“Like I told you then, Yvonna, a lot of established people have children who were raised in that church. And they paid a lot of money for them, too. If they even think there is a possibility that we may know who they are, they won’t hesitate to kill.” Gabriella said with seriousness in her eyes. “I had to move thirty times since I left that church. Thirty times, and there ain’t a day that goes by, that I don’t think that today might be my last day to live.”
Yvonna felt bad, she was so busy worrying about her own problems that she didn’t stop to think that Gabriella was hurting too. “You were always good at hiding. And running,” she laughed, “I’m still surprised Terrell was able to find you.”
“He got in contact with the right people.” Gabriella said. “So what, you’re not happy I came back in your life?”
“You know that ain’t hardly it.” She playfully hit her. “How can we move on with our lives?”
“I don’t know, but I wish I did.”
“I never asked you this before, Gabriella. But…do you know who any of the children are now? The ones who have famous families?”
“Yes. I wrote down the names of all of the children that were sold. And I have the information in a safe deposit box in a small town called St. Augustine in Florida. I’ve had something to do with ten of the locations closing, and before I die, I want to see all of them closed for life.”
Yvonna sat back in her chair. “How could you put your life in danger like that? You’re messing with people’s livelihoods.”
“How can I not risk my life? Look at everything they took from me. Look at everything they took from you.” Gabriella said softly. “A lot of children in that place committed suicide, Yvonna. They couldn’t function. And until I see the person responsible for this madness fall, I won’t stop doing what I have to do.”
“Do you know who is at the top of all of this shit?”
“No.” She said softly. “I don’t. We just gotta be careful.”
“I want to move. When everything is all said and done, I want to move to a small island in the Philippines.”
“Why?”
“No extradition treaty with the US.”
“Why would you need that?”
“Gabriella, there is a lot going on that you don’t know about me. I mean, yeah you know I suffer from Schizophrenia. But I think I dealt with my issues as a child in a different way. By taking care of people’s dirty work. It helps me relieve stress.”
“What does that mean?”
“I won’t go into detail, but when I finally leave, I would have caused so much havoc in the US, that I need to move to a country with no extradition to the States. The Philippines is one country.”
“Are you telling me that you…I mean…that you kill people for a living?”
“Let’s just say if we were fictional characters you’d be the hero, and I’d be the villain.”
“That Uncle Yao doesn’t have anything to do with this now does he?”
“Why don’t you like him? You wouldn’t believe what he has done for me. I mean, yes he can be a little creepy because of all of his power, but he keeps me safe. I had so many attempts on my life that if it wasn’t for Yao, I doubt me and Delilah would be alive today.”
“I don’t care what you think he does for you.” Gabriella persisted. “I don’t like him and never will. He gives me the…”
“MING SUCKED MORE DICKS LAST NIGHT THAN TEN HOES ON 14th STREET PUT TOGETHER!” Ming yelled, entering the suite. Yvonna and Gabriella looked at her in silence. When the door closed she said, “What? Did Ming interrupt something?
Yvonna, Gabriella and Ming were waiting on room service when something dawned on Yvonna. Why was Gabriella in her suite when she ran into her after leaving Delilah? Her room was on another floor.
“Morning,” Terrell said exiting his bedroom out of the suite. “How are you ladies doing?”
“Fine. About to eat breakfast.” Yvonna said. “You hungry?”
“Yeah. Did you order me three pieces of toast and black coffee?”
“I didn’t but Ming did,” Yvonna said.
Ming smiled when Yvonna told him of her consideration. She had a crush on Terrell for the longest and although he never gave her the time of day, it was not for lack of trying. Having been use to her flirts he winked and said, “Thank you, Ming.”
“Fuck thank you,” Ming replied. “How ‘bout you put something in Ming that will prove your gratitude.”
Everyone laughed. “I’ll pass for now.” He joked entering the kitchen.
“For now?” Ming repeated with hopefulness.
“Forever. I’ll pass forever.” He continued trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Ming, what’s going on with your mother? Are you guys still hooking up next week?” Yvonna asked, saving Terrell from more of Ming’s wrath. Plus she really wanted the relationship with her mother to go the way Ming wanted.
“Yes.” She exhaled. “Ming is looking forward to visiting again in China next week.”
“I’m happy ya’ll were able to move past the bullshit. I would kill to have a mother in my life.”
“Me, too.” Gabriella said touching her hand.
“So, what time is the party tonight? Ming wants to shake her new fat ass.”
Yvonna’s mind was so wrecked that she forgot all about the party. More importantly, she forgot about what she did to Carmen last night. If things worked out in her favor, before the night was over, Carmen would continue to be held up in a room within the hotel, and unable to attend Brick’s party.
Serves that bitch right. Shoulda never been dumb enough to fuck with me.
“The food is here!” Ming said opening the door for the waiter.
The waiter wheeled the cart in and left after Yvonna gave him a fifty-dollar tip. She wasn’t being nice; she just didn’t have anything smaller.
“Let me go get, Boy. He’s probably up now.”
When Ming walked through the connecting door to her suite, Yvonna pulled the silver tray off the first plate and saw a note that said, ‘Yvonna, read me alone.’
She snatched the note off the plate thinking the message would be from Yao. And since neither Terrell nor Gabriella knew what she did for a living, she tried her hardest to keep it a secret.
Terrell and Gabriella were laughing it up over breakfast when she stepped outside on the balcony to read the note in private. The sound of the city was heavy as Nevada’s heat slapped her in the face. Turning around to make sure no one was coming on the balcony she opened the letter and the message gave her chills.
‘I’ve never forgotten you. I lied patiently in the darkness waiting for the right moment to strike and this weekend you will die.’
Was it Mr. BMW? Was it Swoopes?
“Whoever you are, I hope you know who you fucking with.”
Sin City
Penny
Penny and Thaddeus sat in a Vegas diner eating extra greasy fried chicken and fries. Although Thaddeus was totally engrossed in his meal, she was nervous about the call she was expecting. The cell phone sat in the middle of the table and she hoped it would never ring.
RING!
With no such luck Penny picked up the phone and Thaddeus seeing the nervousness on her face said, “You want me to answer it?” Food rolled around in his open mouth. “Cause I ain’t hardly scared of them people.” He sounded ignorant and was clueless about the magnitude of her situation.
“No…no, sweetheart. Eat ya food. I got it.” She answered the phone hand shaking the entire time. “Hello.”
“Do you have her yet? And before you answer, I’m asking you do you have her in your custody now?”
“N…no.”
“Why not?”
“Because we haven’t been able ta get next ta her. But I’m in Vegas, waitin’ for my chance. It shouldn’t be too much longer now.”
“If you’re in Vegas, and she is too, it should be easy. Between the two of you it should be done already.”
�
�I knows, but I don’t too much like that girl. She seems ta think she can handle things on her own. We work best a part.”
“I don’t care, Estelle!!” He yelled calling her by her government name. Tears filled up in the wells of her eyes. “I told you to take care of this problem when you use to care for her back in the day. But you were so sure she didn’t know anything.”
“She didn’t.” The phone shook in her hand. “I’m sure of it.”
“You’re sure of nothing!”
“I just figured the chile couldn’t a known much. ‘Cause of the condition of her mind and all.”
“That may have been the case then, but that’s not the case now. Besides, we all knew you were really trying to get your hands on her child.”
“I can’t lie, I care for the child but…”
“Estelle Hightower, between the both of you, if Yvonna is not brought to me by the end of this week, you might as well stay where you are. Otherwise I will see to it that I stand over your dead body! And that goes for your boyfriend, too.”
When he hung up she saw a woman walking quickly in their direction holding a gun. “Baby, is that woman holdin’ a gun?” She asked Thaddeus.
He turned around slowly to see his wife approaching. Without saying a word she fired three shots in their direction. One bullet crashed into a customer’s coffee cup, one hit the counter and the last slammed into the cash register.
“Baby, what are you doin’?! He yelled running away from her at the same time. He and Penny caught wheels as they ran out of the diner.
“I’m tired of you cheating on me, nigga! I’ma about to put a stop to this shit permanently.” She was trying her best to keep up.
Thaddeus and Penny ran into the street missing a cab by inches. His left shoe fell off and flopped behind him. He didn’t bother going back to get it, his life was in danger and getting as far away from her as possible was all that mattered.
As they continued to run Penny knew one thing, if they made it out of this alive, whether she liked it or not, she was stuck with this nigga for the long haul. And the quicker she got her hands on Yvonna and got the fuck out of Vegas the better for them both.
Sin City
Yvonna
Ming, Gabriella and Terrell went downstairs to enjoy themselves before night fell on the city. Although they invited Yvonna, she declined their request knowing that she had other matters to tend to.
Besides, she was in her room preparing to meet with Urban Greggs at his request and figured a little bit of warming him up before she killed him couldn’t hurt her mission one bit. Urban was attractive, easy on the eyes and a pleasure to hang out with and since Bricks had been acting up, what did she have to lose? She didn’t even know if she was going to his party since she was responsible for Carmen’s absence.
She was in Terrell’s suite when her cell phone rang. “Hello.”
“Yvonna, its Quita.”
“Is Delilah okay?” She asked with a concerned tone.
“Yeah, but I wanted to know if you wanted to come over. I’m thinking about making some drinks and stuff.”
Yvonna took the phone from her ear, looked at it and frowned. “How you gonna make drinks when you babysitting my daughter tonight, bitch?”
“Uh…I…uh…”
“Quita, do your fucking job and don’t call me unless something is wrong with my child.”
When she ended the call, it rung again. “Hello.” She was irritated.
“Yvonna, I gotta rap to you. You got a few seconds?”
Her heart sped up at the sound of Bricks’ voice. There was no doubt about it, she was hopelessly in love with him. “What’s up? I’m kind of busy right now,” she said, hoping he’d push more.
“I’m coming anyway.”
When he hung up she walked into the living room portion of her suite. Onik was standing inside, watching her as usual.
“Onik,” she smiled.
“Yvonna,” he smiled back.
“You know you don’t have to watch me everywhere I go don’t you? It’s not that serious.”
“When it comes to Yao, everything is serious.”
Arguing with him was useless so Yvonna went to the bedroom to spray a little perfume behind her ears and on her wrists. But when she searched for her favorite fragrance, she found it wasn’t there.
Figuring Ming’s bitch ass had taken her shit again without asking, she went into her bathroom to look. But when she opened the door, Gabriella was standing inside facing the bathroom mirror on the phone. Her beige shirt rested over the edge of the sink and droplets of water from the faucet left small stains on the sleeve. Gabriella was so engrossed in her phone that she didn’t know Yvonna was looking at her.
“I’m doing the best I can. You gotta give me more time. Please.”
When she put the phone down and turned around, Yvonna saw strange scars all over her stomach. It was the first time she’d seen Gabriella’s nakedness and she definitely didn’t expect it would look like shit.
“Yvonna, what are you doing here?” She asked covering her scars with her shirt.
“What are you doing in Ming’s room?”
“Oh…I got a little sweaty after losing some money, and needed to freshen up. So I used Ming’s bathroom. She walked me up here and then left.”
“That’s how you got past Onik?”
“Yeah.”
“Why not go to your own room?”
“I don’t have perfume in my room and Ming said I could borrow her Beyonce’ Heat.” Then she lifted the perfume off the counter.
Yvonna looked at the orange bottle in her hand and said, “That’s my shit.”
She laughed and handed her the perfume. “You know how your friend is.” Then she turned around to put her shirt on so that Yvonna could no longer observe her scars.
“Where is Ming anyway?”
Once dressed, Gabriella turned back around. “Still downstairs trying to convince Terrell to sleep with her. I don’t know how you deal with her sometimes.”
“What you mean?”
“To me it would be hard trying to deal with a friend I know is trying to fuck my man.”
“Terrell isn’t my man.”
“You know what I mean…your ex.”
“Ming is going to be Ming and as much as I can’t stand her sometimes, I love her even more. You always know where she’s coming from because she tells you straight out. I can’t ask for more than that.”
Gabriella smiled and walked toward the bathroom’s doorway and Yvonna let her past. She followed her into the living room. “I get that,” she paused, “I just think you need to be careful that’s all. I don’t trust Yao or his niece.” Hearing this Onik frowned. “But look, let me go.”
She was acting different and Yvonna was uncomfortable. “Going back to the casino?”
“Yeah. You coming? I’m having a nice time even if I’m losing.”
“No. I’m waiting on Bricks.” Yvonna sprayed the perfume on her arms and neck and placed it on the table.
“Oh…well, let me go.” Gabriella said walking to the door. “Later, babes.”
“Later.” Something about her felt strange. Real strange.
Yvonna ignored it and five minutes later, Bricks came over and she asked Onik to let him inside. Bricks smelled so good and even though he was only wearing a pair of grey Gucci sweats and a white t-shirt, her knees grew weak at the sight of him. His beard was neatly shaped up, leaving a hint of five o’clock shadow.
“Yvonna, I wanted to talk to you about Yao.” His gray eyes looked deeply into her. “But before I talk about all that, did you fuck with that girl?”
“What girl?”
“Carmen, her peoples can’t find her.”
“Don’t fucking ask me about no Carmen!”
“I’m sick of you talking to me sideways. Answer my fucking question before I fuck you up.”
Onik adjusted and was about to go for his weapon. “Onik, please wait out in the hall.” His eyes said
are you sure. “I’ll be fine.” When he left she said, “Bricks I’m sorry about coming at you like that, but I don’t know where she is.”
He sat back into the chair and said, “Why you have Ming burn that chick’s hair?”
“I know you not still asking me about no bitch I can’t stand. You can’t be serious. Plus, I ain’t have nothing to do with that shit.”
He knew she was lying but left it alone. “You know what, fuck all that, I wanna rap about Yao.”
“Why don’t you wait for the meeting with Yao if you want to talk about him. I got somewhere to be right now anyway.”
“Where you going?”
“None of your business.” She was about to walk to her room.
“Sit the fuck down, Yvonna.”
“Bricks, please stop tripping.”
“I swear you gonna make me choke your ass out. Now sit the fuck down!”
Yvonna plopped down on the sofa like a kid not having her way and said, “What could you possibly want to hear from me that Yao can’t tell you himself?”
“I just wanna know if you sure about him. I wanna make sure he’s on the up and up. You feel me?”
Shyt List 4: Children of the Wronged (The Cartel Publications Presents) Page 9
