by B, Johnna
“What have I gotten myself into?”
Chapter 16
What Goes Up…
Courtnie sat in a chair next to Adonis’s bed, mumbling incoherently and rocking back forth. She was still covered in Hillary’s blood, and the corpse lay at her feet. Something had snapped in Courtnie’s mind. She had this far-out look in her eyes as she stared off into space.
“Courtnie,” Adonis whispered.
Courtnie’s head snapped to the right. She looked at him as if she didn’t know he was still there.
“This is all your fault,” she cried. “Why couldn’t you just be with me?” She continued to rock.
“You never gave me a chance or the choice. Had you, I’d have come willingly,” Adonis lied.
He could feel his body slowly coming back to life, and he had to stall Courtnie until he was strong enough to make some type of move against her.
“You’re a liar! Angela told me how you promised to come back to her. You were going to leave me!” Courtnie raged.
“Baby, I only told her that, so I could see my kids. I don’t want her. I want you,” Adonis lied again.
He needed to keep Courtnie from going off the deep end until he got his bodily functions back.
“So, I could have had you without having to resort to all of this?” Courtnie got up and walked over to him and began stroking his face.
Adonis still couldn’t move, but he could feel her touching him, and it made his flesh crawl. For a minute, it seemed like he had her, but then things went to the left.
“You lying son of a bitch!” Courtnie slapped him across the face. “You’re just waiting for your chance, so you can leave me and go back to her.” She snatched the last needle full of Special K from the nightstand and stabbed him in the neck. Once again, Adonis’s body went numb. “I’ll end you before I let you leave me,” she promised, as his eyes closed and he drifted into unconsciousness.
Courtnie stormed upstairs to her bedroom and went to her dresser, where she snatched the drawer out with so much force that the contents spilled out onto the floor. She dropped to her knees and began rummaging through the clutter, until she found what she so desperately needed. When she grabbed the razor, she wasted no time cutting her arm. She needed the sweet release of pain. Courtnie cut herself over and over, feeling the euphoric feeling that came with the self-inflicted punishment. When she was done, she admired her handiwork. She had carved Adonis’s name carved into her arm.
“You’re mine, muthafucka…all mine.” She giggled, before curling up on the floor, still bloody, and drifting to sleep as if she had just had a round of good sex.
****
When Courtnie awakened and realized what she had done, panic set in. There was blood all over her floor and cuts all over her arms. She knew she had totally flipped out. She jumped up and raced down to the basement. After stepping over Hillary’s corpse, she made her way to Adonis. He lay there motionless, looking almost as dead as Hillary. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
A knock at her front door caught her attention.
“Who the fuck is it now?’ she asked herself.
She took the stairs two at a time and went to the front door. When she looked through the peep-hole, she was surprised to see Angela standing on the other side, looking angry.
“What the fuck does this dizzy bitch want?”
“I know you’re in there! I can see your damn eye through the peephole!” Angela yelled through the door.
“You have to come back! I’m not feeling good!” Courtnie yelled back.
“Bitch, I’m not going nowhere. Why didn’t you tell me you was fucking my husband bitch?” Angela kicked the door.
“I’m going to call the police!” Courtnie screamed as she looked for a weapon if Angela got in.
“Oh, bitch! You better call them and the paramedics because I’m ‘bout to bust yo’ muthafuckin’ forehead wide open!” Angela threatened.
Courtnie knew she couldn’t answer her door covered in blood, but she needed Angela to stop making a scene.
“I’m calling them now, and you better be gone by the time they get here, or else I’m going to press charges,” she warned as she listened to Angela kick and bang on her door.
“That’s all right, bitch. I’ll be back with reinforcements!” Angela gave the door one last kick before she left.
She was already in enough trouble and didn’t want to risk another run-in with the detectives before she got the answers she needed.
Courtnie watched Angela through the peephole until she got into her car and pulled off. Her first order of business was taking a shower to wash Hillary’s blood off her body. While she scrubbed, she racked her brain, trying to think of a way to get Hillary’s corpse and Adonis out of the house before Angela or—worse— the police came back. It would just be her luck if one of her nosey-ass neighbors called the police after the scene Angela had caused outside her front door. Courtnie could be very persuasive, but there was no way she’d be able to explain a dead body and a comatose man in her basement. It was time to shit or get off the pot.
****
“Hello!” Courtnie yelled into the phone. She was in the process of stuffing Hillary’s body in the steamer trunk she’d used to get Adonis from the hotel to her house.
“Why the fuck is the guy you had me to look up on the fucking missing person board at my police station?” Jeff gritted into the phone.
“What are you talking about, Jeff?” she asked as if she was completely clueless.
“I’m talking about Adonis Edwards, the guy everybody has been looking for! Bitch, if you’ve gotten me into some shit, Adonis Edwards isn’t going to be the only missing person on the board!”
“Your threats mean nothing to me, Jeff. Remember I still run this show!” she yelled.
“You don’t run shit anymore. I don’t know what the fuck your crazy ass is up to, but it’s about to come to a very nasty end.”
“Jeff, I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Courtnie repeated.
“That’s good. Practice playing dumb. You just make sure you keep up the act when the police arrive at your house, because they’re on the way. You mention my name, and I’ll kill you, Courtnie,” Jeff promised and hung up the phone.
Courtnie had a delayed reaction, but, when she finally wrapped her mind around what Jeff had just said, her body went as stiff as a board. The police are on their way! Her mind went into survival mode, and she hastily shoved Hillary into the trunk. Rigor mortis was starting to set in, so she had to break one of the girl’s arms to get the trunk to close. Grunting and tugging, she got the trunk out into the garage. The fear of being caught gave her extra strength, and she was able to load the trunk without any help. She wanted to go back and get Adonis, but she didn’t have the time or the energy. Kidnapping would land her in prison, but murder would put her on death row, so she picked getting rid of Hillary as the lesser of the two evils and peeled out.
Instead of hitting the main road, Courtnie cut around to the dirt trail that ran behind her house to make her escape.
“Shit!” She pounded the dashboard. Everything she had worked so hard to accomplish was going down the drain. Her business, her relationship with Adonis, all the people she had blackmailed in order to keep her life together… it was all for nothing now. The thought of never feeling Adonis inside her again drove her insane. This is not how it was supposed to go. She couldn’t be separated from her chocolate dream so soon after she had finally gotten him. Things had gotten way more complicated than she ever expected they could, but she vowed that this wouldn’t be the end of her and Adonis’s story.
Chapter 17
Meant to Be
“Miss Randolph?” Detective Marks banged on the door.
They had been knocking and calling her name for almost ten minutes, but no one answered. After some debate with his partner, they decided to break the door down.
“Police, Miss Randolph!” he announced himself as they ente
red the house.
With his partner watching his back, Detective Johnson made his way to the upstairs bedroom. When they saw the blood and displaced drawers, they called for backup. While waiting for backup to arrive, the two detectives searched the rest of the house. When they came to the basement door, they saw more blood and drag marks on the ground. Slowly, they crept down the stairs, guns drawn, and ready for whatever it was they were about to walk into.
“Miss Randolph?” Detective Marks called as they descended the stairs.
When they got to the bottom, what she saw made her heart stop. Adonis was sprawled out on the bed, bruised, naked, and in bad shape.
“Oh, my God! Call an ambulance.” She rushed to Adonis and checked his vitals. “He’s still breathing, but barely.”
“What in the hell was she doing to him?” Detective Johnson asked as he took in the scene.
It was something straight out of the movie Misery. Adonis looked nothing like the picture of the healthy young man they had been circulating. He was ashen and so thin that they could see his rib cage.
“Adonis, can you hear me?” Detective Marks called to him.
With no response, she gently took hold of his face and turned it, so he was looking at her. His eyes were open, but they were glassy and yellow.
Yes, I can hear. Now, get me out of here! Adonis shouted in his head. He had never in his life been so happy to see the police.
“Adonis, can you speak? Do you know where Courtnie is?” Detective Johnson questioned.
No, I can’t speak! Do you hear me saying anything? Just get me the fuck out of this damn house!
After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, the paramedics arrived. After making another quick check of Adonis’s vitals, they lifted him onto a gurney. His eyes went to the bloody stain left on the floor by Hillary’s smashed in skull, and tears rolled from his eyes. She was dead because she tried to help him. His heart cried for her, and he prayed she was resting in peace.
“What’s wrong with him?” Detective Marks asked one of the paramedics.
“Looks like he’s been drugged,” the paramedic said. “We won’t know with what or how much damage has been done until we get him to the hospital.”
Detective Johnson nodded. “Let’s go then, and pray the damage isn’t permanent. We need him to tell us where we can find the woman who did this to him.”
****
Adonis watched Courtnie crawl up onto the bed while he lay propped up on soft pillows. He took in every movement her body made, the way her hips stuck out with every inch she got closer. She stared him in the eyes, never breaking their stare down. As her face got closer to his, her face morphed into the head of a Black Mamba and bit down on his neck.
“No!” Adonis yelled as he snapped out of his dream.
He had been having the same nightmare on replay in his head since they freed him from Courtnie’s basement. He reached for his face, glad to finally be able to move on his own again.
“Oh, my God! He’s awake!” Angela squealed as she jumped out of her chair and ran to his side.
She had been with him day and night for a week. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness. It was a side effect of all the drugs Courtnie had been giving him, but thankfully it was only temporary.
Adonis’s eyes widened in joyful surprise when he saw his wife. “Angela?”
“Yes, baby. I‘m here,” she cried. Seeing him broken and withered tore her to pieces. She only hoped that he made a full and speedy recovery.
“I’m here, too, baby!” Rachel made her presence known. Angela rolled her eyes at her, and Rachel returned the gesture. “Girl, you lucky they found my baby because I was about to finish yo’ ass!”
“Let me go get the doctor.” Angela excused herself, so she didn’t slap fire out of Rachel.
“Yeah, you do that,” Rachel told her.
In her opinion, it was all Angela’s fault that the woman had gotten hold of her son. If she had been a halfway decent wife, he wouldn’t have had to go looking for comfort anywhere else.
After the nurses were done checking on Adonis, they cleared the room, so that he could rest. His wife and mother going back and forth was driving him crazy. He was lying in a hospital bed after a near death experience, but it didn’t stop his mother from still trying to convince him to leave Angela, while she was sitting there. All he could do was shake his head.
When they’d finally gone, he tried to get some rest, but sleep didn’t come easy. He had too much on his mind. Everything he had been through over the past few months was weighing on him. The arguments with Angela, how she had taken his kids, and the day he had foolishly let Courtnie into his life…everything played over and over in his head. He thought the day Angela had left him and taken his kids was the worst day of his life, but that paled in comparison to the day he woke up in Courtnie’s basement.
Angela had promised to bring the kids to visit the following day, so he had that to look forward to, in addition to the intense physical therapy the doctors promised him he’d need to get his muscles working properly again. It would take some time, but Adonis would be as good as new.
Adonis’s attention was drawn to his room door opening and a tall white man, he had never seen before, coming in. He didn’t have to see the badge to know that the man was a cop. His body language and bad haircut gave him away.
“Adonis Edwards?”
“Yes. Can I help you?”
“Yes, my name is Jeff Richards, chief of police. I just came to follow up with you to see if there was anything else you could add to the investigation.”
“I told the detectives all that I knew when they first brought me in.” Adonis huffed he was tired of talking about Courtnie.
Everything in his life still revolved around her. The pain his body was in, the nightmares he had, even when he wasn’t sleeping. She had consumed his whole being, and he didn’t know if he would ever be the same again.
“Yes, but you were still heavily sedated, so maybe things weren’t as clear as they are now. The woman who kidnapped you, did she have any accomplices? Did you ever hear her talking to with anyone on phone?” Jeff needed to know if Courtnie had given him up, so he could figure out his next move. He was trying to see if he needed to kill Adonis as well as Courtnie.
“Look, man. We fucked. She got mental on me and then drugged me. The only thing she talked to me about was being with me forever and some other crazy people bullshit,” Adonis snapped.
He just wanted everyone to leave him alone. He hadn’t heard from Courtnie and prayed it stayed that way. Detectives Marks and Johnson kept him abreast on any info that came in. But they still hadn’t found her.
“Okay, sir. I didn’t intend to upset you. I’ll let you rest now. Take care of yourself, Mr. Edwards.”
Jeff had heard all he needed to hear. Adonis was safe, but, when he caught up with Courtnie, he was going to treat her to a bullet to the back of the head.
****
Adonis had only been sleeping for a short time when he heard someone come into his room. Through blurry eyes, he saw a nurse with her face buried in a clipboard. It was dark on that side of the room, so he couldn’t really see her.
“I didn’t ring for you,” Adonis said groggily, thinking that maybe he had rolled over on the call button in his sleep.
“You never have to call. I’ll always be with you,” Courtnie said, stepping into the light.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Adonis growled. He wanted to get up and choke her, but didn’t have the strength.
“I told you, I would follow you to hell, so following you to the hospital was like a brisk walk in the park.” Courtnie smiled. There was a look of madness in her eyes.
“What in the fuck is wrong with you? Get the hell out of my room, you crazy bitch!”
“Don’t be like that. I know you still want me.”
“This has to be some kind of fucked up dream.” Adonis shook his head in disbelief.
“No, y
ou are not dreaming. I’m here for you and with you, until they bury us in adjoining graves,” Courtnie said.
Adonis tried to reach for his call button, but she snatched it out of the wall.
“Now why would you want to call those nurses in here to ruin our reunion? I’ve gone through a lot to sneak in here, and I’m feeling really unappreciated right now.”
She produced a billy-club from somewhere he couldn’t see and cracked him in the head with it, knocking him out cold. Then, Courtnie unplugged all the monitors and was in the process of trying to move Adonis’s bed when a real nurse walked into the room.
“What are you doing? I wasn’t made aware of Mr. Edwards being moved,” the nurse told her. When she got a good look at the fake nurse’s face, she realized where she had seen it before. Pictures of Courtnie had been all over the news and were plastered on the hospital walls. The nurse tried to run for help, but Courtnie was on her like lightning. Two quick whacks to the head with the billy club put her down and out.
“When will you bitches learn that you can’t stand in the way of love?” Courtnie giggled insanely.
She undid the wheel locks on Adonis’s bed and began wheeling him out of the room. She was surprised that nobody gave her more than a glance as she wheeled the bed down the hallway and onto one of the service elevators.
“See, baby. I’m here to save you from this place. They could never care for you the way I do,” she whispered in his ear as the elevator doors closed behind them.
****
“Oh, my God! What happened?” Angela asked when she found the nurse on the floor, unconscious, and Adonis gone.
She shook the nurse, who was still knocked out on the floor.
Slowly, the nurse began to stir. “What happened?”
“That’s what the fuck I should be asking you! Where is my husband?” Angela shouted. She had just gotten Adonis back and wasn’t ready to lose him again.
