the other masked man and his gun. His accomplice grabbed Snow's arm and snatched her on her feet. Hearing him call Snow by her real name not only confirmed what I was thinking, but it also made it personal.

"So let me guess, Omari sent you?" I said, trying to buy some time to come up with a plan to save our ass. The first one let me out of his grasp so he could raid the barber shop. "Bitch, shut up." The second one answered. Ignoring him, I said "And y'all really working for this clown? How much he paying y'all?" "Ten bands. Easy money." The first one called back, now going to the back of the barber shop, ransacking it. "That's it? That nigga worth millions and all he can break y'all off with is ten thousand?" I said, fishing to see if this was just a robbery or if they were gonna spill our brains, too. "Man, you doing too much talking." I heard the second one mumble, aggravated that his partner was giving out classified info. "Ten bands? You know what we can do with that? Fuck the drugs, and, yo, Omari paying us for getting that shit, too." "Man, Omari ain't finna pay you for his shit back. He bout to make us sell it." "Nigga, I ain't selling no crack, I ain't no dope boy. You can sell that shit and give me my cut." "Hell nah, nigga, you better hit the block. Fuck I look like making your cut and giving it to you?" Omari didn't realize that he hired two idiots. And two dead ones, at that, if they didn't kill us first. Thinking back, I should have killed him when I took Vito out, the second I got off the plane. Then I wouldn't be in this mess. I decided to cut into their unprofessional ass argument, "How bout this? I'll give you both $500,000. That's a whole million." They look at each other for a quick second before aiming the gun back at me. "Why you still talking? Where the drugs at, fuck all that other shit." The second one said, clearly ready to get on with the show. "You really would turn down half a million just for Omari?" Snow spoke up. "I don't give a fuck how much you tryna give us, we ain't gonna live to see it if Omari finds out. Ain't nobody stupid, he's gonna make a bee-line for us if he finds out y'all still alive and we took the money." The first one replied. "But-" Before Snow could finish, the second one fired a shot in the air. "Aye! Everybody shut the fuck up. Bitch let's go, go get this crack out yo car." He said, grabbing me by my arm and forcing me out the door. "Aye, watch her till I get back." He called to his partner, before we got out the door all the way.

"Y'all better make sure you kill me." I told him as we walked through the parking lot. "Don't worry," He snickered, placing the gun to the back of my temple. We go to the trunk of my car, with his gun still in tact to the back of my head. "I need all them bags with the crack in it." He said, looking at the different duffel bags in the trunk. How stupid of Omari to think that I would ever bring that much weight with me to meet up with a crackhead, or ride alone with that much at that. The only thing the bags had in them were some clothes and a eighth, which I figured that's what Rell really wanted. Rell. I almost forgot he was part of the set up. I had something for him, too, when all of this was said and done. "Hurry up, it don't take that long." He said, shoving the gun deeper in the back of my head. Finally, I find my
.9mm hidden in one of my Victoria Secret bag. I hurled the Victoria Secret bag in his face, before cocking my .9mm and emptying out the clip into it, where his head was at. As his body dropped to the ground, I got in my truck and backed out, running over his body. His accomplice runs out, holding Snow at gun point, trying to see what was going on. Before he could react, I let down the passenger window, pulled out the glock I had hidden in my pants, and emptied it out in his torso. "Hurry up, get in!" I hollered, opening the door for Snow. She hurls herself in the car before we take off, leaving a horrific blood bath and crime scene behind. I waited until we both caught our breaths before I initiated a conversation. "What the fuck." "So you realize we have to kill Omari, right? Or this won't be the last-" "I know that, Snow." I wasn't feeling the captain obvious shit. "I can't believe Rell's ass. He really sold us out." "That's a crackhead for you." I said, as we both laughed. "But, seriously. That was some bullshit. I'm glad you dumped that nigga, though, I'm just mad you got to him first." "Yeah, they violated, for real. I can't believe them niggas would turn down half a mill over Omari's fat ass. He got some real loyal niggas to turn down half a mill." Snow nodded in agreement. The question was what we were going to do next.

Over the next few weeks, Omari had us paranoid and scared straight. I was bugging, not knowing who was plotting on me next. That shit is the worse. I barely left the house, all I did was collect money from the people I had under me. I would make them leave it at a specific location in Miami, then I would go and pick up the money after I would watch them leave from afar. Me not leaving the house also meant that I wasn't making as many plays as I use to. I was holding on to the crack that I re-uped on for dear life. Instead of selling it, I would spend my free time cutting up soap and selling them as dummies instead. For the few people I did serve, they all got my dummies, instead of my real coke. And Snow was out bad, too. The incident had both of us shook up. And when I told Josh about it, he was furious. He had me feeling like a little girl, yelling at me and shit. His crazy ass even put me on punishment; he took all the coke I had and flushed it down the toilet. I was pissed, but I wasn't about to try my luck with arguing about it. He wouldn't even fuck me, either. Josh was real tired of my bullshit. And the worst part is, he still didn't know everything. He didn't know about Snow and Marcus, Vito, or me selling in New York, either. Now that I thought about it I was keeping a lot of secrets. "Okay, Josh, it's been three weeks. I'm tired of the quiet game, for real." I stated, this Friday. I was over his temper tantrum. "You still don't get it, Esther." "Don't get what Josh?" "I don't want you out here selling drugs, anymore. Enough is enough. You have more then enough money now, and it's dangerous, y'all almost got killed! And you still haven't told me what happened, why is somebody trying to kill you?" I sighed. The only way Josh was going to get over this is if came clean about everything. "Hello? Oh, now you can't talk. Don't call me until you're ready to let me know what the hell is going on." "Josh wait," "What, Esther?" "Okay. We can talk." "When and where?" "We can have lunch in a few. I'm about to get drinks with Snow now, and then afterwards we can eat at Gables. I'll tell you everything then." "Please don't waste my time, Esther." He hung up. I was frustrated. If I told Josh everything that was going on, he was going to make me choose between him and my thug life. I knew he was barely hanging on with me and the drug dealing, but the shoot outs and the killings were definitely going to put the nail in the coffin.

Walking into MO Bar, I see Snow flag me down. She was actually on time, for the first time in- ever. I wanted some time to steal before my face to face with Josh. And the one time I want Snow to be late, she's on time. From the look on her face and the bags under her eyes, I could tell she was going through the same thing I was. Her once curly hair was now dead and empty, tied up in a pony tail. "Damn, Esther. Let me buy you a drink, sit down." She got ahold of the waitress before ordering our drinks. I was appalled that Snow was actually offering to buy me a drink, considering she looked worse then me, but I needed it so I definitely wasn't going to pass. "Snow, I can't keep living like this." "Me either. I feel like everybody's watching me or somebodies out to get me. This shit for the birds." "I feel you, and on top of that, I gotta tell Josh what's going on." "What do you mean what's going on? What does he want to know? And when?" "Today, and everything." "Well have you made up your mind on what you were going to say?" "Every time I start to tell him, or think about telling him, he finds out or it comes out wrong. So to be honest, I really don't know. It's always bad timing." "Well start by being honest. Easier said then done, but, you'll make it work." And for the moment, I tried to believe Snow. I tried to believe what she was saying, and I tried to believe that everything would be okay. Because at this point all I had was hope.

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