Prison Throne

by T. Styles

“That’s what’s wrong in our marriage. I caught you letting another female suck your dick and I decided I wouldn’t take it anymore. Do you remember that? Just because you’re a nigga don’t mean you can be unfaithful, Rasim. I deserve more.” She paused. “What did you think,” she giggled, “just because I was quiet that another man wouldn’t look at me? Huh? Did you really think I was that undesirable?” If that wasn’t enough, she took jabs at his jugular. “Didn’t you notice the next time we made love how my fuck game gained value? He taught me and he’s going to teach me so much more.”

  Rasim was so hot you could fry a bag of nuggets on his forehead. He licked his lips and then wiped them with the back of his hands. “Snow, when I see you I’m going to choke the life out of your pretty face. Then we’ll see if your nigga will still want you when your body is blue.”

  “You have to get out of jail first.”

  Click.

  ****

  Rasim was on his bunk with his hand behind his head and the other tucked in his pants.

  He was planning his wife’s bloody murder.

  Rasim spoke to Snow over a month ago and he hadn’t heard from her since. The only bright side in the tunnel is that Stanley was getting better. Because of his fractured jaw and the recent stabbing, they decided to keep him segregated from the rest of the population until his sentence as over. Rasim preferred it that way because at least he would know that he was safe.

  He started to write Snow another hate letter but the next thing that happened fucked up his head. Officer House strolled into his cell and said, “Nami, it’s time to go.”

  Rasim looked up to him from the bunk. “What you mean?”

  “You’re being released.”

  He tilted his head. “Being released? I got at least five left.”

  “They’re letting you go now, man. We need the space so they reduced your sentence.”

  Rasim grinned.

  Imagine his luck.

  Suddenly it was payback time.

  ****

  Rasim’s eyes were as wide as the windshield as he drove in his Escalade on the way to his house. It had been seven months since he laid eyes on his wife and it was time.

  When he was released earlier in the day, Brooklyn and Chance picked him up. They made several attempts to calm him down by getting some drinks up in him or maybe a good meal but Rasim wouldn’t hear none of it. He had a one-track mind and all he wanted was to see Snow.

  Yes, he was anxious to get his palms around her neck. She violated severely when she told him that she fucked another man. He knew he was wrong considering he had many, including Selena and Queen, her sworn enemies.

  But it was different for men. They had the right of the land and that included the women who grazed upon it and he needed a variety to survive. If he recalled correctly, even Jesus said that. Right? If Snow didn’t see it his way then that was fine with him. He would simply choke her until she realized it.

  Damn. Because of Snow, he was going to break his vow to never touch a woman. Unfortunately it wasn’t the first vow he broke; he started with his marriage of course.

  When he pulled up on his block he saw two cars parked out front of his house. One belonged to Snow and the other God only knew. In his haste the last time he spoke to her he forgot to ask the name of the person in Strawberry Meadows she fucked.

  Had he been given the name he would’ve started with him and then worked his way to her. He only hoped that the violator wasn’t close to him, like somebody he loved.

  Rasim parked his ride and hustled toward his house. He was about to use his key but when he turned the knob, he immediately gained entry. Who he saw next caused his blood to boil over. The perpetrator was wearing a high-end security officer uniform complete with a shiny gold badge and stripes on his shoulder. He was standing on a chair in the middle of the living room removing a light bulb.

  Seeing his angry face, the Security Guard hopped off of the chair in an attempt to run. But Rasim rushed inside, gripped him by the collar and slammed him into a beautiful crystal vase that sat on a small table by the door. Not done with him quite yet, he crashed his body through the glass table before stealing him in the jaw. With thoughts of him fucking his wife fresh in his mind, Rasim picked him up, carried him over to the window and pushed him through it before pressing him through the window on the right too. Both fractured under the weight of his body as glass splashed to the floor and cut into his face.

  Rasim was so focused that he didn’t see the gun on the Security Guard’s belt until it was brushing against his nostrils. The matter had escalated quickly and in an attempt to save his own life Rasim stole him in the eye and knocked the weapon out of his hand.

  But the Security Officer hustled toward his weapon and with him unarmed momentarily, Rasim dipped toward the basement to grab his .45.

  Unfortunately he wasn’t alone. Ole boy was right behind him.

  The Security Guard fired in Rasim’s direction, sending bullets screaming past his head and into another window. Luckily Rasim was faster and was able to pull the basement door open moments before another bullet went flying into the wood paneling of the door.

  Once inside, Rasim closed and locked it and dodged down the steps toward his safe. Quickly he keyed in the code, grabbed his gun and loaded it with bullets. To be sure he had enough, he also stuffed ammo into his pockets and slowly crept back upstairs.

  From inside the basement, before opening the door, he could hear his wife yelling but he couldn’t make out her words. All that did was cause his blood to boil over as he pushed out of the basement, armed and ready. For all he knew, the nigga got fly and decided to take his frustrations out on Snow and he wasn’t having it. Not while he was home. Not while he was alive.

  Creeping out of the basement, he maintained his aim. Slowly he advanced toward the living room and that’s when he saw him. At the top of the foyer holding Snow’s hand as if they were leaving together.

  Fuck they think they going?

  Snow stared into Rasim’s eyes but then she looked away as if she were trying to hold back her feelings. It had been months since she’d seen him and look at what had become of their marriage.

  Over the decades, their love had grown together, each being the other’s first sexual experience and yet Snow was essentially saying she was going to be with another man and that she didn’t want him anymore.

  Picture that shit.

  “Snow, what you doing? Why you even with this clown?”

  The Security Officer assumed he wouldn’t fire if he had his wife with him, which was why he didn’t shoot at Rasim either. “We leaving, Rasim.” The Security Officer said. “Just put the gun down. You don’t want to hurt Snow and we don’t want trouble. All we want is to go about our life.”

  He would’ve been better off not saying a word. Angry beyond belief at how he held his wife’s hand like she belonged to him, Rasim fired at the Security Officer and caught him in the meaty part of his thigh. “What the fuck?” he yelled as the gun dropped and toppled out of his hand. “You fucking shot me!” He leaned against the wall and dropped.

  “Rasim, what are you doing?” Snow screamed with her hands covering her mouth when she saw him fall. “It’s over! Just leave me the fuck alone! You trying to go back to jail? Huh?”

  “Snow, get the fuck back in the room,” Rasim demanded. When she didn’t move he said, “I’m not fucking around with you. You don’t want to test my limits right now. Trust me.”

  Realizing there was no reasoning with him, she dipped into their bedroom and waited for whatever happened next. Little did she know, her husband was just getting started.

  Quick visions of their sexual exploits whipped through Rasim’s mind again as he crept up the steps. His plan was to kill him, nothing more and nothing less. When Rasim was standing over him, the Security Officer yelled, “What the fuck is wrong with you? What are you some type of terrorist?” he said taking jabs at his race.

  With the windows open, Rasim’s nosey
next-door neighbor Bridget heard the words she always knew were true. That the Nami family was involved in terrorism and now she had proof. She saw the security guard walk Snow in earlier and figured he said it. Feeling validated, she rushed inside to make a call with the proper remix of course. In her story a cop was involved and a member of Al-Qaeda.

  From inside of the home, the Security Officer yelled, “Please don’t shoot me again, man. I don’t want to die.”

  But there was no use. Rasim knew he had been with his wife and he would never be able to live knowing that he was walking around in the world. So he fired into his chest and watched his eyes as they widened before closing.

  In all of the commotion, he didn’t realize that the outside of his home was suddenly flooded with SWAT vehicles. When Rasim saw the police moving toward the house, he dragged the Security Guard’s body in front of the middle door. He wanted to hold him for ransom. Just in case.

  Afterward, he tried to go into the bedroom with Snow but she locked it shut. “Open the door, Snow!” he yelled. “Since I’m going back to jail, we have to talk.”

  “No!” she responded. “Stay the fuck away from me! You have gone too far now and I don’t trust you.”

  Rasim glanced behind him out of the broken window downstairs and saw more officers approaching. He wanted to talk to her alone before he was taken and arrested. It may be the last time they would ever get. “Snow, please! I won’t hurt you. Just give me a few minutes.”

  “Stay the fuck away from me, Rasim. I’m serious.”

  Frustrated, Rasim hustled into the guest room and waited. The moment he locked the door, the house phone rang. Reluctantly he sat the gun on the bed and walked over to it. He picked up the phone and placed it against his ear. “Are you in charge?” an officer questioned.

  Rasim shook his head in disbelief. His entire life was over now and he knew it. He sat on the edge of the bed. Sighed and said, “Yes.”

  “My name is Alf Herman and I was told that a man was shot inside of your home,” he spoke calmly. “Can we send someone in to get him?”

  “No.” he paused. “Not unless I tell you my story.”

  “Okay, we can do that down at the station.”

  “No.” He paused. “In my home and on my terms. That’s the only way I’m letting him go.”

  CHAPTER 23

  MAY 2014

  WASHINGTON, DC

  PRESENT DAY

  Alf Herman was stunned silent as he sat in his chair with his eyes glued on the door. Although Rasim and Snow did a supreme job of storytelling, they purposely avoided anything pertaining to murders or their drug crimes. In the end, most of their fabrication involved Rasim and the many women who loved him.

  Because he couldn’t talk about his father without hurting, he even left out the suicide. Rasim mentioned the story of his father’s death as if he was murdered in a gun accident.

  Even the narrative about Rasim reentering prison received a final cut. The only thing Alf was told was that he went to prison with one mission in mind, to help his son and that he never meant to lose his wife in the process. Nothing about the fractured jaw or the murder.

  There was one other detail omitted since Rasim’s story stopped at him receiving the surprise for an early release while still in prison. Who was the gentleman lying on the floor with blood pooling out of his body?

  “I heard your stories. But can you tell me his name?” he called out.

  “His name is Southeast Brian Goodwin,” Rasim said through clenched teeth. “He was with us at Strawberry Meadows. That’s how she met him,” he said with hate in his voice.

  Brian had been there all along.

  When she was crying in the Movie Room, the day Rasim swung her panties around in the air at the home, Brian tried to console her when she sat on the couch but she said to leave her alone. When she cleaned Rasim’s bed and folded his clothes, Brian told her that Rasim was using her but she said to leave her alone. When she and Rasim played Spades together for the first time, Brian was in the corner hating with his boys. And the day she left the center, due to catching Rasim telling his friends about how he fucked Selena, Brian, who was leaving on a pass, asked Snow if she wanted a ride. This time she said yes.

  Southeast Brian had been there all the time lying in wait for Rasim to fuck up but in his arrogance, Rasim never noticed.

  Alf exhaled because Southeast Brian was a civilian. At least he was not an officer. It wasn’t like he felt comfortable turning around and calling off the SWAT team either. But realizing blue blood wasn’t spilling on the floor upstairs brought him a little relief.

  In the hopes of saving the man’s life it was time to play the last card. “Rasim, I haven’t been totally honest about who I am.”

  “Meaning?” he yelled.

  “Before coming I pulled your sheet,” Alf responded gaining authority and momentum. “I know you aren’t the kind of man people think you are. You aren’t a terrorist.”

  “You don’t know shit about me,” he yelled.

  “I know a lot about you,” he said confidently. “Including some things you didn’t share with me in your story. I know that your father killed himself, believing that he betrayed Al-Qaeda for not participating in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I know that he loved you very much and his decision to commit suicide changed the course of your life forever. And I know that you are a good man trapped in a bad situation.”

  Silence.

  “Rasim, may I bring in someone who has been waiting patiently to talk to you for years?”

  Originally he was going to say no but he was going to jail anyway. So what did he have to lose? “Is it another cop? ‘Cause there’s one cop too many in here right now if you ask me.”

  “He’s not a cop,” Alf responded honestly. “Please trust me.”

  At that time, Rasim heard a slight Urdu accent that wasn’t present before. Had he hidden it the entire time? If so, why?

  “Go ahead. I’m waiting.”

  Alf waved outside and instructed the visitor to come in. Although Rasim remained behind the door, he wanted to know who was so important in his home.

  “Rasim, may I see you?” the man yelled to the doors.

  When he finally heard the voice of a man very familiar, his muscles weakened and he dropped to the bed.

  “Rasim, please, I would like to talk to you. Come to me now.”

  Horrified that he may be hearing things, Rasim opened the bedroom door at a snail’s pace. When he dawdled toward the banister and looked down, just as he thought, he was staring into his father’s face.

  But how? The last time he saw his corpse was at the funeral. He watched them sit him into the ground.

  And then he remembered something important. He didn’t know much because it hurt Rasim’s father too much to talk about. Rasim’s father, Kamran, had a twin brother who married rich and his name was Vazir. Could that be him?

  Rasim gripped the banister unarmed and looked down. Southeast Brian’s body lay at his feet. “What…how…?”

  “Son, I need you to come down here right now!” Vazir roared raising his hand for him to hold. “I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me what is going on. Come now, Rasim!”

  Rasim’s body wanted to obey the man with his father’s features but he couldn’t move. After all, he stood as tall as his father, which forced automatic respect to enter his heart. And then suddenly he grew angry. “How could you abandon your own brother?” he yelled remembering bits of the story Kamran told him briefly. “If you were in his life, he may still be alive today. He may be with me now.”

  Vazir looked down at his hands and stuffed them into his pockets. “You’re right. If I had been in my brother’s life, and yours, he may still be alive.” He paused for a moment. “And this may not have been your fate. Trust me, son, I grapple with the fact that my family was destroyed every day. But I married a woman who I didn’t love for money. In exchange for financial freedom for myself and my brother so that he could have the
proper schooling in computer technology. When she died due to complications, I came to America to reunite with your father but he refused to see me. I even brought my son, his nephew, to meet him but still he declined and I never got a chance to see him. My son is your cousin. Who stands right here.” He pointed at Alf Herman or as his full name dictated, Alf Herman Nami.

  Rasim trembled.

  Snow wanted to open the door to lay eyes on the men who were her husband’s blood. But she decided against it.

  “Are you saying that this cop is my cousin?” Rasim asked looking at him.

  Vazir nodded.

  Rasim shook his head and wiped his hand down his face. “But why like this? Why are you meeting me now?”

  “I’ve been in the country for thirty years. But Kamran, for fear of your emotional safety, forced me to stay away. I respected my brother’s wishes even though I visited you as often as I could in secrecy. However, you spotted me a few times, after his death. Although I don’t think you believed I was real.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was at the funeral. I was there when you married your beautiful wife. I was there when you were coming out of a body shop recently. I have always been there.”

  Rasim remembered seeing his father at various times but he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, which was one of the reasons he gave up liquor and weed.

  Vazir looked at Southeast Brian who was not moving. “Rasim, come. Come now and end this. Do not put another blemish on our people in a country I know you love. Please.”

  Ashamed, Rasim gripped at the banister and slowly he crept down the stairs until he was eye-to-eye with the man who looked like his father.

  Vazir gripped Rasim and hugged him tightly. It was only for a second because SWAT rushed in and brought Rasim to his knees. His face was pressed against the broken glass as handcuffs were slapped on his wrists. When they had a hold of him, they yanked him up roughly. This shit took too long and they were irritated.