by T. Styles
“And I’m going to get the person who took you away from me. That’s a promise.” He looked over at me. “Do you want to say anything to aunt Bunny?”
“Naw,” I said shaking my head.
“Why not?”
“Baby, I’m just here as support for you. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“Say something, mama,” Noah said with a sly expression on his face. He knew that Bunny implicated me in a letter for her death but he never told his father. “It’s only right.”
“Leave ma alone, Noah,” Melo said looking over at me. “Everybody grieves in their own way.”
“You right about that, son,” Kevin said to Melo before giving me one last look. “You right about that.”
What was up with Kevin? Did he know something after all? And if so who told him?
****
I was in Cloud’s bedroom riding his dick as he sat on an office chair. I decided to hook him up before he told Kevin about Bunny, especially after today. Every time he touched me, every time he looked at me, I was disgusted. I couldn’t believe I got myself into this situation.
I had so much on my mind at that moment. I wanted to know if Scarlett finally went too far and killed Master. I wanted to know if Bradley would get off for raping Grainger. I wanted to know if Denim was handling the loss of her baby well or was she breaking down more inside. More than anything, I wondered if Kevin knew I was involved in his beloved aunt’s death.
Since Cloud knew that I killed Bunny he did everything he could to make my life a living hell. Like fucking me three times a week and making me cook meals for him, which I always laced with piss. Worst of all was when he forced me to say I loved him.
I had sex with him for one hour and he still didn’t cum. Cloud thought I was stupid. I knew for a fact he could come quicker than this. I tried to buck my hips wider and each time I did he would tell me to slow down so he could make it last. I was losing my patience with this nigga.
“Cloud, I gotta go,” I said in a seductive tone.
I hated this punk.
“Can you hurry up, baby?” I continued. “You know I want to hook you up but I got things to do at home.”
He ran his hand up my back and it made my skin crawl. “Slow down, Bambi, I just want to enjoy you for a minute longer. I know you in a hurry but I got you for the moment.”
I stopped moving my body. I looked down at him. “You do know we not together right? This is a business relationship.”
“I know,” he frowned.
“Then why you keep taking your time and shit?” I asked enraged. Fuck being nice. “I can’t be here all night. I’m a married woman.”
“I know you married,” he said with an attitude. “But I also know you not the wife you supposed to be. So stop faking in here like you are.”
Fuck this nigga! I was better than this. So I stood up and walked toward the bed to grab my panties. I felt him looking over at me, stiff wet dick and all, but I didn’t care.
“Where you going?” he asked.
I slipped into my jeans. “Home. Like I said.”
“But I didn’t bust yet.”
“You acted like you didn’t want to.” I sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed my grey Ugg boots on the floor. “And I got shit to do. I’ll look out for you next time though. Don’t trip.”
He stood up and walked toward me. He pulled is pants up and rubbed my shoulders. He squeezed hard but I didn’t stop getting dressed.
“You are beautiful, Bambi Kennedy.” He exhaled. “Why didn’t you ever want me? I mean what was it about Kevin that you liked so much?”
I put one of my boots on. “Don’t be stupid, Cloud. Kevin met me first. Kevin loved me hard and he always had my back. Unlike some people I know.”
“But the nigga cheated on you.”
“And you knew about it. That may be true but when I asked you to keep it real you didn’t.” I looked up at him. “What you didn’t know was before that moment you could’ve been mine because I was always soft on you. But you failed the test.”
“I can’t let you leave right now. You know that.” He pulled his dick out and rubbed it on my bottom lip. “Suck the cum out of it and you’re free to go.”
He was so gross!
“Whatever we were doing I’m done,” I told him. “I have a lot of shit going on at my house and in my life right now. I can’t be—”
Cloud slapped me so hard I fell off the bed and dropped to the floor. My chin landed on my other boot. I hopped up preparing to fight this nigga until the season changed to summer.
“Do it, bitch,” he dared me. “Put your hands on me and I will end everything in your life. You know how much that nigga loved his aunt. Do you really want to know life without being a Kennedy? I can ruin your world. You know that!”
He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up to him. He licked the blood off of the corner of my mouth and smiled.
I looked into his eyes. I could tell he was serious. The way I saw it I had one option. So I pushed away from him and walked over to my purse. I grabbed my cell phone out of it and dialed a number.
“What are you doing?” he asked with wide eyes.
I didn’t respond. My heart beat rapidly as I waited for my call to be answered. When it finally was I took a deep breath. “Kevin,” I said staring into Cloud’s eyes. “I’m over your cousin house. Meet me over here. We have to talk.”
****
Kevin was standing up while I sat on the couch with my hands over my face. Cloud was leaned up against the wall quietly.
“Baby, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Kevin asked me. “You got me on edge now and I don’t like it.”
I looked up at him. “It’s about Bunny.”
“What about her?” he sat next to me. I couldn’t speak or look at him. “Bambi,” he placed his hand softly on my knee, “talk to me.”
I looked over at Cloud and a tear rolled down my face. I couldn’t believe I was being placed in this position but I was done with the pressure Cloud was putting me under. I was done letting him play in my body. I was done trying to keep him from snitching on me. I was done with it all.
“I killed her.”
Kevin smiled like a kid at first, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. “Baby, what you talking about? It sounds like you are telling me that you killed my auntie.”
I wiped the water from my face. “That is what I said. I killed Bunny.”
He hopped up and moved away from me as if I was dog shit. He paced the area in front of me and then stuffed his hands in his jean pockets. “What… what do you mean?”
I stood up and moved toward him. “Kevin, I know this is fucked up but-”
“I’m sure it was a reason she did it, man,” Cloud said in an attempt to come to my defense. “Just hear her out.”
Although Cloud thought he was on my side I didn’t want his help. I didn’t want any more reasons to be at his mercy.
“I don’t need your fucking help,” I yelled at him. “Stay the fuck away from me! Do you hear me? Stay the fuck away from me and my family.”
Cloud looked angry but he backed down and leaned against the wall again.
I focused back on Kevin, “Baby, you know me. You know I would never do anything like that unless I felt I didn’t have a choice. She was blackmailing me. When we thought you were dead she tried to extort all of the money you left for the boys and me. I needed that Russian deal to go through or I wouldn’t be able to take care of my family. Of our family. So I took her life. It was the only way.”
He looked at me hard. His nostrils flared and his fists balled up. I could tell he hated me but couldn’t find the words to express himself. There wasn’t any need though. I could feel how he felt about me even in silence.
“I could kill you right now,” he finally said.
I knew I was wrong but I hated how hard he was coming at me. As if he wasn’t wrong in this situation too. “I guess you would want to kill me considering you wer
e fucking your own aunt the entire time.”
His expression turned from hate to guilt. “I don’t know what you talking about.”
“Yes you do, Kevin! Kill the fucking games! She told me everything before she died. She wanted me to know that although I wore the ring, she was the main woman in your life.”
“She lied.”
I didn’t respond. He and I both knew the truth.
He took two steps closer to me. He squeezed my chin softly and raised my head so that our eyes met. “The day my boys turn twenty-one,” he said sweetly, “you’re going to pay for this. With your life.” He walked around me and toward the door.
My back remained in Kevin’s direction and then I remembered something. Before he left out I took the gun out of my waist. “But what about—”
“Kill him,” he said referring to his cousin. “I knew you were fucking him from jump and I didn’t know why. Now I do.” He walked out and slammed the door.
“Kevin, noooo,” Cloud yelled before I raised my gun and put a bullet in the middle of his head.
The moment his body slumped to the floor I had an orgasm. A real orgasm. You have to understand that I hated that mothafucka! With a passion. He ruined my life and it felt good to get the revenge I deserved. I was about to tuck my gun back in my waist when my phone rang.
As if I didn’t just kill a nigga, I walked over toward my bag and grabbed my cell. I placed it to my ear, looked over at his corpse and said, “Hello.”
“Bambi, shit is getting even crazier around here,” Race said to me.
“How you figure?”
It wasn’t like Master wasn’t missing, Jasmine wasn’t dead, we didn’t kill Grainger and Bradley wasn’t in jail. How much crazier could things get?
“Scarlett has a high ass fever. Should I take her to a hospital?”
“No,” I said shaking my head. I was glad she called me before doing anything stupid. With the Russians still being silent we needed to stay low. The last thing I needed was one of my family members hanging around a hospital, out in the open. The last time we went to the hospital, before Scarlett had the baby, I was shot in the hand. “How high is her temperature?”
“It’s in the one hundreds but that’s not even the worst part.”
“Then tell me what is.”
“She said she got the fever because…well…because…you gotta come home and hear this shit.”
****
I made it to my house an hour after I burned Cloud’s house to the ground. It wasn’t hard for me to come up with the fire idea. Someone had done the same thing to the Kennedy compound. Since they got away with it maybe I could too.
I threw my purse on the couch and ran toward Scarlett’s room. Race was hanging around her as if she were on her last breath. Scarlett’s eyes were closed and she was moaning softly.
“What were you trying to tell me on the phone?” I asked placing the back of my hand on Scarlett’s clammy face.
“This shit is so crazy,” Race said. “She told me that somebody put a curse on her and she’s about to die.”
“A curse?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She actually said voodoo but I don’t know what happened. All I know is she could barely get out of bed when I came in the room to check on her. I’m worried. This don’t look too good.”
I looked down at my sister. “Scarlett and that voodoo shit. She probably fucked up because Master is missing. This girl been through a lot lately. Where the fuck is Camp and everybody else?”
“Camp took a bag of clothes and left. I think they broke up. And Ramirez went to see Bradley in jail. Where’s Kevin?”
Somewhere with his heart broken, I thought.
“He probably not coming home until later either.” I looked over at Race. “He knows I killed Bunny.”
She covered her mouth. “Bambi, no.”
“I know but I had to tell the nigga. I couldn’t deal with Cloud’s blackmailing ass no more. And I put Cloud out of his misery too.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m a soldier,” I said honestly. “Of course I’m okay.”
Race focused back on Scarlett’s weak body. “You sure we shouldn’t take her to the hospital?” she asked me with a serious look on her face. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“No, you know she on paper. We just gotta break her fever.” I threw the covers back on the bed. “Go run a tub full of ice cold water. When I was in the army we did this type of shit all the time.”
Race ran to the bathroom while I peeled the nightgown off of Scarlett’s damp body. Her face was flush red and my heart broke. I loved this chick like we came out the same pussy. And with everything that happened in my life lately I couldn’t lose her.
I didn’t know what was going on but I did know this: if you believe somebody put a curse on you, with your entire mind, your body will grant your wish. The mind is stronger than most people give it credit. Add to that the fact that Scarlett’s weird aunt practiced voodoo. This girl didn’t have a chance. But I believed that there was another reason she was so sick. Guilt was killing her. The guilt of what was the real question though.
I took her temperature before doing anything. It was 107. When Race was finished running the water we hoisted Scarlett’s naked body into the tub. Scarlett mumbled a few words but for the most part she moaned softly. Her pink nipples hardened and stuck straight out in the air as she sat in the water. I never thought I would be seeing a white girl’s naked body in my lifetime. I guess I was wrong.
When we were done we dried her off, put some clean warm pajamas on her body and placed her back in bed. I stayed over her for an hour, pressing cold rags over her face while Race gave her sips of ice water.
“I feel terrible,” Scarlett finally said as I placed the thermometer on her tongue.
“Close your mouth,” I said softly. When it beeped I read the temperature. It was 105. I placed it on the table beside her. “Scarlett, what’s going on with you? Why you sick?”
“I’m going to die,” she said as a tear came down her face. “I’m going to die because of all of the things I’ve done wrong in life.”
“Don’t say that,” Race said. “You not a bad person. You’re a—”
“Yes I am,” Scarlett interrupted. “I’m a horrible person and now a curse has been placed on me and I’m going to die.” She looked over at me. “But I don’t want to.”
“Scarlett, you can’t believe in no shit like that,” I told her. “I don’t know why you’re sick but it’s definitely not because of a curse. It’s deeper. Much deeper.”
“Ngozi is killing me.”
I wanted more information but she drifted off to sleep. I hopped off of the bed and went through her bedroom.
“What you looking for?” Race asked me.
“I gotta get this nigga’s information.”
“Who?”
“Ngozi.”
“But he moved remember? We went looking for him to find Master.”
“I believe Scarlett knows more about his whereabouts than she’s letting on. You heard her. Ngozi put a curse on her. That means she hooked up with him recently.”
After fifteen more minutes I found Scarlett’s phone. I tried to get into it but the screen was locked. “Fuck,” I yelled in frustration. “I don’t know the code.”
“Good luck getting it from Scarlett,” Race said with her arms folded over her chest. “I remember I wanted to use her phone one day when she left it at home because Melo was on the house phone on school business and my phone had 2% battery power left. I used my weak phone to call Scarlett who was with Camp at the time. To ask if I could borrow her phone. I asked her what the code was to unlock it and everything.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing. She wouldn’t give it to me. My phone ended up dying and I had to wait until Melo finished with his class project.”
“She’s going to give me that code,” I said.
I walked over to Scarlett
’s bedside again. I sat on the edge of the bed. Real softly I said, “Scarlett, what’s the code to your phone?”
She moaned a little but she didn’t respond. I touched her on the arm. “Scarlett, I need the code to your phone. If you want me to help you, you gotta help me. Now what is the code?”
She moaned a little and said, “I don’t feel good.” Her eyes remained shut the entire time. It was as if she were dreaming.
“I know, but I need the code to your cell phone.” When she stopped talking I gently shook her. “Scarlett…the code. What is it?”
When I looked over at Race she was wearing the I Told You So Face.
Frustrated I stood up and paced the floor. I needed the code so that I could go through her phone and bring this nigga here. I figured if she saw him and he took back whatever fake crazy hex he put on her that things would be okay. But since she wouldn’t respond to me I couldn’t help her.
Suddenly Scarlett moaned, “9267.”
I turned around to look at her. Her eyes were shut. I was about to ask her to repeat it but I wanted to try it first. So I punched the numbers into the phone and it unlocked.
I looked at Race and winked. “I’m in!
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
BAMBI
I sat outside of Ngozi’s house in a black Suburban. Sarge was in the driver’s seat and three of my men were in the back. Sarge and Race handled any murder jobs I had within the Pretty Kings Empire. I met him when I was in the military and we’d been good friends ever since. Whatever I needed Sarge to do he did. But there was one problem; he was also atrracted to me.
I found out two weeks ago when we had to break the teeth of every nigga running the Dunbar Projects in Washington DC. The leader, Enny, had been short for two weeks straight when it came time to picking up the profits. When Race and Sarge went to question him and his crew, each member blamed the other. It was totally unorganized. So I had Race and Sarge order our soldiers to handle the problem. There wasn’t a dry face on the block that day because each one was covered in blood.
