Desperate: I'll Do Anything for Love

by B. M. Hardin

  I already had the text messages in mind that I was going to send him from her phone to make him upset. The good thing about it all was that she was always traveling. So it wouldn’t seem odd for her not to be around. Though here lately, she hadn’t been gone at all. She was always home. Always where I could watch her. Maybe she was taking a break because she was pregnant. Good.

  Elroy was the only one that would probably really be looking for or trying to keep up with her since she was pregnant, but once I had her locked away and her phone in my possession, I was going to text him and pretend like I was her. At first I would make it as though she had to leave in a hurry for work and then I was going to make him wish that he’d never met her.

  I had everything ready in the basement for her little stay. Humph, she was lucky that I’d bothered to put a bed down there for her because a part of me wanted to just give her a few blankets and let her sleep on the floor; well even that wouldn’t be too bad of a punishment with that expensive ass carpet that grandma had put down there years ago.

  The basement didn’t have any windows or a door to the outside. My grandmother had wanted it that way for some strange reason when she had the house built. You could only get down to it from a door in the kitchen. But for my plan it was just perfect!

  I’d had Nate put a lock on the door that could only be opened by a key and we even tested to see if her screams would be heard outside. I screamed from the basement and Nate said that once you were in the living room, you couldn’t hear a thing so that meant that she definitely wouldn’t be heard outside.

  The basement had a small refrigerator so I filled it with as much food and water as I could. It was all just so perfect. She was about to come up missing. And once Elroy came begging and tried to get me back, I would require that immediately, we got married. Once we were married and after we’d humped like dogs for about a week to try to get me pregnant, I would let her go. I’d already started taking some supplements for fertility, so it shouldn’t take long for me to get pregnant now. But in the meantime, I needed her to lose that baby. Surely she would be stressed out, scared and afraid, and I was more than certain that she would have a miscarriage while on basement lock down. And if she needed some assistance, I was sure that a good kick to her stomach would do the trick! And my kick game was strong! The baby just had to be gone. It didn’t matter how. She just couldn’t have the baby. That was the only way to make sure that all of this worked.

  My guess was that my little scheme shouldn’t take long for things to turn in my favor. I was going to send the messages to Elroy the first day that we grabbed her, so it really just depended on how fast Elroy reacted to them and how long it took for him to beg me to come back to him.

  As for her, I’d planned to take her food, a good bit of it once a week, until it was all over with. Nate said that he would do it, but I wanted to. I wanted to see her. I wanted to watch her going through hell, physically; just like I’d been going through mentally and emotionally. No. It wasn’t her fault that I’d been lied to or that she was pregnant by the man that she thought only loved her. It wasn’t her fault at all. But she was my competition. So that made her my enemy.

  Nate suggested that I keep my face covered at all times. He’d said that since I planned to let her go, she never needed to know who I was. It took forever to find a mask comfortable enough and big enough to cover my face and hair. So, everything was ready.

  Grab her, lock her away, piss Elroy off, make her have a miscarriage, wait on Elroy to ask for my forgiveness, and once we were married and hopefully pregnant, I was going to knock her ass out and simply get Nate to drop her off back at home.

  See. Simple. It would all be over. She would still be alive. She would no longer be pregnant. I would be married, and everything would be back on track.

  I was sure that once she was home that she would probably reach out to Elroy. But not only would he think that she was full of it considering the texts that I planned to send him from her phone, but he would also be married to me. So at that time, even if he did believe that something so extreme had really happened to her, he wasn’t going to choose her. This time he was going to choose me.

  Thinking about it, it all seemed like a lot to be going through just to get the man back that had caused me so much pain. Sometimes I wondered if I should really just take my chances, find some strange man, settle, and move on with my life. Even if he wasn’t perfect, maybe I could find someone that was at least honest and faithful. Someone with potential. But the more and more I thought about it, who really wants to settle? Especially when you know who your soulmate is? I knew that Elroy was my soulmate. He was just in a bad situation. But I had the answer. I had his way out. I had a way to get him back.

  This was all that I could come up with and this was the only way to get Elroy back that didn’t involve killing anyone. Even if I got caught, which I was sure that I wouldn’t, but even if I did, kidnapping wasn’t murder. And as much as I knew about the law, I was sure that I could come up with something to soften the blow.

  Nevertheless, the baby was the only one that wouldn’t make it out of all of this, but she could always get pregnant again. Just this time, she had better get pregnant by someone else!

  I watched Kera go into a sandwich shop. I checked my purse for the liquid sleeping medicine that I’d gotten from the doctor about a week ago. That crap worked like magic! I’d tried it one night and it had me knocked out cold for about ten hours straight! It was the best sleep that I’d had in a very long time. I took the liberty of adding a little bit of vodka in it since the directions said not to have any alcohol while taking the medicine. That way, I was for sure that it would almost put her in a coma, while we got her set up in the basement. I would hate for her to wake up and I have to knock her out, with my fists. The medicine was just easier, faster, and cleaner. Now I just had to find a way to get her to drink it.

  Checking my surroundings, I went into the sandwich shop behind her. Nate was on standby because I was going to need his help carrying her and all of that good stuff that involved the chains. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t think that I was crazy, but he’d only said that he couldn’t imagine what he would do if he had been played the way that I had or if his wife was pregnant by someone else. He’d said that he was surprised that I just didn’t say screw it all, kill them both. But I was trying to avoid that, especially since I wanted Elroy back. So he let me do me and just did what I asked. And now that I was about to take on a case for one of his family members, his son, we were both simply playing dirty and doing it together. Of course he was hoping that I got his son off too, and since he had his money hidden and trying not to touch it, I was doing it free of charge. So I knew that he was going to do anything that I needed him to do, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone finding out about it. I was helping him. He was helping me.

  Kera stood in line and I stood behind her. She smelled good in a fruity kind of way. Yeah, she was young. Elroy always adored the expensive fragrances that I wore, yet he seemed to be in love with someone who smells like a bag full of jelly beans. She was nothing like me.

  Up close, I studied her hair and her skin tone. She was more than likely biracial; mixed with black and white. And I noticed that she was probably about twenty pounds smaller than I was, even pregnant. But being that she had a wedding dress and that they could possibly be trying to get married any day now, I had to get on it. She had to disappear! Today!

  I glanced at her finger. She was wearing a ring. It wasn’t bigger than the one that he’d given to me though. It was cute but small. It surely didn’t look like he’d gotten it during the time that he’d had all of that settlement money like he’d said that he had.

  She ordered her food and took her receipt, then moved to the side to wait. The cashier reached her a cup and she headed to fix her drink.

  “Hi, I’ll have a BLT, to go. And a medium drink,” I said to the woman. She took my order and then reached me a cup too. Holding the cup wit
h my lips, I unscrewed the lid from the sleeping medicine bottle and stuck it upright in my pants pocket. I had to place it just right so that it didn’t spill during what I was about to do.

  I walked up to the soda dispensers behind Kera and just as she reached for a lid, I bumped into her.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I lost my balance. It’s these damn heels,” I said to her as she looked down at my feet. I was a professional with walking in pumps but she didn’t have to know that.

  “It’s okay,” she said with a giggle. She sat the lid and the cup down and reached for napkins, noticing that I’d gotten soda all on her arm and shirt.

  “I’m so sorry. Let me help you,” I said reaching over her for more napkins with one hand, and taking the bottle out of my pocket with the other.

  “It’s okay really,” she said. I waited on her to look down at her shirt, to focus on wiping off the liquid. As soon as she did, I turned my body to where she couldn’t see her cup behind me and started to pour the sleeping medicine in her cup with the soda that was left in it.

  Looking around and feeling nervous, I stopped and then fixed my drink and moved out of the way.

  “Again, I’m so sorry,” I said to her.

  She smiled and threw the napkins away. She reached for her cup, filled it back to the rim with soda, and then reached for a new lid. She stuck a straw in it and took a sip.

  She smacked her lips.

  “They must have put diet in the wrong one,” she smacked her lips a few more times at the taste.

  “Well hey, diet is a lot better for your body anyway. It cuts those extra calories that the food is about to put in you. Diet will help you keep your cute little figure,” I replied, convincing her to keep the drink as she shrugged her shoulders and headed to the counter since they’d just called her order number.

  “Please, let me pay for your lunch for my mistake.”

  “Oh no, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Well, let me buy you a piece of cake at least,” I begged. “I have an hour before I have to go back to work, we can actually sit and eat and I’ll pay for your desert,” I pleaded. I could tell that she really didn’t want to but finally she nodded. It had taken about fifteen minutes, tops, for me to feel the effects of the medicine, so I at least wanted to give it some time to set in.

  “I’m Brenda, by the way,” I lied, stretched out my hand and she shook it.

  “Kera.”

  They called my order number and we headed to take a seat.

  “I’m so clumsy these days. Especially since I found out that I was pregnant,” I fibbed, making an avenue to talk about her pregnancy.

  “You’re pregnant and wearing those shoes?” she asked, taking a bite of her sandwich.

  “Well, I’m only three months. I’m not too far along to start dressing like an old lady just yet,” I responded.

  “Three months? So am I.”

  “Pregnant?”

  She nodded.

  Well, my small hope that maybe Elroy was lying about her pregnancy went flying out the window. Indeed she was pregnant with his baby.

  “Congrats,” I said to her.

  “Likewise.”

  After about fifteen minutes of small talk, I ordered us both a piece of cake, and watched her as she ate and sipped the soda.

  When she yawned I knew that it was about that time. Showtime! This had to work. It just had to. Elroy was mine. I deserved him and no one, especially not some fruity smelling, pregnant young buck, was going to take him away from me.

  “Whoo, excuse me. I think I might need to head home and get a nap. I’m super sleepy all of a sudden,” she said finishing off her drink, but barely taking two bites of her cake. “Thank you for the cake, but I’m going to go before I pass out,” she said. I grinned as she stood up.

  “Nice to meet you Brenda,” she said.

  Who the hell is Brenda? I looked behind me. Oh damn. That’s me.

  “Nice to meet you too Kera,” I said and she threw away her things and out the door she went. I checked the bottle once she was outside. I’d poured entirely too much. The bottle was half-way empty. She was about to get the best sleep of her life, but she was going to wake up in hell; well something close to it.

  Hell maybe I got lucky and she didn’t wake up at all. I was sure that Nate knew how to get rid of a body.

  I walked out of the building and headed for my car. Her car was running but she was just sitting there. I wanted to approach her, but I didn’t want to be on any surrounding cameras as being the last person to see her or talk to her, so I got into my car. After a while, finally she pulled off.

  This was the day! She was going to be out cold. This was our chance. I called Nate and told him to be waiting at her house. He actually only lived about two blocks from her, so the plan was for him to walk there and I told him that it would be great if he could somehow figure out how to be waiting on her inside of her garage, but he reminded me that it was broad daylight. He didn’t want any passing cars or anyone to see him and get suspicious. She didn’t have a neighbor on her right side, just woods, so he could hide there and as soon as she pulled in, he could sneak in behind her.

  And Elroy wasn’t going to be a problem for a little while. I’d done a job application for one of my brother’s friend’s warehouse for Elroy and called him to ask if he could interview Elroy that day as a favor for me. I told him that Elroy really needed the job and told him that Elroy could only interview that day. I begged him to give Elroy the job and once he agreed, I asked him to keep him as long as he could on the interview because I was setting him up something to celebrate for him getting the job and told him to text me when the interview was over.

  You see, I did that because I loved him and I knew that he needed work. And I also did it to try to make sure that he was out of the way. I had a feeling that I was going to get my opportunity that day and I had.

  I followed her for about ten minutes. She swerved all the way home and I watched her pull into the garage.

  I spotted Nate and saw him check his surroundings, and his big ass managed to get real low, and scurry in behind her. He stayed low behind the car as she just sat there. She didn’t close the garage door behind her. She just sat there. It was lunch time, so there was no one out. The kids were in school, normal people were at work, I’d just called out for the day, hoping to get this done. She was pregnant and I’d watched her house all morning, waiting for her to leave. I knew that she was going to eventually go eat.

  I waited to see if she would get out so maybe he could jump her or something, but she didn’t. Once I got the text from Joe, my brother’s friend, saying that Elroy was done with all of his new hire paperwork and about to leave, I knew that we had to make a move.

  Now!

  I checked around a few more times and when I didn’t see anyone, and once I saw Nate stand up, I acted as though I was about to ride by her house, but instead, I swerved into her driveway, and into her garage.

  “She’s snoring,” he said as I got out of the car. He had her door open, standing there watching her. Literally, she had fallen asleep, sitting in the car with the car still running. That medicine was the best! I’m telling you, it was the best thing since cooked crack, as the old folks would say.

  Nate reached over her and closed the garage, just a little so that someone riding by couldn’t see what we were doing inside.

  Nate picked her up and I turned off her car, grabbed her keys and her purse. He waited for me as I opened the trunk of my car, threw her purse inside and made sure that the cover was spread over every corner of my trunk to make sure that none of her hair or anything was left behind. I looked at the handcuffs and the tape, but there was no way that she was going to wake up anytime soon, so I told him that we didn’t need it; at least not yet anyway.

  Her phone started to ring, and I headed back to the car to find it. It was in the passenger seat of her car and it was Elroy. I ignored it, but I figured that he was probably on his way.

&
nbsp; Nate got her settled into the trunk as her phone started to ring again and I jumped in the car.

  “We have to go. Now! Follow me. You know where we’re going!”

  I reached Nate her keys and he headed back to her car. We’d already discussed that he would drive her car to a location, get in the car with me, ride with me to my grandmother’s, and then I would drop him back off at home. Nate pressed the button to open the garage door on her sun visor and I reversed out of her garage so fast that it almost gave me whiplash.

  I glanced around quickly, just to make sure that no one was anywhere in sight, and then I went flying down the street. I hurried to get as far away from her house as possible so that I didn’t run into Elroy. And Nate was in her car right behind me. My heart was racing and I was starting to feel nauseous. Once I was all the way on the other side of town, then and only then did I breathe.

  I did it. We did it!

  Now that was the easy part.

  Elroy called her phone again and I waited for it to stop ringing. As I drove, once the ringing was over, back at her lock screen, I tried a combination of her birthday for the pin passcode. Of course by now I knew everything there was to know about her. I had everything about her locked and stored in my memory. After three tries, I finally found a code that worked. I was in.

  Still driving, I glanced at their messages. It looked as though she’d often erased them because she didn’t have anything over two days old from Elroy. And mostly the texts were only about the baby, or food, or simply the words “I love you.”

  I swerved, only for a second out of frustration, but I responded to Elroy from her phone.

  “I’ll be gone for a few days. See you when I get back. Forgot to close garage door. Close it for me. I’ll check in with you in just a few. I love you.”