Dirty Rotten Liar Read Free Page A

River.
    My mama fucked up three lives that day.
    When Daddy got word that she had driven me into all that cold water he jumped straight in his whip and jetted toward the west side of Manhattan tryna get to me.
    But Big Moe never made it. Less than a mile from the pier he had a heart attack and crashed into a light pole. One of his girlfriends was riding with him, and she said the last words to come outta his mouth were My baby. My baby. Mink, my baby.
    And then he died.
    I don’t know how I got outta that sinking car, but I did. It was dark as hell as I scrambled outta my open window and clawed my way up to the surface, and then I coughed and choked on all that cold water until some white man jogging on the pier jumped in the river and dragged me out.
    They pulled Mama out too, but not in time. She was still alive when the ambulance got her to the hospital, but she had brain damage from being under that water for so long, and even though her body was still here, her mind was way gone.
    Daddy’s family wasn’t shit after that. They blamed my mother for killing Big Moe, and whatever money and jewelry his hoes didn’t pocket when they found out he was dead, them trifling-ass sisters of his stole and I didn’t get not one penny.
    The state made me go see all kinds of counselors and psychologists so I could get my head right, but it didn’t matter what nobody said because it still added up to the same thing: My own damn mama had tried to kill me. Now tell me, what kid would wanna remember, let alone live, with that ?

CHAPTER 3
    â€œU mmm, hold up. Say that shit again?” Pilar Ducane batted her fake eyelashes at her cousin Barron as he sat across from her with the two-hump-chump look on his fine chocolate face.
    â€œYou heard me. The board met. I signed the papers Suge got drawn up and they voted to open Daddy’s trust fund and kick out the first cash payment. To everybody.”
    Pilar blinked. They were kicked back and chilling on Barron’s king-sized bed, drinking expensive wine and eating some gourmet Chinese food.
    â€œWhat do you mean to everybody ? Including Mink and Dy-Nasty?”
    Barron frowned and nodded. “Well, yeah. Whichever one of them ends up being Sable is gonna get three hundred grand every year.”
    â€œUh-uh, B!” Pilar exploded. Her blood boiled at the thought of those ghetto bandits digging their grimy fingers around in the Dominion’s multi-billion-dollar cookie jar. “Your black ass has got to be bullshitting!”
    She held her slim, manicured hand in the air.
    â€œ Please, please, PLEASE tell me you didn’t go do no stupid shit like that!”
    â€œYo, it wasn’t stupid ,” he grilled her and frowned.
    â€œBut you were supposed to stall them, dammit! You were supposed to submit a request for a vote delay!”
    Barron’s broad shoulders slumped forward and his eyes searched the bedspread as he tried to figure out how the hell he was gonna tell Pilar the rest of his fucked-up story.
    â€œIt ain’t like I wanted to sign that shit. I just didn’t have no other choice,” he said quietly.
    â€œWhat the hell do you mean you didn’t have no other choice?” Pilar dropped her chopsticks and hissed through her clenched teeth. “You fuckin’-a-right you had another choice!” Her pretty face was twisted up in rage and a thunderstorm was crackling in her gray eyes.
    â€œOh I did? Then what the fuck was it?” Barron sat straight up and barked. “Yo! That ol’ slick nigga Suge had my back against the wall! He had me bent over kissing my own nuts! What the hell was I supposed to do?”
    Pilar narrowed her gray eyes. “You were supposed to tell him you weren’t gonna sign a goddamn thing! We needed the board to name you the CEO of Dominion Oil before those thirsty hood bitches got their DNA results back, remember? I don’t understand why you just gave up and wimped out