“Oh, so Iris moving like that?” I said to my cousin Buck as we watched her pull off with some random dude and my kids.

“Looks like it, cuzzo. You know these hoes is for everybody,” he said, toking on a blunt early in the morning.

He was the family jailbird, loving that concrete block lifestyle. It wasn’t his fault, though. My auntie, being on that shit most of her life, never gave him structure, but he was my favorite cousin. Every time he came around, we got in trouble, but it was fun though. I never could with all the rules my parents had in place, so whenever he came around, I was reckless.

My mom did her best to keep us a part, but as he got older, Buck started coming around on his own. My auntie was way out there by then, refusing the help. It wasn’t because of money either. She had just gotten a hold of some bad gas that was laced at a party in college and had been fucked up ever since.

My family was loaded, money coming out our ass, but we got it from all angles. My pops was a judge, Judge Lyles, running the toughest bench in all of South Florida. He had almost every criminal empire under his influence except the one belonging to Ezekiel “Banger” Ease. The nigga was smooth, too. I lowkey wanted to be like him, but pops shut it down.

He didn’t want that life for me, even though he was in every drug dealer’s pocket. For some reason, Banger didn’t fuck with him and that excited me. I loved my pops, but he was a fucking hypocrite. I expected my mother to not like Buck, but when he jumped on the bandwagon, I lost respect for him.

To make amends, pops saved Buck’s ass one time, stealing from those Columbians. They were cool with him, often paying him to get off. Most of my pop’s money came from them, so we were beyond straight. I could have easily hit one of them up, but their loyalty to my pops stopped them from putting me on.

“Hoes? I said, looking at his ass like he was crazy. Iris was a lot of things but a hoe she wasn’t.

“Yeah, hoes? Ain’t she with a nigga now and got your kids around him?” he asked, smiling as he tried to get under my skin.

I decided to give that nigga a pass. He stayed high as fuck and he ain’t never had a woman. So, him speaking on mine was pointless. I waved him off, watching Iris give that man conversation. I could tell she didn’t know him, but still.

Yeah, I took her damn car, but that’s her fault. She didn’t want for anything but until she respected my mind, life was going to be hard for her.

It didn’t help that my mother hated Iris, pushing me to do it, but I knew why. It was because of her skin color. She was on that light skin shit, talking about she didn’t want no dark-skinned grandkids. Fuck out of here. I couldn’t help she was dark, and my pops’ family didn’t fuck with her. That was her insecurity issue, not mine. But still, between my obsession with her and my mother’s rude behavior, Iris wasn’t fucking with me.

I cut her off financially with hopes of reeling her back in. Everything she had, my money had bought from the time she graduated from high school. Crazy thing was that she never asked, because I wanted to take care of her. She grew up in the hood, her mother barely making ends meet. Yet, Iris still wanted more out of life. She made me proud a bitch from her part of town still had morals and dreams.

Iris, a good girl, studied hard to get into college just to make sure the burden didn’t fall on her mother. Even with a scholarship that covered some of her fees, she still didn’t have enough. By then, I had my own business running a paint shop. Business was so good, I was about to open up a second one.

When she refused to take money from me, I offered to hire her, but she said no, working hard instead to get good grades. When she got pregnant with LJ, I thought I had her. She made me wear condoms, but I can’t lie. I was sticking holes in them trying to get her pregnant or not wearing them at all. She didn’t know though. All she needed was this dick in her life.

Most women caved in to me, but not Iris. I think that’s why I wanted her so bad when we met. Besides, I was a boss with plenty of workers under me. I didn’t need my girl working for anyone, but she was hard-headed as fuck. I wasn’t a dumb nigga either, pops making sure I got me a degree.

Since I loved to call the shots, I got one in Business Administration. Once I graduated, I took my inheritance and started my own business. Life was good, but hanging out with Buck let me know I was leaving a whole lot of money on the table out there.

He did a bid or two, but after getting locked up once, he met one of those Columbians that agreed to put him on. Shit, if I couldn’t link up directly, Buck was going to be my way in, and I was ready.

Hell, I wanted it all any way I could get it. All Iris had to do was say fuck my mama, take care of my kids, and shut up and listen. Fuck all that independent woman this or that. God made Eve to listen and look what happened. She fucked around and ate an apple, screwing a woman’s mentality up about who was the head.

I slowly pulled into the gas station on the side of Dunkin’ Donuts, watching my kids act up. I laughed as LJ pulled that temper tantrum shit on her. If I was around, I would have whooped his ass, but surprisingly she didn’t. I guess ole boy showing up ran interference because Iris was tough.

One thing about her, she didn’t let me or my kids run all over her ass. No sir, not at all. I was going to have to work really hard to get her back, watching dude talking all extra friendly to my kids.

“See that?” Buck said, pointing at LJ and dude as he grabbed his hand. “Auntie Peggy would be hot as shit right now.”

“Fool, shut up! My mama don’t even want me fucking with you.”

Waving me off he said, “That’s ‘cause she want you to be soft as a little bitch. Hell, she would probably hold your hand right now to walk you over there if she was here,” he said, laughing real hard and coughing.

“At least I got a bitch to check. Where’s yours, you ugly motherfucker? Looking like an overgrown ass spider. Fuck out of here.”

Buck wasn’t an ugly nigga, but his lips were black as fuck from all that smoking. His hair, a messy head full of thick dreads, looked crazy and his face was all tatted up. You would think he wouldn’t have fucked his face up like that as pale as he was, but Buck didn’t care.

“I’on need no bitch,” he said, blowing his smoke in my face. I shot him an evil looked and he laughed. “Ahhh, stop that shit.” He said, catching my attitude.

He knew I didn’t smoke, choosing to stay level headed, but not Buck. That was an all-day thing. Fuck it, a lifetime one

“A’ight, nih. Don’t let me find out you been fucking on a man,” I slipped in, smirking. I was joking but shit, as much as he visited the jailhouse, cuzzo was basically saying fuck getting some pussy to me.

“Shut the fuck up and go handle yo’ bitch. You see she following a nigga inside, but won’t even answer yo’ calls.” He blew in my face once again, waiting to catch that heat I had for him.

“Fuck your loose booty ass,” I barked, snatching my cell out. I called Iris earlier. It rang a few times before going to voicemail. This last time, though, it went to straight to voicemail. Shit, that meant she blocked me. Before, I could turn her service off, but not anymore. After I did that a few times, she went and got her own plan. She was slowly pulling away from me and I was lowkey concerned.

Buck didn’t respond, instead closing his eyes as he laid his head back. I knew I was fucking up, but I guess that was a sign I had to take a new approach. Not wanting to act like a little bitch in front of my cousin, I pulled off. It was fucked up that I took her car, but Iris was acting brand new.

She had a little gig that had her feeling herself. I knew my mother had something to do with her getting fired from her last one, but still. I had her if she would let me. I told you my pops had his hand in a little bit of everything, but so did my mom.

She didn’t work, but she sat on a few boards for a few hospitals and fundraising committees like the Miami Heat. She earned her clout being married to my pops. She was being petty actually, going against what she accused Iris of. She called her a needy, project girl looking for a come up, but got her fired.

That shit made no sense to me, but it was time I stepped up. If I was going to get in the game and get my girl back, I had to make the right connections. She just needed to park her ass down somewhere and let me take care of her.