by Nicety
“Redina, you don’t understand. My intentions were to put both of those hoes out of my life. I only wanted you, but then…” Messiah paused as he remembered what was told to him this morning.
Chapter 21
“Loaded, baby.”—Red
Messiah was excited just this morning to have two women vying for his love and attention. It was intriguing to him that he held that kind of power over them. But he knew it would all come at a cost and that cost would be Red’s heart. He truly did love her deep down inside but the fact of the matter was he had no control over the women in his life. In that area, he was the weakest.
“But then what, Messiah?”
“Look,” Messiah sighed. “I’m sorry alright. I never meant to hurt you and I surely didn’t want you to end up in the arms of this clown.”
“He treats me like a fucking queen. He worships me.”
“Shit I worshipped you. But I guess that don’t mean shit huh?” Messiah laughed.
“Naw, it used to mean something but you can’t keep bitches off you and your dick in your pants. See what you fail to realize is that Skid helped me open my eyes. He didn’t have to tell me much about you that I didn’t figure out for myself.” Red snapped pacing the room. “You’re a fucking liar. Just admit it.”
“I ain’t admitting shit cause I did love you. That nigga just mad cause I never promoted his ass and now he’s tryin’ to be me.”
“You need to start taking responsibility for your own shit. I don’t know exactly what’s going on but I do know whatever it is you brought it on yourself.” Red said raising her gun back up to his face.
“Bitch!” Messiah exploded as he rushed towards her trying to get at the gun.
Red wrestled him as the fell back on the sofa. She locked her legs around his waist and held her arm up as far away from him as she possibly could. Messiah wasn’t even focusing on getting the gun just then figuring he could use all of his strength to squeeze the life out of her and force her to hand it over. She looked down trying to figure out a way to bite his face but he was too far down on her body for her mouth to reach. They struggled a great deal before Messiah finally attempted to try and take the gun from her hand.
“I will shoot you motherfucka! I will! Get off me!” Red screamed.
“If you wanted to do it you would’ve done it by now.” Messiah said as he bit down on her tit taking in a large chunk.
Red released an unimaginable squeal as she used her feet trying to kick him off of her but it was no use. His body was so heavy and he just kept scaling up her like he was King Kong and she was the Empire State building. Skid exited the room running up to the struggle and bopped Messiah on the back of the head forcing him to roll off of her and onto the floor. Messiah clenched his head riddled with headache as he clung to the side of the sofa trying to bring hisself to his feet.
“Hey baby. You alright?” Skid asked helping Red up off the sofa.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She side eyed. “Took you long enough though.”
“I’m sorry babe. I had to handle some business. It won’t happen again.” Skid assured her, his voice stern and firm.
“I hope you weren’t back there talking to some b—“
“Ah, don’t do that. You feel me better than that. I know you do. Don’t let this nigga’s corruption come in and fuck your mind up. You know me.” Skid said hawking her down.
“Okay.” Red smiled as she turned to kick Messiah back down on the floor. “You never cared about me. Fucking liar.”
“Shit, this proves you don’t care about me.” He snapped.
“Shut up. She doesn’t need to care about you no more with yo’ punk ass.” Skid snapped back as phone sounded off. “Hello. Yeah, here I come.”
Skid kissed Red’s forehead and gave her the wait notion as he headed out of the front door. Red promised herself she wouldn’t be caught off guard again if Messiah tried any funny business. She planted her feet firmly on the ground then watched him like she was glued to a television unable to blink or take her eyes off of him. He simply rolled over onto his back and lay there staring up at the ceiling.
“So how much did they offer you?” He asked breathing heavily.
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The niggas up north, how much, how much?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” Red shouted having her fill of Messiah and his bullshit and wondering where the hell Skid was.
“Yeah he’s in here.”
Red heard Skid say from the other side of the door. As the door flung open, two men dressed in khaki knee length shorts and colorful Hawaiian shirts came inside before him. They looked like something fresh out of a Miami Vice episode with their protruding beer bellies and their slicked back hair. These men were not of African decent but their skin was as bronze as hers was. She knew that these guys were not from around there no matter how badly they tried to fit in.
“Meech get yo bitch ass up. You got company.” Skid said kicking his feet.
“Ah, hello gentlemen. Crazy us meeting like this don’t ya think?” Messiah laughed as he struggled to sit up, still dazed from the blow to his head.
“Get your ass up, Meech. We’re done playing this game, with you now.” One of the obese men commanded. “Where’s our fucking money, coon?”
“Yeah. Where’s their fucking money, Meech?” Skid cosigned as Haggley came walking in the door with a large black briefcase in hand.
“Messiah. You look alive and well, but that’ll soon change. How ya doin’?” Haggley laughed as he walked in handing Skid the case.
Skid eagerly grabbed the case from his hands then moved over to the island setting it up there. He clicked the latches on it and as the top flew open his eyes grew wider than the Sahara Desert. All of his wildest dreams could be fulfilled with the contents of this simple ordinary worker’s briefcase. There was more green in the case than there was on a beautifully maintained golf course.
“Skid, you are dismissed.” Haggley said waving his hands as if he were a common peasant.
“Wait, what’s going on here?” Red asked dropping her weapon down to her side.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t need the answers to, babe. Com’ on’ let’s leave these gentlemen to their job.” Skid said wrapping his arm around her torso and escorting her out the door.
“Skid I don’t feel right about this. If they gon’ rough him up that’s one thing but he’s got a baby and shit he needs to live for.”
“Why do you care so much? You still love him, don’t you?” Skid said as he walked over the grass headed for his truck.
“Why do you hate him so much? At one point in time he was your friend. Yeah he’s bogus as hell for some shit he does but that doesn’t make him a bad person.” Red replied, feeling sorry for Messiah.
She couldn’t deny that she was still in love with him even though she knew he was toxic for her. Her feelings wouldn’t get in the way of what was morally right. Messiah was only heartbroken after all that she had left him and slept with Skid but she knew he realized that he had hurt her too. Red stood outside the truck as he tossed the case inside the truck then rotated to her.
“What the fuck, Red? I thought we had something girl.”
“We do.” She said walking up to his chest caressing it devotedly. “But I don’t want our love to be tainted. Not like this.”
Skid looked into her eyes knowing that no matter what she said she was only doing this because she was still in love with him. It killed him deep inside to think about that even though he buried the fact down inside of his heart. He stared amorously in her eyes feeling like she would never be able to stop thinking about Messiah and she would never forgive him if he were dead. She would lie to his face about her feelings because it would be a constant reminder of her love for him.
“What is it gonna take for you to love me like I love you?” Skid asked standing toe-to-toe with her and breathing down her neck.
“Nothing. I love you already. I promise you that no matter what happens here, I will never speak of him after this day.”
“But will you think of him?” Skid asked worriedly.
“Never. I wanna love you and you only.” Red was sure to keep her eyes firmly on his and nothing else so he could tell she was real. “That’s my word.”
“Shit.” Skid shook his head breaking free from their gaze.
He went back into the car looking up under the seat yanking hard then slammed the door hard. In front of Red, he tossed his second thoughts out the window feeling the adrenaline rush through his veins. It seemed like the wrong place and time for her pussy to get wet but she had to admit seeing him in killa mode turned her on to the max.
“You still got that piece?” Skid asked cocking his back.
“Loaded, baby.”
“Aight stay low and stay behind me.” He kissed her lips hard. “I’m trustin’ you to have my back.”
“Always.”
They headed back towards the apartment noticing that the men did not bother to close the door all the way. The closer they got to the door the more silently they crept listening in as the men taunted and beat Messiah almost to a bloody pulp. Skid looked back at Red, winking his eye at her then rushed the door blasting strategically as if he was part of the Black Ops. Red followed close behind him blasting the two obese men instantaneously without stopping, drilling hole after hole into their stout chests. She was a beast with the steel making sure she put down whoever got in her path. Haggley ran to the back room busting back at Skid the whole way. Red looked at Messiah nearly dead in a pool of his own blood reaching up his hand to her. She felt sorry for him looking down onto his badly bruised and beaten face but ran to the back of the room as guns shots sounded off like multiple fireworks.
“Skid!” Red busted open the bedroom door raising the gun up.
Haggley stood there holding the gun up to Skid’s head as he lay on the floor seemingly wounded. The crooked cop laughed as he backed up towards the window limping and in pain from the gun shot wounds to his leg and shoulder.
“Shoot him baby!” Skid bellowed in agony.
“Yeah shoot me so I can shoot him.” Haggley laughed sinisterly with blood seeping out from the right side of his body. “Nobody gets hurt, Skid. We can all go home. Just call off your bitch.”
“My name is not bitch!” Boom! Boom! Boom! “It’s Redina motherfucka!”
She ran over to check the severity of Skid’s wounds. “Baby, are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be cool. It’s just my arm.”
Red looked concerned hoping that he would not bleed out before she could get him to some help. A gunshot wound was nothing to play with but he was acting like it was a simple walk in the park. She helped him to his feet ready to hop in the car and leave the immense blood bath behind. They knew with all the commotion someone had triggered the cops and they wouldn’t be too far away from the scene. In the living room, Messiah was still struggling to get up so he could flee the scene himself.
“Shit, could y’all help a nigga out?” Messiah asked leaning on the sofa ledge trying to pull himself up.
“A nigga, huh?” Red leered. “Naw, I think we’ve helped you out enough.”
Messiah finally brought hisself to his feet, shaking and dazed. He stumbled towards the door leaving his bloody handprints all on the wall and door as he sprinted out. He looked back at them as they exited the apartment closing the door behind them. The look on his face was one to haunt even the hardest of criminals as he jumped in his truck and swerved off into the ongoing traffic.
Skid shook his head knowing that Messiah was a bitch ass nigga inside and out. He always looked for someone to help him out and he always looked for a shoulder to lean on. He was a coward who could never stand on his own two feet and if it weren’t for Red he would have left that nigga in that apartment with them niggas, period. The Italians were nothing to fuck with and knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out what had happened and came looking for Messiah again. The thought ran through both of their minds as they walked to the truck. Sooner or later Messiah would have to answer to the Made Man and quite possibly if he was a snitch like that, so would they.
“Get in. I’m driving.” Skid said nodding his head towards the other side of the truck.
“Fool, how you gon’ drive with that bad arm?”
“Girl, just get yo’ ass in the car.”
She did as she was told, not wanting to rile him up in his current state. They drove off surprisingly not hearing one siren coming towards the complex. On the road, Skid used his hand to assess the wound realizing that it might have been more critical than he originally thought. Red saw him struggling with the wheel, looking up at his face.
“Babe we gotta get you to a hospital fast.” She demanded scared for his well being.
“I know…I’m headed there now.” Skid replied groggily. “But I’m cool though. Don’t trip. It just stings like hell, that’s all.”
“Well, what about the Candy Shop?” Red asked.
“Woman, fuck that shop. I’ll get you your own business where you won’t ever have to lift a finger, ya heard? That shop was dead a long time ago, right along with ya boy.” Skid paused. “I hope you know he still has a bounty, Red. He won’t last long.”
“Hmm. His blood isn’t on our hands after this.” She noted hesitantly. “So do you think they’ll hunt us down?”
“It don’t matter…if they come.” Skid spoke deviously. “We’ll be ready for them.”
“Motherfuckin’ right baby.” Red grimaced worriedly looking over noticing that his condition was worsening. “Gotta get to this hospital.”
