Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 (The Saga Continues) (7 page)

I hit the steering wheel with my fist and cursed the day that muthafucka driving the other car was born. I mean, what was it with me? Why the fuck everybody and their damn mama wanted to fuck with me? For as long as I can remember I’d never done anything malicious to anyone. I was known for giving people my last. If I had it and you wanted it, then it was yours. Point blank and end of story.

Two miles into the drive, I decided to get some distance between me and that asshole following me until I found an escape route. I pressed down on the accelerator harder and found myself with at least eight cars between us. My adrenaline pumped inside me like fuel. The further I gained distance on them the better off I felt. “Yeah, you bastard! You can’t fuck with me! I’m a beast!” I screamed out loud, even though I knew no one else could hear me. It felt good though.

I noticed I was coming up towards Rosemont Road, which would be a perfect escape route to dodge the car following me. Has started to cross through the service station on the corner but there was too much light and the parking lot was filled with patrons, so I elected to make a sharp right turn at the street light and then I shot through the traffic light on Bonney Road. I then jumped on the ramp to head back towards Independence Boulevard. When I looked in the rearview mirror I saw a few cars behind me, but none of the cars was the one following me.

I let out a sigh of relief but I dared to slow down. The nigga I was fucking crossed me. My best friend betrayed me. The one man I believed was on my side had just been lured into a death trap. So once again I was all alone. And not having any of the answers I was looking for made my journey a little bit harder to travel. Although I lost the car following me, it still bothered me that I didn’t know who in the fuck was tailing me. Not only that the thought that the car found its way back to the hotel and awaited my arrival made me feel uneasy. I figured the only way to avoid that from happening was that I couldn’t go back. But then I figured, if I chose not to return to the hotel, then where would I go? I had so many questions but not enough answers which made me sick to my stomach.

Hell, it was a standard type of police vehicle but I didn’t know if it was the cops in a so-called unmarked car or one of Duke’s goons. I kinda laugh when I thought about the cops and unmarked cars. Every damn body in the ’hood knew when one of their whips came around. Regardless of how old, or new, the cops never fooled anyone with their so-called unmarked cars.

After driving for approximately five minutes, I got off the Military Highway exit, made a U-turn, got back on Interstate-264 and headed back in the direction of Katrina’s house. Since there was no traffic, I arrived in her neighborhood in less than nine minutes flat. It seemed as if the closer I came to her house, the harder the flutter in the pit of my stomach jumped around.

I held on to the steering wheel with my left hand and rubbed my stomach with my right. It seemed like every time I got myself mixed up with unnecessary drama, my body always found a way to shut down on me. As much as I wanted to turn around and leave this situation alone, I thought about those young women who had been victimized by Duke and his flunkies, and I knew it wasn't just about me, it was about them. So that alone gave me the courage to move forward and take Duke down by any means necessary.

I noticed Katrina's house from a block away sitting in the cul-de-sac between two larger homes. I had to admit that the house was beautiful, but I didn't believe she deserved to live in it. I knew Neeko for years so I knew the blood, sweat and tears he put into buying this house. It was no secret he was a hard ass but everyone also knew he was no-nonsense when it came to his money. I remembered him telling me one day that he’d never get married, because he didn’t want to get a divorce and a wife walking away with everything he worked so hard for. And now that I thought about it, I didn’t blame him.

I drove slowly towards the house and noticed all the lights were turned off, but Katrina’s car was parked in the driveway. Seeing this puzzled me. A couple of hours ago she called Bishop and told him to meet her at the club. From the way Bishop explained it to me, Katrina was already inside the club, which was why he and I suggested that her car would be parked around back. Now if all of this was true, her car shouldn’t be parked in her driveway. It should be buried underneath the debris from the fire and explosion from the club.

Now here I was posted up outside the house my former boss owned, wondering whether or not I should call Detective Whitfield and tell him what I knew. I mean, it wouldn't hurt. And besides, what else was I going to do with this information? I had no one else to call. Even if I did, the last time I put myself in that type of predicament, I was railroaded. Yes, bamboozled.

If Diamond never taught me anything in life, she taught me that I should never trust anyone. Not even your best friend. I still couldn’t get over Diamond’s betrayal. I had known this bitch almost all my life and the thing I took away from the relationship was there was no such thing as loyalty. I was sure when she went to Duke and schooled him about my blackmailing scheme, he promised her the world on a silver platter. Additionally, I knew he even threw a few dollars at her so she could keep her fucking mouth closed. I swear, life had definitely taught me some valuable lessons. Too bad I had to learn the hard way.

Shit, I hoped I didn’t have any more lessons to learn.

When I saw all I needed to see, I turned Bishop’s SUV around and headed back in the direction I came. I hurried up and got out of the neighborhood before I was spotted by Katrina or one of her accomplices. It only took me about three minutes to jump on the nearest ramp to the expressway, which was good considering the distance from Katrina’s house. Once I felt I was in the clear, something on the inside of me convinced me to ride by the old apartment I used to share with Diamond. I had no plans to stop. I just wanted to see if I saw any type of movement from outside, since I couldn’t say for sure that she had gotten caught in the fire. I wanted to ask the other stripper who’d gotten a chance to escape the fire, if Diamond was in there. But she had gotten burned so badly that she wasn’t in any shape to talk at all.

Now I knew this was horrible to say but if Diamond had died in that fire, I figured it was good for her. For the past couple of years, she had one foot in the club and the other one in the grave. It was only a matter of time before she would meet her maker anyway. I remembered saving her from getting her head blown off twice. One time she was caught trying to steal money from this nigga while she was sucking his dick back in the champagne room. When he realized what she was trying to do, he damn neared beat her to death with his pistol. I was furious when I found out what had happened. The only thing I could do for her was take her to the emergency room to get treated. The doctor and nurse who saw her wanted to know who beat her like that, and all she did was lie to them. I was stunned. But hey, what could I do?

The other time I saved her dumbass was when her ex-boyfriend fucked her up after he found out she was fucking with another nigga behind his back. Their altercation lasted for at least thirty minutes. When the police finally got to our apartment, that nigga had gotten away. Diamond’s silly ass laid there on the floor, crying her poor little heart out, saying how tired she was with her life and that she didn’t want to live anymore. Quiet as it was kept, that bitch played like she wanted to commit suicide. But I knew damn well she wasn’t about to kill herself. She was a drama queen to the tenth power. And all she wanted was somebody to feel sorry for her because of all the fucked up decisions she made in her life.

I listened to her bullshit from time to time. But when I was tired, I tuned her ass out and focused on more important things. All and all, Diamond was a basket case. She was also a hoe with a lot of bark and no bite. So, if her body was found underneath all the rumble inside Magic City, then she finally got what she deserved.

A part of me still wish I was the one to put her monkey ass under.

Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique

Sneaking Around Town-Chapter Nine

Diamond and I shared an apartment in the ’hood.

The apartment complex wasn’t low-income housing or Section Eight property, but it wasn’t far from it. As usual a couple of the streetlights were blown out, so certain parts of the complex were left in the dark. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be out here by myself. This apartment complex had a reputation for a lot of burglaries, old ladies getting their purses snatched and guys selling dope from at least one apartment in each building. But tonight I had to do things differently. I figured if I stayed in the truck with the doors locked I’d be okay. So that’s exactly what I did.

I parked the SUV in the parking lot directly across the street from Diamond’s apartment. I backed the truck into a parking space so I could see everything in front of me. For the first fifteen minutes I watched at least one hundred cars coming in and out of the complex. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that something illegal was going on. If I were a cop, I would be knee deep in paperwork after arresting all of these hustling ass niggas. And what was so crazy about it was that none of these guys tried to hide it. They literally held the drugs in their hands in plain view and did hand-to-hand transactions. They were off the chain. As much as I wanted to call them complacent, I couldn’t. They knew the only way a cop was coming this way was if some fool had been shot and killed.

When I wasn’t counting the transactions those niggas were making, I periodically glanced over at Diamond’s bedroom window to see if there was any movement. Like Katrina’s house, all of Diamond’s lights were turned off. So there was no question in my mind that she wasn’t home. After sitting there for over an hour I grew tired and decided to carry my ass back to the hotel. The key to the truck was already in the ignition. When I started the engine this guy came out of nowhere and startled the hell out of me. He approached the truck from the driver side door and tapped on the window lightly. I damn near jumped out of my skin. “Yo’ shorty, you need something?” he asked.

When I turned my head completely around in his direction, I instantly recognized him. I let out a sigh of relief and then I pressed down on the control button to roll down the window. He smiled once he realized who I was. “What’s up sis? Whatcha’ doing out here? I thought you was locked up?” he said.

“Who told you I was locked up?” I asked him. I wanted to know what he knew about me before I volunteered any information. You see, T.J. was this seventeen-year-old, small time weed pusher from the neighborhood who hung out all times of the night, so he basically knew something about everything that happened around here. He lived with his aunt and she had an apartment in the next building over from Diamond’s place.

“I was out here the night the police took you to jail. But everybody around here was talking about how you got a couple of bodies and that you wasn’t gon’ ever see daylight again.”

“Well, whoever told you that don’t know what the hell they talking about. I caught another charge and when they couldn’t prove that I did it, they had to let me go.”

T.J. looked at me in a suspicious manner. “You sure you ain't working for the police? A lot of bitches and niggas are doing it these days.”

“For your information, I am not one of those bitches. I got locked up for some shit I didn’t even do. So the judge had no other alternative but to let me go.”

“So what are you doing around here? Why are you parked across the street from where you used to live at? Whatcha doing squatting on that stripper bitch you used to live with?”

I have to admit, TJ caught me off guard with that question. And even though I’m sure he wasn't the smartest kid in school, he had plenty of street sense. So I am sure he would smell my lie before I’d uttered one word. I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell him what I was really doing, but at the same token, I had to tell him something that would seem plausible. Without blinking an eye I came up with a good explanation about why I was posted up in someone else’s truck, watching Diamond’s apartment from across the street.

First, I told him Diamond owed me some money and that every time I called her she wouldn’t answer her phone. I even lied and told him that I had been by here a few times and she wouldn’t open the door, because she knew what type of car I was driving. So I finished off my lie and told him that the only way I will be able to catch her was by staking her apartment out in someone else’s vehicle. After I laid out my fabricated story he gave me a nod of approval and cracked a smile.

“If it’s like that, then I can’t fault you,” he said. “It’s gotten so bad out here that niggas would do just about anything to get out of paying you your dough. Shit, I wish a nigga would try to buck on me and not pay me my paper. It would look like fireworks out here after I spit out all these lead pellets in this muthafucking burner.” T.J. lifted his shirt to show me his gun as he talked his shit.

I burst into laughter. “You better put your shirt down boy before you fuck around and hurt yourself,” I told him.

“Oh, trust me, I know how to handle this pistol. Ask any of these niggas 'round here. They'll tell you how I would blast a nigga in his ass real quick.”

While T.J. and I went back and forth about how mucho he was, his attention drifted away from me, so I followed his eyes. Before I could zoom in on the moving target, he said, “There goes your girl right there.”

My heart dropped. Seeing Duke’s silver Porsche pull up outside of Diamond’s apartment felt somewhat surreal. I had just gotten the answer I had been waiting for all night. Diamond was not inside of Magic City when it went up in smoke. But why not? Her shift always started at seven o’clock in the evening.