by B. M. Hardin
Though I was about ready to give up on her at first, I knew that I needed her in my life.
I would never have kids of my own, so she was the closest thing to it and each night I bathed her.
Each time I fed her.
Each time I got her dressed or brushed her hair, I knew that she was the one thing in my life that I had been missing.
Now I was complete.
“Are you watching her sleep again?”
“Yes,” I answered Drake.
He came and sat beside of me.
“I know that things didn’t turn out like we hoped.”
“Things are perfect.”
I could tell that he was surprised to hear me say those words after how I was acting about her at first.
“I told you that things would get better.”
“Yeah you did.”
“She’s so lucky to have you. And so am I,” he said.
I smiled at him.
“Naomi left her pretty much everything.”
I looked at him.
“Everything. A couple hundred thousand dollars in life insurance. The house, cars, all of her stuff. Everything.”
Well, at least she was going to be set for life, with or without us.
I didn’t know how it all worked but it wasn’t like we needed anything that she’d left behind.
We had more than enough, so one day, Krissie could decide what to do with it all.
“They say she may forget Naomi as time goes by because she’s so young. What if she does? Do we tell her about her?”
“Would you want to?”
I didn’t know how to answer that question.
I wanted to be her mother, but with Naomi leaving her everything, I was sure that we would one day have to have a conversation about her.
He sat beside me and rubbed her face.
“There’s no one in the world that I love more than you and I’m so thankful that you are willing to take this journey with me. I know things have been rough on us lately and I know that things didn’t go as well in some areas as we hoped, but this is our life. This is our forever. I don’t want any more issues. I don’t want any more drama. I just want us. No lies. No trying to kill folks. Just us.”
I smiled at Drake.
Suddenly, my little scheme involving Jinx and Vicki crossed my mind.
I was hoping that I’d made Vicki mad enough, and I was hoping that I’d made Jinx paranoid enough for everything to work out in my favor.
I was just waiting to see what happened but nothing had happened as of yet.
But Drake and I were on the same page.
Things just needed to be normal in our lives, and I was sure that soon they would be.
And for the most part they were; except that Drake was having nightmares almost every night now.
When I would ask him what they were about, he would always say the same thing.
He would always say that it was the same dream over and over again but something told me he was lying.
Something told me that he was having them for a reason, but of course he hadn’t told me why.
Was there something on his conscious?
Was there something that he needed to tell me that he hadn’t?
Maybe I was overthinking it, but I was definitely paying attention.
And he knew it too.
~***~
“I’m going crazy down here Moe.”
Lee Lee flopped down on the leather sofa.
“It shouldn’t be much longer. So, what happens after all is well? Are you going to be with the man that spared your life?”
“Girl no. Not only is he a killer…he’s married.”
Go figure.
“After this though, I feel different. I’m gonna do things differently. No more sleeping around. No more bed hopping. Life is just too short and you just never know how another person will react to your actions. If things ever do go back to normal where I don’t have to fear for my life, there’s going to be a whole new Legacy in town. Out with the old, in with the new. I never want to be in this situation again. Playing with love and hearts almost cost me my life. I’m done.”
Hmm…did I believe her?
Nope.
She always said things like this.
But I just let her talk anyway.
She continued to talk for a while longer and then I headed back up to see what Daddy and Krissie were up to.
He agreed to look after her while Drake and I went out for the evening.
Apparently she just liked men more than women because she was loved Daddy like he had been in her life since the very beginning.
She was crawling all over him and he was watching TV as though she wasn’t even there.
“Bye bye,” I said to her and she waved.
I headed back home to get myself ready for date night.
Drake had my entire outfit waiting for me on the bed, with roses, with a glass of champagne on the nightstand.
I rushed to get dressed and shortly after, we headed out to enjoy each other.
With Krissie in the picture now we hadn’t had much alone time.
We still made time to have sex, but we hadn’t had time for the whole quality time aspect of our relationship.
We ate and laughed the night away like normal married couples do.
We didn’t have a worry in the world and I enjoyed spending time with him.
“You know in a few years, I still want to have a wedding. A big lavish ass wedding for no reason.”
Hell, I wanted that day to walk down the aisle towards him too.
I still wanted that moment.
“Really?”
“Yep. And it can be anything you want baby. You know you’re pretty good at that kind of stuff. Decorating, so I know it’s going to be perfect.”
Hell it was going to be perfect the first time too, but I didn’t mention it.
I’d put my foot in planning that wedding, but according to him, I would have that chance again.
I smiled at him and thought about all of the nasty things that I wanted to do to him.
I couldn’t wait for his George to meet up with my Sally; our pet names for his penis and my kitty.
I was hoping that he wanted to be all rough and stuff and cause some internal damage.
Hell, my insides didn’t work anymore anyway.
The night was over and after calling Daddy and learning that Krissie was asleep, he refused to let us come and get her.
He vowed that he could handle her and if he needed help Rum was there and if he was desperate he would head down to the basement to Lee Lee.
We agreed and decided to take the long way home.
With the house in our view, we couldn’t wait to get inside to get down to business but we’d come home to a disturbing surprise.
Our front door standing wide open.
“Wait here,” Drake said.
Immediately, I wondered why we hadn’t been notified by the alarm company, but more than likely I probably forgot to set it.
My mind was always in a million places, especially with Krissie, and I often forgot to make sure the alarm was set before leaving the house.
I guess Drake had forgotten this time too.
After a few minutes, Drake appeared and shrugged.
“Nothing seems to be missing. And no one is in there.”
I followed him in as he inspected the door.
It didn’t look as though it had been kicked in or anything.
It just looked as though it had simply been left open but I knew that wasn’t the case.
I knew I’d shut the door behind me once we left.
“You did shut it all the way right?”
“Yes Drake. I twisted the lock, shut it and I even jiggled it to make sure it was closed.”
“Hmm,” was all he said.
Maybe I didn’t, but I was sure I did.
But Drake checked the house so there was nothing to worry about.
We both showered
and headed to relieve our sexual frustrations.
I was finding it hard to focus with a wondering mind about the door, but Drake seemed to be doing just fine.
I allowed him to do whatever he wanted to do to my body, and I pretended to be into it just as much as he was.
It wasn’t that it didn’t feel good; it did.
But I was just wondering why our door was wide open.
I know I locked and shut it.
It wasn’t long before Drake had worn himself out and he fell asleep almost immediately afterwards.
It took me a minute to doze off, but finally I did.
But it wasn’t for long.
At the sound of a sudden noise we both jumped up immediately and looked at each other.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
We heard it again and my heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach.
What the hell was that?
Drake reached in the nightstand beside the bed and pulled out a gun.
He looked at me and then got up.
I was frightened, but I was also nosey, so I got up and followed him.
The only thing in sight to carry was an umbrella so I grabbed it and followed behind him closely.
A million thoughts crossed my mind as we neared we headed through the house.
The living room was clear so we headed towards the kitchen.
Immediately, we both noticed drawers were open, papers were on the counters and now it was the back door that was open.
Whoever it was, was gone.
“Dray the alarm didn’t go off.”
“I know.”
“So that means that whoever was in here was in here the whole time.”
“I know.”
Oh hell no!
But he’d checked the house, so where had they been hiding?
Drake stepped outside for a while.
He didn’t come back soon enough so I started to call his name and then he appeared.
Finally, he came in and shut and locked the door and we turned on the light.
The counter only had bills and other mail.
All of the drawers were open, and so were all of the cabinets.
What the hell were they looking for?
“Drake, I’m scared.”
“I know Moe but everything is going to be fine.”
I don’t think so.
~***~
“It’s only for a little while,” Drake said.
“I understand.”
I didn’t like it, but I did understand why we were pulling up at the house that I used to live in, that belonged to Naomi and now belonged to Krissie, since Naomi had left it to her.
I didn’t feel right about having to stay there, but I definitely couldn’t stay at our home.
Anywhere was better than staying at home.
That night we’d worked together with checking the house again and looking to see if anything had been tampered with.
Nothing seemed to have been out of place or even bothered accept for the kitchen.
We assumed that maybe they’d accidentally hit something that had caused the noise, heard us coming and then ran.
We didn’t call the police but we damn sure made sure we set the alarm.
Neither of us went back to sleep that night, but we couldn’t live like that forever.
We couldn’t live in fear.
We could have gone to my parent’s house with Daddy, but Drake said we would only be at Naomi’s house for a few days until he could come up with something.
He was in real estate so figuring out our next move and what to do with our house was his specialty.
So I just went with the flow.
Krissie seemed to get excited with her view of the house and started to scream “Mommy!”.
I didn’t feel a certain kind of way but I brushed it off.
She still remembered Naomi.
My disappointment was nowhere near what hers was going to be.
I could only imagine how disappointed she was going to be once she entered the house to find that Naomi wasn’t there.
Of course, Drake still had keys to her place and so we all entered together.
We were surprised to find that Naomi was packing.
Drake said that he hadn’t paid any attention to it when he’d come to take Naomi to the hospital.
He said he’d called her back to tell her he was pulling up and by the time he got there, she and Krissie were at the door.
And since she died, he never came back there.
Everything Krissie had, we’d just bought brand new.
Naomi had packed luggage, tons of it, in the living room floor and also boxes in each room that she had started to fill.
“Where was she going?”
“I don’t know.”
Drake headed to get our bags and Krissie ran down the hallway.
She screamed for Naomi but of course she didn’t find her and she started to whine.
I followed her whimpers to find her in the bedroom that used to be my bedroom room, which had become Naomi’s.
Well, it was hers first I guess I should say.
She had managed to get on the bed and she was lying on her pillows.
She missed her.
I couldn’t imagine losing Mama at that age.
“Come here. Everything is going to be okay.”
I sat on the bed and reached out my arms and she came to me.
I rocked her back and forth but I could tell that she was hurting.
Drake appeared in the door and he looked rather sad himself.
I wasn’t sure what he was feeling but I knew that he was feeling some kind of way.
And I was sure that Krissie had something to do with it.
He left us in peace and I rocked her until she eventually fell asleep.
I laid her down and covered her with a blanket.
Now it was time for me to be nosey.
I started looking around the room.
She had all kinds of good stuff; expensive stuff that looked like gifts.
They must have come from Kane.
I started going through her things.
She had a diary but she only had two entries in it and both of them were only about how much she loved Kane.
Nothing really juicy though.
Just what they had done that day and things like that.
I started to smell her perfumes and look through her jewelry.
I even went hunting for her junk drawer.
Everyone had a junk drawer; a drawer that you keep random things in it for no reason.
She had one, and I started to go through it.
In it, I came across a photo of her and Kane.
It was an older photo.
They looked to be happy in love.
They were both smiling.
Of course Kane was younger than her, but for the most part they looked like it was one hell of a happy moment.
I studied the picture a little longer and I noticed that she was wearing a ring…and a wedding band.
Huh?
He was married to Jinx and had been for years so I was trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
I couldn’t see his ring finger on the photo but I could see hers as clear as day.
Had Kane and Naomi been married prior to him marrying Jinx?
I was trying to calculate how old he had to have been when he married Jinx.
He told me he was twenty-five, and that was over a year ago. I had been out of prison for almost three years then, and I had done three in prison.
So, that alone put Kane at right around eighteen at the time.
I’d thought he was around fifteen when I was with Mario, but according to the age Kane had given me, he was about eighteen.
Jinx said they met months after Kane had already take over his dead brother’s drug operation and they were married not to long after.
So at the most, he was maybe all of nineteen when h
e married Jinx.
That was hell of young, but as Jinx said, age wasn’t such a big deal to them.
So if he had been married to Naomi before Jinx, how?
When?
Had he been married before the legal age?
Maybe his parents had signed for him to get married or something.
I wasn’t sure.
But apparently Naomi and Kane had some kind of history and it appeared to be a lot more history than he had with Jinx.
Maybe that’s why Naomi made the comment that she was more than just some side chick to Kane.
Hmmm…
Thinking about it was started to give me a headache and I became more and more confused.
I placed the photo back down and headed to her closet.
I opened it to find that there were still clothes there.
Hers…and Kane’s.
Or at least some man’s clothing.
But from the look of the price tags and the expensive names on the suits, I was sure they belonged to Kane.
Yeah, she was definitely more than we all thought that she was.
So the question was…which one of them was or had been his real side chick?
And who had really been the main chick all along?
I guess now since Naomi was gone, it didn’t really matter, but I felt like there was still something that I was missing.
Something that I wasn’t seeing.
I came back out of the closet to find Drake standing there.
He didn’t say anything he just looked at me.
I followed him out of the room as he headed towards the living room.
He just sat there.
“What?”
I asked him knowing he wanted to say something but for some reason I knew that he couldn’t.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Yep?”
“But you’re not going to tell me are you?”
He shook his head.
“Nope.”
I asked him a few more questions and long story short, it was nothing that I needed to worry about so he said.
He always said that but he didn’t know that for sure.
Hell, maybe I could help or would have an idea but I didn’t bother to keep bugging him about it.
But there was one last question that I needed to know though.
“Was Naomi married before you?” I asked him though I had a good feeling that she was.
He looked at me as if he was asking how I knew that.
