by N'Tyse
Rene disrupted the ice-cold silence. “Haven’t we met before?” she asked Deja, trying to remember where she might have known her.
Deja rolled her eyes mockingly but undetectably. “I believe we may have crossed paths a time or two,” she replied dryly.
Sand played the quiet game through the awkwardness.
“Well, it was nice working for you,” Deja said, speaking up. “But I guess you won’t be needing me anymore.”
Sand felt her chest swelling. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for the club.”
Deja just smiled. “Oh, one more thing.” She reached in her purse and pulled out her duplicated set of keys. “I won’t be needing these.” She placed the keys in Sand’s hand and then turned away to leave. She wanted to remember Sand just like this.
Once Deja was completely gone, Rene turned to Sand. No words were needed. They embraced in a tight hug, both knowing that some things were better understood when they were left unsaid.
27
Sunday Evening
“Sooooo,” Shun started out. Her nose was flared as she exhaled. “I take it y’all are back together?” she asked, coming up from a sit-up.
Rene was glowing, and she knew it. Her rainy days were over, and now she was dancing under the rainbow. She allowed Shun’s observation to settle in along with the steak and potatoes she had just stuffed herself with. Hearing someone else acknowledge that she and Sand were an item again meant so much to her.
“Yeah, we’ve decided that we’re going to go ahead and give it another try. We’ve worked out our differences, and now we can focus more on our future,” Rene smiled. She continued to put the last few items in her suitcase, checking everything twice and making sure she wasn’t packing up any rodents along with her.
Shun sat up on her mat. “I’m so proud of y’all,” she said, nearly out of breath. “I told you y’all were gon’ work it out, didn’t I?” She started out on her second set.
“Yeah, you did,” Rene admitted. She zipped both bags and set them side by side on the floor.
“Now, what are y’all gonna do next?”
Rene watched her friend closely as she struggled coming up, going down, and coming up again. She was sweating profusely, and she knew that in any minute, Shun was going to be crunched over complaining about the burn. “We’re going to see about getting an apartment up north somewhere. Addison, Plano . . . I don’t know yet. In the meantime, we’ll be staying with Sand’s best friend Finesse until we can find us a place. She has this big old house her grandmother left her, so she’s dying for some company.”
Shun just shook her head. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” She was leaning over to the side, clutching her stomach. “Girl, this shit is worse than labor!”
“Umm, um, um.” Rene shook her head. “See? Listen to you. I told you your butt couldn’t hang. You asked me to show you some stuff, and you can’t even handle it,” Rene beamed. “I hope this Carl guy is worth all this,” she teased, throwing her hand over her hip.
Shun found the words to get her through this madness. “Oh, he is.” Suddenly, she had the strength to carry her through. This time, she stood to her feet and began jogging in place. Her red, white, and blue polka-dot bandanna made her feel like she was racing in the Olympics. “I’ve got to look good for the anniversary ceremony,” she said, just putting it all out there. “I want his parents to notice me. Hell, I want the whole family to notice me.”
Rene worked up a laugh. “All right, then, girlfriend. Press on. And while you’re doin’ that, I need to use this phone book,” she said, reaching into a pile of collected White Pages stacked in a corner. Rene counted at least eight of them.
“Who you looking for?” Shun questioned.
Rene sat on the floor and crossed her legs Indian style. “Hendell Ross,” she said, flipping through the residential listing.
“Who in the hell is a Hendell, and what kind of name is that for a black man?”
“Well, this Hendell isn’t black.” Rene took her finger and went up and down the list of Rosses.
Shun was now pumping her fist in the air and making up moves to add to her workout routine as she lunged forward and pulled back. First the right foot, and then went the left. “Well, I figured that,” she told Rene. “Whatcha lookin’ for him for?”
“I think it’s time for a little family reunion. I know all too well what it’s like to not have your biological parents a part of your life, so if my luck is still hot, I think I can convince Sand to reconcile with her father. I mean, she always talked about how much she missed her family, and I think a phone conversation would be a great start.”
“Well, look at you being all sentimental and stuff,” Shun teased.
Rene scrolled farther down the page. “Found it! I need a phone. Give me a phone; hurry, hurry.” She was too excited about the possibility of reuniting Sand and her father for the holiday.
“Here, here,” Shun said, rushing over. She shoved the cordless in Rene’s hands and watched her dial the numbers with both of her thumbs.
“Hello, may I speak to Mr. Hendell Ross, please?” Rene said as soon as the male voice on the other end of the line answered.
“Who’s calling?”
Rene grew nervous. “Hello, sir. My name is Rene Brown.” She hesitated for a second. “I’m a very good friend of your daughter.” The other end of the line fell silent. Too silent. “Mr. Ross?” Rene said, checking to be sure that they hadn’t gotten disconnected.
“Is she dead?”
Rene was caught off guard. She twisted her face. “No, sir, she’s not.”
Shun walked over to her friend and took a seat beside her, listening in as best she could.
“Well, then, I guess you’re interrupting my show.”
Click.
Rene just held the phone in her hands. It took Shun pulling it from her grasp for her to realize what had just happened. “He doesn’t want anything to do with his own child,” Rene said unbelievably.
Shun witnessed the hurt in her eyes. She didn’t have an answer for her friend. Not right now and probably not ever.
* * *
Sand was nervous as hell, and everything around her looked, smelled, and felt like a setup. The strong stench of urine lit her nose on fire as she waited in a dead-end alley for Chyna to show up for the rest of her money. In the back of Sand’s mind, something was telling her to call it off. But she had come too far, and this was the closest she’d ever gotten to getting revenge on Chyna for trying to set her up for Jasmine’s murder. It was the only way she saw out of this mess she was in. And now, with her palms sweating and her heart racing, for some strange reason, she felt like a hypocrite.
“I can’t do this,” she mumbled into the earpiece. “I can’t do it. Call it off. Y’all hearing me? Call this shit off. Man, I can’t do this like this.” She wanted her name cleared of whatever it was they might have had on her, but there was no way in hell she was going to narc.
“Cassandra, it’s too late for that,” the federal agent said.
She hollered out to who she thought was her friend, but had all along been the undercover after Chyna. “James, you said if I didn’t wanna do this shit, that I could pull out. I’m pulling out, goddamn it! Call it.”
“You can’t, Sand. She’s already here.”
* * *
Peaches stuffed whatever she could into a small blue and green bag as she raced from one end of the room to the other. Everything she owned she was taking with her. That meant the clothes on her back, the shoes on her feet, and the personal music collection she’d accumulated over the years. Music was her escape from everything she dealt with on a daily basis. It took her away, and when it was time to come back, it helped her to cope.
She was halfway down the stairs, halfway out of the house and almost on her way to a better life when her phone rang. She knew by the ring tone who it was, and she could sense that something wasn’t right. Why would he be calling her thi
s soon? Something had to be wrong. “James?” she answered.
“She didn’t show up. Get out of—”
Before she could comprehend what he had just said, a strong kick to her back sent her flying down the flight of stairs, face-first.
* * *
Sand was so nervous she could barely stand still. She reached for her piece, and then remembered that it wasn’t there. As the long-haired figure moved toward her, she began to feel that feeling again. This was a setup. “Where the fuck is Chyna?”
Fantasy’s conniving smile didn’t go unnoticed. “Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?” She looked Sand straight in the eye. “Where’s the money?”
Sand stepped closer to Fantasy. “I’m not giving you shit until you tell me where the fuck Chyna’s at!” she said louder than before, hoping the feds were getting everything.
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong?” Fantasy smirked. She stepped even closer. Her nipples rubbed against Sand’s chest. “Tell me to my face that you don’t want this pussy. That you never thought about it.”
Sand didn’t flinch.
“Say it! Tell me the thought never crossed your mind about what it would be like to fuck Chyna’s main bitch.”
Sand took a few steps back. She gripped the briefcase tighter. “Yeah, I thought about it,” she whispered, playing into Fantasy’s little mind game. “I thought about how I could eliminate the bitch, just to get closer to you,” she lied, looking Fantasy dead in the eye.
“Really?” Fantasy asked. She slid her gun from her purse. “What about now? Do you still wanna fuck me, Sand? Do you still want Chyna’s bitch?”
“Get that gun outta my face,” she warned Fantasy.
Fantasy ignored her. She was running this shit now. She came there to get Chyna’s grip and put an end to their problem child. “Give me the motherfucking money!”
Sand thought about making a break for it but knew that if she tried, she wouldn’t get very far. Not with the bullets of a Beretta hunting her down.
“It ain’t so funny now, huh? Is this a good look for you, Sand?” she asked. “Is this a fucking good look for you?” Fantasy yelled to her face.
Sand took a deep breath. If this was how she had to go, she was ready to accept that destiny. “Shoot me,” she whispered. “Get the shit over with!” Suddenly rapid footsteps were coming from all different directions.
“Police! Drop your weapon!”
Fantasy didn’t bother turning around. “Chyna sent me here to handle your ass. Fuck the money.” She cocked the gun, her finger rubbing against the heart of the trigger. She showed no remorse for what she knew she was prepared to do here tonight. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d killed for Chyna.
Sand closed her eyes and dropped the case of money to the ground.
“Don’t do it!”
It was too late. One shot rang from Fantasy’s gun, and another blast came from behind them. Sand, barely on her feet, caught Fantasy as she fell into her arms. She held on as long as she could, until her own legs gave out.
“We need an ambulance! We’ve got two down. I repeat, two down.” The first officer ran to Sand’s aid. He checked her pulse. “Stay with me.”
Sand struggled to breathe. Her body felt cold as ice as she lay in a puddle of her own blood.
“Get her on the gurney now!”
“Stay with us!” a paramedic said. “What’s her name?”
“Twenty-two-year-old black female . . . Cassandra Janene Ross.”
“What happened?”
“One bullet to the chest . . .”
“We need to notify the family . . .”
“Somebody talk to me . . .”
“Code blue!”
“She’s going into cardiac arrest!”
* * *
Peaches spit out the blood that filled her mouth. She crawled until another kick lifted her off her stomach and onto her side. Groaning, she rolled onto her back.
“Where the fuck you think you going?” Chyna asked her.
A string of blood dripped from Peaches’s nose. “Nowhere,” she choked.
Chyna walked closer to Peaches and bent down to where she lay on her back. “It doesn’t look like that to me.” She picked up the phone that lay beside her, checking the last incoming call. She pressed Talk. A familiar voice answered on the first ring.
“Peaches, did you get out of the house?”
Chyna glared at the bitch who she realized had just double-crossed her. She then came to the brutal reality: James wasn’t a dirty cop; he was an undercover for the feds. And for the last two years, she had been housing their informant.
28
Rene checked the volume on the phone again. It was still on. As she lifted the receiver, the dial tone greeted her. Tears made waves in her eyes. “I can’t believe I fell for it.”
Shun reached over to her and held her in her arms.
“She was just lying to me. How could she look me in the face and lie like that?”
“Don’t. You quit that right now. Sand loves you! She would never up and leave you like that after all y’all just been through.”
“Well, explain why I haven’t heard from her since she dropped me off here.” Rene waited. Shun said nothing. “I didn’t think you could.” It had been three days since Rene last talked to Sand, and she was worried sick that something might have happened to her. All she told her was that she had to handle some business and that she’d be right back for her. She never came back. She didn’t even call. Rene actually believed that they were getting back together, and now she felt stupid for her wishful thinking. But she needed to hear Sand say that they were over for her to accept that this was the end. She crawled back in bed. She didn’t know what to make of all of this. Was Sand in trouble, or was this another one of her disappearing acts? “You and Carl go ahead and enjoy yourselves,” she told Shun. “I’ll be okay.”
Shun kissed her on her forehead. “If you need me for anything, call me. After the ceremony, Carl is going to take us to his ranch out in Forney to spend the holiday, but now, if you need anything, you call me, and I’ll come running.”
Rene smiled up at her friend. She was so beautiful in the champagne-gold, form-fitting dress that showed off her new figure. Her hair was done in beautiful long curls that draped her shoulders, and her makeup was flawless. For once in her life, Rene was happy to see her friend confident with who she was. “I’ll be fine. I promise,” Rene said.
“Okay. Now get yourself some sleep, and I’ll call you first thing in the morning so that you can hear the boys when they open all those presents you bought for them. Lawd knows you might even hear ’em screaming before I get the call in.”
Rene could only force a smile.
“Get you some rest, sweetie,” Shun said before closing the door shut.
Rene closed her eyes again and slowly drifted off to sleep.
“Come on, y’all!” Shun yelled at the boys like a drill sergeant the second she turned the corner. They lined up in front of her with their overnight gear in hand. “Now remember,” Shun started, “speak when you spoken to, and when you ain’t . . .” she waited for them to complete the rest of the sentence.
“Hush our mouths.”
* * *
It was a full eight hours later when Rene decided to finally get out of bed. She had been completely out of it. She moved through the front room. It was so dark in the house, and the bit of light that she did see was coming from the window. That light immediately vanished. Seconds later, a vibrating sound was coming from her purse. She walked over to it and reached inside with the intention of throwing it in the trash, but instead, she answered it.
“I’m not doing it, so you can forget about it!” she raged with attitude. She flipped the phone closed and walked into the kitchen. She tossed it in the trash, hoping to never have to hear or see that crazy bitch Chyna again. Minutes later, the doorbell rang, and without hesitation, she went to answ
er it.
* * *
Before Chyna pulled up at the house where Rene had been staying, she had been thinking about her last two projects that she had to knock out before hopping on that plane for Mexico tonight. She had to get out of Dallas. And thanks to Peaches, she now knew about how long the feds had been watching her. Peaches had told Chyna that they were expecting her to show up for the money instead of Fantasy. After hearing that, Chyna wasn’t sure if Fantasy was dead or alive. All she was certain of was that she was wanted and that the feds had been waiting for the perfect time to move in on her. But she fixed them all because right after sending a bullet into Peaches’s brain, she set fire to her. Dead informants didn’t talk.
Chyna now made her own path to the front door. Once Rene opened it, Chyna locked eyes with her. Chyna had only one thing on her mind.
Revenge.
* * *
Albery waited in his country lake house for his date to arrive after getting confirmation that she was on schedule. He had just stepped out of the shower and was stepping into his pants when the doorbell rang. He took a chocolate-covered strawberry from the fruit tray and nibbled on it while walking to the door. Then he looked out of the peephole to see two beautiful women standing on his front porch. His dick hardened instantly.
“Albery,” Chyna said with a satisfied grin. “I would like for you to meet your date, Illusion.”
Rene rolled her eyes. She hated the fuck out of this new name Chyna had been shopping her around with. She pulled the hair out of her face. Underneath the mahogany mink coat Chyna made her wear was nothing but her naked body.
Albery stretched the smile that was already on his face. “Do come in,” he sang.
Chyna smiled in his face, and the second she passed him, grimaced with disgust.
Rene brushed against Albery slightly as she walked by him. He grabbed her by the arm. “Illusion, huh? So that’s what they call you now?”
Rene’s lips didn’t offer him anything.
“I always knew underneath that innocent face was just another ho,” he smirked. “But this is ten grand I definitely don’t mind spending. So make it worth every penny.”
