Beyond the garden over Kari's shoulder, Zuberi ran into his mother's arms. I understood the relief in her heart. She kissed and slapped his face. What she was saying to him wasn't pretty. Femi grabbed his mother and tried to usher her in the front doors. The women had lowered their weapons and followed them inside.
"I knew you were coming." Kari snapped my attention back to her.
"Baby, there ain't nothing that would've stopped me from coming for you, other than death itself. I might slap his ass around," I laughed.
"Damn, is that right?" She smiled that smile that made me fall in love.
"Ain't shit coming between you and me. I'm here, ain't I?" I swung her around.
Dallas, Houston, and Black came running up to us. Dallas grabbed Kari up in his arms and swung her around again.
"I swear to God, I thought you was dead!" he said as he put her down.
Houston and Black hugged her too. Houston tried to hide his tears, and Dallas didn't care one way or the other.
"I told you, nigga, she wasn't dead! I told him you wasn't dead." Houston bounced around us.
"What the fuck is going on out here?" Kari questioned. She looked at Black and me.
"It's a long-ass story, but for now, we got to get the hell out of here. I guess they are so happy to have him back they don't care about the money," I laughed.
We ran back to the van and loaded up. Over my shoulder, the Opal billowed smoke from the roof. It wasn't going to fall, but it was hurt bad.
"Hawk, our work here is done. I can't thank you and your people enough," I said over the coms.
"It's my pleasure, Miss Kae. We need exercises like this to keep us on our toes. You need us again; you let Black know. We'll be there," he laughed heartily.
He ordered the men back to the Lab. The shadows moved, and his men loaded up and moved out. Black drove us back to the Lab. Kari sat in my lap in the front seat. We didn't talk; we rode and held each other. She missed being in my arms as much as I missed having her there. My body took a deep breath as I breathed in her skin. We pulled up to the Lab and unloaded. Hawk's men parked the vans at the back of the property, and slowly, it was like they were never there.
"Come on, we got a lot to talk about." We walked inside.
"Auntie, I'm glad you are back, and you are alright. I swear to God I was 'bout to murk them niggas behind you." Houston hugged Kari again. He didn't hide his tears.
"I bet you were, killa. What the hell happened to your arm? Does your mama know you are out here?" Kari rapidly fired questions.
"Relax. He'll be fine. With a couple of stitches, he will be good as new. As a matter of fact, Dallas, get Houston to the infirmary so they can patch him up." I guided Kari to the elevator.
They disappeared down the hallway. Black, Kari, and I got on the elevator and went down to the pods.
"What in the hell is going on around here, Kae? You got the nephews out here like this? We ain't talk about this! You know what their mama is going to say. I don't have time for her bullshit!" She was rapid-fire again.
I kissed her to stop her from talking and calm her down. Once she relaxed, I answered her questions.
"Yes, Chan knows. No, she ain't happy about it, but they're grown. They're old enough to make their own choices. Who safer for them to be with than us, right? They did a damn good job helping get you back. They're ready, babe." I stroked her face.
"They did? Well, I'll be damned. It's their blood, I guess. So now what the fuck is going on?"
Black locked the control room and waited on me to start. I took a deep breath. I had to say this the right way.
"One question, babe: why were you driving that car that night?" I asked.
"Gio asked me to drop it off at his homeboy's house. He seemed like he really needed the favor, and I didn't have anything to do before I went home. I should've told that fuck face no." She blew her breath out slowly.
Her mind wandered back to that night, and she replayed it in her head.
"When I noticed they were surrounding me, it was too late. So I pretended to be knocked out and listened. It took me a few days to figure out it was Gio and Blue."
"The dead body in the driveway at the Opal was Blue. So I got that son of a bitch myself."
"I was able to put together bits and pieces. Femi told me about the doppelganger.” Kari's anger rose, and her foot tapped.
I proceeded to tell her how Femi had kidnapped her by mistake, looking for Gio and Blue. Instead of giving her back, he set up a doppelganger and staged an accident. Then about her beautiful funeral and the hell that broke out at her repass. From flying the family out to killing Cian and his goons, I spilled everything to her, down to them blowing a hole where Mama G's house used to be. I showed her the videos as proof. By the time I was done telling her, she was so pissed off she was ready to take a flight. Her whole body shook. This was why Black had locked the door.
"I'm going to kill that selfish son of a bitch with my bare hands! He set me up! He knew! I'm going to fucking kill that bastard!"
She jumped out of her chair and wanted to storm out of the room. Instead, she paced, cursed, and screamed about the things she wanted to do to Gio. I let her get most of it out. Then went to the control panel and turned the lights up on Gio's pod. He raised his head and tried to get his bearings. His back was filled with open lash marks. They had glazed over, but some still oozed. Tapped the water button, and a blast of cool water hit him. It woke him up entirely. He gasped in surprise and pain. As his eyes adjusted, he realized he faced Kari and me. He saw Blue's pod was empty and covered in blood.
"Kari, baby, I saved the best for last."
Kari's face changed from rage to pure evil. I'd wait on the other side when she came back. Her eyes washed over; Black Heart had arrived. After she heard the story, her taste for his blood would only be satisfied by his blood. A malicious grin crept across her face. She turned to me as if I had given her the biggest toy in the store.
"I saved him for you. He's all yours." I nodded at Black.
Black unlocked the door. A few seconds later, the vilest laugh I'd ever heard came from her mouth. She laughed uncontrollably. Kari threw her head back and laughed so hard tears formed in her eyes. She wiped her tears and walked out of the room. Black and I followed. This was going to be dirty, to say the very least. She went into a forgotten storage closet and pulled out an old wooden trunk on wheels. It's from the nineteenth century and belonged to her great-grandfather. It had torture devices dating back to the 1800s; I hadn't seen the chest in years. She walked into the pod with the trunk in tow. Gio isn't ready.
"What's up with the trunk?" he asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"She's about to take it to the old school. Sit back and watch." I patted his chest.
She wrapped her hair up into a bun, lowered the chair, and rolled the trunk down the aisle. She stopped right in front of Gio.
"Kari, baby, I'm so glad you are alive! I had no idea any of this shit was going to happen. I didn't mean to get you caught up. You got to believe me. Baby, I swear I wouldn't put you in no shit. I'm sorry!"
He tried to talk his way out of whatever she had in mind. His eyes lit up in fear. He had no idea what she'd pull out of the trunk. She put on latex gloves. Kari pulled out a pair of pliers; she twirled them in her hands for a second. Then she pulled out two large beakers with lids on them. It was filled with white alcohol.
"I have beautiful children, don't you think?"
"Y...y...y...yeah, baby, we have beautiful babies together. I want us to be a family again. I ain't fucking with the crazy shit no more. I got a little money saved up, and we can start over," he sang and danced as he watched her every move.
"You almost took me away from MY babies!" She walked over to him with the pliers.
"I wouldn't want nothing to happen to them or you. I was trying to protect them. Fucking Kae's ass won't even tell me where they are. She done stole our kids, baby. She stole my whole fucking life!" he yelled, and he squirmed in
the chair. Each move he made caused a pained expression on his face.
She grabbed his left foot and pulled his big toenail off. He let out blood-curdling screams, to say the least. Gio's toes looked like a bleeding mess. He shook from the pain. She didn't let up. She went down his left and then the right and pulled off each of his toenails, except the pinky toe. The fire in his back and his feet had to be excruciating. Black Heart had only begun. I continued to watch her grow in her element.
"I know you better than that, Gio. Where are the jewels?"
He still had his pinky toenail from his right foot in her pliers.
"Kari, baby, I don't know. I don't got shit! I swear to God, Kari. Please!"
She pulled the last toenail, picked up his left hand, and started at the pinky nail. She pulled it and the ring fingernail out. The sweat was building on her brow. Gio rocked in pain. He was shaking his hand, but nothing helped the sensation. The last eight nails she pulled out slowly as she said the names of our children over and over. By now, I didn't think he could yell anymore, but he did.
"I'm beggin' you, please! I ain't lying to you, baby, I swear! I swear on my kids, Kari. I don't know!" The pain coursed through his body.
Her head snapped to the side as she stared at him. The 'I swear on my kids' line snapped something else on the inside. I no longer saw Kari in her own eyes. Black Heart had completely taken over, and the slow, seductive dance of death was her only weapon. Even her voice changed to the sweet southern belle of darkness. She put the pliers down and took the tops off the beakers.
"Before this night's over, you will beg for death." That evil laugh escaped.
Black Heart poured some of the alcohol on his feet first. Gio peed on himself as he cried and screamed in pain. She placed his hand in the jars. It turned red as his hands swished in the beaker. She smiled and watched him squirm in torment.
"Do you want to keep telling me how much you love them? You sorry piece of shit!" She spits in his face. It ran down his nose.
She circled him, laughing that evil-ass laugh. She deserved to go right over the edge. Instead, she restrained his head and neck so he couldn't turn it left or right. She came back to the trunk and pulled out her scalpel.
"Those thick beautiful eyelashes. You won't be needing them anymore." She quickly but skillfully cut his eyelids off.
It was surgical; a single teardrop of blood ran from each eye down his cheeks. I thought he would pass out, but he simply screamed.
"Baby, please! Don't do this to me; I love you! I was trying to make things better for us. Maybe you'd take me back," he pleaded.
By now, you couldn't tell the blood from the tears.
"How fucking dare you?" Black Heart hissed at him. "Is that what you call it? Loving? What you had to do, darling was help her raise those beautiful babies. You only love yourself."
She picked up the pliers and slapped him across the right side of his face with them. A few of his teeth flew across the pod. He had to spit out a couple more. She turned to the other side and slapped the left side of his face. More of his teeth flew across the pod. His jaw was broken for sure. Next, she pulled out an old-fashioned camera from the '80s with a flash stick on top. Kari stood in front of him and off the flash in his face. Without the ability to close his eyes, they begin to burn. He screamed in agony again; his voice had gone hoarse. His retinas were on fire. I glanced at Black to see how he was holding up. He was holding firm from what I could tell.
"PLEASE! Baby, please!!! I'll do anything, please, stop! Please!" he pleaded in a mumble.
Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears of Black Heart.
"Call me Black Heart, darling. I told you once before you won't survive me again." She circled around him again.
"I, I...I don't know what I was thinking, Kari. I mean Black Heart... I wasn't. I wasn't thinking. I was trying to catch this come up and show you I can bring in money too." The pain contorted his face.
She stopped and took one more picture flashing, and put the camera down. Then, she went back to her trunk and pulled out a 19th-century Spanish tickler.
"If there's one thing Kari has always expressed to you, it's to check your fucking facts, darling. Doesn't that sound about right?" She poked him in his chest with every syllable of her sentence.
The blood dripped from the puncture wounds, his chest started to look like a red starry night. She began to drag the claws down his arms and over his legs. He flinched every time she touched him. He didn't know if it would be her hand or the claws. He was blinded now.
"Fuck!! You are always right. I don't fucking listen! But, I swear I'll listen to you from now on. I swear to God, I will!" He coughed and choked on his own blood and spit. Blood was running down his mouth into his lap.
"Now, tell me, darling, where are the jewels?"
He groaned in pain. He didn't answer her fast enough, in her opinion, so she sliced him behind his left ear. A few more like that, and he wouldn't have an ear. I loved to watch Black Heart work.
"If I had them, I swear I'd tell you!" he moaned and mumbled through the pain.
"Darling, I know you better than you think. So I'll let you in on a little secret. Kari may have let you live because somewhere in her heart, she still loves you. However, I, Black Heart, don't give a damn about your soul."
She removed the tickler and pulled out a metal baseball bat. Black Heart dragged it on the floor as she circled him. The sound alone ignited a flame of fear in his core. With a butane torch, she heated the tip of the bat. In one swift motion, she stuck the red hot tip to his right pectoral muscle. While he still reeled from the first one, she reheated the end and plunged a second touch over his heart.
"This is what I think of your love for Kari. Your love is the worst kind, you festering, sniveling, putrid leech."
She pressed so hard his skin curled around the tip of the bat. When she pulled it away, his flesh was still on the end. Without missing a beat, Black Heart took a major league swing at his right knee first. The ting of the contact with his knee and the crack of his knee cap echoed. He cried out in pain. She took another swing and cracked his left knee. She dragged the bat behind her again as she circled him.
"Do you know the shit Kari had to deal with? She was kidnapped, almost raped, and killed because of you. But, darling, I had time to think of what I'd do when I got my hands on you."
She grunted, took a swing, and hit him in the chest. He tried to breathe, but the wind was gone. Sounded like he was having an asthma attack. He wheezed, and he gasped for air. The cuts and wounds on his chest bled down his body. The chair he sat in was covered with blood. Black Heart put the metal bat down and picked up her nail gun. She shot two nails in his right foot.
"6007. Locker 6007. At the Y," he whispered in the lowest voice I had heard from him.
"Speak up, darling; we can't hear you." She shot him two times in his left foot.
"Locker 6007 at the Y! Westside!" he said as loud as he could as he cried.
I didn't have to say a word; Black disappeared out of the door in a flash.
"Was that so hard, darling? You're all cut up and beat up. Bless your heart," She laughed with a cackle in her throat.
He groaned in pain. If he could move his head, he probably couldn't hold it up. She stopped talking, grabbed her scalpel, and started sliced his nipples off. He bled quicker. When I looked again, she had carved the word joker in his stomach. He moaned and groaned through the whole ordeal. He didn't have the strength to scream this time around. 20 minutes went by before Black called me.
"I got it. I'm on my way back," he said.
"Ok, make it quick and be careful; it's almost daybreak." I hung up, "He says he has the bag," I told her.
She faced Gio with a sweet, crooked smile on her face.
"See, baby, you got everything. You can let me go, and I swear I'll never bother you again. Please let me go," he begged through his marbled teeth.
"Some shit is unforgivable, and, darling, this is one of those things. I
could forgive a thief. It's only money. No, dear, you almost got her life taken! You put her kids' lives in danger. You ruined business relationships." Her words slithered out of her lips as she circled him.
She packed her tools back in the trunk carefully. Then pulled out one of her big guns. Big Gunz was a Louisville slugger with rusted nails pounded at the end. It literally had BIG GUNZ burned into the side. It still had some bloodstains on it from the last time she used it years ago. Black walked back in, slightly winded. He handed me a JanSport bookbag full of the most beautiful uncut stones I'd seen in my life. Black Opal, sapphires, jadeite, diamonds, and tanzanite were a few I recognized.
"Goddamn, Gio. You tried to steal the motherload, didn't you? Everybody's life worth this bag? Even the children?!" I yelled at him. Black held me back.
"Before I begin, darling, there's a bit of information you need to know. Those aren't your children, haven't been for years. They are Kari's and Kae's, legally. Kari has always told you to read, but as usual, you didn't. When you signed those divorce papers, you also signed away your parental rights. Not that you'll need them anymore anyway." She walked around him, twirling the slugger.
"What!? You fucking bitches! Fuck both of you. I should've beat yo ass years ago! You got me fucked up. You had me out here trying to... man, this is some bullshit. You mothafuckin' bitches!" He blindly tried to spit in Kari's direction.
"Darling, this is the ass-whoopin' Kari should have let me give you years ago." She didn't miss a step.
She stopped to his left and swung her slugger directly at his chest. The blood sprayed from his body onto her. The more she hit him, the more the blood sprayed. It flew so far it reached us at the door. He did have some voice left in him. He bellowed out in pain like a wounded bull elk in the mountains. After the fifth hit, she swung at his face; he was down to a severe mumble. She continued to beat him in the face, and by the time she made it to the tenth, he wasn't moving anymore. Black Heart took her time and stabbed him several times with the end of Big Gunz. I walked up to where she was standing, making sure to stand clear.
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