Army of One

by A. K. Henderson

  “All right, fam!” Shamar jumped back in his car and sped off, jumping on the highway as time was quickly ticking away.

  * * *

  Reggie and Jelisa had arrived at a run-down motel on the south side early that morning. It was usually inhabited by pimps and drug addicts; so, besides his car, Reggie was not likely to stick out.

  As he hurried Jelisa and Mya into the room he had been renting, Jelisa was terrified. Not knowing what was next to come tormented her. All she could think about was keeping Mya safe. She wished that Shamar was there to rescue them. The longer she sat in that nasty hotel room, the more she regretted ever stepping out on Shamar. She and that slut karma were about to have it out, especially if she didn’t figure out how to get out of this situation.

  Reggie jumped in the shower while she fed Mya a Lunchables that she’d picked up from a gas station on the way there. When they stopped, Reggie never let her out of his sight. If she had even thought of trying something, he had a trump card: he made her leave Mya in the car with him. She hadn’t slept much. It was nearly impossible knowing the Reggie was there watching the whole time.

  While he showered, Jelisa took her phone from the coat pocket she had hidden it in while she was getting Mya ready to leave the apartment. Jelisa didn’t want the police involved for fear that things would fall back on her. Neither did she want to involve her sisters. She didn’t want that on her conscience. She secretly sent out a distress message to someone she knew would be able to help her out of this jam. Just before Reggie emerged from the bathroom, Jelisa turned the phone off and put it back into her coat pocket. He came out with a towel wrapped around his waist.

  “You’ve been behaving yourself, I hope. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to my little angel,” he said, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand.

  Jelisa flinched and leaned away from him, disgusted by his presence. “Reggie, why don’t you just let me go? I promise I won’t say anything to anybody. I just need to get away from here. I swear to God, I’ll give you whatever you ask for,” Jelisa pled for her and her daughter’s lives.

  Reggie just laughed and went back into the bathroom to get dressed. Although he had every intention to get what he wanted from her, he wouldn’t dare do it in front of her daughter.

  When Reggie reappeared from the bathroom, he stood in the doorway, rubbing his hands together and licking his lips. “So, angel, what shall we do today? You know you’ve probably got every cop in the city looking for you? This might be our last dance, and I’m sure going to enjoy it.”

  Jelisa couldn’t take it anymore; something had to be done. She reached over to a nearby chair where her coat hung. Reggie walked over to the full-length mirror that hung on the wall to adjust his tie. This was her chance; his back was turned, and he was consumed with his image staring back at him. Jelisa slid her hand into the pocket and pulled out her pistol, tucking it under her shirt.

  Noticing her movement out of the corner of his eye, Reggie toyed with her to push her to reveal what she was concealing. He turned back toward her and slowly walked her way. “You know something, I was thinking we should just bypass all of the formalities and dip off into the bathroom. You can go ahead and take care of your debt, and little mama don’t have to see or hear anything. What do you say?” he asked as he inched closer to her.

  With every step he took, Jelisa’s adrenaline pumped faster. As he got within a foot of her, she gently pushed Mya’s chair away from the table. Reggie caressed her cheek with his hand, also running his finger down to her chin. Just as he was about to kiss her lips, Jelisa reached under her shirt, placing the barrel of her pistol to his temple.

  “Well, I see you’ve decided to play the odds, huh? What you plan on doing with that, love?”

  Jelisa’s hand trembled, and her eyes began to well up. Right then, her mind flashed back to her being raped. With every scene, she became more furious. Full of rage and hate, Jelisa let out a loud scream and pulled the trigger.

  Click. Nothing happened. Click. Click. Again the gun didn’t shoot.

  Jelisa’s eyes widened. She looked at the gun, and then back at Reggie with confusion on her face. Reggie grabbed her by the throat, picking her up off the ground. As Jelisa struggled with her legs dangling, Mya began to cry, terrified at what was happening. Just then, Reggie pinned her up against the wall, breaking the mirror.

  “You little whore! Did you really think it was going to be that easy? You’ve obviously forgotten who I am.” He fumbled around in his pants pocket with his free hand briefly and lifted it in a fist next to Jelisa’s face. When she looked over at his hand, he opened it, dropping the bullets from her gun onto the floor. “You should probably sleep a little lighter,” he said, throwing her onto the bed. “Now why’d you have to go and do that? Now you’re going to make me take it from you.”

  Suddenly, there was a light knock at the door. “Housekeeping,” a lady’s voice said.

  Reggie pulled out his pistol from behind his back in his waistline. He motioned for her to be quiet, putting his finger to his mouth. He slid the chair Mya was sitting in over to Jelisa and mouthed to her to keep her quiet.

  As Reggie crept to the door, he called out, “Who is it?”

  “Housekeeping, sir!” the lady responded.

  Not wanting to draw any extra attention to their room, Reggie slowly opened the door. A beautiful young redbone stood before him in a hotel uniform and latex gloves with a cart full of cleaning supplies. She spoke quietly, saying, “Hello, sir. I’m here to clean up a mess that was reported.”

  Reggie had an agitated look on his face, and he looked somewhat puzzled. “I’m sorry, baby girl, but there’s no mess here. I think you might be mistaken.” Reggie gave a fake smile and turned to look back at Jelisa. She covered Mya’s eyes, looking at him with a dead stare. He asked, “Angel, you don’t know anything about a mess, do you?”

  She remained silent, and he turned back to the housekeeper, saying, “You see, there’s no—”

  Bang!

  Mya screamed, and Jelisa jumped back, shielding her. As Reggie’s face painted the walls, the woman dressed as a housekeeper stepped into the room, asking, “You okay, baby?” She dropped the gun, walked over to Jelisa, and helped her to her feet. Jelisa embraced her, and they shared a passionate kiss.

  “What the hell?” Shamar said as he and Sandra stood in the doorway, both gasping for air. They arrived at the motel at the same time and had spotted Reggie’s Cadillac.

  “Jelisa, baby, what are you doing? What the hell happened here?” Sandra asked.

  “Yeah, what the hell happened here?” Shamar added. “Hold up. Man, you gotta be kidding me right now. Chrissy, what are you doing here? Jelisa, how in the . . .” Shamar was completely confused. There, standing in front of him, were Jelisa and Chrissy kissing and hugging. This didn’t make any sense. How did they know each other and why were they holding each other?

  Chrissy smiled and mocked him, shooting a kiss at him from across the room.

  Shamar reached down and grabbed the gun she had dropped, yelling, “Chrissy, I’m gonna—”

  “You gonna do what, clown?” she interrupted, holding up a pink 9 mm.

  Sandra stood there in shock. She looked over at Jelisa, who had a huge grin on her face. She was speechless, and she knew her daughter had to be behind this. “Jelisa, what did you do?”

  “Mama, shut up!” Jelisa snapped back.

  “I’ma kill you!” Shamar yelled, squeezing the trigger, but nothing happened.

  “Now, now,” Chrissy said. “I told you to leave me alone, didn’t I? Now you two get over there!” she shouted, pointing for Shamar and Sandra to move toward the bathroom.

  Shamar had a defeated look on his face. As he stared at Jelisa and Mya, all he could say was, “Why, Jelisa?”

  She looked at him and, without any emotion, said, “This was never about you, Shamar. We just wanted a family, something my mother let this bastard take from me, and the thing you put everything
before. I hate you. Now have fun trying to explain that body you just caught.”

  Chrissy pulled off the latex gloves she was wearing and tossed them at Shamar. He dropped the gun, and his heart dropped. “See you around, dummy,” Chrissy said as they made their way past them and out the door.

  As Jelisa and Chrissy sped off down the road, Shamar and Sandra could hear sirens screaming in the air.

  “You go ahead and get out of here, Sandra. I’ll take care of this.”

  Sandra hesitated; and, with tears streaming from her eyes, she looked at Shamar and said, “Baby, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

  “Go! Get out of here!” Shamar shouted. He ran out behind her and headed to his car. He sped down Franklin Street and jumped on I-94 west, not knowing what he would do next.

  After he made it through Illinois, he eased over to the outside lane. After he had wiped the gun clean, he threw it out the passenger window over the side of a bridge. Shamar holed up in a hotel somewhere in Iowa for a couple days. After calling Block and filling him in about this situation, he told him to buy a train ticket to Arkansas, where he had a place for him to lie low. He figured the police would be looking for his car, so he ditched it at a rest stop and caught a cab to a nearby Amtrak station. As he boarded the train, Shamar was numb; he still couldn’t believe Jelisa was setting him up this whole time. He still didn’t know who the dead man in the hotel was, but one thing was for certain: Jelisa and Chrissy were going to pay.

  Sandra blamed herself for everything that transpired that day. If she had listened when Jelisa tried to tell her about Reggie raping her, Jelisa’s life never would have taken the turn it did.

  * * *

  Jelisa and Chrissy disappeared to the West Coast with their new family. They had Mya and Chrissy’s two children; the family they had dreamed of was complete. So they vanished, without a trace. Not only had they both deceived Shamar by setting him up to take the fall for Reggie’s murder, but they had also used him as a handpicked sperm donor. The plan they had hatched back before Jelisa was raped had finally come to fruition. With the life they wanted already set up, they knew their plan was so well crafted that Shamar would never come looking for them without putting himself at risk.

  The war for Shamar hadn’t ended in Iraq; it had just started. Now there was nothing but vengeance in his heart. He was now an army of one.