Never Again, No More 4 Read online

  Never Again, No More 4:

  What Goes Around

  Untamed

  www.urbanbooks.net

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgments

  Previously from - Never Again, No More 3

  Chapter 1 - Trinity

  Chapter 2 - Terrence

  Chapter 3 - Lucinda

  Chapter 4 - Aldris

  Chapter 5 - Charice

  Chapter 6 - LaMeka

  Chapter 7 - Aldris

  Chapter 8 - Lucinda

  Chapter 9 - Lincoln

  Chapter 10 - Charice

  Chapter 11 - Ryan

  Chapter 12 - LaMeka

  Chapter 13 - Lucinda

  Chapter 14 - Trinity

  Chapter 15 - Pooch

  Chapter 16 - Lucinda

  Chapter 17 - Aldris

  Chapter 18 - LaMeka

  Chapter 19 - Charice

  Chapter 20 - Terrence

  Chapter 21 - Pooch

  Chapter 22 - Trinity

  Teaser chapter

  Urban Books, LLC

  300 Farmingdale Road, NY-Route 109

  Farmingdale, NY 11735

  Never Again, No More 4: What Goes Around

  Copyright © 2021 Untamed

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-6455-6242-9

  eISBN 13: 978-1-64556-243-6

  eISBN 10: 1-64556-243-3

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.

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  Acknowledgments

  Lord, I can never say thank you enough. This talent is yours; I simply borrow it. Thank you for allowing me to do what I love, and I pray you increase my gift. I promise to keep applying it as you see fit.

  To my number one fan, bestie, and love, my husband, Chris, your sacrifice for these late nights and early mornings, weekday through the weekend, and deadlines and events never goes unnoticed. I love you, but more importantly, I appreciate you. Twenty years in, and we ain’t going nowhere. Good marriage for life!

  To my heartbeats, Kiana, Christian, and Kameron, teamwork makes the dream work. You all have grown up and jumped on Team Everything Untamed. Thank you for everything, from the check-ins to the assisting to the jokes and hugs. We all we got.

  To my angel baby, Da’Ja, Granny, Grandma, Keisha, Annie, and Mama—my host of angels—the watchful care you all give is always felt. Love you always and rest well.

  My A1s ain’t nothing like y’all. I don’t need no big cliques, just my small tribe: Kesha, Sabrina, Chinek, Chia, Kisha, Vulyncia, Kiana D., and Tam. JC, Black, and Xodus.

  To my ridahs in the literary world who have my back and my front, I couldn’t do this without you. That includes Diane Rembert (Frienddd), Robert, N’Tyse, K. Reshay, TK, Eye CU, Sip and Flip Book Club, Danesha Little, Your Oral Diktion/Black Love Poetry Series and, of course, Urban Books!

  To the readers, listen, thank you for continuing this Never Again, No More journey with me. These characters get loose in Part 4, so get ready. In my Durrell “Where the money reside” voice, I say, “’Cause we gon’ go, we gon’ go where the story reside, where the story reside, where the story reside, where the story reside, so let’s tap, tap, tap in, and that’s on—Untamed got a fire book series.”

  Previously from

  Never Again, No More 3

  Ryan

  I was beginning to wonder if this relationship was even worth the fucking trouble anymore. I loved Charice, I did, but the fact remained that the more I looked at shit, the more it was apparent to me that she had feelings for Lincoln. She could tell me she didn’t until she was blue in the fucking face, but one minute she couldn’t stand him and the next she was sitting in his house. Yeah, I understood how the story went down. The delivery company fucked up the address, and she assumed Lincoln was being cruel. I got that. What I didn’t get was why my wife was in his house, especially since I didn’t observe one damn delivery truck in his yard when I drove off. Okay, so she said he told her the story about how he was awarded custody of London. Yada. Yada. Yada. Who cares? I felt sorry for Lauren, but that was Lincoln’s business and Lincoln’s problem. The true question was, Why did Charice care? I’ll tell you why. She still had feelings for that nigga.

  LaMeka

  Suddenly, there was an awkward silence between us. He stood there rocking back and forth, with his hands in his pockets, and I stood there with my arms folded, nervously sliding glances between him and the floor. What could I say to Gavin? “Oh, by the way, I like you and all, but let me tell you everything going on in my life and how I’m considering getting back into a relationship with my babies’ father?” Yeah, I didn’t see that going over too well. We’d kept it strictly professional at work, or rather he had. To be frank, besides hello and goodbye, Gavin spoke to me only about work-related issues. He’d even stopped calling me, but I knew for a fact that Misha was calling him and keeping him on ice, so to speak. How’d I know? Well, besides that same little birdie telling me she was doing so, I have to admit that I’d actually reached out to Gavin once. I missed his companionship, friendship, and his sense of humor. Hell, I missed him.

  I am an introvert except with my family, my girls, and Tony. And Gavin was the only person outside of that circle to get me to open up. After Tony hit me with his request, I broke down and called Gavin, but he didn’t answer. I assumed it was because he no longer wanted to be bothered with me on a personal level, so I left him alone. Now here he was in the middle of my foyer, staring at me, and I at him, with so much to be said, yet so little being said.

  Lucinda

  “I’m just in shock. It is so true that you cannot judge a book by the cover. Lucinda, you’re all right.” He nodded, having determined that he’d misjudged me.

  It was the first time I saw Mike through different eyes. We were actually more alike than we thought, and I realized I’d misjudged him as well. “Aww, thanks, Mike. So are you,” I said as the game started. “But I’m still gonna whip that ass.”

  We stood there playing Guitar Hero for what had to be thirty minutes. Nadia had come back and sat on the sofa, and she was watching us play, and we were laughing it up and having a good time when Aldris floated into the family room with two boxes of pizza.

  “Hey!” Aldris yelled loudly to us over the noise.

  I paused the game, and we all calmed down with the laughter and talking.

  “Hey, baby,” I greeted, smiling at him.

  “Hey,” he said, looking back and forth between Mike and me. “Mike?” he asked, puzzled.

  Mike snapped his fingers. “Oh, man, I came over to scoop you up. Remember, you were going to shoot hoops with me?”

  Aldris sighed and snapped his fingers. “Oh, yeah, man. I totally forgot. My bad,” he said to him as they slapped hands together.

  “Oh, no worries. Lucinda’s been a great hostess.” Mike smiled back at me.

  I fanned him off. “He’s the one that’s been a big help.”

  “Yep, Papi, he helped me study, and he and Mami have been battling on Guitar Hero,” Nadia said and then w
hispered. “But Mami’s winning.”

  “I heard that.” Mike nudged Nadia playfully. “Sheer luck,” Mike hollered.

  Aldris nodded. “Oh, okay. Wow. Well, I appreciate it, man. Lu, I was calling you to find out what you all wanted to eat. I see now that you were occupied by the Wii. I settled for pizza.”

  Gasping, with a balled fist to my mouth, I apologized. “Ooh. I shoulda called you. Mike bought Nadia and me pizza already, but at least we have a meal for tomorrow.”

  He set the pizzas down on the coffee table. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Well, did you manage to get any work done?”

  “Yeah, I did. Thanks to ol’ Mike here.” I play boxed with Mike. “He watched Nadia for me while I finished my paper and homework. Speaking of work, I have to sign on . . .” I looked over at Mike. “Although I was thoroughly enjoying kicking your tail,” I joked with Mike as he moved into one of my play punches. “Stick and move.”

  He laughed, fist-bumping me, and then pulled the guitar off. “Until next time. You won the last dragon this time,” he teased as I did a little victory dance, and then he laughed.

  “Y’all are just bosom buddies now, huh?” Aldris commented.

  “Man, Lu is a trip. I told her we have to plan fight nights and some tailgate parties when the football season starts,” Mike said excitedly.

  “Yeah, in that regard, you and Lucinda have a lot in common,” Aldris admitted with a shrug.

  “Yeah, we know,” Mike and I said at the same time. Then we looked at each other and pointed. “Jinx. Double jinx. Triple jinx,” we rattled off together, howling.

  “Jinxy twins.” Aldris put his hands up. “I’m pretty tired. I’d love to chop it up with you, man, but I need to eat and chill and, you know, spend a little time with my family.”

  Trinity

  Now that he claimed the Pooch situation was handled, I was on pins and needles even more. He looked at shit from his lens, but I was the one who’d been in a relationship with Pooch. I knew how he operated and how he thought. When Pooch found out whatever plan had failed, he wouldn’t stop until he found out the reason and the culprit behind it. What kind of leverage did Terrence have that this scheme wouldn’t eventually be linked to him? That was my whole point. I knew that he was intelligent and a forward thinker, but Terrence possessed a different level of comfort than I did when it came to Pooch. He dealt only with the people who dealt with Pooch. I dealt with Pooch. I knew his mindset better than anyone else, and that included Terrence.

  The calm that we were now experiencing felt eerie to me. By now, I figured we’d have heard something besides just that the bribe worked. The fact that we hadn’t heard anything was what gave me pause. Pooch may not have been as intellectual as Terrence, but he was still a street nigga. They didn’t fight fair. And being honest, for all of Terrence’s intelligence, Pooch was the one who got him locked up first, because that’s how grimy niggas operate.

  Terrence wasn’t that type of dude. He didn’t give a damn about what the next man had going on as long as he could get his. Pooch wasn’t like that. He cared. He wanted it all, other niggas be damned. It was that attitude that made me wonder what the fuck was going on behind the scenes that we didn’t know about. We’d covered our tracks the first time, but the second time might not be so easy.

  Pooch

  Man, I was one grumpy muthafucka. A lack of sleep, being locked up, and not locating Trinity were fucking with me something awful. I missed Trinity. Man, there was so much I wished I could’ve redone with her. I wished I coulda been a better nigga for her and the kids. She had wanted to do her art shit, and I shoulda let her. She still coulda been my dime piece with her own grip. I’d admit that the main reason I never wanted Trinity to do nothing with her life was that I was afraid of her being successful. If she was successful, then I knew she’d leave a nigga like me, so I’d used my power and money to keep her from doing what she wanted to do. I was wrong for that.

  I hadn’t asked Flava about her lately, but I was definitely gonna get back to that. It was time to find out what the hell was truly going on with Trinity. Whether I missed her or not, if I found out her ass had been with Terrence this whole time, she was gon’ wish I had got that fuckin’ triple cocktail concoction instead of this prison sentence. Real talk. But if I found out something had happened to her, whoever had done it wasn’t gonna have time to worry about running from me, nor would their family members have to worry about retaliation, because I was gonna meet that person’s muthafuckin’ ass in the same hell I was gonna send them to. I was definitely gonna get the triple cocktail if that was the case, and I wasn’t gon’ mind one bit. Hell, I’d strap up in the seat and stick the needle in my arm my damn self.

  Welcome to

  Never Again, No More 4:

  What Goes Around

  Chapter 1

  Trinity

  For the most part, my life was great. I had my husband right beside me, loving me, supporting me, and taking care of me and the kids. My career was in full swing, and I was working on my degree, so that I could progress. I didn’t need or want for anything. But I was still feeling a disconnect in my life. Ever since Terrence had accused me of sleeping with his cousin, Big Cal, I had felt so hurt. I got that he had risked a lot, especially when it had come to helping Big Cal and his other cousin, Thomas, infiltrate Pooch’s Dope Boy Clique and take them down, but hell, I had risked a lot, too, by sneaking off with the kids and leaving with Terrence, so why would I want to be the one to jeopardize it? I understood that he felt he couldn’t trust anyone. Cool. I got that. But it really seemed like he was saying he couldn’t trust me, and that was a problem.

  I’d done a good job of pretending not to let it worry me, but over the past couple of weeks, I’d spent more time at the art gallery instead of staying at the house, because I wanted to be away from Terrence. Being made to feel like I was a whore when all I’d ever been was a straight-up, down-ass chick did something to me. Especially when the person who made me feel this way was supposed to be my better half.

  “Trinity, we’ve got an issue with your Ecstasy collection. Two of the portraits came back from production with marks,” my manager informed me.

  I looked up from my computer. “Give me about five minutes, and I’ll be right out.”

  “Sure. Oh, and I have the invoices from last month for you to go over when you get a chance.”

  Once I acknowledged her last statement, she placed the invoices on my desk and left. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I was finishing my research paper for class, so I could submit it to my professor.

  Ding. My work cell phone alerted me that I had a message. I looked at the screen and saw that it was from Big Cal.

  Biguc1: You still there?

  TatsByTrin: Yeah, I told you I was typing my paper. I can’t really talk now anyway. I’m at the office, and I have a couple of shipment issues to deal with.

  Biguc1: Well, don’t be frustrated. My cousin can be paranoid at times. He loves you, Trinity, and I can’t blame him for keeping his eyes out on you. Besides the fact that he loves you, you’re a dime-piece girl, and any man would be happy to have you on his arm. So, don’t take offense to it. Count it as a blessing.

  His words spread a feeling of warmth and comfort through me, and I giggled at his assessment.

  * * *

  TatsByTrin: Of course. LOL. I gotta go. Good talking to you. You’re always there for me.

  Biguc1: LOL. True. I’ll always be there for you. Like a good neighbor, Big Cal is there. LOL.

  TatsByTrin: LMAO. Clown. Holla at you later. Be good.

  Biguc1: Peace. Stay sexy, lovely lady.

  After I placed my phone down, I signed off my work computer and went to deal with the marred pictures. After that issue, there was another one and another one, and before I knew it, I was tied up for at least another hour handling business. It didn’t bother me, but I did want to finish my paper before Terrence came to take me to lunch, and now I wouldn’t have the time.


  “What’s up, people?” Terrence said, walking into the gallery.

  “Hey, Terrence,” everyone replied in unison.

  My baby looked all kinds of fine. His dreads had just been freshly retouched, and his goatee lined up, and his outfit was fresh. I swore only he could make a pair of black cargo shorts and a fitted, gray V-neck T-shirt look sexy.

  He walked over to me and kissed me on the lips. “What’s up, sexy?” he whispered.

  “Aw,” the ladies sang.

  “You all are so silly.” I smiled, looking back at them.

  “Girl, please. I wish I had a man to call me sexy,” Jalise, my operations manager, joked as they all high-fived each other.

  Terrence wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Well, I do have a cousin named Aaron you can have.”

  I put my face in my hands and couldn’t help but to laugh. If only they knew why he had said that. I playfully nudged him.

  “Girl, Mr. Right will come. Don’t rush it. The wait makes it that much sweeter.” I winked at her. Then I turned to face Terrence. “I’m just wrapping up a few minor issues. I’ll be ready in a few. You can sit in my office and wait if you want.”

  “Cool. Handle your business, businesswoman.” He kissed me on my forehead before he turned and headed back to my office.

  Owning my own business wasn’t easy, but I wasn’t going to complain. Fuckin’ with Pooch, I would’ve never been able to have anything to complain about. I did not know what in the hell had ever possessed me to enter into a relationship with that fool anyway. All I knew was that I’d lived and learned, and I was so glad that Vernon “Pooch” Smalls was out of my life.