New York's Finest (17 page)

“
I believe they’re gonna release her tomorrow,” the older woman spoke up. “And by the way, I’m her Aunt Anna,” she formally introduced herself.

I extended my hand. “Nice to me you, but I thought you were her mother.”

She smiled. “She calls me her mama because I raised her from the age of six,” she continued.

“
Oh, how that’s cool.”

“
This is my son Derrick, and these two are my other nieces Mona and Shelby.”

I reached over and shook everyone’s hand and told them that it was nice to meet them. But right when I was getting ready to turn my attention back to Candie, Aunt Anna threw a bombshell at me and started questioning me about how I knew Candie. I don’t know how I did it, but lies started rolling off my tongue as if I had been prepped before I walked through the door. And what weighed in my favor was the fact that Candie was too doped up to refute anything I said.

“
I know her from the neighborhood,” I began to say. “My mother lives on the same floor as Candie. So when I go out there to see my mother, I’ll check in on Candie to see how she and her son are doing.”

“
Well, you just let her neighbors know that she ain’t coming back to that rat hole,” Aunt Anna said. “She’s going home with me.”

“
I don’t blame you,” I replied. “I would do the same.”

“
Would you know anything about why she was beaten up like this? Or know who could’ve done it?”

“
I wish I did, because they wouldn’t be running around in the streets right now,” I answered. “Candie is a sweet person and she doesn’t bother anyone. Every time I stopped by her apartment, she was either just getting in from school, cooking dinner for her son or doing homework, so she didn’t deserve this at all.”

“
She sure didn’t,” her cousin Derrick, chimed in. “So as soon as I find the niggas that did this to her, I’m gonna make sure they get a room next to hers.”

The fury in his tone and facial expression became very clear to me that he wanted nothing else, but to make sure her attackers felt the same pain she was feeling. At that moment, for whatever reason, I felt obligated to tell them the name of one of the guys who attacked her. But I figured if I did that, I would be put in the position to explain where I got that information from and I wasn’t prepared for that. Not only that, I had just told them I didn’t know who had done it. That move would have definitely created more drama for me and could possibly have gotten me entangled in his disappearance. In fact, I could picture the homicide detectives calling me to come by the precinct to answer some questions and that alone wouldn’t be a good look for me. Instead of making one of the biggest mistakes of my life, I snapped back to reality and reminded myself that I needed to mind my business.

Once Candie’s aunt felt like I had answered enough of her questions, she let me off the hook and kind of mellowed out a bit and allowed me to make small talk with Candie before the medication took full affect and she fell to sleep.

Before I said my goodbyes to everyone, I told Candie to call me if she needed anything. And in her sweet little voice, she assured me that she would.

On my way out of the hospital I tried to get Reggie on the line but my phone couldn’t get any good reception. As soon as I got in my truck, I tried dialing his number again. This time the call went through and he answered on the third ring.

“
What’s up?”

“
I just left the hospital from seeing Candie and she’s looking pretty bad,” I told him.

“
Did you get a chance to talk to her?”

“
Well, not really because her family was there. But she was awake so she saw me.”

“
When is she getting out?”

“
Her aunt said she believed they were gonna discharge her tomorrow. But she ain’t going back to her crib. Her aunt is taking Candie home with her.”

“
Well, hopefully you can get to her and find out anything else she can tell us about what happened at the Towers when she was jumped,” Reggie stated.

“
Don’t worry. I’ll come up with something,” I assured him.

“
Where are you on your way to now?”

“
Damian and I are driving down Broadway. The big chicken was afraid to see Candie in the hospital and stayed in the car. I’m glad he did, Candie’s family would have probably freaked or gotten suspicious if they saw Damian. But anyway, why did you ask?”

“
Because I’m gonna need you two to make a quick stop somewhere for me,” Reggie replied.

I sighed heavily because I wasn’t in the mood to run one of his errands. I had just gotten off work an hour ago and came straight to the hospital to see Candie, so I was tired. Hell, I was surprised to see Damian, but Reggie was true to his word about keeping his family safe. That even meant assigning a bodyguard to Vanessa’s worthless ass.

“
I hope it’s not far, Reggie. Shit, I’m tired and need sleep,” I commented.

“
Chill. I’m getting ready to hang up right now so I can text you the instructions,” he told me and then disconnected the call.

Moments later, his text message came through: Malika needs sum dough. Take her 1 grand & call me when u done.

After I read his text and realized he wanted me to go by his pregnant baby mama’s house and give her one thousand dollars, I was livid. Reggie knew I didn’t walk around with that type of money on me. I would have been more upset if Damian had not had that amount of money on him. Because if he hadn’t, I would have had to run to Reggie’s safe house to retrieve the money and then drive back to Malika’s place. I really wanted to kick Reggie’s ass. But thank God for Damian for saving the day.

New York’s Finest Kiki Swinson

It had been a while since Sabrina and I had a chance to hang out because of everything that had been going on. Not to mention she and I had to work some strenuous flights this past week. So when she asked me if I’d go with her after work to get a bite to eat, I happily obliged. It took me damn near an hour to convince Reggie and Damian to let me have some room to myself. Damian’s response was, “You have time alone when you are flying the friendly skies.” I actually wanted to tell him to kiss my black ass. But I restrained and convinced them both that it had been almost five days since the attack. I could hear the pain in both of their voices, but they relented and agreed to let me hang out with Sabrina.

We were still wearing our airline uniforms and I must say, wearing them proudly. Sabrina suggested we head over to this eatery she knew in Manhattan. After the hostess seated us, she handed us our menus and told us our waiter would be with us shortly. I had to say, it was nice sitting outside in Manhattan, chilling with a friend.

While Sabrina and I chatted amongst ourselves, my Blackberry started ringing. I didn’t have a man in my life and the only chick I thought was cool enough to call a friend was sitting in front of me, so I knew it had to be either Reggie, Damian or my mother calling me. I looked at the phone and the number was foreign to me. My first thought was to let it go straight to voicemail, but my curiosity overpowered that thought and I answered it before the caller could hang up.

“
Hello,” I said tentatively.

“
So you think you’re gonna keep escaping death, huh?” a creepy and scratchy voice said to me.

Alarmed by the caller’s question, I immediately got the chills. My body shook and I could feel the goose bumps that had covered my body from head to toe. “Who is this?” I snapped. My intention was to get this person to continue talking with the hope that I would be able to recognize his voice. The only thing I had to go on was that the caller was a man. Other than that, my mind drew a complete blank.

“
Don’t worry bitch! You’ll find out soon enough,” my mad caller continued.

“”
Nah, nigga! Don’t be a pussy. Stop hiding behind the phone and tell me who you are now!” I roared through my phone. I wanted an answer. I was so angry and scared at the same time I started feeling an anxiety attack coming on.

Sabrina just sat in her chair and looked at me like she was taken aback by my actions. “Who is that?” she asked me in a whisper. But I couldn’t give her an answer because I didn’t know myself. And being that I had gotten beside myself over this threatening call, I hadn’t realized that the motherfucker hung up on me, until the busy tone started ringing in my ear. It literally scared the hell out of me.

With a look of concern, Sabrina sat up in the chair after I hung up the phone and said, “Who in the hell was that?”

Trying to process the call I had just gotten and trying to figure out what to do next was beginning to consume me. Once again, I couldn’t answer Sabrina’s question. But instead of allowing myself to continue to be vulnerable by sitting out in the open like I was, I shot up from my chair, took one good look at my surrounding area and then I snatched my handbag from the seat next to me and fled inside of the restaurant and walked directly to the back of the eatery. I heard Sabrina’s footsteps as she ran behind me.

“
Naomi, what is going on? And where are you going?” she yelled.

Once again, I couldn’t get myself to answer her. The only thing I had on my mind was trying to find a way to get the fuck out of there without getting killed. And once I realized that the direction I ran in was to the restrooms, I immediately bolted inside the women’s bathroom. Sabrina was right on my heels.

“
Lock the door!” I instructed her. I realized that I had actually yelled at her. I was tense and afraid. Why did I convince Damian and Reggie to give me some space? And why in the fuck didn’t they overrule me?

Sabrina locked the door and then she turned back and faced me. She looked confused but she also looked worried. “Naomi, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she pressed the issue as she walked towards me.

I hesitated for a second, trying to gather my thoughts and then I said, “A guy just called me and told me that I keep escaping death. But not too worry because he’s going to find me.”

Creeped out by my words, Sabrina went into panic mode. Her eyes grew five inches in diameter and then she started pacing the bathroom floor in a circle. “Oh my God! Think he called because he saw us come in here?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“
I don't know. And I'm definitely not trying to find out,” I told her.

“
What do you think we should do,” she asked me.

“
I know I'm not leaving here.” I realized the caller had succeeded in what he probably wanted to do to me—scare the shit out of me. I had to process, but I was too damn scared.

“
Call your brother. See if he can come get us.”

“
He can't drive. You know he just got out of the hospital.” Fuck! I was a wreck and Sabrina was making way better suggestions than me. Thank God somebody was thinking, because my mind had suddenly gone dysfunctional.

“
Call him anyway. Tell him what happened and tell him we're hiding out in the ladies bathroom and we're afraid to leave,” she explained.

Even though it had been programmed in my brain to call Reggie when tumultuous situations came up that I couldn't handle, for some odd reason it didn’t come to me. My whole state of mind had completely shut down. I believe if Sabrina wasn't with me I probably would have had a panic attack. At this very moment, I was at my wits end. I could honestly say that I was tired of living this type of lifestyle. Retiring with Damien and walking away from this operation sounded like the best solution.

When I got Reggie on the phone I gave him a brief run down about my phone call and he was not pleased to hear it. As quick thinking as Reggie was, it didn’t take him no time to curse me out about not letting Damian meet me at the airport and tag along with Sabrina and I. But he told me some good news—Damian was at the house. Thank God he was at the house with Reggie and Reggie assured me that Damian would be here in a flash.

Reggie kept me on the phone. He wanted to make sure we kept a flow of communication going until Damian arrived. I knew he did this to make me feel less afraid. And it worked. He knew he was my security blanket. The sound of his voice had always put me at ease and gave me that feeling that everything would be all right.

His build and stature gave him that strong image, and money gave him power. I could honestly say that I could never remember a time when Reggie had any problems with niggas in the street. That is, until recently. Ninety percent of the cats that lived in Harlem had mad respect for Reggie. And since they knew that I was his baby sister, they had the same respect for me. But now the game had changed because someone wanted us eliminated. And if we didn’t hurry up and find out who he or they were, then we were going to forever be looking over our shoulders. Or worse, be six feet under.

Finally, after waiting and talking with Reggie on the phone for seventeen minutes, Damian arrived at the restaurant. I swear I was so happy to see him. But before we excited the bathroom, he gave us very specific instructions and made us promise that we’d stick close to him and walk directly behind him until we reached our cars. And when we agreed, he led us out of the danger zone.

New York’s Finest Kiki Swinson

Chapter 21 – It’s Official

Damian drove as I sit in the passenger seat of my truck. I was still flustered as we left the restaurant. Damian didn’t say anything when I told him I didn’t want to drive or leave my whip in Manhattan. He called Reggie to tell him all was well and he was taking me home. Reggie told him he already had a car of guys on their way to Manhattan to the restaurant. One of them would return the car to Reggie’s place.