I did however search his bottom drawer to see if he’d taken his gun with him. But he didn’t. I was relieved to know that if any funny business went down, then I’d be okay after I pumped a couple of rounds of those lead pellets in a nigga’s ass.
It’s crazy how guns and knives give muthafuckas false bravado.
Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique
Zero Ways to Communicate-Chapter Nineteen
Sleep is for the weary—the way to success is to wake up, get up and get moving.
I slept for about another hour and then I became restless, so I got up. Devin’s apartment was completely quiet. I could hear a pin drop if I had one to throw on the floor. Since I didn’t, I headed into the kitchen to see what he had in the refrigerator to eat. I was so hungry I could feel my stomach in my back. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t have a damn thing to eat. The box of cereal he had was empty, but he had plenty of milk left. I noticed that he had a cartoon of eggs too, but when I grabbed it, the motherfucking thing was empty. I mean, who does that dumb shit? If we were still dating I would be furious with his selfish ass right now. So I made do by getting a large glass of milk and then I stuck four slices of bread into the toaster oven and when they were done, I spread some butter on them and topped it off with a couple packages of strawberry preserve I found in his kitchen drawer. It wasn’t an International House of Pancakes meal, but it served its purpose.
As soon as I started to enjoy my quiet time, I heard some chick fussing outside of Devin’s front door. It became apparent she was gossiping with her home girl on her cell phone, because I didn’t hear anyone else’s mouth but hers. After my so-called breakfast, I took a sit in the living room so I could watch a little bit of TV. But then it dawned on me that she’d probably let me use her cell phone if I asked nicely. I immediately got up from the sofa and opened the front door. I realized I scared her because she jumped as soon as she saw me.
“I am so sorry if I scared you,” I told her with a smile on my face.
She smiled in return. “No, it’s okay. I’m probably talking to loud, huh?” she asked me. I wanted to tell her what I really thought but I didn’t. I figured it would lessen my chances of getting her to agree to let me use her phone. Not only that, she was a big, heavyweight Amazon chick. She had to be every bit of six feet and weighing about three hundred pounds. And like true Amazon women, it was packed tight and solid on her body. I didn’t think the average nigga would run up on her. Aside from how huge she was, she was kind of cute and she seemed like a sweetheart.
“Nah, you’re fine,” I lied. “But I do want to know if I could use your phone when you’re done. ‘Cause, see, the guy who lives here doesn’t have a home phone and since I left my cell phone at my best friend’s house, I was trying to get in touch with her to see if I could get her to drop it off to me,” Which was also a lie.
“Oh yeah, that’ll be no problem,” she said in a naturally loud voice. I couldn’t see her trying to sneak and whisper to anyone. She placed the phone back to her mouth, “Janet, let me call you back in like five minutes. I’m gonna let this lady use my phone.”
Immediately after she ended her call, she gave me her cell. I thanked her after I took the phone from her hand.
“Knock on my door when you’re finished,” she instructed me as she turned around and went into her apartment, which was directly across from Devin’s place.
I looked down at the keypad of Devin’s neighbor’s cell phone and had no idea who I was going to call. My mind drew a complete blank. “Come on, Lynise, there’s gotta be somebody you can call,” I mumbled to myself. And then it dawned on me that I had taken down Rodney’s cell phone number while I was watching Diamonds apartment.
I rushed back into Devin’s apartment, leaving the front door open to retrieve Rodney’s number from my pants pocket. But when I dug inside all my pockets, I couldn’t find it. Damn, I was pissed at myself.
I started to take Devin’s neighbor her phone back when I noticed Devin had left his car keys on the coffee table in the living room. I came up with the perfect idea. I knew if he allowed me to use his car for a couple of hours, then I would be able to make a few moves. Going to talk to those two homicide detectives was one-stop I had to make, since I no longer had Bishop around to help me sort things out.
When I dialed his number I knew he wasn’t going to answer but it didn’t matter because I was going to leave him a message anyway. Needless to say, he did the unexpected and answered the call on the second ring. I was shocked.
“Yo’, what’s up, Kesha?” he said.
“This isn’t Kesha. It’s Lynise,” I told him.
“What's up?”
“I was calling to ask you if I could use your car for about an hour or so.”
“Where you going?”
“I wanna run by my sister’s job and then I wanna go to the store to pick up a few things,” I lied. I knew I couldn’t tell him the real reason why I wanted to use his car. He would’ve told me no with the quickness.
“Yeah, go ahead but you better not have a nigga riding around in my shit with you.”
“Devin, no one does that trifling shit but you,” I assured him.
“I don’t do that shit either,” he expressed. But I quickly cut him short by telling him thank you and that I would be putting gas in his car when I was done with it.
“Have it there when I get back,” he instructed.
“What time is that?”
“I'll probably be back around four o’clock.”
I looked at the time on his neighbor’s cell phone and noticed I had three hours to play with, so I promised him I would have it back by that time.
“Lock my door. And don't try to make a spare key while you’re out,” he yelled through the phone.
“All right,” was the last thing I said before ending the call.
I knocked on Kesha’s door and returned her cell phone as soon as I got off the phone with Devin. I thanked her about three times before she could close her front door. “No problem, anytime,” she said before we parted ways.
Back inside of Devin’s apartment, I put back on the clothes I had on yesterday since they were completely dry. I made my exit from the apartment and jumped in Devin’s whip, a black, two-door Nissan 350Z with smoked gray tinted windows. This car was his prize possession, so it shocked me when he gave me permission to drive. When we dated, I can remember only driving it three times. It sat really low to the ground, so I had to hunch down to climb inside. There wasn’t a lot of room inside of the car either. But I wasn’t going to let that deter me because all I needed was for this vehicle to take me from point A to point B. And that was it.
Immediately after I turned on the ignition and revved up the engine, I put the little remote control car in gear and headed towards the highway. I was really nervous about the idea, but I decided to ride by Katrina’s house. I had to see if Duke’s car was still there or not. I wanted to see if Bishop’s truck was still parked there as well as see if there was any sign of Katrina. If her car was there and Duke’s wasn’t, that may be a good sign. However, that could also be a trap. What if Duke or Chris was hiding in the house, waiting on my stupid ass to return? Then again, who knows, Duke may had both of Katrina’s and Bishop’s vehicles towed away from the house, so the police wouldn’t link the tags to Bishop.
My heart raced at a rapid speed while my mind thought of the many ways I could get caught by driving back to Katrina’s house. It was clear that I was treading on dangerous waters, but I knew of no other way to handle this. Maybe I was a glutton for punishment.
It only took me twenty minutes to drive from Devin’s apartment to Katrina’s gated community. To get to her house was like traveling through a maze but I managed. And as soon as I made a left turn onto her street I noticed that Bishop’s truck was still parked in front of the house, but Katrina’s Audi and Duke’s Porsche were gone.
I wanted to exhale but I couldn’t when I saw the entire front part of the house was
taped off with yellow homicide tape. CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS. The black letters on yellow background stood out. My heart sunk deep into the pit of my stomach as my eyes and mouth widened. I couldn’t fucking believe what I was seeing.
A part of me wanted to stop at one of the neighbor’s houses to ask them what went on. But I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea. So I continued to cruise by the house without stopping. Luckily for me, Devin’s car windows were tinted to the point that no one could see inside, even if they got really close to the car. This was one good advantage I had. I just hoped and prayed no one was looking out the window and decided to write down Devin’s license’s plate numbers. That wouldn’t be good at all. So I pressed down on the accelerator and rushed to get my ass out of this neighborhood.
His crazy ass had killed his meal ticket! I could only imagine what he would do to me.
Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique
My Eyes Playing Tricks on Me-Chapter Twenty
Who said Christmas only comes once a year?
I was almost at the end of Katrina’s street, approaching a stop sign, when the black Cadillac Escalade pulled in front of me and stopped my passage. Before I could I put the car in reverse, two niggas with guns jumped out of the passenger side doors and rushed towards the car. If I tried to get away, I knew I would be dead. My brain was telling me to gun it in reverse. The guns gave me second thoughts.
Neither one of them said a word. One was big, at least six foot four, mean looking. The other one was shorter, not six feet but close, with a slim build. He was the leader of the two. I could tell when he signaled me to get out of the car with his index finger. I so reluctantly complied.
I thought that maybe I could talk my way out of this situation. Maybe Duke would show some compassionate for what little relationship we did have. I prayed one of Katrina’s neighbors was watching out the window and called the police. I also prayed that they would make it here before I was gunned down in the street.
When I stepped out of the car, the driver side door of the Escalade opened. It was on the other of the car, so I didn’t see the driver when he initially got out the car. I was hoping I didn’t pee in my pants when I saw Duke. As he walked around the car, it wasn’t Duke at all.
It was Bishop . . . and he increased his pace as he rounded the front of the car.
Suddenly my legs had life in them as I ran towards him. I don’t know what had gotten in me when I jumped in his arms as if this was an old-fashioned black and white movie. But Bishop was definitely my black knight. I held him tight . . . and equally, I was happy to say he held me just as tight. His left arm held and caressed my back while his right hand was on the back of my head holding my head tight on his chest. At that moment, Bishop was my hero.
I don’t know how long we stayed in that position. It could have been a minute or five minutes. I didn’t know and frankly, I didn’t give a damn. But reality has a way of fucking up golden moments.
“We probably need to get out of here,” I said as I slowly removed my head from Bishop’s chest.
“Whose car you driving?” he asked me.
“A friend.”
He looked like he was surprised. “Didn’t think you had any more friends?” he said in the form of a question than a statement.
“Not many,” was my short answer.
He turned to his guys and circled his finger in the air and walked towards Devin’s car. I stopped him. “Bishop, this car belongs to a male friend of mines. It would probably be disrespectful if I let another man ride in it,” I said. “Can you just follow me?”
“No,” was his one word answer.
What the fuck!
He grabbed my hand. Not in a rough way but definitely in a manly, take control way. He led me to the passenger side and opened the door for me. Then he went on the driver side and before you knew it, we were on the road with his henchmen in tow.
As we made our way to Devin’s place, I had to know how he had escaped the club before it blew up. I didn’t hesitate to bring the subject up. “Please tell me how the fuck you got out of the club. I just knew you were dead.”
“When I went in and didn’t see Katrina in the front area or around the bar, I went to the back, the office area,” Bishop began telling me. “So when I didn’t see her in the office area, I became leery and went out the back door, not expecting that the whole place was going to blow up. I thought she was going to have a nigga run up on me and put a bullet in the back of my head, since I was the only one in the back part of the club.”
I couldn’t respond to what he was saying because I was still in shock that he was alive after all this time.
“I’ll tell you what, whoever planted that bomb knew what the hell they were doing because a lot of innocent people either died instantly or burned to death. Thank God I got out in the nick of time. But the explosion did knock me unconscious. Plus, some of the debris fell on me as well. I don’t know how long I was out.”
He paused and looked at me. He smiled and that one gesture told me all would be well. And I don’t know why I did what I did next, which was I put my hand on his hand. He gave me a squeeze and shit, I damned near came in my pants.
“When I came to,” Bishop started back talking, “the firemen were starting to check the debris in the back area where I was. I managed to sneak away without being detected. I got this chick to take me back to the hotel and immediately called a couple of my guys to come down and help me handle business. The girl at the hotel told me you had come by, got a key and had left back out, but never came back.”
He looked at me again. Something told me he didn’t need nor want an explanation. He flashed that smile again and I knew I was wet.
“After I got cleaned up, I checked into another hotel,” Bishop continued. “I tried to get some rest but I couldn’t. Getting that bitch Katrina wore heavy on my mind. So I sat up all night and waited on my boys to get here, which didn’t take long since they were in D.C. The waiting gave me time to think about a lot of shit. And what I came up with was how I’m gonna make that grimy bitch wish she hadn’t crossed me. All last night I couldn’t get her off my mind. And the fact that I know she set me up made me believe that she had my brother, Neeko, set up too.”
As I looked at Bishop, I saw his facial expression change as the veins in his neck and around the temple of his forehead started sticking up through his flesh. It was a combination of sadness, hurt, anger and danger. It was at that point that I realized I had misread him. He was indeed a dangerous man. The fact he was alive should have told me that. But the true sign was how he smelled trouble within a couple of minutes of being in the club, and smelling a set-up. In the ’hood they would say, “He’s the muthafucka!” And he was.
“I know how badly you wanted to take Katrina out but it seems like Duke already beat you to the punch. You did see all that yellow tape wrapped around the front part of her house, didn’t you?”
Bishop looked back at me and gave me this wicked ass smiled. “Oh no, he didn’t,” he commented. And at the moment it felt as if I was in the twilight zone. I instantly wondered how he was able to get to Katrina when Duke was with her. And when I couldn’t put two and two together, I asked him.
“Immediately after my boys got here we went straight to her crib. We scoped it out before I snuck into the house from the back. She was in her bedroom . . . actually the master bathroom when I walked up on her. And when she saw me she was definitely surprised to see me. But I was more surprised to see how Duke had beaten the shit out of her. Her entire face was bruised up and the swelling sat out at least two inches from her face. Her eyes were blacked and he even knocked a couple of teeth out of her mouth. She looked really bad. ”
Bishop’s voice was deliberate and methodical. His tone was even. He was a man in control . . . in more ways than one. He was straight to the point. He didn’t throw in adjectives or superlatives to impress me. He was just telling me what I needed to know. What I probably didn’t want to hear.
&nbs
p; Katrina in her own way had saved me. And even before he told me, I knew now that it was Bishop who killed Katrina. “I didn’t hit her,” Bishop pressed on with the story. “I told her to tell me everything and if she left out one thing or lied to me, I would kill her whole damn family, starting with the kids. So she told me everything. She even told me what she told you and how you were able to get away from Duke.” He cracked another slight smile when he said that. But just as quickly his demeanor changed and his eyes grew dark again. He was a scary cat.
“After she told me what I needed to know, I let her know that her kids would be taken care of and the rest of her family would live to see another day.”
And then he was quiet. We drove in quietness for at least another five minutes before I had to ask the question. “How did you kill her?” I had to ask. It damn near killed me not to know how he ended her life.
“I broke her fucking neck, called the police and reported the crime and described the person leaving her house as a man who looked like Duke Carrington,” he said matter-of-factly.
The rest of the ride was driven in silence. Rest in peace, Katrina, I’m sorry but you picked the wrong team.
Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 Unique
Massive Attack-Chapter Twenty-One
Wars are won in the strategy room, drawing up a plan and creating chaos in the mind.
We arrived at Devin’s apartment complex and parked Devin’s car back in his assigned parking space. I prayed the whole way that Devin hadn’t come back home yet. Something awful would’ve jumped off if Devin saw Bishop driving his car.
Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 (The Saga Continues) Page 13
