by K'wan
Princess and I wrapped Jackie from his neck to his feet in an old carpet that I had in the attic, but he was too tall for his head to fit. Princess wanted to cut it off, but I wouldn’t let her. We had already done enough. Instead, we wrapped it in a plastic bag and tied a pillow case over that. I was just cutting the string that we’d tied around the carpet when my front door flew open. My brother, Randy, stood in the doorway with a pistol in his hand.
“Gina, are you okay?” he asked, seeing me standing in the middle of the living room looking a hot mess. “When you called, I thought Jackie was kicking your ass again.”
“Jackie won’t be kicking anybody else’s ass.” Princess nodded to the parcel lying on the floor.
Randy’s jaw dropped. “Tell me that isn’t Jackie? Gina.” He turned watery eyes to me. “Please tell me that y’all didn’t kill Jackie.”
“Randy, let me explain,” I pleaded.
“Explain what, how you let this dumb bitch gas you up to go to prison?” Randy snapped. “Stupid, just fucking stupid.”
“Well, I didn’t see nobody else rushing to Gina’s rescue.” Princess glared at Randy. The tension in the air was so thick that I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
Randy paced the floor. “This is fucked up, real fucked up. I can’t believe y’all killed him.” His voice was trembling.
“We didn’t do shit, I killed Jackie,” Princess confessed. She sat on the couch and lit another cigarette. “You can call it what you want, Randy, but it was the only way Gina could’ve ever gotten away from Jackie. Look, I know y’all are scared, but it’s gonna be okay. All we have to do is—” Before Princess could finish her sentence, her head exploded. I was so shocked that all I could do was stare at my brother as he placed the gun on the coffee table and knelt over Jackie’s body.
“No, no, no,” Randy sobbed, cradling Jackie’s body. “You couldn’t just leave him, could you? No, you had to kill him!”
“But Randy, I thought you of all people would’ve been happy that I was rid of Jackie.”
Randy turned his red eyes toward me. “I wanted him out of your life, not dead, Gina!”
“But I don’t understand.”
“He was my lover,” Randy spat, shocking me even further. “For the last three years, Jackie and I were having an affair.”
“But Jackie hated you because you were gay.”
“He didn’t hate me because I was gay, Gina. He hated me because he knew that as long as he was married to my sister, we would never be more than a late-night booty call. You killed my lover, Gina!”
I felt like all the strength had been sapped from my body as I watched my brother mourn the loss of his lover, my husband. All these years, I would’ve never expected Jackie to be in the closet, not my Jackie. As I knelt there with my brother and the bodies of my two lovers, I realized that you never really knew someone until you knew them.
Don’t miss these other titles by K’wan
EVICTION NOTICE
WELFARE WIFEYS
SECTION 8
GUTTER
STILL HOOD
HOOD RAT
Available from St. Martin’s Griffin
www.kwanfoye.com
About the Author
K’wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author of over a dozen titles which include: Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, Hoodlum, Eve, Hood Rat, Blow, Still Hood, Gutter, Section 8, From Harlem with Love, The Leak, Welfare Wifeys, Eviction Notice, Love & Gunplay, Animal, Purple Reign, The 1st & 15th, Ghetto Bastard, and Animal II. K’wan is also the author of several dark fantasy novels written under a pseudonym.
K’wan has been featured in: Vibe, Pages, King, The Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Press, and Time Magazine, to name a few. K’wan was also the recipient of the 2012 and 13 Street Lit Book Award Medals (SLBAM) in adult fiction for Eviction Notice and Animal. His credits also include featured commentary in the award-winning documentary Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (produced by Ice-T) as well as a reoccurring role as an analyst on TV-One’s Celebrity Crime Files.
K’wan currently resides in New Jersey where he is working on his next novel. Please visit his website:
www.Kwanfoye.com
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
WILD CHERRY. Copyright © 2009 by K’wan. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Ervin Serrano
Cover photographs by shutterstock.com
e-ISBN 9781466849891
First Edition: September 2013