** MATURE CONTENT AHEAD **

I just left them there.

I left him there, and I left them there.

I had to get to Rico before anyone else got in his ear. He was the only one who could stop this train from jumping off the tracks, and he was the only one who I trusted enough to run straight to with a problem this big.

And...I don't want to sound like a little bitch, but when I say ran...

I ran.

All the way home.

When I got there, Rico already knew everything.

Right down to why.

They were Rico's streets, so I should have already known that was the situation that I would be walking in to. He met me at the door and slammed it shut before I could get all the way through it. Then he just stood there, waiting for me to speak. I knew that whatever I said would be the wrong answer, so I tried to buy some time and walk past him to the back room to check on the baby.

"Over some pussy?" he asked, like we were in the middle of a conversation instead of just starting one.

I stopped and turned around to face him.

I would have to face him sooner than later, anyway.

The clock was ticking.

"Do you know what you just did?" I just stared at him. My throat was closing up. I couldn't talk or breathe. This was the closest that I had ever come to a panic attack. He stared back at me, knowing that I was losing it on the inside. I could tell by the way that he looked down at my chest to watch my breathing, and then back into my eyes. "I didn't think so." He shook his head like he was stuck teaching the dumbest damn kid on earth. "Never make a move unless I say so. I teach you, and I teach you and you never fucking learn! Now we have this on our hands..."

He spread his hands out and looked down at them like he was really showing me something.

"Pussy ain't shit!" He was two inches from my face. "Pussy," he suddenly reached out and grabbed Jazz between her legs as she stumbled past us, "is for fucking."

Jazz spun around and slapped Rico. Hard. Rico pulled back and punched her in the face. She fell to the ground. He was about to get on top of her and punch her again, but I stopped him and stood in between them.

"She's just high Uncle Rico." I sounded calm as usual, but I wanted to fuck him up so bad. Now wasn't the time, though. We had to fix what I messed up before it turned into...something else. If this dude went to the police, our whole shit was getting raided. Tonight. If he showed the streets that me and my soft-ass heart was Rico's weak link, it wouldn't take long for some little up and coming crew - maybe even our own youngins - to handle me and try to take our shit over.

Respect in our hood was a tightrope, and we were all always balancing on that thin line, hovering right in between fear and contempt. Fear would get you told on. Contempt would get you dead. And the minute Tiana's stepdaddy started laughing, we all knew by daylight our situation was about to be totally rearranged if Rico didn't step in and shut that shit down.

Immediately.

As much as I hated it, I needed him right then. I needed him to protect our money, our freedom, and I needed him to keep me alive through the night.

"Son," he smoothed back his hair and put his hand on my shoulder. "Pussy has no place in business, unless pussy is your business. I've told you this, and I won't tell you again."

I looked down and nodded. Then I looked over at Jazz to see if she was ok. She wasn't. She was too high to get back up off the floor. Rico followed my eyes and looked disgustedly down at his wife.

"Now that pussy...is spent. But I can't get rid of it because it knows too much. It has too much access." He looked back over at me. "There's only one way to get rid of pussy like that." He held my eyes and wouldn't let me look away.

I knew exactly what he was saying. I knew exactly how it sounded when he made a low key threat that he planned on carrying out. I knew that this threat also carried over to me, too. And probably mama and Charity, if Rico really was who I thought he was. But I couldn't do anything about any of that right then, so I didn't. I just let him keep talking. I blanked my face out, swallowing down even further the bubble of rage that he pulled closer and closer to the surface every. single. time. he put his hands on my Aunt Jazz.

"Son," he continued to look at me, reading not only my face, but my entire body language – which I had mastered the art of keeping 100% under wraps as a little kid, probably from the first time Aunt Jazz asked me to lie for her. Rico put his hand back on my shoulder. "Come on son," he said, once he was convinced that I had successfully put my own self back in check, "Let's go clean up your mess."

Then he made it a point to steer me firmly toward the door before I could help Aunt Jazz up off the floor.