Baby Momma 2 (19 page)

“Where's Uncle Key goin', Mommy?” Trey asked me quietly.

I fought the tears and the heartache; I needed to be stronger than what I thought possible. “He's going home, baby.”

I'd barely closed the back door when I was knocked off my feet. All the air whooshed out of my body in one painful breath. Trey yelled and Lataya wailed.

“Trey, go upstairs! Take your sister upstairs!” I rolled onto my side, clutching my stomach as he scampered away, half dragging his crying sister behind him.

“How did I know this is where he'd meet you? Of all the places, he'd have you come here.”

Lania was standing above me, her eyes wild with fury and hate. She glared down at me, shotgun in hand—muzzle to the ground. She was leaning on it like a crutch, slightly swaying back and forth.

“All he did was bring me my kids, Yylannia. There's nothing to us. You want him, you got him.”

She sneered down at me. “You can't give me what's already mine, bitch. He's so damn caught up with your ass he's willing to die. I'm not worried about you. I just need the little girl so Angelo will let me and Key live in peace.”

The meaning behind her words was all too clear. I slowly struggled to sit. No one was going to touch my daughter and the thought alone ignited a fire in my soul.

“You're going to have to kill me to get her. Is all of this really worth it? Do you think it's going to be that easy?” I glanced around, looking for something, anything to use in defense.

“Oh, Chelly. Poor Chelly. Misguided, thinks-she-owns-the-world little Chelly. I can do whatever the fuck I want, bitch! Angelo's my brother, sweetheart. We own Miami.” She laughed, and it was the most deranged-sounding witch's cackle I'd ever heard in my life.

I watched helplessly as she raised the barrel of the shotgun. My mind was going berserk. I tried calculating how much time I'd have to stand and lunge or roll to the side.
Can I even make it to her before she pulls the trigger?
I didn't have a choice; my babies were not going to see me laid out in this floor.

“Stand the fuck up and take this shit like a woman. I'd hate to have to tell everyone I killed a cowering bitch.”

Slowly I dragged myself upright. I didn't plan it and I sure as hell didn't fully think it through. I lunged at Lania's feet. The sound of the shotgun momentarily deafened me and she screamed as the bullet smashed through the door behind me. I didn't give her a chance to get any kind of leverage on that shotgun. I hit her in the jaw so hard I was sure my hand was broken.

Nothing prepares you for those split-second moments. They happen faster than lightning and you are all instinct and reaction. Before Lania could react I'd grabbed the gun, stood, and before I could think about consequences or anything else I fired. I hit her center mass—square in the chest. Shotgun still in hand I ran to get Trey and Lataya. They were hunkered together on the bottom of the stairs, crying hysterically.

“It's okay, babies. I promise everything is okay. Let's go get in the car.”

I led them around Lania's body, turning their heads into my leg so they wouldn't look. There was a hole the size of tennis ball in the back door and the light from the sun cast a lonely ray through it. I turned the handle and nothing could stop the scream that escaped me. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and my heart split in two as tears streamed from my eyes. I dropped the shotgun and knelt down.

Keyshawn was lying outside the door. I already knew he was gone. His eyes stared unblinking toward the sky and blood covered his chest. He was still holding a bouquet of flowers in his left hand.
God, he must have reconsidered what I said and decided to come back.
There was so much bloodshed surrounding me and all of it was because of Rasheed and his hoing-ass ways. I was tempted to dig his body up from wherever it was buried and shoot him again, several times, just for all the pain we were going through.

I didn't know where I got the strength from but I stood. The kids were still beside me; their little scared faces would probably scar me for life. Kissing my fingers I touched Keyshawn's eyes and closed them.

“You two okay?” I asked quietly.

I looked at my babies, and I knew for a fact Honey wouldn't stop until I was dead and Lataya was back with her. I called the police and waited in my rental car for them to arrive. Officer Towanna, the one who helped me, was the first one to get there.

“Michelle, right? You all right?” She approached me with her weapon drawn.

“I'm good. You won't be needin' that gun though, they ain't gonna move.”

She radioed for backup and smiled reassuringly. “Well, you sure do seem to keep a lot of drama surrounding your ass.”

I smiled at her attempt to ease the tension. After I explained everything that had happened, Towanna offered to personally escort me and the kids to a new hotel while everything was being investigated. She didn't trust anyone else, since Lania and Angelo were known to pay off police officers and at the moment I didn't trust
anyone.

“Y'all need me, you have my card and my cell phone number.” She was standing at the doorway to the hotel room.

“Thank you for everything, Offi . . . Towanna. I just want a hot bath and sleep right now.”

I watched as she closed the door and it felt as though a chapter was closing. My heart had been ripped out, replaced, and ripped out again, and I had no idea how to rebuild it this time. Every fiber in my body was screaming for me to just break down. I wanted to scream, cry, crawl into a hole, and never come out. There was now a gaping wound in my heart and nothing aside from my kids would ever be able to fill it again.

Everyone close to me was gone. It was just me and my two little ones, and if Honey wouldn't stop until I was dead . . . well, then it only made sense for me to try to kill her first. She'd made this game strictly life or death, and above all else I was choosing life.

Urban Books, LLC
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Baby Momma 2 Copyright © 2013 Ni'chelle Genovese

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ISBN: 978-1-6016-2538-0

 

 

 

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