by Tranay Adams
His shiny sweaty face slightly shook and his eyes took on an insane look as he clenched his jaws, showcasing his bunched up crooked teeth.
“Ya know, sweetie, I use to feel bad about killin’ that bitch of a motha of yours, but on second thought fuck her and fuck you, too. Grrrrrr!” he growled, tightening the belt further and causing the buckle to bite into her neck, drawing blood.
****
“I came here today to ask for your blessing in marrying your daughter,” Franklin said standing in Marbella’s mother’s kitchen with a velvet ring box. It was opened to show it’s interior and the beautiful platinum and diamond engagement ring he’d copped for her.
Whack! Crack! Bash! Whap! The metal tenderizer slammed down into the steak Lidia had planned on preparing for dinner that night. She was listening to her daughter’s boyfriend, but she had yet to reply.
Although Franklin knew that his lady’s mother would most likely not give him her blessing because she was ignoring him, he pressed on because it was very important to him to have her give him the go ahead. “Ma, I...”
Lidia was about to bash the meat again with the tenderizer, but she froze her hand in midair. She sat the tenderizer down beside the wooden chopping board which the steak was lying on and whipped around to him, her hand on her hip. Her lips were twisted as she moved her neck like a hood rat with a funky ass attitude, face all scrunched up. She wasn’t too far from it though being as she was from the ghetto part of Italy where she was taught to get it how she lived.
“Now what makes you think that I’ll give you my blessing in marrying my daughter?”
He threw the bouquet of roses aside, the hit the wall and the beautiful long stemmed white, pink and yellow roses went everywhere. His eyebrows arched and lines formed across the beginning of his nose.
“I don’t know, uh, could it be because I rescued you both from the clutches of Don Donatello? Cause I tell ya had he had his way, you would’ve been beggin’ Bella to slit your fuckin’ throat. Show a little respect for the man that saved your life. I’m not that bad of a guy. Ya flippin’ daughter is livin’ like a fuckin’ princess, in a mansion big as a friggin’ castle,” he exclaimed as he spread his arms wide and opened his massive hands. “She doesn’t have any wants or worries, gimmie some credit. I’ma pretty good goddamn provider, if I do say so myself.”
“Ha!” She threw up a hand and turned back around to the meat she was tenderizing, continuing to bash it. Franklin’s cheeks swelled as he blew hot air and hung his head, shutting his eyes and massaging the bridge of his nose. “What do ya think I am? Some schmuck? Ya think we don’t talk? I know things.”
He frowned and coiled his neck like What are you talking about? “Wutchu know?”
“Nothing, forgive me fa opening my big fucking mouth!” Wam! she went about the task of bashing the meat. Once she was done. she went to seasoning it.
“Naw, naw, you’ve been a jabber jaw all of this fuckin’ time. Spit it out, sweetheart.”
She threw her head up, locking eyes with him through the kitchen’s window glass. As she spoke, she seasoned the meat on both sides, occasionally looking up to talk to him. “The abuse, the cheating, the lying. I know about it all, Franklin.”
“Shit,” he mouthed and looked away, placing his hand on his hip thinking. “If you ever think that I’d give a monster like you my blessing, you’ve gotta ‘notha thing coming, my friend,” she said as she wagged her finger while looking at him through the window’s glass. This infuriated the mob boss, he turned beet red in the face and he appeared to be steaming hot mad. After speaking her final thoughts, she began to season the other side of the steak, talking mad shit under her breath about him as he slowly approached her from the behind, watching her closely just in case she decided to turn around and catch him red handed. Swiftly, he picked up the tenderizer just as she had turned around. Her eyes bugged and her mouth dropped when she saw the tenderizer in his hand. She already knew what time it was. Whack! Her eyes rolled to their whites and blood seeped through the tiny holes in the side of her head. Her right eye was bloodshot red and she was moaning in excruciation. Whackk! Crackkk! She fell up against the kitchen sink and slid down, both of her arms hanging in the sink with her knees on the floor. Franklin’s eyes tainted with malice and he bit down hard on his thin bottom lip, gripping the tenderizer with both hands, he brought it down several times, cracking her skull like a fucking walnut. Specs of blood clung to his face and hair. He looked like he’d gone complete psychopath in that kitchen. Once Lidia lay sprawled on the floor, he kicked and stomped her head and body savagely until he was breathing madly and his face had become wet with sweat.
Franklin took a step back, staring down at his victim whose eyes were looking up at him accusingly. Blood bubbles formed in her mouth and rolled out of the corner of her mouth. She wasn’t choking on her blood. Nah, in one last act of defiance, she was trying to spit in his face but she only managed to get it on his leather shoes.
“You miserable fuckin’ whore!” He got down on his knees and started punching her in the face as hard he could, until her right eye started to swell shut. Still pissed, he pressed both of his fat hands over her mouth and held them there until she expired. Right after, he slowly got upon his feet and snatched up a towel, wiping his hands clean of her blood. He tucked the stained towel into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone, flipping it open.
Franklin dialed up Joey-T and talked to him in code. About thirty minutes later, he showed up at Lidia’s house. Together they drained Lidia’s body of its blood and then wrapped it up in a floor rug. Afterwards, they took it to this cat that they knew that worked at the morgue that could burn the body up for them. They then wrote a letter to Marbella as her mother saying that she had been with her all her life but felt it was time that she moved on. She felt that it was also time that Marbella settled down with a man of her own like she had. Marbella cried like a newborn baby when she read the letter her mother had supposedly left. She married Franklin and clung to him like Saran wrap, believing he was the only one in the world that truly loved her. That was until she met Zonyai and fell head over heels in love with him.
Present
Marbella’s eyes exploded with flames hearing that Franklin had killed her mother. She clawed at his face as hard as she could, pulling his skin and blood under her French tip nails. He hollered aloud in pain and shook off her weak attack, tightening the belt around her windpipe. He lessoned the oxygen that flowed through her lungs.
Tears ran from the corners of Marbella’s eyes and veins etched up her temples. Her face turned reddish purple and spit gathered at the corners of her mouth. Her legs kicked wildly and she pissed on the floor, dripping a small pool. She stared into her husband’s eyes, seeing his face morph from the devil back to his own. She weakly felt around in the bottom cabinet until she felt the handle of a frying pan, grasping it. She held onto the pan as tight as she could, swinging it with all of the might she could muster.
Clangggg!
“Gah!” Franklin hit the floor, holding his head and groaning in pain. Marbella rose from the floor, loosening the belt and removing it from her neck, letting it drop to the floor. She moved to run for the door and he tripped her with his bear claw of a hand. Marbella stumbled forward trying to stop her fall, but she ended up falling anyway, bumping her head.
Seeing his chance to put an end to their squabbling, Franklin scrambled to his feet and hauled ass into the living room.
Marbella’s world seemed to spin as she lay on her side on the linoleum, eyes narrowing while she groaned. As her vision began to return to normal, she slowly picked herself up from the floor. She looked to the living room closet and saw husband busying himself on the top shelf of it. The voice in hear head screamed Danger because that’s where he kept his rifle along with plenty of ammunition.
Marbella bolted for the door just as Franklin loaded the last shell into his rifle and cocked its hammer, lifting it to take aim. She’d just opened t
he door when a bullet slammed into the doorway sending a spray of splinters everywhere. Franklin staggered out onto the porch after her. Taking a deep breath, he bent his neck from left to right before taking aim at his wife as she sprinted across the manicured lawn. He was sloppy drunk, so it took him a while before he was able to draw a decent bead on her.
Blowl!
Franklin smiled wickedly as he watched Marbella fall to her death, greeting the grass. Taking the weapon into one hand, he whipped out his cell phone and punched in a number. The phone rang three times before someone answered. “Joey, I need you and Needles over at my place right this...” The rest of Franklin’s words died in his throat when he saw Marbella stagger to her feet and continue her run for freedom. “Fucking cunt,” he said through clenched jaws, throwing his cell to the porch and breaking it into pieces. Marbella had slipped and fell on the dewed slick lawn at the exact time the first shot was fired. If it wasn’t for the grass being so slippery, the bullet would have entered the back of her skull and introduced her to the afterlife.
As Marbella climbed the entrance gates, Franklin looked through the scope of his rifle and pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off of the gate just as his wife landed on her stomach on the other side.
“Ooof!” she grimaced and pushed herself up from the surface.
Taking off running as fast as she could, she occasionally glanced over her shoulder huffing and puffing. “Haa! Haa! Haa! Haa!”
“Shit,” Franklin cursed and swung on the air, lines forming across his forehead as he gritted. He stormed off inside of the mansion and slammed the door shut behind him.
****
Marbella found her way to a telephone booth and called her girls. About fifteen minutes later, Andrea and Jan pulled up. As soon as she hopped into the backseat of Andrea’s baby Benz, she was bombarded with a barrage of questions. She gave her girls a quick rundown on what had went down back at the house. And just like she’d expected, they were ready to bring it to Franklin’s big ass.
“That’s it. I’m calling my cousins over from Lynwood. By the time they finish with that fat fuck, the coroners will need a bag for each piece of him they’ll be carrying outta that house.” Jan stared ahead looking like she was in a trance. Her eyebrows arched and her nose scrunched up. She was in a zone for a time before she snapped out of it, eyes looking up at Marbella through the rearview mirror. “Tonight will mark the last time that jerk put his hands on you, you hear me? I mothafucking promise you that,” she stated pulling out her cellular phone.
“Nah, fuck that! Slide me by his house, I’ma let fat boy hold something real nice,” Andrea said whipping out her blue steel .38, eying it lovingly before kissing it. Muah!
“Now you’re talking, babe,” Jan smirked and dapped up her home girl.
“Let’s go put a hole in a motherfucker,” Andrea exclaimed with a stern look.
“Janice, stop it,” Marbella grabbed her wrist as she moved to turn the key in the ignition. “I’m not going to bring you guys into my bullshit. If something happened to you two crazy bitches, I’d be sick.” She looked between her two best friends. She loved those two bitches too death because they were always ready to go to war behind her. They were her sisters and blood couldn’t have made them any closer.
“We’re big girls, we can take care of ourselves,” Jan assured her.
“That’s right. Besides no one lays a hand on our sister and gets away with it,” Andrea added her two cents. The look on her face was like A bitch know better than to do that.
Marbella was about to protest further but her attention was quickly drawn to the screeching tires of a Maserati skidding to a stop across the street. Before Marbella could stop her, Andrea was hopping out of the car with her .38, gleaming under the dim illumination of the light post. “Freeze, motherfucker!” she shouted, her pistol trained on the cat that had jumped out of the luxury vehicle and began walking across the street with the assistance of a cane. He was about to pull his banger, but seeing the pit bull in a skirt already had the drop on him he stayed his hand.
“Dre, no, it’s Zonyai. I called him over,” Marbella shouted as she rounded the car and came to her friend’s side.
“This is the guy you’ve been having an affair with?” Andrea asked her with a frown, waiting for confirmation. She nodded yes. The little feisty Italian woman looked Zonyai up and down, cracking a grin. “Damn, brown skin is fine.” Marbella punched her in the arm. “Ouch, bitch, I’m just complimenting you on your taste.” She looked at her like she’d lost her mind, rubbing her sore arm as she held her revolver at her side.
Jan came running over with some nunchucks and a stun-gun ready to do some damage.
“You ready to dance, dipshit, huh?” Wook! Wook! Wook! She maneuvered the lethal weapon with expertise and squeezed the trigger of her stun-gun.
“It’s kosher, Janice. This here is the lover boy,” Andrea informed as she tucked her pistol in the small of her back.
“Oh, really? He’s cute,” Jan stated after looking him over. She gave him a seductive look, winked and growled like a lioness.
Zonyai smirked. His cheeks flushed with redness and gave Jan a slight nod.
“Hey, baby.” Marbella gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“You alright?” he asked with great concern, examining the bruise on her cheek as he held her about the chin.
“Yeah.”
“Cool. I want chu to come with me to my place, its outta the city.”
“Okay,” she nodded her head and looked to her girls. “You guys, I’m gonna go with Yai to his place. I’ll be safer there.”
“You sure?” Andrea asked her.
“Yeah.” Marbella embraced her girls in a group hug.
“Aye, pretty boy, take care of her, huh?” Andrea told Zonyai as he and Marbella headed toward his car.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t have to come looking for y’all,” Jan called after him.
“Don’t worry ladies, she’s in good hands,” he assured her from over his shoulder with a wave of his hand.
Chapter Eight
Zonyai pulled to a red light and looked to Marbella. She was resting her chin on her palm with her elbow on the armrest of the door panel. He could see the worry etched across her face. He couldn’t say that he blamed her being what had happened between her and her husband. She had every right to be worried; there was no telling what Franklin had in store for them.
Zonyai thought back to the day he’d ran into her. It was after her and husband had gotten into it. He was on his way to get his clothes out of the cleaners when he just so happened to run into her.
****
Franklin had treated Marbella to a shopping spree and a day of pampering at the spa for her birthday. Once her special day had come to a close, she hit him up to come pick her up but he didn’t answer. After several texts and calls she walked outside and saw his Benz. When she walked upon it she found him laid back in the driver seat getting slow neck from one of the girls that worked at the spa. She opened the driver side door and started punching and kicking him. The girl that worked at the spa hopped out of the car and ran, leaving the Trombones tussling. Franklin finally managed to get Marbella inside the whip where they argued back and forth. Things had gotten heated and before she knew it he had hauled off and smacked the shit out of her.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you but you will show me the proper respect, ya got that?” Marbella didn’t respond right off because the pain of his assault had her thoughts occupied. This enraged him. His head snapped from the windshield to her, face balled up and jaws squared. “Do. You. Fuckin’. Hear. Me?” his nostrils flared and his cheeks puffed up. He was pissed off and balling his fist so tight that his hand turned white at the knuckles.
“Yesss.” she whimpered, sliding down in the front passenger seat holding her cheek as hot tears came bursting through her eyes and spilling down her face. His red palm imprint was showing and stinging her left cheek. Her jaw felt numb and sh
e believed that it was broken.
“Watch where the fuck ya goin’ asshole!” Franklin hollered out of the window at the driver of an approaching car that had nearly side swiped him. His eyes were red webbed and glassy and his face was rose petal red. Heated, he pressed the pedal to the medal and his cedes accelerated. He flew in and out of lanes, driving recklessly and nearly crashing into other vehicles, causing them to honk their horns and shout disrespectful shit at him.
“Fuck youuuuu!” The irate driver yelled as he sped past.
“Oh, yeah? Well, fuck ya motha!” he yelled back, continuing to speed like a demon, occasionally glancing at Marbella who was just sitting their sniffling and crying. The more she wept the more the tears flowed down her face.
Franklin took a deep breath, shutting and opening his eyes. He felt bad like all of the times he did when he went upside her head.
“I’m sorry, sweetie, sometimes I...I let my anger get the best of me.” he said sorrowfully. “I apologize for hittin’ ya. Oh, shit!” his eyes almost jumped out of his head when he looked to the windshield. He slammed on the brakes seeing that there was a traffic jam ahead. “Jesus Christ.” he sighed with relief, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, thankful he hadn’t crashed into the back of a Toyota pickup truck. “Are you okay, hon...” the words died in his throat when saw the front passenger door open and Marbella hauling ass, running so fast that her heels were hitting her buttocks. “Marbellaaaa,” he called out after her as loud as he could, turning red in the face. Throwing the whip in reverse, he threw his arm over the passenger headrest and mashed the pedal to back out, but a car came to a screeching halt behind him and a couple of others to his left and right. “Damn!” he gritted, slamming both of his fists on the steering wheel. His head whipped back around to find his wife was long gone; she’d changed into a dot she was so far away.
