Chino grabbed his Jordans and laced them up. He stood and headed for the door. He had gone out every night for the last two weeks. Not only was Tracey a tasty treat, but he had a few others now as well. Pam raced to block his exit.
“Out? You just got home!”
Chino pushed Pam to the side. “I don’t like being here!”
“Why not?”
“Because every time I look at you, I think of you and Erik. Of all these niggas in the city, why did you need him for a friend when I was doing my bid?”
“What are you talking about, Chino? I didn’t have any other friends to talk to, because you wouldn’t allow me to have any. So Erik was around, and he was just somebody to talk to.”
Chino gripped Pam’s arm. “Fuck that! Did you think I wasn’t getting out? You was supposed to stick to the program and wait! Did you think that I wouldn’t find out that you was fucking that nigga? You just like the rest of these gold-digging ass bitches! Pooh, you ain’t getting another dime from me. You’ve booked yourself, baby! I do more for you than you can do for yourself. I taught you everything! I gave you everything! I clothed you, I fed you, I took care of you, I practically made you! Look at those rings on your fingers! I put them bitches there! Look at this muthafucking house! I paid for it! You can’t pay the fucking phone bill without me.”
Pam broke down into tears. Chino’s words cut like a knife. She had been a virgin when they met, and he knew that she hadn’t been with anyone else. He was talking about all of the stuff that he did, but what about what she did? They built that shit together. She was the one who held down the beauty shop. She was the one who had gotten his lawyer for him. She was the one picking up money for him, and dropping off money and product.
“What the fuck you mean?” Pam exploded. “How the fuck can you say some simple shit like that? You know that I’ve never been with anyone else but you! Can you say the same? Chino, you went to prison and I was left out here all alone. None of your crew would help me. And to top it off, you came home from the penitentiary with everything that you left with. Not one lock changed, not one phone number changed, your clothes hanging where you left them. I put your cars in storage, and I visited you twice a week. You came home to all of your loot. I sent clothing packages, food packages, and money to you and every nigga you told me to send them to, too. I accepted the collect calls and made three-way calls for you and all them sorry-ass niggas you met up in there!”
Chino tried to brush past Pam, but she cut him off.
“Chino, why are you doing this to us? You have to help me be strong for us! Erik was just my friend from school!” She was at her wits’ end as tears streamed down her face.
“You saved all my bread ’cause you didn’t need it!” Chino shouted. “That nigga Erik is out in the street getting money just like me. You can save those tears, Pooh. Save that bull-shit ass drama for your mama. Them tears is because your ass is cut off!”
Chino tried to push past Pam again, and she braced herself against the wall, stopping him. The two of them stood face to face, like a drill sergeant had just yelled “Attention.” It was then when she noticed the hickeys on Chino’s neck and chest.
Blood rushed to Pam’s head, and she felt flushed. She wanted to rip Chino’s clothes off and examine his entire body, particularly his dick, but that would have only told her what she already knew: Chino was fucking somebody else.
“I’m in love with somebody else,” Chino said softly.
“What? What was that you said?” Pam asked, leaning in closer. “You’re in love with somebody else?” Pam lifted her hand and smacked the shit out of Chino.
The look on Chino’s face filled Pam with fear. She turned and raced out of his reach just in the nick of time. She raced to the indoor pool and ran around toward a poolside chair, where she had hidden a .38 semi-automatic pistol the night before.
“You stupid, bitch!” Chino shouted. “You just made my day. Oh, now you wanna be a man? You wanna fight?”
Pam ran around a chair near their pool table with the thought of grabbing a pool cue, but changed her mind. A cue would have been too easy for him to take away and use on her. Chino continued to rant and rave while Pam danced back and forth around the pool table to avoid him. Her bare feet made her slide back and forth on top of the smooth ceramic tile.
Tired of chasing Pam, Chino pulled off his shirt to cool down. She could now see the handle of his 9 mm pistol tucked inside his waistband. She became terrified.
Pam had heard rumors of Chino’s exploits in the streets. The beauty shop talked, the college-going, wannabe street cats talked, the girls in the mall talked. She knew that Chino was in the streets wilding out, and she didn’t want his activities to come back on her. So she’d had her brother buy her a small handgun for protection. He had bought her a chrome Lorcin .38, and loaded it with hollow points. He believed that with such a small caliber, she would need hollow-tip bullets to take out her attacker. She had to take the guy out, he said, or he would beat the shit out of her for shooting him.
“Okay, Chino, stop!” Pam pleaded, breathing heavily.
“Stop playing!”
Chino was growing angrier with each passing moment.
“Stop playing?” Chino shouted. “Naw, bitch, we gon’ play! I should have whooped your ass a long time ago. When you was kicking it with that nigga Erik you wasn’t worried, you didn’t have no fear in your heart. Now you’re going to see the real Chino. You’re going to see what all them other niggas saw when I told them that I’ll be to see them!”
“Chino, no!”
“You want to violate and curse like a man and swing at me like a man, now I’ma treat you like one!”
Pam tried to dart past Chino, but he snatched her by her hair and straight brought her to her knees.
“Chino, baby, please stop!” Pam pleaded. “I quit, I’m sorry.
Let’s stop playing!”
Chino pulled tighter. Pam could feel her face tightening and her eyes widening, as her skin was pulled back.
“Chino, please!” Pam cried on her knees.
“No! Say something!” Chino told her. “Talk shit! You always thought that you were better than me, you always thought that you were smarter than me, and that I was just a dumb-ass nigga! You thought that since you was from LeDroit Park that you was better than everybody else! Well, fuck you and your fake-ass family!”
Pam grabbed Chino’s wrist, in an attempt to loosen his grip on her hair. She could feel clumps of her hair being pulled out, and a penetrating migraine formed in her forehead.
“Christonos, please, baby, don’t do this, let me go!” Pam pleaded. She could feel her legs going numb because of her awkward position on the floor.
“How dare you call me that name!” Chino shouted. He was practically foaming at the mouth because of his anger. “You ain’t got it like that no more!”
Fight or flee? Pam knew that she had to decide quickly. Chino’s tightening grip on her hair told her that she had to fight. Not with her fist, but with a woman’s mind.
“Chino, baby, please don’t hurt me,” Pam whimpered. “All I ever wanted, all I ever needed to know was that you loved me. I miss you, Chino. I miss how you used to make love to me.”
Pam began to caress Chino’s legs. Slowly, his grip on her hair loosened. Pam rose on her knees and brought her face close to his groin. “Chino, just hold me again. Make love to me like you used to.”
Chino swallowed hard. He could feel the blood starting to flow to his dick. “Pooh, why you trip like that?”
Pam unzipped Chino’s pants and moved her lips to his privates. Chino loosened his belt buckle and tossed his 9 mm from his waistband onto the same seat cushion that was hiding her .38. Once she felt him release her hair completely, she made her move. Pam balled up her fist and punched Chino as hard as she could in his genitals. He fell to the floor in mind-numbing pain, clutching his balls. Pam leaped to her feet and grabbed his gun off the chair. She quickly pulled back the slide, chambering a round.
“Now, muthafucka, who’s the bitch?” Pam screamed. “Looks like you’re the bitch now, Chino. If only you knew how to control your dick, we wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place. I wouldn’t have bitches calling the shop, and you wouldn’t be creeping out in the middle of the night, and we would be happy!”
Pam placed the gun to the back of Chino’s head. “Now muthafucka, what?”
The air grew silent, and Pam glared down at Chino. Fear was not etched into his face, but an intense pain was. It brought back memories. Memories of when Chino had been abducted by a rival crew. He almost had tears in his eyes.
“Chino, I am so sorry!” Pam said, dropping the gun. She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. “I am so sorry, baby! I remember that night. I wasn’t going to hurt you, I promise.”
Pam wiped away her tears and Chino’s as well. She hugged him but he didn’t hug her back. He gave no response.
“Chino, baby, I am here,” Pam cried out. “Please, what is wrong with us?”
Chino abruptly pushed Pam off him and backhanded her, splitting her lip. He picked up his gun and stood. “How could you put me in that position after what I told you happened to me? I killed those niggas that did that shit to me, and now it’s your turn to get what they got. So now you a trick bitch, huh?”
Pam placed one hand on her head and cried. Chino paced back and forth, ranting and raving. He was too busy to notice her sliding her other hand beneath the seat cushion. Pam found her Lorcin .38.
“You’re the weak link, Pooh!” Chino shouted. “The only person that knows about them niggas is you. I buried the gun, and only you knew where it was. But I went back and got it and moved it, after I found out about you still creeping with Erik. I can’t trust you no more, Pooh. And because I can’t trust you, your ass has to go. Have you said your prayers, love?”
Pam panicked. She aimed the gun beneath the pillow at Chino and squeezed the trigger. A loud pop rang out. All Chino saw was feathers flying from the ripped pillow.
“Pooh, where did you get a gun from?” Chino asked, clutching his stomach. He dropped his gun. “Pooh, don’t shoot me, just drop the gun.”
Pam threw her gun down. “Oh my God, I’m going to call nine-one-one!”
Chino clasped her arm. “No, calm down and call my boy Darren.”
Pam called Darren, and he was on his way. “Chino, Darren said to hold tight, and that he’ll be here in five minutes! Are you okay? Do you want to lie down?”
“Just calm down, Pooh,” Chino told her. “It’ll be okay.”
Darren’s Jag screeched to a stop in front of the house, and he and Pam helped Chino out to the car.
“I’ll drive!” Pam said.
“No, you’re too hysterical to drive,” Chino told her. “Besides, they’ll arrest you for the shooting. I’m just going to go in and say that I had a little accident.”
Darren and Pam rushed Chino to Mount Carmel East Hospital, while Chino lay in the back applying pressure to his gunshot wound. When they got to the hospital, Darren and Pam carried Chino inside.
“Pooh, go home,” Chino said weakly. “Darren, take her home.”
Darren pushed Pam out the door and made her get into his Jag. The two of them left as the police cars were arriving. Darren reached over and patted Pam on her leg.
“You know, Chino let you go free,” he told her. “That’s love, baby girl. That’s love.”