by Brick
He didn’t care that I’d been drugged, raped, forced to have sex with a minor, then burned and carved up. All he saw was a whore who’d had sex with his thirteen-year-old brother. Forced or not, he didn’t care. All he knew was his little brother had been violated and that I had been a part of it. I could tell in the way he sneered at me that there had been no love gained or lost between us.
I stopped biting on the pillow long enough to answer him. “He wants me to be his fuck mule. Fuck him and fuck anyone else he tells me to fuck, especially if it gets him in good with whoever said person is.”
His face frowned. “This nigga doing all this to you for some simple pussy? And you down for that?”
“No.” I hissed when whatever his aunt put on my back started to burn again. “But he has me on tape with . . .” I cut my words off as I was too embarrassed to say it aloud. “I don’t want to go to prison,” was all I said.
Enzo grunted then turned his eyes away from mine. “You owe me for what you did to my little brother,” he said.
“Shawn, you can’t fault her for that,” his aunt stopped working on my back and said to him.
“I can and I will. When my aunt finishes patching you up . . . Which you’re going to owe me for yet again since my aunt is sick and needs to be resting. She’s panting and shit trying to get you together. So when she finishes patching you up, we’re taking a trip to Micah’s place of business.”
“No, no. I’m not going there,” I protested.
“The hell you say? You’re going because not only will this help me, this will help you. Don’t forget the money I laid on you back at the party. You said if I scratched your back, you would scratch mine. It seems right now, I been scratching your back a whole lot more at this point.”
“Shawn, baby, you know what you’re doing when you do this, right?” Shy asked him. She had stopped patching up my back so she could catch her breath. I could tell she was too sick to be up doing what she was, but she had insisted on tending after me after she had ensured Drew was okay.
“Tía, you gotta let me do this. I know some people.”
“Okay. I have faith in you, but you need to do me a favor before you leave here.”
“What’s that, Tía? Anything you need,” he agreed.
“You promise me you gon’ look out for this girl.”
I turned my head just in time to see Enzo frown and smack his lips. “I don’t need him to look out for me,” I spoke up.
“Hush up, girl. Of course you do. Now, Shawn, you promise me you’re going to look out for her just as you would Drew. I ain’t saying you gotta move her in, but once this is over, and if you both walk away alive and well, you look out for her, you hear me? Promise me that,” she said then coughed, hard, so much so that when she moved her paper towel from her mouth it was filled with blood.
I quickly sat up and was going to help her until Enzo seemed to growl low in his throat when I went to touch his aunt. He rushed over to her. “Come on, Tía. Let me get you back in the bed.”
I looked at the woman and could tell that before cancer claimed her she had been a rider in the streets. I could tell by the way she talked with a no-nonsense tone that before fate had befallen her she would have been ready to ride shotgun with her nephew to kill a nigga.
It didn’t take Enzo long to get his aunt settled. I could hear her telling him that he was to leave her there and come back for her after he did what he had to do that day. She ordered him to place Drew in the room with her. Anytime Drew came into the room where I was, I looked away. I couldn’t face the kid. I couldn’t look at the lust that obviously still lingered in his adolescent eyes. He couldn’t be faulted for what he was feeling, but that didn’t mean I had to feed his nature.
I got up, and grabbed the clothes his aunt had laid out for me and dashed to the bathroom. His aunt and I shared the same complexion so I found some of her makeup and fixed myself up as best I could. Her clothes had fit me perfectly. I used a brush, comb, and some scissors in the bathroom to fix my hair. I cut it into a bob and styled it. By the time I stepped out of her bathroom, I looked like a high-powered attorney or a high-end escort, depending on how you looked at it. My back hurt so much that I couldn’t wear a bra. I could barely wear the thin button-down blouse.
As I was walking out of the bathroom, Enzo was coming down the hall. He damn near took my shoulder off as he passed me. “The car is this way,” was all he said.
He had changed into some sweats with cargo pockets, all black everything. I looked toward his aunt’s room. I wanted to tell her thank you for all she’d done, but remembered the look in Enzo’s eyes from before and decided against it.
It didn’t take us long to get to Micah’s dance studio. While you would think Micah would be running some kind of strip club, the nigga had a legitimate dance studio where girls and boys of all ages came to train. He had legitimate dance instructors from all over the world as part of the staff. The scary part of the whole thing was that parents dropped their children right into the lion’s den and didn’t even know it.
I didn’t know what Enzo had planned. I expected us to roll right up to the front so when we pulled around back, I had to ask why.
“I’m a superstar whether I want to be or not. I ain’t trying to announce my arrival and that’s what’s going to happen if I pull up to the front of the building.” Enzo cut the engine on his foreign ride and looked over at me. “Can you shoot?”
I shook my head. He reached in the back seat and pulled a bat to give to me. “When the time comes, swing it,” he said as he stared straight ahead.
For a long while we just sat there in silence and I wondered why. He kept his eyes trained on the back door of the building as one hand gripped a Desert Eagle and the other the steering wheel.
“You haven’t had to kill someone in months, huh? Not since that nigga Dame bit it, right?” He didn’t respond, but I kept talking. “This shit takes you back, I know. I thought I was done with this life. And to be honest, I am. I can’t go back to where I used to be. Wouldn’t make sense to go backward, would it? Not when freedom is so close.” I was rambling, just talking on in hopes it would calm my nerves. I didn’t know what I was feeling, couldn’t explain. It was something akin to fear and regret.
“The only time a man is truly free is when he’s dead,” Enzo said.
“No, I remember Jake saying something like a man had to be willing to die for his freedom.”
“Same thing.”
“Not really. If you think about it, we don’t have to die to be free, we can just be willing to die to ensure our freedom.”
The back door to the building opened causing Enzo to sit up in his seat. His whole body tensed up as we watched a young girl who looked no older than sixteen walk out in her ballet wrap and tights. Behind her came a guard I had seen before but wasn’t sure of his name. It was time for my body to tense. While I couldn’t remember him raping me, I knew he had based on the soreness of my body and the video they left behind. My body started to shiver, right eye twitched, and my hand gripped the handle of the bat.
Enzo took his eyes off the duo for a second to look at me. “So you and Jake were close?”
“Kind of. He used to always talk to me and keep me up on certain things. There are times when I wished I would have trained with him when he asked me to.”
“You saying he liked you or something?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but he was nice to me. He was more into Gina though. He used to talk to us all the time. There was a time the three of us spent the night together.”
“And Dame was okay with that?”
“Dame just thought his bodyguard was dibbling into his free supply of pussy, but Jake took care of me and Gina. I mean, yeah, the three of us fucked, but that was all it was for me. The way he touched and kissed Gina, I’ll probably never know what that feels like.”
“You were fucking Jake?”
“I fucked Jake. Once, well, you can say I fucked him and Gin
a at the same time.”
He didn’t say anything to me after that. We just sat there. I didn’t know what our next move was about to be. I thought about my grandmother. Word was she died alone a few months after I was taken. I guessed she just couldn’t live with the thought of losing me the way she had.
“We should wait before we do anything. Micah has the upper hand on us because he watched us, learned our every move,” I told him. “We should wait.”
I’d said all of that to him because I knew he was about to get out of the car and probably catch a murder charge, which I couldn’t blame him for, but . . . I just didn’t feel right about him running in guns a-blazing. While he used to be a part of Dame’s goon squad, he was running high off emotions and needed to get his head on straight. That was why I grabbed his arm to keep him in his car.
“What are you doing?” he growled at me. “You still working for this nigga?”
I shook my head quickly. “No, but look.” I nodded my head toward the opening back door again. Hemp walked out with another young girl. I would never understand how those parents didn’t see the change in their daughters and sons after the world had gotten a hold of them. Or maybe they had and just didn’t care or didn’t know how to handle it. While the young girl on her knees sucking the other guard off seemed to be into it, the young girl Hemp had brought out didn’t seem to be enjoying it at all. In fact she had a frown on her face and looked as if she was about to be sick.
I knew I had told him that we shouldn’t attack but there would be no way I could sit still and watch a kid be violated again.
“I can’t sit here and watch this,” he said to me.
I knew in his heart, he was feeling the same way I was. “Me either.”
He reached in his back seat and pulled the black duffle bag to his lap. “You scared to get down?”
I knew what he was asking and the Lord knew I was afraid, but it was too late to turn back now. I knew if I didn’t rock with him then I would be on my own from then on out.
“I’m scared, but I’m down. I ain’t ever had to hurt or kill nobody before, Enzo.”
There was a look that passed in his eyes. “First time for everything.”
“How did you handle your first time?”
His eyes hardened then turned dark before the light returned. “I don’t remember it like that. I just knew I had to kill or be killed.” He pulled a big hunting knife from the bag and a black Taser. “You just pull the trigger on this just like you would a gun. This shit has enough voltage to take the biggest nigga down. All you do is pull the trigger. I think you know how to use the knife. I ain’t got time to properly train and show you where to hit a nigga to take him down, but you know how to stick and move, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Yeah; if not I can figure it out.”
He nodded. “Let’s move.”
We both eased out of the car. Enzo was definitely a skilled killer. He slid against the brick wall hiding behind the other trash can. Me? I was clumsy as fuck. I ended up kicking an empty Coke can and that was when the shit hit the fan. Both Hemp and the other guard looked up from the young girls they were sexing and spotted me. I couldn’t run and I couldn’t hide. There was nothing left for me to do but play my hand.
“What the fuck? You gotta be kidding me,” the other guard fumed and stuffed his stubby, thick dick back in his pants.
Hemp pulled his dick from the young girl and shoved her so hard she fell onto the ground. “Bitch, you better be looking for Micah and just happened to get lost or some shit,” he growled.
I frantically looked behind me searching for Enzo only to find he wasn’t there. I knew he hadn’t run off and left me so he had to be just waiting for the right time to show his hand. It was now or never, I thought, especially since I didn’t know where Enzo had disappeared to. With my hands behind my back I slinked forward.
“You two get off on raping and fucking young girls?” I asked with a frown on my face. I was nervous as fuck. Hands shaking like I was having a seizure.
The other guard grinned then walked up on me. “I don’t, but we heard about how niggas got off fucking that pretty golden you got between your legs.”
“Pussy was so good a nigga was thinking about not pulling out.” Hemp smirked. “So you Willena Bad Ass now? Coming back for revenge or some shit? Don’t be stupid, bitch,” he barked out.
As they talked I slid the knife into the back of my pants. They were both dressed in all black and the gun holsters they had on were visible. The young girl Hemp had shoved down jumped up and ran back into the building. I could see that on one hand she was happy to get that man off of her and on the other hand she was scared shitless. Her light-skinned face was red and wet with tears as she ran away. It wasn’t too long before the other girl ran off too. I was so busy paying attention to the horrid look on the young girl’s face that when Hemp grabbed me from behind in a chokehold, I almost dropped the Taser. But I knew if I had dropped it, I was as good as dead.
It all happened in a matter of seconds. Hemp picked me up and tried to shake me as a pit bull would when it had a victim in locked jaws. I saw stars and could barely breathe, but when the other guard came in to punch me, I pulled the Taser. My finger squeezed the trigger and two probes shot forward catching him over his heart. He did a Thriller kind of shaking move before hitting the ground. That was when I heard a loud pop behind me that scared me to death. When my body was slung to the ground, I thought I had been shot until I looked up and saw the big gaping hole where Hemp’s right eye had been. The hole was so big that I could see clear through his head to see Enzo standing there with his gun still aimed at Hemp’s now falling body.
I jumped up and grabbed the Taser I had dropped. “Oh fuck! Oh shit! Nigga, you could have killed me,” I said to Enzo frantically. My chest felt as if it had pressure on it, eyes were wide with fright, and I was struggling to breathe. Death had a grip on me.
Enzo said nothing as he walked over the guard who had fallen to the ground, and blew a hole in his chest. I could tell it was a kill shot because of the way the body went slack after he had been moaning and groaning on the ground before. I got up and stood behind Enzo.
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “You leave anything in the car?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.” I was too afraid and shaken up to speak.
Sirens could be heard in the distance. People were starting to look down the alley and wonder what was going on. They couldn’t see me or Enzo because of the way the three trash cans and porta-potties were set up. Enzo didn’t give me time to think; he grabbed my hand and we took off in the opposite direction.
“Don’t run. Walk. Act normal,” he told me.
He pulled a cap from his back pocket and put it on, pulling the peak of the hat down to cover his eyes. I knew I probably looked a wild mess as my weave was scattered over my head. We came out on the other end of Peachtree Street. Just as we exited one end of the alley and turned the corner, Atlanta PD was coming in the other. We could also see them speeding in the same direction we were coming from. Enzo quickly pulled me in with the gathering crowd as I looked around to see if anyone had seen us while he held my hand. He had it in a death grip and I couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t hurt, but I knew he was feeling what I felt. Paranoia. I begin to question if we had made the right decision to commit murder out in the open like that.
We made our getaway while everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. While people rushed to ask the cops what was happening, we crossed the other side of the street and watched the front doors of Micah’s dance studio. Micah rushed out with a young girl who reminded me of the singer Ciara. She was looking around like she didn’t want to be seen as she slid into the passenger side of his whip.
“Yo, Micah,” Enzo yelled.
It didn’t take Micah long to realize where the voice was coming from. Once Enzo had his attention, he aimed his fingers at him like they were a gun and pulled the imaginary trigger. If I
didn’t know any better, for a second I would have thought Micah was shook, but then that smirk he always carried adorned his face just before he rushed around to get in his Porsche and speed off. As he passed me and Enzo, they stared one another down.
“What are we going to do about the car?” I asked Enzo.
“I know some people who know some people. Come on, we need to get to the Underground, then to MARTA. We take that back to the airport. I have a car there we can scoop up and get back to my condo. I don’t know what this nigga is going to do next and I gotta get my aunt and brother out the line of fire.”
He was pulling me forward so fast that I was tripping over my own feet. So much so that when I actually fell he snatched me back up and kept moving. I wondered his reasoning for keeping a car at the airport and decided to ask him. He told me it was something he had always done starting back when he was working for Dame. Dame had made them keep cars all around the city in case of emergencies. I wanted to ask more, but couldn’t focus on that while we tried to get as far away from the cops as possible.
We didn’t stop until we had made it to Upper Alabama Avenue. The Underground was alive with life. Nightwings fans were still celebrating their win from the day. Women were in competition to see who could wear the shortest shorts and tightest dresses. Kids who looked like they should have been home preparing for school the next day shouted obscenities while wearing saggy jeans. The gays were out in full effect and people milled about normally while a killer and accessory to murder walked among them. They had no idea that the man they had all cheered just a couple of hours before had left two bodies back in an alley. It was good that the Underground was located at the entrance of the Five Points MARTA station. We crossed the streets swiftly, paid the fee, and entered the station.
I wasn’t all that familiar with the trains that pulled in and out of the station so I had to watch silently as Enzo stared at the neon-lit board to see when the next train was coming.