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RedBone

Page 44

by Styles, T.


  “How could you know? You left the baby shower, remember?”

  “The only reason I left was because I couldn’t see. You saw me, Rhonda. I was fucked up! And I’m gonna pay Shannon back for it too. Technically all this shit is her fault,” she threatened. “Look, I don’t want to argue with my friend, and I didn’t come here for all of that.” She reached in the bag and pulled out a fluffy yellow teddy bear. “I got this for my godson.” She smiled, waving the toy. “I think he’s gonna love it. I bought it from Build-A-Bear.”

  Rhonda took the stuffed animal out of her hand, and held it to her chest. She squeezed it so tightly the neck bent backward. “I’m sure he would ...” Tears ran down her face. “I’m sure he would have loved it, if he was alive.” She looked back out of the window at the clear blue sky. “Please leave, Farah. I’ll see you later. Believe that.”

  Chapter 72

  “I don’t think the devil himself would want to fuck with me now.”

  —Della

  Della rode silently in the cab on her way to Markee’s apartment in Platinum Lofts. She was heavy with grief, and hadn’t felt this emotionally broken since she lost her mother, the great Renita Scott. Since her children had been in the nation’s capital, two of her sons were missing and nobody had answers. Growing up in the country a few years shy of the slavery days, she knew if you wanted anything done, you had better do it yourself.

  “Here’s the place,” the black male cab driver said, parking the car. He turned around to look at the old woman, who had so many frown lines on her face it resembled a road map. Her expression was hard, but she was heavy with love, if you were on her good side. “This building hasn’t been up long at all. I heard the apartments inside are real nice and spacious though.” He chuckled to himself. “I’m more of a three hots and a cot man myself, if you know what I mean.” Della kept her silence. “Don’t need all this fancy stuff at all, no siree!” he lied, knowing if his coins were in order, he’d move with the quickness.

  “Thank you for the ride,” she said in a heavy country accent, thicker than her sons . “You have a card? I got money to spend on a driver who can be there for me whenever I need him.” She handed him a one hundred dollar bill for a forty-five dollar fare. “You think’you can handle that?”

  The driver greedily tucked the money in his shirt pocket and said, “Ma’am, for this kind of cash”—he tapped his shirt twice—“I’ll sleep on your doorstep,” he joked.

  With a stern expression, she said, “That won’t be necessary. I do have one request though. I don’t mind a little talking here and there, but when I ride, I prefer my silence. Can you work with that?”

  He turned around and faced the road, figuring she was referring to the way his mouth yapped nonstop all the way over from the airport. “Look no further. I’m your man. Della had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to help himself, but at least he was on notice. Because if she snapped, he’d know why.

  She opened the door, and eased out of the back of the cab, holding nothing but a big black purse and a wooden cane. She didn’t bring luggage because as long as she had a few dollars in her pocket and a beating heart, she had everything she needed. Clothes and the like she could get once she got situated.

  Before pulling off the driver leaned over to the window and said, “Be careful in there. I don’t believe what I’m hearing but—”

  “If you don’t believe it, why would you tell me?” she asked, interrupting him.

  Slightly embarrassed he said, “I’m just giving you this so I can sleep better at night.” Della shook her head in annoyance. In her opinion, there was nothing worse than a gossiping-ass man. “I just wanted you to know that they saying some crazy bitch lives there, who likes to drink blood and stuff. I know of at least three people who moved out already because of that.”

  Della smirked. “Sir, as angry as I am, I don’t think the devil himself would want to fuck with me now, and certainly not a vampire.”

  Chapter 73

  “I can’t deal with her right now. I got to use all of my energy on Chloe.”

  —Farah

  After leaving the hospital from visiting Rhonda, Farah trudged into the house with a heavy heart. Everybody she loved was turning against her, and she wondered if she really needed to change. When she went into her room, Mia and Shadow were sitting on her bed in silence. The window was open, and the daylight absent of the sun lit up everything. “Why are y’all in here?” She sat next to them, and kicked her shoes off one by one. Then she flung her purse to the floor. “Any news on Chloe yet?”

  “No ... I can’t believe this shit!” Mia said. “Our world is coming down hard!”

  “Why is all of this happening? I can’t deal with this bullshit right now!” Shadow yelled. “Fuck!” Then he looked at Mia, and it was obvious they knew something. “We should tell her.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Stop playing games and tell me what’s up! Please ... I don’t think I can take any more bad news.”

  “Mamma’s dead,” Mia cried, while Farah was relieved that this was the reason for their dismay. “We went to tell her that Chloe was missing. She changed the locks so we couldn’t get inside, so we called the police. I smelled something foul, but I didn’t know what it was. When the police came, before they even got to her apartment, from the outside they knew what was up. She was dead. Sitting in front of a TV. Somebody slit her throat, and shot her in the chest.”

  “Wait ... shot her in the chest?” She was confused. “Why ... why they do both?”

  “They didn’t know she was shot at first. But when they took her to the hospital, and lifted the black gown she wore, they saw the bullet hole over her heart.” Mia was breathing so heavily she had to fan herself to prevent from passing out. Shadow popped up and marched toward the window. He leaned up against the wall, and looked out through the pane to prevent from crying. “You should’ve seen her face, Farah. Oh, my God! She didn’t look anything like herself. The porphyria ate her up terribly! Our beautiful mother is gone.”

  Farah didn’t feel the same as her siblings about the loss, and it was evident by her expression. In her opinion Brownie got everything she deserved, but she didn’t understand who shot her, and attempted to hide it. “I can’t deal with her right now,” Farah said. “I got to use all of my energy on Chloe.”

  Mia wiped her face, and touched Farah’s knee. “I understand you don’t feel the same as we do.” She looked at Shadow and back at her. “After everything she put you through, it’s wrong for us to expect you to.” She gave her a hug and Farah gladly accepted. She loved her family, Ashur included, but Brownie she couldn’t care less about. “Grandma said she’s coming over here in about an hour. You know she never comes out, but she wants to be there for us.” That’s all she needed was to see Elise’s face right now. She was growing increasingly uncomfortable. “I almost forgot, Slade and them were over here earlier. They wanted to talk here instead of at Markee’s. They said they can’t be sure if they can trust him yet.”

  “I never liked dude,” Shadow said, looking at them. “He got a lot of shit with him if you ask me.” He looked back out the window.

  “Something happened while they were here though. I gave Slade my key to get back in, because we were going to the morgue to identify Ma’s body.”

  As Farah replayed the tapes of what Mia just said in her mind, a frightful expression covered her face. Immediately she hopped off the bed, and dropped to her knees. Shadow stood up straight and looked at his frantic sister in motion. Removing the box from under the bed with her stories, she was desperately seeking two things: her journal for the month, and Knox’s phone.

  When Mia saw her fling the books out of the box, she finally understood her horror. “Please tell me you didn’t. Tell me you didn’t write about what you did to Knox in your book.” Farah looked at her without a response and Mia had her answer. “How could you be so fucking stupid?”

  “I been writing in these books all my life! What am
I supposed to do? Just stop?”

  Shadow walked over to them. “Farah, after all these fucking years? What the fuck is in them books anyway?”

  She held her head down. “Everything.”

  He leaned in. “Everything? Including the stuff we did that you knew about?”

  “Yes.”

  He put his hands over his face and paced in place. “Get the fuck out of here! Who does that kind of shit anyway? Just call the police and make a fucking recording!”

  The moment he said that, the front door slammed. Farah hopped off the floor, and they all walked into the living room to see who was there. Standing side by side in the middle of the living room were Slade, Killa, and Major. Della Baker was sitting on the recliner.

  When Farah walked out she said, “So this is Farah Cotton? The girl who stole my son’s heart.” She looked at her oldest son and using her cane, she pulled herself up.

  “Yeah ... that’s her.” It was obvious that he was avoiding eye contact with his lover. She tried to search his eyes to see how he felt about her, but at the moment they were empty.

  Mia and Shadow stood next to Farah as they waited for what would happen next. “Earlier today, Farah, my son found something on the way to the bathroom. In your house.”

  Mia looked at Killa and rolled her eyes. When she was home earlier, he kept saying how he had to go to the bathroom; now it all made sense. He made no fewer than ten trips within an hour, but she didn’t think anything of it because her sister was missing. “So you were snooping around?” she asked him. “In my house?”

  Killa remained silent.

  “I think we’re asking the wrong questions, young lady, Della said. “How about we start by telling me how you got this?” She raised Knox’s phone in the air. “Let’s start there.”

  Chapter 74

  Present Day Mooney s House

  Mooney sat in her brown recliner and looked at Cutie Tudy, whose mouth hung open. She knew the story would intrigue her, so she was certainly amused. “Close your mouth before something fly in it, child.”

  Tudy slammed her jaws shut and said, “Well, what else happened?” She chewed the last of the cheese part of the pizza in her hand. This was the most interesting shit she heard in her entire life. “You can’t end it like this.”

  “That’s all I’m telling you for now.” She rubbed her left elbow again. “I’ll tell you the rest when I see you later.”

  “Well, it don’t make no sense!” she said, charged with her usual attitude. “The least you can do is tell me what happened when Della got there! Dang! That’s why I hate you sometimes! Always playing with people heads and shit!” She pouted, slinging the pizza crust to her white plate. Mooney laughed until she said, “You probably lying about the whole thing anyway!”

  Aggravation took over, and for the moment, she lost her cool. Mooney leaped up, faster than Tudy knew she could move, and hung over the child like a lioness. “I don’t lie, child! And if I was going to start today”—she pointed her right finger in her face—“it damn sure wouldn’t be about this.”

  “Okay ... I’m sorry.” She trembled so hard the crust on the plate was vibrating.

  Mooney backpeddled toward her chair, and sat down without looking. “That story is all true, and you don’t even know the rest. Before you start judging people, know what the fuck you talking about first.” She turned to her left and rustled through a few newspapers on a nightstand. When she found the one she wanted, she said, “So I take it you can read right? Fighting with your foster sister ain’t the only thing you know how to do, is it?”

  “No. I can read,” she said, still shocked at Mooney’s reaction.

  “Good, take a look at this newspaper.” Tudy stood up, and toddled in her direction. When she didn’t take the paper Mooney said, “It’s too late to be scared of me now. If I wanted you dead, you’d be gone already.” Tudy didn’t feel any more comfortable, but she did as she was told. “Look at the headline.” Tudy eyed the bold black print and her jaw dropped again. “You better get that thing fixed before somebody put something in it.” Tudy giggled and Mooney was grateful they were able to move past the bad moment. Teenagers could be a little disrespectful at times, so she never had a problem putting them in place. “Read what is says out loud.”

  “Farah Cotton ... woman or vampire?” Up until that moment, she thought the crazy woman was pulling her legs, but now it was revealed that she was telling the truth. Still stunned, she handed the paper back. “Hold up, you’re not ... you’re not Farah Cotton, are you?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Well, who are you then?”

  “In the beginning, I told you about the screaming girl who came to the door when Farah was borrowing sugar.”

  She nodded quickly. “Her boyfriend’s name was Kirk. The one who died?”

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “I see you’re paying attention ... Well, that girl was me.” She grinned. “Back then I didn’t have a lot of worries.” For a second, she took a trip to the good old days. Coming back to reality she said, “That was then, but this is now.”

  “But how did you know all of these things? Were you friends?”

  Mooney removed her robe, and showed Tudy her amputated left arm. The child never knew she was armless, because she never really looked at her baggy left sleeve, which was always tucked in the robe’s pocket. “No ... but I did run into her again, and when I did, she gave me this to show for it.”

  Urban Books, LLC

  78 East Industry Court

  Deer Park, NY 11729

  RedBone Copyright © 2012 T. Styles

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-5998-3285-2

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.

  Submit Wholesale Orders to:

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  C/O Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Attention: Order Processing

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  Fax: 1-800-227-9604

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue - Present Day

  Chapter 1 - Many Years Earlier

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10 - Two Years Later

  Chapter 11 - Present Day Mooney s House

  Chapter 12 - Seven Years Later

  Chapter 13 - One Month Later

  Chapter 14 - A Week Later

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49
r />   Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74 - Present Day Mooney s House

  Copyright Page

 

 

 


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