by Brick
I paid him no mind as I walked to the counter. Behind it was a beautiful, dark-skinned girl who appeared to be no more than a few years older than Jewel. Her hair was pulled back into a bushy ponytail and her white apron was stained with grease from food.
“Excuse me,” I said.
She turned to look at me. Although she was smiling, I could tell it was forced. It was all a part of her job. “Yes,” she answered. There was no life in the girl’s voice.
“Have you seen this girl in here before?” I asked her, pointing at the girl in the picture with Jewel.
She took the picture and studied it a bit; then a slow, genuine smile stretched across her face. “Yeah. That’s Caitlyn and the girl beside her is Jewel. They’re besties.”
I quirked a brow. Besties? How the fuck were they besties? I’d never seen, met, or heard tell of Caitlyn before. “When’s the last time you seen her?”
“Why you wanna know? You the cops?”
“No, I’m not the cops. I’m her mother and I need to find her.”
She handed the picture back to me and thought before answering. “Was a few weeks ago,” she answered.
“Here?” I asked referring to the restaurant.
“No. I mean, yeah, they were here but, no, last I seen them was at the house party Donna was throwing. Jewel was sick though so Keith made her leave the party. Caitlyn and Keith got into a fight about it. Caitlyn was mad because she said Keith put too much stuff in Jewel’s drink.”
“What stuff? And who is Keith?”
“Caitlyn’s cousin. Donna is his sister, I think. I don’t know,” the girl said then looked around like she was uncomfortable. “Keith is . . . different, you know. Somet’ing wrong wit’ he, yuh?”
I was surprised when her accent jumped out. I felt my stomach muscles coiling at the thought of Jewel being drugged. “Different how?” I asked.
The girl behind the counter looked around to make sure nobody could hear her before she leaned forward. In an aggressive whisper, she said, “I bruk it down fuh yuh. Keith not right in the head. He watched his sister and cousin like he watch any other piece of ass walking around, yuh? He come from a family of nutters. Dem not right. Donna no better, but that boy special. Him fine like wine, but”—she stopped to shake her head—“him not fi tight in di mind, yuh. He like little girls fi much. He old, yuh know, and Jewel is young, seventeen. Him talk fi her since she was just sixteen.”
I’d been around enough Jamaicans to know “fi” meant “to” or “too.” I swallowed hard. “How did they meet?”
“Twitter. He direct messaged her after she put up something about doing stuff her father wouldn’t like. She put up a picture of her in a bikini and cutoff shorts. Said her dad would probably freak on her but, oh well.”
I frowned. “How do you know this stuff?”
“She my friend.”
“How? You’re in Texas.”
“I went to school for a while in Miami. We used to hang. We met Caitlyn on Facebook in a private group. We all kinda like just stayed friends and stuff, yuh? Jewel always thought Keith was cute and all so when he started talking to her, she got all excited. Couldn’t believe he had picked her to talk to. An older guy liking her? She couldn’t believe it.”
“Just how old is he?”
The girl glanced away like she was embarrassed. “Think like twenty-six,” she said then shrugged. “I don’t know really. Could be younger. Could be older.”
“Did you know she ran away?”
The girl nodded. “Yuh. Keith said her pops was crazy. Said he was getting her away from him. He told us we’d be doing his family a favor if we helped him. His family a big deal ’round the way. He had this plan where they would go to Mexico first then here. Everything was all good at first then Keith started acting weird. He hit her and stuff. They started fighting because Jewel won’t stand for nobody hitting on her. Shit just changed and got crazy. His family, the Kn—”
Whatever she was about to say got cut off when the door to the kitchen opened.
“Would that be all for you, ma’am?” she asked me, completely changing her posture, attitude, and the tone of her voice.
I caught on as the mean-looking man cast a glower at both of us. I hoped he hadn’t heard what we had been talking about. Hoped I didn’t get the girl in trouble and I prayed with everything in me that my daughter wasn’t dead by now.
“Yes, that will be all. And will you add some coconut water with it, please?” I added on just to make it seem more genuine.
“That’ll be $17.50,” she said.
I quickly handed her a twenty. I looked behind me to see that Mark had disappeared. I took the food I hadn’t ordered when the girl behind the counter gave it to me. When she slid the change in my hand, I noticed on the back of the receipt were the words, “the Knights.” I wanted to ask the girl more, but I knew I couldn’t.
The man—dark-skinned, tall, and lanky—was forcefully wiping down the white countertop like it had offended him. “Don’t you get my gyal in no trouble,” he fussed without even looking up at me. He just kept wiping down the counter.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“You heard me. Don’t get my daughter in no trouble. She go to school. She gon’ make somet’ing of she self. You ain’t heard nothing from she. Yuh understand?” he barked out at me.
I nodded. “Yes, sir. I understand,” was all I said in return. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was telling me not to mention where I had heard all the information I had.
“Sorry, Daddy,” the girl said, her head dipped into her shoulders like she was ashamed.
The man stopped wiping down the counter. “Ain’t not’ing to be sorry fa. Get back yonder outside and see what’s keeping your brother Mallock.”
“Yes, sir.”
I was just about to leave when the girl came running back up front to her father. “He ain’t back there, Daddy. He gone.”
The man shook his head and started fussing about his no-good-ass son being lazy. I didn’t know why but, in that moment, I thought about Tone. I walked outside just as my cell started to ring. Tone was calling me.
“Where are you?” I asked as soon as I answered.
“You find out anything?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Get in the car; drive out of the parking lot. Meet me down the street. There is an abandoned shopping center. Drive behind it and pick me up. Keys are in the car.”
Before I could ask what was going on, the line went dead. I shook my head and got in the car. I did what he asked me down to the letter. I drove behind that shopping center. With half of his body hidden behind a big green trash can, I saw Tone covered in blood. My heart sank. I whipped the car to a stop then jumped out. I didn’t know if he had been injured. There was another car there. The driver and passenger side doors opened.
“What—”
“Don’t ask me nothing, Kenya,” he said before I could get the words out.
I couldn’t see him fully until I walked around the trash can. My eyes widened and I almost screamed. In his hand was a severed head. The locs on the head reminded me of serpents. The mouth was open like the male had been in mid-scream when Tone decapitated him.
Mark rushed around the corner with Frederick and Maria-Rosa in tow.
“What the fuck, Antonio?” Maria-Rosa yelled.
“Holy hell,” Frederick commented.
“This nigga really is in touch with his dark side,” Mark spat. “Get the body from over by the car,” he told Frederick.
It was only then that I looked to see a headless body sitting upright by the open driver side door. Blood dripped from the bottom of the door.
“What did you do, Antonio?” Maria-Rosa asked him. She looked at her uncle with a deep frown, almost like she was disappointed in him. All the while Tone never took his eyes off me. He was gone. The Antonio I knew was no longer there.
“Leave that nigga alone,” Mark told her. “Something off about that moth
erfucker.”
My eyes were wide while looking at Antonio. If Mark, of all people, was saying something was off about Tone then something was wrong.
“Apparently,” Frederick said. “Ain’t no knife around this place. How he get this nigga’s head off?”
“He used the door of the car,” Mark answered. “Kept slamming it on his neck until it came off.”
Maria-Rosa backed up a few paces from Tone, as did Frederick. These were the Orlandos. One would think they were used to seeing this kind of thing. But I think it was the fact that Tone was supposed to be the “good one” that gave them all pause.
“We gotta get this shit cleaned up and get the heat off Tone. If we let this nigga get caught holding any bodies, Grandpops gon’ flip his shit,” Mark said. “Call the cleaners. Kenya, y’all gotta jet. Get this nigga outta here.”
Tone’s nose and upper lip twitched as he walked to the car with the head in his hand. Once he got to me, he held the head up and asked, “Look familiar?”
“No,” I answered, not really even looking.
“Say hello to Mallock, the other nigga in the video raping our daughter,” was all he said before walking to the car. He popped the trunk, then tossed the head inside. I was cold on the inside, numb even, as I walked around to get back in the car. I was confused. How in hell would he know who was on the video?
We drove back to the ranch in silence. A team of people dressed in all-white jumpsuits and face masks met us outside. One asked me for the keys to the car. I readily handed them over. Another tried to take the head from Tone and got shoved to the ground for the affront. He carried the severed head into the house, dripping blood along the way.
Caltrone was coming downstairs, but came to a complete stop at the sight of Antonio and the blood on the floor. Caltrone didn’t even have to say a word. Women started moving like the world was ending as they rushed to clean the mess Tone was making. He walked up the stairs and stood in front of his father.
He held the boy’s head up and said, “Found another one,” before dropping the head of the boy at his father’s feet and walking away.
The old man swallowed hard, his fist balled at his side. “You let him do this?” Caltrone asked me.
“I didn’t let him do anything. He’s simply his father’s son,” I answered.
I knew what was bothering Caltrone: he wasn’t in control of this moment. Tone had taken control from him by going out on his own and coming back with a trophy to show for it. It was okay for Tone to kill for Caltrone’s enjoyment, but the minute Tone took control of the situation, it seemed Caltrone had a problem with it. It took control from his hands. In this moment, he was no longer Tone’s puppet master.
Benita yelled to cleaners, “Get the gotdamned head off the stairs and away from Caltrone,” as I walked past him. I knew Caltrone’s OCD was in overdrive, not to mention I was sure his mood had soured. I headed to my room, but then made an abrupt turn to head into Tone’s when I heard him yelling for someone to get the fuck away from him. There was a woman in the room with him, small in stature, demure even. She looked at me with pleading eyes.
“Please, make him give me the clothes. I have to get rid of them or Caltrone will get rid of me. I can’t leave this room without those clothes,” her squeaky voice said.
She literally looked like she was about to cry. What kind of fear had Caltrone instilled in these women around him? She would rather suffer Tone cussing her to hell before enduring punishment from Caltrone. I walked over to Tone to stand in front of him. He looked down at me. There was something in his eyes. Who he used to be was trapped behind them; who he was now scared me. He looked more like his father now than he ever had before. The Ortiz had been imprisoned and the Orlando had taken rule.
“Antonio,” I whispered softly.
He didn’t respond. He was looking at me, could hear me, but he wasn’t there. “They raped my baby girl,” he said.
For a second, I thought he had seen the video, but that was impossible, right? I hadn’t shown it to him. Caltrone forbade Mark from showing it to him so how did he know who Mallock was? I didn’t know who the boy was just by seeing his severed head. How in hell had Tone even known the boy would be at the shop?
As if he had read my mind, he said, “He was in the picture I showed you. You didn’t see him?” he asked me. “He was in the video.”
I’d been so busy looking at Jewel, I hadn’t really paid attention to anyone else in the photo other than Caitlyn, the girl she was standing next to. “No, I didn’t see him, Tone. And who showed you the video?”
“Fallon’s phone . . . When I was setting the scene at the apartment, I found his phone. Saw the video.”
I swore Tone was talking to me, but he wasn’t. He seemed to be somewhere else in his head. I didn’t say anything else. I kneeled down to take his shoes and socks off, then his pants and underwear. His shirt was last. I handed it all to the timid woman who rushed from the room like hell was on her ass. I took Tone by his hand and led him to the shower.
I didn’t know what to think. Didn’t know what else to do. I stripped off my clothes and stepped inside with him. I took the time to wash him down. I washed his hair too and was happy he let me do it. There was no fight from him as I cleaned him up. After I was done, we both stood there, me gazing up at him and him staring down at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I nodded then licked my lips. I knew what he was saying to me without him having to say it to me. He was past the point of no return. There was no coming back. I thought about Mama Carmen as tears clouded my eyes. She had raised one hell of a son. People often said a woman couldn’t raise a boy into a man. I begged to differ. Carmen had raised a gentleman. He wasn’t perfect, but he for damn sure was nowhere near the worst. It would hurt her to know that the man she had raised had died by default.
“You did what you had to do,” I said. “Any parent would.” In a sense, I was sad but, then again, I’d do and had done anything just so I could get Jewel back. I pushed the doors open to the stall and stepped one foot out before Tone grabbed my arm to stop me.
I closed my eyes. His hands on me, the look I’d seen in his eyes before trying to walk away told me what was on his mind. I prayed Antonio wouldn’t make me take this path.
I shook my head. “No, Antonio,” I whispered low. He didn’t let my arm go. I looked back over my shoulder at him. “Don’t do this to me.” He pulled me back into the shower with him, closer than I had been before, and he slid the door closed behind me. “Please, don’t do this to me.”
He knew what I was talking about. I’d never been able to say no to him. Never. Not when it came to us joining together as one, his body inside of my body.
My body shook as my nails dug into the palms of my hands. The closer he pulled me to him, the more I thought about Isaac. It had been years upon years and the only man I’d been with other than Antonio was Isaac and one other dude whose name I didn’t remember. I liked to lie to myself, tell myself I didn’t miss Tone or miss how it felt when we used to tear into one another when it came to sex.
By now I was so close to Tone I could feel his heartbeat.
“I have a fiancé,” I said. I didn’t know why I said it like it would make a difference.
Tone shrugged. “Yeah, I don’t care,” was all he said before his mouth met mine.
In that moment, all my resolve faded. That fire that no man could light inside me came roaring to life. I moaned; or was it a whimper? Water rained down on us from the shower. The steam fogged up the bathroom, telling of the heat we created. My hair stuck to my face and neck. His hair did the same.
Tone’s hands slid down my back then cupped my ass in the way I liked, in only the way he could. His mouth moved from mine to the side of my face then down my neck and shoulders. Hands came up from my ass to massage my breasts. Only he knew the pleasure I derived from pain because he had introduced me to a part of myself I didn’t know existed.
So when his mo
uth found my nipples and his teeth bit down on them, blinding pleasure ripped through me. When his nails dug into my sides and back, my pussy blossomed and leaked like it hadn’t in years. When he roughly spun me around and pressed my face into the wall with a handful of my hair locked in his fist, Isaac faded from my subconscious. Tone growled in my ear before biting down on the left side of the space between my neck and shoulders. It wasn’t a light bite, no. This bite was sure to leave a mark. It was deep and I could feel the pain penetrate my psyche.
My head fell back and I orgasmed on the spot. But it was only when he slipped inside of me from behind and whispered, “Mine,” that I remembered what I’d been missing.
“Mine,” he said in my ear again once he was in to the hilt.
I couldn’t deny him in the moment. My mouth was agape and water threatened to strangle me as my body fought to adjust to his girth and length. He didn’t move for a while. All I could feel was his dick thumping inside of me. His nails made scratches down my back. The water stung, even burned in some places, but I liked it. It was only when he started to move that my moans rent the air. I was his for the taking.
* * *
It was an hour or so later that Tone finally told me what had happened. After I’d told him what the girl at the restaurant had told me and I showed him the receipt with “the Knights” written on it, he pulled out the photo and then Fallon’s phone with the video. He pointed at the boy with the locs in the video then pointed to the picture with Jewel and Caitlyn. In the back was Mallock, grinning with another male whose back was turned to the camera, but there was another girl there as well. Tone said he could see Mallock through the glass in the kitchen door. He saw when Mallock walked outside so he went out back to see if he was still back there.
Tone pretended he was interested in some weed. Mallock was more than happy to take him to get some. Didn’t even know the man, but for the promise of sharing a blunt, he would take him to get the best weed in Texas. They never made it to the weed man and Mallock would never make it back to his sister and father.