by Kiki Swinson
“He got what he deserved and so did Rhonda.”
“Rhonda!” I replied, as if I was shocked to hear her name.
“Yes, Rhonda. She told me where you lived and where your grandmother and parents lived. Yeah, she gave you up before I put her to sleep as well.” He took two steps toward me. “She even told me that Ricky caught his federal case because of you and how you and Kira snitched on him so you could get out of jail.”
Instead of responding, I just stood there and started praying silently. Carlos pulled back on the chamber to place a bullet into position, so I abruptly shut my eyes. When I heard the first bullet igniting from the chamber, I reacted on impulse and ducked down. I threw both of my hands across my head to stop the inevitable.
Pow! Pow! I heard the shots exploding from the barrel. The shots were followed by a loud thud, so I removed both of my hands from above my head and opened my eyes slowly. When my eyes focused and I saw what was before me, my mind completely shut down. I felt a sense of relief and the speed of my heartbeat began to decline.
“Are you all right?” It was the same Caucasian detective who’d been investigating both Kira and Syncere’s murders.
With a distraught expression on my face, I managed to nod my head. I said, “Oh my, God! I thought I would never say this to you in a million years, but I am so glad to see you.”
“I’m sure you are,” he replied, as he took precautionary measures to make sure we were safe. He began this task by kneeling down over top of the Carlos’ body to see if he had a pulse.
“Is he dead?” I asked, taking a few steps backwards.
“Yes, he is,” he assured me as he retrieved Carlos’s handgun from the kitchen floor. He got on his radio and called for backup, along with a forensics team.
I ran over to my grandmother’s side and started bawling my eyes out. The detective left me alone until backup came. When the coroners came in to take her body away, I really went ballistic. I tried to hold on to her for dear life, but they pried my arms from around her neck. “Please don’t take her away,” I begged.
“I’m sorry for your lost Nicole but you’re gonna have to calm down,” the detective told me.
“Calm down,” I screamed. “How the fuck am I going to do that, when everybody around me is dying like flies.”
“Nicole, you’re gonna need to have a seat.” He pointed directly at one of the kitchen chairs.
As soon as I sat down, a female police officer came over and told me to get up and follow them outside. When I got outside, the officer escorted me over to a patrol car and asked me to stand next to it, so I could give a full statement about everything that transpired. I didn’t hold shit back. I broke everything down to her about how I found Quincy and Sunshine’s bodies inside his house right before I came home. I even explained to her why he was killed and that Sunshine was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Before I could give her in-depth information about why Kira was murdered, two more police vehicles and one unmarked car drove up. Every officer in uniform got out of their cars and started walking in our direction. For some reason, the officer in the unmarked car stayed behind. He was acting pretty weird to me so I watched him closely as he got out of his car, retrieved a bulletproof vest from his trunk and walked back toward his car door. It was even more strange when he opened up the back door and tossed the jacket inside. I was thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing? A woman started getting out of the car and when she stepped completely out of the car my mouth fell open as my heart began to race.
“Oh my God, Kira!” I screamed with mixed emotions as I sprinted toward her.
Hearing me scream her name, Kira smiled back at me and continued to walk in my direction, with the officer escorting her. When we were finally face to face, tears poured from my eyes and all I wanted to do was hold her in my arms. While I was holding her, I pulled my head back and asked, “Why did they tell me that you were dead?”
“Because this was the only way they could tie Papí to all the murders.”
“So, you used me as bait?” I asked in confusion.
“Believe me, it wasn’t really like that,” she began to explain. “They were protecting you the whole time. While I was in witness protection program, I inquired about you every step of the way. If they didn’t have anything positive to tell me about how the investigation was progressing, I went off.”
“That’s bull, Kira!” I snapped. “Because if they were on their game then Grandma wouldn’t have gotten killed.
“Grandma is dead?”
“What? They didn’t tell you,” I snapped.
“Oh my God! Where is she?”
“She’s gone. They took her body out of the house right before you came up.”
In a panic, Kira grabbed my arms. “What happened?”
“That same muthafucker who shot you and left you for dead in your bathroom shower came up in here and killed her trying to get to me.” Bawling her eyes out, Kira just stood there and said nothing. “And before he took grandma out, that bastard killed Rhonda, Quincy, and Sunshine.”
“Sunshine,” she uttered with an expression of confusion.
“Yeah, Sunshine,” I said, my face turning sour. “The one that used to work for you.”
“But, I thought she was in jail.”
“She was until about a week and a half ago.”
“How did she get out?” Kira asked.
“She said she won her appeal,” I responded, still aggravated. I said, “Look, I don’t wanna talk about her. I wanna know why y’all used me like that?”
Feeling my pain of betrayal, Kira grabbed both of my hands and held them. “Listen, I know you’re upset. But, after being shot two times, I was under a lot of stress. When Feds came at me while I was in the hospital and told me that they could help me if I went into a Witness Protection Program, I gave in and said okay.”
“Kira, we were in this shit together! Why did you leave me out of the loop.”
“They said it would be better that way.”
“They don’t know what’s best for you. All they care about is using niggas to get other muthafuckers locked up,” I yelled, snatching my hands from hers.
“Would you feel any better if I told you that Grandma knew about the whole thing?”
“She what?”
“Don’t be mad, because they told her she couldn’t utter a word.”
“I’m not mad about that. I’m mad because y’all used her as a pawn and now she’s gone,” I said and then stormed toward the garage.
Kira came running behind me. “I need to keep a visual on you,” the detective escorting her said, as he followed her.
“Okay.” When she caught up with me, she cornered me and said, “Please Nikki, don’t be mad at me.”
“Kira, I’m not trying to hear that. A lot of people got killed behind this bogus shit you and the Fed’s conjured up.”
Kira continued crying. “I know and I’m sorry. But, after I gave them the green light, I pretty much didn’t have any say. If I would’ve known that it was gonna turn out like this I wouldn’t have done it.”
“So, what’s gonna happen now?” I asked, looking at her escort.
“Now that we’ve got Carlos, we can link him to the big guy in D.C.”
“Why couldn’t you do it before?” I asked him. “You had Kira as a witness.”
“Yeah, we did. But, she couldn’t tell us who the guy was. All she could give us was his description and tell us he worked for Papí. We sent a surveillance team out there to see if we could gather any information on who he was or catch him at the location. We never had any luck until the day you and Quincy stopped by. That day was the very first time we got a glimpse of who he was. When he realized that you knew who he was, we knew that he was going to try to get rid of you. We elected to have around-the-clock surveillance on your place, as well as your grandmother’s place.”
Angered by his explanation, I said, “Why didn’t y’all have surveillance on Carlos’ ass?”
“We did. But somehow, he got wind of it and found a way to do a disappearing act.”
“Well, where was the surveillance team when Quincy got killed? I mean, why couldn’t y’all have prevented he and Sunshine from getting murdered?”
“Yeah, we could’ve. But, since we didn’t deem him to be an important asset to this investigation, we didn’t ask for the funding.”
“Damn! That’s fucked up,” I yelled. “Whatcha do, just toy with people’s lives?”
“Calm down, Nikki,” Kira said to me as she pulled me back into her arms. “I know you’re upset about Quincy. But, this investigation had to go this way, or we would have gotten killed, too.”
“Look, are y’all through with questioning me? Because I’m ready to get out of town,” I said and sighed heavily as I began to wipe the tears away from my face.
“I know you are but, unfortunately, we’re gonna have to escort you down to the precinct first. We need to ask you some more questions,” the same detective said.
Kira and I began to walk back in the direction of the police cars. When we sat down in the back seat, she looked over at me and said, “I promise I’m gonna make this up to you.”
“Try bringing Grandma back.”
“Come on now, Nikki. You know that’s not fair.”
“Well, what else do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say that you forgive me so that we can move forward and mourn the loss of Grandma together.”
I refused to reply to Kira. She put her arms around my neck and hugged me. “I ain’t gon’ lie, Nikki. I missed you more than anything in this world.” She began to cry as she held me. “And as soon as all this mess is over with, I’m gon’ get out of that Witness Protection Program and start my life over. It would mean a lot to me, if you would come with me.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m not sure and it really doesn’t matter as long as it’s somewhere away from here. So, will you come?”
“I don’t know,” I said, ‘cause I really wasn’t interested.
“Well, I know you’ll decide when the time is right,” Kira stated.
The detective put the car in drive and sped off. I looked back at the entire scene of detectives and forensic specialists parading around my grandmother’s property. My mind was in a complete uproar. I couldn’t picture how my life was going to play out from this point on. I was also having mixed feelings about Kira’s motives for going into the Witness Protection Program. I know she loved me and meant well, but I couldn’t just let her come back in my life like everything was all fine and dandy. Hell nah! All this anger I got built up in me ain’t gon’ just go away like that.
After a couple of weeks, I finally accepted Kira’s apology and afterward we were fine. The Feds finally dragged Papi and the rest of his crew to jail. After Kira and I testified for the grand jury and during their trials, they all got life sentences, except Papi. He got the death penalty. You should’ve seen his face when Kira and I stood on the stand to testify against him. He had the look of death on his face. Immediately after his sentencing, we got the hell out of town. We found a cozy spot in Houston, Texas and now we’re having a ball. Cats over here are different breed compared to those from D.C. and New Jersey. And they love to spend money too. Shit, if this Southern Hospitality keeps up, I might fuck around and become one of these niggas wifey.
MELODRAMAPUBLISHING.COM
Table of Contents
Prologue
Table of Contents
Prologue