by B. M. Hardin
Dray couldn’t do it again because I didn’t want to tell him the truth.
And besides, one murder was one too many for him in this lifetime.
It had to be random or look accidental or something.
Lee Lee used to dates thugs back in the day. Maybe she knew someone. But I didn’t think that bringing her in the loop was a good idea either.
How was I going to pull this off?
I thought long and hard and finally it was like a lightbulb had flicked on.
Jinx crossed my mind.
How could I have forgotten about Jinx?
She and I were in prison together.
She’d been given two years on some bogus charge that was pinned on her because she’d failed to rat out her man too.
Their charges were drug related but she’d gotten two years and he’d gotten the same.
But of course they’d wanted to stick him with more, but they’d needed Jinx help to do it.
But she took the time instead and kept her mouth closed.
It was her first offense as well, but she was nowhere as prepared for life behind bars as she’d thought she was.
Neither was I, but at least I could fight.
She couldn’t.
So, more than a few times I had to defend her.
I mean I didn’t have to, but I did it just because she was so helpless.
I got out early on good behavior, but that was only from what they seen.
My first day, I’d given my cell mate a beat down that she would never forget and from that moment on, my words held just as much weight as my fists did.
I’d threatened a few, slapped a couple more and I’d had to jack up plenty especially behind Jinx.
I’d watched her take one ass whooping and that had been more than enough.
She’d laid there and let the woman pound on her, barely throwing but a punch or two.
I felt sorry for her and I guess my sister instincts kicked in and I took her under my wing and treated her like a little sister; although she was older than me.
We’d actually managed to become quite close and she knew things about me that my real sisters and past friends didn’t even know.
Well except for maybe Lee Lee.
But Jinx understood what it was like to love good man with bad habits and even worse circumstances and Jinx also knew what it was like to be willing to do anything for him, even if that meant spending a few years of your life in prison.
Another reason we somewhat hit it off was because we were from the same city.
She was a lot older than I was, so I didn’t know her but knowing someone from home while locked up seemed to make things just a little normal for me, if that makes sense.
It somewhat made me feel a little closer to home.
Now thinking of her, she’d said that her husband owned a local car lot.
He sold cars and sold drugs; I guess he was determined to get it however he could.
Since he’d gotten prison time too, I wasn’t sure if he still owned it but it wouldn’t hurt to find out.
I’d left prison before she did hence she’d come in after me and still had maybe a year to go, but I remembered her telling me that if I ever needed anything to come find her.
From what she’d told me they had all kinds of ties whether it was money, drugs and everything else.
Surely they had a hit man in their back pocket or something.
Hell, had I been thinking when I needed money, I could have tried to find her to see if she would live up to her words.
But I had another favor that I needed from her now.
She and her husband should have been out of prison for a little while now, and I wondered if she had a way of making him do small favors for someone that she might call a friend.
I was sure about to find out.
~***~
Dray’s phone was ringing, again, but he couldn’t possibly hear anything over the sound of his snores.
He wasn’t as uptight with his phone as he had been when he was with his wife but now it seemed as though he never really even answered it.
To be a business man, he was hardly ever on the phone, but just because he wasn’t answering it, that doesn’t mean that it stopped ringing.
I got up to get it but just as I reached for it, out of nowhere Dray spoke.
“Just let it ring Moet.”
I wanted to ask a few questions, but I didn’t, only because I didn’t want him to start in on me.
But I was going to be all over his ass once I handled my little situation.
Who in the hell had been calling him like that lately?
Even his ex-wife hadn’t called him like that when he was around me, before or after she found out about us, so I couldn’t help but wonder who he was always ignoring.
It was a Saturday, so I followed his command, allowed him to go back to sleep and I headed to shower.
I wanted to get a few things done for the wedding and maybe even find time to try to find the car lot that belonged to Jinx and her husband.
I wasn’t even sure of the exact name but I knew somewhat of where she’d said that it was located.
Looking and feeling like a million bucks, I kissed Dray and headed out the door.
It was a beautiful day and I was feeling good from the inside out.
Though I still had the Kane situation to take care of, for the most part things were better than they had been in a very long time.
I stopped at the florist.
I loved daisies, but I wanted to do something else for the wedding.
“Let me see those,” I said.
“Would your mate like to look at some too?” she asked me.
Mate?
I turned around to see Kane standing only inches away from me.
He hadn’t greeted me or anything.
He was just standing there.
“Kane, what are you doing here?” I asked moving away from him.
“I saw you come in while I was coming from the coffee shop across the street. I saw that he wasn’t with you and thought that maybe you could use another opinion.”
I glared at him.
Really?
He was such a character.
And nosey as hell too.
We weren’t friends---anymore.
We weren’t anything.
After all of the stupid stuff he’d pulled lately, if he was on fire, I wouldn’t even spit on him to help him out.
He’d messed up whatever relationship that we’d had once he’d started forcing me to sleep with him.
“Look. These, these, and these. Look at them together,” he said, holding the combinations.
The yellows, oranges and greens actually did look good together.
But I didn’t need or want his help.
“Bye Kane.”
I turned my back to him.
“See you later Moet,” he laughed and threw the flowers down on the ground.
How rude!
I just couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
He was like roaches, the hood kind, that just kept showing up and never seemed to die.
But I was going to do something about that.
I rushed to come to a decision on the flowers so that I could head to try to find me long lost prison buddy but as I drove off, something else caught my attention.
I spotted Lee Lee, but she wasn’t alone.
She was with Naomi…Dray’s ex-wife.
They were chatting and laughing and even appeared to be having a good time.
What were they doing together?
I found my phone and called Lee Lee’s number.
“Hey. What are you doing? You want to get lunch?” I asked her. I watched her hold up her finger to Naomi before she responded to me.
“Uh no, I’m not feeling well today Moe. I have a bad cold. I’m home in bed. I just took medicine. I’ll call you back when I wake up okay?” Lee Lee asked.
“Ok.”
We hung up and I w
atched her place her phone inside her purse, and head into the store with Naomi all smiles.
What?
Did that just happen?
How did Lee Lee know Dray’s ex-wife?
Why was she with her?
And why was she lying to me about it?
Something wasn’t right.
Something just didn’t feel right about the situation.
And I couldn’t deny that I’d felt some kind of way inside.
What the hell was going on here?
I changed my plans, and got some new ones.
I decided to sit and wait for them to come out of the store.
I sat there for almost an hour, waiting for them and then finally they both came out.
Their hands were full with bags and the chatted for a few seconds, somewhat hugged, and then they went their separate ways.
I pulled off once both of them were out of sight and changed my plans and just headed home.
Lee Lee and Naomi were friends?
Hmm…since when?
~***~
“Kane!”
A woman yelled at the top of her lungs as she banged on his door.
I was there with him, yet again, only this time Drake was showing a few houses out of town for a few days, so at least I hadn’t had to sneak.
And this time, Kane hadn’t wanted to have sex.
He’d just wanted to talk.
And as crazy as it sounded, I actually listened to him and talked back to him.
I hated his guts, but yet in some way I missed our conversations and our somewhat piece of a friendship.
Maybe I just kind of missed how the fake him used to make me feel.
Though I had Drake, his words didn’t have as much power, or as much meaning as Kane’s had.
They didn’t seem to breathe life into me.
His words didn’t make me feel like I could move mountains or like I was a winner.
But Kane’s had.
But now I knew the real him, or at least the evil side of him, and Kane was crazy and crazy people had to die.
Or be institutionalized, but even then Kane might still try to tell our little secret.
And in the end that was all that mattered.
Keeping him quiet and keeping Dray out of jail.
That was the only reason I was still doing what I was doing.
And I wished that it would have been that easy to tell Drake and make him understand, but I knew that it wouldn’t be.
Though I’d slept with another man before to keep him safe, I knew that Dray would die if he found out the truth.
But Kane didn’t seem to care about anyone but himself, and for the time being the ball was still in his court. But it wouldn’t be for long.
Trust me, I was spinning my own little web and he was bound to get caught up in it.
I hadn’t made it to the car lot as of yet, but it was at the top of my list and I was going to make it there if it was the last thing that I do.
Yet Kane was starting to act like the old him in a way.
He was still forcing me to come over but this hadn’t been the only time that he’d wanted to talk and not have sex.
But I was listening and I was absorbing everything that he said for a reason.
I was finding out the things that he did in his spare time. I wanted to know the places that he went to and how many close friends that he had that might actually notice if he came up missing.
I had a plan.
It was taking time.
But I had a plan.
And I didn’t have long to execute it.
The wedding was now only a few weeks away and I wanted Kane either dead; or as good as dead to me by then.
Drake didn’t say much these days but I knew that he knew that something wasn’t right.
I could tell just by the way that he acted when he had to go to work or be away from me.
No matter what I couldn’t lose him so I was working day and night to keep him.
I’d slept with a man to keep Dray safe before and that was exactly what I was doing now.
That’s what I told myself to make it through.
But Dray seemed to have a few things going on of his own.
I’d noticed that he stepped out of the room to take a few calls lately or lingered outside the door to finish a phone call before coming in.
Very suspicious if you ask me.
But I know one thing it had better not have anything to do with another woman or I was going to lose my mind.
He had no idea what I was going through because I loved him and for his sake he had better not been doing anything that he was supposed to be doing.
The woman continued to bang on the door and brought me back from deep in my thoughts.
She wasn’t saying anything anymore, she was just banging.
After a while, I found it amusing.
And then I got an idea.
“Open the door Kane. Who is that? Is she this woman of yours that you mentioned?”
I taunted him but he was quiet as though he was trying to pretend as though he wasn’t there.
I talked louder and louder and he looked at me.
“I’m sure that she would love to know what you have been doing behind her back with me.”
He looked at me.
The woman outside of the door stopped banging, so I talked even louder.
“Open the door Kane.”
“Oh so there is a bitch in there? You know what, fuck you Kane! You’ll never see me or your kids again!”
She yelled and kicked the door.
After a while, nothing.
She was gone.
I grinned.
Payback was a bitch.
A few minutes went by and I had no idea why I was still sitting there.
Just as soon as it crossed my mind to get up to leave, Kane put me out instead.
“Get the hell out Moet,” he said and he damn sure meant it and he surely didn’t have to tell me twice.
I walked out of his condo with a smile on my face.
Maybe now he would just let me be.
If he knew what I was planning to do to him, that was his best option.
Stepping on the elevator and pressing my floor number, I found it weird that not once had he ever mentioned having kids.
There wasn’t even a single picture of them around his condo.
Why hadn’t he bothered to mention them?
And more importantly I wondered just who was the woman at the door.
Who was this main woman that he had?
But at the end of the day, it was none of my business.
And hopefully Kane would now stay out of mine.
~***~
“Well look what the cat dragged in! Hi! I looked for you when I got out! I couldn’t find you but I promise you I tried! How are you? Would you believe me if I said that I missed you?” Jinx said.
I found the car lot and I found her.
I found the one and the only Jinx.
She looked totally different.
I didn’t remember her being so pretty but I guess looking pretty in prison was not only pretty much impossible; but it was also not such a good idea.
But standing before me, she looked good.
She looked damn good.
And she looked like money too.
“I have been around. I’d forgotten that you said that you and your husband owned this car lot until the other day. I guess I tried to block out everything that was connected me to my past and my prison days once I came home. But how could I have forgotten about you?”
I embraced Jinx.
We had actually become fairly close while we were locked up and I felt like I had let her down in a way by not keeping in touch once I’d come home.
I had completely shut out my memories of her, when I’d told her that I would still be around.
Since I didn’t have any family or friends that had bothered to come see me, and since she was all alone as well, we
just seemed to bond.
I felt really bad for her because at least Drake was coming once a week, but her husband had been somewhere locked up too, so she never got a single visit.
Not even once.
She had family.
But most of them were too scared to come anywhere near a prison, so they just sent her money and letters.
But she never got to see their face; unless someone got bold enough to come once I was already gone.
She hugged me back and we small talked for a while and then I thought that I should probably get to the point.
“I know this looks bad, to ask, but remember you said if I ever needed anything…”
“No need to explain. I meant it. Had it not been for you them damn prison thugs would have probably killed my little ass. What you need? Do you need some money?” Jinx asked.
“No. I don’t need money. I think I probably need your husband’s help. I have this stalker I guess you could say. I was messing around with him but things got back on track with my main thang. And he’s trying to ruin my life and my soon to be marriage.”
“You’re getting married? To the guy you took the rap for right?”
I nodded
“Well, that’s real love, trust me I know, and we can’t have some random or dirty lay mess that up. So what do you need?”
“Is your husband still dirty?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think that he would have some kind of contacts or someone who wouldn’t mind taking care of someone for me?”
“Of course.”
“I have plenty of money just let me know what it costs.”
“Moe, your money isn’t needed. So you want him to find someone to scare him? Or kill him?” Jinx asked as though it didn’t faze her.
Killing him had crossed my mind plenty of times and it would make everything a lot easier and ensure that Drake’s secret never got out, but now that the option was staring me in the face, I was backing out of it.
I wasn’t a killer despite what my record said.
And despite the plan that Dray and I had come up with.
That was only supposed to be a one-time thing and because we were desperate.
But wasn’t I desperate now?
Paying someone to kill him was just as bad as pulling the trigger.
What should I do?
“ At first I wanted him dead because he knows some information that could send Dray and I back to prison. But now, I’m not sure. Maybe scaring him would be enough if it actually worked. If it didn’t I guess the next step would be getting him taking care of permanently.”