by J Peach
Images from the past began to flash through my mind. My heart squeezed painfully. What if he didn’t realize we were gone? What if he thought I took Blake and left for Lafayette? He could be on his way there now. It would be too late before he realized it.
“Why so you can cry? No. I have to finish telling you my story.” Tish waved me off.
I was starting to think she liked to hear herself talk. My eyes rolled and I looked away from her, glancing at the other female who hadn’t said a word since she came into the basement.
Would you stop looking at her?” She snapped at me. Tish rubbed her forehead. “Peaches, Monica. Monica, Peaches. You two have been introduced. Now can I finish my story?” She waved her hand as if shooing Monica away.
And to my surprise she went and sat on the couch without saying a word.
“My second baby Blaze took from me—”
I cut her off. “You had sex with him twice and got pregnant?” Now that I didn’t believe one bit.
“No, now shut the fuck up! Blaze had moved on, kind of. I had gotten a new man.” That annoying smile once again graced her face. “Blue. He was unexpected but he won me over and made me forget about everything Blaze put me through. He was my everything and we had been going strong for four years.” The smiled on her face faded a bit.
“Blue was my heart but he had his flaws. He loved to gamble. He sucked at it but he was addicted to it. We went to Vegas for the weekend, we eloped, no one knew of course. My momma and Sam hated him but he was my heart, so I’d rather lose them over him any day. I went with him and we got married.” Tish eyes started to water and she turned away from me.
“The two days we were out there he lost well over thirty thousand dollars. He pissed me off so bad, but I let it go. He promised me he would get the money back, that what he lost wasn’t shit but play money. Of course I believed him. A few weeks had gone by after our trip and he had suddenly came up on some money, a lot of money. I asked him about it and he told me that he was working for his aunt’s husband, Rice. A big dealer out in the city. Problem with that was Blue gambled. He couldn’t keep money for nothing.
“Rice wanted to move some work over in Gary. He wanted Blue to push it for him. Blue wasn’t really a dealer, my baby was a straight up stick up nigga. He would run up in yo shit and hit you for everything. But Rice wanted Blue to make shit happen for him. He threw him some money and he started making plans. The biggest dealer out here was Blaze. The spots Rice wanted were Blaze’s territories. Blue didn’t really know Blaze. He heard of him but he didn’t know him. He was sure Blaze was going to jump at the deal Rice was offering.” She grabbed the crate and sat on the side of me. Tish let out a depressing sigh.
“Given Blaze and my previous relationship I knew it was a bad idea. I didn’t want Blaze to get jealous about me finally moving on and I didn’t want to be disrespectful throwing our thing in his face, you know? I told him about Blaze and his clubs. He only knew Blaze was Sam’s best friend, that’s it. See he really needed this deal to go through for two reasons. One, we had spent the money Rice had given us and two, that was more money. So he got his boy, Cornell.” She smiled at me. “Yeah, your boy, Cornell, which just so happened to be Monica’s baby brother. Anyways, they showed up at the club and pitched Blaze the idea. He shut it down and told Blue to get the fuck out of his club. That night, he and Blaze got into a fight.
“Blue wasn’t expecting him to shut down the deal, but he did. Now mind you Rice done gave Blue money because he counted on getting double in return if Blaze agreed. Blue’s mistake with Blaze was he thought he would jump at the idea of getting more money and because Blaze didn’t, he had to think of something else.” Tishana’s head shook. “Blue and Cornell hit a bank. They came out with a hundred thousand, which they split between themselves. After the bank robbery, they had to lay low for a minute and no money was coming in. Blue was stressing and getting mad about every little thing. I had just found out I was three weeks pregnant and I couldn’t bring our baby in this world without nothing. No one knew I was pregnant and I wanted to keep it that way until I started showing.
“I didn’t plan on working long, it was only until Blue got back on his feet. So I went to my brother for a job. Brandy, that bitch had a problem with it because I would basically be taking over her job, which she could hardly do. It caused problems between her and him so he called Blaze for a favor. That’s how I started working at the car lot. When I was fourteen, he would let me work there for the summer and every one after, so he knew I could do the job.
“Now fifty thousand dollars isn’t a lot when you have an addiction. Saving is a bitch as well, so the money we were supposed to be putting up to give back to Rice, Blue was spending. We needed to do something quick, we needed money. So he went to First Midwest Bank to open up an account to basically scope out the place. But he found more, a flirty little slut. Wait one second.” She stood up and stretched. “Mikel, can you bring in my guest, please?”
The door opened and the guy she sent out earlier to get her so called quest came back with someone over his shoulder.
Mikel walked over to us and carelessly dropped the person to the floor. A grunt left the female’s mouth before a muffled scream as he snatched a handful of her hair and pulled her to the wall.
My head tilted so I could get a good look at her face, but it was covered by her hair. I kind of got pissed off by the way he was handling her. Regardless of my ill feelings, I said nothing.
“Now, this bitch, I hate.” Tish booted the girl in the face twice. The last blow hit the right side of her head hard, causing her to fall into my lap.
“Tish!” I yelled at her before I pushed my knees and shook them slightly. “Are you okay?” My legs moved a bit faster.
She didn’t respond. As I shook my legs to get her attention, her hair moved slightly out of her face.
Instantly my legs went still as I stared down at a bruised and beaten Krystal.
Chapter 31
Peaches
I stared at Krystal with mixed feelings. The ignorant part of me wanted to knee her head off of my lap, given the problems she caused. But the logical side knew it wasn’t all her fault, in fact it was all Blaze’s. He could’ve ended things with her but he chose to continue to see her.
“Krystal.” I tried to get a response but I got nothing. She was knocked out. I looked up at Tish. “What does she have to do with anything? Is it because of Blaze?”
Tish eyes rolled. “Please, this is beyond Blaze. This was the flirty bitch that helped him open the account. I wanted to kill her. Blue saw how she reacted to him and thought if he got with her and made her fall in love with him, he could turn her. Of course, I didn’t like the idea but I loved and trusted my man. I just had one rule and it was that he couldn’t fuck her. Anything else could go. Some bitches like a man that would wait for sex and as expected this dumb bitch fell for it.”
Tishana snatched Krystal up off of me and started stomping on her. Once she became short on breath, she spit on her and then kicked her one more time. “She started to take him away from me. Blue thought I wouldn’t notice but he started liking this little bitch. He always wanted to be with her, had to stay at her house or vice versa. She was cutting into my time with him.” She kicked Krystal again.
I was confused once again. “Tish, if he was supposed to make her fall in love with him, wasn’t he supposed to spend a lot of time with her?”
She hauled off and slapped the shit out of me. I jumped at her and let out a frustrated growl. My tongue swiped over my lips and I hissed from the split she had made.
“Shut the fuck up! This is my story, so shut the fuck up! You don’t know shit. Was you there? Huh? Did you see what was happening?” She yelled in my face. Tish grabbed my neck and squeezed it tightly, cutting off my airway.
The veins in my face felt as if they were going to burst from my lack of oxygen. I tried to wiggle away from her but it was no use, I was tied up and helpless.
T
ish squeezed harder one last time before she let me go. She punched me across the face and then backed away. “You’re starting to piss me the fuck off. I know what the fuck the plan was. I told him to do it!” She screamed at me.
I fell to the side, choking as I tried to regain my breathing.
Tish paced the floor. She seemed to be trying to calm herself down as she mumbled to herself. After a few minutes of her back and forth walking, she stopped. Tishana pushed her weaved hair over her shoulders and then looked back at us.
“I’m sorry, you just pissed me off. I’m not stupid, Peaches. I know what the job would consist of. But that didn’t mean he had to fall for her or cancel dates with me just for her. I was pregnant with our baby and this was how he was doing me. I must admit I acted off emotions when I told him it was time to get the job down. It had been a couple months so if she had fallen for him, then she wouldn’t hesitant to give him the information.” Tish walked over to Krystal and just started beating her ass. She stomped and kicked her in the face and stomach repeatedly.
“But no, this dumb bitch wouldn’t talk! If she did, we wouldn’t have had to hit Blaze’s spot and Blue would’ve still been alive! I would have never lost my baby.”
She was beating the hell out of the girl. Krystal was already knocked out from the first attack, now she just laid there. Hell, I didn’t think she was breathing.
“Because of her, we had to rob Blaze that night for the money to pay off Blue’s uncle. That same night we robbed him, he came back. I had just left Blue’s house a few minutes prior to drop Cornell off. When I left, he was to kill her and then meet me back at my place. When he didn’t show, I called but got the voicemail over and over again. So I went back only to see fire trucks. I didn’t know what happened until a few days later when Blaze was arrested.
“Blue’s uncle called when he heard about the fire and I told him everything. He was pissed and wanted to kill somebody. Especially when he found out Blaze caused all of that pain for only fifty thou. He felt it wasn’t that serious. He would’ve gave Blaze the money. Hell he wasn’t even pissed about Blue spending all of his money without returning it.” She looked at Krystal as she started to stir awake. Tish kicked her again. “I thought this little bitch died in that fire. Imagine my surprise when I saw her with Blaze at the Lot.”
She started to beat on Krystal again.
“Tishana, but what does this have to do with me!” I tried to get her attention. Hell, I didn’t care for Krystal but she could have at least gave the girl a fair chance. She was going to stomp the poor girl to death but my yelling got her attention.
“Everything. You have everything to do with it. Because Blaze loved you. And we want to take away everything he love.” When she said we, I looked over at Monica. “I didn’t know about you at first. It wasn’t until Monica saw y’all together in the shoe store. She knew about Blaze but not you. But when she saw your name, she was pissed. You ruined her life. You took Jerron from her. It’s funny because she was pregnant as well.” Tish laughed. “But she let it go because she moved on and started over. She don’t give two fucks about you, Blaze or Jerron anymore. She was only doing a favor for me until you killed her brother that night.”
“That was self-defense. Now I understand why she’s pissed but Tish, Blaze is dead. Why am I here?” That was the nagging question. Everybody thought Blaze was dead so why was I being pulled into that all over again.
“Oh because—”
Her words were cut off as the basement door opened. At that time, Krystal had started to groan in pain as her eyes started to blink open. “Krystal, was Blake in that room?” I mumbled to her but she didn’t respond as she blinked repeatedly. I moved closer to her. I got that she was hurting and in pain but I needed to know if Blake was in there. “Just nob your head. Was Blake in that room with you?” I whispered again. I got the same answer, nothing. A helpless feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. All I could do was cry.
Why didn’t I just take him away from here like I had planned? I would never forgive myself if he wasn’t okay. I would rather they killed me as well. I couldn’t live with myself knowing I was the reason Blake was gone.
“Tish, can you please just tell me if Blake’s okay. I done heard your story and I’m sorry you went through all of that. I wish you hadn’t but that has nothing to do with me and Blake. Just let us go and I’ll forget about all of this.” I once again pleaded with her before my eyes slid to the tall light skinned man.
I didn’t know what it was about that man but his whole aura screamed danger. With Tish, I could pinpoint her reaction and I knew she wouldn’t have hurt me. The man, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to destroy everything in his path.
He glanced at me and smiled before he went to Monica. He pulled her up and kissed her deeply. When he pulled back, he kissed her forehead then whispered something into her ear. She nodded her head and left out the room, going up the stairs.
The man turned and looked at me before he walked over. “I don’t believe you’ll forget what has happened to you.” He crouched down in front of me, taking ahold of my tied up ankles.
I resisted the urge to jerk away from him.
“Are these too tight?” He patted the tape.
I was hesitant to answer at first but I nodded my head. “Yeah, they’re hurting me.”
He hummed as his finger hooked between the gap of the tape. He pulled a knife from his pocket. He flicked it open and cut my legs free. “I wouldn’t forget if I was you. To be held this long worrying if you and your boy gon’ live or die. N’all, I don’t think you would forget because if I got free, I’m coming back and killing everybody involved,” he said with a smile. “Come here.” He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. His eyes locked with mine and a sweet smile came to his face as he cut the tape that kept my arms bound to my sides. He helped me to my feet. “I know you’re a fighter. Now if I cut your hands free, you’re not going to attack me are you?”
I didn’t know what it was exactly but I wouldn’t try him. He just seemed so off. And to be honest, he scared the hell out of me. “No, I won’t.”
He walked behind me and cut my hands free before he came back to my front. He examined my wrists, looking at the bruised skin. “You need some ice.” He looked at Tish. “T, go get Peaches some ice and a wet towel.”
“Alright,” she said nothing else as she headed up the stairs.
Who the hell was this man? Whoever he was, he knew me.
“Let’s go sit down.” He led us to the couch were Blake and the other man sat earlier.
I had to ask him, I needed to know. “Can you please tell me if my son is okay, or let me see him? Please? I have to know—”
He waved his hand, shutting me up. “He’s fine. He’s sleeping, that’s a wild little dude. You know he shot my man? But it was his fault. Why would he leave his gun on the side of the couch? Your little man got the gun and shot him. I can’t have him shooting my men so I put him to sleep. I’ll let you see him when he wakes up.”
A relieved sigh left my mouth at his words. “Thank you…” My words trailed off because I didn’t know what to call him.
He caught on and held out his hand for me. “I’m rude. I’m Rice.”
Hesitantly, I shook it.
“You are a very interesting person to me. Very brave female. I like that about you. I knew you were something special when you locked Blaze in your bedroom and fought him.”
“What?” My body went still. It was only one time that I had locked Blaze in my room and fought him. And we weren’t even in a relationship at that time. “You were watching me?”
“Of course I was. I must admit, at first I thought it was nothing between you two. And when you shot up his truck, I thought for sure he was going to kill you. That’s what I would have done. But he didn’t, he kept coming back like a lost mutt who found its owner. I knew then you were the one to break him.” He smiled at me.
My face was twisted trying to fig
ure out how he knew.
“The video cameras in your apartment. I know you didn’t think Cornell’s dumb ass was smart enough to do that. Or had the money or man power to pull that off. True enough, I had everything setup at his place and had him watching from time to time, but it was me mostly.” He confessed with a look of satisfaction.
“But why? Wait, it was you that posted that video of Blaze and I—”
“No, that was Cornell’s dumb ass. He almost fuck’d everything up when he did that. I was going to kill him myself but we had to throw a trail off of us. So I threw him out there instead. I thought Jerron was going to kill him but that dumb mothafucka let Cornell shoot him! What kind of shit is that? And he’s the fuckin’ hitta!” He barked out a laugh.
“You know about Jerron?”
“I hired him. That was before I found out he was Monica’s ex. I found it kind of funny really. Monica hoped they’d kill each other, two birds with one stone. But his loyalty to you proved everything and money didn’t mean shit because like a bitch, he confused everything. That fuck’d us up and set us back. And we had to lay low for a while.” His hand stroked along my jaw to the slit on my lip. “Tish, got you good. Tish!” He yelled out to her. It wasn’t long after he called her that the door opened and two sets of footsteps descended the steps.
Tishana and Monica came into the basement. Tish held a baggie of ice and a face towel. Monica had a cup.
“It took y’all long enough. Damn.” He fussed before waving them over. Tish handed him the towel.
Rice took hold of my chin then brought the wet towel to the corner of my lower lip. He pressed it into the cut.
I hissed and jerked my head back slightly.
“I know you can take a little pain. This ain’t nothing.” The smile he gave told me he was joking. “Baby, give me that cup.” Without looking at Monica he held his hand out toward her. She gave it to him and he held it out for me.