Stealing Candy (25 page)

The thought of trying to escape hadn’t crossed her mind for such a long time, she thought she’d lost the urge. But she was wrong. An overwhelming desire to be free had returned.

Grabbing the phone and pushing buttons was risky. That reckless act could have caused her some serious punishment.

 
 CHAPTER 28

In a way she was relieved that Bullet was sniffing white lines so regularly. The drug took his mind off target practice. But it would be real fucked-up if he decided to start engaging in his depraved leisure activity again.

If he caught her trying to make a call, and wanted to teach her a lesson by tying her to a tree, she would be in deep shit. That coked-up nigga had no business shooting off rounds. His aim definitely had to be off.

She grimaced as she envisioned Flashy playing doctor and digging a slug out of her shoulder. He’d dope her up on OxyContin to ease the pain.

Gianna did not like the mental picture that came into focus. She visualized herself shuffling lethargically toward a paying customer. Even worse, she saw herself drooling while she gave a slow-paced blowjob.

She refused to allow herself to get turned out like Bubbles and Skittles. She had to be more cautious. Think smarter.

Moving swiftly down the hallway, clutching the phone like it was a sacred object, Gianna intended to make the call in private.

Locking the bathroom door behind her, she closed the lid to the toilet seat and sat down. Before pressing the series of numbers that would end this vicious nightmare, she wondered if she should stay inside and wait to be rescued or leave the premises…maybe walk a few blocks away from the house.

Fuck!
The keys were on the dresser. She needed the key ring to unlock the front door. Funny that when she picked up the key ring to unlock Skittles from the headboard, she hadn’t felt any fear and no guilt at all. But now that she needed the keys to slip out of the house, she was terrified that clanking keys might awaken Bullet.

While she pondered her strategy, the most awful thing happened. The phone rang! The blare was like a screaming alarm.
Holy shit! What the fuck!
She’d frantically pressed the ignore button, shutting off the tattletale cellular.

A surge of panic had her breathing hard. She stared at the cell phone in shock. Then it dawned on her…when she dropped it, she’d accidentally switched the ring tone from vibrate mode to ring. With her heart hammering inside her chest and a bad case of the jitters, there was no way she could carry out her plan.

Maybe tomorrow.

Gianna pressed End and then scowled at the cracked screen. There would be hell to pay when Bullet saw the condition of his phone. Self-preservation was her top priority, so she had no choice but to play her position as Bullet’s snitch and point the finger at the person known for destructive behavior…Bubbles.

“Don’t you remember the way she was wilding out when I brought her to you?” Bullet would have no choice but to believe her. At that point, he’d direct his wrath toward Bubbles.

Satisfied that she had concocted a believable story, Gianna unlocked the bathroom door.

She bumped smack into Bullet.

“Move out my way, bitch. I gotta take a leak.” He was holding his dick as he squeezed past her. Then he froze. His gaze shot down to his phone, which Gianna clutched in her hand.

“Whatchu doing with my phone?”

Briefly speechless, she could only shrug.

He snatched the cell phone from her hand, nearly breaking her wrist in the process.

“Ow.” She rubbed her pained wrist.

“If you don’t start talking, you gon’ be screaming in pain.”

“Bub…Bubbles dr…she dropped your phone and broke it.” Gianna felt tongue-tied and scared out of her wits.

“How Bubbles break my phone? She ’sleep.”

“I know. I know. But she was messing with your phone when I brought her in the bedroom last night.” Gianna didn’t like the way her voice was quaking. She sounded nervous. Her story didn’t sound credible.

She cleared her throat and spoke in a measured tone. “Bubbles was acting the fool last night.”

He frowned at the damaged screen. “How Bubbles get her hands on my phone?”

“She was spazzin’ out. Swinging on me and throwing shit around. Don’t you remember, Daddy?” Her account started sounding plausible to her own ears.

Bullet slid his fingers through his mass of curly hair. He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t remember none of that.” Sleepily, he scratched his balls as he treaded inside the bathroom.

“I’ma give you some privacy.” Gianna turned to leave, relieved that she had literally dodged a bullet.

“Hold up. I ain’t through talkin’.”

Oh, shit.
She gulped. “Okay,” she said pleasantly.

He gripped his penis with one hand and aimed inside the toilet bowl. The other hand held his cellular.

While urinating, he studied the cracked screen, his thumb moving swiftly as he scrolled through the list of calls. He squinted at the screen, cocking his head from one side and then the other,
as though he had encountered a mysterious cryptogram that had left him completely confounded.

“Bubbles don’t have good sense,” Gianna said with a nervous chuckle. “It’s just a minor setback, Daddy. You know how we do. You gon’ have a new phone by tomorrow. I’ma make sure of that.” She was trying to distract him, trying desperately to take his mind off his broken cell phone.

“What’s this?” He shook droplets of urine from his dick into the toilet, replaced his privates and started walking toward her.

“What’s what?” Gianna’s breath caught in her throat.

Bullet froze. “609?” He said to himself, squinting at the cracked screen. “609 is a Jersey area code. Who did I call in Jersey?” He stared at Gianna, waiting for her to enlighten him.

She shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe Bubbles pushed those buttons by mistake.”

Disbelief was written all over Bullet’s face.

A smoldering rage replaced the confusion in his eyes. “Who the fuck was you tryna call in muthafuckin’ New Jersey? Huh, bitch? Who did you call?”

“Nobody. I ain’t make no calls on your phone. I swear.”

He smirked at her. His eyes alit with suspicion. “I told you if you kept it one hunnit with me, I wouldn’t hurt you no more.”

“I do. I always keep it one hundred,” she said, enunciating by mistake. “I mean, uh, one hunnit,” she corrected.

Bullet gave her a sneering look.

“I really do.”

“Is that right?” he asked, clenching his jaw and eyeing her with suspicion.

She nodded nervously.

“So what’s this about?” Taking quick steps, he stood in front of her and shoved the phone directly in her face. “That’s an outgoing call. Who made it?”

Gianna peered at the cracked screen. Frowning, she shook her head as if she had no idea how the numbers had materialized on his phone.

“You done lost your mind.” Seething, Bullet snatched her by the neck, knocking her against the bathroom door. “The last thing I need to be dealing with is a treacherous bitch!”

She tried to deny any wrongdoing, but could only gurgle. Her tear-glistened eyes pleaded for mercy as he dug his thumb into her windpipe, cutting off her air.

She gagged and struggled. He released the grip on her neck, and waved the cellular in her face.

“I thought I could trust you!” Furiously, he smashed the cellular into her forehead.

The battery popped out the back; the screen shattered.

Dazed, Gianna could swear she saw stars. Fearing that she was only seconds away from being beaten to death, she got her bearings and raced to the front door.

Gianna froze when she reached the double-locked front door, and it dawned on her that there was no way out. The key ring was on the dresser in the bedroom.
Can I dart past Bullet and grab the keys?
She looked over her shoulder to check Bullet’s position. She gasped.

Bullet’s trampling movements announced his fury. He charged toward her with a homicidal look in his eyes. Then he bumped into the coffee table, looked down, and stopped cold. Something had caught his attention.

Instead of attacking Gianna, Bullet moved around the table and took a seat in the lumpy chair. He picked up a broken mirror and a rolled-up dollar bill and began sniffing lines of coke that was left over from the night before.

He closed his eyes briefly, and then threw his head back and gazed at the ceiling with a faint smile on his lips.

Gianna stood with her back pressed against the locked front door, her teeth chattering, her knees knocking. Severely frightened, her booming heartbeat threatened to explode and throw her off her feet.

She slipped her hand behind her back and grabbed the doorknob, steadying herself. With her hand curled around the knob, escape seemed a sudden possibility.

Bullet had snorted a lot of coke last night. There was a chance that he’d been too preoccupied to remember to secure the two locks on the door. She gave a frantic twist to the knob, but it refused to turn.

Bullet watched her desperate attempt to flee with amusement sparkling in his eyes. “I done choked the shit outta you and clocked you upside the head, and you still ain’t learned no lesson,” he said scornfully.

She released the doorknob. “Yes, I did! I learned my lesson,” she said, her eyes watering with tears.

“No, you didn’t. If you learnt something, you wouldn’t still be trying to run away from me.”

“I wasn’t going nowhere.”

“I know you ain’t. That’s why I spent extra money getting all those locks installed.”

He twisted his lips in disgust. “After all I did for you. I trusted you. I made you my bottom bitch.” He shook his head. “If my bottom bitch is capable of being this treacherous, I might as well line all y’all bitches up and pop you…one at a time…get me some new hoes who know how to show some respect for the game.”

He rose, and sauntered slowly toward her. Taking his time, taunting her as he cracked the knuckles of both hands.

Sweat began beading up on Gianna’s injured forehead, causing her increased pain.

Bullet punched his palm with a balled fist, his mouth spreading into a sinister smile.

“It’s ’bout to get ugly.” Bullet’s voice rang with malicious pleasure. He practically sang out the vicious threat. He flexed up. Ripples of dangerous muscles popped up on his arms.

“Please, Daddy. Don’t hurt me.” I’m sorry,” she cried.

“Yo’ sorry ass should have thought long and hard before you betrayed my trust.”

“I won’t mess with your phone anymore. I swear I won’t.” Her brown eyes were wide with panic.

“I know you won’t.” Roughly, he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her away from the door.

She stumbled. After she steadied herself, Bullet raised his fist, and pulled it back, adding power to his punch.

 
 CHAPTER 29

Flashy sat next to Gianna. She was lying in bed with her head propped up by a pillow.

Bullet’s punch to her face had knocked her out. She had no memory of how’d she’d ended up in Bullet’s bed. Nor did she recall Flashy coming over for a visit.

“All this playing doctor is getting old,” Flashy complained as he applied an ice pack to Gianna’s cheek. “I really didn’t want you to leave, Bullet, but I needed you to get a crib for your hookers. If I’d let you keep fucking them up in my spot, I would’ve wound up right back in the pen.”

Bullet screwed up his face. “I thought that Lollipop had my back, but I caught her trying to call her peoples on me,” Bullet spat.

He kicked the railing at the bottom of the bed. The vibration sent another jolt of pain to Gianna’s swollen jaw.

Now awake and in tremendous pain, she wished that she were still unconscious. Or dead.

Life with Bullet had been a living hell that she had tried her best to accept. But now that she’d lost his trust, her living hell would intensify.

What else can he do to me?
she wondered. He could keep her drugged like Skittles and Bubbles. Those two hardly knew what was happening to them, while Gianna was keenly aware that her life had been stolen. Maybe living like a zombie wasn’t so bad.

So terrified of additional violent consequences, she had hardly
flinched or made a sound that indicated the severe pain she was in.