Wrath

by K'wan

  “Yes.”

  “No, she isn’t. She’s coughing up blood,” Jonas told his sister.

  “Ma, I’m taking you to the E.R. Get your coat,” Sweets ordered her.

  “I wish you all would stop fussing over me. It’s nothing,” Janette protested.

  “Coughing blood is not nothing. We’re taking you to the hospital,” Jonas said.

  “I’m not going to sit up in no emergency room all night, just for them to prescribe me antibiotics or some other shit that I don’t need. I’m supposed to be going for a checkup in a few days anyhow. I’ll see about my cough then,” Janette promised.

  Jonas wanted to argue with her, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. You couldn’t force one of the Rafferty women to do anything they didn’t want to. One thing was for sure, though. He would make sure that he was around to see that she kept her appointment.

  Once things had settled down, they all sat in the living room to watch television. Reruns of The Cosby Show were on. Jonas had always loved that show. He would sometimes dream about what it might’ve been like to be a Huxtable instead of a Rafferty. While everyone else’s attention was on Bill Cosby, Jonas was thinking about his father and the man who had driven him to his death.

  In the middle of their show, they heard the front door open and slam loudly. A few seconds later, Yvette appeared in the living room. She was wearing leggings, heels, and a T-shirt that was a size too small. Her hair was slightly mussed, and her eye shadow was partially wiped off one eye. She looked a hot mess. With her was a shifty-looking, light-skinned dude who Jonas had seen around before. Jonas didn’t know his name, but he knew his game. He was a stickup kid.

  “I hope you didn’t wake Jo-Jo up when you slammed that door,” Anette said with an attitude. When they were younger, the twins were very close, but as they got older and Yvette got wilder, they had grown apart.

  “Sorry,” Yvette said in a less-than-sincere tone. From the slight slur of her words, you could tell she had been drinking.

  “We missed you at dinner,” Janette said.

  “My bad. I guess I lost track of time. Is there any food left?” she asked.

  “I left a plate in the oven for you. Make sure you wash your hands before you go in my kitchen,” Janette told her.

  Noticing that all eyes were on her guest, Yvette finally made the introductions. “Oh, this is my friend, Steve. Steve, this is everybody.”

  “What up?” Steve offered in the way of a greeting.

  “Oh, Sweets, I’m glad you’re here. I need a favor,” Yvette said to her sister.

  “No,” Sweets said flatly.

  “But you don’t even know what the favor is.”

  “Knowing you, it’s probably money, so the answer is no,” Sweets said firmly.

  “C’mon, Sweets. I don’t need but twenty dollars. I’ll pay you back when I get paid Friday,” Yvette whined.

  “You must think I’m stupid. I spoke to Mr. Lewis at the supermarket the other day, and he told me they fired you two weeks ago. Said you kept showing up late and high,” Sweets informed her. “Besides, you still owe me $100 from the last time I loaned you money.”

  “You acting like you ain’t got it. All the coke your man is pumping in the hood, I know you ain’t hurting for no bread.” Yvette folded her arms.

  “What my man does or what’s in my pockets ain’t none of your business.” Sweets rolled her eyes.

  “I can’t stand a bitch that gets a little come-up and think they better than everybody else,” Yvette spat.

  “You know I don’t play with people calling me out of my name. Watch your mouth,” Sweets warned.

  “How about you, Mama? You got twenty dollars?” Yvette asked.

  “Yeah, but I ain’t about to give it to you to shove up your nose. Why don’t you ask your new friend?” Janette eyed Steve.

  “Because I’m asking you!” Yvette got loud.

  “Yvette, if you’re hungry, I’ll feed you. If you’re tired, I’ll give you somewhere to lay your head, but I can’t contribute to you hurting yourself,” Janette told her. It broke her heart to see her daughter like that.

  “Ain’t this some shit?” Yvette snorted. “All I’m asking for is twenty damn dollars, and I can’t get it? It’s the least you can do, considering you ain’t never did shit else for us.”

  “I’m gonna let that slide because I know it’s the drugs talking, but don’t push your luck,” Janette warned her.

  “What? You gonna go upside my head again like you used to do?” Yvette challenged. “I ain’t a little girl no more, Mama. I’m grown.”

  “If you’re grown, then you shouldn’t have a problem getting your own money,” Janette replied. “Why don’t you let me get you some help, Yvette?”

  “If that ain’t the damn pot calling the kettle black! You spent my entire childhood banging smack and selling pussy, and now you wanna try to tell me something?” Yvette was becoming belligerent.

  “Yvette, you bugging. That’s still our mother,” Jonas spoke up. He could feel the tension mounting and knew the situation was about to take a turn for the worse.

  “Ha! Now you wanna try to play the good son?” Yvette laughed. “You ain’t shit either, Wrath. You think I don’t know what you out here doing?”

  Jonas got up off the couch and addressed Steve. “Fam, I think it’d probably be a good idea if you and my sister go back to wherever it is y’all just came from. At least, until she comes back to her senses.”

  “Don’t talk to him like he’s one of your little friends!” Yvette barked. “Ain’t nobody scared of you, Jonas.”

  “Yvette, I’m warning you.” Jonas’s voice dripped ice.

  “What? You gonna shoot me too? Or maybe you’re just gonna bash my skull in like you did Black? I know all your dirty little secrets, Wrath. The streets are talking,” Yvette sneered.

  Jonas hadn’t even realized that he had moved until his sister bounced off the living room wall. He had slapped her so hard that it sounded like a gunshot. He grabbed her by her throat and lifted her damn near off the ground. “You disrespectful little bitch! Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

  “Jonas, let her go!” Jewels tried to pry his hands from around Yvette’s neck, but he shoved her away.

  “If you weren’t my sister, I’d put your junkie ass in the fucking ground!” Jonas rained spittle in her face. He was choking her so hard that Yvette’s eyes had begun to bulge.

  Steve finally got over the shock of what was unfolding and decided to do something. He ran up on Jonas and sucker punched him.

  Jonas released Yvette, letting her fall to the ground. He then turned his rage-filled eyes toward Steve. “She’s family, so I can’t kill her, but you?” he cracked his knuckles. “You’re about to meet God.”

  Jonas attacked Steve with a fury that none of them had ever seen him display before. He rained punches all over his head and face. Steve tried to defend himself, but he was no match for Jonas. All five of the women in the living room tried to pull Jonas off him, but they couldn’t. He was in an insane rage. Long after Steve was on the floor, unconscious, Jonas was still hitting him and screaming curses. The only thing that stopped Jonas from killing him was Jo-Jo.

  “Jonas?” Jo-Jo appeared at the end of the hall.

  When Jonas looked up and saw the terrified expression on his sister’s face, he stopped his pummeling of Steve. He could only imagine how he must’ve appeared to her, fists slick with blood and his shirt torn. “Jo-Jo, I . . .” He couldn’t find the words. With terror in her eyes, the girl ducked back into her room and slammed the door.

  “I’ll go check on her.” Anette rushed past him.

  Jonas pushed himself to his feet and took stock of what he had done. Steve was sprawled on the floor. His face looked like hamburger, and the only sign that he was still alive were the gurgles of bloody bubbles coming from his mouth. When he turned to face the women in the living room, they all looked terrified of him, even Jewels. She had hea
rd the stories about Jonas when he became Wrath, but this was her first time seeing it firsthand.

  “I’m so sorry,” Jonas whispered to his mother before rushing from the apartment.

  * * *

  Jonas was on fire when he got outside. He could feel the anger clawing at his insides like an animal fighting to get out of a cage. He began screaming like a madman, punching out the windows of parked cars. He had knocked out three of them before Jewels came out behind him.

  “Jonas,” she called after him.

  “Leave me alone, Jewels,” he growled and started stalking down the block. With the mood he was in, he didn’t trust himself.

  “No.” She caught up with him. Jewels grabbed him by the arm and spun him around. Jonas tried to turn his face away, but she held it in her hands and forced him to face her. “Look at me,” she commanded. His eyes were full of anger and tears. “I got you. Do you hear me? I got you.”

  Jonas felt some of the rage begin to drain away, but it still lingered beneath the surface of his skin like worms. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this,” he sobbed.

  “Don’t you dare apologize to me for being you. You’ve seen me at my lowest and never judged me. Me and you against everybody else, right?”

  “I can’t, Jewels . . . I can’t bring you into this madness. I’m poison,” Jonas said sadly.

  “Then let me be your antidote,” she replied. “Don’t you understand that I am here for you? Where you lead, I will follow.”

  “You don’t want to go where I’m going,” Jonas said, thinking about the murders of Flair and his lady.

  “What part of I will follow don’t you understand? I want to help you, with whatever is going on with you, but you have to let me in. I will do any and everything in my power to make sure your heart is always protected.”

  “Even kill for me?” Jonas asked. He had been trying to turn Jewels off, anything he could think of to get the girl to wash her hands of him.

  Jewels looked at him with great seriousness and said, “Without question.”

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Jonas didn’t return home that night. Instead, he and Jewels checked into a motel in the Bronx. She suggested that they stay at Fat Moe’s since there was nobody there, but Jonas declined. It was too close to home for his taste. He was ashamed of what he had done. Not because Yvette and Steve didn’t have it coming, but because he had let his control slip, and Jo-Jo had been there to witness it. The poor girl would probably have nightmares over it.

  A pair of warm hands brought Jonas out of his daze. Jewels eased up behind him and began massaging his shoulders. “You’re tense,” she breathed into his ear. He could smell the faint trace of Hennessy on her breath from the bottle they had been sipping from for half the night.

  “You would be too if you had so much weighing on you,” he said over his shoulder.

  “I told you, you don’t have to carry it alone.” She kissed his earlobe, sending a wave through his body. “I got you.” Jewels eased from behind him and straddled his lap. She was naked. Her perky breasts brushed against his chest. She had a flat stomach, and her erect nipples reminded him of Hershey’s kisses. Jewels spent so much time in jeans and baggy shirts that he sometimes forgot how nice her body was. She began grinding back and forth on his lap, causing his dick to rise through his jeans.

  “Damn,” Jonas rasped, feeling like he was about to burst through his zipper.

  “Let him come out to play,” she whispered while undoing his pants.

  Jonas didn’t resist when she pushed him back on the bed and began sliding his pants and underwear over his hips. His penis stood tall and hard. She gripped it with one hand and began tugging on it firmly. She was taking him there. When she made to slide down between his legs, he stopped her. “You don’t have to.” He knew that Jewels didn’t like giving head. It had something to do with the boy she had lost her virginity to forcing her to go down on him. Jonas enjoyed a good blow job. He’d had a few but never stressed her about it.

  “I want to,” she said and took him into her mouth.

  Her lips were warm when they wrapped around the head of his dick. She took him, a little bit at a time, making it halfway down his shaft before he hit the back of her throat. When she first began the task, he winced as her teeth scraped him, but he didn’t complain. He was glad that she was inexperienced at sucking dick. He often found that he looked at girls funny who were too skilled. Ace called it “mileage mouth,” which she didn’t have. He let his mind drift as she serviced him, forgetting the problems of the world and enjoying what she was doing.

  “You like that?” Jewels paused long enough to ask.

  “I love that,” he replied.

  Jewels went back to giving him oral, slow, and then fast, and slow again. She could feel his body tense like he was about to blow. “You better not.” She popped his dick out of her mouth. She knew him all too well.

  She slid up his body, causing him to shiver. Her skin was so warm against his. She straddled him, running her clit up and down his throbbing shaft. Jewels reached back and began slipping him inside her, but Jonas stopped her. “Chill; let me get a condom.”

  “Not tonight. I want to feel you, Wrath.” She kissed him.

  Sweets had always warned Jonas about having sex without a condom, and except for the night he had lost his virginity to Jewels, he always did. There was something about the pleading look in her eyes that moved him. Against his better judgment, he honored her request and hit it raw.

  To say that her pussy felt much better without a condom than it did with one would’ve been an understatement. She was tight, wet, and . . . oh so inviting. It was like God had carved out her pussy for the sole purpose of receiving his dick. He lasted through about fifteen minutes of her riding him before he felt himself about to bust. He tried to lift her off him, but Jewels pushed all her weight down on him and locked her legs around his.

  “Give it to me, Wrath . . . Fill me up . . . Fill me up!” she moaned. Before he could even stop himself, Jonas let off inside her. Even after he had spilled his seed, she kept going, making sure that she had drained him.

  “Why did you do that?” Jonas shoved her off him.

  “Why you tripping?” Jewels asked as if it were no big deal.

  “I’m tripping because I don’t want kids. You know that.” Jonas got up and went to retrieve his pack of cigarettes from the motel room desk.

  “Maybe it’s just that you don’t want to have a kid with me,” Jewels accused.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Alex!” she replied. “You think I don’t know why you’ve been so preoccupied the last couple of days? As soon as I heard she was back in town, I knew you’d be off chasing her.”

  “It isn’t like that, Jewels,” Jonas tried to explain. “Me and Alex just have a history.”

  “And we don’t?” she fired back. “I don’t recall her being by your side when shit got thick, stashing your drugs, holding your guns, tending to your wounds whenever you got hurt. Where was she for all that?”

  “I’m out.” Jonas started gathering his things.

  “That’s right, run from the truth like you always do,” Jewels taunted him.

  “What do you want from me, Jewels?”

  “I want you to stop selling me false hope!” she said passionately. Tears ran down her cheeks.

  “Please don’t cry over me, Jewels. I’m not worth it.” Jonas felt bad. What she was saying were all the things he felt but didn’t have the heart to put into words.

  “That’s what girls do when they’re hurt. They cry.” Jewels wiped her eyes.

  “It was never my intention to hurt you.” Jonas embraced her.

  “I know. I did this to myself. I knew I could never have all of you and instead of moving on, I settled for whatever pieces of you I could get. I was a fool for loving you, Jonas.”

  Her words stung because they were full of truth. He hadn’t realized it until that mom
ent, but all those years he had been running around with Jewels he had just been passing the time until Alex came back to him. Seeing her all broken up over him made him think of what his mother had probably gone through with his father. He wasn’t sure what else to do, so he kissed her.

  Jonas made love to Jewels for the second time that night. This time, it was slow and passionate. She cried the whole time. Whether they were tears of joy or pain, he was unsure. He just didn’t want her to hurt anymore. When they were done, they rolled over to their respective sides of the bed, both lost in their own thoughts. As Jonas drifted off to sleep, he heard Jewels whisper softly, “You’ll never know how much a bitch loves you until she kills for you.”

  Part IV

  “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again your

  sword into his place: for all they that take

  the sword shall perish with the sword.”

  —Matthew 26:52 (KJV)

  Chapter Thirty-six

  The last year or so of Jonas’s life had been a bittersweet one. He had gained quite a bit but measured against what he’d lost, he wasn’t sure that it had been worth it. He took the money he had ripped off from the hit on Flair and gave every dime to Prince. They finally had enough to buy into the company his cousins were getting up and running. Prince had made the trip to London to oversee the deal personally. Jonas wanted to go with him, but he didn’t have a passport yet. Prince had been right in his prediction about it blowing up. They were selling pieces out of the boutique and the online store, and they had also secured contracts to supply merchandise to several major retailers in the States. Jonas beamed every time he saw someone in the streets wearing the pieces. Granted, they were only stockholders, but they were still making money.

  After what seemed like forever, construction was nearly complete on his social club. Between the weather causing work stoppages, and problems they kept running into with acquiring the necessary permits, Jonas was beginning to think that it would never get done. Thanks to Detective Ceaver pulling a few strings, and Jonas paying extra to the right people, they had finally managed to push through. They would be ready to have their grand opening by his birthday, which was in a little over a month.