by K, S
“What, muthafucka?! You gon’ kill me, then kill me! Don’t be playin’ no li’l bitchass games! Either handle yo' bidness or git the fuck out!”
“It's gon’ be handled, Rakeem. Trust. Only one of us gonna walk up outta here tonight, and I think we both know who it ain't gon’ be.”
Rakeem laughed. “Guess you think you a ‘G’ now, huh? Bitch please! This is a man’s game. Takin’ your clothes off in Vegas made you soft.” When Darrell still didn’t respond, Rakeem sneered. “See, if it had been my woman who got popped, I woulda brushed it off. Part o' the game. I wouldn’ta been screamin’ and cryin’ in the middle of the street like some li’l bitch.” His face expressed satisfaction when he saw Darrell’s jaw tightly clench. “You fucked my bitch. I fucked up yours. I say we even now.”
Darrell’s eyes narrowed when he heard what Rakeem wasn’t saying. “You knew. You knew it was Roni and not me in the car…”
Rakeem laughed. “I’ll give you this. She was a baaad bitch. I just wish I’d had a chance to get wit her and show her how a real man fucks a ho’ instead of having to kill….”
Darrell sprang from the chair and knocked the rest of Rakeem’s words down his throat with the butt of his gun. Blood and teeth flew from Rakeem's mouth as he screamed in pain.
Darrell grabbed the tape and began taping it over Rakeem’s mouth then under his neck and back across his mouth to mute Rakeem’s agonizing moans. His hands shook from rage. He paced the length of the small room, trying to get his mind right to deal with Rakeem.
“You sick, crazy fuck….”
Darrell's expression was one of pure hatred as he took a couple of steps towards Rakeem, then stopped and began pacing again. In his mind, he remembered how Roni had looked when he’d opened the door of the truck. There had been so much blood until her clothes were saturated and sticking to her body. A need to avenge her death burned hot in Darrell's veins.
While in the ambulance, the paramedics had cut her clothes away then worked to try and stop the flow of Roni’s life’s blood from spilling like running water. His baby’s beautiful smooth body had been a mass of torn, gaping flesh, marred and punctured from bullet holes.
Still holding the gun, he brought the heels of his hands up to his face and pushed them down over his eyes as he tried to block out the images. He didn’t want to remember Roni like that. He wanted to remember her as the strong, sexy woman she had been - but he couldn’t.
Darrell thought about how Bryan had tried to convince him to let the authorities handle everything, that Roni wouldn’t want him resulting to vigilante justice. He brought his hands down and moved his head from side to side. His lips silently moved as he talked to himself. That sounded just like something she would say. With no effort at all, he could hear her voice as clear as day telling him that he was better than this.
Suddenly, he felt calmer and more at peace than he had been in a long while. Darrell took a deep breath. “Know what? My baby wouldn’t have wanted me to do this. I never met a person with more goodness and integrity than her. I know that I’ll never, ever meet another woman like that.” He punched his chest with his fist. “She knew my heart.” Darrell smiled and nodded as he stared off into space. “I loved the hell outta her. She knew that, too.”
Rakeem’s eyes blinked furiously and some of the fear he tried to hide left his face when he heard the quiet tone of Darrell’s tone.
“In my entire life, she’s one of the few people who actually believed in me. Believed that I was a good man, that I had the potential to actually make somethin' out of myself…”
In the blink of an eye, the expression on Darrell’s face changed. His eyes turned cold and unfeeling as he turned to Rakeem and shook his head.
“But know what? I ain’t that man.”
Noticing the lightning quick change, Rakeem anxiously pulled at the handcuffs again, trying to get loose. A second later, Darrell grabbed the gun by the barrel. Wielding it like a club, he commenced to whipping Rakeem’s ass. The growling noises coming from him as he rained blow after blow were raw, tortured. Rakeem squealed and jerked like a gutted pig as blood covered his face and the bed. Darrell wanted to kill him right then and there but he stopped. That would be too easy.
Breathing hard, he staggered back and wiped the back of his hand over his cheek, smearing the blood that had splattered from the deep, open wounds on Rakeem’s face. He looked down at Rakeem with a since of detachment and felt not a shred of remorse. Barely conscious, Rakeem whimpered and peered up at Darrell through black, swollen eyes.
“What’s wrong?" Darrell asked. "Shit not so funny now? Got anymore jokes you wanna tell….?” When Rakeem continued to moan in pain, Darrell swung the gun in the air as if he was getting ready to hit him again. “Answer me!” Rakeem quickly shook his head.
“That’s what I thought.” Darrell looked at Rakeem’s hands cuffed together and grabbed his right index finger. “Is this the one you used to pull the trigger?”
Without waiting for a reply, he slowly pulled Rakeem’s finger towards the back of his wrist until a sickening pop sounded amid Rakeem’s muffled screams. When Rakeem’s body trembled from his sobs, Darrell shook his head. He took out his cell and dialed a number. After it rang once, he hung up and mocked Rakeem.
“Come on, now? Is that the way a real G handles pain? By cryin’ like a li’l bitch?” Tears and snot mingled with Rakeem’s blood. “Punk ass muthafucka….”
Hearing a knock at the door, Darrell smiled at Rakeem as he went to open it. “Aw yeah. Now we really gettin’ ready to have some fun.”
Rakeem’s eyes fearfully shot at the door. He had any number of enemies who would love to partake in the torture Darrell was dishing out. Unable to control his bladder, urine leaked from the tip of his limp ass dick and puddled down on the bed. When he saw who walked into the room, his bowels loosened as well.
Jade paused and stared at Rakeem with all the hostility and hatred she felt for so long. She had suffered through years of abuse at his hands, and he had made her life a living hell. After the last beating when he found out about Darrell, she hadn’t been the same. If it wasn't for fear of leaving her kids with a monster like Rakeem, she would’ve ended it all a long time ago.
But tonight…it was payback time.
She hadn’t hesitated when Darrell contacted her a couple of weeks ago with a proposition which include reporting Rakeem’s comings and goings. In return, Darrell had given her enough money to start a new life, a chance to give her kids something she’d never had: a normal life. But first - she had some unfinished business to take care of. Then she would pick her kids up from her aunt’s house and leave Philly far behind.
Jade walked over to the table and picked up the knife and hammer. Her hands tightened around the handle of the knife as she eyed Rakeem’s dick.
“I think I can take it from here,” she told Darrell.
Rakeem’s bowels lost their battle when he saw her approaching the bed. Her intentions were clear when she snatched his dick in her hand and curled her fingers around it. His legs kicked and wildly splayed about as he tried to escape from her tight grasp.
Pissed off, Jade picked up the hammer and swung it down on his left knee cap with all her might. “Keep yo’ funky ass still.”
Unbearable pain almost rendered Rakeem unconscious and too out of it to move. Choking his dick again, Jade brought the sharpened blade to the base. She briefly sawed at the spongy tissue before cutting it off in one clean slice.
Satisfied, Darrell pushed away from the wall and walked out the door just before Jade shoved Rakeem’s dick up his ass. As he got in his car, Darrell knew he should be worried about his lack of feeling for what just happened. But he wasn’t. Rakeem - and Luther - had gotten everything they both deserved. He knew there was no way he would be able to live and breathe in a world knowing the men responsible for Roni’s death were living and breathing that same air as well, even if they were incarcerated. Driving off, he gave neither of them a second t
hought.
After Roni died, everyone told him he needed to let his grief out. He was so tired of hearing that in time, it would get easier. How the fuck was it supposed to get easier? The only way things could get easier is if Roni were here. But she wasn't coming back, and he knew he had to come to grips with that fact.
Feeling numb and empty inside, he turned the radio on and sat back to go wherever the highway took him.
Chapter 17
Darrell looked across the pool table, intently eyeing the eight ball. He viewed it from all angles as he planned exactly how he was going to make the shot - because there was no doubt he would knock the ball in. He eyed the pile of money that was at stake - $500. He could care less about the money - it was the sport of the game.
Reaching over and picking up his glass, Darrell swallowed the whiskey and let it smoothly flow down his throat. He gestured for the waitress to bring him another before bending down to line up the cue ball. The man he was playing against bent down as well and watched the balls as closely as Darrell.
Still poised to take his shot, Darrell slowly looked over his shoulder and stared until the man, who went by the name of C. Money, reluctantly moved back. Shaking his head and muttering under his breath, Darrell brought his attention to the pool table again.
“No way he’ll make dat.”
Darrell didn’t bat an eye at the mockingly loud taunt from one of the C. Money’s homey’s. He knew they were tryin’ to throw him off his game, but it wasn’t gonna work. They were playing best three out of five and if Darrell made this shot, he would win…again.
Using a relaxed and loose wrist stroke, he slid the pool stick back and forth a couple of times, then lightly tapped the cue ball. It bounced off the side of the table to perfectly bank the eight ball into the corner pocket. Ignoring the loud cursing around him from C and his boys, Darrell winked at the waitress and threw back another shot of whiskey before sending an arrogant smirk towards Money.
“Game, man.” Darrell reached for the stack of bills he’d just won, but Money slammed his hand on top of them.
“You cheated.”
Darrell noticed that Money’s friends were slowly surrounding him as the crowd nervously looked the other way. Darrell knew the other man and his posse were bad news, but he wasn’t intimidated in the least.
“How did I cheat? You were standing right there watching me the whole time.” Darrell winked at the woman sitting on a stool a few feet away. “What do you think, sexy? You think I won fair and square?”
A thousand knots formed on Money’s face. He scowled at the woman, who quickly ducked her head and wiped the flirtatious smile from her lips. Throwing his pool stick down, Money roughly shoved Darrell in the chest.
“You must don’t know who you fuckin’ with! That’s my bitch you talkin’ to!”
Darrell shrugged. “Maybe you need to tell her that.”
The look on C. Money’s face was priceless. In one motion, he reached behind his back and snatched his gat from the waistband of his pants then pointed it straight at Darrell. People screamed and scattered to get out of the line of fire.
“You wanna repeat that?” he asked Darrell with a deadly expression.
“I think you heard me the first time.”
With his finger resting on the trigger, Money aimed the gun at Darrell’s head. “You must think this is just for show, huh?”
Darrell looked him dead in the eye and slowly walked towards him. He leaned forward until his forehead pressed against the barrel of the gun.
“Do it.”
Darrell’s senses may have been dulled from all of the alcohol he’d consumed, but he knew what he was doing. He’d been roaming aimlessly from city to city for the last three months and felt as if he were in an even worse place now than before he left Vegas. He was so very tired. He’d had enough of the nightmares that would not let him rest and enough of drinking himself into a stupor every night until he passed out. Darrell tightly closed his eyes. He was too much of a coward to do it himself; this was the next best thing.
“I said do it,” he repeated through clenched teeth.
The look of disbelief on Money’s face would’ve been comical if the situation hadn’t been so serious. He looked around and saw everyone staring at him, waiting to see what he was gonna do. His hand tightened on the gun, ready to pull the trigger. If this fool had a death wish, he didn’t have a problem granting it.
Seconds before he was ready to follow through, he noticed a man standing behind Darrell. Money couldn’t make out his face, but he was separated from the frightened crowd and staring straight at him. The man was older with a large frame and seemed horribly out of place in these surroundings.
Not knowing why, Money lowered the gun. He gave Darrell a final loathing once over then signaled to his friends that they were leaving. Although puzzled, they followed him out of the small club without protest. Darrell was silent as he watched them leave.
Damn! Can’t even get a cap busted in my ass!
As activity started up again, Darrell slapped the waitress on the ass and told her to bring him another drink before managing to drunkenly weave his way to the back and sit down at an empty table he found. He was staring out at the tiny dance floor with a blank look on his face when he felt somebody standing beside him. He looked up and saw an older man gesturing towards the empty chair.
“Mind if I sit down?”
“Matter of fact I do…..” Darrell’s voice trailed off. He looked at the man as if he were crazy when he sat down anyway. Old or not, he was getting ready to get cussed the fuck out. When the waitress came back with his drink, Darrell smiled at her and reached in his pocket for his money, but the man picked the glass up and put it back on the waitress’ tray.
“He’s changed his mind.”
Darrell sat up straight. “I don’t know who you are, or what kind of shit you on, but you got two seconds to get outta my face.”
The corner of the man’s mouth lifted as he studied Darrell. “Don’t you think you’ve been running long enough?”
Darrell frowned. “What….?”
“Just seems like you’re trying to avoid something, but I don't think it’s working. I’ve seen you in here before, and each time it's like you’re inviting disaster. When that doesn’t work, you drink until you can barely stand up…almost as if you’re trying to get yourself killed.”
Darrell sat back in his chair and stared at the man, wondering why he was even listening to him. “Yeah? Well, it don’t seem to be workin’, does it?”
“Running from problems never help. As soon as you stop running, they’ll still be there waiting to be dealt with. I don’t need to know what the problem is, but I do know this: nothing happens by chance.” He leaned towards Darrell. “I'm aware that you don’t know me from Adam, and after I've said my piece I'll leave you alone.”
Darrell shook his head and waved him off in a dismissive gesture. “I don’t’ wanna hear nothin’ you gotta say, ole man.”
“Too bad because I’m saying it anyway. You remind me of someone I used to know. I couldn’t help him, but I promised myself that I would make it up by helping as many people as I could.”
“Oh, trying to soothe a guilty conscious, huh? Fine. Spit it out then leave on your own or I'll help you with a good, swift kick in the ass,” Darrell slurred.
The man wasn’t offended at all as he continued. “In my lifetime, I've found that whatever is meant to be will surely be. It’ll always find a way to come about. We might be able to prevent it today, or the next month, or even the next year, but eventually, fate is going to have its way.”
Darrell glared at the man. “I don’t believe that shit. Maybe some things can be prevented if….”
“If what? Son, there comes a time when we have to leave the past behind, because it’s just that - the past. It can’t be changed. And don’t worry about the future, because no one can predict that. We need to live for today. Make every day, every hour, every minute, every se
cond count.” He paused and held Darrell’s eye. “Our loved ones are never gone. They’ll live forever in our hearts and through our memories.”
As hard as he tried, Darrell couldn’t block out the wisdom of the man’s words as they filtered through his drunken haze. “Easy as that, huh?”
“People are brought together for a reason, and everything has its season….”
Darrell rapidly blinked and cleared his throat. Without looking at the man, he stood up and walked towards the exit.
Running again, huh?
He paused as the taunting words blew in his ear. Taking a deep breath, he turned around to go back, but when he looked at the table, the man was gone. Darrell frowned and looked around. He’d only taken a few steps. The place wasn’t that big, and the only exit was in the opposite direction.
What the fuck…
One month later…
Bryan sat behind his desk in his office at Club Ecstasy. Having just hung up the phone with the investors, they’d finally come to an agreement on a joint venture that would include the latest club being opened in Atlanta. He stood up and went to stare out the window.
“Well. We did it, Roni. This was your baby. Your idea. And I have a feeling it’s going to be the best of the lot.”
“Fa’ sho’. Did you expect anything less?”
Bryan spun around as he heard a deep offended voice. A wide smile slowly spread over his face.
“Darrel…?”
Darrell returned the smile. “Hell yeah it’s gonna be the best yet. My baby was brilliant. Don’t act like you don’t know she was the brains behind the success.” Darrell shot Bryan a teasing look.
Bryan laughed. “She was that, my friend. She definitely was that.” Bryan walked over and embraced Darrell in a giant hug and patted his back with a heavy hand. Darrell laughed as he returned the hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you too, B. You lookin’ good. See you handlin’ business as always. I guess you‘ve sealed the deal for the new club. Congratulations.”