by BlaQue
Neko pulled me into an embrace and I could feel that the connection we shared many years ago were still there.
“Pinky, I’m glad you’re alive and safe,” Neko said softly as he rocked me in his strong arms and I felt all seventeen years of pain, remorse and regret melt away. I needed to hear him say that he was happy to be reunited with me. It meant the world to me. I held on to him, afraid that if I were to let him go he would somehow disappear.
“Neko, I need you. I need to know that we can make things right between us. Please tell me we still have a chance at a future together,” I blurted out. Neko let go of me and stared at me like there were a million things he wanted to say. He pulled away from me and shook his head.
“Pinky, I’m married now. I have a life in Georgia. I can’t hurt Rhina. She has been riding for me since the day I lost you and I can’t disappoint her,” Neko mumbled. Then he went on to tell me about his niece and his crazy sister NiQue and how Dread had left their daughter on him to raise.
I heard every word he said, but that wasn’t going to stop me from getting what I had come here for. I wanted my man and I was determined to have him at any cost. I saw my chance and looked him in his warm eyes and brought his face closer to mine and pressed my lips against his. It felt so good to taste him again. The familiarity of Neko soothed me; and to my surprise, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he kissed me back. Our tongues danced a forbidden dance and I knew I had him right back where we left off. His kiss told me he still loved me as much as I loved him. His hands roved over my body and I trembled with delight as his wicked tongue found the spot on my neck that he remembered drove me wild.
We were so caught up in each other that even the loud knocking on the door couldn’t stop us. Only when the knocking turned to loud, hard banging is when he pulled away from the devious things we were about to do. Neko hopped up off the couch with the speed of lighting and rushed to the front door. When he returned to the sitting room, I was sure he was ready to continue what we’d started, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Neko wasn’t alone. Two uniformed police officers were right on his heels and I could tell from the scowl on their faces, they weren’t there on a social call.
Chapter Thirteen
Final Destination
YaSheema Nicole
I don’t know who the female was that stared me down at the Quick Trip, but something told me she was someone I knew or was going to know in the future. I really didn’t want to take this long trip to D.C. with Rhina, but what other choice did I have? Uncle Neko was on some ill shit and I had to get to school to start my life and find my father.
“What are you over there thinking about?” Rhina asked, breaking into my private thoughts.
“Nothing. How much longer before we get there? I’m sick of being in the car,” I replied dryly. Rhina and I had been in the car for at least seven hours and I was getting anxious.
“We only have a few more hours before we make it to the Chocolate City. I’m really excited for you, YaSheema. Howard is a great school. D.C.is unlike anything you have ever seen in Georgia. I’m sure you’re gonna love it.”
“Good. Can we stop for a little while? I need to stretch my legs and if I have to eat one more cold sandwich, I’m gonna hurl,” I said making faces.
Rhina nodded her head and starting getting over so she could get off at the next exit. We passed a sign that read: Welcome to Richmond and I hoped that it meant we weren’t too far from our final destination. We got off the exit and pulled up at a Sheraton.
“Do you think we can stay here overnight? Maybe we can check out the city and see what Richmond has to offer,” I suggested, hoping Rhina would be down for the cause.
“Sure. I don’t mind. Let me go check us in and we can find out what we can get in to,” Rhina smiled brightly as she exited the car.
“I hope she doesn’t think this lil’ road trip is gonna make me like her,” Takiya said.
I tensed up hearing her voice. She had been quiet since earlier and I wasn’t excited to hear from her now.
“Look, Takiya…you’ve been quiet this long, I hope you will keep quiet until we shake her okay?” I said, attempting to keep Takiya at bay.
“Why don’t we shake the ole bitch now? While she’s in the hotel checking in, we can just pull off. By the time anyone finds out we’ve gone, we’ll be in D.C.” Takiya said with excitement in her voice.
“You know we can’t do no shit like that. If we leave her, Uncle Neko will be on the first thing smoking to find us.”
Trying to reason with Takiya was becoming a daily chore and since I wasn’t being paid for it, I wasn’t interested in doing it.
“What can Uncle Neko do to us and he’s in Atlanta? Knowing him, he’s back at home knee-deep in some stripper’s pussy,” Takiya laughed wickedly.
“Watch your mouth! That’s my uncle you’re talking about. I don’t care how you feel about him; he’s still my blood! That man raised me and even if you don’t like it or understand that he’s the only person that loved me enough to take me in…you will respect it!” I said, getting Takiya straight. She wasn’t going to ruin this for me. She was already skating on thin ice with me especially if what she said earlier was true; then she had left a nigga’ leaking back in Georgia and I still hadn’t completely digested that. She should just sit back and be quiet before she really pissed me off.
Takiya settled down when Rhina returned to the car smiling widely with a keycard in her hand. “Come on. We’re all checked in. I think stopping here was a good idea. I got an adjoining suite so you can have your privacy,” Rhina said pulling one of her suitcases from the trunk.
I got out and grabbed my roll bag with my toiletries in it. I followed Rhina to our room and she went into her side of the suite and I went into mine. I closed the door and put my bag on the bed so I could find something to change into after I took a shower. Knowing Aunt Rhina, she wasn’t going to want to go anywhere I would have wanted to go. She was so stuck up that she would have us in some snobbiest restaurant in Richmond instead of a happening bar. That’s just how Rhina was.
I pulled out a pair of black jeans, a simple button up shirt and got in the shower. When I got out, I heard Aunt Rhina’s shower on her side of the suite come alive. She started singing in Spanish. I pushed my things to the other side of the bed and lay down. I wasn’t supposed to take a nap, but that seven hour ride had worn me out.
* * * * *
“Get up bitch! Let’s go! We gotta go now!”
I sat straight up and looked around. I panicked when I didn’t realize where I was. The room I was in was dark and the curtains were partially closed. My eyes darted around the room and I calmed down only when I remembered we were in a hotel. I figured I had been asleep for a few hours because the sun was up when Aunt Rhina and I had arrived at the hotel and now I didn’t see any sings of the sun. From what I could see, the sun had gone down and it was dusk.
I wiped my eyes and wondered why Aunt Rhina would let me sleep so long.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said we gotta go!” Takiya was practically yelling.
“I thought I told you go away,” I said, brushing Takiya off. I got up and stumbled around until I found the lamp and turned it on flooding the room with artificial light.
“For someone who’s supposed to be so smart, you sure are dumb. You never listen to me when I try to help your stupid ass out,” Takiya fussed.
“Where’s Aunt Rhina and why didn’t you wake me up. You knew we were supposed to go get something to eat,” I said annoyed. Takiya kept nagging me to get my things so we could go, but I continued to brushed her off. She really was starting to work on my last good nerve.
I put on my robe and walked out of my room and across the tiny living room that separated my room from Aunt Rhina’s. Right as I was about to knock on Rhina’s door, Takiya starting going wild.
“I told you let’s go! She ain’t in there!”
“Oh God, I wish you would stop with the bullshit, Takiya a
nd just go away,” I said low enough that Aunt Rhina couldn’t hear me talking to myself. I lightly knocked on Rhina’s door and there was no answer.
“I told you she ain’t there.”
I knocked again, ignoring Takiya. She truly was buggin’ and I didn’t know how I had put up with her so many years without going completely going crazy. There was no answer at Rhina’s door and my heartbeat sped up. Something about the whole situation seemed very wrong. Even though my head told me not to open the door, my hands had a mind of their own. Slowly turning the knob, I pushed the door open and was immediately met by a very familiar odor. It was one I had smelled twenty-four hours before. It was a metallic and pungent and it made my stomach do flip-flops.
On sight, everything seemed like it was fine until I stepped further into the room. My legs felt like jelly as I rounded the bed. On the other side of the bed was Aunt Rhina. Her body laid face-up and her eyes were wide open. As I scanned the rest of her, my inspection didn’t get far before I saw the blood that poured from each of the puncture wounds that were all over her lower torso.
“What the fuck?!” I screamed in shock as I ran to Rhina’s side and cradled her in my arms, rocking her like a newborn baby.
“I told you, you didn’t want to come in here; didn’t I?” Takiya said nonchalantly.
“What the fuck did you do? Why would you do something like this?” I asked over and over as I held Rhina hoping that she was only unconscious. From the blank stare on her face I could tell that she was beyond unconscious. She was gone and where she had drifted to there was no returning.
“You might want to come on before them boys in blue figure out what happened here and bust our ass. Let’s go…NOW!” Takiya demanded.
I didn’t move. Instead, I continued rocking Aunt Rhina. “I’m sorry, Rhina. I’m so, so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Please wake up.”
“I’m sure you know, just like I know, that she can’t hear you. The bitch is dead and out of our way. Now I would suggest you get off of your ass and clean yourself up, and let’s get out of here before the maid comes sniffing around talking about clean towels and shit. Now let’s go!”
I sat there for what seemed like an eternity before I felt like I was all cried out. At some point during my meltdown, Takiya had finally quieted down and shut up all together. I can’t say that her finally going on about her business was better, because now I felt all alone. I sat there with Aunt Rhina’s dead, lifeless body in my lap until I heard a soft knock on the door. Pushing Rhina gently to the side, I got to my feet and ran to the door into our suite and prayed no one came in.
“Housekeeping,” I heard the voice say through the door right as I got to it. I heard what sounded like someone fumbling with the door and I pressed my body against the door in an attempt to keep the maid out. If she gained access to this room, she was gonna find more than a few dirty towels and sheets.
“Umm, we don’t need anything ma’am. We’re just fine,” I said in an attempt to get the woman to go away.
“Well, next time chu’ need to put up the Do not disturb sign, ok,” the aggravated woman shot back. Her voice was in a thick Latin accent that instantly made me think of my dead Aunt Rhina whose body was growing cold in the next room.
“I told you we should have gotten out of here! But no, you wanna sit around here holding that bitch like ya’ll were the best of friends, when in fact you hated that spic bitch as much as I did!”
“Shut the fuck up, Takiya! Just shut the fuck up and let me think. I need to figure out how we’re gonna get out of here,” I said rubbing my temples. The truth was I really didn’t know what to do next. I thought about calling Uncle Neko and telling him what happened, but quickly decided against that because he would surely turn me in to the police. This wasn’t some random chick that was lying dead in the next room, it was his wife. He would never forgive me for this.
“I know what we’re gonna do. You’re gonna take your ass in the bathroom and take another shower. You’re gonna wash Rhina off of your body and then we are gonna get the fuck out of here. We’re gonna drive to Washington, D.C. and you’re gonna check in for school like none of this shit ever happened. When her body is found, you can say ya’ll got into an argument and you kept going to D.C. without her.
I shook my head from left to right. “That will never work. What about DNA, Takiya? They’re gonna fry my ass because of you. I’m sure this hotel has cameras. Someone saw me come in here with her. Now what about that, huh? You got all of the answers. What are your answers for that?” I asked, making more noise than I had intended to make.
“YaSheema, I have all of that figured out. You and Rhina had a fight in the hotel and you left. Simple as that. Your DNA should be on her dummy. That’s your aunt or did you forget? Now go do what I told you to do and I will handle the rest. I got you. I promise they ain’t gonna pin this shit on you. You forget that if they pin it on you, I’m going down with you too and you know damn well I ain’t gonna let that happen,” Takiya assured me.
Feeling defeated, I did as I was told even though I didn’t think it was the best thing to do. I showered and put all of my things back in my bag. I slid on the clothes I was wearing when I first entered the hotel and took my things to the door as Takiya instructed me to do.
“Now what?” I asked her, standing there with my hand on the knob waiting on further instructions.
“Go get her wallet and take whatever cash she has, her credit cards and the car keys and we can be out of here. Simple as that.”
Takiya made it sound like we hadn’t committed a murder. She made it sound like it wasn’t as complex as it really was. I had seen Shonda Rhimes hit show, How to Get Away With Murder but I didn’t think I could live it. I wasn’t built like this.
Instead of protesting, I went back into Rhina’s tomb and snatched her wallet off of the dresser along with the car keys and dashed out of the room. The smell of death followed me and I wanted to shake it. When I got back to the main door, I didn’t bother to wait for Takiya to instruct me. Instead, I grabbed my shit and darted out the door putting the Do not disturb tag on the knob and dashed down the hallway. I half expected to see the Virginia State Police waiting for me, but they weren’t.
“Calm down. If you do something stupid all you’re gonna do is draw attention to us. Slow down and act as if everything is normal.”
I did as Takiya instructed this time and slowed down my pace. As calmly as I could, I walked out of the hotel, hoping no one knew my dirty little secret. Keeping my head lowered, I walked across the parking lot and opened the door to the car. Once I threw my bag inside, I got in and pulled off.
“Good job, YaSheema. I knew we could do it. I mean…I knew you could do it. Maybe you’re tougher than I ever gave you credit for,” Takiya sang in my ear.
Her voice made me cringe and all I wanted was a little peace and quiet. I turned the stereo on and headed back the way Rhina and I had come off of the interstate. I don’t think I breathed until I was on I-95 north. If I could make it to D.C., then maybe I could try to start over and put this whole mess behind me.
Chapter Fourteen
History Repeats Itself
Neko Reynolds
Today was one surprise after another. First, the woman I thought was dead showed up on my front porch and now the police was here asking me questions about YaSheema Nicole.
“Mr. Reynolds, we don’t mean to disturb you, but we have a few questions about your niece. It shouldn’t take any more than a few moments of your time,” the fat, balding detective said eyeing Pinky. His partner was a tall black woman who looked as though she had ten million better things to do than to be here questioning us about YaSheema. I could tell by her body language that she was going to be the bad cop. She had angry black woman’s syndrome written all over her. I nodded my head in their direction and hoped they made whatever this was about quick. I had my ex-lover sitting in my living room and she had absolutely no business being here. If Rhi
na were to walk in right now, I would surely have some explaining to do and I know she wouldn’t want to hear shit about Pinky being just a friend. Rhina may have loved me endlessly, but she wasn’t going to stand for me trying to play her.
I looked over at Pinky and she shifted uncomfortably on the couch, but I assumed her curiosity about the cops being in my house made her sit right there like she was watching a real live freak show.
“Mr. Reynolds, where was your niece last night?” the male detective asked.
“She was out with her friends. They went out since it was her last night in town before she left for school. I think they hit a few parties and then she came home. Why?” I asked curiously.
“We have reason to believe she was involved in an altercation with a security guard at one of the clubs she visited,” the female detective said, never giving her partner the opportunity to finish his question.
“What kind of altercation? I ain’t never known detectives to go through all of this over an argument,” I said growing worrisome. From the tone of the female detective’s voice, there was much more to their visit than an altercation.
“Well, Mr. Reynolds…the bouncer from the club is dead and several people from the club – including her friend Cassandra and her friend Vernita – said your niece said some very vicious things to the bouncer that would cause some concern. Now may we speak to her so we can clear this all up?” the female detective said gruffly.
I was no rocket scientist, but I knew they weren’t there just to question YaSheema about an argument. They were there to interrogate her and accuse her of the bouncer’s death. The male detective seemed to have a much calmer demeanor than his partner and I knew he was the one I should reason with.
“Look…she isn’t here. My wife and my niece left to drive YaSheema to school in Washington, D.C. I can assure you that my niece didn’t have anything to do with that man’s death; and unless you have some concrete proof…I suggest you both leave my house,” I said growing irritated with the female detective’s nasty attitude. She knew nothing about my niece and she was basically accusing her of a crime that I was sure YaSheema didn’t commit. She was being the judge and the jury and she didn’t even have any evidence besides some he say she say crap. The female detective looked over in Pinky’s direction and smirked. I guess after she heard me mention my wife, she thought she had me all figured out.