The Prada Plan 2: Leah's Story (19 page)

YaYa took to hustling like a plane to the friendly skies. Within three days, every single woman who attended the brunch had given her a call to set up a meeting. YaYa didn’t sleep. She met with each couple personally. YaYa wanted to read the men who she was doing business with, and only after both she and Chase gave the nod of approval did she change the forecast and make it snow.

Since she was the only one in Houston with real weight, she set the market value. Indie had told her to price her bricks at $22,000, but YaYa sold them for thirty a pop. The fiends got high off the dope, but the money was her narcotic. Once it started pouring in, there was no stopping it. She was swimming in dough, and with Chase as the muscle behind her operation, her confidence was at an all time high. She wasn’t willing to take any losses, and the hustlers she chose to deal with agreed to the price without protest because the quality was on point. She was their only connection to raw, unstepped-on product, and they worshipped the ground she walked on.

YaYa was no longer lost in Indie or Khi-P’s shadow. She had come into her own, and just as she had admired Zya, every chick in Houston now looked at her the same way. She was getting it, and she made no apologies for it. Money wasn’t her motivation, but it was an added perk to the game. Even after she settled all debts with Zya, she would walk away with a pretty penny.

It wasn’t long before word got out and she had buyers from out of town trying to cop from her. With YaYa in charge, everybody ate. Nobody went without, which kept the streets peaceful. Niggas were too busy spending money to beef. Everything was good, and her operation was so low key that it was flawless. She wasn’t flashy like Khi-P, or treacherous like Indie. She was smart. She didn’t need any unwanted attention.

Hustling gave her something to focus on. She had been so consumed with the pain of Skylar’s death that watching the bricks go out as the money came in was relaxing for her. The dedication and attention that she put into it separated her from the masses. She was out to get it, and since she had already lost everything that mattered to her, she was fearless. A woman with nothing to lose was the last person who should be handed power. The world was in her hands, and she could do with it as she pleased.

Unafraid of the repercussions of her actions, she would do whatever it took to get to Leah, and she felt sorry for anyone who stood in her way. No price was too steep, and nothing was off limits. Not even death could stop her. In fact, death was a part of the plan.

Leah held the scalpel-like knife as she meticulously sliced around the picture of Disaya, removing her face from the family snapshot of Indie and baby Sky. She concentrated as if she were performing open heart surgery.

“You never belonged in this picture in the first place,” she mumbled as she thumped Disaya’s face out. She grabbed the picture of herself and began to cut out her face. “I’m a much better fit.” She tried to cut the same shape around her face so that it would fit perfectly into the altered photo. She was careful as her steady hand sliced along her jaw line. Her mouth fell open in anticipation as she neared completion.

“Almost done,” she whispered. “Al…mo—”

Waaa!

The sound of Skylar’s crying caused Leah’s hand to shake, inadvertently slicing the cutting tool in the wrong direction and causing her to destroy the picture.

“Damn it!” she shouted in frustration. She stood from the table and pushed back with so much force that her chair toppled over. The incessant crying was driving her insane. “Ugh!” With the sharp blade gripped tightly in her hand, she walked toward the crying infant.

It would be so easy to shut her up. Just the slice of a blade would stop this bullshit,
she thought as her nostrils flared.

She loomed over baby Sky, gripping the blade so tightly that it cut into her own skin. She stood as if she were in a trance as Skylar screamed her tiny heart out. It was as if the child could sense that danger was near.

Leah stared directly at Skylar, but she didn’t really see her. She saw herself and the many times that she had cried for help. She remembered feeling afraid, helpless, and lonely as a child; as she listened, Skylar’s cries became her own. She dropped the blade from her hand as blood dripped freely to the floor. Just as quickly as she had snapped into her daze, she snapped out of it and rushed to pick up baby Sky.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Sky. I’m sorry, honey. Mommy’s right here,” she crooned softly in her ear. “I forgot I can’t hurt. Mommy doesn’t want to hurt you…not like they hurt me.”

YaYa made her way into the upscale restaurant. She was so shaky that she could barely stay on her feet. With every step, her five-inch heels threatened to fail her. She had no idea what she was walking into. Indie had made it perfectly clear that Zya was not to be underestimated. She was meeting with a major player. Zya may have been a woman, but she was just as ruthless as any of her male counterparts. YaYa definitely didn’t want to see her. This meeting was the most important one of her life.

The usually busy establishment was empty, and YaYa couldn’t help but wonder where the lunch rush had disappeared to. What she didn’t know was that Zya had rented out the entire establishment so that they would have privacy. No one needed to hear their conversation. Whatever arrangements they came up with would be for their ears only. No one else needed to know.

Although YaYa wanted Chase to be there, she came alone, and as her heart beat out of her chest, she wished that she had at least come strapped. Firing a gun was not something she looked forward to doing again, but at least it would have secured her safety. As she looked around nervously, she felt naked.

“Relax. If I wanted you dead, you would already be somebody’s memory.”

YaYa heard Zya’s voice above her, and she looked up to see Zya on the second floor balcony.

“Come up,” Zya instructed as she nodded toward the spiral glass staircase. “You can leave the money down there. My people will take care of it.”

YaYa looked down at the two oversized duffel bags she carried. It had taken her a month of sleepless nights to hustle up that paper. There was no way she was just handing it off to Zya’s men. She looked up at her and replied, “If you don’t mind, I would like for you to count it now…in front of me.”

Zya smiled. It had been a long time since she had counted that much money. Her days of shoebox stacking were long gone. She had people to keep her finances in order now, but she knew why YaYa wanted her to count it personally. She had a lot at stake, too much to leave the count up to men she had no affiliation with. It was only because of that Zya agreed.

“You might as well take off them shoes and grab a drink then. We’ll be here for a while.”

After three bottles of the finest champagne and four hours of counting, then recounting, they counted a total of $2.5 million, and the women had established a newfound respect for one another. Zya didn’t know many men who could pull off what YaYa had in only four weeks. That alone impressed Zya.

“You should really think about staying in the game. You’re good at it,” Zya said.

“Only because I had to be,” YaYa responded. “I would have done anything to get the information you promised to deliver.”

“Speaking of which,” Zya said. She pulled an envelope from her handbag and handed it to YaYa.

YaYa stopped breathing as she received the envelope. That one piece of paper was all she lived for. Now there would be nothing stopping her. She had Leah’s location, and it was time to get it popping.

For a week, YaYa didn’t even open the envelope. She just sat inside of Indie’s home and drank wine as she stared at it, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do. As she sat at the kitchen table, she gripped the tape of Nanzi’s murder tightly in her hand. It was the same tape that Leah had set her up with. It displayed the night that had ruined her life and shifted the way the winds of misery blew by her.

It was all packaged up and ready to be mailed off. She knew that she would need some type of insurance. The tape was it. She had written a letter inside, giving away the identity of the shooter. Just in case her plan to kill Leah failed, she was going to mail the tape to Detective Norris. She knew that he would not turn down a case like that one.

YaYa had it all planned out. The only thing that was stopping her at this point was herself. So, she secluded herself to mentally prepare herself for the battle of a lifetime. She accepted no visitors. Neither Chase nor Trina and the girls could contact her. When they knocked, she didn’t answer. When they called, she sent them to voice mail. She didn’t even accept phone calls from Indie.

There was one person that she couldn’t ignore, however, and when she came knocking at her front door, YaYa had to answer.

“Elaine?” YaYa said in surprise as she opened the door.

“Indie sent me, YaYa. No one has been able to reach you for days. You have a lot of people worried about you, sweetheart. I flew all the way down here from New York to make sure you were okay. Indie told me a bit about what’s going on…not too much, though. You know he can’t speak freely in there. You never know who might be listening. So, you fill in the blanks,” Elaine demanded.

Shocked to see her, but grateful for Elaine’s presence, YaYa didn’t object to her being there. She simply walked over to the table and grabbed the envelope with Leah’s location and then the envelope filled with pictures of Leah and Indie together. She handed them to Elaine. “This is what’s going on. This is the bitch that killed your son Nanzi, the one that I told you about. She kidnapped and killed Sky, too.”

Elaine’s mouth fell to her chest as she opened the first envelope and viewed the pictures. She immediately placed the face. It had been a long time, but Leah was the spitting image of her mother. As her mind took a walk down memory lane, Elaine remembered Leah. She recalled the little girl and her nutty-ass mother, Natalie.

“I know her. She…her mother…oh my God!” Elaine gasped as she put a manicured hand over her mouth. She opened the other envelope that contained Leah’s address.

“What?” YaYa asked. “Elaine, what’s going on?”

“I…I think I know why all of this is happening. I know where it all started,” she whispered in disbelief.

“I don’t give a damn how it started, but I know how it will end. I just have to get my head together. As soon as I think I can handle it, I’m going to find that bitch,” she said.

“YaYa, I have to go. I know what this girl is after. I know what she wants,” Elaine said urgently.

“How do you—”

Elaine held up her hand to interrupt YaYa before the question could even come out. “Just trust me. I have to go, but promise me you won’t make a move until I get back.”

“I can’t promise that, Elaine. You’re not telling me enough,” YaYa responded.

“Just trust me,” she said.

Elaine rushed out with one picture of Leah still in her hand and the address where she could be found memorized in her head. “It’s been more than twenty years and this madness is still going on,” she whispered as she pulled away.

She knew where to go to stop it. She had to go where all of the envy had begun. She had to go to the source. Only he could stop it. Unbeknownst to everyone but herself, she had kept up with him after all these years, and now it was time for her to be heard and seen. This craziness had to come to a conclusion.

Elaine sat reserved with her legs crossed and her manicured hands placed delicately on her knee. As she looked around the waiting room, she saw the young girls who were there. Each of them had a story to tell; no doubt, one that she was sure was quite similar to her own.

Twenty-five years ago, she was just like these girls: a ride-or-die for a man who would never return the loyalty. She, too, had once been in love with a man who was no good for her. Too foolish to realize it, Elaine had been stuck in a redundant relationship for years. Pimp and prostitute was her relation. Seeking love, but receiving control, Elaine became lost in Slim. It wasn’t until she realized that Slim was incapable of giving her the love that he constantly promised that she left.

So, she could relate to the girls sitting in the prison, waiting to visit boyfriends, husbands, and even pimps. She knew their strife. She was a seasoned vet in the street game they were playing.

Buchanan Slim had been a gift and a curse to her. It was the bad times that she had endured with him that taught her how to recognize and appreciate true love when it came her way. Her days of working street corners had been long, dark, and hard, but they had not been in vain. The streets raised her and taught her more than any textbook could ever do.

She had let Slim go long ago. He had led her straight into the darkness. Lost in love, she had committed murder over him, and she had not seen or spoken with him since that tragic night. She knew that he had been blamed for her sin. They had locked him away, and a part of her felt that it was vindication for every young girl that he had ruined.

She had not seen him in years, and today she sat nervously, waiting to reunite with him after so long. As she sat patiently, a thunderstorm of emotions wreaked havoc on her insides. Nervous energy caused her red-bottom heel to bounce off of the floor, and her breath caught in her chest when she saw Slim walk into the room.

She couldn’t bring herself to approach him. Elaine sat, breathing shallow bits of air as she watched him search the room for his visitor. When his eyes settled on her, she knew that he recognized her. She waited for his reaction. Expecting anger or resentment, she braced herself, but when he approached her and she looked deep into his eyes, all she felt was forgiveness and humility.

“Hello, Lai,” he greeted.

She hadn’t been called that in years, but hearing her old nickname fall off of his lips brought back so many memories. Some she was fond of and others ashamed of, but they all made up her past—a past that she had accepted and learned from.

“Hello, Slim,” she replied.

“After all this time, you wait until the day before I’m about to be paroled before you bless me with a visit, huh?” he asked playfully.

His tone held no fury, and Elaine could sense a change in him. The superficial, self-centered, selfish pimp no longer existed. Instead, he had been replaced with a man so spiritually full that his faith glowed through his skin.

“I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important,” Elaine said. “You’re different.”

“As are you, my sister,” he retorted.

“You found Allah?” she asked, surprised.

Slim nodded and gave her a hearty laugh as his eyes smiled at her genuinely. “You say that as if I was a lost cause.”

Elaine didn’t respond because they both knew the type of scum he used to be.

The moment of silence allowed just enough time for tension to sneak into the room. She could feel him staring at her, and she avoided his gaze as she motioned for him to sit. “Please. There’s something I need to speak with you about.”

Slim sat down. “What can I do for you, beautiful?” he asked.

Elaine’s eyebrow rose and she pointed a warning finger at him. “Don’t start, Slim. Don’t even try it. That charm doesn’t work on me anymore. I’m not the same girl I used to be.”

Slim chuckled, not used to being stood up to. “So I see.”

“First I want to tell you that I’m so sorry. I am the only person who knows that you don’t belong here. I apologize for taking your freedom from you. I had two boys to raise. I couldn’t admit to killing Dynasty,” she explained.

“I forgave you a long time ago, Elaine. I know you didn’t come all this way to say that. What did you really come for?” he asked.

“I came because I need you to right one of the wrongs that you committed, one that has ruined the lives of two young girls,” Elaine said.

Slim didn’t respond, but the fresh pools of tears that accumulated in his eyes expressed his remorse.

“YaYa is in trouble, Slim. Her daughter—”

“My baby has a daughter?” he asked as he realized how much he had missed. His green-eyed angel had been put in the back of his mind for so long. He never wanted to think of her or of what her life must have been like growing up without a mother or father, but now Elaine was making him face it.

“Has she been with you all this time?” he asked.

Elaine shook her head, crushing the tiny hope that he had mustered. “No. I wish that she had been, but I didn’t take her. I couldn’t look at her every day knowing what I had done.

“She and my son met about a year ago. They had a daughter together. That’s how I reunited with her. I felt horrible about letting her go to the system, but I was bitter too, Slim. You played with a lot of people’s emotions…fucked over a lot of good women.”

“I know,” Slim admitted.

“I don’t think you do, Slim. Those women were my friends. I knew them. I slept, shit, and ate with those women twenty-four hours a day.”

“You say it like it was prison.” Slim chuckled.

“It was your prison. We were locked down by you, and now YaYa is suffering because of the games you played,” Elaine explained.

“Don’t say that to me, Lai. I have enough regrets. Don’t add to the pile,” Slim pleaded, his strong baritone cracking under pressure.

“I wouldn’t tell you this unless it was absolutely necessary. YaYa’s daughter was kidnapped and killed, Slim,” Elaine explained. “And I believe that all of this happened because of you.”

Slim felt a mixture of anger and indignation, feeling as though Elaine was trying to place blame on him that he didn’t deserve. Little did he know, YaYa’s situation with Skylar and Leah was directly related to him.

“You remember Natalie?” Elaine asked.

Slim flipped through his mental Rolodex. He had encountered so many women in his day that it took him a minute to recall her exactly.

“Crazy bitch was always trying to pin a baby on me,” Slim said with a chuckle.

“Well, the crazy bitch has a crazy daughter…a daughter who you denied…a daughter who believes that you are her father, and one who has a lot of resentment towards YaYa because of the way that you treated her. Natalie’s daughter, Leah, kidnapped YaYa’s daughter.” Elaine placed a picture of Leah on the table for Slim to see.

He frowned because he remembered the little girl. He had always had sympathy for the child. Slim shook his head in disbelief.

“I feel horrible, Lai, but I don’t see why that girl would even think I’m her father,” Slim whispered as he leaned into the table intently.

Elaine looked at him in exasperation. “Slim, you played with a lot of people’s hearts. We all loved you. We all worshipped you. We all wanted to be the lucky lady to tie you down with a baby. You made a lot of promises to a lot of women, knowing that you never meant any of us any good.

“You planted this seed, Natalie watered it, and now it’s grown into a problem named Leah that no one knows how to handle. She has a lot of hate and jealousy in her heart. She feels like YaYa had the life that was meant for her. This could end very badly, Slim. You’re the only one who can fix this,” Elaine said firmly. “You have to right your wrongs, Slim.”

“What do you want me to do, Lai?” Slim asked as he sat back defensively in his chair. “Yeah, I talked a good game back in the day, but that girl isn’t my child. I know the seeds I left behind, and Nanzi…he was it.”

“And Leah killed him,” Elaine shot back. “She shot my baby in the head because of you, damn it!”

“What?” Slim said in shock.

“That little bitch is doing a lot of damage all because she feels like she is lacking something that you gave to YaYa. She’s lacking a father’s love.

“Little does she know a love like yours isn’t worth much. Poor child didn’t miss out on anything, but jealousy is the devil’s puppet. It can help breed a lot of hatred. She was on the outside looking in, and that crazy mother of hers had her thinking that you were a giant when in actuality, you were this big.” Elaine held her thumb and index finger slightly apart as she showed Slim what she thought of him.

“That’s not fair, Lai,” Slim stated.

“But it’s true,” Elaine said. “YaYa needs your help. She’s thinking about going after this girl. I can see it in her eyes that she’s going to kill her. She has already lost everything. I don’t want to see her lose her freedom behind this thing, but I also don’t want that crazy girl hurting YaYa again.

“When you get out of here, you fix this mess, Slim. Do it for the little green-eyed girl you used to worship. If you ever loved her like you claimed to, then you will make this right, because she needs you now more than ever before.”

Slim nodded, knowing that his selfish and womanizing ways had led to this chaos. He hadn’t seen YaYa since she was a little girl, but she still held the keys to his heart, and knowing that she was suffering because of his foolish behavior…For a man who had been deemed heartless, he still felt the nagging tear on the left side of his chest that indicated heartbreak. He had destroyed a lot of lives, and now it was time to be accountable for his actions.

Slim knew when he walked out of the prison gates that very soon he would be returning. He had a choice to make. He could go and help his baby girl, the only lady he had ever truly given his heart to, or he could leave his past behind. By going to Houston, he would be violating the conditions of his parole and would undoubtedly be sent back to finish the rest of his bid. Any sane man would have just let Disaya be, would’ve moved on and let the past go, but as Elaine’s car pulled up to the prison gates, his insanity was proven. He could not allow YaYa to suffer at the hands of Leah. He had to go to her aid.

He climbed into Elaine’s vehicle and they took off without speaking. They both understood the risk that Slim was taking, but neither of them felt the need to vocalize it.