She didn’t like it.  Amelia could tell as soon as they walked into the parlor that Reggie Dell wasn’t feeling this.

She was standing at the fireplace, looking gorgeous in a pair of skin-tight leather pants, and the smile she held when Hammer first walked in lessened as soon as she saw that Amelia was with him.  But then she rallied, Amelia thought, as if she wasn’t going to let anybody, especially not Hammer’s side chick, rain on her parade.

“Hammer!” she said excitedly, and hurried to him.  She threw herself against him, and wrapped her arms around him.

But it wasn’t Reggie Dell who Amelia was watching.  Reggie wasn’t the issue.  Hammer was.  And Amelia could tell, just by the way he held Reggie, and by the way his eyes lit up with warmth as soon as they embraced, that he had fucked her before.  It might have only been once or twice, Amelia wasn’t sure, but he had absolutely fucked her before.  And that was why Hammer’s she’s like a daughter to me shit was never going to fly with a woman like Reggie.

When Hammer and Reggie stopped embracing, Hammer immediately launched into his introduction.  “Regina, I want you to meet---”

But Reggie cut him off.  She wasn’t ready to admit that Amelia Sinatra even existed.  And what Reggie wanted, she was accustomed to getting.  That was why she was still pissed with Hammer.  “Why didn’t you come and see about me, Hammer, like I asked you to?” she asked him.

“Reggie?”

“I told you I needed to see you,” Reggie continued.  “I live in New York, and you’re in New York practically every week, but you never come and see me.”

Hammer’s temper was rising. “Reggie--”

“You could send Oz to see me, but you couldn’t bother to come?  What’s up with that?”

“Are you going to shut the fuck up and let me tell you?  Why the fuck are you trying to handle me?”

And just like that, Hammer had put Reggie back in her place.  She knew she had liberties with him.  He loved her.  She knew that.  But she also knew he had a limit.  And if she crossed it, there would be hell to pay.  She shut the fuck up.

“I want you to meet a woman I’m sure you’ve heard about,” Hammer said to her.  “This is Amelia Sinatra.”

Amelia had halfway expected him to say my lady, or my girlfriend after he said her name; claiming her publicly the way Big Daddy said was necessary to know a guy’s true intentions.  But she realized she had been expecting too much.  Hammer loved Reggie.  He wasn’t trying to hurt her and rub it in.  Although, Amelia suspected, rubbing it in and massaging the shit out of it might be the only way a girl like Reggie was going to get it through her thick skull.

“Amelia is also the mother of my son,” Hammer continued.

Reggie wanted to roll her eyes.  What was he nuts?  Everybody knew who his baby mama was!

“Amelia,” Hammer said, “this is Reggie Dell.”

Amelia extended her hand.  “Nice to meet you, Reggie,” she said.

As Amelia also suspected, Reggie didn’t bother to shake her hand.  She launched right in.  “You’re Mick Sinatra’s sister,” she said as if it were a fact, not a question.

“That’s right,” Amelia replied.

“Which means you’re biracial.”

Say what now?  “That’s right.”

“I’m biracial too.”

Amelia was thrown by Reggie’s pronouncement.  Not because of the fact that Reggie was also biracial.  She didn’t give a shit about that.  But that she would suddenly bring it up, as if it proved some point.  And Amelia didn’t know what she expected her to say about that little tidbit.  “Okay,” was all she could think to say.

“Mick the Tick being Italian and all,” Reggie continued, “and you’re definitely not Italian-looking, I figured we had that much in common.”

Amelia nodded.  “Ah, I see.” It was still crazy as hell for her to make anything out of it, but at least it was an explanation.

“My mother is black,” Reggie said, “but my father is Spanish.  I mean real Spanish.  From Spain.  From Europe.  Not that Mexican shit.”

Amelia didn’t quite know how to take this girl.  She was insecure as hell.  That was already obvious by the way she kept lurching her body closer and closer to Hammer as if that was going to somehow change the fact that she had some real competition now.  But she was also racist, too?  She also felt a need to denigrate an entire group of people to elevate herself, when the only thing she was elevating was her inner self-hatred?

“I love Mexico myself,” Amelia said.  “And the Mexican people I know are beautiful, warm, and kind.  So I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hammer didn’t either, and said so.  He dismissed such talk, in fact, and then they all took a seat.

Reggie jockeyed so hard to sit next to Hammer, following him foot to foot as they made their way to the sitting area inside the lovely parlor, that Amelia let her have it.  It was too high school for her, and she refused to participate.  She sat herself down in the wingback chair.  Hammer sat on the sofa, after assisting Amelia to her seat, and Reggie gladly sat beside him.  Very close beside him.  He leaned back into a slouched position.  Reggie leaned back too, and took his big hand into her small one.

Watson arrived with glasses of wine for all three of them, on order of Hammer, and then stood at the door of the parlor in case he was needed further.

Hammer looked at Amelia as she sipped from her drink.  “You’re okay?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Amelia said.  “I’m fine.”

“Just not as fine as I am,” Reggie quickly pointed out.  Then smiled.  “Right, Hammer?”

“Wrong, Reggie,” Hammer said.   Then looked at her.  “So cut that shit out.”

Reggie was crestfallen, and Amelia was pleased.  Because she was behaving too juvenile for words.  Or was she playing that girlish game for Hammer?  She was certainly much younger than Hammer. Maybe he liked them that way.

“I asked both of you to come,” Hammer said, “because I need both of you to understand a few things.”

Reggie looked at him.  All kidding aside now.  “Such as?” she asked.

“I need to make myself clear.  I haven’t had a need to do so in the past.  I have a definite need to do so now.”

Reggie swallowed hard.  “Go ahead,” she said.

Reggie seemed awfully afraid to Amelia, as if she knew she was going to lose this battle, and she was bracing herself.

“Amelia,” Hammer said, “I need you to know the full extent of my relationship with Regina.”

Now it was Amelia who felt afraid.  The full extent of his relationship, she wondered.  That was what she needed to hear.  “Okay.”

“Wait, what?” Reggie asked, confused.  “Why would she need to know all about me?  I don’t want her knowing all about our relationship, Hammer.  That’s none of her business.  I don’t go around asking her about all of her relationships with all of her different men.”

Amelia looked at her.  She was wounded now, so she was trying to wound back.

And Reggie kept striking.  “I didn’t go around asking her about her relationship with Bulldog Valtone when she was married to his crazy ass.  And I didn’t ask her about her relationship with Jerardo Jovanni before she killed him, either.  Did I?”

Amelia was surprised that Reggie knew about what went down last night.  So was Hammer.  He looked at her.  “What do you know about that?”

“Unlike the two of you,” Reggie said, “I don’t have connections on the street.  I am street.  I see things.  I hear things.  All the time.  And I heard that bitch over there,” she started saying, but Hammer angrily removed his hand from hers, grabbed her chin, and turned her face toward his.

“What did you just call her?” he asked.

Reggie stared at him.  She tried to remain defiant, but his eyes had turned cold.  And she knew what that meant.  “I meant to call her Miss Amelia,” she said.

“And you make sure that’s all you call her,” Hammer warned.  “Are we clear?”

Reggie had never seen Hammer stand up for anybody’s honor this way.  Not even for hers.  She nodded her head.  “We’re clear,” she said.  And Hammer released her.

Then he exhaled, and got on with it.  “What I was saying,” he said mainly to Amelia, “is that you understand what’s going on here.  Because I know it looks crazy as a motherfuck right now.”

“Crazier,” Amelia admitted.

Reggie wanted to roll her eyes, but remembered who was sitting next to her.

“Sometimes Reggie can be a sweetheart,” Hammer said.  “Sometimes she can be a bitch.”

Reggie couldn’t believe it.  “Oh, you can call me a bitch, but I can’t call her one?”  She quickly rose to her feet.  “Oh, hell no!”

But Hammer was not so moved.  “What do you think this is a fucking democracy?  And you get to be me?  Sit your ass down,” he ordered.

Reggie was still hot, but she sat her ass down.

Hammer stared at her a moment longer, and then he proceeded.  “I knew Regina’s mother,” he said to Amelia.  “She used to work for me many years ago when I was a station chief with the Federal government.”

“What do you mean work for you?” Amelia asked.  “She was a spy?”

“On paper, she was a government analyst,” Hammer said.  “She was never outed.  But yes.  She was a spy.”

“One of the best in the business,” Reggie proudly said.

“Yes, she was,” Hammer agreed.  “One of the best.”

“Was?” Amelia asked.

A solemn look appeared on both Hammer and Reggie’s faces.  “She died,” Hammer said, “in the line of duty.  On my watch.  I should have been the one to take that hail of bullets, but she took them for me.  She saved my life by sacrificing hers.”

Amelia now understood why Hammer was uncompromising about the fact that he had to look out for Reggie.  It was a wow moment.  She looked at Reggie, who looked downright depressed.  “I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” she said.

“Thanks,” Reggie responded, although she didn’t bother to look at Amelia. 

“Before she died,” Hammer said, “she asked me to promise her something.”

“To look out for her daughter?” Amelia asked.

Hammer nodded.  “To look out for Reggie, yes,” he responded.  “And I have kept that promise, and intend to always keep that promise.  No matter what Reggie does, and she can do some dumb shit, I will not turn on her.  That’s why the underworld knows Reggie Dell is off limits.  That’s why all the bad guys out there who would test the waters knows that too.  Reggie is off limits.  They fuck with her, they will have to deal with me.”

That perked Reggie right back up, and now she was smiling.  “They know Hammer don’t play,” she said.  “It’s a valuable asset to have.”

“They all also think,” Amelia said, “that you aren’t just keeping a promise to look out for her.  They all also think that you’re doing a whole lot more with her.”

“And?” Reggie asked.

“Over the years,” Hammer said, “I have grown to love and care for Reggie like a daughter.  But that’s the extent, the full extent, of our relationship.”

Had Amelia read it wrong?  “You’re telling me everybody’s wrong and you’ve never had sex with Reggie?”

Reggie looked at him, also, as if she was daring him to lie.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Hammer said.  “I love her.  I love her dearly.  But I have never been in love with her.  She knows it because we’ve discussed it.  I have never had sex with her.  And I never will.”  He looked at Reggie. “Isn’t that right, Regina?”

Amelia looked at Reggie.  And from the look on her face, she knew Hammer was telling the truth.  Amelia now realized, when they were embracing, she wasn’t reading passion for Reggie on Hammer’s face.  She was reading love for Reggie.  But it was Reggie’s passion for Hammer that confused the issue.  And she had a serious jones for that man, Amelia thought.  An unhealthily serious jones.

“Isn’t that right, Regina?” Hammer asked her again.

“That’s right,” Regina was forced to admit.

“I’m in love with Amelia,” Hammer said to Reggie, “and I need you to understand that.”

Amelia’s heart filled with emotion.  He didn’t mince words at all.  He wasn’t trying to hide it or pretend or have it both ways.  He claimed her.  He claimed her publicly!

But this was some new shit to Amelia.  And because it was new, it was scary too.

But Reggie was offended.  “Why you got to act like I don’t understand anything?” she asked Hammer.  “I get what you’re saying.”

“Amelia is my lady now.  My one and only.  Someday she may be even more than that.  Do you understand that?  Do you get that?”

“I get it.  Damn, Hammer.  I get it!  I’ve got a boyfriend.  He’s a pharmaceutical salesman and he grounds me, unlike you ever did.  And he’s normal!  It’s not like I want your ass.”

Hammer pulled out a cellphone, swiped it open, and pressed a button.  “Then why did Oz find this shit in your house?” he asked, and handed it to Reggie.

Reggie looked at the phone.  Her eyes went buggy when she saw those pictures of Hammer and how they were hanging in her bedroom.  To her shock, her shrine had been exposed.  “What was he doing in my room?  He had no right going in my room!”

Hammer didn’t care why Oz happened into that room.  The fact that the room existed was the point to him.  “What’s all that shit about, Reggie?” Hammer asked her.

Amelia was curious as hell.  What was he showing her?  And what room was she talking about?

“It’s my business,” Reggie said.  “My thing.”

Hammer stared at her.  “Get rid of it,” he ordered.  “A fucking shrine.  What’s wrong with you?  You know where we stand.  You know that shit’s not going to happen.”

“I didn’t say it was going to happen,” Reggie said.  “I don’t want you!  And don’t you worry.  It’ll be my honor to get rid of it.”

Amelia could tell Reggie didn’t mean it.  But she was too curious.  “What’s this about?” she asked.

Reggie looked at Hammer with horror in her eyes.  Would he betray her trust, her eyes seemed to ask?

Hammer saw her shame, and wasn’t going to hurt her unnecessarily.  “A situation she will remedy,” he said to Amelia.  “Right, Regina?”

Reggie nodded, grateful that he did not shame her any more than she already was.

Amelia accepted his explanation too.  It wasn’t her business anyway.  But Hammer said something about a shrine.  What kind of shrine?  A shrine to him?  If that were the case, Amelia knew she had to keep her guard up with this lady.  Because anybody who would build some sort of shrine to a man, was somebody who wasn’t about to accept another woman in that man’s life, no matter what she said to his face.

“Do you have any questions?” Hammer asked Reggie.  “Because if you do, now is the time to ask them.”

Reggie thought about it.  “I hear what you’re saying about her, and that she’s your lady now and all.  But what about us?  Are we still going to be friends?  Or will her jealousy make you have to end our friendship?”

“Reggie,” Amelia said, addressing her directly.  Reggie and Hammer both looked at her.  “Do you, aw’ight?  Don’t worry about me or what I’m doing or what I’m not doing.  If you and Hammer wish to continue your friendship, go right ahead.  It has nothing to do with me, sweetheart.  You are now and will always be a nonfactor in my life.  So please don’t concern yourself with me.”

Amelia was blunt, Hammer thought, but he also knew Reggie needed to hear it.  Reggie needed to know that Amelia was not the one to trifle with.

Reggie knew it, too, but she dismissed it. “Whatever,” she said, and then she looked at Hammer.  “Can you answer my question?”

“Amelia just answered it,” he said, as his cellphone began to ring.  He pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID.  He rose to his feet.  “I have to take this,” he said.  Then he looked at Reggie.  “I’ll talk to you later,” he said as he began to head into a different room.  “You can leave now.  Watson will see you out.”  He then left the room as he answered the phone call.

Amelia inwardly smiled as Watson immediately opened the coat closet and pulled out Reggie’s coat.  And it wasn’t lost on Reggie either.  Hammer had dismissed her, but left Amelia in place.  But that was alright, Reggie thought as she rose to her feet.  She’d get hers.

And as she was about to pass Amelia’s chair, she couldn’t resist.  “Between you and me,” she said, “you may be his lady now or whatever.  You may believe that shit.  But you’re still a bitch.”

“Yes, I am,” Amelia agreed, giving her a purposely undaunted look.  “But I’m a bad bitch.  A real bad bitch.  The kind your mama told you to watch out for.  So watch yourself.”

Watson smiled.  That’s how you handle Reggie Dell, he thought.  That’s how you handle such a rude and obnoxious girl!  “Right this way, Madam,” he said to an offended Reggie, as he held out her overcoat.

Reggie continued to stand there, staring at Amelia, and then she went to Watson, snatched her coat from him, and then left the house.  She pulled out her cellphone before she got into her vehicle.  And placed a call.

She had just sat down in her Audi when a male’s voice came on the other end of the line.  And she dispensed with niceties.  “I’m in,” she said, as she shifted gears and headed away from Charlemagne.  “I’m all-in,” she added.  “In a big motherfucking way.”

She looked through her rearview mirror at Hammer’s big house, wondering if he was going to have sex with that bitch tonight, and drove fast down the mountain.  When Hammer first called for this meeting, she was on the fence about what it was going to be about.  She was going to see for herself just what his baby mama was up to.  Now she knew Amelia wanted to take Hammer away from her.  And Reggie wasn’t on the fence any longer.  “What do you want me to do?” she asked.