Hate the Way He Loves Me

by Stacey Covington-Lee

  “Enough of this shit,” Harvey yelled. “Let her go, let her go now,” he ordered.

  “You don’t have to get mad man, she can do you too,” Ramon laughed.

  “I don’t want her to do shit for me and she’s not going to do anything for y’all either. Now let her up,” he shouted as he shoved Ramon back, making him lose his grip on her hair. “Get up Zoe, go get dressed and go now!”

  “What the hell’s wrong with you Harvey? You ain’t running nothing up in here,” Ramon shouted as he came at Harvey with clinched fists. He took a swing, but Harvey ducked, came back up and clocked Ramon square in the face knocking him off his feet. And while Ramon tried to recover, Rich hastily dressed and took steps towards Harvey, but Harvey didn’t back up or back down, he stood his ground ready to knock the hell out of Rich as well. But that wouldn’t happen because the truth was that Rich was a weak ass that couldn’t handle a fight with a man. He limited his abuse to women, those he knew he could over power.

  Zoe emerged from the back fully dressed with her purse and car keys in hand. Ramon tried to grab her, but she managed to dodge his grasp. She ran out the door and Harvey stood guard while she made her get away. But what she didn’t realize was that after she left, her defender was jumped by both Ramon and Rich and severely beaten. Harvey was thrown out in the street with two black eyes, cracked ribs, a fractured clavicle, and multiple bruises and lacerations. But he never regretted stepping in to save Zoe.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Desi swung his car into the parking space right beside Zoe’s car. He jumped out and starting jogging towards Martha’s apartment. As he began his ascension up the stairs, he noticed two men standing nearby and one of them had a strong resemblance to Otis. But common sense told Desi that if Otis were in town, he certainly wouldn’t be hanging out, smoking cigarettes, and shooting the breeze outside of Martha’s home. He continued his journey and knocked on the door. “It’s Desi y’all, come on and open the door.”

  Pam swung the door open and as Desi looked past her, he saw Zoe looking disheveled with her eyes swollen from crying. He walked in, fell to his knees right in front of Zoe and wrapped her in his arms. She had called him from the car as she was making her escape from Ramon’s. She was crying hysterically and could only manage to tell him that she was headed to her mom’s house. When she first got to Martha’s, she walked in on her mom, sister, and Alvin laughing at one of Tyler Perry’s movies and the antics of Madea. They all heard the door close, looked up, and saw Zoe. Martha didn’t even know what had happened, but knew that her daughter had just gone through hell. She held her baby and cried with her.

  With everyone gathered around her, Zoe began to recount the events of the evening. And despite her concern for Pam, she shared every sordid detail. Her mother and sister wept like babies while both Desi and Alvin became more infuriated with each word she spoke. Alvin had become a part of the family and felt it was now his appointed duty to protect not only Pam, but Martha and Zoe as well. Pam cried and through sobs demanded that they call the police. But with only a couple of bruises, Zoe thought it would be pointless. Once Zoe finished with the sick details, Desi jumped to his feet and headed to the door with Alvin hot on his heels. Neither of the men spoke, but the anger that consumed them and distorted their faces said all that needed to be said.

  “No, no, please guys don’t go over there. Don’t do anything stupid,” Zoe pleaded. “You both have too much to lose to be over there trying to fight or get revenge. Please just sit back down,” she cried as she pulled Desi by the arm.

  “Do you seriously think that we’re going to let that son-of-a-bitch treat you like that? Hell no, he’s going to pay for this!” Alvin exclaimed and everyone was surprised. He was always so mild mannered and relaxed, this was a side of Alvin that they’d never seen.

  Desi yanked his arm back. “He’s right, they treated you like trash. That bastard kicked you like you were some stray dog. Alvin’s right, he needs to be handled, taught a lesson, and that bastard gone learn tonight.

  “No, please, please don’t go,” Zoe cried as they slammed the door on their way out.

  “Mama why didn’t y’all try and help me stop them?”

  “They know what they’re doing and that sorry excuse for a man Ramon needs to know that he can’t get away with abusing you. We need to sit back and let the men handle this one,” Martha said matter-of-factly.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Pam added.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t agree. The only thing that can come out of their altercation is Desi and Alvin either being hurt, arrested, or both,” Zoe proclaimed.

  As Desi and Alvin turned onto Ramon’s street, they were surprised to see an ambulance and police lights flashing brightly. There had to be at least four cop cars and it appeared that the EMS workers were tending to a patient in the back of the ambulance. Desi pulled the car to the side of the road and they both jumped out to go see what was going on. As they got closer to the commotion, they could see the cops escorting a handcuffed Ramon and Rich out of the house. Unable to contain his anger, Desi took off running in their direction with the intention of beating all hell out of Ramon. But before he could reach his target, Alvin grabbed him by the arm, “Chill out man. We’re not trying to get locked up too,” he warned. The two of them approached the cops and demanded that charges be pressed against Ramon on behalf of Zoe.

  “Officer, these bastards attacked our friend tonight. They kicked her and tried to sexually assault her,” Alvin said sternly.

  “Well your friend will have to come down to the station and file a report. Her statement coupled with that of the other victim could keep these two locked up for a while,” the officer advised.

  As Ramon was ushered past them, he gave Desi a dirty look and then spat in his face. Desi reacted swiftly with a fist to Ramon’s face. “Hey, step back,” another officer warned Desi. Thankfully, there was no mention of Desi being arrested and he had the satisfaction of watching the blood gush from Ramon’s nose.

  “Save your spit for your bunk mate you little bitch,” Desi said venomously.

  “Step back and shut up or you’ll be going down with him,” the officer offered one last warning.

  Before Desi could say another word, Alvin grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him away. “Dude, chill out... Let’s go see who’s in the ambulance. I’ve got a feeling it’s the guy that came to Zoe’s defense.” The EMS workers were stabilizing the gurney in preparation for the short ride to the county hospital. Alvin peeked inside and saw a badly beaten young man moaning in pain. “Are you Harvey?” Alvin shouted into the ambulance.

  “Yeah, who’s asking?” Harvey asked in between moans.

  “We’re friends of Zoe. We just wanted to say thank you man.” Alvin barely got the words out before the EMS worker shut the door. “Come on Desi. Let’s go over here and see if these women will tell us what happened. Let’s see if they know about what they did to Zoe.” The two men approached the small group and eavesdropped for a moment, but when the whispers got too low to hear, Alvin thought ‘screw it’ and decided to simply start asking questions. “Excuse me ladies, I don’t mean to bother y’all, but what happened here tonight?”

  The women all looked at each other for a moment as if to ask “who the hell are you?” but then the short, stout, blond woman decided to be the mouthpiece of the group. “My daughter over there,” she said pointing to the young lady talking with cops. “She came running in the house screaming for me to call the cops. She said someone had been hit. She ran back out and talked to the man until the ambulance got here. Turns out the poor guy hadn’t been hit, but had been beaten up real bad.”

  “Did you hear anything before your daughter came running in?” Desi quizzed.

  “I mean I heard some yelling coming from over there, but I didn’t really think anything about it. It’s not like yelling and screaming is uncommon for that house,” the woman explained.

  Everyone watched on as the cop cars pu
lled away one after the other. The small gathering of people started to disperse and everyone returned to their homes as Alvin and Desi returned to their car and headed back to Martha’s house.

  “What happened?” Zoe asked anxiously when she opened the door to let Desi and Alvin in. It was apparent that she was still very shaken and now she was concerned with retribution. If the well intentioned visit from her friends further pissed Ramon off, what would he do to her now? How long would it be before he came after her and what wickedness would he inflict upon her?

  “Don’t worry, we didn’t really get a chance to say anything to him,” Desi began to explain. “By the time we arrived the cops had him cuffed and were escorting him out of the house, and that guy, Harvey, was in the back of an ambulance.”

  “Oh damn, what happened to Harvey? Is he going to be okay?” Zoe immediately knew that whatever fate Harvey had suffered was because he’d defended her.

  “Apparently that thug you’ve been living with and his friend, Rich, beat the poor guy and tossed him into the street. Dude was pretty banged up, but because of him, Ramon is facing charges,” Alvin explained.

  “Zoe, the cops told me that if you go and file a report they can charge him for what he did to you,” Desi spoke gently and encouragingly. “I can drive you down there right now. Additional charges will help keep Ramon’s ass locked up a little longer.”

  “Do you know what he’ll do to me if he finds out that I pressed charges against him? You have to understand, it’s not just my safety I’m worried about. He’s threatened to hurt Mama and Pam too,” Zoe’s voice trembled.

  This is a situation that normally would have had Pam shaking in her boots, but she surprised everyone when she declared, “To hell with his threats, Zoe, you need to go press charges…now!”

  Martha agreed whole-heartedly, but still Zoe opted to remain at her mother’s, vowing to file charges first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, there was nothing that anyone could say to influence her to go to the police right then. Instead, she went and took a long hot shower, had a glass of wine, and went to bed. It had been one of the most horrific days of her life and she wasn’t mentally prepared to divulge the gory details to some stranger. Besides, Ramon wouldn’t be going anywhere before morning, that she was sure of.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Desi hadn’t bothered to go home the night before. He slept on the couch so that when Zoe woke he could escort her to the police station. But it was now noon, Martha had made coffee and the two of them had been chatting at the kitchen table for a while. “She must really be wiped out, Ms. Martha, because it’s not like Zoe to sleep this late,” Desi remarked.

  “I think it’s more of a mental drain than anything. I know for a fact that Zoe never imagined she’d be in a situation like this. Once Otis was locked up, she vowed that no man would ever lay hands on her in a violent way. She thought that she could spot an abuser a mile away and knew what type of man she needed to avoid. All of this has shaken my baby to the core.”

  “I know, but I think that filing charges and taking an active role in Ramon’s prosecution will be a great start to her reclaiming her power. He tried to beat her down, but it’s time for her to take her life back.”

  “I’m going to check on her, see if she wants me to fix her something to eat.” Martha pushed away from the table and padded down the hall to Zoe’s bedroom. To her dismay, Zoe’s bed was made and she was nowhere to be found. Martha hurried back to the front room and looked out the window. The parking space that housed Zoe’s car last night was now occupied by someone else’s truck. “Desi, she gone…” she announced when she rushed back to the kitchen.

  Desi ran to the front window to see for himself as if Martha’s words weren’t believable. “Damn it, where could she be?” He asked out loud although there was no one there to provide an answer. “Ms. Martha, do you think she could be with Pam?”

  “No, Pam tiptoed out this morning and went on to work.”

  Desi whipped out his cell phone and frantically dialed Zoe’s number. When she didn’t answer, his pressed end and then dialed April. She answered on the second ring and Desi wasted no time with pleasantries. “April, did Zoe show up at work today?”

  “No, she called in early this morning, said she was sick and would be taking the rest of the week off. Is everything okay?”

  “No, there was a situation with her and Ramon last night and now we don’t know where she is.”

  “Shit! Have you tried to call Ramon?”

  “He was actually locked up last night so there is no chance she’s with him. But let me go and I promise that as soon as I find out where she is, I’ll give you a call back.” Desi disconnected the call, grabbed his keys and got ready to leave. “Ms. Martha, I’m going to ride by Ramon’s and make sure that she didn’t go by there for anything. As soon as I find her I’ll give you a call.”

  Ramon’s house was only a few blocks away and no more than a fifteen minute ride, but today the drive seemed to take an eternity. Desi played every possible scenario of what could’ve happened to Zoe over and over in his head. Had Ramon had someone else go after her, was she in an accident, did she try to run without telling anyone? Nothing he imagined was good and he was now terrified for his friend. He turned on Ramon’s street and was torn between disappointment and relief when he saw that Zoe’s car wasn’t there. Still, he jumped out of his car and banged on the door to be absolutely sure that she wasn’t inside. When there was no answer, he plopped down on the door step frustrated. Just as he dropped his head in his hands ready to give up, his cell phone rang. “Hello…”

  “Hey Desi. Sorry I missed your call, but they took my phone,” Zoe said all chipper as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Who took your phone?”

  “Security did, they don’t allow cell phones in the police station,” she explained.

  “You’ve been to the police station? Why didn’t you wake me so that I could go with you? Don’t you know that I’ve been worried out of my mind?” The questions flew out of Desi’s mouth so fast that Zoe could hardly keep up with all he’d asked.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you; I just wanted to come down here on my own. I lay in bed all night thinking of how I’d released so much of my power to this idiot Ramon. Filing this report on my own was my way of taking some of that power back. You know, my way of standing up to him without fear of being smacked back down.”

  Desi breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and walked to his car. “I understand and I’m proud of you for it. I just wished you would’ve let us know so we didn’t go crazy worrying about you. Oh and you need to call your mama, she’s worried out of her mind.”

  “Okay, but since you’re there with her why can’t you just tell her that I’m fine?” Zoe asked as she maneuvered her car out of the parking lot.

  “Girl, I drove over here to Ramon’s trying to see if maybe you’d come back for something.”

  “Oh, sorry about that, but since you’re there can you hang out for a few minutes until I can get there? Ramon will be able to bond out soon and I want to grab as much of my stuff as I can before he does. I don’t want to have to go back that way once he’s out.”

  “No problem,” Desi said as he turned off the ignition, cracked a window, and relaxed into his leather seat. “Now call your mama.”

  Twenty minutes later, Zoe pulled in and parked in the driveway. When she knocked on Desi’s window, he almost jumped out of his skin. “Girl, don’t be sneaking up on people like that,” he scolded as he stepped out of the car.

  “Dude, you really shouldn’t fall asleep in your car like that. I mean anyone could walk up on you, it’s just not safe,” she warned with a snicker. “Now come on, let’s load up the cars and get the hell out of here.”

  Zoe slid the key in the lock and swung the door open. She immediately flashed back to the events of the previous night and it was enough to make her throw up. But she pulled herself together and escorted De
si to the master bedroom so that they could retrieve her clothes and other personal items. But to her dismay, the bulk of her things were nowhere to be found. Some of her jewelry was scattered on the floor, as were a few of her bras, panties, purses, and a couple of articles of clothing. Desi could see her body trembling and placed an arm around her waist in an effort to lend support. “Take a breath, honey, maybe he packed it all into garbage bags,” he tried to reassure her.

  “Maybe you’re right. Let’s check the rest of the house and see if we can find my stuff.”

  Zoe turned and walked to the kitchen, but there was no evidence of her belongings. She couldn’t imagine what Ramon had done with her things. But then Desi opened the glass sliding door that led to the back yard and the mystery was solved. Almost everything Zoe owned was stuffed in metal trashcans and soaked in gasoline. She couldn’t believe it, that son-of-a-bitch was going to burn everything she owned. His arrest must have been the reason he hadn’t been able to actually send everything up in flames. But it didn’t matter; the gas alone was enough to destroy the clothes. Desi looked at the trashcans in dismay, unable to understand how someone could be so low down. His eyes moved to Zoe and he waited for her to breakdown crying. He was prepared to console her, but there would be no need for that. Her reaction was not the sadness he’d imagined it would be.

  “If this is the cost of being rid of that jackass then it’s a price I’m glad to pay. Hell, I needed a reason to go shopping anyway. Come on let’s get the hell out of here.” Zoe turned and headed back towards the kitchen. But before she could cross the threshold, someone else appeared in the yard. “Candy, what are you doing here?”