The Cartel - Ashley Antoinette Snell [59]
Guilt began to set in with Mecca, so naturally he began to put it off on someone else. He didn’t respond to Money and looked over to Leena, who was leaning on his car and crying in her palms.
He stormed over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders forcefully. “It’s all yo’ mu’fuckin’ fault! If yo’ ass wasn’t flirtin’ with the nigga, this wouldn’t have happened. You were inviting that nigga to touch all on you.”
Leena yelled, “Mecca, stop! You’re drunk, and you’re hurting me!” She tried to break loose from his grasp.
Mecca’s mixture of intoxication and anger caused him to backhand Leena, and she fell to the ground. Mecca quickly grew remorseful as he saw his woman hit the concrete.
Money rushed over and pulled Mecca away. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled. “Hitting a female?” He helped Leena up and examined her face and bloody lip. “Are you okay?” Money whispered, as he wiped the blood away from her lip.
Leena looked in the eyes of the man she was desperately in love with. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She wanted to be with Money rather than Mecca so badly. Even though Mecca and Money were twins, they were the exact opposite, and Leena felt like she was with the wrong sibling.
“Get in the car, okay. I’ll take you home.” Money focused back on his drunken brother. “What the fuck is yo’ problem, Mecca? You are getting out of hand.” He gripped Mecca up by his collar, pulling him close to him so that he could be the only one about to hear what he had to say. “If you ever hit a woman again, I’ll”—Money was so enraged by his brother’s actions, he couldn’t finish his sentence. He just pushed Mecca toward his car and pointed his finger at him and shook his head in disappointment.
Mecca remained silent, knowing he was dead wrong.
Money looked at Breeze, who was in the passenger side of his car, and yelled to her, “Take this drunken fool home! I’ll take Leena home and meet you at the house.” He walked over to Mecca’s car and opened the passenger door for Leena.
Mecca was overwhelmed with guilt as he tried repeatedly to apologize to Leena, but the pleas fell on deaf ears.
“Come on, Mecca.” Breeze grabbed his hand and helped him into the car.
Mecca dropped his head in shame as he realized that he had overreacted, and the guilt began to sink in.
Carter drove Mecca’s Lamborghini down the highway toward Leena’s home.
Money hated driving Mecca’s cars. In his eyes, they were way too flashy and drew too much attention. He glanced over at Leena, who was crying quietly, wishing she had never come out that night.
Money wanted so badly to be with Leena, but he couldn’t betray his brother in that way. He gently ran his hand over her cheek and wiped away her teary eyes, trying to comfort her. “Mecca doesn’t mean any harm. He does love you. He just has a fucked-up temper, nah mean?”
“He sure has a fucked-up way of showing me he loves me,” Leena said, tears streaming down her face. She kissed Money’s hand as he rubbed her cheek.
Money thought Leena was crying because of what Mecca had just done to her, but that was the farthest thing from her mind at that point. The tears were coming from the thought of her knowing that she and Money could never be.
Leena placed her hand on her stomach as she melted in Money’s hand. She had found out that morning that she was three weeks pregnant with his child. She knew it was Money’s, because she hadn’t been intimate with Mecca in months. He had been too busy to satisfy her lately. She decided to have an abortion and take her secret to her grave, but the pressure was too much to handle by herself. She had to tell Money.
“Money, I’m pregnant,” Leena said almost in a whisper.
“What?” Money asked as he swerved in traffic, not believing what he had just heard.
“I said I’m pregnant, Money. It’s your baby.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know it’s mine? It ain’t mine. I strapped up every time.”
“I know it’s yours because you are the only person I have been with. Mecca and I haven’t done anything in months.