by Nicety
“Dr. Smart, how are you?” A man walked in with another trailing behind him holding his wallet out revealing his detective badge.
“Uh, I’m okay,” I replied startled by their entrance.
My eyes closed in slow motion then opened the same way, realizing these were the same motherfucking cops that came to my house about Jay’s murder. It was a case that was still unsolved. These tall, slacks and black tie wearing Caucasian men appeared like they actually gave a damn about a black man killed in the hood. I respected them for that. But this was no time for questioning especially since Angel lied helplessly in a hospital bed.
“I’m Detective Holts and this is Detective Sims. You do remember us from when we questioned you about your brother’s murder, correct?” The detective slid his wallet back in his back pocket once I was done taking a glance at it.
“Oh, yeah. Well now is not a good time fellas. As you can see, Angel isn’t really in a good place right now where she can answer any of your questions.” My hand waved in the direction of the bed clearly showing them that Angel was down for the count.
“No, no we get that. We’re not here to question anyone. We’ve actually got a warrant,” Detective Sims mentioned as he raised his hand up waving a folded piece of paper in my face.
“A warrant? And, what prey tale is this warrant for detectives?” I asked standing to my feet as I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
“Murder. Your wife is under arrest for murder.” Detective Holts headed over towards her bed.
“Murder? No, no, no you’ve got it all wrong guys. My wife would never hurt a hair on a stranger’s head let alone someone in our family. How can you do this to us? We’re in a very fragile state right now if you haven’t noticed.” I kicked the shit out of my chair sending it sputtering across the room.
“Who hasn’t noticed what?” Mika asked as she sauntered through the door with a train of people following up behind her.
What pissed me off the most about this entire scene was not that so many people were in the room. It was that some many people had been allowed to come into the room. Especially after I had specifically asked for the nurses not to let just some any old body to come in here and see Angel without my permission. They had one job and they couldn’t even do that right. It led me to believe that they had no intention on doing it either.
“These detectives are trying to arrest your sister while she lies here clinging to fucking life.” I stood raising my voice a bit. “Is this even necessary?”
“Oh, it’s very necessary, Dr. Smart.” Detective Sims turned to me.
“What? Arrest her for what?” Mika inquired.
“Murder, the murder of James Smart,” Detective Holts said as he slapped the handcuffs on one of Angel’s hands cuffing her to the bed.
“Oh my God,” Mika gasped covering her mouth with one hand. “What proof do you have that my sister did this?”
“It’s all in the warrant.” Detective Sims handed the warrant to the physician on duty as he entered the room past everyone with a disheveled look on his face. “Please call us when or if she ever wakes up. We’ll send a police watchman once that happens.”
The two men walked out of the room without any further comment. The room remained silent except for the constant beeping of the machines hooked up to Angel’s barely alive body. My body was frozen in time. The doctor walked over to check on her vitals before slipping the warrant into the pocket of his white coat. It was odd that the police would come up here to arrest a woman who could barely even breathe on her own. The thought of it only added to my frustration.
“I’m going to need for this room to be cleared out soon. The patient shouldn’t have too many people hovering over her at this time. You know that doctor.” The physician nodded sternly to me before frantically heading towards the door.
I nodded back at him before turning to Mika hawking her down. “You couldn’t come to see your sister alone?”
“Mika goes nowhere without us,” a man said as he crossed his hands in front of him shooting me a firm eye.
Staring up at his large frame, I realized I hadn’t paid attention to him when he first walked in. He was a tall bulky looking dude. Shit, it seemed Mika had gone out and gotten herself a few bodyguards. I looked around at the other two men that stood with their backs at the door, noticing that they were nearly as big as he was. That’s when I understood. The physician wasn’t concerned for too many people in the room. He was concerned that these people were some kind of gang or mob. They scared the shit out of his ass.
“Did she really kill your brother?” Mika asked turning to me as tears nearly rolled out of her eyes.
“I don’t know,” I sighed heavily.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about shit. Ox will make sure all of that shit goes away when she wakes up.” She turned looking as though her eyes were lost upon Angel’s still face. “Right baby?”
“You know it,” Ox replied never moving an inch.
Ox. I knew I knew that dude’s face from somewhere. My eyes focused blinking harder to get them to scan his face further for identification. Yeah, that was the guy. That was the guy that Adrial had hooked up with to fix our problem back in the day. He was older and much more bulkier than he was before but that was definitely him. Ox. How could I ever forget a name like that?
“This is your… Your new man?” I asked throaty.
“Yeah. Ox this is my sister’s husband, Vega. Vega, this is Ox,” Mika introduced without taking her eyes off of Angel.
He and I stared at each other. We didn’t even seem to blink. It was like he remembered exactly who I was. The fact that he remained quiet rather than tell Mika that he knew me already let me further know that he didn’t want her to know about what he had done for me in my past no more than I did. My eyes glanced for a second back at Mika, still distraught over the state of her sister’s condition.
“What are they saying about her health right now?” She asked as she gently touched her face.
“Angel’s vitals are getting better each day, they are saying. If she keeps at that pace, she and the baby are expected to make a full recovery.” I turned toward her.
“The baby? Oh my God. She’s pregnant too?” Mika exclaimed. “I’m gonna be an aunt?”
I smiled at her before turning back to Ox. “Uh, yeah. She had just found out right before all of this happened. How’s about us men give you a few minutes alone with your sister, Mika?”
“Yeah, that would be nice,” she whispered somberly.
Ox nodded to me before turning to do the same to his men as we all headed out the door. When the door closed behind us, his henchmen returned to their wall positions as Ox hawked me down as if he was waiting for me to speak before he did. To say that I was nervous was an understatement. I had never had to speak to Ox directly. Adrial always did the talking for me. Now that Adrial was gone, I would have to run my own show. The fact that Ox didn’t crack a smile or a blink an eye, made me feel like I was in some well heated interrogation room about to sweat bullets.
“Hey, um, thanks for not saying anything in there,” I began, noticing him not budge a bit. “I had been looking for your number everywhere and couldn’t find it to save my life. But, uh, I, uh, kind of need your help again.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, um, see that thing that you had fixed for me years ago… Well, it’s resurfaced,” I explained.
“A new thing with someone else or the same thing?”
“See, I don’t know. I don’t know if someone found out about it and is fucking with me or if it’s some old shit coming back taunting me. I’ve been getting notes at my house and then here… I just can’t allow this to fuck up my life,” I breathed rubbing the stress from my head. “Can you please just find out what’s going on and help me? I’ll pay whatever you want.”
“And you will, pay. But be careful. When you dig up the past, all you get is dirty. You feel me?” Ox nodded his head to me passing me his
business card as Mika exited the room.
“Com’ on. I’m ready to go.” Mika told Ox as she wrapped her thick arm around one of his bulky ones.
“So,” I began smiling nervously hoping she didn’t hear anything before she came out. “You’ve finally axed that stupid ass David out of the picture huh?”
“Hmm, something like that.” Her eyes met with Ox’s.
“I’m so very truly sorry about your baby, Mika. I didn’t know and if there’s anything I can do—“
“Don’t worry about it Vega. I appreciate your concern though. Thank you,” Mika interrupted.
“Well what happened to the little guy?” I asked kind of feeling I may have been out of line for asking after the words left my lips.
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the person responsible pays with his life,” her reply sent chills up my spine.
“Well… Um, I’m proud of you sis. You finally got yourself a good man here.” I nodded in Ox’s direction giving him the indication that I had put in a good word for him but he seemed unbothered. “Anyway, I’m hoping your sister pulls through. I think I’d die if I ever lost her.”
“We all have to die one way or the other. The question is, how?” Mika’s eyes were blank, almost dead.
Her message plagued my thoughts as they walked off down the hall. I couldn’t tell if what she meant by what she had said but it was clear that she didn’t know that we knew each other or else she wouldn’t have introduced us. When Angel woke up, I didn’t need her knowing what I had done in my past either. None of that changed the man that I was today. I refused to let it define me. And, with Ox’s help again, I would be able to rest knowing that soon I would be free from that shit leaving all that bullshit behind me.
Friday Night: The Battle?
Mika
It was my first night away from Ox. After having seen Angel lying presumably lifeless in a hospital bed earlier today, I convinced him to let me spend one night with her to be close to her in her time of need. He happily agreed but of course he wasn’t letting me stay by myself even at a hospital with hundreds of people around. So to keep him from wanting to stay there with me, I agreed to let one of his goons accompany me as long as he stayed out of the way. I didn’t want to feel like I was being babysat like a small child.
I was a grown ass woman, though I could see why he wanted to keep an eye out on me. It was sweet that he cared so much for me but if it was my time to go by David’s hand then it was just my time. Furthermore, I wasn’t going anywhere without taking that bastard with me. Either way, I was gung-ho in going down swinging. I needed to do this for me, for my son. In my mind that was just something Ox would never understand.
After sitting with Angel for hours and taking another few hours to convince Vega to go home for some official rest, I waited for Ox’s bodyguard posted on the outside of the door to fall asleep too. It didn’t take long either. Not after sweet talking one of the nurses into giving me two doses of sleeping pills to crunch up in the coffee I gave him earlier. I told her I needed them because I was having trouble sleeping, which wasn’t necessarily a lie.
Having been a nurse at the hospital Vega worked at, I used that as my club card so to speak to get me anything I wanted here. The nurses here were so chatty and friendly that they were all too happy to lend a helping hand to a fellow nurse who had a hard time sleeping after enduring all this stress and anguish. They felt sorry for Vega and I, that we were having a hard time coping with Angel’s condition. I played on their sadness for us and it worked like a charm.
Once I was outside, it didn’t take me long to hail a cab. Cabs were a dime a dozen in front of busy hospital entrances and emergency rooms. I hopped in and instructed him to drive to the back of Curie High School. He knew exactly where it was and with him whipping in and out of the scarce after midnight traffic, we were there in no time. The cabbie pulled up stating that we had made it to the old football field pointing in its direction. He repeated it over and over again until I finally snapped up out of my daze.
“Ma’am. Ma’am. That will be $22.45 please.” The dark skinned cabbie reached his hand over the seat holding it open waiting for payment. “Pay me now please.”
His thick African accent annoyed me only because he was interrupting the very thoughts I had in the back of my mind. It was now or never. Apart of me actually wondered if I was doing the right thing, if in fact I should have been waiting for Ox’s goons to handle this business instead of taking matters into my own hands. I didn’t know if it was the darkness of the night or the hazy fog that accompanied it but something gave me a bout of cold feet. But the more the cabbie demanded his money the more frustrated I became realizing I asked for this so it was time for me to put my big girl panties on and do what I came to do.
“Here, damn. You act like I wasn’t gonna pay you or something.” After slapping the money in the man’s hand, I exited the cab watching him take off quickly into the night.
I stood there watching until his taillights disappeared in the midnight fog. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t scared out of my ass as I walked over to the gate opening near the bleachers. The night air was crisp against my skin forcing me to zip my leather jacket all the way up to the neck. It was dark as death on the streets and there was barely any traffic nearby.
Much of the light out there was moonlight and that which came from the one good working pole light over the field. Its blue illuminate was dull but still gave a bit of visibility. Staring down at my phone for the time, it indicated that it was now 12:20am. Either David was late or he was watching, hoping that I came by myself like he hoped I would.
“Mika,” a voice called out in the distance. “Mika.”
“Who…” My eyes squinted struggling to get a glimpse of who was approaching me walking from the same direction I had just come from. “Who the hell is that?”
The closer the dark figure became the clearer their face became to me. My head lowered before checking around the darkness on the field for anyone else. I didn’t need anyone sneaking up on me, catching me slipping. My heart thumped like a bass drum in church as I walked closer to the figure meeting half way.
“Deidra, what the hell are you doing here?”
“No sis. I think the better question is what the hell are you doing here?” Deidra placed her hand on her hip raising her eyebrow simultaneously. “Didn’t Ox and I tell you not to go anywhere by yourself?”
“Yeah but D., I just had to get this done. Y’all know them goons were looking for a needle in a haystack. They were never gonna catch that nigga cause David knows Ox’s shit too well. He’ll hide under grass if he knew Ox would never look there. Y’all ain’t never gonna find him,” I sighed.
“Mika, you’ve gotta have faith in my brother. He knows what’s best. The nigga is smarter than you think. He knows what he’s doing. You’ve gotta put more trust in the people who truly care for you and not in the motherfuckas that don’t.” Deidra shook her head lowering her eyes to the ground before bringing them back up to mine. “Now what the fuck are you doing out here?”
“David told me to meet him here the other day. Said we’d even the score once and for all. I just had to do it D. I had to.” I chucked my chin to the sky refusing to let a drop of tear fall. “How did you know I was here though?”
She tossed me the yeah right look. Of course I should have known she was following me. I should have known he would have a back up plan to his back up plan. I just didn’t know it would be in the form of someone he knew I was more than close to and related more with. I could hear his voice now, snapping and yelling until I got it through my thick skull that he wanted me alive, not dead.
“Fuck. Ox is gonna kick my ass. Isn’t he?”
“You’re still new to this shit sis, so I’m sure he’s gonna give you a break ‘cause he loves you and all. But you can’t keep doing dumb shit and expect him not to get mad.” Deidra put her hand around my shoulders escorting me back to the field entrance.
“It wasn’t dumb shit. I was doing what we have been trying to do for the longest for Keylan. Isn’t that the goal? Whether I lived or died, that was always the goal,” I turned to her standing firm in why I did what I did.
“You’re so hell bent on getting justice for Keylan not realizing that if you’re dead you won’t be getting shit for him,” Deidra rebutted harshly.
It was then that I recognized I had let the death of Keylan consume and fuck with my sensible reasoning. I couldn’t see shit past what I wanted and that was revenge. In hindsight, I could thank Deidra and Ox for the rage that kept churning evilly inside of me. They gave me the ammunition I needed to start this shit. Still, as a grown woman, I needed to take responsibility for my actions. My rage had blinded me from all rational thinking. I was still lost in that rage when bullets rang out in the distance hitting the grass around us.
Deidra grabbed my arm pulling me as we ran, hauling ass to the bleachers. She took her .380 out and began busting her gun back in the direction the fire seemed to becoming from. I took my gun out and returned fire as well. We made it to the back of the bleachers breathing hard as fuck turning to peek through the cracks to see if we could identify the motherfucka who was trying to kill us.
“See what I mean?” Deidra huffed. “There was nothing stopping that bitch as nigga from putting a bullet in your head right where you stood. He can’t be trusted, Mika.”
“I didn’t trust him. I just thought I could end this shit on my own,” I retorted busting some bullets back as more flew our way.
“Shit, where the fuck is this coward hiding?” Deidra questioned taking out her cell to make a call and shooting as the bullets continued to come our way. “We’ve gotta get the fuck out of here.”
