“I’m crazy? No, you’re crazy. Did you think you could take my man from me? I was willing to share him, I even told him I didn’t have a problem with him marrying you, but then you turned him against me. You…” Bridgette mushed her, “Turned him against me.”
***
“She’s not answering her phone,” Wayne said.
“And Nana’s not answering the house phone,” Jenna said, hanging up and dialing again.
“Why are you such a rush to tell her?” Elizabeth asked, folding her arms. “You don’t even know if it’s true. Janay’s a crack head. She could’ve been talking just to be talking.”
“That’s not the point!” The bass in Wayne’s voice made her jump. “What if it is true? She’s saying that a dude she didn’t recognize, pulled Ron out of his car window and started beating him down. Then when Ron broke free and tried to run, Bridgette ran him over, got out, and kicked and punched him until the dude pulled her off him.”
Wayne hit speed dial on his phone again. “Fuck! This doesn’t feel right. Something’s wrong,” He headed for the front door.
“Where are you going?” Jenna grabbed him by the hand.
“I’m going to swing by Nana’s and tell Liana what Elizabeth just told us.”
“Hold up,” Reese said, snatching her jacket off the couch.
“I’m coming, too,” Jenna said, grabbing her jacket out the closet.
“It’s not that serious, y’all,” Elizabeth said with a nervous laugh. When she saw them leaving, she grabbed her purse. “Wait up.”
***
“Bridgette, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I didn’t have anything to do with Ron’s death.”
“You had everything to do with his death. If you wouldn’t have left him, he wouldn’t have left me, and if he didn’t leave me, I wouldn’t have had to kill him.”
Liana’s eyes widened, as she began to feel sick to her stomach. “What are you saying?”
“Why didn’t you just get with Rasheem? He was doing everything for you. He even wore your favorite cologne.”
“How did you know he wore—”
“I told him to wear it!” Bridgette smacked her on the side of the head. “Ron would’ve seen you with him, and that would’ve been that, but no, you wanted to play hard to get.”
“Where’s my grandmother, Bridgette?”
“I convinced Rasheem to scare Ron up a little, you know? Just to let him know that you were off limits.”
“Bridgette where’s my grandmother?”
“But then Rasheem fucks that up. He allows Ron to wiggle out of his headlock and talk shit. Ron started yelling how he’s never going to stay away from you and how he loved you, and no one was going to keep him away from you. I couldn’t take it. I had to shut him up. You brainwashed him!” Bridgette mushed her. “You made me kill him.”
“Nana!”
Bridgette ripped off a strip of duct tape and stuck it over Liana’s mouth. “Now,” Bridgette said, retrieving a knife from the kitchen drawer. “Let’s get started.”
***
“Look!” Reese said. “There’s Liana’s truck parked out front.”
Jenna had her cell phone to her ear. “She’s still not answering her phone.”
Wayne shut his engine off. “Wait here.”
“Nah ah,” Reese said, “We’re coming with you.”
“Just wait here, and be quiet,” Wayne said, getting out. He walked up to Nana’s front door, straining to hear some kind of sound coming from the house. All the lights were off from where he could see. Maybe I’m overreacting, I’m bugging the fuck out. Then he heard a noise from behind him. He spun around.
“Didn’t I say wait in the truck?” he whispered.
“Reese made us come,” Jenna whispered back.
“Man, fuck this,” Wayne said, walking up to the front door and knocking as hard as he could.
***
Both Bridgette and Liana jumped when they heard banging on the front door. Bridgette put her finger to her mouth, pulled out a .25 automatic, and whispered.
“If you make a sound, I’ll put two in you, and then put two in Nana.”
Even if Liana wanted to scream, she couldn’t. She was duct taped to the chair so tight that she could barely breathe, much less make a sound. Bridgette placed the barrel of the gun against Liana’s temple when Wayne knocked again. Bridgette reached over and flipped off the kitchen light.
***
“You saw that?” Reese whispered.
“Saw what?” Elizabeth asked.
“The side of the house just went dark, like somebody inside just turned off a light.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Wayne said. “Anybody else see that?”
Elizabeth and Jenna shook their heads.
“I know what I saw.” Reese walked toward the side of the house.
“Reese,” Jenna whispered as loud as she could. “Get your behind back here.”
Reese stopped at the side door and peeped in.
PAP! PAP!
“What the fuck was that?” Wayne whispered.
Reese came flying back around the house screaming. “Oh my God, Oh my God, someone’s in there with a gun. They shot at me!”
“Liana!” Wayne screamed, as he started kicking in the front door. On the third kick, it gave in, and he ran in not knowing what to expect.
***
Bridgette jumped when she heard the front door bang open. She opened the side door and then hid behind the kitchen door.
From the living room, Wayne could see the side door was wide open. His heart was beating fast. Whoever it was must’ve run out the side door and took off. He ran into the kitchen and froze when he hit the light and saw the horror in Liana’s eyes. As he ran toward her, she shook her head hysterically.
PAP! PAP!
Fire shot up Wayne’s legs as he fell to the ground. He turned around and saw Bridgette bringing the butt of the .25 down across his head.
“Motherfucker!” she yelled, as she hit him over and over. “You ruined everything!”
Liana wiggled and rocked in the chair pleading for Bridgette to stop. Seeing Liana cry for Wayne only intensified Bridgette’s barrage of blows.
Bridgette flashed a devilish grin at Liana as she took aim at Wayne. “He’s fucking pathetic.” She focused her gaze on him and began to pull the trigger. “Ungh,” she moaned as Reese bashed her in the back of the head with a poker from the fireplace. Bridgette spun around disorientated, aiming at the screaming voices of Jenna, Reese, and Elizabeth, as they ducked and ran for cover.
Wayne hoisted himself up and fought against the pain in his legs as he stood.
“You fucking bitch!” Bridgette yelled as she held the back of her head and pointed the gun at Liana and squeezed the trigger. Wayne threw himself on top of Liana, toppling the chair she was in. On their way down to the floor, Liana felt Wayne’s body jerk as bullets entered his back. Bridgette stumbled toward them. She aimed at Liana’s forehead and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. She squeezed again. Nothing. She noticed the gun was out of bullets the same time Elizabeth, Reese, and Jenna did. Elizabeth picked up a glass vase and threw it at Bridgette. Reese charged her swinging the poker like a baseball bat. Jenna worked her way around her and was able to grab a handful of her hair. Then it went down like a WWE handicap match. Jenna, Reese, and Elizabeth screamed at the top of their lungs as they stomped, kicked, and beat the shit out of Bridgette.
The pool of blood spreading around liana and Wayne caught Jenna’s attention.
“Oh my God.” She ran over to Liana and Wayne. “Oh shit.” She pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911.
***
“Ahhh,” Wayne yelled as the sharp rocks bit into his fingertips. One of his hands slipped. “No!” he yelled as he looked down into the dark chasm. He looked up at the lip of the cliff he was holding on to. His grip was slipping. He clenched his teeth and swung his other hand up. He yelled in pain as his hand slipped off the edge. It
was raw and blistered.
“Let go,” a voice down in the chasm whispered.
“No!” Wayne yelled again, starting to cry. He closed his eyes and with a grunt, he tried getting a better grip on the edge of the cliff with both hands.
“Give me your hand.”
Wayne’s eyes popped open as he looked up. There was a little girl on her stomach with her hand outstretched, reaching for his. She couldn’t have been no more than five years old. He shook his head.
“Reach for me. I’ll pull you up,” the little girl said, her fingertips grazing Wayne’s. The last thing Wayne wanted to do was pull her into the dark pit with him. He shook his head again.
“Give me your hand, now!”
A vein bulged from Wayne’s forehead as he swung his hand up to the little girl’s. He couldn’t believe how strong she was as she grunted and pulled him up inch by agonizing inch. When the top half of his body got to the flat surface, the girl stopped pulling. She cradled his face in her arms, and rocked with him.
Wayne was breathing hard, trying to figure out where he was and what had happened.
“Where am I?” he asked the little girl.
She ignored him and kept caressing his face.
“Where am I? What’s going on?” Wayne’s voice got a little louder.
“Anna!”
Wayne and the little girl looked in the direction from where the female voice came from.
The girl got up and ran in the direction of the voice. “Coming, Grandma.” Wayne tried to get up, but his legs wouldn’t move.
The little girl stopped running and turned back to face him. “I knew you weren’t going to let go. You love mommy too much.”
“Wait!” Wayne’s eyes filled with tears, but the little girl ran off.
“Wait! Annaaa… Annaaa!”
Liana sat up from the hospital chair when she heard Wayne mumble. When she saw his mouth move, she ran to get the doctor.
***
“You can go in, now,” the doctor said to Liana. “But only for a few minutes. He needs his rest. I called his parents, and they’re on their way.”
“Thank you, Doctor.” Liana walked into the hospital room not knowing what to expect. Wayne was lying there staring at the ceiling. He didn’t look at her until she was standing right next to the bed.
“Hey,” Wayne said.
“Hey. How you feeling?”
“Like shit.”
Liana didn’t respond.
“I was in a coma for thirty-two days, huh?”
Liana nodded.
“And you’ve been here every day of the thirty-two, huh?”
Liana nodded again.
“What about Tammy?” Wayne asked half-heartedly.
“Tammy’s… working.”
“Working?”
“In Italy.” Liana could see the pain in his eyes. “She couldn’t seeing you like this. She said she had to move on.”
“Can’t say I blame her. What would she want with a man paralyzed from the waist down?” Tears welled in his eyes as he looked away.
“Don’t say that. There’s so much you can do—”
“Please, Liana, spare me the look-on-the-bright-side speech.”
“So, this is how it’s going to be? You’re just going to feel sorry for yourself? This is what I hung around for?”
“Nobody told you to hang around.”
“And nobody told you to jump in front of those bullets. What were you thinking? You could’ve died that night.” Liana’s voice cracked.
She grabbed him by the chin and made him look at her. “You’re not going to push me away. I’m here.” She mustered up a smile. “Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me. You know we’re meant to be together.” She caressed his cheek. “Tell me honestly that you don’t believe that.”
“If we were meant to be together, then how come we weren’t? Why’d you break off our engagement? Why’d you get engaged to someone else? Why’d you move to Queens and just forget about me?”
“Listen to me,” Liana said, trying to hold it together. “I’m not the same twisted, bitter, woman you once knew.”
“How much could you have changed in a month?”
She reached into her purse, pulled out a Polaroid picture, and handed it to him.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Wayne said, looking more closely at the picture. “You went to see your father?”
“After they hit him at the board, he wrote me thanking me for the letter I wrote to the Commissioners advocating his release.”
“You’re not talking about the letter I read, right?”
“Nah, I tore that one up and drafted another one.”
“I’m proud of you, Liana, really I am.”
“If I can forgive my father, and give him another chance, I know you can find it in your heart to forgive me, and give me just one more chance. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“What happened with Bridgette?” Wayne asked, changing the subject.
“She’s too through. Watkins is charging her for Ron’s murder, attempted murder on you, and for assault on me and Nana.”
“What about Indio and that whole situation?”
“He copped out to twenty to life for drug trafficking and attempted murder on Reese. Rasheem was the second gunmen, by the way. Indio gave him up, but Rasheem is nowhere to be found.”
“What’s up with Taz?”
“He’s good. He bought himself a car, and got his driver’s license.”
“Where’d he get money to buy—”
“He told me to tell you that being the true friend that he is, he filled in for you and took care of that business, whatever that means, and he said to tell you it was dyno-mite.”
Wayne couldn’t help but laugh. “Good ol’ Taz. Where would the world be without him?”
“I like the way you changed the subject, and avoided giving me an answer, Wayne.”
“I got one more question for you,” Wayne said.
“No! Answer my question first.”
“I will, but I just need you to answer one more for me, please.”
Liana shook her head. “What is it?”
“The doctors told me I was lucky to be alive. I don’t believe luck had anything to do with it. I was about to give up and let go, but Anna didn’t let me.”
“Anna?” Liana questioned. “Anna who?”
“You named her after your mother, didn’t you?”
Liana gripped the bed. “Why are you bringing this up?”
“I have to know.” Wayne held his breath as he stared at her.
Wayne’s question opened up a floodgate of memories and tears. Liana hugged herself as she tried to stop herself from breaking down. She looked in Wayne’s eyes and couldn’t keep it together any longer. He opened his arms and she buried her face in his chest.
“Don’t ask me how, but I just knew we were having a girl. I knew if I had that baby, it would mean the world to all of us. Nana would have a great granddaughter named after her daughter, your parents would’ve had a grand baby to spoil, and we… we would’ve had a daughter. We would’ve been the perfect parents. I know we would have.” Liana cried harder. “Why didn’t God allow me to have her?”
Wayne felt himself tearing as he remembered Liana’s mother calling out for the little girl. “I think, No, I know that Anna’s in a good place and she’s being looked after by a very special person.”
Liana found some comfort in Wayne’s words. “Regardless of what I did in the past, I know that we’re meant to be together.”
Wayne kissed her on the top of her head. “What are you going to do with a man paralyzed from the waist down?”
Liana gently kissed him on the lips and looked into his eyes, allowing him to see into her soul. “I am going to love him with my heart, my body, and my soul.”
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Soul Dancing Page 22