by T. Styles
“You don’t want to see him? Because we can spin him around,” Shadow said.
“I’m gonna try to reach him now and tell him I’ll get up with him later.”
She got out her phone and sent a message.
Bones, hit me back when you can.
“Oh . . . Vivian said she coming by later to get the rent. You got it?” Shadow asked.
“I don’t have no choice, because God knows you two don’t have shit. Jaffrey gave me a couple of bucks to last for a few months,” she said, looking at them. “But when y’all gonna start helping me out around here? To be honest, I don’t know what y’all do.”
“Let’s see, we got rid of unwanted people for you and cleaned up your loose edges so you could stay out of prison,” Mia said. “If you ask me, we helped out enough around here.”
“I guess you right about that.”
“I am.” Mia laughed. “But just so you know, me and Shadow got some things in the works with Willie.”
Farah’s eyebrows rose. “You sure that’s a good thing to be getting into business with him, seeing how he murdered his own son?”
“Money is money, Farah,” Shadow replied.
“Whatever. Y’all grown people, and there’s nothing I can do to change your minds.”
“Exactly.” Mia grabbed the empty vodka bottle. “Now, since it was my plan to set you free and it worked, who going to the store to get another bottle?”
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Farah jumped up to answer the door. “Unfortunately it won’t be me, because I have to get the door.” When she opened it, Slade was on the other side.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” He looked inside and saw Shadow and Mia. He hadn’t seen her since she helped him bring down Randy.
Farah felt he looked so good, and he was only wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt.
“I can come back later if you too busy.” He paused. “Although I really want to be with you, and I miss you like crazy, Farah.”
She hadn’t had sex in a while, so she saw the look in his eyes and knew what time it was. “Slade’s here,” Farah said, trying to keep her calm. “Didn’t y’all say something earlier about going to the store to get some liquor?”
Farah was in the bed with her legs wrapped around Slade. This was the best part about being with him: the tender moments like this, where she had him all to herself in an empty house.
“So when are you going back home?” she asked him. “To Mississippi?”
He sighed. “My mother is going tomorrow. Me and my brothers are staying behind.”
“Really?” she asked hopefully. “Why the change of heart?”
“Because we’re still hoping that this bitch will show up.” Farah seemed sad. “And even if she did, I’m not sure if I can pull myself away from you.”
She looked into his eyes and kissed him on the lips. “You don’t know how good it feels to hear you say that. It’s one thing to be here for business, it’s a whole other thing to be here for me.”
“It’s the truth.” He rubbed her hair. “But I’m glad it makes you feel good.”
“I gotta ask you something,” she said in a low voice. “Why are you with me? I mean, you have Shannon and God knows how many other groupies who would kill to be with you.” She rubbed his chest.
“Why you saying stupid shit?” He was beyond annoyed. Shannon hadn’t stopped giving him grief ever since he left her at the restaurant. If she wasn’t calling his apartment every five minutes, she was calling Markee’s crib where Major stayed alone. “Shannon is the last bitch on the face of the earth I’m thinking about. And I’m with you because I love you. Stop asking me stupid-ass questions.”
She hated his generic answer. “This is why I don’t like to talk to you sometimes. Every time I try to express how I feel, you shoot me down. It’s like it don’t even matter.”
He lifted her chin so she could look into his eyes. “It’s like this, we won’t always agree on things, babes. And yes, some things you say may rub me the wrong way.”
“And vice versa,” she admitted.
“And I’m cool with you not always agreeing with me. Most couples don’t. I’m offering you love, Farah. Unconditional love. Maybe you aren’t used to it, but it is true.” He lifted her onto the tip of his dick. “I thought I was in love with my ex-girlfriend.” He moved inside of her. “And to be honest, I thought there wasn’t a woman alive who could come close to what I felt for her, and you know what you taught me?”
“No,” she said, biting her bottom lip as she rode him.
“You taught me I don’t know shit. I’m in love with a bitch who I’m sure is bad news, and I don’t even care anymore.”
Farah tried to keep a straight face, despite the fact that he was talking real shit and fucking her at the same time.
“I stepped to my family for you, Farah. My brothers are telling me that I shouldn’t be with you, and my mother said she’ll never respect you. But guess what? I’m a real nigga, and I have chosen. I’d rather be with you for the rest of my life than to be with some bitch I’m not feeling for another minute.”
She kissed him passionately without responding, and he had his answer. “I can’t believe after all of this time, I’m really in love.”
“Now, that’s what I like to hear.”
They were just about to get into it real heavy when there was a knock at the door.
“Who is that?” Slade asked.
“If they knocking, it can’t be Shadow or Mia.” Farah was nowhere near being presentable, so she said, “It’s probably Vivian. Can you hand her the rent money on the kitchen counter?”
“You keep that. I got a few bucks on me. I’ll pay you up for the next two months.”
She grinned. “Why do I feel spoiled?”
“I haven’t begun to spoil you yet.” He tapped her on the ass. “Let me hurry up and get rid of this bitch so we can finish where we left off. I’ll meet you back here.”
Farah jumped up and went to the bathroom to wash their lovemaking session off her body. She took a look at herself in the mirror and smiled. “You really did it, didn’t you? I guess you’re smarter than people give you credit for.” Her skin was clear and barely held a blemish.
When she was done with her whore’s bath, she walked back into the bedroom, but Slade wasn’t there. “Baby, where you at?” She looked in the closet and even under the bed. She laughed to herself when she realized there was no way he was squeezing his big ass under her mattress. “What you trying to do, play some kinky game or something?”
She walked into the hallway and saw her man standing by the kitchen counter. He was talking low, and she wondered what was up. She started to go back into the room, not feeling like seeing Vivian, until she saw the look on his face. When she continued on her journey and saw him holding one of the mysterious red boxes she’d received, her legs gave out from under her body and she fell. Somehow she was able to push herself up and walk into the living room. That’s when she saw his face.
The moment she laid eyes on him, it all made sense. After everything she and her family did to him as a child, why wouldn’t he want revenge? It was Theo Cunningham, the boy she kicked in the penis as a child, because her mother told her to. The boy who lost his mother by the hands of her family.
When Slade took the lid off of the box and pulled out a picture, it was over. From where she stood, she could see it clearly. It was a duplicate of the first picture she’d received and destroyed. It was the photo where she stood over Knox’s bloodied body, covering his nose.
Slade held the picture out and looked in her direction, and the box fell from his hands. “Baby, what is this?” Tears poured out of his eyes. “What is he showing me?”
She moved cautiously toward Slade. “I don’t know,” Farah lied. “What’s going on, Theo? Uh . . . what are you doing at my house? Bringing me fake pictures again?”
“It’s not fake, Farah,” Theo replied. “You and me both know that the photo is authentic. Just t
ell him the truth.”
She looked at Theo, but her heart was with Slade. There she was, worried about Eleanor, Lesa, and Randy, when all this time it was Theo Cunningham. He wanted revenge, and he’d gotten his wish.
“Farah, why are you standing over Knox’s bloodied body?”
“Baby, I don’t know what this nigga is trying to do, but I bet money that picture is a fake. Don’t let somebody step us back again. We came too far to be together!”
“I’m not telling a lie,” Theo combatted in his two-piece blue suit. Although he was there to ruin her life, he looked like money, like life had been good to him. “These pictures are real, and I have more if you want to see them, Slade. Farah and her family are evil, man, real evil, and it’s time you knew the truth.”
“Farah, is this my brother Knox?” Slade yelled, interrupting him. His voice rocked her eardrums and caused them to itch. “I want you to stop playing games with me! Please . . . please . . . tell me the truth!”
“Slade, can we at least talk about this first? I think this nigga is giving you the wrong impression about me, and I want an opportunity to make it right. There’s so much I want to tell you, but I need to do it in private.”
“I want you to stop telling lies, Farah. Did you or did you not have something to do with my brother going missing?”
Farah remained silent.
“The least you can do is tell the truth, baby,” Slade pleaded. “I’m dying over here.”
“And I’m telling you the truth, but you not listening.”
She never saw a grown man cry that hard before. Sure, she witnessed weaker men shed tears, but never, ever, in all of her life had she witnessed a man she respected cry from his soul. Although she hated to witness it, she understood where the pain came from. She didn’t lose Chloe in the same way, but her death hurt her just as deep. She could only imagine how it must’ve felt to lose a family member at the hands of a woman who stole his heart.
“Be decent, Farah,” he said with a voice full of bass. “Are me and my family looking for a dead man?”
Now she was crying. “Baby . . .”
“Answer the fucking question!”
The boom in his voice rocked her back a few feet. She was trembling. This was it. This was the moment she feared. “I don’t know about the picture, Slade. All I know is—”
“What?” he cut her off. “What do you know?”
“All I know is that I love you.” She stepped up to him. “And that I’ve never loved another human being more than you. Not even my family, Slade.” He stepped away, and she pulled him back and put her head on his chest. She could hear his heart thumping wildly. He tried to walk away, but she pulled him and held on to him so tightly that her nails dug into his skin. “Don’t walk out on me again . . . please.” In a low whisper, she said, “I made a mistake. Please . . . don’t take yourself away from me again.” She paused to look into his eyes.
Finally he pulled himself away from her. “Did you kill my brother?”
Softly she said, “Yes.”
He stepped to her, preparing to do her harm, when there was a knock at the door. Without approval, Theo opened it, and in walked two police officers with angry faces. “Slade Baker, you’re under arrest for the murder of Warren Farmer.” They forcefully grabbed him, threw him up against the kitchen counter, and placed handcuffs on his wrists.
“Where are you taking him?” Farah asked, walking into their space. “Please stop! You’re hurting him!”
“He’s going to jail, ma’am! And if you don’t back the fuck up, you going too.”
“I don’t know nobody named Warren!” Slade had screamed, trying to wrap his mind around everything that was happening. First he discovered that his family had been right about Farah all along, and now he was being arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.
“You may not know him as Warren Farmer, but you should know him as Tornado,” one of the officers yelled. “If that doesn’t jog your memory, maybe you’ll recall the man you beat to death with your bare hands in the hallway.”
Slade felt weak at the knees, because he knew immediately where he went wrong. Because he left Shannon in the restaurant, she did the unspeakable and snitched on him to the cops. She was there the day he killed Tornado, and now he would pay. If he was able to make it out of the situation, he had plans for her, and Farah, too.
“Now you coming with us!” Slade was whisked out of the apartment, and the door slammed behind them. Farah leaned on the door and sobbed her eyes out. Just when she thought her life was together, she realized it was falling apart.
Now she was alone with Theo. “Don’t be sad, Farah.” Theo giggled. “At least you still have me. As long as you’re committing crimes, you’ll always have me.”
Farah shook her head. “I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.” Her chest moved rapidly up and down. “Why?”
“Now you know how it feels to have lost.” Theo laughed. “Killing your mother didn’t faze you, so I had to take it a step further.”
“You killed Brownie?”
“Of course I did!” He laughed. “The funny thing is, I was in the closet when you came in and slit her throat. Apparently you hated your mother as much as I did.” He continued sitting on the kitchen counter. “I dreamt about the day where I would get the woman who killed my mother.”
“Theo, I didn’t have anything to do with your mother being killed. You’re right, my mother was responsible for that shit. But what do you want from me now? Why are you ruining my life?”
“I want her children.” He laughed harder. “That’s why I clipped the truck your sister was in with her boyfriend that night, causing them to get into an accident.”
Farah stumbled backward.
“I thought they would both be dead, but when Chloe almost made it in the hospital, I cut the cord to her oxygen, and the hospital covered it up. You know how they hate lawsuits.”
“Theo . . . I . . . I can’t—”
“There’s no need in you saying anything I want to hear. Most of the things coming out of your mouth are lies anyway. Since I ruined your relationship with Slade by showing him that you were responsible for his brother’s death, now I have to finish what I started. ”
Farah couldn’t get over the fact that he killed Chloe. “I can’t believe you killed my sister! She loved you! For a while you were in a relationship and everything.”
“Chloe was a whore! Just like you.” He laughed. “She told me when we were kids what all of you did, said she had to get it off her chest.” He shook his head. “The only reason I didn’t kill you mothafuckas sooner was because she said she loved me. I was confused. But when she left me for Audio, I got wiser.” He hopped down off the counter. “I’ll be in touch, Farah. For now, I’m going to leave you to it.”
Theo was about to walk out when Mia, Shadow, and Bones walked in the apartment. It was obvious that Mia didn’t see Theo, because she said, “We found your friend Bones in the hallway. He was on his way up.” She paused. “He got some smoke, too.” She was all smiles, until she saw Theo standing in her apartment. “Wait, what is he doing here?”
Farah pushed the pain down in her gut and said, “I’m glad y’all are here. We have a situation that needs to be handled immediately.”
“What’s going on?” Shadow asked, remembering what they all did to Theo as a child.
“This mothafucka killed Mama! And Chloe, too. I want him dead!”
Shadow rubbed his hands together. “Consider it done.”
Epilogue
Present Day
Mooney’s House
Mooney sipped from a cup full of brandy and tea as she eyed Cutie.
“You know I hate you, right?” Cutie laughed, throwing herself back into her seat. “I don’t know why I bother with you sometimes.”
“Why would you say something so mean?” Mooney grinned. “I thought we were friends.”
“Because you know I want to hear the rest.” She crossed her arms over h
er chest. “And you and these long pauses are going to be the death of me.”
“And I’m going to tell you everything you want to know tonight. Haven’t I done it already?”
“Tonight?” She looked at the clock on the wall. “But it’s late.”
“Your mother called earlier and said she is working late. Asked me to sit with you and the twins. So you’ll learn the entire story tonight.”
Cutie clapped wildly. “Thank you, Mooney! I have so many questions. Like, I know your mother died, but since Randy did too, weren’t you able to get her estate put back in your name? It seems to me that the house and everything went to waste.”
“Who said the house isn’t in my name?”
Cutie looked around the apartment. “So you prefer to live in the projects?”
“If I told you yes, you still wouldn’t believe me. If I said no, it would lead to other questions. So for now I’ll say nothing.”
“Mooney, can I ask you a question?”
“Wow, the young lady has manners tonight. That’s certainly a start.” She placed her drink on the table.
“I’m serious.”
“And so am I. Normally you’re cussing and fussing. To hear you use appropriate language for a change throws me off. I gotta say that I like it.”
Cutie was hoping the way she worded her statement would make Mooney be honest, so she swallowed and asked, “How do I know anything you’re saying is true? I mean, this sounds like a real tall tale, and my foster mother said whenever somebody pulling your dress real hard, they want some pussy.”
Mooney chuckled. “Well, I’m sure you know that’s the last thing on my mind.”
“To be honest, I don’t know what your thing is.” She shrugged. “You do seem to like me an awful lot. I’m just saying.”
“Well, you can be sure whatever I want, that ain’t it.” Mooney spit back. “Having sex with a child is atrocious, and the mere thought makes my skin crawl. The sad part is, I just gave you credit for nothing! You still the same rude bitch you were when I found you rolling around with the rats downstairs in the basement.” She paused. “And for your information, when I first started telling you the story, I showed you a newspaper clipping.” She got up and showed her the newspaper clipping again along with another. “Here’s the article about my arm.”
