Skeezers (The Cartel Publications Presents)
Page 11
Why weren’t they answering the phone?
I was afraid Monique told him where Poe lived and he would come for them.
When I finally found the brick house, located on a tree-lined street, I parked in front of a fire hydrant and rushed toward his door. I was about to knock until I looked in Poe’s truck and saw them sitting inside. I ran up to it and banged on the windows heavily. They both jumped but relaxed when they recognized me.
Poe unlocked the door and I slipped inside the backseat. “Why don’t ya’ll have your fucking phones?” I yelled. “I’ve been calling you for hours!” When I noticed their melancholy mood didn’t match mine I knew something was up. “What’s wrong?”
Spy wiped the tears from her eyes. “I can’t be with Reggie and I don’t know how to tell him. We been trying to work it out.”
“But where are your phones?” I repeated after hearing their situation was nowhere near as dramatic as mine.
“Mine is on the charger inside,” Poe said.
“And I left mine in my purse, in the bedroom. We were going to get something to eat right quick and the conversation got deep.” Spy looked at me. “But what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
“It’s Monique, she’s been killed.”
“What the fuck?” Poe yelled while Spy broke down crying, screaming so loudly I could hardly hear him. “What do you mean?”
It wasn’t until that moment that I started sobbing too. Everything was happening so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to process. I finally understood what happened. My cousin was murdered and I was responsible for the next load of drama coming their way.
I told them how Wisdom was released early and killed her for lying on him about the rape. There was so much pain in the car over Mo’s death that I forgot about the point for me being there.
Reggie was on the loose.
“There’s something else,” I said softly. My temples throbbed. “Before Monique was killed she told Reggie about you two. And I think he’ll be—” Suddenly there was a burning sensation on my arm and I witnessed glass shattering everywhere.
When I looked to my right I saw Reggie’s open truck door but where was he? I got my answer when the front windshield shattered. He was standing in front of the car unloading bullets into the vehicle. For some reason I couldn’t hear anything, maybe this was all a nightmare, one that I would wake up from soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
The sun shined down on a beautiful home in Marina del Ray in California. Nine month pregnant Spy was making coffee while Poe sat at the kitchen table, looking at the new menus. Spy got help with her bulimia and she focused all her efforts on a healthy pregnancy. The doctors weren’t optimistic. If she wanted her child she had to fight because one of the long-term issues with bulimia is infertility.
Life for them was special but there was always the air of the many who died in their quest to be with each other. Although they took the blame for Reggie, who was gunned down by the police after a high-speed chase shootout on the beltway, they didn’t feel responsible for Mo’s death. Especially after learning about her lies against Wisdom who had been given twenty-five to life for murder.
Although they had each other, Poe and Spy didn’t go unharmed.
Poe suffered two gunshots, one in his chest and the other in his leg. Spy was shot in her thigh and they both quickly recovered.
It was Carlita who suffered the most.
After the coffee was made Spy poured her new husband a cup and kissed him on the lips. He rubbed her belly and said, “I love you.”
“I know.” She kissed him again.
“How is she today?”
“Not good. Still has her moments but I’m trying to keep her spirits up.”
He nodded. “Well I have a meeting with my cousin for the new restaurant later. If you want me to come back early so you can get some air I can do that. I don’t want you stressed while you carrying my baby.”
She touched her belly. “I’ll be fine, really. But if you want to come home early and keep me company that’s good too.” She kissed him again. “Let me check on her.”
She walked down the hall and toward the room in the back. When she opened the door Carlita was in bed staring at the television. “How you doing?” Spy asked.
She nodded. “Fine.” She sighed. “I guess.”
Spy walked deeper into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Carlita, who was paralyzed from the neck down, could only talk. She couldn’t move, walk or do anything for herself. In the beginning she begged Spy and Poe to kill her, to put her out of her misery, but neither would comply.
Instead they moved her with them to L.A., in the hopes of giving her a better life. Although they found comfort in each other the opposite was true for her. At night, while they laid in each other’s arms, she was alone with the memories that had she not plotted to get revenge against Mo, none of this would’ve happened. The memories made her dark and bitter and she didn’t want to live that way. But with them refusing to kill her she had no choice.
She was too helpless to take her own life.
“Do you want anything?” Spy asked.
“Just to be left alone.”
She stood up and walked toward the door. Before leaving she turned around and said, “I love you, cousin.” Spy sighed. “Very much.”
“I know,” she responded, trying to hide the hate she had brewing in her heart. “Please leave me alone. For a little while.”
Later when Carlita’s nurse came to wash her up she remembered having a thought right before her life changed. Right before she was shot. She felt she didn’t need anything or anybody. And with her being paralyzed not only did she realize it wasn’t the case, she would have to live with it for the rest of her life.