by Kiki Swinson
“What are they saying about the use of your hands?” I asked Miley, trying to change the subject and get my mind off the past.
“The physical therapy is helping, and I’m praying soon I will get some of the feeling back,” she replied as the nurse helped her settle her things into the space across from mine.
“At least I don’t have to be stuck on that critical unit anymore. The doctors said the electric shocks could’ve done irreparable damage to my heart and other vital organs, but thankfully, they didn’t,” Miley said. “I’m lucky as hell.”
I closed my eyes and turned my face away from her. I knew in my heart my sister would really never be the same. If I was having nightmares about our ordeal, I was sure Miley needed drugs just to get to sleep.
Within a few seconds, I felt Miley climbing into my bed next to me. I moved over slightly. Miley hugged me tight. I felt warm inside. Not warm enough to erase the guilt I felt, but a warm comfort that only my sister and I shared since being left by our mother as kids. I was responsible for Miley then, and I always took that role seriously. Even now.
“Karlie, please stop blaming yourself. I was down with everything too. I knew exactly what I was getting into, and I didn’t back down. None of this is your fault. Besides, you were just as beat up as I was, and I’m just glad we are alive. Alive and together. That’s all that matters to me,” Miley said softly, giving me another squeeze. I smiled a little bit. We lay there for a few long minutes. I know her mind was racing with thoughts just like mine. We would definitely have to rebuild our lives. And I had a gut feeling that it wasn’t going to be easy either. Nothing in our lives had ever been easy. And to my dismay, I would soon find out that nothing had changed.
CHAPTER 2
SECOND CHANCES
Miley and I had been in the hospital for two more days when Dr. Dubois, our main attending doctor, walked into our room and interrupted our ratchet TV watching.
“Ms. Houston.” Dr. Dubois nodded at me first, then turned slightly to face Miley. “Ms. Houston.” Miley and I both stared at him expectantly and said “yes,” almost in unison.
“I think it is safe to say you are both well on your way to full recoveries. I think it is time to break you both out dis joint,” he said using awkward Ebonics as a dry joke at the end of his statement.
“Yes. About time,” Miley chimed in a few seconds later, raising her good arm in the air. “We’ve been ready to get up out of here,” she said.
She wasn’t lying. Miley and I had been talking about how our life was going to be after we left the hospital. We definitely couldn’t go back to our old apartment. Detective Castle had already told us it was way too dangerous. We didn’t have the money from the robberies, so it wasn’t like we could just go cop a new spot to live. After the cops saved our lives, we of course had to give up the cash. It was all part of the cooperation that helped us stay out of legal trouble. It wasn’t lost on the detectives that we had set up the robberies, but the murders had overshadowed our responsibility in it. Our cooperation sealed the deal.
I got an instant headache just thinking about it all. Shit, our circumstances were worse now than they were before the heist. Forget about a job. Our faces had been plastered all over the news, so there was no way any business in the Tidewater area—or any area, for that matter—was going to hire us. Hustling was out of the question. We had tried that once when we were teenagers. It hadn’t gone so well. We had made too many enemies way too fast in that business. Besides, Miley was way too flashy and I was way too impatient and leery for all of that looking-over-your-shoulders and figuring out who had your back versus who was going to stab you in it.
“I guess that’s good news,” I said, trying to fake my excitement about getting released from the hospital.
“You guess? No, it is good news,” Miley followed up.
I sighed. I was worried as shit about everything, especially about where we would go from there.
“Great. Well, once the nurse comes back with your prescriptions and gives you instructions on how to take care of your healing wounds, you are free to go,” Dr. Dubois said. “Good luck out there. You girls are truly lucky. It was good getting to know you both. Stay out of trouble,” he said, shaking first Miley’s hand and then mine.
“Thank you for taking care of us,” I said.
“Yeah, thank you, Doc,” Miley said.
“You’re very welcome. Now you ladies take care of yourselves.”
“We will,” Miley and I said simultaneously.
Immediately after the doctor left the room I looked at Miley and said, “Now it’s back to reality. What the hell we gonna do now? This hospital was a false sense of security, chick. We are literally starting from scratch.”
Miley let out a long sigh. Something glinted in her eyes that told me she hadn’t thought about our next steps. “Tell me about it. We ain’t even got no damn clothes. Starting from scratch is a damn understatement, Karlie.”
I shook my head and rubbed my chin. I had to think. I was always the one who had to think. I was always the one who had to get us out of every single situation. I couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed. Guilty or not, it was exhausting looking out for myself and Miley for so long.
“What you thinking?” Miley asked. I shot her a look. As soon as I looked over at her and saw her scars, I quickly softened my face. I couldn’t be mad at her. I had done this to her.
“I’m thinking we gonna need help. I guess I will call Sidney and tell him we’re ready to go. And being released,” I said. Sidney had also survived a good ass-whooping behind the robbery. Unlike us, he had walked away with a busted knee and just some minor cuts and bruises and a black eye. Not even enough to keep him in the hospital for one week. Lucky him.
Just as I was about to dial Sidney’s cell phone number, our room door swung open and Sidney limped in with his cane in hand. My eyes lit up.
“Damn, boy. You’re always on time. I was just about to call you,” I sang and smiled brightly.
“Oh yeah? Why? What’s up? They letting y’all go or something?” Sidney asked. I had to admit that the cane and the limp gave him a sexy swag that I liked. He was already gorgeous, with the most beautiful hazel eyes and a body to die for. A quick tingle came over me. Damn. I couldn’t help but think about Sidney finally being able to touch me again like I like to be touched. Sidney and I had been through a lot. We had been together almost three years and we’d had our fair share of side chick incidents, prison stints, and now, we could add a near-death experience to the drama. It didn’t matter how much he might irk my nerves . . . I loved that man. I already knew that I wanted to be with him for life.
Sidney was six feet, two inches of caramel gorgeousness, and his dick game was the best I’d ever had in my life. And trust me, with the rough way I had to grow up after my selfish mother killed herself with drugs and abandoned us, I had had my fair share of dick—wanted and unwanted. So I knew Sidney was top notch.
“Yeah, the doctor just came in here and told us we could go home. Which means, you’re our ride and possibly our spot to lay our heads too,” Miley said from her side of the room.
Sidney chuckled and looked back at me. “Ain’t nothing change about this one, did it?” he said, jerking his head in Miley’s direction. “Still the spoiled and bossy little sister. She telling me what to do already and ain’t even out yet.”
“That’s right,” Miley sang, sticking out her tongue playfully.
“Still a pain in the ass, you mean.” I laughed. “But she’s my pain in the ass, and at this point, I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.”
“A’ight good. So let’s go. Shit, we wasting time. A nigga always got moves to make.” Sidney motioned for me to get out of the bed.
“Calm down. We gotta get our meds first. Dr. Dubois said the nurse would be in here in a few minutes,” I explained.
Sidney looked a tiny bit disappointed.
“Oooh. The nigga can’t wait to get you home,”
Miley joked, rubbing her two pointer fingers on top of each other—the playground way of saying hanky-panky.
“You damn right. I miss my baby,” Sidney said, moving in and kissing me on the neck. My entire body got hot and my cheeks flamed over. I couldn’t wait either. I was suddenly hot and bothered but had to play it off.
“Stop, crazy,” I said coquettishly, pushing him but not hard enough to move him.
“A’ight, well, I’m gonna go and get the car from the parking garage and pull it up to the front entrance so you don’t have to walk far. And by then y’all should be ready.”
“Yeah, we will. Make sure you got that Meek Mill or Drake on blast. I need to hear some good music. Oh, and don’t forget we have to stop at someplace boss to eat. I’m dying for some good food. Being trapped in here got me fucked up,” Miley said.
Sidney just shook his head and laughed. “This girl,” he mumbled as he headed for the door.
“Sidney,” I called after him. He looked over his shoulder.
“I love you,” I said.
He flashed that gorgeous smile. “You already know what it is, bae,” he replied.
I am not sure what came over me at that moment, but for some reason, I felt like I had to tell him that I loved him. It wasn’t something we said often throughout our relationship. It wasn’t something I said often in my life, period. I guess now it was the time to do so.
CHAPTER 3
UNLUCKY START
You would have thought I was the one in worse condition. I was moving slow, and Miley was speeding ahead of me through the hospital corridors toward the exit.
“Damn. Slow down,” I huffed, trying to keep up. My back ached and so did my legs. I guess that was muscle fatigue after being cooped up in the hospital for weeks. Miley didn’t seem to be suffering at all.
“I want out of here,” Miley called over her shoulder. “You better c’mon. I already told you I’m starving.”
I had to laugh at my sister. Once the nurse had come back with the doctor’s handwritten prescriptions and instructions on how to properly take the medications and care for our healing wounds, Miley damn near pushed the lady out of the way. Miley was hyped to leave the hospital. She hated the food, and so she’d promised to treat herself to an order of Bang-Bang Shrimp from the Cheesecake Factory the moment she got out.
“I want out of here too, but damn, slow the hell down,” I grumbled, winded.
Miley was thinking about simple shit like food and what damn rapper she was going to listen to on the way home. I, on the other hand, had more important things on my mind. Important things like where the hell we would live and work. How we would eat, not just today but every day. I swear, I dreaded the thought of it all. I knew one thing, though; we were going to have to come up with another damn plan. The thought scared me. The last plan had nearly gotten us killed.
Just like he promised, Sidney was sitting outside in a brand-spanking-new black Tahoe with the shiniest oversized silver rims I had ever seen. I smiled so wide I felt the air on my teeth. This dude. Gotta love him. Always on the come up.
This was another thing about my man that I always admired. Sidney was a true hustler. He may have had bouts of being broke, but he never stayed that way. He always seemed to land square on his feet, even after he would get knocked all the way down.
Sidney rolled down the windows when he noticed me. He and I looked directly into each other’s eyes and started cheesing. A thin layer of sweat cropped up on my body. I simply could not wait to be alone with Sidney again. Thinking about him touching me made my insides warm up a little bit. The way Sidney would touch me and trail his long, hot, wet tongue down to my titties would make me so damn weak. I could just imagine getting to a safe place to stay and being alone with him so I could ride his thick pole until my pussy pulsed with a rip-roaring orgasm. Mmmm. Even now, just thinking about it made me tingle all over.
For the moment, Sidney had me optimistic that things were going to be all right, because he was going to take care of everything. The tension in my shoulders eased a little bit.
“If you don’t get your happy ass out of that car and help us,” Miley yelled at Sidney jokingly. Oh my goodness. She was definitely recovered. My loud-mouthed, fast-talking, greedy-for-food, broke-but-fabulous little sister was definitely alive and well.
Sidney laughed and shook his head at Miley’s demands. But he surely got out of the truck, came around, and started toward us.
“You and that mou . . .” Sidney started, but his words seem to choke back down his throat. All of a sudden his eyes bulged unnaturally and his lips hung open. The look on his face caused me to pause. My face folded into a confused frown. Immediately, I heard the thunderous sound of feet pounding the pavement coming from my left. Miley must have noticed the look of terror on Sidney’s face and heard the thunderous footfalls too because she whipped her head around. I opened my mouth but no sound came out. It was shock, I’m sure. Suddenly, Sidney seemed to be moving toward me in slow motion with his left arm extended out in front of him.
“K-a-r-l-i-e!”
I heard my name but it sounded drawn out, like a slow-motion scene from a movie.
“R-u-n!”
Before I could grasp what was going on, something slammed into my chest with the force of a wrecking ball. I stumbled back. Instinctively, my arms flew up.
“Agh!” I screamed. My sister was against me. She had fallen backward into my arms. Confusion and chaos clouded my mind, my judgment. There was noise. Loud noise. The air was thick with smoke clouds the color of cement.
Then my brain finally registered the loud, rapid explosions around me. Someone was shooting at us. Another powerful jolt slammed into me. I couldn’t withstand it this time. The back of my head hit the ground with so much force my jaw clicked and my teeth slammed down into my tongue. My mouth filled with blood, and the sharp, tinny taste threatened to gag me. I sucked in my breath, yet I still felt like I was suffocating. Miley was on top of me, her back to my chest. When she’d fallen, I couldn’t hold her weight, so we both fell down onto the ground. She was making a terrible noise, like she was struggling to catch her breath. I felt warm piss running down my legs. Fear had caused my bladder to involuntarily release.
“Those bitches are dead! Let’s get out of here!” I heard a man’s booming voice. I could feel the presence of someone next to me. It was like a black cloud of death was hovering above me. I kept my eyes closed and my head sideways. Miley’s head hung just past my shoulder. I could still hear her struggling to breathe.
“Nah, this one still alive,” another man said. I held my breath. I was praying.
God, please. Please don’t do this. Please spare us. Please forgive me.
Then . . .
BOOM. BOOM.
Our bodies rocked. My heart jerked almost out of my chest. I felt fire light up my shoulder. Suddenly the hissing sound coming from Miley stopped. There was no more movement or sound. If her head wasn’t slightly to the side the bullet might’ve gone straight through and hit me in the head too, but it didn’t. I was hit in my shoulder, but Miley was hit in the head this time. I played dead, but really, something inside me died at that moment.
Like a fucking coward, I hid under my sister’s body and played like I was dead. I felt her blood running down my arm, seeping into my skin. The smell was so putrid that it settled at the back of my throat. I prayed that death would come snatch me. I felt the heat searing through my side too and I knew I had taken another bullet. Why didn’t I die? Why was God sparing my life?
“Call the police! Get three stretchers! Three victims! Multiple gunshot wounds!”
I could hear screaming and chaos going on around me. Within minutes I was being hoisted up from the ground and slammed down on a stretcher. I finally opened my eyes, just in time to see Miley on a stretcher across from me. Her eyes were open, but they were blank. The front of her clothes was painted with her blood. Panic rushed through my entire body. I wanted to scream for her but I coul
dn’t get the sound out.
“Hurry up! She seems to be the only one alive! Three victims. Two fatalities.”
The stretcher I was on was being pushed in a fury. I turned my head sideways just in time to see Sidney. They had him on a stretcher at the back of the car, but there didn’t seem to be any rush to get him treatment. I lifted my weak left arm and reached it out.
“Si . . . Sid,” I gasped, the blood in my mouth choking me.
“Don’t try to speak. You need to save all of your strength,” said one of the doctors running next to my stretcher. “We are going to save you. We have to save you.”
I closed my eyes. Tears drained out of the sides and pooled in my ears. We had been ambushed. But why? I thought life would be easy, knowing that the real owner of the EZ Cash had been locked up after he tortured us.
Who could’ve wanted us dead? Everyone who logically would have wanted us dead was locked up, right? So what the fuck was going on? I guess that was going to be all up to me to figure out now. The weight of it all finally came down on me.
“No! No! Get off me!” I screeched, flailing my arms and kicking my legs. “You’re trying to kill me! I want my sister! Where is my sister!”
“Get her a sedative!” a nurse screamed, right after she took a slap to the face from my wild flying hands. About ten nurses and doctors converged on me. Someone held my head, a few lay across my legs, and there were some on either side of me controlling my arms. I felt a needle being jammed into my thigh.
“No,” I groaned. “Miley,” I said weakly just as the drugs started taking hold of me.
Oh my God! How am I going to get out of this? What am I going to do? was the last thing I remember thinking before my entire world slipped into darkness.
