“I might be able to do it a little faster since the call is going out to Vanessa’s phone versus coming in from the phone. But Vanessa told her not to call the number back so I don’t think that angle is going to work.”
“You don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of that part.”
Tony hesitated for a moment not having a good feeling. “Well… if you turn up with something that I couldn’t get, I’ll work with that and see what else I can come up with.”
“Okay, no problem. Thanks Tony. I’ll be in touch.” Eric hung up the phone and continued to sit on the bed. He was hoping to have found Vanessa by now. He knew she was getting help but from whom? He decided he would have a talk with Arianna and persuade her to tell him what she knew about Vanessa’s whereabouts. And if she refused, he would learn her. He would learn her hard.
“That’s what ya gotta do, Ricky. Ya gotta learn these dames. Let them know who really runs the bingo. Stop letting them think they can outsmart a man, teach ‘em their place and do what needs to be done to make sure they stay in it.” Eric heard his father’s voice in his head again. He shook his head as if to clear it even though a part of him believed his father was right.
Eric knew he couldn’t approach Arianna because there would be a cold day in hell before she told him anything he wanted to know when it came to Vanessa. He decided to call Tony back and get him to assist him with another task…
Tony was able to find out where Arianna worked easily. For three days he followed her around to get an idea of her routine when she got off of work. Once he knew her route, he gave it to Eric.
Instead of following behind Tony as he tailed Arianna, he decided to ride in the car with him, grateful that he had tinted windows.
“So what’s the plan?” Tony asked as they followed behind Arianna one night.
“Just keep tailing her and wait for my orders,” Eric said. His adrenaline was going at a rate so high that he began to get an erection. He breathed deeply as they followed behind her car. When they got to an intersection that was practically deserted that humid, summer evening, Eric decided to put his plan into action.
“Hit the back of her car. Not hard, but just enough for her to feel it,” Eric said. Being that close to acting out his intentions made his erection even more intense.
“You want me to what? Man, this is a Cadillac! Who’s going to pay for the damages?” Tony piped.
“Put it on my tab. Hurry up and do it before the light turns green or someone else comes,” Eric said hastily.
“Man, this is some bullshit. This better not fuck up my car, man. I just got this shit detailed,” Tony grumbled. He lightly stepped on the gas causing his car to slowly roll behind Arianna until it hit the back of her car causing her to jerk forward.
“Muthafucka!” Arianna piped. She reached for the volume button to her radio and turned the music down. She had been jamming so hard in her car, happy about a promotion she had just earned after only being on her job for five months that she never noticed the black Cadillac CTS following behind her. She practically ripped her seatbelt off and put her car in “park”. “You’ve gotta be muthafucking KIDDING me!” she screeched.
“Get out the car,” Eric told Tony. “Get out the car and apologize. Keep her back to the car like you’re looking at the damages.”
“Wha…?” Tony asked.
“Hurry up, she’s getting out of the car.”
Tony huffed as he got out of his car. “Oh Miss, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I did that. This is completely my fault…” Tony rambled as he walked over to Arianna.
“Damn right it’s your fault! How the hell did you hit me like that? Did you not see the damn red light? Did you not see me sitting at the damn red light not moving? Like seriously, bruh!” Arianna snapped.
“Come on, Tony. Get her to turn around,” Eric said as his hand was on the door ready to open it. His erection was so utterly intense that he could feel pre-cum leaking out. His palms began to sweat and his leg shook as he anticipated his next move. He watched as Tony finally got her to turn around so they could look at the damage to the back of her 2012 Impala. There was a dent that wasn’t major but still visible.
Eric quickly got out of the car and hurried over to Arianna.
“Yo, bitch!” he said with a grimace. Arianna turned around but was caught off guard and unable to protect herself from the punch Eric threw. It connected with her face, busting her lip and making her nose bleed. Her scream was cut off abruptly as Eric grabbed her by her throat from behind and put his hand over her mouth before dragging her to Tony’s car.
“What the fuck, Eric!?” Tony yelled, frightened. He ran back to his car just as Eric rammed Arianna’s head into the door knocking the fight out of her. He then threw her in the back seat and climbed in with her.
“Drive!” Eric yelled. “Hurry the fuck up before somebody comes this way!”
“What about her car?” Tony asked in a panic induced state.
“Fuck that car, nigga! Let’s go!”
Tony jumped in the car and sped off as he closed his driver door, tires screeching as he swerved around Arianna’s car.
“I don’t believe this, man! I don’t fucking… if I had known this is what you were going to do…” Tony stammered as he tried his best to drive rationally to avoid being pulled over.
“You would have what? WHAT!?” Eric asked, raising his voice. He knew he had the upper hand on Tony with all of the trouble he had helped him to avoid over the years. In his mind, he believed Tony knew better than to cross him.
Tony huffed as he held onto the steering wheel tightly. His palms were sweating as his mind and heart raced. He thought back to the gut feeling he had gotten when Eric first wanted to hire him for a “job” and how he ignored that tiny voice advising him not to get involved. “Me and my stupid fucking motto. If the money is there… fuck!” he thought to himself.
“Make a right, right here,” Eric instructed him. “And slow down before you have the cops on our ass.”
Tony made a speedy right, almost jumping the curb.
“Ay, what the fuck did I say, man!?” Eric bellowed as he peeped out of the window to make sure there weren’t any cops sitting idly by in a squad car.
“My bad, man. I’m just… never mind.” Tony murmured. “Where are we going?”
“Just keep driving…” Eric replied as he peered down at Arianna, who went unconscious after having her head slammed into the car. “Yeah bitch, you ain’t so tough without that fucking knife now, are you?” he smirked.
They arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned house in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Eric instructed Tony to keep watch while he carried Arianna inside. The house was semi dark and dusty, with trash scattered about. Tony came in a few moments after Eric and threw his hand over his mouth to suppress a cough. He gagged over the dank stench as he gazed around.
“What in three fucking hells is this shit?” he thought to himself. He dipped back as though he was dodging a punch when he saw a cockroach scaling a nearby wall. “Oh shit!” he yelped.
“Chill out man, don’t act like you never saw a roach before,” Eric replied casually. He had Arianna lying on a dusty couch. He leaned over top of her and slapped her face with the back of his hand. “Wake up, bitch. Wake the fuck up.”
Arianna stirred before opening her eyes with a wince. When she realized it was Eric standing over top of her she began swinging and kicking. Eric grabbed both of her tiny wrists with one of his hands and grabbed her throat with the other. He then straddled her, putting much of his weight on her to make her stop fighting. He smiled devilishly at the way her face turned red and her eyes began to tear up.
“Calm the fuck down or I’ll snap your neck like a chicken-bone,” he threatened her as he leaned close to her face.
Arianna was terrified and knew there was only one reason why she could be in this situation. She tried to calm down as best as she could while making sure she kept her eyes on Eric.
When he was sure that she wasn’t going to fight him any longer, he slowly got off of her and moved his hand from around her throat while letting her wrists go. Arianna turned to her side and began coughing and gagging as she struggled to get in air to breathe.
“If you don’t need me here, I have a few errands I need to run…” Tony said nervously from behind Eric. But the look that Eric gave him let him know to sit in a corner somewhere and shut the fuck up. He preferred to stand.
“It seems Vanessa’s been a bad girl,” Eric started as he paced around her.
“I don’t know where she is,” Arianna said as she rubbed her throat.
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?” Eric asked as he looked down at her.
Arianna snickered. “Think?” she replied sarcastically. “Oh no, baby. I know you are.”
Eric hauled off and slapped Arianna ferociously across the face, almost making her fall off the couch. She hollered out in pain. “Your mouth should have gotten you a check your ass can’t cash a long time ago.”
Arianna giggled. “That’s what I love about weak little pussies who beat on women like you; always got some slick shit to say out of your mouth.”
Eric swung at Arianna again and she managed to block it. She used the palm of her hand to strike him in the face, causing his nose to bleed. When he staggered back, she jumped up to run but Tony grabbed her.
“Get off of me!” Arianna screamed as she struggled against the much stronger and taller Tony.
Eric touched his nose tentatively and looked at his fingers and the blood that covered their tips. He stormed over to Arianna, snatching her by her hair. She clawed at Tony, scratching him as Eric slung her across the room. She hit her head on the hard, wooden banister to the staircase and slumped to the floor, lying still.
“You spick-ass-bitch, get the fuck up!” Eric barked at her. Tony placed his hand to his neck where Arianna scratched him and winced as Eric walked over to where Arianna was laying. He peered at her on the floor and suddenly had a feeling that she wasn’t getting up. “Looks like she ain’t so tough after all. Knocked the fight right outta her ass,” Eric smirked as he nudged her with his foot.
Tony came over to her, getting a closer look and saw the blood spilling from her head. “Oh shit, Eric…” he said as he frowned. He nudged her with his foot but she didn’t move. “I think you did a little more than knock the fight out of her.”
“Why you say that?” Eric asked as he took a look at her from Tony’s angle. “Oh…” he replied, sounding like a child saying “Oops” after spilling juice on the new carpet. They stared at her for a moment. “Check her pulse,” Eric said to Tony, elbowing him.
“Hell naw, nigga! You check her pulse!” Tony frowned.
Instead of checking her pulse, Eric checked her pockets and was elated that her cell-phone was inside. Arianna had not done as Vanessa instructed her to do. She never deleted the number figuring she would hold on to it in the event that something important happened and she needed to get in touch with her best friend.
“Find the number in the phone,” Eric instructed Tony as he passed him the phone. Tony couldn’t take his eyes off of Arianna. “What if she’s dead? Now I’ma be an accessory to murder fucking with this crazy nigga!”
“Hey! Snap the fuck out of it and check her phone for the number Vanessa called her from,” Eric said louder.
Tony took the phone with a shaky hand and began scrolling through Arianna’s call log. He was tempted to say the number wasn’t in there just so he could get the hell out of dodge but he didn’t think Eric would believe him.
“This is the number. You want me to call it now?” Tony asked as he peeked at Arianna again. She was still laying on the floor not moving. He stared harder than he meant to and was positive that he didn’t see her breathing either.
“No, wait until you get back to your spot. I want the call traced. I wanna know exactly where she is,” Eric replied as he made his way over to the door.
“Wait… you’re leaving? You’re going to leave her here like this?” Tony asked frantically.
Eric looked at his friend as though he were stupid. “Well, the bitch ain’t talking so…” he trailed off.
“Shouldn’t we call the cops or something?” Tony thought to himself. He decided it might not be wise to vocalize his thoughts and followed Eric as he left out of the raggedy house. He took one glance back at Arianna before Eric closed and locked the door.
9
Red and blue police lights flashed outside of the small house in Kensington. Cops questioned people in the neighborhood while other cops worked inside of the abandoned home trying to gather as much evidence as they could to determine what happened to the young lady who was left for dead inside.
Arianna was brought out on a stretcher and paramedics worked feverishly on her to keep her alive. En-route to the hospital, she coded on them twice, but they were able to bring her back around. Her head injury was extensive and she was going to need surgery. The doctors tried to stabilize her enough to get a CT scan to see the extent of her injuries.
“Ms. Stone, the doctors are going to do everything they can to save your life. We’re going to need your help to get the bastards that did this to you, okay? Just stay with us, please,” One of the cops said as he moved down the hallway alongside her stretcher.
Arianna was unable to form her words due to her head injury but she held her hand up to the cop. He reached out to hold it and she shook her head.
“It’s okay, ma’am. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere,” the cop assured her sympathetically.
“No, you idiot! Check under my nails! I scratched that bastard and I know it should be something under my nails to ID him. Please, God, let them check my nails…” Arianna thought to herself. She took a self-defense class after she learned of what Vanessa was going through and one of the first things that she was taught was in a struggle, to do her best to get one of her attackers DNA on her through either scratching or biting. Arianna had Eric and Tony’s DNA on her; Eric’s from when she hit him and made his nose bleed and Tony’s from when she scratched him. She didn’t think of Eric’s blood on her hands, but she hoped like hell they checked her nails.
“Of all the times for me to lose my ability to speak, why did this have to be one of those times? I don’t want to die… not like this… not so soon… please…” Arianna thought to herself. She struggled to fight off the darkness that threatened to take over. She could hear the machines that she was hooked to going off. And then silence.
“Time of death… 11:46pm.” One of the doctors said as he pulled his gloves off. He walked out of the room Arianna was in shaking his head at the cop who promised to be there with her.
“She bled into the frontal lobe and the swelling of her brain was just too much. If she had gotten here just an hour sooner, we might have been able to save her life,” the doctor said to the officer.
“Got damn it…” the cop said sorrowfully. “Was she raped? Were there any fluids found on her?” he asked the doctor.
“Well, we didn’t get around to the rape kit because we wanted to take care of that head injury right away. But we’ll do one anyway just to see.”
“Okay, good. Also, she kept reaching her hand out to me like she was showing me something. Maybe she fought with her attackers. Check her hands also; under her nails and make sure the blood on her is her blood and not anyone else’s,” the cop requested.
“Absolutely. We’ll give her a thorough exam once we do the autopsy.”
The cop gave him his business card and walked away to work his investigation. He decided to start with the anonymous caller who tipped them off about hearing a struggle inside of the house.
10
Tony raced down the street, unable to drive like a normal person. He wanted desperately to get Eric back to his car and get as far away from him as humanly possible.
“Pass me that phone,” Eric said casually as though nothing had happened momen
ts before. “And watch your speeding.”
Tony reached in his leather arm rest and pulled the phone out. He handed it to Eric as he made a left turn.
Eric took the phone and started going through it, looking at the phone number that Tony said Vanessa had called from. He couldn’t wait to hear her voice. Better yet, he couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he showed up at her door step or wherever she was. He half-way grinned to himself as he imagined the look of fear in her face. He had seen that look with her many times when he had to correct her or get her back in line.
Tony pulled up in front of Eric’s home, double parking. He wanted his friend to get out so he could speed off with the hopes of never looking back.
“What are you doing?” Eric asked him. Tony looked at him as though he didn’t know what he was talking about. “Man, park the damn car and bring your scary ass in the house. I want this number traced. I need to know where Vanessa is…” Eric hesitated for a moment. “I need to make sure my baby is okay and she didn’t do anything stupid.” He really wanted to ring her damn neck for having the nerve to walk out on him while carrying his child.
“Oh, like you didn’t just do something stupid back there,”
Tony thought to himself. Instead of speaking his thoughts, he parked the car and they both got out with Tony following behind Eric. Once inside, Eric poured himself a drink before offering Tony one. Tony quickly declined. He was nervous as hell and peering at Eric with extreme caution. He paced back and forth, stopping a few times to peek out of the window, almost positive that the cops were going to show up any minute and arrest the both of them. Now Tony watched Eric and frowned.
“Can you do a trace on the number from my laptop?” Eric asked his friend.
“I… I don’t know,” Tony said, nervously. “Maybe you should let this go, Eric. I mean, look on the bright side, at least you don’t have to worry about being tied down with no brat. And I highly doubt Vanessa is going to come after you about some child support since she left without even telling you about the baby.”
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