Truth or Dare

by Dwayne S. Joseph

  Jayson shook his head. “Are you threatening me?” Esias slid down in the seat, lashed out with his bound legs, and kicked the back of Jayson’s seat as his mumbles and nodding head stated that he was, indeed.

  Jayson turned around in his seat and aimed his Ruger, which he’d been holding in his lap, at Esias’s chest, prompting immediate silence and stillness. Jayson watched him as he stared at the Ruger’s barrel, his chest heaving up and down as he breathed heavily.

  “She was never yours,” Jayson said. “She was just on loan to you until destiny had a chance to catch up to us. And now that it has ...” Jayson turned back around, opened his car door, stepped out, moved to the back passenger door, and opened it. His Ruger leveled at Esias’s chest, he grabbed hold of Esias’s arm and dragged him out of the car to the ground. “Now that it has,” Jayson said again, “your time is up.”

  Unable to move, Esias lay on the hard concrete of a dimly lit alleyway littered with trash and empty cardboard boxes. Esias looked up at him, shook his head, and began to mumble again. He was pleading for his life, Jayson knew. He could tell by the way he was moaning. He could see the fear and desperation in his eyes.

  Jayson smiled with sinister amusement, then looked up as a siren screamed from somewhere in the distance. An ambulance. Jayson listened and idly thought about Reggie. He’d seen on the news that Reggie’s body had been discovered two days after his death by a friend who had become worried about him when her phone calls had gone unanswered and her messages unreturned. She’d gone to the house to check on him and saw that his car was missing but his front door was slightly open. Reggie’s death was being considered a robbery/homicide. Jayson had found the article very interesting.

  As the sound of the siren faded away, Jayson looked back down in time to see Esias’s chest deflate and his head, which had been lifted, drop back down to the dirty concrete.

  “This is destiny, Esias. Your life is about to end. Mine and Jess’s are about to begin. Nothing and no one’s going to come to your rescue and stop that.”

  Tears beginning to fall slowly from the corner of his eyes, Esias begged for his life in mumbles again.

  Amused by the sight of his groveling, Jayson watched him for a few seconds, and then casually sent a bullet into his chest. “Destiny,” he said. “It can’t be stopped.”

  He turned, climbed back into his Escalade which he’d left idling the entire time, slipped it into gear, and with a single glance in his side mirror at his distraction now removed, pressed on the gas and drove away. He never noticed the teenager that had been hiding behind a Dumpster just off to his left.

  Chapter 45

  Shane Mitchell thought for sure he’d been caught. He had tried to turn into an alleyway and duck behind a Dumpster, but when the jet-black Escalade pulled to a stop a few feet away from where he’d hidden, he was positive that he hadn’t been quick enough. His heart beating like a heavy bass drum, he cursed himself for sneaking out to see his girlfriend Traci from math class. Traci had promised him they would go all the way this time, and because Shane was the only virgin in seventh grade, he was determined to make sure that Traci kept her word. He was tired of lying and talking the talk. He wanted to walk it now. So he snuck out, despite having been caught just a couple of weeks ago by his mom who literally beat him for a few days, and climbed the fire escape leading up to Traci’s third-floor bedroom window, and snuck into her room. Ten minutes into the action he had been praying for, there was a heavy bang against her bedroom door. Thankfully, Traci had locked it or for sure Shane would have been a goner as Traci’s stepfather bellowed that he knew she wasn’t alone and demanded to be let into the room.

  Wasting no time, Shane threw his clothes on and hustled out through the window. Halfway down the fire escape, Traci’s stepfather screamed out from above him, promising to catch and kill him. Shane ran as fast as he could and when he realized there was a car approaching in the distance behind him, he made his move to the alleyway, and then behind the large metal bin that reeked of rotting garbage.

  For a split second he thought he was safe, but then the Escalade pulled into the alley where it sat idling for a few minutes before the passenger door opened. Shane nearly pissed on himself as a tall guy wearing dark blue jeans, a grey sweater, and black boots stepped out of the car with a gun in his hand. On the verge of tears, Shane was about to step out from his hiding spot and plead for his life, when the guy with the Maxwell hairdo moved to the passenger door, opened it, began speaking, and then dragged another guy who’d been bound and gagged with duct tape out onto the concrete.

  Unmoving, and breathing as slowly and silently as he could, Shane watched as the brother with the gun said something about destiny, and then shot the other guy in the chest before getting back into his ride and driving away. He’d seen people get shot before on TV and in movies, but in real life the act wasn’t nearly as dramatic.

  Shane sat still for a few minutes. Only when he was certain that the shooter wasn’t going to come back did he finally and very cautiously emerge from behind the Dumpster and make his way over to the bleeding victim who was lying deathly still. He thought about touching the body, and made a move to do so, when the man’s eyes suddenly fluttered open.

  “Shit!” Shane yelled out, stumbling backward and falling onto his rear end. He remained there frozen, his heart racing as though he’d just run for his life all over again, and watched as the man who wasn’t dead at all move slightly and moan softly. Shane whispered, “Shit,” again, and then swallowed saliva that had formed in his throat. He took a glance in the direction of the SUV that was long gone, and then inched closer to the wounded man. “Dude,” he said. “Y ... you OK?”

  It was a stupid, stupid question he knew, but he was freaked out and that had been the first thing that he could think to say. He shook his head, called himself an idiot, then looked at the guy whose eyes fluttered open and closed. And then his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Shane yelled out again. He had forgotten about his cell.

  His heart hammering now, he dug into his pocket, pulled it out, and then groaned. His mother, calling. His shoulders dipped as his chin dropped to his chest. “I’m dead,” he said with a sigh.

  Dead.

  He looked from his phone to the guy on the ground, the guy who wasn’t dead. Yet. Shane looked at him, and then looked back at his cell. Whether he did the right thing or not, there would be no escaping his mother’s wrath for disobeying her. He shrugged, ignored his mother’s call, and then dialed 911. Death for him was inevitable. He may as well go out a hero.

  Chapter 46

  “You have to call the police, Jess.”

  Jess shook her head. She was sitting at her kitchen table, dressed in jeans, a grey hoodie, and white Nike’s on her feet. Her hair was uncombed and hidden beneath one of Esias’s Pittsburgh Steelers caps. Her friend Melissa sat across from her, staring at her with imploring eyes.

  Jess removed the hat, ran her hands through her hair, and shook her head. “I can’t,” she said, her voice soft. Her girls were upstairs sleeping, and she wanted to make sure they stayed that way. Her oldest had walked into the bedroom just after she had thrown her phone against the wall. Jess told her the phone had slipped from her hand, and then carried her back to bed.

  “But Jess—”

  “He said he would hurt Esias if I brought anyone, Melissa. I can’t.”

  Jess had called Melissa with her voice cracking and tears flowing after her conversation with Jayson, and had asked her to come over right away. Melissa had wanted to know what had been wrong, but Jess was too distraught and told her she would explain everything when she arrived, which she had in detail.

  Hearing the sound of her voice recount everything that she had done made the pain of what was happening now sting even more. She’d been selfish, and her deceit and betrayal had now put the man she loved with all of her heart, the father of the girls who adored him, in danger. Jess wanted to scream and only to keep from disturbing the girls did
she manage to keep from doing just that.

  She covered her face with her hand. “Christ,” she said softly.

  Melissa reached across the table and put her hand over Jess’s. “Honey, you need to go to the police. You can’t go and meet him alone.”

  Jess shook her head again and pulled her hand away. “Dammit, Melissa ... I told you I can’t take the chance. I have to go alone.”

  “Not calling the police or going there alone doesn’t guarantee that Esias is going to be safe, Jess. I know it’s hard to hear this, but for all you know, something may have already happened. I mean, he was using Esias’s phone.”

  Jess gave her Greek friend a stern glare. “Melissa, I called you because I need your help and support.”

  “And you have it, honey.”

  “Then, please do me a favor and stop putting negative energy out there.”

  “I’m not trying to be negative,” Melissa said with a frown. “I’m just trying to keep it as real and as honest as I think a friend should do. I know you’ve thought about what I said, whether you want to admit it or not.”

  “Melissa, please ... please just stop.”

  Melissa shook her head. “You need to call the police, Jess. If you don’t, then I’m sorry, but I will.”

  Jess looked at her friend. “You wouldn’t,” she pleaded more than said.

  Her eyes unapologetic, Melissa said, “Yes, I will, Jess. I’ll have to.”

  “Please,” Jess said. “I’m begging you ...”

  “Jess—”

  “Dammit, Jayson promised to hurt him if I told or brought anyone. Yes, he may have already done something, but he also may not have! I want to call the police, the army, the damn U.S. Marines, but as long as that unknown is there, I just can’t take that chance.” She reached across the table and grabbed hold of her girl’s hands. “Now I’m asking you as your best friend, for the last time ... please just watch over my girls until I get back or call. Please? Before I leave I need to know that you will do that for me.”

  Jess looked at her friend with desperate eyes. Melissa was right; she needed to call for help. But she just couldn’t because if the slightest chance of saving Esias’s life existed, then she had no choice but to play by Jayson’s rules. It was a frighteningly difficult decision to stick to, but it was one she couldn’t stray from, and as she held onto Melissa’s hands and looked at her, she prayed that her friend would acquiesce and make the same decision.

  She stared, her eyes unblinking, imploring. Melissa stared back, the decision difficult for Jess to see in hers.

  “Please?” Jess asked again.

  Melissa watched her, and after a few more seconds, shook her head, let out a long breath of air, and said, “If you were anybody else, there’s no way I would be giving in.”

  Jess smiled as a small bit of tension fell away from her shoulders, which were still very much taut with worry. “Thank you.”

  Melissa took a deep breath and exhaled. “You have until dawn, Jess. That’s all I can give you. If I don’t hear from or see you and Esias together by dawn, then I will be calling the goddamned cavalry. OK?”

  Jess gave Melissa a nod. “OK.”

  “You better be back, girl ... both of you.”

  Jess looked at her. Tears had welled in her friend’s eyes. “I will,” she said, a knot rising in her throat.

  “You better.”

  Jess gave Melissa’s hand a firm but gentle squeeze, then let go and stood up.

  “Dawn,” Melissa said, wiping tears away from the bottom of her eyes.

  Jess gave a tiny smile, turned, and left the kitchen. She went upstairs to her daughters’ bedroom. She had to see them, needed to see them before she left. She needed to give them kisses. Needed to smell them, to touch them.

  She walked into their room quietly and approached their twin beds, which lay side by side. She watched them sleep for a moment, watched them breathe. Angels, she thought as tears began to fall from her eyes. Angels who didn’t deserve to have their lives devastated by her stupidity. She wiped her tears away and leaned down toward them. “I love you,” she whispered, planting gentle kisses on each one of their foreheads. “I promise I’m going to bring Daddy home.”

  She gently stroked their hair, and then left the room and went back downstairs, where Melissa was waiting for her by the front door. She put the Steelers’ cap back on and went to her friend. “Thank you,” she said again.

  Melissa gave her a thin-lipped smile. “What are you going to do when you get there?” she asked.

  Jess looked at her friend and answered as honestly as she could with a shrug. “I don’t know. But I’ll do whatever I have to.”

  Melissa looked at her, confliction in her eyes. “I really shouldn’t give in to you,” she said with the corner of her lips turned downward. “But since I am ...” She paused momentarily and raised her hand. In it she wielded a small handgun. “The least I can do is make sure you’re prepared to do just that.”

  Jess looked down at the gun and felt her blood grow cold.

  “Take this with you. It’s reliable, accurate, and, despite its size, it carries plenty of power. It’s one of the best small guns on the market.”

  Jess stared at the small black gun for a few seconds, and then looked up at her friend. “You ... you own a gun?”

  “I have three, actually,” Melissa said.

  Jess slammed her brows together and gave her head a slight shake. “Three? When did you ...” she paused. She’d never known this about her friend.

  “Do you remember my ex, Nikolas?”

  Jess gave a nod. Melissa met Nikolas at a social gathering for professional single Greeks one evening. They’d hit things off fairly quickly and after six months, Melissa had actually used the word marriage a few times in her sentences. But then as quickly as things happened for them, they fell apart just as fast six months after that when Melissa discovered that she wasn’t the only female that Nikolas had used that word with.

  “He was into guns and used to take me out to the range with him. It was scary at first, and then became completely exhilarating. I’ve been an aficionado since.”

  “Wow,” Jess said. “I never knew.”

  “It’s not something I really advertise.”

  “Wow.” Jess looked down at the gun again, and then looked back. “I’ve never used a gun before.”

  “And hopefully you won’t have to tonight. Especially since the repercussions for carrying an unlicensed gun in New York are so severe.”

  Jess thought of the football player Plaxico Burress who’d shot himself in the leg with his unlicensed gun. In for two years—the state of New York didn’t play. “So then why give it to me?”

  “Because ... I’d rather fight to the death explaining to a judge and jury why you had to use a gun that wasn’t yours to stay alive, as opposed to explaining to your daughters why they’ll never see their mommy again.”

  Jess looked from her friend to the gun again. A chill came over her. A gun. Something she’d never held before. Something she never imagined she would ever have to hold. Her eyes on the muzzle, she said, “I ... I’ve never fired a gun before.”

  “It’s not hard. Just keep your feet planted firmly, put your right foot forward if you can and your left back slightly, like this.”

  Jess watched mesmerized as Melissa got into a shooter’s stance.

  “Keep your legs spread shoulder width and keep your arms straight and locked up in a straight line into your line of vision. Most important, don’t lean away from the gun if you have to fire it. Most amateurs lean away, which is pretty much the same as leaning away from the target, which, of course, means they miss. Now, this switch means the safety is on. Click it this way and the safety is off.”

  “Wow,” Jess said again, as Melissa relaxed from her shooter’s stance. “Who are you?”

  Without a smile, Melissa handed Jess the gun and said, “I’m a best friend who is trying to stay true to her word.”

  Je
ss looked down at the cold hard steel in her hand for a moment, and passed her finger over the safety before she slid it into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. She looked up at her friend and gave her an appreciative, tight-lipped half smile. “Dawn, right?” she said, her tone even.

  Melissa looked at her long and hard, then nodded and said with a sigh, “Dawn.”

  Jess gave her another half smile, and then without a good-bye, grabbed her keys from a key ring beside the door and walked out of her home. What Jayson had in store for her she had no clue, but everything that was happening was her fault. To make things right, she would do whatever she had to. There was just no way around that.

  Jess walked to her car, the weight of the gun tapping her belly softly as she did. She looked up as she hit the remote to unlock the car doors. The moon was out, full and intense in the dark sky. Dawn, she thought. Just a few hours away. She got in her car and drove, knowing her destination, yet not knowing it at the same time.

  Chapter 47

  Jayson stood still on the balcony outside of the bedroom where he and Jess had made sweet, perfect music together. It had been incredible the way he had fit inside of her. A hand in a very wet glove. Of all the women he had fucked, never before had he felt such an intense connection. The sex between them had been the culmination, the final confirmation he had needed to prove to him that there was no denying the obvious; Jess was meant to be his.

  He stood still and listened to the activity of the New York streets below. He always loved New York. It had a soul that appealed to him the way no other city did.

  New York.

  Jess was from New York. Born and raised. More proof that they had been meant to be. His search for the one to carry on his legacy was over, and it had ended in the city that never slept.

  Jayson stood. Listened. Breathed in the warm air that would never be clean. Soon, Jess would be there, and then forever could begin.

  His cell phone chimed from the room behind him. Jayson turned. A text had come through. He went to his phone and saw a message from Jess that read, I’m on my way.