Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 (The Saga Continues) (6 page)

A few seconds later, I looked down at the clock on the dashboard of Bishop’s truck to get some idea of how long he’d been inside of the club. When I noticed that five minutes had went by, I knew it wouldn’t be long before he’d be on his way back to the truck. But while he was in there, I wondered if he’d recognize Duke’s wife if he got a chance to see her while she was inside. I wanted so badly to jump out of this truck so I could go inside to confront her. I felt as if she needed to see me so I could tell her all the fucked up shit her husband did to me. I wanted her to know the day I moved into the condo at the Cosmo building and the day I left. But I really wanted to tell her that I was the first chick pushing that BMW X6 she was driving, so in my mind she got the fucking leftovers. Something inside of me told me if he ever mentioned my name to her, it was probably to make himself look good. It wouldn’t surprise me if she hadn’t heard about me at all. But it was cool. I was gonna bounce back while his grimy ass was behind bars. And I was gonna have the last fucking laugh.

I looked back at the clock on the dashboard of Bishop’s truck and realized that five more minutes had gone by. As I slowly lifted my head back up to turn my attention back towards the front door of Magic City, I was startled when I heard a loud explosion followed by a giant flash of light, then a fireball engulfed the entire club. Before I could process my thoughts, the fucking front door blew off the hinges, and the windows shattered into a million pieces, leaving shards of glass on the ground around the building. The left side of the club collapsed immediately after that.

Unbelievably, two of the strip club’s patrons escaped from the front door. Neither man was recognizable because they were covered in debris. I jumped from the truck to see if one of them was Bishop. When I got within a couple feet of them, I knew that Bishop was still inside. My heart collapsed in the pit of my stomach and my mind had drawn a blank. I fought with the idea of running inside the club to see if I could find Bishop. But when I heard men and women screaming for help on the inside, I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea. I knew nothing about the proper way to rescue anyone from a burning building so I raced towards the other people in the parking lot hoping they’d already called the fire department and paramedics. When they informed me that they had, one guy that was standing out in the parking lot talking to a stripper said, “Oh shit! She’s on fire!”

I immediately turned around and noticed that it was a stripper. She had on a long sleeve shirt and it was completely on fire. She screamed for help. The guy beside me took his shirt off and raced towards her. Seconds later, he threw his shirt over her back and wrestled her down to the ground. From that point, I witnessed her crying while the smoke from the flames escaped her body. I was in awe. I couldn’t believe that I actually witnessed everything going on. But what really ate at me was that Bishop was still inside the club. And not even I could help him get out. I stood there speechless and I didn’t know whether to wait around for the firefighters to get there or hop in his truck and leave.

A million things ran threw my mind. And the possibilities of Duke, his wife, Katrina and Bishop being burned alive gave me a bittersweet taste. I figured if he was in there with his new bride then they deserved to be in there. Although Katrina was a bitch at times, I didn’t think she deserved this at all.

Bishop was on an entirely different level. I actually spent time with the brotha so knowing that he got caught up in that blaze put a damper on me. He was cool people. And he seemed like the type of cat who’d only fuck a person up if they messed with him. So to see this shit happen to him wasn’t right at all.

Now that I think about it, it wouldn’t surprise me if he got set up. I mean, out of thin air he gets a call saying he needed to get to the club. Come on now, something’s not right with that. Then to see Duke’s wife go inside the club right after Bishop seemed even sketchier.

While I tried to piece this whole scenario together, the firefighters finally arrived and asked everyone to move out of the parking lot and go to the other side of the street. I got back inside of Bishop’s truck and move it to the opposite side of the street and decided to wait until I could find out who was all inside that club and if Bishop was dead.

My heart raced the entire time I sat there waiting to hear something. The thought of Bishop getting killed in that explosion became unbearable. And the one thing that kept nagging at me was the fact that Katrina had him come there. If she had never called him then he’d be at the hotel with me. It was too late to turn back the clock now.

Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

Throwing Shit in the Game-Chapter Seven

It took the firefighters two fucking hours to put out the flames.

The entire building was completely unrecognizable. It was damn near burned to the ground. I sat behind the wheel of the truck in disbelief and wondered when they were going to bring out the bodies.

People started coming out of the woodworks to see what was going on. A few family members stood by awaiting answers from the firefighters and hoping by some miracle that their loved ones were alive and well.

I recognized one woman who used to come into the club to borrow money from her daughter, who was a stripper. Her name was Ms. Dina and she was crying hysterically. All she kept saying was please don’t let my daughter be in there. Her daughter’s name was Kia, but her stripper name was Ecstasy. Ecstasy was one of the youngest dancers in the club and the prettiest one too. Her only downfall was that she let the niggas in the club feed her pennies. I used to tell her all the time that she was the prettiest chick with the baddest body out of all the other strippers in Magic City. If only she knew how to play her cards right, she’d be one paid bitch. I just hope she wasn’t in the club so she could have another shot at life.

There were other people crying throughout the crowds. But I didn’t recognize any of them. Meanwhile, as I took in everything around me, my heart nearly jumped through my fucking chest when I saw a silver 911 Porsche slowly cruising by the club. I couldn’t see through the dark, tinted windows but there was no question in my mind that it was Duke behind the wheel of the car. I slid down in the front seat of Bishop’s truck just in case the car stopped. I wasn’t about to let him see me in no shape, form or fashion. So I quickly took precautionary measures.

I completely took my focus off the fact Magic City had just burned down with Bishop inside of it and watched Duke’s Porsche as it combed the entire area. At one point I thought the car was going to stop, but it kept moving up the block.

I watched his car until it crossed over the railroad tracks and jumped on the Portsmouth Boulevard’s ramp to get on the expressway. When his car disappeared around the loop that’s when I exhaled. Seeing him ride by the club to check things out had just reconfirmed that he had eyes all over the place. If something happened in this city, Duke Carrington was definitely going to be informed about it. Now I knew that son-of-a-bitch was in complete control, which also meant he knew his wife was caught up in the explosion with everyone else.

So why the fuck didn’t he stop?

His wife’s car was right there in plain sight. There was no fucking doubt in my mind that he saw it. I mean, that move was really suspect if you asked me. This muthafucka really was that sinister and coldblooded. Whatever his reason was for not stopping would never be good enough to keep my mouth closed. The more fucked up shit Duke did, the more he made it painfully obvious that he cared about no one else but himself. I couldn’t wait until the day I could see that man suffer.

And when it finally came, I was gonna spit on him after I put a bullet in the back of his fucking head.

It seemed as if time had been dragging along because an hour had gone by and not one body had been recovered yet. I had every intention to approach one of the firefighters but I knew it would be impossible to do. The police had the opposite side of the street blocked off with barricades and yellow tape. They had to make sure no one would be able to cross over into their crime scene.

I had to be honest and say that I had become very restless. The fact that more time had gone by and still not one body had been recovered made me realize that Bishop wasn’t coming out alive. So what in the hell was I going to do about it?

I didn’t have a cell phone in my possession, so I couldn’t make one single phone call. I guess it didn’t make any difference since I had no one to call. I did have keys to Bishop’s truck, but he had the key card to the hotel room in his back pocket, so I had no idea how I was going to get back into the room. I swear I was always finding myself in a ton of shit. One day I was in jail and the next day, I was witnessing a strip club going up in smoke and killing almost everyone inside.

After three long hours had passed, several police officers asked everyone to clear the area. A few people started resisting. They knew they had lost their loved ones in the club fire. But everybody else left without giving the police any drama. I honestly didn’t want to leave. I had Bishop’s truck and it felt as if I was leaving him behind. Even though there was a great chance he hadn’t survived the explosion, I still wanted to wait around to see them bring his body out of the debris and rubble. But since the police officers were adamant about clearing the area, I decided to come up with Plan B.

Tell me what’s going to happen next?

My mind was racing and I was trying to stay cool. I presumed Bishop to be dead, while Katrina was missing in action and I was left in the dark with a lot of unanswered questions. As I drove away from the crowd, my mind went into overdrive. It wasn’t a coincidence that both Bishop and Duke’s wife walked into Magic City and five minutes later the whole fucking place blew up. And what’s even more puzzling to me was the fact that Duke rode by to check out the damages without stopping. The last time I heard, he was supposed to be the new owner of Magic City. Seeing him do a drive by wasn’t the type of behavior someone would do when it concerned his or her investment. They say what you do in the dark will come to the light. Whatever Duke had underneath his sleeve, he was going to reveal it in due time.

Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

I Need Some Answers-Chapter Eight

I hopped on the highway and headed back towards Virginia Beach where I felt safe.

This shit was surreal to me. If I had any fucking sense, I should have realized how crazy this whole thing was. I didn’t need to be in the mix. Duke Carrington had cops and city officials behind him, and he was as slimy as they were. It was very hard to detect who was straight and who was crooked. Aren’t those people paid to protect and serve?

During the course of the drive I rehearsed what I would say when I got back to the hotel. By the time I pulled up to the valet I was very confident the hotel clerk would give me a spare key card to get back into the room. When I walked inside the lobby I walked straight towards the desk clerk. Thankfully, the same night clerk was still on the clock because I didn’t need any problems. All I wanted to do was get the spare key, carry my ass to the room and come up with a viable plan.

I cleared my throat while I looked directly at her nametag and then I said, “Hi, Amy, do you remember me accompanying the guy from room 504?”

She smiled. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do,” she replied.

I smiled back. “Good. I am so glad because I just dropped him off and forgot to get the room key from him. So I was wondering if you could either open the door for me or give me a spare, because I am exhausted and need to take a load off.”

“I'm really not supposed to do that. But since I seen you two together a couple times then I’m gonna go ahead and make an exception.”

“Thank you so much,” I expressed. I was so damn happy she decided to give me an extra key. If she would’ve turned me down, then I would've been up Shit's Creek.

Immediately after she handed me the key I dashed towards the elevator. After I got on, I pressed the button for the fifth floor and waited for the elevator door to close. Moments after it closed, I felt a sense of relief throughout my entire body. The tension that had somewhat stiffened my neck had eased. This shit was crazy and madness and I was right smack in the middle of it all.

Right after I locked the door I sat down on the bed and used the remote to turn the television on. I went directly to Channel 10, which was my favorite local news station. When I realized the news had been on for at least seven minutes, I became agitated and fumbled with the remote control to turn up the volume. I couldn’t tell if I missed the part about the explosion at the strip club, so I waited patiently and crossed my fingers, hoping that I hadn’t.

After viewing the entire first and second segment, I knew I had missed the footage from the club. Frustrated, I tossed the remote control on the other side of the bed and decided to take another ride. I wasn't going back to Portsmouth. I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. But driving over to Katrina’s house would be. Finding out whether or not she was in the club at the time of the explosion became critical at this point. Something in my gut told me that things were really not what they seemed. One thing’s for sure, my gut didn’t lie to me.

When I walked back to the lobby, I passed the desk clerk again. She smiled and said, “You leaving again?”

I smiled back and told her that I needed to make another run. She advised me to be careful. I assured her that I would. After I got back in the truck and drove out of the parking lot, I noticed one of those standard types of police vehicles following me. It was dark out and the windows were tinted so I wasn’t able to get a look inside of the car. For all I knew, it could be anybody behind the wheel. One part of me wanted to stop, get out of the truck, walk over to the car following me and demand the driver rolled down his window, so I could see who the fuck he was. The other part of me thought it was a bad idea. These people here in Virginia are crazy as a motherfucker. I would be insane to try that stunt.