Unveiled
Page 52
“Sit him against the wall,” I tell Knuck and Mook when I’m done. Black is checking the time on his watch.
“I’m almost done,” I confirm, removing the syringe with Dani’s blood in it.
“Did you know that Dani is HIV positive?” I ask Bo approaching him with the syringe in my hand. Knuck and Mookie hold Bo’s arm out for me. “You will live the rest of your days HIV positive, paralyzed, and not being able to talk or communicate with anyone. You won’t even be able to write a note,” I whisper calmly, eyeing his missing fingers. I insert the needle inside his arm and watch Dani’s blood slowly eject into his body.
“Oh, say can you see,” I sing as the blood leaves out the syringe and into his arm. “By the dawn’s early light,” I continue as Knuck, Mook, and Black look at me like I had just lost my mind. “What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,” I sing, emptying the syringe.
“You will remember this day. Happy Birthday niggah,” I whisper into his ear before spitting into his face.
“Oh, I forgot. I know where your Mom in Florida lives. Obviously, I know where your son lives, your wife’s beauty salon in Delaware, your eldest daughter is a junior at Girls High and your two youngest daughters go to Masterman Charter School. If somehow you manage to talk or communicate about tonight, someone dies. Have a nice life mothafucka,” I say knocking him out.
“Drop him off near the hospital,” I tell Knuck and Mook as they put on gloves to remove his body. I look at Black.
“I already surrounded the house wit’ lighter fluid. You just got to strike the match,” he tells me. We walk outside as the sun slowly starts to creep up. Redz cuts on the electricity and starts removing the traffic cones as the cops remove the caution tape. Black lights a match and throws it on the ground. We stand for a second watching the house go up in flames. A similar image flashing through our minds I’m sure, back to the night where we all helped commit our first murder. Back to the night where part one of our revenge started.
“It’s over man. Come on,” Knuck states throwing his heavy arm around me.
“We got ‘em,” Mookie chimes in, patting me on the back.
“To Jenna, Nina, and little Toni. May they continue to rest in paradise,” Black says taking a sip out of his flask and passing it to me. I take a sip of the Henny and pass it around to my boyz before we disperse, hopping into our cars.
On my drive to Jersey with Black following close behind me to pick up Sabrina, my mind is heavily on Aneesah and our kids. She doesn’t know it, but I found out everything there is to know about Serge whose real name is Keagan Storm and when she’s ready, I will reveal to her who her family is.
I also know that Aneesah will never let Dani go, her heart is too big. Her compassion for people is something that I both love and hate about her. One thing I’m certain of, her loyalty will never allow her to cut Dani out of her life— not as long as she feels that she can save her, so I have to make that decision for her. To protect my kids and to protect her. At the right moment, Dani has got to go and if Aneesah ever finds out, I pray to God that she finds it in her heart to forgive me.
Seriously, the end!
Thank you to Jae The Artist for her contribution. To listen to Contradiction and her other works, visit SoundCloud (welovejae) and her website at www.welovejae.com
Thank you to Chris Reeder for lending his pen game and blessing Tron & Aneesah with his lyrics. To listen to:
Way Up (single)
Things Ima Do (single)
90’s Love (single)
Kanye-Heavy (single)
Gone (Not Sober EP)
Download/view his music on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, Tidal, and YouTube
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has supported me and took this journey with me. I appreciate everyone click, review, like, double tap, and shared post. I am completely humbled and grateful. This has truly been a blessing and an amazing journey. YOU are helping me live my dream and for that, words cannot express the joy I feel in my heart. I hope that no one was left disappointed with this last installment and I hope for your continued support throughout my writing career. This series may have come to an end, but I have plenty more stories left to share with you. I’ll see you all soon.
Zyire, my love. Your mom is still chasing her dreams and I am glad that you are able to experience this with me. I love you more than you’ll ever know. I am so proud of you and proud to be your mother. You are the best part of me and I fall deeper in love with you every day. Continue making me proud and remember “NO” is not a final answer when perusing your dreams. I love you, son. Keep shining.
Now, where would I be without that girl, Heather Butler? My day 1, A1. I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done for me. On those days I feel like giving up, you never let me. Your friendship and your words of encouragement help keep me going and I love you for that. It’s been less than 3 years since we entered this game not having a clue. I think that we have accomplished a lot so far and we have so much more to achieve. Four books down and plenty more to go. AYE!
My siblings in creation, Jae and Chris. THANK YOU. Thank you for listening, thank you for suggesting, thank you for pushing, thank you for getting mad with me when needed. Just THANK YOU. I see you both doing y’all thing and am always amazed by your dopeness. The rest of the world may be sleep but true creatives know that y’all are in a lane that can’t be touched. Keep striving for greatness because I see the greatness in you both. It’s just a matter of time.
Okay, so during this journey I drove a lot of people crazy so it would only be right to shout you out. Aunt Faith, Aunt Charlene, Aunt Shoene, my sissy Nadia, Carley Thomas, Felicia Brown, and if I am missing anyone, I apologize. Thank you for listening to every idea, thought, doubt, what if’s, and what do you/did you think moments I’ve had. More importantly, thank you for the test reads and giving me your time. I know that reading a rough draft to anything is not easy, but I appreciate your patience and feedback.
Silvie Drouillard, I see you girl. Thank you for all the red ink. LOL. Your job is just as important, if not thee most important. Editing ain’t easy and I appreciate every error that you have caught...including me using the word “ain’t” in this sentence. Thank you for your hard work and dedication and I can’t wait to see your red ink and comments in my next manuscript.
Author Navi Robins, thank you for the amazing cover. I didn’t even tell you what I wanted. You just did it. #amazing #nowthatstalent.
Lastly, shout out to Author’s J.B. Vample and Vanessa Kirby for answering my many questions when I thought I was drowning, clueless because I went from published to self-published. The self-publishing process is everything but easy. Just wanted to thank you two for your time and patience in answering every question and responding to every email and text message. That really meant a lot to me. Truly grateful to befriend you two. Wishing you both much success in this literary game.
Until next book…keep turning them pages!