No More Mr. Nice Guy by Carl Weber Page A

mother ain’t one of your hoes, Bruce, so you better remember that.”
    â€œYeah, well, she just put in an application. If she keep fuckin’ with me like she been doin’, I won’t have no choice but to put her in the rotation,” I warned smugly.
    â€œDon’t play with me, Bruce.” Keisha sucked her teeth and directed more attitude my way. “What are you doing here anyway?”
    I took out the bankroll of hundreds that I always kept at the ready, peeled off fifteen, and handed them to her. “Majestic wanted me to give you this and to let you know that while he’s away, you and MJ ain’t gonna have nothing to worry about.”
    She took the money and slipped it in her pocket. “So you think this is it? He going away for good?” She sounded curious, but she sure as hell didn’t sound heartbroken.
    â€œI don’t know,” I lied. Majestic and I had decided not to let anyone know he was only in for a short period of time, because we wanted to know just who we could trust on a lot of levels. Sure, I could handle things forever if I had to, but we both understood that we worked better as a team. “You know the system. Now that all these jails are privately owned, they always looking to keep us behind bars.”
    The look she gave me said a lot. This bitch was hoping Majestic was going away for a very long time. “I just want to know if I can move on with my life.”
    I let out a sigh. “Look, Keisha, let me give you some advice. As long as that man’s alive and you have his son, you belong to him. So take this money, go get you something cute to wear, get your hair done, and go out to Riverhead and let him see his son this weekend. Anything else you got in your head is just gonna cause you a world of hurt.”
    â€œBruce, Majestic doesn’t own me,” she said defiantly. “He can’t tell me what to do anymore.”
    â€œI’ll tell you what: He may not own you, but I bet you take your ass down to that visit on Saturday. I bet you that. ’Cause if you don’t, this house you living in and that car parked out front will all be a distant memory.”
    She didn’t reply; just nodded her head. The one thing I could say about Keisha was the girl had smarts. I could see why Majestic kept messing with her all these years. She had something these other girls didn’t. She wasn’t your usual girl-from-the-hood type of bitch. She could probably be a teacher or run a business, but Majestic was not down with her being smarter than him, so her full-time job was being his baby mama.
    â€œYou heard about what happened to Rodney?” I asked, getting to my other reason for stopping by.
    â€œYeah, I’m sorry to hear about him. I was planning on taking MJ to see his grandmother tomorrow. You heard anything about any arrangements?”
    â€œSaturday, but listen. I need you to keep your ear to the ground, ’cause we’re looking for anything that could help us find whoever did this shit. You ain’t heard anything, have you?”
    â€œNah, I seen him at Sugar’s for a hot minute, but that was about it.” I could swear I saw something in her expression that bothered me, but it passed as quickly as it came.
    â€œWell, if you hear anything, give me a call.”
    Keisha nodded her understanding. “Thanks again for the money.”
    â€œAnything you or MJ need, just hit me up. I gotta bounce and check out some leads on this Rodney thing. You a’ight?” I double-checked.
    â€œYeah, I’m good.” She was looking past me at the door like she couldn’t wait for me to leave.
    â€œTell your moms I like those shorts she was wearing,” I said just to get under her skin.
    She cut her eyes at me and slammed the door behind me. As soon as that door shut, I could hear her yelling at her moms from the other side. I had to laugh, ’cause I knew the two of them were