Page 30 of Love U Down II

“Oh nah. I do.”

“Damn. You a cocky lil nigga.” Rome laughed.

“Nah. I just know I’m real good at what I do. Ain’t too many people fucking with me when it comes to this battle shit.”

“We’ll see.”

“You want to put money on it?”

“Don’t let him hustle you,” Alan chuckled.

“I’ll put five on it for the sport.”

“Five hundred plus the winning pot is cool.” Shade nodded.

“A’ight. Bet.”

They shook on it and we all looked at the ring again as the announcer took his place.

The next eight rounds went well. Drix won his battle in the first matchup. Dashawn lost in the seventh. Shade won in the eighth. They went straight into the next string of battles. Drix lost in the first matchup and Shade won in the fourth. The top four battles went by extremely fast and I whistled and shook my head at some of the shit they threw at each other. Shade ended up winning and making it to the final two.

The announcer let them run right through and Shade won again.

The building went wild when they announced Shade and Genie were the last rappers standing. This experience was like what people said it felt like when watching Venus and Serena go head to head. I was sure the vote could have gone either way, but when they announced Genie as the winner, it was apparent that the room had expected nothing less.

Drix cheered and clapped. My eyebrows knitted together and I looked back at him.

“Are you celebrating your artist losing, Berlin?”

“Nah, not necessarily.”

“Then what are you celebrating?”

“We needed a female MC and I think we just found her. So we may have just filled that last rap slot I had open, baby.”

“You think she’s going to bite?”

“Come on now, Twin. You know yo’ nigga can do just about anything. Give me one week and I’ll have her signature on some paperwork. I promise you.”

CHAPTER 7

DRIX

“So I’m fucking the bitch, alright?” Shade glanced from one of his friends to the other while I looked for the instrumental I wanted to get him on. “I got her flipped upside down with my dick––”

I cut him off. “Ay, bitch, watch your mouth in front of my wife. She don’t want to hear that shit.”

“So, what? She’s a nun now?” He lifted an eyebrow.

“Nah. She’s my wife and that’s the only mothafuckin’ title that matters when it comes to you. Now get yo’ ass in the booth.”

Shade chuckled.

“My bad if I offended you, Myome,” he offered.

“It’s fine.” Myome forced a small smile.

“Nah. It ain’t. Stop trying to be nice.” I nudged her lightly with my elbow and she giggled. The sound made me grin.