“You didn't have to kill Vanessa.”
Rich watched Candy as he contemplated. He knew she was fighting her feelings for Domingo. He blamed himself for allowing her to slip away from him and into Domingo's hands.
Candy turned to Rich.
Rich glared at Domingo. “I was the one on the phone when you was talking about killing me and Vanessa. Then you started shooting.”
“Man, Tahiem started shooting and I was tryin' to clap him and his brother. You ain't see through that phone that Tahiem backed out a gat on me?”
Rich didn't care about anyone's gun being pointed at Domingo. Since the gunshots that echoed through her phone shattered his world, he had gone straight to the airport and caught the first flight to New York. During the flight, he called Candy and explained everything he heard over the phone. After she stopped crying, she confessed that she had been involved with Domingo and she told Rich where Domingo lived. Rich thought he had cleared Vanessa and Candy from his system. But with the thought of their safety being compromised, he realized he would always have feelings for them.
“So when you came here earlier with that empty gun, you telling me that was because you had a shootout with Tahiem?” Candy asked.
“I knew something was wrong with you. I could see it in your eyes. I could feel it, ya heard?”
“Answer my question,” Candy demanded.
“I ever lie to you since you been in this house? I had a shootout with Tahiem.” Candy looked at Rich. “What if he's telling the truth?”
“It don't matter. He set her up to get killed and he planned to kill me too.”
Domingo was silent as Candy stared at him. His facial expression spelled guilt. It was obvious Domingo would rather not debate with the man who heard him voice the plot to kill Vanessa and Rich.
“But what if he didn't do it and Vanessa is alive?” Candy asked Rich.
“Where y'all had her at?”
“Some spot up in the Bronx.”
“Where the fuck is some spot?” Rich asked, raising his tone.
“I don't know.”
“This the last time I'm moving my lips. Next time my trigger finger gonna move.”
“It don't matter how many times you ask me the same shit, the answer don't change, ya heard?”
Rich fired a shot in Domingo's leg.
“Urgh. Motherfucker!” Domingo yelled as he grabbed his leg.
“Where ?” Rich asked.
Domingo remained silent, shaking his head and gritting his teeth.
Rich fired another .50-caliber hollow point into his other leg.
“Fuck, shit! I been there one time. I don't know where that shit is at.” Domingo leaned forward in pain, gasping as blood ran between his fingers that covered his wounds.
“He don't know, Rich.”
Rich turned to Candy as her voice faded. “Don't be his voice box.” Rich could see she was concerned about Domingo's wellbeing. Rich knew it would be hard for her to overcome the feelings she had for the youngster. His experience with her taught him how attached she could become to a person she felt. Staring at her, Rich said, “He fuckin' murdered Vanessa, Candy.”
“That's what you think,” she countered. “All we know is you heard some gunshots over Vanessa's phone.”
“So I'm a liar now?”
“You're uncertain. Trying to put a damn puzzle together that's missing way too many pieces.”
“I know he was there with the motherfuckers that kidnapped Vanessa and was about to rape her.”
“Didn't you tell me he stopped them?”
“So they could just kill her. He said they plan was to kill Vanessa and me. He even volunteered to kill her instead of them raping her. I heard that so I know that for a fact.”
Candy looked at Domingo, whose pants were bloody. He was curled up in pain.
“That's the same motherfucker who lied to you,” said Rich. “Told you he was gonna protect you, kill the Twins and Chanel. What he do? Get with the Twins and murder Vanessa.”
Candy turned to Rich with tears in her eyes.
She bought this bullshit Domingo hit her with. Rich stepped a couple of feet in front of Domingo. “Last chance. Where the fuck is Vanessa?”
As Domingo shook his head, Rich put his Desert Eagle to it and squeezed off a slug. Blood splattered on the couch and wall as Domingo's lifeless body fell to the couch, and then the floor.
Rich turned to Candy. Her eyes were shut as she slowly dropped her head. “This fuckin' dude killed Vanessa,” Rich said.
“You don't know shit!” she screamed, pointing her fingers in Rich's face. “You don't know shit about me or about what happened to Vanessa.”
“Calm down.” Rich attempted to move her hand and she smacked him. He grabbed her in a bear hug and held her tight.
“Get the fuck off me!” Candy screamed as she attempted to break free. She eventually submitted, embracing Rich.
“Everybody's dying. Vanessa . . . Domingo. I'm scared. Tired of losing people.”
“Don't worry. I'm a make sure nothing happens to you.” Rich had long since known Candy's and Vanessa's vulnerabilities. It was one of the main reasons he tried as hard as he could to stop them from seeking revenge. He knew that they were out of their league when it came to seasoned vets like the Twins and Domingo. There was more to street killings than simply pulling triggers. To survive and thrive in the world of gun slingers required a psychological capacity to subdue the internal demons that haunted those who were not desensitized to death.
Candy and Vanessa were women scorned by the streets, but they were still women defined through a life of sensitivity and emotion that made them affectionate lovers. They had only dabbled in the ring where fighters sparred with bullets. They had endured a lot, but not enough to harden their hearts to the point where they could kill anyone—even a person like Domingo, who Candy had feelings for. It was that criminal mentality that allowed Rich to aide in Chase's murder because of his violation of Candy. As Rich held Candy in his arms, he hoped that she never reached the level of disregard for life that he had.
Rich looked down at Domingo's body lying in a pool of blood. What the fuck am I doing? He knew that trying to console Candy was jeopardizing their freedom. His loud .50-caliber gunshots may have alerted neighbors to call police. There would be no justification for him and Candy inside of Domingo's home with him dead.
Candy stepped back, gazing at Domingo's lifeless body.
“Baby, you gotta go get your shit. Come on,” said Rich.
Rich and Candy went to Domingo's bedroom and began packing her clothes and any potential evidence belonging to her.
“Just thought of something,” Candy said, before sprinting out of the room. She returned with Domingo's keys and iPhone. She slipped them in the pocket of her jeans.
Another phone. Rich thought of how they had learned of the plot resulting in Candy's kidnapping and torture by scrolling through Chase's phone before killing him. There were messages from Chanel and her cohorts.
“You ready?” Rich asked after Candy zipped her luggage.
She nodded, and then Rich grabbed her bags and followed her out of the bedroom. As they stepped into the living room, Candy stopped, then Rich. They took one last look at Domingo. He had long since outgrown the smooth kid that Rich had met years earlier. He had morphed into a snake like many of the teens Rich had saw coming of age in Harlem where Rich learned that trust was more than a word and something that could be earned only through high stakes.
Candy looked at Rich, then headed for the door.
Suddenly, the front door flung open after a loud thump.
“Oh shit,” Rich said as he saw Jahiem raise a Mac-11. Rich dropped the luggage, jumped in front of Candy and pushed her back as he reached for his Desert Eagle.
“Got your ass.” Jahiem squeezed the trigger.
Two bullets hit Rich's shoulder, slamming the left side of his body back as he aimed his gun with his right hand and squeezed over three thunder
ous claps. “Go!” Rich pushed Candy back as Jahiem took cover.
Candy ran into the bedroom as Rich backpedalled behind her.
Rich surfaced as a barrage of 9-millimeter bullets blew past him. While he turned and stepped into the bedroom, two more bullets hit his back, dropping him. He looked up at Candy in shock.
“My God.” She pulled him deeper inside of the room and shut the door.
Rich's body was on fire. Candy helped him to his feet, but as he staggered he could feel his energy quickly depleting. “Jahiem must've followed Domingo here,” Rich said. He handed Candy the gun he took from Domingo.
Candy was hysterical, tears smearing what little eyeliner she had left on her face.
Rich looked out the window. Finding no sign of Tahiem, he told Candy, “Open it and go. His brother not out there.”
As she opened the window, several bullets tore through the bedroom door.
Rich and Candy fired back, silencing Jahiem. Rich fell down and was having trouble getting up.
“Trapped,” a voiced resonated from behind the door.
“I know that shit gotta be a bad feeling,” a second voice sounded.
“Damn.” Rich sighed. “That must be both of the Twins.”
Candy grabbed Rich's hand as Jahiem sent some more shots through the door. Rich shot back. “You gotta go.”
“Hell no!” Candy said. Beads of sweat and tears covered her light skin. “No, Rich.”
Rich noticed the puddle of blood forming beneath him. The burning sensation consuming his body was as scary as how hard it was for him to simply move his fingers. He looked at the woman he loved. “Only one of us gonna make it outta here alive and it ain't gonna be me.”
About five more shots tore through the wooden door and Candy fired back.
“Go!” Rich yelled at Candy, cringing as his gunshot wounds dominated his will to live. He looked at Candy and managed to smile. Even with the fear on her face, she was the same beautiful woman who had brought him a level of joy and love that most men would never experience. Rich had lived his life well.
Candy looked at the holes in the door, then back at Rich. She leaned down and kissed him. “I love you,” she said through a whisper and tears. She rubbed her hand on his face and shook her head slowly. She pulled his face to hers, cheek to cheek. “I'll always love you.”
“I know,” Rich mumbled before coughing up blood on his shirt.
Candy let him go and began climbing through the window.
Shots fired again, tearing through the door and breaking the window.
As the glass cascaded down on Candy, Rich fired through the door. When he looked up, Candy was out of the window. The door opened and Rich fired again. A single shot. His heart sunk as he realized his gun was empty. It's over. He saw a lifetime of memories in 3D. A montage of pain and pleasure. The people he had killed. The shootouts in which his bullets had ripped through flesh, but he never found out if they ended life. All the drugs he had sold that contributed to death, destruction of families and imprisonment. The women he had wronged. His ability to make it out of the game only to be pulled back. He thought of how he was so close to joining King in a life of normalcy. He thought of Vanessa and Candy—the two people who had introduced him to love. His only love. An unconditional love that most people didn't know was possible. I lived my life. Rich closed his eyes and waited for the Twins to finish what they had started.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CANDY
As Candy started Domingo's Expedition, she heard gunfire. She looked at the window she had just climbed out of and she could see the bedroom lit by the sparks of what she knew was the Twins’ guns. She pulled off slowly with a lump in her throat as she tried to swallow a cruel truth. She had experienced the worse day of her life. Worse than the day she was tortured. The only three people I cared about, all murdered in one day.
Candy steered out of the neighborhood and pulled over on a desolate street to cry, to gather her faculties. It was the only thing she could do at the moment to release some of the pain. To cope with something that she felt no one should have to endure. Candy thought of what Vanessa was put through. Then she remembered Domingo as Rich slowly took his life away. No matter what Rich said, Candy could not envision Domingo murdering Vanessa. Candy was caught in between the love she learned she had never lost for Rich and the relief Domingo had given her when she had no one to rely on. She saw images of Rich in her mind. Images of him shielding her from Jahiem's bullets. He had given his life instead of allowing her to risk hers to save him. She questioned would she have given her life for Rich? She knew that she loved him, but she could not answer her own inquiry. The hot bullets whizzing by her inside of Domingo's house gave her a different perspective on the value of life. An intimate experience with beef. Not just what it meant to take life, but what it meant to lose life.
But at the same time, Candy was contemplating whether her life was worth living. There was no one to live life with or live life for. Vanessa had aborted her unborn child as a testament to her loyalty and love for Candy. Rich had given his life for Candy. Finding people of that caliber was almost impossible. No one would ever replace them.
Candy started the truck and turned on the radio. “December” was playing. Olivia's soothing voice added to Candy's stress, so she turned from Power 105 to Hot 97. K-Slay was playing 50 Cent's “Outlaw.” She pulled off, destined for the long drive Upstate to Rich's cabin.
When she began her ride through Brooklyn, she grew angry. The borough evoked thoughts of Vera and Chanel, two of the people who were integral in making Candy's life an insignificant existence. Two people alive while Vanessa and Rich are dead. As she rode down Atlantic Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Candy tried to keep herself calm and ward off her growing desire for vengeance. She recognized that it was her vindictive attitude that had contributed to her sad predicament.
As Candy pulled up in front of Rich's cabin, an eerie feeling overcame her, because she knew she would never again spend time there with Rich or Vanessa. She parked the Expedition and went inside the cabin. Candy dragged herself over to the couch in front of the fireplace and laid Domingo's gun on the couch. Staring at the semi-automatic, she was reminded that it was in the back of the cabin she now sat, where she killed Chase. The surge of power that went through her body as she emptied her clip into Chase was the spark that had ignited the hunger within her for the revenge that she now tried to suppress.
Candy walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of Crown Royal Black and a bottle of yellow Nuvo. She mixed them into two large glasses. “Black and Yellow for those who didn't make it.” She toasted, both glasses chiming on contact before she sipped from one, then the next. She leaned back on the couch and gazed at the flameless fireplace. One sip led to another. And another. And another. Before Candy grasped what she was doing, she had run through the entire bottle of Nuvo and half of the Crown Royal. Her head was spinning. Images of Rich, Vanessa and Domingo made their rounds within her head. She stood, only to stumble back onto the couch.
Candy laughed in an attempt to mask the pain of loss as she began sobbing. It wasn't simply the death that haunted her, it was the isolation. Candy felt trapped in solitude like a terrorist confined in the annals of a Guantanamo Bay cell for 23 hours a day. There was no shoulder to lean on like the one Domingo provided for her after she parted with Vanessa and Rich. There were no firm arms to hold her close like Rich had done on countless occasions. There was no tender voice to say, “Everything's gonna be okay” like Vanessa had done time after time. There was only Candy and the bottle of alcohol she was swimming in.
* * *
The following morning Candy awoke with a massive hangover. She cooked breakfast—a vegan meal of soy sausages and tofu eggs in honor of Vanessa. Then she showered for almost an hour, trying her best to wash away the tears that emerged the more she contemplated moving on without the people that mattered to her.
Candy's head was wrapped in a towel and she was lotioning her flawles
s skin when she heard Drake's voice. She looked at Domingo's iPhone on the nearby dresser as the “I'm On One” ringtone played. She walked over and discovered a sext message from Chanel stating she needed to see Domingo immediately at Highland Park, because she was horny. There was a close-up of Chanel's pussy and her legs spread wide open.
“Fuck,” Candy mumbled as she gawked at Domingo's phone. He was fucking the broad he said he was gonna protect me from. Candy could still see the straight face Domingo had when he told her he would handle Chanel and the others who had violated her. Candy had been fooled. There was no doubt in her mind now that Domingo had killed Vanessa.
Candy stared at Chanel's message. Acting as Domingo, she texted Chanel back. The message led Chanel to believe that Domingo would be picking her up at Highland Park at midnight.
Lickin' License Part 2: More Sex, More Saga Page 24