by Brick
“He never knew of my rapes until I was strong enough to tell him. He did not know of my sons until I was again strong enough to tell him and that was when my sister Sade died. When I gained Shawn and Andrew back and when it was a done deal that Lu was going to die in prison, I told him of my sons. The pictures you saw were what I gave him.” I sighed, taking a moment to clear my mind before going on.
“Because of my father’s work throughout the years, he’s been promoted to a level of the FBI where he’s considered dual CIA. He has power on a level none of us can fathom, and he’s my protection when he’s able to be. I know he’s following this; he helped me with Micah. I know he’ll help Shawn, we just . . . You all just need to know that using him is very limited because of his power. He is a card we never ever reveal. Only Anika and Phenom know. Each of us have used his help in some way. So, know you all know.” My hands bunched in front of me upon my lap.
I felt an old ache in my stomach and sent up prayers. “I’ll do whatever for my children. Even sacrificing myself for you, Drew, and for Shawn’s protection. I did a lot of wrongs in my youth but I am proud to say that you and Shawn are mine.”
The abrupt sound of Drew getting out of the car had me watching him. His hands were in his pockets. His head was bowed in thought. My son made me think of Shawn at that age. Drew had a lot of strength; with that and his bright mind I knew he’d be an incredible force, just like his big brother.
Drew walked around to my side of the car, dropped a hand, and opened the door. I stepped out and he hugged me tight. “I got a lot to learn but ya life has been crazy, Mom. I mean, I was just four when I came to you. Yeah, I remember my other mom, but really you raised me. I was with you the longest so yeah, you’re my mama. Like, I can’t say I ain’t mad at some things, but Shawn got me listening so, like, thank you, Mama. Thank you for loving us like you do, and helping us.”
Relief washed over me, and my grip on Drew tightened. I never wanted to let my baby boy go, ever, but already in his words I heard the man he was becoming and it made me proud. I felt Bianca’s hand on the small of my back. She said nothing but gave me a soft smile and it was time for us to go in and meet their grandfather Banks. Time was of the essence and Shawn needed us just as much as we needed him. So, I used my key, walked in, and the scent of imported Cuban cigars filled the air. My dad had picked that up from Kulu and it made me smile that he even still drank the same African imported wine that Kulu had.
Pictures of us all, even me pregnant with Shawn, later holding Shawn, and the same with Andrew, sat on his mantle. I could smell BBQ and greens cooking. I could tell that both Bianca and Drew were impressed, especially with the large painting of several handsome young men in their prime hanging over his fireplace. It was the same one I had at my home and it touched my heart. Soft music played; it was Miriam Makeba. Dad was in a calm mode and I knew he was probably in the back, munching on snack cakes while cooking. As we made it to his backyard, he was.
His broad back was too tense. He was a tall, muscular man. His hair was cut low in waves and from the side of his jaw, he still had his bushy beard. I swore I saw a glimpse of a tear run down his face and it broke my heart. He knew.
“Daddy,” I softly said.
The moment he turned, his large oak-colored hands dropped the tongs he used to turn the meat and they reached out for me to fall into him. The small talks we had were never enough, only lasting maybe hours; and it was always painful to leave him. He was still in a state of hiding, like Phenom, but as a grown woman I now could handle it better.
“So it is true, you are better? And is my grandson in jail?” his lightly-accented, bourbon-rich voice asked in concern.
“Yes, that is why I am here. That is why we are here. We need your help,” I whispered in devotion and love. “Your grandchildren need you, and Shawn’s wife needs you.”
My father’s hard body flinched. It had me gazing up to see the flash of the protective bear and lion I knew him to be, turn his face into a mask, before softening into its cocoa handsomeness. He kissed the crown of my head and walked up to Drew. His hand clapped on my son’s shoulder and then he pulled him into a hug.
“You look like your mother with the scowl. Come here,” he said and held him tight. He then let go and pulled Bianca to him. “I see why he chose you; you are a beauty. The both of you, come sit. I have cake; eat what you like and I’ll finish this meat.”
As usual, that was the way with my father. It was his nature to break bread and show his protectiveness in such a manner and I missed him. There was sadness in his eyes but also genuine love and happiness to meet his extended family.
“I heard the news. Been watching, and my people have been telling me everything. Eat. Drink. I have everything you sent my way, Iy-Iy,” my father said.
He held a chair out for me and I took a seat, praying he could help. “Can you help us?”
“I move in shadows and in caution in my role. You can’t get the fat from a pig before it’s primed, and now that pig is ready to be gutted. I’ll see what I can do, my Iy-Iy, on my word.” My father moved to turn his grilling meat. He pulled out his cell phone and we sat back as he made some calls.
A familiar scent then brushed across my nose. I turned and an old pang hit my heart. See, people, especially some men, can underestimate the power of woman. It is for that very reason why the African Queens were founded to protect young women like Diamond, Gina, Bianca, and women like me and the ghost in front of me. I pushed up from my chair, and there was a gasp, then the drop of a bowl on a counter; and feet headed my way. It had me closing my eyes to center my spirit and accept the hug from a woman who had gone through as much pain as me and more.
Men always underestimated us, and that was one of the major weaknesses in the Orlando men. Caltrone felt we were bitches who needed to learn their place, and were never to be trusted; he was right about that in a sense. But, he also needed to understand that if you don’t take down a bitch who becomes insane, then you leave yourself open for her to rip your throat from your body. Me and the voluptuous woman in a simple maxi dress I held were those types of bitches, made insane by the touch of an Orlando, so I smiled in remembrance of another secret I kept.
I turned her toward my son and toward Bianca and I knew this was going to change the game even more. “Andrew. Bianca. I would like you to meet my father’s . . . life partner, Yolanda, also known as YoYo Orlando or Eve. Lu’s only legal wife, and the woman who helped us end the devil,” I explained.
Bianca’s mouth opened then closed. She stared at the woman who was once a beauty queen, but who now had a scar on her face and a burn from her shoulder to her right arm from being the wife of a devil. She still was undeniably beautiful, but I guessed it was a blessing she gained those scars because they also kept her hidden and unrecognizable by the enemy.
“No way! Come on!” Drew barked.
I understood his angst, but I had to explain. “She kept me somewhat sane. She helped me a lot.”
YoYo shook her head, held my hand, then gave a soft laugh. “No, stop playing. Shy was the one who told me how to get out by any means necessary and who led me to love her father. I’m indebted to the grave, so it’s a blessing to meet you all. Whatever is needed I’ll help.”
Taking a seat, I let her tell them her story and I sat back in quiet thought observing everyone. I had many aces in my hands. I just knew it was time to use some to my advantage and I wasn’t sorry about it in the least bit. There was power in this room, from all five of us. It made me proud because it was good power.
Yes, blood covered me from head to toe, but we all lived hardships, even my baby boy. However, it was our choices and determination that helped us get through it all. We were a mighty force, one to be reckoned with, that could bring as much evil as our enemy bought. But what counted was how we came out of that madness that made us so much better. As Nikki Giovanni said, “If now isn’t a good time for the truth I don’t see when we’ll get to it.” This is why
we lived ENGA and even DOA.
Chapter 22
Angel
I sat slack jawed. Lu Orlando had an official wife? One who was now the life partner of Shy’s father? And he was an FBI agent? What in all the unholy fuck was going on? I had to ask Shy to explain it all to me again because it was all set to drive me mad. Drew and I were on the same wavelength as we occasionally glanced at one another while listening to Yolanda’s story. She, too, had been a young girl snared by the good looks and the faux charm of an Orlando. By the time she realized Lu was every bit of the monster the whispers of the hood said him to be, it was too late. She was married to him and once an Orlando claimed you as theirs your fate was signed, sealed, and delivered.
I looked at the woman and tried to see Dame in her. She must have realized what I was thinking because she quickly told me she wasn’t their mother. Said that because she couldn’t give him sons was another reason for his wrath. She told me the ways that Lu had wooed her, wined and dined her, and how it all had been a farce. Shit, still, I thought she had the good end of the stick compared to what he had done to Shy. I tried not to say too much. Couldn’t help but stare at the long scar down her face, the slight limp in her leg, and the flesh mark of the burn on her shoulder. I couldn’t imagine what that man had done to her.
It scared me. There I was married to an Orlando. There was nothing that Enzo could do to shock me. I’d seen him do the cruelest of things and yet, I knew, I believed him when he said he would never put his hands on me again. I missed him. Missed the hell out of that man like I was never going to see him again. He didn’t want me to see him locked up. Refused to allow me to come and see him that way. Said he didn’t want me to be that kind of wife. Didn’t want me to fall into that stereotype of being another black woman holding her man down while he was locked away. He was talking like he was prepared to be locked away for the long haul.
Even with the news of Micah’s disappearance all over the news, people still talked about Enzo being locked away in the same breath: one Nightwings manager missing and another Nightwings player locked away. So many times I’d cried myself to sleep thinking about Shawn. I trusted when he said we were a team. That was why I was kicking my own ass for going back to see his grandfather, alone, when he’d told me not to. It wasn’t like I’d had a choice. Frederick and Mark had been waiting for me after I’d left practice for the Bounce Girls. Had been called back in to the police interrogation room as FBI agents questioned me about Micah again. I’d been trying to get back to the way my life should have been after Dame. Was trying to find that normal balance, but it seemed as if I was being thrown back into the abyss of the seventh level of hell.
I swallowed slowly as I slid into the back of the Escalade. Caltrone was sitting with his usual flair as he smoked a Cuban cigar.
“Wanted to see if you were still going to do what I asked of you, Angel,” he smoothly said as smoke engulfed my lungs.
“I’ve been trying, but with all that’s been going on, it’s kind of hard to get Drew away from everybody,” I explained. It was at least half true. No one would let Drew out of their sights for more than a few minutes.
“So you say,” Caltrone commented.
I looked the old man right in his eyes. “It’s the truth. They don’t trust you and they never will.”
He chuckled at this and leaned forward to look at me. Made me look him in the eyes as his spicy scent threatened to hypnotize me. No matter how vindictive and wicked the man was, he still had something that attracted women to him. I could easily see why.
“Marco, drive and let me show Enzo’s Angel why this whole thing about them not trusting me is comical, sí?” he said.
I wanted to jump headfirst from the vehicle but knew he would just have one of them toss me back inside and keep it moving. All I could think about was the fact that Enzo was going to kill me. I was surprised when we pulled up to one of Micah’s old apartments. It was one that I’d frequented many times when he would get me on weekends from Dame. The place was still cordoned off by police tape.
I had to ask, “Why are we here?”
“Need to show you something. Something you can take back to my grandson and let him know of, sí?” Caltrone smiled like he had the answer to all the world’s problems.
I was nervous. Throat was dry. I still had on the Bounce Girls’ training uniform. The shorts cupped my pussy, showcased my legs. Shirt had my tits on display for all to see. The only reason that stood out to me was because Caltrone couldn’t take his eyes off any of it. If he had been Enzo, I would have spread my legs wider so he could have gotten a better look at it. But there would be no way I would play with that old man that way. He creeped me out. So I closed my legs tighter and placed my arms across my chest, which made him chuckle. I almost started to cry because I felt like I was that little girl in the back of Dame’s truck again.
As I turned my attention to whatever was going on outside the truck, I spotted someone: the man who Shy had introduced me to days before as her father. He had walked out of the apartment with a box in his hand. I watched as he got into the back of a car parked near where we were. Caltrone rolled his back window down and gazed long at the man. I expected Shy’s father to at least flinch, but he didn’t. He nodded Caltrone’s way. I started to feel numb. Shy’s father couldn’t see me, but I could see him.
Everything in me was numb. We’d made a deal with two devils. It was going to kill me to have to tell Shy that her father, too, was a devil. He and Caltrone worked in tandem to take down Micah. I realized they were two men cut from the same cloth as they spoke about Micah’s demise.
“Iya wants me to keep Enzo out of jail. I think you should tell her you’d rather have him in there,” Caltron said then laughed.
“My daughter is blinded by the fact that he’s her son. I’ll have to open her eyes to the fact that he’s more than her son, Caltrone. He’s your grandson and that itself is a problem.”
Caltrone tilted his head, cast a glance at me, and then scowled at the man. “So because the boy has my blood, he’s tainted, sí?”
“Take that however you want it.”
Caltrone’s face seemed to be transforming in front of me. All he did was stare straight ahead at me. Wanted me to see for myself that no matter how Enzo tried to show the world he wasn’t a menace that would be all they would ever see him as. He was an Orlando. That last name was a blessing and a curse.
I found it ironic that both those niggas had found their way to Micah’s apartment at the same time. I’d expected Shy’s father and Caltrone to have an epic showdown, but was shocked when they seemed to be content in the fact that they had the same agenda. They talked from the back of their respective cars as we sat under the cover of nightfall. I saw Fuego walking across the street. Watched in silence as he placed little black squares on the sides of the building.
“You work fast, Caltrone,” Shy’s father said as he watched on.
“I always do,” Caltrone answered.
I could tell neither man trusted the other. On Caltrone’s lap his hand nestled a Desert Eagle that looked as if it could blow a hole clean through a bulletproof window. Although I couldn’t see inside Shy’s father’s car, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he, too, held a gun close to him. It was easy to cut the tension with a knife between the two men.
“Still trying to take down the Kulu Kings?” Caltrone taunted the man with a sick smile.
“The same as they’re trying to rid the streets of you,” he answered. “But that’s neither here nor there. I’m here for another agenda altogether.”
“Same as I.”
For a moment there was heavy silence. The pressure in the air was thick. Just like I found out while at Caltrone’s domain that his killers moved in silence, I was sure the same could be said for Shy’s father. Smoked swirled around the back of the Escalade as Caltrone stared at me.
“My work here is done,” Shy’s father finally spoke up.
“Mine is just beginning,�
�� Caltrone said smoothly.
“I’m still coming for your head, Caltrone.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“You killed my wife like she was nothing. Tried to kill me.”
“I enjoyed every minute of it.”
“As will I when the time comes. Rest easy, Caltrone. You’ll never see me coming,” Shy’s father threatened.
For some reason, I knew those were more than just words. I could feel the guarantee and finality in them.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Just keep in mind you married into the Tribe. Papa Kulu is not in your blood. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more to get to me from the likes of you,” Caltrone told him.
“You’ll never see me coming,” was all Shy’s father said before he drove off.
Minutes later, Caltrone’s truck pulled off too and I watched in silence as the apartment building exploded and went up in flames.
“‘The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool,’” Caltrone casually said. “Stephen King said that. It has never been truer than it is now.”
I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say.
A few minutes later I was dropped off at a safe house. Would never show the man where I really laid my head. I didn’t look back as I unlocked the door and walked in. I wasn’t surprised when I found Shy and Mirror waiting for me. Anika and Phenom were there as well.
I looked at Shy, the woman who had become my mother not just by law, but in my heart; she was the mother I never knew. She knew what I had done, the act of betraying her trust. There was no judgment in her eyes. She held her arms out to me and I rushed forward. For a long time I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t. I had to tell her about her father and that was killing me on the inside. Felt as if my stomach was being twisted into knots by the hand of Satan.
“Shhhh,” she comforted me. “You did well. You did well. You came back alive because you followed your first instinct. No matter what it was, you did well,” she said as she held me.