The Hired Gun Ch. 05

She was folding my clothes as she spoke, stopping to reflect a little longer.

"Maybe we can see one another again some time, but I need to get it together and reclaim that career I threw my motherhood away for. For your information, Charity threatened to expose me with the footage from the nanny cam in the living room if I interfered in William's marriage. That means I'm done, but it doesn't diminish your good works, so I did uh, this today. Call me sometime; but only when you've got your stamina up considerably. I want to see if you can hang with me. Eat your Wheaties."

The clip ended at just under seven minutes.

I sat there still feeling blasted out playing the clip two more times before my gaze drifted to the microwave which had a secondary note posted on it. Inside was a plate of parmesan chicken over some pasta and some back engineered cheesy garlic bread cut into four nice triangles. Inside the freezer, Angela had taken some vanilla ice cream there and mixed it with a bit of liquid chocolate sprinkled with flecks of strawberry Quick.

"Damn, I might have to marry this bitch."

I walked to the bathroom to wash my hands returning to a ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"HEY THERE, UHM WE GOTS SOME TROUBLE ROUND HERE!" My brow furrowed at the verbal intrusion into what had been a pretty blissful Sunday.

"Auntie?"

"YEAH, ITS ME!!"

"What happened; did my uncle show up at your hotel room?"

"That's the least of my worries and by that, I mean our worries because we in this together, right?!"

"What's going on?"

"Well didn't seem like you were coming over today and I got up in my lady feelings; kinda started meddling that Andre boy and we got right to it fore your ole' cousin showed back up over here looking pretty thirsty!" Her southern accent was especially thick.

"JAQUAN OVER THERE?!!"

"YEAH!!"

"Are they over there fighting and shit? Goddammit Esther, that motherfucker shouldn't be there! I didn't send over there so he's going into business for himself! I'm so sorry ma'am...WAIT, MY UNCLE SHOWED UP TOO?!!"

"No listen."

"DID HE DO SOMETHING CRAZY?!!" My heart was thumping expecting the worst, but she shut me down with this hoarse sounding bellow that shocked me quiet.

"Look I was getting my baby bucket resized and it was all good; then your cousin popped up and we ended up kinda hashing thangs out, even trying to film a little bit of it for prosperity. We got into our fucking something serious afore your old uncle came all a beating on the door like a crazy man! I was sure he thought you was in here stuffing me, but it was both of these fine young men all up in my holes, like that there double stuffed thang! Ain't done nothing like that before! It hurts so ghud, boy!!"

"ESTHER FOCUS!!"

"OH YEAH!! Well, it took us a minute to realize what was a happening, what with the knocking, beating, and door punching!! I peeped through that little hole in the door and sure enough your uncle was out there done bought himself some henchmen to do you in with the fisticuffs like that there old Cooley high movie and everything!! Your cousin Jaquan was talking scary saying he done left his pistol in his car trunk! I SHUT THAT NOISE DOWN!! Then I gots real smart but your cousin was blabbering too much acting like he was a big muscle bound piece of chocolate that couldn't smash a sixty four year old man!!"

"WHAT HAPPENED?!!" I shouted, losing my patience, as the phone went silent.

"You don't have to be all rude like just cause I got fired from the job of being your auntie, boy." I facepalmed sitting at the kitchen table.

"Look, would you please just tell me what's going on over there, auntie?"

"Well like I said, it was my bright idea done stopped all that potential foolishness. I got your cousin and Andre to answer the door, with the chain on it of course. I told both of them boys to answer that door without no shirts on but hide their lower halves on the other side while they were all hugged up, romantic like. That hotel security was already out there too, so they shooed my soon to be ex-husband and his goons away. Everybody thought two gay boys was doing it in this room and that was that."

"Was my father out there?"

"I didn't see him, no. Matter of fact, I never saw any of those goons, either."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Andre's missing."

"WHAT?!!" I screamed before I even realized it.

"NAH-NOW DON'T YOU START LOUD MOUTHING ME BEFORE YOU HEAR THANGS OUT!!...now look, I thought it was all cleared up and wanted your cousin to kick rocks and maybe take that Andre boy with him, but he didn't want to do that even though he knew how messy my situation was; then he tried to nope out on me while Andre was in that little bedroom packing up his thangs. My soon to be ex-husband wasn't exactly gone but was ducking down under that door peep hole. He tried to Bum rush your cousin Jaquan, but it was like a man fighting a baby fore thangs got back under control. They kind of hugged it out on account of Jaquan fibbing a whole lot."

"So, what's the problem?"

"Andre's missing."

"Excuse me?"

"The boy, Andre with them thirteen inches; he's gone." It took a moment for it to sink in as I stood in the kitchen staring at the generous plate left behind by a woman trying to make amends and put a tumultuous past in her rear view mirror.

"Gone?"

"He probably slipped out when my husband got in trying to box Jaquan."

"Shit."

"Ah, just thought you should know." I crossed my arms across my chest taking a deep breath starting to work things out in my mind.

Finding Angela on my doorstep the previous night turned out to be a serendipitous turn of events that put me far, far away from what could've been a disaster. My worlds were starting to merge together, and I was hard pressed to get things under control before a second metaphorical big bang occurred. It had been a while since I was challenged by a certain infamous baby mamma number two about what I would do if things got out of the bag regarding my career as an online porn director. It was go time.

"Where's Jaquan; is he still there?"

"Well uh, yeah he...."

"PUT HIM ON THE PHONE!!" I cut her off tersely without thought.

"Uhm, yeah cuz?"

"What're you doing there?"

"Oh uh, I was here for the shoot; remember you told me to be down here uh, kinda early? So, I was just doing what you said cuz, uhm time is money and shit, right? Oh yeah, we kind of rehearsed a little with my iPhone, but Andre was being dumb, fucked it all up, man; we got a little something though."

"You're lying, did you see Andre leave?"

"No, I had my hands full, cuz; remember you told me to come back here for the shoot? How're you going to be saying I'm lying when you endorsed this shit?"

"Not now, we'll talk about it later; I'm facetiming, and you will do exactly what I say, okay?"

"Hey man..."

"Jaquan, do you remember when I was little and used to stay at your house on weekends because my mom didn't want me to see her boyfriend staying over? Remember you used to make fun of me watching cartoons, but you watched the shit with me too, then called me a nerd. Remember that shit, bruh?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Just say you remember."

"Yeah, sure cuz."

"Tell me what we used to watch?"

"That old Transformers cartoon; yeah, used to love that badass Optimus Prime. He was the fucking man, eh robot."

"Remember that last shitty season; the crappy cheap one after they made that movie. I'm not talking about the generic crap they put out years later to make a buck off that dumbass Michael Bay movie; I'm talking about the shit where that human boy character was all grown up with a family of his own, remember?"

"You taking about that fucking head masters bullshit?"

"Yeah; now why did we hate that shit, bruh?"

"They did this creepy shit where the motherfucking Autobots could take their heads off. Yeah, they made their fucking head into these ironman suits for the regular people. That stuff was Hella weird, but why're bringing that shit up, cuz?"

"Because I'm your FUCKING HEAD MASTER Jaquan!"

"WHAT?!!" I'd already sent the facetime request right at the end of my roundabout burn. His face appeared in front of me looking guilty as fuck. My brow furrowed at the thought that he would try to gaslight me and discount him being a pussy hound.

"Face me outward, I don't want to see your face; we've got some work to do and I'm too fucking trashed to come over there without good reason when I can use a perfectly good, mindless body like yours, nigga."

"Hey man!"

"Stop saying that and turn the phone around so that I can see where we're going, Jaquan. There you go bruh, oh hey auntie. Give me a minute with your phone please?" My field of vision pivoted as my cousin did as he was told, aiming Esther's phone across the room.

I found her sitting on the edge of a very disheveled bed wrapped in a plush terrycloth robe wide eyed. Her head was wrapped with a scarf, and I somehow focused on a number of visible hickies all about her neck and the exposed portions of her chest. Her packed cornfed hourglass figure was almost impossible to hide or make presentable evidenced by her partially exposed breasts and mound staring me in the face through the phone.

Esther glanced down noticing her bare mound, then pulled the open halves of the robes together.

"Jaquan take me to that room Andre was sleeping in last night."

"He was out here dumping on old girl when I got here, cuz." My right eye twitched as I ran my hand over the back of my head palming it.

"Take me to that smaller room over there Jaquan; I'm sure you can see the shit in front of your face, right?" He groaned clearly wanting to yell or cuss me out but went with it shoving the door open. On the other side of the door, I found the horrific mess Andre made of the room. Housekeeping hadn't shown up yet, which was a boon for my purposes.

"Damn, it smells like feet and ass up in here!" Jaquan commented out of view. "

"Shut up and get in there." He timidly stepped inside the smaller bedroom Andre had been using since we started the weekend shoot.

"Why am I doing this shit?"

"Just scan the room with the phone so that I can see if I can find something, a clue alright, bruh?"

"Scan?"

"JUST WAVE IT AROUND!"

The FaceTime view became a blur of motion for a few seconds.

"NOT LIKE THAT YOU GOOF!!"

"Sorry."

"Forget it; hey, aim the phone down at the floor next to the bed." All of the bedding was crumpled up on the floor in a mess with the cheap tote bag his wife bought him to carry around his work uniform, left behind.

"What is it?"

"Move some of that stuff out of the way on the floor."

"Ew, fuck no cuz!"

"JAQUAN!!"

My thirtysomething cousin begrudgingly did as I asked, uncovering Andre's tote bag fully. He surprised me by picking it up and placing it on the bed, unzipping it fully. I inspected the contents as he gingerly fished around inside the bag, getting frustrated enough to just dump it out on the half bare mattress.

"There!!"

"What is it; I don't see no phone or anything."

"I got his fucking phone Jaquan; I've been keeping it in my bag while I worked on his situation with the wife. There was no way I was leaving it with Andre so that he could fuck up my plan."

"You should leave well enough alone; he's cool with it, so that's his business."

"Would let somebody do that to you for nothing in return? No money, no nothing while pimping you out online like some prized bull?"

"Ain't that what you're doing?"

"He's getting paid; and his wife is pocketing that shit while getting hers out of his backend, negro. We both know he's kind of touched in the head, but I can't sit up and let somebody take advantage of him in good conscious, Jaquan."

"Oh yeah; where's my check?'"

"Send me an invoice." I didn't miss a beat retorting almost immediately the moment he finished speaking. It was never part of the plan to bring Jaquan inside my circle from the get-go.

His involvement came as a Darkhorse strategy by his infamous baby mamma number two, designed to hide her true intentions of ghosting him while simultaneously reinventing herself as the racially ambiguous girlfriend of a wealthy simp. Their toddler daughter would be left behind as a sort of "mole" to keep tabs on him. Sometimes when I thought about how clueless Jaquan was to the whole thing, it seemed as if he were Andre's spiritual brother unable to see the forest for the trees. He never asked, preferring not to know the full extent of his baby mamma's plan.

I didn't push, but sometimes considered it.

"You're really gonna pay me?"

"Yeah, but I'm not paying for the shit Renee shot with you because I wasn't there. Everything else, you can name your shitty price and I'll cash app you on the spot. Furthermore, as a grown ass man you shouldn't be harboring unresolved issues with a nigga that owes you money; it's not masculine, bruh. Your own baby mamma always made sure I was paid on time so I'm sorry about messing up with you."

"Hey man it ain't like that; we're family." It sounded like Jaquan was backpedaling.

"You don't have to remind me; pull that box out of the bag, hold it in front of the phone until I tell you to stop. Nuh, no turn that serial number on it towards me." He turned the package as requested as I got out a pen scribbling the exposed serial number on a piece of paper.

"Uh, it's cool; I can wait a little while for the money." That was true as my cousin lived on a stipend provided by his well to do mother who worked in the medical field. She was a well-paid doctor for a few decades before shifting into an executive position at the hospital afterwards. For all intents and purposes my cousin was a low tier trust fund baby which was probably one of the reasons Renee (Infamous Baby Mamma #2) hooked up with him beside the obvious.

"Just name your price; now you going to help me out with Andre and the first order of business is finding out where he went." His backpedaling irritated me as I retrieved a laptop from the desk in my bedroom.

"How're you going to do that?"

"Let me worry about that for now; be ready to move when I call you, so just hang out there for a minute."

"What uhm, it's been kind of crazy over here today, cuz."

"You weren't thinking about that when you were beating Esther's back out with Andre; so, you can't give me a minute or two to make sure Andre is, okay?"

"What's that got to do with me?"

"I need you Jaquan; if you feel different, just open the fucking hotel room door and walk out."

"Look cuz..."

"If you feel different, just open the door and walk the fuck out."

There was a long pause as he considered my unstated ultimatum still in possession of Esther's phone. My facetime view shifted as he turned towards the main part of the presidential suite which centered on Esther bent over apparently retrieving her panties from the floor next to the bed. The terrycloth robe covering her nude body rode up partially exposing a good portion of her big, floppy longish donk. Her cornfed derriere really was so big you could see it from the front. Jaquan didn't realize I shared his point of view remotely drifting closer revealing Esther tugging on the stubborn underpants. They were stuck on something as she realized he was looking, standing up quickly tugging down on her robe.

"Hey!" She looked startled.

"OH, UHM SORRY! My cousin said I should wait here for a minute or two while he take care of something; he's gonna call us back!" Jaquan sounded shaky and guilty as sin as her gaze centered on my face plainly seen on the face of her phone.

"I can see his face on my phone, Jaquan!"

"Huh? OH YEAH!!" I got a bit of shaky cam as his face appeared briefly before Esther snagged her phone slapping his hand in the process. The view eventually centered on her weathered features catching a fleeting glimpse of my cousin looking butthurt.

"What's going on? What'd you fine in that there bedroom?"

"Can you go in the bathroom for a minute, just leave the door cracked if you get my drift."

"Okay whatever you want." My wayward auntie went into the bathroom leaving the door slightly open getting my drift peering out into the presidential suite eyeballing Jaquan.

"I'm gonna find Andre and have my cousin pick him up if it's feasible; I got the serial number off his Switch so I'm gonna call their customer service to track it."

"That's a thing; you can really do something like that these days?"

"Yeah auntie; I just want you to make sure he stays there while I take care of this shit. If he leaves, it's okay but I'm really trashed today. If push comes to shove, I'll do it myself, but I'd rather he take care of this nonsense."

"What happened; you were good the other day last time I saw you?"

"Don't worry about it; can you uh, watch Jaquan?" I raised a brow staring at her face in silent implication. She was holding the phone low near the middle of her abdomen giving me a view up at the undersides of her partially hidden cleavage threatening to spill out of her robe.

"Alright now, you want to be extra, but I'm caught up in a rock and a hard place. We'll see what happens and take it from there. Gotta be honest; feels a lot like I'm dealing with the devil in you now; damn, you sure are slick, ain't you?"

"What do you think?" I replied slyly removing the plate prepared for me from the microwave. Angela's hard work was not going to waste, and I hoped things could be resolved without me being involved directly.

"I think I done bit that apple and now I'm being kicked out of the garden of Eden."

"Are you calling me a snake?"

"Well, I like snake; been playing with some pretty big snakes all weekend, too."

"I'll call back as soon as possible; have fun auntie."

We ended the facetime mutually.

I looked up customer service for Andre's game on my laptop dialing up the number.

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[2 HOURS EARLIER]

Esther found herself looking up at the round light fixture on the ceiling of the presidential suite. She was lying splayed out with her arms and legs pointing in opposite directions wearing nothing but a simple fifties styled night slip with the brassiere cups sewn into the flimsy silken garment. It was the first time in her life that she legitimately had nothing to do. For as long as she could remember, it was part of her routine to get busy cooking and cleaning, running errands and managing the household for her disinterested husband. She'd long given up her career after a series of misfortunate events left her unemployed. A wayward associate, barely a friend talked Esther into doing something a little strange for some change.

Her mind was being propelled backwards through time at light speed through her past and history with the man who'd looked to make her an honest woman after a night of compensated passion. It was her third "party" dancing with that decidedly street friend and her cousin. The first time she'd been more of an observer eventually coaxed into peeling off the Brazilian jeans that were skintight on her huge elongated butt and decent shaped legs.

They were the high waisted kind with this nice shiny row of four buttons in the front. Everybody conscious now in her late thirties at the time, underneath was a yellow bodysuit, shapewear to help shore up the parts she wasn't comfortable with. The back was a thong which helped her large, jiggly buttocks stay free and comfortable. This had the unintended effect of making her enormous donk look incredible and jiggly. Someone commented that her butt looked like a whole waterbed stuffed into those jeans. It was akin to wearing a sausage casing in some respects. Modesty claimed the rest of her ensemble with a billowy embroidered peasant top hiding her upper half.