“Bitch, what the fuck I tell you?” Dante said. “I told you that if you run, it’s gon be bad.” Dante then looked up at Edric. “Nigga, go get your car and shit while I sit here with this chick real quick. Hurry up so we can get the fuck outta here.”
Edric headed down the alley, leaving Nikki with Dante. Nikki was feeling woozy, and oh so cold. She just knew that she was going to catch the flu, or worse, pneumonia. She shivered as time passed so quickly. “Why?” she whimpered, feeling weak. “Why the hell are you doin’ this? Please… Please… Just let me go, nigga. Why are you doin’ this to me?”
Dante chuckled, looking both ways down the alley. No cars were coming, and the neighborhood was rather calm. He then stuck his right hand between Nikki’s legs, in a suggestive manner. “Calm down,” he said. “This shit is your fault, bitch. All the lyin’ you doin’, and I still think that you know shit that you not lettin’ on. Don’t worry, though. We gon’ take care of all that. And I swear to God,” he leaned in, “if you get my ass caught, you gon’ be in even more trouble than you already in. I don’t think you know what kinda connections I got out in these streets. Even when I’m inside, if I want to, I can have somebody catch up with you. And trust me, there’s plenty of niggas would be happy to have you keepin’ them company.”
Nikki shook her head, feeling her body succumbing to the cold weather. It was just too much for her to deal with. “Please, stop,” she said, sniffling. “Please, please, stop.”
Edric pulled up in his black car and helped Dante put Nikki into the backseat. Nikki screamed once more, feeling like she had nothing to lose by doing such. She simply couldn’t believe that nobody had passed by in all of this time to help her. She truly felt as if God was doing all of this to her for a reason – a reason she would never figure out.
Dante pushed Nikki into the backseat then sucker punched her in the face. With how weak the woman felt at this moment, the blow to the head was enough to knock her unconscious. Her resisting body suddenly became limp and Dante finished pushing her into the backseat. He then climbed into the front passenger seat and looked over at Edric. “Drive off, nigga,” he said, clearly tired and upset. “This chick is turnin’ out to be more trouble than she’s worth. I’ll be glad when we get this nigga Breon so my ass can fuckin’ disappear.”
“I feel you on that,” Edric said, pulling off. “I swear, I feel you on that.”
***
On the way over to Charles’ store, Edric looked over at Dante and asked, “Nigga, when you gon’ let her give up that pussy? I mean, you know she a hoe. Why we playin’ around with her and treatin’ her like she some classy chick or somethin’. You know she’d probably give up the pussy to be let go.”
“Nigga, I know,” Dante said. “I know that shit. But gettin’ pussy ain’t nothin’. All niggas see a nice smile and a big butt and lose they fuckin’ mind. Nigga, we gotta focus on gettin’ this nigga Breon. Once we got his ass and shit, then we can do this shit. Let’s just hurry up and get her outta sight before we get pulled over or somethin’. And you sure about keepin’ her in this store and shit, down in the basement?”
“Nigga, when I took the keys off the nigga, I looked around and shit after I locked the front door to the store,” Edric said. “I even checked out the basement and stuff. Nothin’ but stock stuff and brick walls. Ain’t even no fuckin’ windows. And there’s plenty of doors between the basement and the front of the store that we ain’t gotta worry about her try’na get loose and shit. She run faster than I thought she would.”
Dante snickered. “Yeah,” he said, “but that ass was slowin’ her down. I was lookin’ at how she was runnin’. Nigga, I swear, that ass was slowin’ her down.”
The two men chuckled at the figurative joke just as Edric pulled up in front of the store. They sat in the car for a moment, looking up and down the street. “Okay,” Dante said. “This might work out. Shit, if we play our cards right, we might be able to get this nigga Breon to come over to the store.”
“And never suspect a fuckin’ thing,” Edric said.
“Exactly, nigga,” Dante said. “Exactly.”
Dante looked back at Nikki’s limp body in the backseat. “I hate to do some shit like that to a female,” he said, “but she brought that shit on herself. All she had to do was go with the flow and everything would be okay. Let’s hurry up and get this hoe into the building.”
“So, what you wanna do?” Edric asked. “You just wanna carry her body into the door and shit like ain’t nothin’ goin’ on. It’s be easier if she woke up and walked in at least.”
Dante realized that Edric was right. He took his seatbelt off and looked back into the backseat. “Wake up!” he said harshly, pushing Nikki’s body. “Wake the fuck up, bitch, so we can go inside.”
Nikki woke up, once again grabbing her head as she lifted herself up. After getting in touch with her body to see if anything else had happened, she looked round. She knew exactly where she was, only a few blocks over from where Wayne stayed. As she looked back toward the busy street, she remembered lowering her head into Breon’s lap just last week and sucking on his manhood – an event that would, unknowingly, lead her to being kidnapped.
“Where are we going?” Nikki asked.
Tired of the games, Dante pointed his gun at the chick. “Shut the fuck up,” he said. “Try some shit again and you not gon’ be able to run no more.”
Nikki jumped back as she looked into the barrel of the gun. Quick, Edric stepped out of the car and unlocked the entrance to the store. After waiting a few minutes for a car to pass by, he motioned to Dante that it was now okay to bring her inside. Dante slid out of the car and walked around to the other side where he and Edric pulled Nikki’s weak body out of the backseat. Nikki struggled to keep her balance and walk, but she didn’t have much energy to fight, let alone the will to make another run for it.
Edric and Dante shuffled Nikki into the small store and shut the door.
“What are we here for?” Nikki asked. “Where are y’all takin’ me?”
“Shut up and come on,” Edric said, pulling her ahead and toward the aisles.
Nikki walked on. A couple of seconds passed and she saw the feet of a man sticking out from behind the counter. Without thinking, she stopped. A small scream escaped from her lips before she slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my god,” she said. “What the fuck is goin’ on here? Did y’all kill him?”
“Don’t worry about what happened to that nigga,” Dante said. “You just worry about you. And if you try any more funny shit, then you gon’ be layin’ right next to that nigga and just gon’ be in this buildin’ until somebody come along and find that ass. Just worry about you.”
With fear rocking her very core, Nikki pushed forward. Even with growing up in the mean streets of Chicago, her upbringing had allowed her to be sheltered from certain things. One of those things was seeing a dead body outside of a funeral home, and this was something she’d never seen. She instantly wanted to cry, as she realized that if they had killed the man who worked in this store, there was no reason they wouldn’t kill her. All over again, she felt herself getting mad. The helplessness she felt made her nearly want to commit suicide.
Edric pulled Nikki through the aisles of the store. When they walked through a dark hallway at the rear of the store, Nikki feared for her life. She really wondered where she was being taken, and for what purpose. The only thing that made being here slightly better than being at the house – if such a thing was even possible – was the fact that she at least knew where she was. She would still keep her eyes open for a way out. However, there was no doubt that they’d be watching her more closely now that she’d made a failed attempt at running off.
Edric pulled open a door next to the bathrooms and pointed down to the bottom. Nikki jerked back as she felt her body being forced down the steps. “I’m not goin’ down there,” she said. “Y’all gon’ kill me or somethin’.”
“Bitch, shut the fuck up and g
et that fat ass down the steps,” Dante said. Just then, he pushed Nikki so hard that she tumbled down the wood steps until she came crashing to a landing. By the time she’d gotten up, Edric and Dante were nearly at the bottom of the steps. Nikki’s body ached so badly that she didn’t know which part to grab. Her head throbbed from hitting the fence in the alley. Her knees hurt from slamming into the steps. Her wrists hurt beyond belief from trying to catch her fall. She soon felt herself being pulled up off of the floor. The basement light turned on, blinding her once more.
“Get the fuck up,” Dante said, showing little remorse for Breon. “We ain’t got time for your stupid shit. Get the fuck up, bitch, since you wanna act like you big and bad and shit.”
Nikki rose up and walked ahead. She looked around the basement. It looked to be a short hallway with two or three rooms on either side. Edric led the way, having walked around down here after he’d taken Charles out upstairs behind his very own counter. When they came to a room that didn’t look cluttered with boxes of product the three of them stepped inside.
Nikki was simply terrified at what she saw. She’d grown up in a house with a dark, scary basement, and since her younger years, she’d always had a thing about basements. The only basements that didn’t give her the absolute creeps were basements in new homes, like those out in the suburbs, where the ceilings were typically higher and there was less dark-colored concrete.
Nikki had hesitated to follow Edric into the room, without realizing it. She picked up on how the basement had no windows, let alone a door that led out. Her reality had become very real to her, as she knew that her chances of escaping were better when she’d been held at the house on the west side. Dante pushed her into the room.
“Y’all can’t just keep me here forever,” Nikki said, stepping into the room. The room looked to be ten feet by ten feet, with a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. On the opposite side of the room was a desk next to a metal filing cabinet. Both were dusty, clearly not having been touched in months, if not years. To the side of the door was a couch that looked as if it had come from a home in the 1970s. Nikki stood in the middle of the floor, unsure of what to do.
“We can do whatever the fuck we want, Miss Prissy,” Edric said. “Now, do what Dante said and shut the fuck up. Sit down right there.” He pointed at the couch.
Nikki looked at the couch, wondering when the last time anyone had sat on it. She shook her head, knowing that she’d never sit on a couch like this if she wasn’t under duress. Reluctantly, she walked over to the couch and sat down, her eyes glued on Dante and Edric. The two men looked at each other.
“So, when you gon’ stop lyin’?” Dante asked, trying to sound as if he was being comforting. “Huh? When is you gon’ stop lyin’?”
“Lying?” Nikki said. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about? Like I told you at the house, and out in the car, I ain’t lie about nothin’. I told you everything that I know about Breon and stuff. I swear, this just don’t make no fuckin’ sense. I ain’t even have nothin’ to do with this shit, and the nigga ain’t even try’na come and save me.”
“So, how you feel about that?” Dante asked, seeing that his question had hit a sore spot with Nikki. It was obvious in her response – in her wording.
“How I feel about what?” Nikki asked.
“About Breon?” Dante said. He glanced at Edric, who smiled, then looked back at Nikki. “You know, I know you must feel some kind of way. You seem like a smart chick that got fucked up by some no good nigga.”
“Story of my life,” Nikki said, rolling her eyes. “I mean, it is what it is. I just wanna go home.”
“That ain’t what I mean,” Dante said. “I don’t think you gettin’ what I’m sayin’. What I’m sayin’ is you must feel some kind of way about Breon gettin’ you caught up in this shit and not even try’na come and save you. I mean, you heard what he said on the phone over at the house. He basically said that you was just somethin’ to fuck and that you not even worth try’na get out of this situation. I mean, that is some fucked up shit to say. I know I done did some shitty stuff in my life, and probably will do some more shitty stuff. But what kinda nigga is that nigga if he the reason you got caught up in some shit that ain’t even have nothin’ to do with you and won’t come over and try to get you back. You knew he had a chick when you started fuckin’ around with him, didn’t you?”
Nikki rubbed her arms as she got used to the cold, partly damp basement. She pulled her eyes up from the floor and looked at Dante. She shrugged her shoulders. “I mean,” she said. “Yeah, I knew he had a chick and stuff.”
“And you know that that bitch ass nigga didn’t come get you not because he scared of a nigga and stuff,” he said, pointing at himself. “You know the nigga didn’t wanna come and get you because he was worried about his chick findin’ out. You know that, right?”
Nikki looked away. “I mean,” she said, trying to find the words. As much as it hurt, even though she and Breon barely had anything going to begin with, she knew that everything that Dante said was true. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. When I was textin’ the nigga last night, he brought up that he was at home with his girl.”
“And how that make you feel?” Dante asked. “I mean, all this could end, for you, anyway, if you just tell me where he live. Tell me where the nigga lay his head down at night and I will send you on your merry way. Shit, me and my boy will even drop you back off at your apartment and have your door and shit fixed for you.”
“That’s the thing,” Nikki said. “I just started to hook up with him on Friday night. I swear to God and to you and on everything I love that I don’t know where the nigga live. He live with his chick Trina and I ain’t never been over to his house. We messed around in his SUV and he came over to my place. That’s it, I swear. We ain’t never met up at his house or nothin’. He ain’t even never talked about where he stay. I swear to you, I don’t fuckin’ know.”
“Man, I don’t think she know,” Edric said, picking up on the sincerity in Nikki’s voice.
Dante nodded, glancing at Edric. He then focused back on Nikki. “Trina, huh?” he asked. “That’s his chick’s name? Trina?”
“Yeah,” Nikki answered. “But it ain’t like I ever met the bitch, though. Me and my roommate looked online, on Facebook and saw a picture of her and that’s it. I swear, I don’t know nothin’ about her other than what she look like and that her name is Trina. I swear to God that is all I fuckin’ know.”
“Is that so?” Dante asked, smirking. “You said you looked at her on Facebook, huh?”
“Yeah, last week or over the weekend,” Nikki said. “Why?” She began to wonder what Dante was getting at. “Why you ask me that?”
Rather than answering, Dante dug Nikki’s phone out of his pocket. “Unlock this shit and log onto your Facebook,” he told her. “And try any funny shit like textin’ somebody or somethin’, and I swear to God, you’ll be even more sorry than you was out in that alley and stuff. If you work with me, Nikki, then everything is gon’ be okay for you.” He reached out and rubbed his hand along her thigh. “You know you too pretty to be goin’ through all of this,” he said. “And you seem smart. That’s why I didn’t do nothin’ crazy to you like I might do to some other chick. I just wanted you to know that.”
Nikki logged into her Facebook account, having to catch and stop herself from saying thank you to what Dante had just said. “Here,” she said. “I opened it.”
Dante leaned over and looked into the phone screen. “Okay,” he said. “Pull up this Trina chick.”
Nikki had begun to type but she then realized that Breon’s chick may have been the one bargaining chip that she had to use to her advantage. “Wait a minute,” she said. “If I show you this nigga’s girl, is you gon’ let me go?”
Dante looked at Edric. The two men chuckled, seeing that this chick had grown some balls in the last couple seconds. Dante leaned in toward Nikki. “I can promise you,” he said, softly. “If you
show us what that nigga’s girl looks like, and we get her ass, then we will let you go. But we gotta get her first.”
Nikki thought about it for a moment. While she certainly didn’t like how this Trina chick was part of the reason that Breon wouldn’t get up last night and come get her, there was some social responsibility in her heart. She knew how hard it was being a female out in this world – especially a black female. The last thing she would ever want to do was to look on the news and see this Trina chick had been killed. She didn’t hate the girl, as she didn’t even know her.
“Okay,” Nikki said. “But y’all can’t hurt her. I mean, we ain’t coo or nothin’ like that, but I don’t want you to go after her and somethin’ happen to her when you lookin’ for that nigga Breon. I could care less what you do to Breon, ‘cause he obviously ain’t thinkin’ shit about me.”
Dante nodded, chuckling under his breath. “Okay,” he said, putting his hand out. “I’ll pinky swear on that shit.”
Nikki forced a smile and returned the gesture, curving her pinky around Dante’s pinky. She went on with pulling Trina up, just wanting to get out of there as soon as she could. At this point, with how her feelings were, she would nearly take part in getting Breon. After all, she was the one being held in a basement.
Once Dante got a good look at Trina, showing the Facebook profile photo to Edric, he looked back at Nikki. “Now,” he said, “until we find this Trina chick, if we find her and shit, ‘cause you know how that be, you gon’ have to help us try to get this Breon nigga.”
Nikki felt as if she were sitting at a poker table with gangsters. “What?” she asked. “What the fuck you need me to do? I’ll do whatever the fuck you want me to do to get that nigga and get the fuck outta here. I swear to God, I won’t even call the police and say nothin’ about all this.”
Dante leaned back and held his thumbs up. “Okay, okay,” he said, smiling. “That’s the shit I’m talkin’ bout. That’s all we wanted…that nigga Breon.”
Wrath of a Side Chick 3: A Chicago Hood Drama (Side Chick's Wrath) Page 12
