by Miss KP
“Hey, Renzo,” I answered half asleep.
“Good morning, Marisol. I know I probably woke you up, but I really wanted to see if you’re gonna be able to come and visit me next week. I need to talk to you about some things and what’s going on with my case.” I could tell in his voice that he wanted answers.
“Well, it depends on if Denie is back home yet. She’s still missing and I can’t lose another child. I just can’t.”
It wasn’t the real reason why I didn’t want to make that trip. I’d really been avoiding him because I wasn’t ready to deal with the ‘I can’t believe Denie is your daughter’ conversation. I’d only been to visit him one time since he’d been locked up, but at the time Renzo was so hyped about his charges, he only wanted to discuss business. Even though Renzo called almost everyday, he’d yet to get the full details about how everything with Rich went down. I’d been able to avoid the discussion to some degree because the majority of the time, I always rushed him off the phone or brought up Carlos’ name, which sucked up his time. By me avoiding the face to face conversations with him I was able to escape the inevitable. However, I also knew that it was only a matter of time before Renzo would ask why Rich was still alive. I needed to play my position and make sure Lorenzo knew that he could trust me until I came up with a plan.
“Well, I just…”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe this, it’s Denie. Hold on.” I clicked over without even letting Renzo respond.
“Hello.”
“Marisol, I need you. Can you please come and get me?” Denie sobbed.
“Denie, oh my gosh! Don’t hang up, where are you? Why are you crying? What’s wrong?” My questions wouldn’t seem to stop.
“
Everything is wrong.”
“Denie, I can barely hear you. Where are you?”
“I’m in New York at Javier’s house.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Give me the address so I can come and get you. Where is he? What has he done to you?”
“I gotta go, he’s coming,” she quickly replied.
“No, wait! Don’t hang up, give me address!”
“I gotta go. I’ll call you back,” she whispered then hung up.
“Damn!” I said.
Realizing my daughter was in trouble, I definitely didn’t have time to deal with Lorenzo, so I never clicked back over. It was obvious that she’d snuck away to call me, so I decided against calling her back. I called Rich instead. I was definitely gonna need backup.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Rich, Denie just called.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I need you to come here ASAP. She’s in New York with Javier. She’s in trouble.”
“In trouble? What did she say?”
“She didn’t say much but when I asked her if everything was okay she said no. She was crying and everything. I could tell that she had to sneak away just to call me. I want us to get on the road and start making our way up there until we hear back from her.”
“Well, what if she doesn’t call back. Marisol, you know how Denie is. What if they just had an argument or somethin’? I don’t wanna go all the way up there and look like a damn fool if she makes up wit’ him.”
I couldn’t believe how negative he was. “Rich, I’ll take some of my goons from around the way if you don’t think you can handle being a father for a change.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean,” he said in defense mode.
“Denie would never call and ask for help if something wasn’t wrong. She’s just like you. Denie has too much pride for that. Look, I’ll be leaving here in less than thirty minutes. You can be here by then if you want. If not, then I’ll know you truly are some shit.”
Not even giving him a moment to respond, I hung up on his ass. He’d pissed me off so bad I couldn’t even think straight. After almost two months we’d finally heard from our daughter and Rich was acting like she’d been away at fucking summer camp. Was he really done with Denie, his pride and joy?
Jumping out of bed, I ran to the shower and took a quick bird bath before hopping back out. Grabbing the first thing I could get my hands on that was comfortable, ecided on a pair of black leggins, a black v-neck t-shirt and my hi-top Louis Vuitton sneakers. I was ready to declare war. Pulling my hair back in a ponytail, the last thing to make my outfit complete was a black baseball cap. There was no turning back now and nothing Javier could do to escape his death sentence.
Not knowing how long we would be gone, I threw some clothes into my Gucci duffel bag before grabbing Miss Pearlie. After kissing Carmen and letting Maria know that I would give her a call later, I quickly made my way toward the door. Just as I walked outside, Rich was pulling up. By getting to my house in less than twenty minutes, I guess he really did care.
Jumping in my Cayenne, Rich who was also dressed in black made his way to the passenger’s side before getting in.
Wow, black tee and black no-named jeans. I know we’re going to handle business, but he never wears off brand clothes, I thought. Maybe he was really fucked up.
“Did she call back?” he asked, throwing his bag in the back seat.
“No,” I said being short.
At this point I didn’t really want to talk to him. I was still pissed at how negative his ass was earlier.
We barely said two words to each other as we rode in silence all the way through the Baltimore Tunnel. That is until my choice of music finally began to annoy him.
“Why the hell are we listenin’ to Nicki Minaj? How old are you again?” he asked sarcastically.
Not feeding into him, I ignored his comment then turned the radio up even louder. He stared at me for a few seconds before laying his seat back like he was trying to take a nap. But by the time we passed the Chesapeake House rest area, he couldn’t take it any longer.
“Can you please put on somethin’ else? What about some grown folks music like Maze or Raheem, shit I don’t even care if it’s Luther. I’m just tired of hearin’ this shit.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you’re tired of hearing. This is my vehicle and you can get…”
My phone rang right while I was about to dig into Rich’s shit. Although the call was from a blocked number, I answered the phone anyway.
“Hello.”
“Marisol, it’s me. He left to go to the store.”
“Denie. I’m so glad you called back. Where are you?”
“I don’t know Javier’s address. I just know how to get here.”
“Let me speak to her,” Rich interrupted.
“No, I got this,” I said, cutting my eye at him for opening his mouth. I didn’t want Denie to be upset that I was bringing him and hang up the phone.
“Whereare you Marisol? Is that Rich?”
“Yes. Umm we’ll be at the Delaware Memorial Bridge shortly. I left as soon as I could.”
“Why did you bring him?” she questioned.
“Denie, I needed back up. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there. The most important thing is that we both love you and we’re coming to get you regardless.”
“I ain’t nobody’s back up,” Rich interrupted again.
“Rich please!” I yelled. “Denie, do you wanna tell me what happened?”
“I just wanna come home. I feel humiliated.” When she started to cry, I knew it must’ve been serious.
“Sweetheart, what happened?”
Denie wouldn’t respond.
“Denie, where are you? Go look on a piece of mail. You should be able to get the address from there.” After all this time I’d known Javier, I certainly didn’t know where he lived. That nigga changed houses like he changed his underwear.
“Okay, hold on.”
“No, stay on the phone with me and go look,” I demanded.
A few minutes later, Denie blurted out the address. As Rich entered the location into the navigation, I listened to my daughter cry a
s if she’d lost all hope.
“Maybe I should just leave while he’s gone,” she said.
“No, you have to just stay there. That’s the best way we’ll be able to find him. Plus we need him to be comfortable. Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon,” I said, pushing the speaker button to calm Rich’s antsy-ass down.
“But what if he makes me do it again?”
“Do what? Denie what happened, tell me?” Rich questioned.
“He made me...I mean”
“What did he do?” Rich blurted out.
Denie continued to ball. “It was awful. I had to act as if I liked it, but then…take me off speaker.”
“Okay you’re off. What else did he do?” I asked as Rich leaned over the console and tried to eavesdrop.
“Him and his friend, they made me…”
“What Denie?”
After trying to get the story out of her before Javier returned, it was obvious that she was too broken up about it to go into details at the moment.
“Okay so the navigation is saying that we’ll be there in two hours and seventeen minutes. Now listen Denie…make sure the door is unlocked. It’s important that no matter what you do, that door stays unlocked so we can get Do you understand?”
“Yes. Please hurry, Ma,” Denie said right before the phone went dead.
My mind suddenly began to race as I pressed my foot down and started going well over ninety miles per hour. I needed to get to my baby. There was no way I was ever gonna let another one of my children down. I didn’t know the extent of what happened, but I knew my child’s life was at risk. I wasn’t about to lose another loved one.
“Marisol, slow down. I just saw a State Trooper,” Rich advised. “We can’t help her if we don’t get there in one piece.”
Slowly letting my foot off the gas, I finally broke down.
“Rich, she called me, Ma. Oh my God. She’s never called me that.”
Realizing that I was no longer in any position to drive, Rich had me pull over so we could switch positions. I was a mess. I had to get to Denie. There was no way I was gonna allow her to be apart of Javier’s sick vendetta against me and Rich. My baby had already experienced so much pain in her life. She didn’t deserve this.
****
We rode in complete silence until the navigation said, “you have arrived at your destination.”
At that point, both of us knew it was time to put in work, and there was no doubt everyone was leaving unharmed except Javier. Rich and I worked out the details of how we would handle things once we scoped out his spot. We noticed there was a back alley with fire escapes and wondered if we should try entering the house that way, but decided against it since we didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention. My goal was to kill this nigga real quick, get my daughter, and be out.
After driving around the block a few times, we finally decided to park in the alley and walk around to the front. Attaching the silencers to our guns before getting out the car, Rich and I looked like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
As soon as I saw this lady coming out of the building, I quickly ran up to catch the door. Rich came behind me a few seconds later. We started engaging in fake, heavy conversation while walking past the security guard even though his fat-ass was reading a newspaper and not paying us any attention anyway. We ended up taking the stairs instead of the elevator to get a better feel for the building. Twelve flights later, we were on the penthouse level. Rich was out of breath since he was a tad bit out of shape, but I was fine. The treadmill was a way of life for me so climbing stairs was nothing, especially since I was hyped and ready to put a cap in Javier’s ass.
After Rich got it together we peeked down the hall to make sure the coast was clear before placing our ears against the door. Almost immediately, we could hear Denie crying.
“No Javier, please stop!” she screamed.
“Tell me who the fuck you called or I’ma let him do it again!” ier shouted.
Rich and I were both hot headed, but we knew if either one of us lost control, it could cost our daughter’s life, so we had to remain calm as Javier continued to yell. Giving each other one final look, Rich slowly opened the door.
I can’t wait to put your fucking blood all over this white carpet, I thought to myself, as we quietly made our way inside.
From the direction of their voices we could tell they were upstairs, so both Rich and I took our time climbing each step. Luckily, the T.V. was on so just in case we made a slight noise it would’ve been drowned out.
When we finally reached the top step and made our way to the bedroom, I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Javier had my baby girl tied to the bed, while some thugged out looking nigga had his way with her. No longer able to control his anger, Rich immediately zapped out and starting beating the shit out of dude with his gun.
“Ahh shit!” The naked dude yelled as Rich pistol whipped him.
In that one moment I was weak and Javier caught me slipping. I froze, which was a bad move because Javier was able to tackle me causing my gun to fly across the floor.
“Muthafucka, get off her!” Rich yelled as he came to my rescue.
Suddenly, I noticed the guy trying to escape out the window. Standing up, I tried my best to get to him, but his ass jumped out onto the fire escape so fast, I never got a chance. It was like he’d done that shit before. By the time I made it to the window, I watched as he quickly made his way down, then haul ass down the street…naked and all.
“Damn!” I was pissed that I’d let him get away.
“Ma, help me,” Denie cried.
“Ahhhh!” Rich yelled when Javier bit him on his arm. “Shoot his ass, Marisol. Shoot him!” he belted as they continued to scuffle
I ran over to get my gun off of the floor before pointing it in Javier’s direction. Hitting him in the arm at first, I let off around round which landed in his chest. It was definitely enough to slow him down.
I stood over Javier as his naked body squirmed on the floor.
“Javier why?” I asked, pointing Miss Pearlie at him.
“Marisol, where’s your loyalty. You let this nigga kill Jade and you ain’t do shit about it.” Javier looked at Rich’s gun on the floor. “See a .45. My sister was killed with a .45. You dumb enough to keep the murder weapon, nigga!” he shouted at Rich.
“Fuck you. I didn’t even know your sister was dead. I don’t know who killed her, but I do know who killed you,” I said, pointing the gun to his head as Rich worked on untying Denie.
“Wait let me say somethin’ don’t shoot. Denie told me what he did. She told me everything. That muthafucka killed Carlos too!”
“You’re a liar!” I yelled then looked back at my daughter. “Denie, is he telling the truth?”
She paused for what seemed like forever, then finally spoke. “Kill him, he’s lying,” Denie said as Rich stared at her in disbelief.
I wasn’t sure what that look was for. Was it because of what Javier said or was it the fact that for once they were both on the same side.
“So, Denie you wanna play like that? After all I did for you…all the shit I gave you. That’s okay, you’ll gets yours, too. You’ll see,” Javier said as he began to cough up blood.
“Handle that nigga or I will!” Rich yelled.
“It don’t matter if I die today. Denie will never be able to forget me. Remember everybody gotta die even…”
Before Javier could finish his sentence I gave him two bullets in the head. He was done torturing my daughter once and for all.
Chapter 20 Rich
“Can you watch Juanita for me while I go and handle this Lisa shit?” I asked Marisol as she walked out of her master bathroom.
Even though Juanita was dyin’ to play wit’ Carmen, I wanted Marisol to see her sweet innocent face, so she couldn’t say no.
“Are you crazy? Where’s her mother?”
“She’s at the salon and you know I don’t like Juanita bein’ up there all day, listenin’ to t
hem bitches gossip.”
“That’s not my problem,” Marisol responded.
I knew she didn’t have anything against Juanita. It was Trixie that she had a problem wit’.
“Come on, Marisol. I can’t take her wit’ me.” I poked out my lips. “Please.”
I knew if I brought up the fact that Maria was really gonna be the one watchin’ her, Marisol would’ve went off on me.
She rolled her eyes into the back of her head. “Alright, but I have shit to do today so don’t be long.”
“Cool, I’ll be back before umm…around six.”
“Rich, don’t fucking lie. I got some important shit to do, so please be here on time.”
Before I could respond Denie came out of the bathroom in her towel.
“Hi Denie,” Juanita said, happy to ee her sister that always treated her like shit.
“What is she doing here?” Denie asked. She gave Juanita a disgusted look. She didn’t even speak.
I’d never seen a nineteen year old jealous of a three year old.
“Denie, don’t treat your sister like that,” I said in disbelief.
“You mean your daughter,” Denie shot back.
“Well, maybe you wouldn’t feel that way if you hung out with us sometime and got to know her,” I responded.
“I don’t have to get to know anybody,” Denie said as she left the room mumblin’ shit under her breath.
“I’ll be glad when you stop actin’ like a bitch!” I shouted.
Marisol frowned. “Rich, was that really necessary?”
“What? I’m serious. Denie’s attitude is gettin’ on my fuckin’ nerves.”
“So what. It’s no need to call her that. She hasn’t been herself since we got back from New York, so I’ve just been trying to give her space.”
“Well, good for you. She’s not actin’ like a bitch toward you, so maybe you don’t understand.”
“So, Trixie allows you to talk like that in front of her?” Marisol pointed to Juanita.
“Look, I don’t need any partenin’ advice. Besides, you left your daughter, remember?”