The Wrong Side Of Love 2: A Hood Love Story

by Charmanie Saquea

  When Zeek reached his sitting room, he was greeted with a face he hadn’t seen since his teenage years, right before he took over the drug game. Hearing footsteps approaching, his guest looked up and smiled a big smile as she stood up to hug him.

  “Ay, Dios mío, you’re not my little Zeeky anymore. Am I really that old?”

  “Sophia, stop it, you’re not even that old.” Zeek smiled as he pulled Chico’s wife into a hug. “How have you been?”

  “I’ve been good. I would ask you the same but I know you can’t be doing too good if you’re here in Cuba,” Sophia said as she looked at Zeek with worried eyes.

  Just as Chico had taken on the father figure in Zeek’s life, Sophia played a mother-like role in his life as well. She was very much aware of the struggle his mother was going through after the loss of his father and knew that Zeek’s grandmother could only do so much in her old age, so she also did what she could. Since he was always around, she treated him just like her son and loved him just as such.

  After her husband’s death, she found out he had a two secret homes built in Cuba. One for her and the other for Zeek. Almost immediately after his funeral, she’d packed her kids up and moved out of the country in the middle of the night. So she knew that there had to be something wrong if Zeek was at his secret hideaway in another country instead of living his life in the States.

  “I don’t want you worrying, Mamí. I got it under control,” Zeek said as he tried to look away.

  Sophia grabbed his face in both of her hands, forcing him to look at her. “No te atrevas a mentirme,” she told him in Spanish. (Don’t you dare lie to me)

  Knowing he couldn’t lie to her but at the same not knowing how she would take to the news of knowing that her brother-in-law was the one responsible for taking the love of her life from her, Zeek was having an internal battle.

  Closing his eyes, Zeek sighed. “It’s Red…Elias.”

  Sucking her teeth, Sophia was agitated already. She never did like Elias and no matter how many times she’d tried to tell Chico to stop messing with him, he never listened simply because he was big on family and had a big heart no matter how cruel people really thought he was.

  “What rock did he crawl from under?” she asked.

  “Obviously the wrong one, he’s a pig now. Doing everything in his power to take me down just because he feel like I took what was supposed to be his. I don’t understand how you can go from breaking the law to working with them,” Zeek said, disgusted.

  “Just like you said, he’s only doing it to take you down and even then he still won’t be shit.” Sophia shook her head while mumbling a few obscenities in Spanish.

  “That’s not it,” Zeek told her with somber eyes.

  “Dime lo.” (Tell me)

  “He bragged about killing Chico,” he said and in melancholy, low voice.

  As low as it may have been, Sophia still heard him loud and clear. For years, she had been living with speculations rolling around in her mind about who had killed her husband and Elias Santiago had always been the number one suspect. Even though she had always had a feeling that he was responsible, it was completely different to actually hear that he was responsible and was bragging about it.

  “I knew it,” she whispered. “Deep in my heart, I knew it. I just didn’t say anything because people would have thought I was crazy. He always had treason in his heart.”

  “Don’t worry, Mamí. I’ve been planning his death since I’ve got here. His days are numbered,” Zeek told her.

  Sophia just nodded her head because she knew Zeek meant every word that came out of his mouth. He had been calculating his steps and mentally planning Elias’ and Chanel’s deaths. He was always told the best way to kill a snake was to cut its head off and that’s exactly what he planned to do. That and so much more.

  ___

  As Coco was leaving one of her patient’s room and heading to check on another, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Peeking in to see who it was, she blew out a frustrated breath of air when she realized it was Elias texting her again.

  For two weeks straight, she had been avoiding him like the plague. He had been blowing her phone up, calling at all hours of the day and night, sending her threatening text messages telling her that it was in her best interest to answer his phone calls. It was so bad that she had to block his number from calling her and even then, he still found a way to text her from different numbers. She was so worried about him popping up at her house that she had been staying at her parents’ house.

  “Jacole,” one of her coworkers called out, catching her attention.

  When Coco looked up, she noticed a police officer standing with his back towards her and her coworker pointing at her. When the police officer turned around, Coco could have sworn she felt the steam coming from her ears. There stood Elias with a sly smirk on his face. Coco was pissed and surprised all at the same time because she had never actually seen him in his uniform.

  “This muthafucka,” Coco mumbled as she walked in their direction.

  As Coco was walking up, she was counting to ten in her head and praying to God that he would help her keep her cool and not let her go off on this in front of these people. As she got closer, her coworker walked off so it was just her and Elias standing there.

  “The fuck are you doing here?” she spat through gritted teeth.

  “Well, is this what I have to do to get your attention?” He smiled while eyeing her lustfully.

  “Go to hell,” Coco said before turning around and trying to go back to work.

  “If I were you, I would stay right there.” Elias told her.

  Quickly walking back to him, Coco had fire in her eyes as she stopped in front of him. “Your threats don’t scare me, Elias, if you knew what was good for you, you would leave me alone, and I mean that.”

  “Traevino Morales, that name sound familiar to you?” Elias asked, as if he were implying something.

  Hearing Trae’s name caused Coco to freeze up. Trae had been dead for months now and she knew that for a fact because she was there when the bullet was put in his head so she was trying to figure out what the hell he was even bringing his name up.

  “I thought that would get your attention,” Elias said smartly. “Now, let’s go somewhere we can talk.”

  Sighing and knowing she really didn’t have a choice at this point, Coco gave in. She followed him outside where he led her to the side of the hospital where nobody was. Elias looked around him, checking his surroundings before he walked up close on Coco.

  “Where is Zeek?” he asked.

  “What?” Coco asked, perplexed. “I know damn well you didn’t come here for that shit.”

  “Don’t fucking play with me, Jacole, alright? Where the fuck is he?” Elias asked through gritted teeth, trying to keep his cool.

  “I don’t know. You’re supposed to be so smart and have all the answers, so you tell me. Besides, what the hell does that have to do with Traevino?” Coco asked, feigning dumb.

  Even though she honestly had no idea of Zeek’s whereabouts, she knew good and damn well what he had to do with Trae but she damn sure wasn’t going to let on that she did. No matter how pissed off she was at him, she wasn’t going to give them shit else to try to incriminate him with.

  “Okay, so I see you want to be that ride or die bitch, huh? Well, you tell that punk bitch Ezekiel Clay that he has three days to pop and show his face or you, Jacole, will be going down for the murder of Traevino Morales,” Elias sneered.

  Even though Coco was trying to keep a straight face, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. There was no way in hell she was going down for a murder she didn’t commit.

  “Oh, I bet you thought we didn’t know about that one, huh? Well, it seems that Mrs. Morales put out a missing person’s report on her son when she didn’t hear from him a few months back and it just so happens that the last person he was said to have contact with was you. Lucky for us, we just fished a body out of
the Detroit River a few days ago and I bet you would like to take a wild guess on who the body is?” Elias explained.

  Coco didn’t open her mouth to say anything as she stood there looking at him with cold eyes.

  “Three days, Jacole,” he said before walking away.

  Coco couldn’t wait until it was time for her to get off of work. She didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Elias was trying to blackmail her just to get some information on Zeek. He was so dumb that he didn’t realize that she has just as much information on where Zeek was as he did. All she knew was either Tariq or Marco better get the message to Zeek that he needed to come home and clean his mess up because his shit was getting reckless.

  Chapter Six

  Slowly getting her life back together, Jayliah had went back to work. She had done better than she expected and she felt that was due to everyone respecting her space and not treating her like a fragile china doll. As she pulled up into her driveway, she noticed Tariq’s car was there. She thought that was weird because she hadn’t seen or spoken to him since the little episode at the mall. At this point, she honestly had nothing to say to him because he’d made his choice on where he wanted to be when she asked him to choose.

  “Not today, Satan, not today,” she sighed as she got out of her car.

  Ignoring the fact that he was still sitting in his car, Jayliah quickly walked up to her house and let herself in, making sure she locked it behind her. She couldn’t even get in the house all the way before she heard someone knocking at the front door. Marching full speed, she unlocked it and snatched it open, ready to go off but stopped dead in her tracks when she was met with a pair of pretty brown eyes that matched her father’s.

  “Hi,” she spoke shyly.

  “H-hello,” Jayliah said, trying to fight her emotions.

  “I’m Tanae and I’m four,” she said as she stuck her hand out for Jayliah to shake.

  “I’m Jay and I’m way older than four,” Jayliah said as she shook her head.

  Tanae giggled a pretty girlish laugh as she looked up at her daddy who was staring at Jayliah intently.

  “Can we come in?” he finally spoke.

  Knowing the only reason she wasn’t going to say no was because he had his daughter with him, Jayliah swallowed the foul words she wanted to spit at him and stepped to the side so they could enter. She thought that was very clever and so unoriginal of him to use his daughter to make her talk to him.

  She stood there with her arms folded as she watched Tariq lead her to the living room where he turned the TV on for Tanae and put cartoons on for her before walking back over to her.

  “She’s beautiful,” she said just above a whisper.

  “Thank you, can we talk?” he asked.

  “Nah, ain’t nothing for us to say,” she said as she tried to walk away.

  Snatching her up, Tariq carried her up the stairs to her bedroom where he left the door slightly cracked just in case his daughter called for him so he would be able to hear her.

  “I’m tired of this attitude shit you got going on, Jayliah. Drop it…now,” he told her sternly.

  Jayliah just laughed. “Nigga, please. You don’t have to deal with my attitude or did you forget? That same door you just walked through, you can use to walk back out of.”

  Before Jayliah even know what was happening, Tariq had her pinned up against the wall by her throat, choking her slightly before he pressed his lips against hers. She tried to put up a resistance and fight him off but he wasn’t having that, choking her a little more until she had to open her mouth for air and that’s when he shoved his tongue down her throat.

  “Stop!” Jayliah said as she pushed him off of her. “Why the fuck are you here Tariq, really?”

  “Where else Imma be, Jay?” he asked as if she were stupid.

  “Obviously not here. You damn sure said to hell with me when I told you to pick the last time I seen you. Now all of a sudden you’re Team Jayliah?”

  “I’ve been fucking Team Jayliah for a year and some change, let’s not go there! You wanted me to choose between you and my fucking daughter in the middle of a crowded mall while you and her mother showed y’all ass. That shit wasn’t going down,” Tariq told her.

  “No dumb ass, I wanted you to choose between me and her. I feel like you’re telling me one thing but doing a completely different thing. Do you honestly think I’m the type of female that would make you choose between you and your child? I should really slap you right now,” Jayliah said as if she was offended.

  “You’re right, Jay; you’re better than that. Look at it like this though, you know where I wanna be and where my heart is but you’re the one who wants to push me away all of a sudden. I’ve always been real with you and never gave you a reason to doubt me or my love for you.”

  “But you did though, Riq,” Jayliah sighed. “Your baby’s mother is the same person who messed up my car, the same person that you played dumb about knowing and claiming you didn’t have any kids. But wait, she’s the exact same bitch that you had on your arm parading around Zeek’s birthday. Yet, you stand here and tell me I don’t have a reason to doubt you?”

  Tariq ran his hands down his face because he knew he had fucked up and there was no way around it. Even with all that, he was trying to get Jayliah to understand that Shanae didn’t mean shit to him besides the fact that she was the person who gave him his daughter.

  “So what’s it going to take for me to get my Jay back? That’s all I want to know. Don’t stand up there and front like you don’t miss me because I know you do, and I know she do, too,” Tariq said while licking his lips.

  “Boy, please. She’s been being taken care of so don’t worry about her,” she said slickly.

  “Hold the fuck up, what?” Tariq questioned.

  “So, what’s the story behind you and Tanae’s mother?” she asked, changing the subject.

  Even though she had pretty much gotten bits and pieces on their relationship from Marco, she wanted to hear the story from the horse’s mouth.

  “Nah, go back to that shit you was just spitting. Who you been fucking?”

  Jayliah stood there with a blank look on her face even though she was cracking up on the inside. It was taking everything in her not to burst out laughing at Tariq right now because he looked as if he really wanted to kill her but he was trying to contain himself.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about so can you just answer my question?” she said.

  “You said she was getting taken care of so I want to know who the hell you—”

  “Oh my gosh, Tariq. I was talking about my damn vibrator. Shut the hell up and answer my question and stop trying to avoid it,” Jayliah cut him off.

  Tariq cut his eyes at her. “Watch who the hell you talking to. I’m not feeling your tone right now. Anyways, Shanae and I messed around in middle school and high school. She was my high school sweetheart or whatever you call that shit. Our junior year of high school, she got pregnant with my firstborn, Tariq Jr., but he was born stillborn. After that, our relationship started to get a little rocky because neither one of us knew how to deal with the loss of our child, especially at that age. I can’t lie. I started doing my own thing while I was out in these streets and she didn’t like it so she left. Obviously she came back and we tried to make the relationship thing work again but it just wasn’t for us, so we just kept it to strictly fucking. At least, that’s what it was on my part. She was doing her and I was still doing me, then we had a slip up and she got pregnant with Tanae. Even though I had questions about the paternity, knowing the trauma that we went through with the first baby, I stuck by her side the whole pregnancy and even after. I tested Tanae, she was mine and I was happy. I guess she thought another baby would fix our relationship but it didn’t. End of story.”

  Jayliah stood there really shocked because she had no idea that there had been a baby before Tanae. Now she understood what the baby footprint tattoo on his chest stood for even though she n
ever really questioned him about it before.

  “Why you didn’t tell me you lost a child before? Hell, why didn’t you tell me all this period?” Jayliah asked.

  “That’s not something that you really talk about, you know, losing a child.”

  Jayliah quickly nodded her head in understanding because she now was in the same boat.

  “Also because I like to keep Shanae away from me and any woman that I’m dealing and you can see why. She’s that baby mother. She will do anything in her power to run off any woman that tries to get close to me and I don’t have time for that shit,” Tariq told her honestly.

  “You clearly don’t know me that well, do you, Mr. Clay?” Jayliah asked. “You know I’m not going out without a fight so I think I’ll give little mama a run for her money.”

  Tariq chuckled because he knew she wasn’t lying. “You’re crazy, man. Chill out.”

  “I’m chill but when were you going to tell me about your daughter and her mother, Riq? I mean, you had to know I was going to find out eventually.”

  “After our honeymoon,” he said seriously.

  “Honeymoon? We’re not even engaged,” Jayliah laughed.

  “Yet,” he corrected her. “We’re not engaged yet.”

  “Whatever,” she said as she crossed the room to answering her ringing phone. “Hello?” she answered.

  “Hello, Ms. Tate, this is Robert Kilpatrick.”

  Jayliah pulled her phone away from her ear for a second then put it back to her ear. She was wondering why the man who had did the DNA test on the arm that was delivered to her house was calling her.

  “Yes, how may I help you?” she asked skeptically.

  “Ma’am, I’m sorry to call you with such a disturbance but there seems to have been a mix-up. What I mean by that is that the DNA on the arm actually does not match your DNA—”

  That was all Jayliah heard before everything went black.

  Chapter Seven

  Jayliah sat on the couch nervously as she bit her nails and her leg bounced up and down ferociously. Her nerves were all over the place and she couldn’t get ahold of them to save her life. If felt as if she had been hit with yet another curve ball in her life but she didn’t know if this was a good one or a bad one.