Thicker Than Water

by Takerra, Allen

  “I’m. I—I’m pregnant.”

  He tried to say something but she stopped him.

  “Fuck you, Chauncey.” She turned to Neli. “And fuck you, too.” Neli just stared on, almost emotionless.

  “And you know what else, Chauncey? Fuck this bastard baby inside of me, because I don’t want anything that is a part of you. I’m not having your baby, and I’m not marrying your sorry ass . . . I hate you, I hate you so much and I just want you to stay the fuck away from me.”

  She started out of the room and he went to follow her, but she turned around with a look in her eyes that showed she had lost all respect for him. Anything he ever saw when she looked at him, all that love, all that admiration. . . she used to look at him as if he were a king. But now, it was all gone. She looked at him as if he meant nothing. He stopped in his tracks and let her walk out the door, taking his whole future with her.

  By the time Tatum made out what Sasha was telling her, she had both legs in her sweatpants, her hair wrapped tight in a bun, and Vaseline all over her face, heading out of Ree’s door with no explanation. She jumped in her truck and sped all the way to the Belmar Motor Lodge. Of course by the time she got there, neither Chauncey’s nor Neli’s car could be spotted.

  It wasn’t that they weren’t there, but there were so many cop cars and even an ambulance present that she couldn’t quite make out anything else. She got out to head up to the room, just to double-check that Neli wasn’t still there. Friend or no friend, she was gonna dig in that ass! However, a familiar face made her forget her train of thought.

  The police pushed her back with all of the other onlookers as they brought Chauncey out of the hotel lobby in handcuffs, wearing only boxers and covered with blood. Tatum stared mouth open as they made eye contact, both wanting to wake up out of this bad nightmare. Tatum pushed past several officers and came to one who looked less occupied.

  “Sir, I need to know what happened. That was my friend there.”

  The officer turned and looked at the pretty girl.

  “Which one . . . the girl or the guy?”

  Tatum wasn’t sure. She was hoping the guy. Although she hated Neli at this moment, she didn’t wish death on her, just an ass whooping.

  “Um, the guy I think?” she responded, mind racing, realizing that she sounded silly.

  “I mean, I’m hoping that the girl isn’t who I think. Can you just tell me what you know?”

  At that moment another officer walked up to the officer Tatum was speaking to.

  “We got an ID on the girl. Penelope Daniels. Twenty-one. Room was registered in her name.”

  Tatum covered her mouth to keep her chicken Alfredo from coming up out of her throat onto the two officers who stood before her.

  “Officer, is she . . . Is she dead?”

  The officer turned to her.

  “She’s on her way to St. James Hospital, she is unconscious. She has been severely beaten and truthfully, gorgeous, she’s in really bad shape.”

  The officer told her this while giving her a lustful eye. To Tatum, it was unreal how men could be sometimes. Calling her “gorgeous” while her friend was on her deathbed made her grimace in disgust.

  Tatum called Ree and told him everything she knew so far. Then she called Sasha and told her she would come get her, she didn’t want her to be alone right now.

  She filled Sasha in on everything as she drove toward the hospital, knowing that Sasha could really not give a fuck about Neli right now, but Tatum had to at least make sure the girl wasn’t dead . . . Then she could beat her ass.

  By the time Tatum got to the hospital, Kim and Ree were already there.

  “Did anybody call Neli’s parents?” Tatum asked out of breath and nearing them in the waiting area.

  “I did,” Kim said, standing up and hugging Sasha.

  “You okay, baby?”

  Sasha nodded and sat down not knowing what to feel. Was she hurt? Did she deserve to be? She had only had her heart broken; Neli had two broken legs, a broken rib cage, a broken arm, and a fractured skull. Did that add up? Was she sorry for her? Was she happy? She didn’t know what to feel.

  Ree walked outside to make a call to E and Deets so they could check up on Chauncey, find out the charges and his bail. He was frustrated and heated, not to mention worried. Chauncey was his main soldier, and he had warned him about these bitches. He thought that he was smarter than this.

  Ray showed up next, distraught and hysterical. At that moment he was probably the one who had the most love for Neli. They all sat in the waiting area in silence.

  Ree walked back in and took a seat next to Tatum. He put his arm around her as she rested her head on his shoulder. In about an hour tops, her trail of events had gone from making love to Ree, to preparing to fuck Neli up, to now praying for her life and hoping Chauncey was okay. Not to mention the hurt girl sitting next to her.

  Sasha sat thinking that if she would’ve just talked to Chauncey and heard him out, maybe he wouldn’t have gone crazy on Neli like that. But then again, she did set him up. Maybe that’s what she had coming to her.

  Breaking her thoughts, two guys walked into the hospital who Sasha immediately recognized. They were Deets and E, Chauncey’s boys. They walked over to where Tatum and Ree were and Deets began giving the run-down.

  “Yo, they talking ’bout they don’t know right now. If she don’t make it, it’s first-degree murder straight up. If she does, attempted. Either way, no bail.”

  Ree dropped his head and took a deep breath, contemplating his next move. Before he could answer, Deets continued.

  “Yo Ree, I was thinking since the nigga Chris was fucking wit shorty, maybe he’ll show up here. Then we can get him.”

  Ree jumped up before he could say any more, grabbed Deets by his collar, and dragged him outside, where E followed. When he returned, Tatum was looking at him with wide eyes as if she was due an explanation. He sat down and tried to ignore her but Tatum being Tatum—she beat around no bushes—she asked him.

  “Ree, what’s he talking about? My brother, Chris? What does he mean get him?”

  Ree didn’t answer. He just looked straight ahead thinking about how getting involved personally with someone close to business was a move he knew he shouldn’t have made. Shit! he thought.

  “Ree . . . Answer me!” He grabbed her arm and pulled her up firmly, but careful not to hurt her. At first she stubbornly resisted, but after a while she stood up. He led her outside not saying a word. Once outside, he explained.

  He told her all about the robbery, leaving out the part about putting a price on his head. He just made it seem like he needed to find Chris to find out if he had his money. Tatum wasn’t dumb though. She knew how the game worked. She felt tears building in her eyes and throat and she tried to force them back. Her voice cracked as she spoke.

  “Ree, listen. Just believe me . . . My brother wouldn’t steal from you. Please don’t hurt him, Ree . . . And don’t lie to me, either, I know you’re gonna hurt him. But please believe me.”

  He looked down the street, trying to turn on his cold water inside that he was so used to. She grabbed his face and turned him to face her.

  “Ree, believe me! He wouldn’t do that . . . can’t you just believe me?”

  He looked long and hard at her and knew that Tatum was too smart to fool. He knew that she knew what had to happen. And here she was trying to save her brother’s life, asking him to take his trust for her and make a decision based on that. A decision that would demean him as a leader and erase all of the respect that he was built on. He looked at her and took a deep breath, and Tatum could have sworn his beautiful brown eyes turned black right before her.

  “That’s not enough, Tatum.”

  And with that he turned and walked away. Tatum fell to the ground and wept, she wept for the first time that day, and she wept for it all.

  Chapter 15

  Fear

  When word got to Chris about what had happened to Nel
i, he broke down. Over all the bullshit that had happened, he truly cared about her. In many ways they were exactly alike; both unsure of themselves, unsure of their place, therefore using their insecurities to make selfish decisions that usually put them in bad predicaments. Two young black souls lost. Well, that was the way Chris looked at it.

  He hated Chauncey at that moment—a man that he thought of as his brother—he hated him. The worst part of everything was that he couldn’t go see her. He knew that doing so could ultimately end in his death; he knew that Ree and all of his henchmen would expect him to show up at the hospital. But he had to see his girl. He decided to use one of the girls that he was seeing to help him get into the hospital.

  He would go early in the morning when the hospital was least likely to be watched. The young girl had a cousin who worked there on the morning shift who would allow him in before visiting hours. He lied and told the young girl that Penelope Daniels was a friend of the family. He would be in and out before actual visiting hours, which is when he figured the place would most likely be cased by Ree’s team.

  The next morning Chris showered in the tiny project bathroom of the run-down project apartment that his young girl, her mother, her brothers, and their kids all occupied. He dressed in the same clothes he had been wearing since he fled the safe house and he smoked about three cigarettes in the car as his young girl drove slowly to the hospital.

  “You can’t drive no faster than that?” Chris snapped.

  “Nigga, I don’t even have my license, leave me alone. And don’t think I don’t know that you used to fuck with this girl. You lucky you be breaking me off right, shit.”

  Chris just looked at her and continued to smoke his cigarette, thinking of what kind of condition Neli was in.

  Tatum hadn’t heard from Ree since she left the hospital last night. Everyone had left once they found out that Neli was going to be okay. She was still in pretty bad condition, but she was going to make it. Tatum and Kim really didn’t need to see her, although she wouldn’t have known they were there anyway, and Sasha damn sure didn’t want to, so Ray stayed, alone.

  Tatum sat up in her bed wondering where her brother was, and if he was okay. She hadn’t seen him in days and her nieces had been from her house, to Ree’s, to Sasha’s. Now she realized that he was hiding, but was he going to do this forever? Would she be left taking care of her nieces? Or even worse, would they be left with no parents in this cruel world, like she was?

  The thought of the man she loved taking the life of the only family she had left was too much for Tatum to deal with. She lay in her bed as tears began soaking up her pillow. Then her bedroom door creaked open and two miniature silhouettes appeared in the doorway, their faces bright with the morning sun.

  “Hey babies,” she said, smiling at them.

  They climbed in her bed with her and got under her blanket. The air conditioner kept a chill in Tatum’s bedroom that made you want to stay in the blankets all day.

  “Where’s Ree?” Chanel asked. Tatum thought of how she should’ve been asking “Where’s Daddy?” but instead was asking about the man who they had spent the last week with, the man who potentially might be their father’s killer.

  “He’s home, baby.”

  Tatum changed the subject by asking them what they wanted for breakfast. She wasn’t at all surprised by the answer, always pancakes! She hopped out of bed as they all made their way downstairs. The ringing phone interrupted the journey.

  “Hello.”

  Silence.

  “Hello?” Tatum repeated with crinkled brows, about to hang up.

  “Tatum. I don’t know what to do. This is crazy.”

  Tatum closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip, quivering at the sound of Ree so vulnerable. She didn’t know what to say so she didn’t say anything.

  “I take that back. I know what to do, I just can’t do it. I can’t let you go, Tatum . . . I know I should, and you know you should let me go too. But I can’t. But at the same time, I can’t let him go, either.”

  She knew what he meant by him. Chris. Her brother. Her blood.

  “Ree, I—I can’t be with you. There is no way that I can be with you. If you do anything to my brother, I would never forgive you. Never . . . You gotta understand that.”

  Ree contemplated what he had been contemplating since he left Tatum at the hospital. Could he give Chris a chance to explain himself? The mere thought of it angered Ree. This nigga took his money and bounced, and everyone knew, and he couldn’t make an example out of him? He wouldn’t even be able to continue on if he didn’t. Niggas would be testing him left and right. Nah, he couldn’t do it.

  “Can I come over to talk to you?” he asked, praying she would say yes. After a pause she agreed, and then she went downstairs to make enough pancakes for the four of them.

  Chris and his girl pulled up to the hospital and parked in the covered deck. He told her to drive the car up to the side door in exactly fifteen minutes. He couldn’t stay long and he couldn’t take any chances. He put on the shades and hat that she gave him and walked head low into the side entrance, between two empty parked cars.

  Or what seemed to be empty parked cars . . .

  “Nigga shut up I got the Egg McMuffin, you got the McGriddle, dumb muthafucka.”

  Deets and Fats argued over the contents of the McDonald’s bag, almost unaware of Chris walking right past them. Almost . . . Right when a young female came to the door and opened it for Chris, Deets caught a glance of the man in the shades and hat and knew immediately who it was. He dropped his food in his lap and fumbled with the glove compartment.

  “Oh yeah, I got you now, muthafucka!” Deets sang, taking out his .45 with a wicked smile on his face. He picked up his phone and tried to dial Ree, but there was no answer.

  Fuck it, I’ll do it on my own. . . . The nigga Ree will be proud of me, real proud, Deets thought, as images of taking Chauncey’s now-vacant spot played in his mind while he waited for Chris’s exit.

  When Chris got inside of the hospital he was immediately taken to Neli’s room by his young girl’s cousin. Kinda cute, he thought, looking at her in her scrubs.

  He walked into Neli’s room and his heart immediately dropped. She looked so bad, in fact, unrecognizable.

  “There’s a man that has been staying with her but he left to get some breakfast. He should be back shortly,” the girl said, studying Chris and wondering what he was doing with her not-yet-legal cousin.

  “I won’t be long,” he whispered, almost inaudible.

  He was in shock at the number Chauncey had done on her. The girl left him and Neli alone as he made his way to the side of her bed. She was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and IVs, her face was swollen and black, and she had casts on both legs and her arm. She looked horrible.

  He sat with her, talking for about ten minutes. Although he knew she couldn’t talk back, he was convinced that she could hear him. So he spilled everything, he even told her how scared he was that he would die soon. Before he knew it, fifteen minutes were up and it was time to go. He blew her a kiss and headed out the door. As he headed back to the side door that led to the enclosed parking lot where his car would be waiting, he thought of how happy he was that he’d gotten a chance to visit with her.

  “Go! Go! Drive!” Chris shouted at his young girl, as he ducked bullets and jumped into the passenger seat. She took off speeding before he could even close the door with Deets and Fats right on they ass.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she screamed, terrified. Tears began streaming down her face.

  “Just drive!” he shouted.

  He pulled out a 9 millimeter, the only gun he had on him when he went to the safe house that day, and started wailing shot after shot at the car pursuing them. Bullets were flying everywhere this early morning as the people of Newark took cover from the two speeding cars and deadly exchange of gunfire. Fats made sure to stay close on the small ’95 Mazda, but it wasn’t hard, it was obvious the chic
k didn’t know how to drive. She hit about five parked cars and was swerving out of control.

  “Oh my God, I’m gonna die! I’m too young to die!” she screamed.

  “Shut the fuck up!” Chris shouted, firing again behind him.

  Her heart was racing, pounding out of her chest. She was only seventeen years old and she didn’t know why she was being shot at. She didn’t know anything about the man sitting next to her other than that just twenty-four hours ago, he had told her that he loved her with his head between her legs. Now he was the reason bullets were chasing her. She had been warned time and time again about messing with these kinds of men, and she knew that once this was over, if it was over—Chris was getting out of her house.

  She made a sharp right turn and slammed into a car pulling into their driveway. The impact hit her hard but she was still conscious. She turned to look at Chris but he was already out of the car running on foot. Bullets were still flying and she saw Chris shooting back at the car that was now stopped beside her, but they sounded so far away. Everything did. She went to try to duck down or climb into the backseat, but she couldn’t move. She didn’t understand because she wasn’t stuck or anything. She didn’t understand until she looked down at her bloody tank top and felt the burning in her chest. Seventeen-year-old Shakira Greene, better known as Chris’s young girl, died from a gunshot wound to the chest that bright August morning.

  Chris continued on foot running down the small street, ducking behind cars and shooting back at Deets who was also on foot, in pursuit of him. Chris pounded the pavement in angst, turning around frequently to see how close Deets was. Suddenly he realized that he was out of bullets. Shit!