Hated by Many, Loved by None 3 (10 page)

I had approached Chino and told him that his shit was all the way wrong and that he could be getting more money if he changed up the whole way he was doing things. I told him that I felt like his right hand man was dirty and that a few other niggas in his camp was shady too. He didn’t listen to me until he got knocked by the Feds due to his right hand
Stash doing some snitching to avoid jail time. You know, just like I had suspected. Some foul shit was going on.

Well, while he was locked up his hustle was fucked up ‘cause niggas was out here lost. They didn’t know what to do without him. He was losing customers and workers to the competition. I saw that as my time to get back at you and to come up in Chino’s
life so I murked Stash,” I explained.

Imran shot me an unknowing look. I could tell that he was shocked by my admission and how desperate I had been to commit murder for a nigga that wasn’t even mine.

“You killed a dude for what, Rain?” Imran asked trying to understand, but there was nothing I could explain to him that he would get. No one would understand why I did what I did, but me.

“I killed him because I had to. I had to be with Chino, I just had to. If it wasn’t gonna be him, then it would be someone just like him. I killed his right hand and I told his boy, Ray, to get word to him that I handled it and that I wanted him when he came home. And when Chino came home, he came right for me. He thanked me for it and told me that he wanted me to be his lady.

I told him that first I wanted to help him get his shit together and that we should wait before we got into a relationship so soon. I explained to him about my situation with you, but I never told him it was behind drugs. I just told him that you left me to be homeless and that I came to Maryland and that I wanted revenge.

I gave him everything that I had on you, telling him all about the money you was getting in Dallas. And I told him about your safe house out in Lubbock.”

Imran sighed. He took his right hand off the steering wheel and replaced it with the left. He went into his pocket and pulled out a pack of Newports and then a lighter. I waited for him to light it and take a few puffs before I continued. I could tell that this was pissing him off by the way he was breathing, but I hadn’t expected anything less.

“First we had planned to come to Dallas to rob you for everything that you had, but we didn’t know that Jahzara’s husband, Quin, was gonna be in the way. That night he’d burned your house down, I had called Chino over the same night and told him that there was a little mini safe that I had found in your closet.

That shit went all wrong. Quin caught me off guard, burned your shit down and Chino was stuck on the damn freeway with a flat tire. He had even took down some of your corner boys, robbing them for their shit, and then Quin ended up doing the same thing so it ended up being perfect. But him and Honey kept getting in the damn way and just had us all over the place. Nothing was going right because of them.

We had Yurie
working with us too, but he didn’t know that Chino and I was working against him. Shit just got so out of hand,” I said feeling so much remorse.

I left out the part about me killing Yurie. After the way Imran had looked at me after I admitted killing
Stash, he probably would think I was this cold heartless bitch and toss me out of the car. I wasn’t cold or heartless at all, just determined to get where I wanted to be in life without anything stopping me. Nobody could fault me for my determination. It was just in me to never go back to where I came from. That shit had to be understandable.

“I’ma be real one
hundred with you, Rain. I wanna murk your ass for what you did to Kira, but I also want to get my money back from them niggas. If I can’t get that, then I at least want to kill them niggas. I’m gnna need your help on that so for now, you’re safe. I’ll take you to the hospital, but it’s gonna have to be in Dallas. I need to see about my wounds and I need to get up with a few of my niggas. I need to be all the way prepared for when I come back this way.”

I nodded my head in agreement. I closed my eyes and tried to relax for the ride. Hopefully by the time I opened my eyes, I would be experiencing some kind of relief.

By time we’d made it back to Dallas, I was tired as fuck and ready to lay down somewhere. I headed straight toward Methodist hospital so that Rain and I could get some help. Also, I wanted to be there for Jahzara’s surgery. I figured that if I could fuck with Rain when I knew she was grimy and could turn on me at any moment, then the least I could do was show Jahzara some kind love.

I wasn’t gonna rush going after Rain’s fuck ass boyfriend because we both needed to be all the way one-hundred. When it was all said and done, I planned to murder each and every last one of them, including Rain. I just can’t let her live. I’m glad she finally came clean about everything, but I was still mad over Kira. Not only that, I didn’t wanna give her the chance to ever fuck me over again.

“Alright, we gonna have to walk to the hospital. I don’t wanna park the car too close to it ‘cause I know the cameras will be all over our asses. They track that shit back to Maryland and we’re both fucked,” I said to Rain.

“Okay, how far do we have to walk?” she asked barely able to open her eyes.

“At least a mile. Come on. I’ll carry you most of the way.”

I jumped out of the car and walked around to the passenger side. Rain pushed the door open. I grabbed her up in my arms and began walking in the direction of the hospital. She felt so limp in my arms and I could feel her entire body trembling. I was able to keep a steady pace there and took in deep breaths and slowly letting them out.

The walk to the hospital took about twenty minutes and when we’d made it on the inside, I went straight to the check in desk.

“Does she need to see a doctor?”

I hate when they ask stupid questions such as those. Why else would I be carrying her into a hospital if she didn’t need to see a damn doctor? I nodded my head and placed Rain on the floor. She gripped her arms around mine and did her best to stay on her feet.

“Yea, she’s been shot and beat up pretty badly,” I told the lady.

“Let me get her a wheelchair and a doctor,” she said.

She rushed from behind the counter over to area where the wheelchairs were and quickly rolled one over to Rain. She sat down in the chair and looked up at me.

“Thank you Imran. I won’t let you down this time, I promise,” Rain told me and released her grip on my arm.

“I gotta go check on somebody. I’ll come back and see how you’re doing.”

“Make sure you get some help too. You don’t sound too good,” Rain said to me and I shot her a sympathetic smile.

“Sir we need to get some information from you so if you can just stick around for a few moments,” the worker said as she began to wheel Rain away.

“Sure, I’ll stay and wait right here,” I told her.

Soon as she pushed Rain through the double doors, I turned around and headed for the elevators, pressing the up button when I’d got there. The doors opened and I stepped on and pressed the number five to go to the fifth floor.

Soon as I checked on Jahzara, I was gonna see about my wounds to be sure they were healing correctly and then go and see my family. I needed to make sure everyone was doing okay and that they knew everything that was needed to know about Kira’s death.

I stepped into Jahzara’s room and noticed that there was someone else there besides her. A white lady with brown hair was sleeping peacefully in her place and a man sat on the chair beside her watching her and holding her hand. I scratched my head and then quickly stepped out going to the nurse’s desk.

“Excuse me, do you know where I can find Jahzara Simmons?” I asked the first nurse that I saw.

She sat down in front of the computer and began typing. I noticed her eyes roam up and down the screen before she looked at me and shook her head,

“She’s no longer on this floor.”

“Can you tell me what floor she’s on?” I asked raising my brow.

“Sir, what’s your relationship to her?”

“Never mind. Thank you.”

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and began to walk away from the desk. Looking at my screen, there were two missed calls from Jahzara and a voice mail. I unlocked my phone and started listening to the message.

“Hello, Mr. Jackson, this is James, Jahzara’s father. Jahzara asked me to call you. Something has gone wrong and we don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t look good. Please give me a call, son,” James said.

I immediately went to my call log and dialed Jahzara’s number, hoping that someone would pick up. I hated that I ignored her call and felt bad as hell that something had happened to her. The line rung several times before finally someone had answered.

“Hello Imran,” a female voice said.

“Hey, I was at the hospital trying to check on Jahzara. I came to her the room, but she wasn’t there.”

“She’s currently in the Intensive care Unit. Just come down to the ICU and I will meet you at the door.”

The phone went dead and I rushed over to the elevators. My mind running wild with all the things that could be wrong. I tried to think back to our last conversation to see if I missed anything that would have let me know that this was coming.

As soon as the elevator’s doors opened, I rushed inside and repeatedly pressed the floor I needed. It seemed like the ride down took forever. I kept on pressing the button as if it was gonna make me get there any faster.

I couldn’t believe I was even feeling this way. The thought that something bad had happened to Jahzara caused me to rethink every negative thing I had said about her. I started hoping and praying that she was good and that I wouldn’t walk into any bullshit. I had to admit, no matter what we had gone through, I was still deeply in love with her.

The elevators doors slid open and I took off in a light jog down the hall until I reached the secure doors that led to the ICU. I pressed down on the bell to alert someone that I was there. My heart was racing with anticipation of what I was going to find when I walked on the other side.

Beep! Beep!

The door opened and standing right on the other side was Jahzara’s mother, Evelyn. She was dressed in comfy jogging pants, a t-shirt, and her hair was pinned up in a messy bun. She looked as if she had been here a long time and the bags under her red eyes showed that she was stressed out. Looking at her, I could tell that this wasn’t gonna be good. She looked so weary; as if her life had been snatched away from her.

I followed her as we passed by several rooms before we finally came to where Jahzara was lying. Her father was right by her side with her hand in his. His head was down, like he was praying. Jahzara had a huge mask over her face with several tubes coming from it. There was a machine next to her that looked like an oversized air pump that was used to pump tires or some shit. Her eyes were covered with gauze. I couldn’t tell what all the other shit that was connected to her was even for.

“What happened?” I asked unable to put together what was going on. It was so much to take in.

“The tear in her aorta wall caused her to have a stroke and now she is in a coma. The doctors aren’t sure if she is gonna wake up. They want us to pull the plug on her, but we are God-fearing people. We believe that God has the final say-so. Not gonna give up on her that easily.”

My hands went to my head and my chest fell in defeat. I was the one that had done to this to her. I had damn near killed her behind Rain and now she was suffering because of it. If I had allowed Jahzara to pull the trigger and end Rain’s life, none of this shit would be happening right now. I wouldn’t have had to travel across the damn country, wouldn’t have lost my fucking cousin, and Jahzara damn sure wouldn’t be going through this shit.

“I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I appreciate you for calling me to let me know that she was going through this. I promise I-”-”

I was stunned when Evelyn wrapped her arms around me and held me tight. She squeezed me tighter and I could feel the love radiating from her body. I would think that the two of them would want to kill me right now. I had never gotten the chance to formally meet them.

The first time that I saw them was when I was in the middle of a gun battle with Quin inside their house. Now, here I am at the hospital standing at the foot of their dying daughter’s bed because of two bullets I had put into her. How could they be so forgiving and allow me to be here like this?

Tears flowed down my face from my eyes unexpectedly and when I tried to wipe them away Evelyn grabbed my hands and pulled me over to Jahzara’s father.

“Jahzara didn’t get a chance to tell us everything, but she told us that she had done something so bad that she left the man that she loved with no choice but to shoot her. She begged for us to call you and allow you to be here. Whatever happened between you two that caused this is not our concern. We only want to honor her wishes. This is definitely not the time for finger pointing,” Evelyn said to me and she reached for her husband’s hand. “I want you to pray with us. God is a healing God. He will make Jahzara better and if you believe that then I want you to pray with us, okay?”

“Yes ma’am,” I nodded.