More security dudes jumped up on the stage and Barron caught a glimpse of Gutta being pinned down with his hands roped behind his back.
“Mink!” he hollered. “Mink! What the fuck is you doin' up in here, Mink?”
Yeah, Mink,
Barron raged inside as he stared at the girl and thought about the two empty seats that were about to be on that red-eye flight to Dallas.
Just what the
fuck
is your ass doing up in here?
Â
It took a good minute to get everything calmed down, but shit was always jumping off at a strip club and the management at Club Lick 'Em was quick to restore order and get their clients back to pinching titties, buying drinks, and shooting off during lap dances.
“Yo, I coulda sworn you was her! I swear to God you look
just like
her,” Gutta muttered over and over to the stripper he had assaulted up on the stage. He had a big bruise from getting busted upside his head in the fight, but he'd sent three bouncers crawling off the stage covered in blood too. If it hadn't been for Barron sliding the club's owner some big loot to cover the damage that had been caused, wasn't no telling how the night would have ended.
“You really do look like her,” Barron told the girl who sat across from him in the red-feathered thong. They were drinking in a back room with the chick and one of her funny-looking girlfriends, and both of them said they worked at a strip club in Philly. “I mean,
just
like her.”
It was true, but even though the girl, who told them her name was Dy-Nasty, had the same pretty face and stacked body as Mink's, there was something a little different about her too. Barron checked her out while she talked to Gutta. This girl looked harder than Mink. Tougher. Her fingernails were broken off and every one of her toes had either a bunion, a corn, or a callus sitting on top of it. Mink was definitely a rat from the projects, but this beautiful chick right here was a 'rilla from the zoo. She had some crust on her that wasn't on Mink, Barron had to admit. Some kind of hard-knock grime that looked like it would never wash off.
“Hey, lemme ask you something,” Barron said as he stared at Dy-Nasty. He'd been steady looking her up, down, and sideways, with his mind racing crazily a million miles a minute, and when the light bulb finally went off in his head the glass shards rocked him like an explosion.
Nah, it couldn't be,
Barron told himself.
Hell fuckin' no! It just couldn't be!
“Yo, you ever been to Texas?” he blurted out.
Dy-Nasty turned away from Gutta, then frowned and gave him the dumb-ass look. “No. Why?”
Barron shook his head quickly. “Nah, no reason. I'm just asking.” He paused for a few seconds, then went in at her again. “You ever heard of a girl named Sable Dominion?”
Dy-Nasty's hand trembled and her drink spilled over the edge of her glass. She glanced at her funny-looking girlfriend real quick, then stared hard at Barron.
“Yo, who the hell is you? You got a badge up under that Polo or what?”
“Nah,” Barron said, “I ain't got no badge, but I do have some DNA results back at my crib. What you know about that?”
Barron had asked a loaded question and he damn sure got a booming answer. He couldn't believe what the fuck came out of Dy-Nasty's mouth.
“I just took me a DNA test not too long ago!”
Barron nodded at her. The Gods must have been smiling down on him, because for once in his life it seemed like all his little ducks had just snapped to attention and lined up in a row.
“I'm Barron Dominion. I got your test results.”
“For real?” Dy-Nasty exclaimed when Barron told her exactly who he was, and then ran a plan down her so sweet and made her an offer so scrumptious there was no way her broke, trifling ass could refuse.
“So you tellin' me you're Sable's brother and you want me to come with you to Texas so I can get all that rich girl's money?”
“Yep,” Barron lied as he eyeballed her. This chick was even worse than Mink. Much worse. He didn't know how the hell both of them had managed to pull one on the DNA lab, but neither one of them was Sable. He knew that for a fact. Especially Dy-Nasty. This chick had
lockup
written all over her, and she probably had Mink's rap sheet beat up and down, coming and going. And that was exactly what he was counting on. He had the perfect opportunity to catch two hoodrats with one fat hunk of cheese. With Dy-Nasty's DNA match in his pocket, it was gonna be real easy to prove Mink was a fraudster, and even easier to have Dy-Nasty's crusty, criminal ass disqualified from the trust account.
“All you have to do is come to Texas,” Barron told the raunchy stripper with the dollar signs flashing in her eyes, “and with your results in my hand, I'll present them to our board of directors and you'll get your money. It's just as simple as that.”
“Yo,” Gutta barked. His bottom lip was busted and the noogie on his head was fucking up his whole flow. “So when I'ma get my money, nigga? Yo, son, you owe me! I'm telling you, you better not try to fuck me outta minez!”
Barron half chuckled. “I got you, man. You gonna get paid in full. I'll wire it to Frankie tomorrow and he'll slide it to you.”
“Wire it to Frankie? I thought me and you was flying out tonight, slime?”
“Nope.” Barron waved him off and reached out for DyNasty's hand. “You missed your flight, my man. I gots me a new rider now.”
CHAPTER 15
M
e and Bunni had only been at the mansion for about a week when some Texas-sized shit-balls hit the Dominion family fan. I was sitting at the kitchen counter eating some grits and eggs that Miss Katie had fixed for me, when a crazy-loud scream cut through the air.
It sounded just like Selah. Me and Miss Katie both froze.
There was a big commotion coming from the front of the house, and I heard Barron's voice above everybody else's. He was back in town and he sounded straight-up shook.
“What in the world . . .” Miss Katie gripped the neck of her dress as both of us looked toward the front room. Instead of answering her, I jumped off my stool and hauled ass outta the kitchen and sprinted down the long hallway. I met up with a servant they called Big Grownie, who was waddling toward the kitchen as fast as she could.
“What in the world happened?” I asked her.
“It's Mrs. Dominion!” she blurted out. Her flat nose was sweating like crazy and her stockings swish-swished as her fat legs moved. “I gotta get some ice. She done passed plum out!”
I went dashing down the hallway and into the big living room, and what I saw made me skid right in my tracks. Selah was down, all right. She was stretched out in the middle of the floor with Barron crouched down beside her, slapping her cheeks and tryna bring her back.
It looked like everybody in the whole damn house had come running, but it was the person I saw standing right beside Barron that had my full attention. I struggled to figure out what kinda bullshit I was seeing in my brain, and I got smashed with a lightning bolt to the eyes as I looked past first Barron, then Dane, and then Bunni and one of the housekeepers, and to my shock and surprise . . . damned if I wasn't looking straight at . . .
me
!
Â
Oh yeah, the shit had hit the fan and sprayed all over the Dominion Estate! Barron had came back from New York with some chick who looked just like me! And just like me, she was claiming to be Sable Dominion and now everybody in the mansion was going straight-up fuckin' bananas!
It felt like a bomb had gone off in the damn house as Barron stood in the middle of the room and announced that he'd found the real Sable, and then held her DNA test up in the air to prove it.
Gasps went up and suddenly everybody turned and looked at me like I was a liar
and
a goddamn thief! Jock had the nerve to smirk and shake his nuts in my direction, while the rest of the family got hyped and started talking real loud all at the same time.
I stood there feeling like a sho'nuff convicted criminal. I could see why Selah had passed the hell out. My knees were wobbly too as I stared at the bodacious new chick who was now striking a pose on Barron's arm.
“So, who's really who?” Fallon demanded over all the noise. “Are y'all related or what? 'Cause y'all look just alike.”
“
Ooooh
, Mink!” Bunni pushed her way in between me and Fallon and whispered all up in my ear. She was so amped she pinched the shit outta the underside of my arm, and if all eyes wasn't on me I woulda knocked her ass to the moon. “That bitch
do
look like you!” she whispered. “She really do!”
“Well she
ain't
me!” I snapped as me and the rough-looking chick stood across the room from each other doing the Harlem stare-down. Mami was in the
life
, I could tell just by looking at her. She was hardcore with her shit, too. She probably stripped, danced, turned tricks, and did whatever else she could do to press a nickel into a quarter.
“Mink!” Barron called my name out real loud. This nigga had a suspiciously slick grin on his face as he pulled the girl over to me and introduced us. “Mink, this is my little sister Sable, also known as Dy-Nasty. Dy-Nasty this is Mink. Say hello to each other ladies.”
I stared into her hazel eyes and I couldn't deny the truth of my lie. I was caught out there. Busted in my hustle. Straight thrown off my game. I peeped the hostile smirk that flashed on mami's face, and right away I knew I wasn't gonna open my mouth and speak unless this bitch spoke to me first!
The element of surprise mighta had me shook, but Miss Thang was all up on her toes. Bobbing and weaving and ready to knock me right out. She grinned at me, then bust out laughing.
“Mink, you say?” She glanced at Barron and nodded. “Oh, so this the chick you was telling me about, huh? Well, hey, Mink! I'm Dy-Nasty. Capital
d
, capital
n
, with a dash between the
n
and the
y
.”
I blinked my eyes at her like she was crazy, and she moved up on me and gave me a quick wink and whispered, “But you can call me Sable.”
Stepping back, she took a deep breath and looked around the room with a real big smile. “Wooo-hooo! Damn this joint is
laid
! Hey ere'body!” She waved her arm and then pumped her fist high air. “It feels
good
to be home!”
Â
That stupid-fuck Barron musta told the whole damn family to come over to the mansion so he could show Dy-Nasty off. Pilar had shown up with her fat-head fiancé Ray, and Uncle Digger even came over too. Barron went around introducing Dy-Nasty to everybody as the long-lost Sable, and the whole time he was busy showing her off he kept grinning at me over his shoulder and shooting me some real slick looks.
“It's Dy-Nasty,” I heard the girl tell Pilar. “Capital
d
, capital
n
, with a dash between the
n
and the
y
.”
Pilar's whole face frowned up when she asked, “Sweetie, are you dyslexic or something?”
“Listen everybody,” Barron said as he pulled her into the center of the room and got everybody's attention. The spotlight was shining real bright on Dy-Nasty, and she started primping and posing like a camera crew was standing off to the side snapping glamour shots.
“I know this looks crazy, and
somebody
is gonna have a whole lot of explaining to do to the police later on, but I've found our Sable,” Barron said and pointed at Dy-Nasty. You could tell his ass was a lawyer just by the way he tried to get in everybody's head. “I got a tip from a private investigator that she was living in Philadelphia, so I found out where she was and went to talk to her for myself. Trust me,” he said, and gave everybody the honest-john face like he was in the courtroom about to close a case, “I've done my homework and everything she's told me about her past lines up perfectly. And best of all, her DNA test came back a perfect match for Sable's.”
All I could do was look down at my feet. The truth was out. The game was over. My scam had been exposed. I knew damn well I was the one who'd been lying, but I didn't know how to walk that shit back or how to get my ass up out the door without getting arrested and thrown under a hot Texas jail.
“But hold up.” Dane got in it, shaking his head. “Wasn't Mink's DNA test a match for Sable's first? And everything she told us was solid too. Plus, Mink is from New York where Sable was kidnapped. You said you found this girl somewhere in Philly, right, Bump? So how does
that
line up?”
“We
moved
!” Dy-Nasty blasted all over Dane, drenching him in about twenty gallons of ghetto juice. “We
used
to live in New York when I was little,” she said with a nasty dip to her bottom lip, “but then we moved! Can't people move around? Damn!”
“Yeah, people can do a whole lot of shit,” Dane beefed back at her. “Especially when they're tryna to get their hands on somebody else's
money
!”
I just sat there looking stupid as hell in the face. I was burning on a thousand inside, but Selah was the one who was really pissed. All this time she had been laid out moaning, rocking back and forth, and crying out stuff like,
Oh my God . . . Jesus have mercy, what is this world coming to? My baby . . . my child . . . how could anybody in their right mind be so damn cruel?
But now she slung that ice pack off her head and stood up and got on her Brooklyn tip. “I don't know what the hell is going on here,” she shrieked and put her hands on her hips. She was mad as hell and tears were running down her face as she locked me and Dy-Nasty together in a real icy glare. “But somebody is
lying
. This is no kind of joke to be playing on people! It's a serious situation and the police call it identity fraud!” Her face crumpled in as she fought to hold back her tears. “You just don't
play
like this when it comes to people's children and their
hearts
! I don't know what's going on, but one of you is a
liar
!”
She grilled me like,
You better come clean with this shit!
and I felt my chest cave in a little bit as I got scorched by the heat shooting outta her eyes.
“What you looking at
me
like that for?” I blurted out. “Give
her
the look!” I pointed my thumb at Dy-Nasty. “Shoot, I was here first!”
Selah's lips were real tight as she cried silently and stared back and forth at both of us. “Barron,” she said quietly, “you'd better go check out that goddamn DNA lab! Something flaky is going on in there and I want to know exactly what it is!” She pointed at me and Dy-Nasty. “As for you two, both of you will have to be retested, and we'll find an independent lab to verify your results. Until that happens, I just don't know
what
to think or
who
to believe. But trust me, we're gonna get to the bottom of this. The truth is going to come out sooner or later, and when it does I'm going straight to the police so one of you better watch out.”
“Don't worry, Mama. I'll take care of the lab,” Barron said. “I tried to call them on my way in but they're closed for the Labor Day weekend. But like I said, don't worry. I plan to be there when they open for business first thing Tuesday morning.”
“Oh, we
both
gonna be there,” I assured his tight ass and blasted him with a heat round from my eyes.
“All three of us!” the Philly skank piped in, grilling me like she wanted some.
“Cool,” I said, heating her ass up right back. “All three of us then!”
I walked over to Selah and reached out for a hug. She didn't even move. She just looked at me. “I'm sorry, Mama Selah. I don't know who this girl is or how any of this happened. But please believe me. I'm telling you the truth. Please don't be mad at me.”
“Excuse me, Mrs. Dominion,” one of the housekeepers spoke up and interrupted us before Selah could respond. “Which room should we put Miss Dy-Nasty in?”
Stick her ass out back in the pool house
! I wanted to scream.
But instead, I got punched dead in the stomach when Selah glanced at the housekeeper, then turned and said with a big sigh, “Take her upstairs to the west wing. Put her in the guest suite right next to mine. That'll give us a chance to get to know each other a little better.”