Still thicker than water

by Takerra, Allen

  The good thing about this morning was that it was quick; she figured last night he must have been on some type of drug or Viagra or something.

  After he came in her, he made her get up, get showered and dressed. She limped the whole way in pain and he watched her every move.

  After she dressed in a sweat suit and sneakers, Mike locked her in the closet while he dressed and when he let her out, he had her breakfast waiting and she noticed bags packed at the front door.

  “Where are we going?” She asked nervously, but he didn’t respond. He just sipped his coffee, with one hand of course, the other one holding his new permanent accessory, the .38.

  Just then, the doorbell rang and broke the intensity and fear in the room. Mike jumped up and looked at Sasha as if she had done something wrong, but she just shook her head.

  “Who is that?” He barked.

  She shrugged.

  “I don’t know…I swear.”

  Mike grabbed her forcefully by her hair, pulling her out of the chair and dragging her to the front door.

  Once they approached, Mike looked out of the peephole and sucked his teeth.

  “Fuck!” He whispered, stomping his foot and waving the weapon.

  Out of nowhere, he threw Sasha against the wall roughly and pressed the gun to her face.

  “One fucking wrong move, and I swear, even if I go…I’m taking that baby with me, you hear me?”

  Sasha could tell by his words that it was Chauncey at the door. She swallowed hard at the thought of something happening to Aubrey.

  Mike pushed Sasha up to the door, and stood close behind her, appearing to have his arm lovingly draped around her but really had the gun pressed to her back.

  “Don’t fuck it up for your precious Bri-Bri, Sasha,” Mike warned as Sasha took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

  “Hey,” she said lightly looking at Chauncey standing there. His face wore a blank expression.

  “Hey baby girl,” she addressed Aubrey, a little void of her normal cheer.

  Mike stayed close to her and smiled at them both and then kissed Sasha softly on the top of her head.

  Chauncey furrowed his eyebrows at Sasha and Mike’s sudden display of affection. He shook his head and wouldn’t look her in the eye. He didn’t know what kind of game she was playing.

  “Bri need some shit from the house,” he coldly stated. “Bring me down some more clothes, her DVDs, and her pink bear.”

  Sasha flinched to go, but Mike held her firm and pressed the gun into her back. She pressed her lips together in dread and tried to look at Chauncey, but he would not look at her.

  “Actually, you can go and grab it, Chauncey,” Mike said, opening the door further and positioning their bodies so that he couldn’t see the gun.

  Chauncey looked at him strangely and then slowly made his way inside. He studied Sasha, who just looked down at the ground.

  Chauncey shook his head in confusion and handed Aubrey to Sasha, and then began to make his way up the stairs.

  “Hi Mommy, I miss you,” Aubrey said sweetly, wrapping her arms around Sasha’s neck.

  As soon as he was up the stairs, Mike grabbed Aubrey from Sasha, with her much resistance and then moved the gun to Sasha’s stomach.

  “Stop acting so fucking strange,” he hissed. “When he comes down here, act like your regular ditzy self and tell him we’re going away for a few days, you understand me?”

  She didn’t answer, and he began to lift the gun to Aubrey, who just rested her head on Mike trustingly, not knowing what was going on.

  “Mommy, you go bye-bye?” She asked.

  Aubrey didn’t miss a beat.

  Chauncey began to make his way back down the stairs, and Mike passed Aubrey quickly back to Sasha, and stood behind her back again, gun out, cocked, and ready.

  Chauncey had overheard Aubrey and then noticed the bags by the door. As he took Aubrey from Sasha, he used his head to point to the luggage.

  “Going somewhere?” He asked sarcastically.

  Sasha feigned a smile through her desperation.

  “Yea…yea, we are. We’re going away…for a few days.”

  Chauncey chuckled and ran his hand over his face, not knowing where this was coming from.

  “Where you going? And what about the investigation thing, with Bri?”

  Sasha hadn’t expected that question, but Mike was prepared.

  “We’ll be back shortly…we just need some time away. We’ll probably go out camping and hiking, something like that.”

  Chauncey squinted, locking eyes with Mike, and then he turned his attention to Sasha. Her face looked void, null, and lost.

  He didn’t get it. Was she really feeling guilty, and wanted to get away with Mike?

  He shrugged his shoulders and made his way out of the door.

  “Your call kid,” he said behind him, letting her know just what he felt, and his words had more than one meaning. And after he made Bri say goodbye to Sasha, he made his way out of the door.

  Sasha screamed on the inside, screamed for him to stop and to turn around, screamed to tell him that she was in danger, but he was gone. The only good thing about it was that Aubrey had made it away safely. She knew that Mike originally wanted to hurt her baby, so getting her safely away from him was a plus to her.

  Mike grabbed up the bags with haste, and grabbed up his wife, and then led them to his car. And by the time Chauncey had a realization that something wasn’t right, Mike and Sasha were already on their way to his cabin deep in the Chicopee Woods.

  Tatum, Ree, and even Jayde were on their way to Chauncey’s after he had called them and let them know the urgency of them needing to be there.

  After Chauncey and Aubrey had left, Aubrey had went on and on about Mike’s toy. Chauncey, too occupied with his deliberation over his situation with Sasha, only half listened. But as they pulled up to the house and he turned around to unhook her car seat, he seen that her fingers were in the shape of a gun.

  “He put it to mommy, his toy…pow pow,” she described.

  Chauncey furrowed his eyebrows and it clicked to him.

  Deep down inside he knew something was wrong. Sasha would never leave Aubrey for days at a time like this, she barely wanted to leave her for a night. She also hated camping and bullshit like that.

  He had let his anger by her saying that she had fucked Mike the night before, cloud his judgment, and now, he was vexed.

  “Thanks for staying with Aubrey Tay,” Chauncey said, standing at the door and waiting for Jayde to pull up. He couldn’t leave until she got there with the info.

  “No problem,” she said desolately. “Just bring my girl home.”

  She made her way inside after giving him a somber look.

  Ree approached the door, not too far behind her and Chauncey extended his hand. They did the hood handshake and then hugged.

  “It's good seeing you,” Ree said to Chauncey.

  “Nah, it's good seeing you, boss,” Chauncey responded. “I got some things I wanna talk to you about, but as you know, I gotta handle something first.”

  Ree nodded.

  “Of course…of course. You go handle that, and handle it well,” he instructed, letting him know to be careful and get it done. “I know you said you got this alone, so I’ll be here.”

  Chauncey nodded, and then he saw Jayde pulling up. He jogged to meet her halfway, as Ree made his way inside.

  “You got it?” He asked.

  “Yeah, I got it,” she said running up with a paper in her hand. When Chauncey had told her that Mike suggested that they were going camping and hiking, Jayde remembered that Sasha had said that he owned a cabin in the woods. She did her research and came up with an address. “This has to be it.”

  “Okay good looking,” he said, hopping swiftly in his Bentley and speeding out of the driveway. Jayde stood there and watched him leave and she whispered to herself.

  “Kill his ass, Chauncey. Kill him.”

  Ch
apter 22 - Death

  Tatum and Jayde were upstairs with Aubrey, while Ree was in Chauncey’s basement making a few phone calls.

  ‘I can’t believe this shit,” Tatum muttered. “I’m going crazy trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”

  Jayde sighed.

  “I know…it’s like from what Chauncey says, and from what I found out about this chick that was watching Aubrey, it all points to Mike being shady as hell. I hope Chauncey kills that mothafucka,” Jayde added through clenched teeth.

  Tatum just looked at her. She wasn’t one to talk venomous but for once, she had to agree with Jayde.

  Tatum looked down at Chauncey’s suede bedspread and all she could think of was Sasha. Please let her be okay.

  But she trusted Chauncey, and she trusted his love for Sasha, so she knew that he would bring her back safely.

  She felt Jayde’s fingers in her hair and she looked up at her.

  “You have the prettiest hair…you’re fucking gorgeous, bitch,” Jayde laughed.

  Tatum chuckled and Jayde plopped back on the bed.

  “Oh my god, I have the biggest headache. It’s like a fucking migraine…all of this crazy shit happening.”

  Between Sasha and E and Capo and Bleek, Jayde was feeling the pressure.

  “I need my IB profin,” she proclaimed, searching for her Prada alligator purse.

  “Where is it?” Tatum asked, breaking her trance.

  “Shit! I left it in the car.”

  Jayde started to get up, holding her head in agony, but Tatum stood.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get it. You stay with Bri… is your door open?” Tatum wanted to check on Ree anyway.

  “Yeah, it’s open. Thanks Tatum.”

  Meanwhile, Capo was riding in the passenger seat of one of his chick’s cars. They were coming from her crib, when he spotted Jayde’s Range Rover.

  Still with the cast on his leg, it was easy for him to remember the mini shootout they had recently exchanged.

  “Drive slow, shawty,” he drawled to her as he took out his nine and finessed it in his hand. “I’m ‘bout to dead this bitch.”

  He recognized the missing side mirror that she had failed to get fixed since they had shot it out, and to his luck, he noticed her, with her back to the street, leaning into the car with the back door opened.

  “Yeah bitch…got you now.”

  He slowly lifted his gun out of the passenger window as they cruised by, and once he squinted and had the perfect aim, which was too close to miss, his finger found the hairpin trigger.

  Pow!

  One bullet was all it took.

  The girl in the driver’s seat screamed at the sound of the shot, but floored the gas to pull off.

  She looked over at Capo, who fell back against the seat, a hollow bullet hole smoking in his forehead.

  “Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!” She shrieked in terror, but her cries were cut short instantaneously by a shot that exploded the back of her head like a watermelon.

  The car continued to cruise way down the street but then reached the end of the block, swerved and crashed hard into a pole. It was pure madness.

  Tatum was frozen in the street, trembling, as Ree stood by the doorway, his smoking gun in hand, only two precise and direct shots fired.

  She looked over at him, tears in her eyes. Her mouth was opened but no words would come out as he made his way quickly to her and wrapped his arms around her.

  “It’s okay…It’s alright.”

  Her body continued to shake as he walked her inside, where Jayde was now standing at the doorway in complete shock.

  Ree continued to console her as he kissed the top of her head. He was fuming at the fact that someone had raised a gun to her and he knew that she was traumatized.

  But little did he know, Tatum was not only shocked by someone attempting to shoot her, she was also surprised, almost alarmed, by Ree’s primal, in fact natural, killer instincts.

  If she didn’t know it, or if she had ever doubted it, she now had no choice but to accept it…

  She was sleeping with a killer.

  “Why are you doing this?” Sasha cried, sitting in the middle of the bed in the cold and desolate cabin. “I said I was sorry…we can work it out.”

  Mike looked at her lovingly but then his face changed to one of anguish. She had ripped his heart from his chest. He had finally gotten her, he had finally won, and then she had humiliated him.

  It was just like every other moment of his life when he had lost. He had always been… a loser.

  “I want to believe that baby, I really do. But for now, my mind is set.”

  He twirled a pair of handcuffs in his hand, his other gripping the gun.

  “Maybe when the baby comes, I will change my mind. But for now…in nine months, you die.”

  Sasha cried hard, terrified, and she looked around the barren room for some type of escape, some type of weapon, some type of sign. And then she saw one, and she knew she would be fine.

  Mike neared her with the handcuffs.

  “Okay, you have to put these on. Please, don’t try to fight me.”

  He moved closer to her and grabbed her wrist.

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  Before he could even turn around, Mike felt the cold, hard steel against the back of his head and he knew it was all over.

  He took a deep breath, and before he could lift up his gun, Chauncey struck him hard with the butt of his own, knocking Mike down. He grabbed Mike’s .38 and tossed it to Sasha, who was still on the bed.

  “Go wait in the car.”

  She looked down at Mike, her breathing heavy. She couldn’t believe that she had actually married this man.

  “Now, Sasha. Move,” Chauncey demanded. He lifted his gun, ready to blast Mike as soon as Sasha was safe and away. He didn’t want her in the room, he knew the effects of watching someone die, even someone you hated.

  She jumped up and started for the door, but then she thought of Aubrey and what he had done to her, and she turned around.

  She walked up to Mike and sneered down at him and then she hog spit right in his pathetic face.

  “Burn in hell mothafucka,” she hissed, knowing Chauncey was about to send him to his maker.

  Mike weakly wiped away the spit while laughing, and then with it dripping from his fingers, he licked it away.

  “I… love… you-”

  Boom!

  The single shot caught Mike square in the neck, his eyes bulged wide open. After a few seconds of gargling on his blood, his body twitched, and then lay lifelessly.

  Chauncey slowly turned his head toward Sasha and her face was blank, her hand still shaking with the smoking .38 in it. After a few seconds of silence, she finally realized what had just happened.

  “I…I killed him. Is he dead?” She whispered.

  Chauncey with his mouth open in shock, walked over to her and gently took the gun from her as she stood stunned, in disbelief.

  “I …I killed…I killed Mike,” she repeated.

  She finally looked at Chauncey with panic in her face. She couldn’t believe that she, Sasha, had killed someone.

  “Oh my god…I’m going to jail,” she panicked.

  Chauncey took her face into his hands.

  “Ssshhh, no one’s going to jail. It’s okay…It’s gonna be alright. I’ll take care of it.”

  She shook her head.

  “I did it Chauncey…I killed him… I killed Mike,” she continued to cry.

  He hugged her tight and rubbed her head. He knew that she was distressed and scared to death.

  “No you didn’t, I did…. I killed him.”

  She hugged him back for dear life, knowing that he would always protect her. This would forever be their secret.

  “You hear me? Don’t ever say that again. Not to your family, not to Tatum, no one. I killed him,” Chauncey repeated, not ever wanting her to get into any trouble. “You were already in the car.”

  Sasha
nodded understandingly but still knowing the truth, and as they hugged again, she looked down at Mike’s corpse, who seemed to be staring back at her.

  Without another word, Chauncey grabbed her bags and walked her outside, and then he called Bleek and told him to come and clean up the mess. His mess.

  Tatum ran downstairs to where Ree was with a look of relief on her face.

  “That was Chauncey…he has Sasha. Everything is okay.”

  Ree nodded, glad to hear the news and also glad that Tatum had calmed down and was now distracted from the earlier incident.

  The police had come and questioned everyone on the block, and no one knew anything, especially not Jayde, who pretended to be there alone with her daughter. The car had also mysteriously caught on fire making it even harder, almost impossible, for the police to find out exactly what had occurred.

  Jayde came down the stairs, from out of the restroom, and overheard the good news.

  “That’s great,” she said, grabbing her coat.

  Tatum turned to her, confused.

  “You not waiting here for them?”

  Jayde shook her head.

  “No, but I’ll be back. I have an important meeting with someone, it won’t take long.”

  Tatum raised her eyebrows, surprised, but said her goodbyes.

  “See ya later,” Jayde said casually, and then she headed out of the door.

  As she hopped in her now twice shot at new truck, she thought over the past days’ events.

  “That’s it for me and Range Rovers,” she mused.

  She drove in contemplation and in deep thought for about twenty minutes. She was glad that Bleek was able to set that car on fire before the police had arrived. Finally, she reached the restaurant.

  After parking in her reserved spot, she stepped out of the truck, put on her alarm, and strutted to the door in her black alligator stiletto heeled boots. A large bodyguard opened the door for her and she continued inside, never slowing her walk.