Anika took a deep breath, knowing that this would be a test to their decades-long friendship. “I gave her a ride to the hospital.”
The room went deathly quiet.
Anika looked to Chloe and saw the disbelief on her beautiful face. “Chloe—” she began.
“Alicia was in my SUV?” she finished with astonished emphasis.
Both Devon and Deshawn winced and turned their heads, knowing firsthand the disdain Chloe had for Alicia and why.
“Her boyfriend beat the hell out of her and—”
“So?” Chloe snapped.
Anika’s anger sparked at her friend’s blatant disregard. “Are you saying its okay for a man to beat her because she tried to break up you and Devon?”
“I’m saying I couldn’t care less what happens to Alicia,” Chloe shot back in anger.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’ve never been beaten,” Anika countered with ferocity.
“Neither have you!” Chloe shouted.
“Yes, I have,” Anika screamed, tears blurring her vision as she pointed her own finger into her chest.
Damn.
Chloe, Devon, and Deshawn looked at her in surprise as Anika wrapped her arms around herself and dropped her head to her chest.
∞
Hakeem walked around the empty one-bedroom apartment. He had no furniture but the money he stole from Ms. Little, plus the $350 he scored from robbing a corner grocery store had been used for the security and first month’s rent to get a key and a one-year lease he had no intention of living up to.
It didn’t matter that all the information he’d given to the owners had been false. They were even nice enough to leave the lights on in their names for an additional twenty-five dollars a month. He bought a prepaid cell phone, a month’s worth of groceries, an air mattress to sleep on, and a small television. All the necessities were handled.
It all worked out so perfectly, like it was destined.
Another call to her job and he was informed that she would be returning in one week. He was already in place to get to her whenever he pleased. He would kill her and leave no trace of his real identity. He was thinking about heading down South, maybe to Florida somewhere, and start his life over. Rebuild. Settle down with a nice southern girl and start a family.
But first he had to get his revenge.
“I wish I’d never stopped you that day,” he said aloud, his voice echoing as he thought back to the first time he had met the female that destroyed his life.
∞
“Remember how excited I was when I gave him my phone number?” Anika asked Chloe with faraway eyes and half a smile.
Even though she addressed her love and her friends, Anika could’ve been alone. She was so lost in the memories. “That night I dreamed of movie dates, long phone calls into the night, and going to basketball games together at the high school.”
Her face became pained. “I never imagined that he would beat me and curse me like a dog,” she whispered with hurt and anger. “I still remember the first time he laid his hands on me.”
Slowly and with feelings she couldn’t hide, Anika spoke of that night, her eyes filled with the memories then. She felt the pain and humiliation of his hits and his words as if it were yesterday. All because a platonic male friend had offered her a ride home after school.
Deshawn swallowed back the anger that threatened to consume him as he saw how painful the memory was to his woman. But now was not the time for anger or vengeance. This was Anika’s time to tell the story of her life. And it was a story that had to be told so that she could finally release the demons that chased her. And so he sat close to her and took her hand in his. When she looked over at him with thanks in her eyes he knew he made the right gesture.
Anika squeezed Deshawn’s warm, loving hand and continued, needing to finally release her secrets. “It wasn’t the last time . . . not by far. I used to tell myself Hakeem didn’t mean it. He’s drunk, or he’s stressed, or . . . he’s mad at someone else. I made excuses for that bastard.”
Her heart ached at the pain and humiliation she had suffered at his hands. “I hate the person I was back then.”
Chloe moved out of Devon’s comforting hold, kneeling down by Anika. She looked her friend in the eye. She couldn’t help but wonder what other secrets Anika kept from her. She felt somehow betrayed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, trying to understand this huge part of her friend’s life that she knew nothing about.
Anika shrugged. “Embarrassed. Ashamed. I don’t know. But no one knew, not you, not my family. It was my own little secret. My life.”
Chloe clutched Anika’s quivering hands. “I would’ve helped you.”
“I didn’t want help, Chloe. I wanted him to change and I believed he would.”
Chloe sucked her teeth. “Did he?” she asked pointedly.
Anika’s eyes became distant. “No . . . but I did. It took years but I finally learned that I deserved better. I just never knew it would almost cost me life to break it off with him. I still can’t believe that he tried to kill me.”
∞
Hakeem sat by the window and stared across the street at Anika’s house. The last time he had tried to kill her, he failed and she had him arrested and thrown in jail. He lost his money, his status on the street, his stash, his house, his cars, his clothes. He went into jail with nothing and came out with just that . . . nothing.
And it was all Anika’s fault.
The way she had ended it, he had his suspicions that she had found someone else to pay her bills. One of them college boys was beating his time. He just knew it, so he decided to lie back in the cut and peep her game.
He had borrowed a friend’s car and rented a hotel room down by her college in Virginia. For a whole week he watched her, followed her, and slept outside her house. Waiting and watching. As soon as her boyfriend showed up to spend the night in the crib he once paid for, Hakeem was gonna bust her and then whup her.
On the third night that he watched and waited, Hakeem followed her on campus. He kept his distance, trying to blend in with students as he followed her. She went into a dorm and he sat on the bench outside it. Watching and waiting. His fingers lightly stroking the cold steel of the 9mm he had hidden in his jacket.
With each passing hour, his anger had escalated. Four hours later he saw her make her way through the doors leading to the foyer of the building. She turned and hugged a tall guy that was with her.
Hakeem saw red, but he tried desperately to remain calm. He would get her.
He moved from the bench as she made her way outside. Visions of her upstairs sexing her new man while he waited like a lovesick fool outside pushed him over the edge. He knew that if he watched and waited he would catch her. He just knew it!
He followed her off campus, rushing to hop into his car as she did the same up the street. Behind the wheel he pulled the gun out and set it on the passenger seat. Eventually she parked down the street from her building and gathered her things from the trunk of the car.
Hakeem knew it was now or never. ‘What made her think she could throw away all of their years together and not have to pay?’ he had thought, as he grabbed the gun and pulled the car up beside her. He hopped out with his hood on to cover his face. “I knew you was up here messin’ around,” he shouted.
Anika turned and caught sight of the gun. Her eyes widened and she looked around quickly, only to see that the street was empty. No one but her and her ex. Not hesitating when she saw the murder in his eyes, she dropped everything in her hands and ran for cover.
Hakeem enjoyed the chase. He wanted her to pay for all the years she used him and then threw him aside like he was nothing. “Don’t run,” he told her carefully, setting off behind her.
She neared her building and screamed out for help, begging someone to come out of their home and help her. “He’s gonna kill me,” she shrieked frantically.
Knowing she would eventually draw attention to them, he felt
this was his only chance. He stopped and took aim.
POW!
He watched as her body immediately jerked before she fell to the ground. She hollered out in agony before falling face-first to the pavement.
Doors to homesimmediately opened and Hakeem raced back down the street to the still running car. He did a U-turn and sped away with a squeal of tires.
Chapter 24
Your Child
Anika felt freer to accept Deshawn’s love with her past out in the open and firmly behind her. She even admitted to him that the realization that Hakeem was now free from prison was the reason for her nightmares. The concern he showed warmed Anika’s heart as she assured him that her ex was no longer a threat to her. Fifteen years had passed and they both had to move on.
She was free from her prison of secrecy and shame. Sometimes she felt his love had played a part in that. Knowing that there was a better kind of love than what she knew in the past had strengthened her and made her able to embrace a subconscious freedom.
That small intimate curve of her lips spread as she thought of him the following afternoon. “I love Deshawn,” she said aloud to herself as she steered his truck.
She had borrowed his vehicle earlier to go and visit Alicia, who had been released from the hospital that morning. It was her way of not disrespecting Chloe’s feelings for the woman while still keeping her promise of not abandoning Alicia totally.
No, she wasn’t forging any type of friendship with her, but Anika refused to treat the woman with indifference either. She knew Chloe was still uneasy about the “relationship” but respected Anika’s need to help Alicia. Chloe, understandably, wanted no part of it.
She was glad to discover that Alicia would follow through with pressing charges so that her assaulter could be locked away for what he did. If Anika had done that earlier in her own relationship with Hakeem, he wouldn’t have had the chance to try to kill her. She was lucky to be alive.
Pushing those thoughts away, Anika parked front of Cyrus’s store. “What’s the deal, boyfriend?” she teased him, as she stepped down out of the truck. “Thought I’d come by and check on you.”
Cyrus smiled up at her from where he sat on the short wooden porch. “Goin’ home next week, ain’t you?”
Anika paused on the top step, placing her hands on her back as she looked down at him. “Cyrus Dobbs, is there anything you don’t know?”
He just smiled a toothy grin.
“Yes, I’m leaving next week,” she told him, sitting down in the chair next to him. “But ... I’m thinking of moving down here. What do you think about that?”
Cyrus’s face became filled with pleasure. “Oh yeah?” he asked.
“Uh-huh. Chloe and Nia are here, and of course Deshawn.”
Cyrus’s face immediately closed up and he looked angry. Anika was taken aback by it. “Something wrong, Mr. Cyrus?”
“No,” he answered gruffly.
She reached over and patted the back of his hand. “You sure?”
Cyrus released a harsh breath. “He ain’t good enough for you.”
Now Anika was confused. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“Never mind.”
“Oh no, you can’t drop a bomb like that in my lap and not explain,” she told him, piercing him with her mocha eyes. “Do you mean Deshawn?”
He nodded roughly twice.
“Something you want to tell me, Mr. Cyrus?” Anika asked, already knowing she didn’t really want to hear it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, staring down at his gnarled hands as he wrung them together.
“For?” she urged softly.
“That fast gal Poochie says she pregnant.”
Anika’s stomach dropped. “By who?” she asked with obvious hesitance.
“Deshawn.”
∞
Poochie hated everything about Anika: her looks, her fancy clothes, her education, her style of speech, and especially the love Deshawn had for her. The rejection she received from Tank over her pregnancy only fueled her anger. She had purposefully hinted at Deshawn being the father of her unborn child and just like she knew it would, the word had spread about the small town like the clap at a whorehouse.
As Poochie and Chloe stood on her porch she heard the car pull into the drive and was surprised to see Deshawn’s truck. Moments later Anika stepped out and she felt her dislike of the woman nearly choke her. From the look on Anika’s face, she knew that the feelings were mutual.
Poochie had come to Chloe’s under the pretense of asking for the name of her pediatrician. She really wanted to see if the news of her pregnancy had reached them yet. Was her little lie effective?
She lightly placed her hand on her belly, smiling like a Cheshire cat when Anika’s eyes dropped to watch the move.
“What do you want?” Anika snapped, making no attempts at niceties.
Poochie didn’t flinch as she deliberately locked eyes with her. “I just wanted to get the name of Chloe’s OB/GYN and borrow some of her baby books. I’m going to have my own little bundle of joy.”
She held out a folded letter to Anika.
Anika hated that she wanted to see what it said. She snatched the letter away from her. Her hands clenched the page until it crumbled when she read the words confirming Poochie’s pregnancy. Every time she thought she found happiness, something or someone came along to snatch it away from her.
Even if Deshawn was the father, it had happened before she came to Holtsville. Still, it meant two things. One, he lied about never dealing with Poochie again. Two, if she were in a relationship with Deshawn, Poochie would be a part of their lives because of the child. No way.
Anika looked to Chloe, who seemed to be just as lost as she was. She redirected her cold stare to Poochie, hating the look of pure pleasure on the other woman’s face.
“Poochie, you already have a doctor and I’m sure he has all the reading material you could possibly want,” Chloe said, coming to stand between the two women on the porch. “So why are you really here? I don’t get it.”
“Yes, why are you here?” Anika asked her as well, her voice hostile.
Poochie feigned innocence. “I just wanted a new doctor. I didn’t know it was going to be such a big deal,” she said, reaching around Chloe to snatch her letter back from Anika. “I guess I’ll be on my way then. Tell Deshawn to call me, we have some things to discuss.”
Chloe held Anika back when she made a move to rush Poochie. “She’s pregnant.”
They stood on the porch and watched her climb into her red car. Soon the air filled with the thumping bass of her music as she reversed down the driveway.
“What the hell was that all about?” Chloe asked, still confused.
“She’s pregnant by Deshawn,” Anika stated flatly.
Chloe frowned. “Huh? What?”
“Cyrus told me. I actually fooled myself into thinking it was a lie,” Anika said, her voice as dull as her eyes as she sat down on the porch swing. “She is pregnant. I saw it with my own eyes. The tramp is pregnant by Deshawn.”
“Slow your roll, Anika. I know you and as much as I love you, when it comes to your heart you like to take something and run before you verify the facts. I don’t believe it and if I was you I’d ask Deshawn before I accused him.”
“Why would she lie?”
“Why is the sky blue? Hell, I don’t know.”
Anika felt bile rise in her throat. It couldn’t be true. Please, God, don’t let it be true, she prayed.
∞
Poochie gloated about the look on Anika’s face when she had dropped her bomb in her lap. She felt no guilt over her lie. Besides, she never really said Deshawn was the father, she just didn’t make an effort to say that he wasn’t. Of course he would deny it to his girlfriend, but it would be his word against hers.
She had just been on her way back to Donnie’s for her night shift when she spotted Devon’s truck turn into Cyrus’s gas station. Perfect. Nothing like the town gossip seeing th
e two of them talking to hype the rumor even more.
She immediately pulled in front of the store behind the truck.
∞
Deshawn was anxious to get home and set his eyes on Anika. They only had a few precious days to share before she returned home. He blew Dev’s horn twice, signaling for his twin to hurry from inside the store. When he looked up and saw Poochie’s car in the rearview mirror, he grimaced.
Cyrus watched as Poochie parked her car and walked over to the truck. He leaned forward from his position by the window to see just what was what.
When she climbed into the passenger seat beside Deshawn, his mouth dropped open.
“All right, Cyrus. You got any Icy Hot in here?” Devon asked, as he walked from the back of the small store.
Cyrus hated to drag his eyes away from Poochie and Deshawn, so he didn’t. “Second shelf on the right,” he yelled back.
Devon turned and retraced his steps.
Cyrus moved to his phone and quickly dialed Chloe’s number, angry at Deshawn’s blatant disregard for Anika.
∞
Anika hung up the telephone. Her heart was racing. She picked up Chloe’s car keys from the living room table. “I’ll be right back,” she yelled out to Chloe in the kitchen, as she strode to the front door.
Chloe looked confused as she stepped into the hall. “Anika, where are you—”
Anika shut the door on the rest of her words, quickly making her way to the SUV. Her hands shook as she reversed quickly out of the yard. The sound of the music playing irritated her and she slapped at the controls to turn it off.
“Maybe Cyrus was wrong,” she whispered to herself, as she took the curve at fifty-five. She forced herself to slow down. No need killing herself to rush to see Deshawn and Poochie meeting up.
As she neared the store, her heart hammered, seeming loud enough to echo against the walls. Her stomach was hot with anxious nerves. She had to ask herself, “What are you going to do if it is him?”
She just didn’t know. The only thing she knew for sure was that Deshawn told her he had no dealings at all with Poochie, thus they had no reason to be sitting in Devon’s truck together. Now, that she did know.
Heavenly Match Page 25
