by King, Deja
“Tala tried to tell me it wasn’t D-Boy that shot her but she couldn’t remember who. Now I know it was you. So why did you kill your friend?”
“You taught me that there are no friends in this game of life. Besides, if he knew that I had anything to do with Tala’s shooting and murder it’d been war anyway. He truly loved that woman.”
Semaj was running out of things to prolong this shit any longer so she opted the negotiation route. “There’s been so many deaths, Gabe. I can give you the cheese back that was taken and more if you like. We can both just move on with our lives.”
“You took it upon yourself to rob me, bitch. With me in debt the Dominicans took it out on my grandparents. You knew that was all I had too, so there’s no happy ending to this story. You saying I can move on, but with money on my head, that can’t happen, trife bitch. So there’s nothing in this world that would make me happier than taking your life.”
Semaj stared at him in shock and couldn’t believe what he was telling her. He had the connect people at the house on the night that she had decided she wanted to hit his stash, and that left him looking like the villain and in truth, Semaj felt bad. Gabe raised his gun, and a lone shot rang out.
Vega was flabbergasted after seeing a hysterical Semaj flee from the nightclub’s crime scene and it was evident that she was badly beaten up. To him, she appeared in distress and he had followed behind her all the way to the suburbs. It was his first time seeing her in years and for some reason he felt that he was connected to her, and instead of watching who he had intended to keep his eye on, he diverted his attention and focused in on Semaj.
He made sure that he kept her car in sight, slyly tailing her, and now that he had seen Semaj, he could no longer repress his feelings for his first love. Guilt overcame him as he felt responsible for abandoning her. But from what he saw in magazines and on TV, she was doing pretty well for herself. Vega felt he should have gotten in contact with her years ago, but he didn’t know how she’d respond to a man that was supposed to be dead. As determined as he could ever get, he promised that he’d reclaim her heart no matter what and bring her home with him where she belonged.
Vega had been waiting in the car for ten minutes before the gunfire erupted, and when it did, he reached underneath his seat, grabbed his chrome .45 and darted for the ajar door. Before he entered fully, he noticed a guy standing over Semaj with a gun pointed at her chest. Before he could attempt to get close on the guy, one shot rained just above her head as he taunted her and laughed crazily. Following, he struck her in the head with the cold steel. Utilizing his marksman ability, he wasted no time and aimed his gun and Gabe never saw it coming as Vega emptied a slug into his back.
Rushing over to Semaj, Vega cradled her limp body as Semaj tried focusing in on who was carrying her. Blood was flowing from her head profusely due to the severity of the blow. Whatever strength she had left seemed to be completely deteriorating
“Just hold on, Semaj. I’ma get you to a hospital.” Vega carefully laid her across the backseat and headed for the nearest hospital. Though he was far from religious, he asked for God to keep her stable as he took a glance through his rearview mirror every chance he got while bending his SUV at crazy speeds and honking the horn for cars to move out of his way. But as they approached the emergency entrance, she had already slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 21
Semaj reopened her eyes two days later. She had been comatose due to the heavy sedation she’d undergone from her intense injuries. Blinking wildly, she was disoriented. She had no clue of where she was, and tried forcefully to adjust her vision to the darkened room. She was enduring so much pain, she felt as if she would die. Her body was aching, throbbing and the intense pain was an indication that the medication had wore off. It caused her to feel every sore in her bones as she lay helplessly in the hospital bed.
Noticing a silhouette to the left of her, she opened her mouth to speak. “Q…Qua…Quasim…” her words came out in a raspy tone, which was barely audible.
Her voice filled Vega’s ears and he quickly put down the New York Post and rushed to her bedside. With the most concerned look on his face he said, “You’re awake? How you feeling?” he questioned, gently rubbing the side of her face.
Semaj looked up and thought she was dreaming again. She remembered Vega carrying her, but then too, she thought she was seeing the light and he was welcoming her to the other side. Then it all came to her. She reflected back on everything. The memory of seeing Quasim’s corpse rolling out on the stretcher, and Quentin’s body lying in a pool of blood, then Gabe blowing D-Boy’s brains out all came to her head. But still, why did this dude look just like Nathan Giles? He was dead and had been for over nine years. How was this so?
“I gotta be dead. Am I at the gates? Where am I?”
Vega chuckled lightly, finding it typical for the twenty questions. “No, you ain’t dead, Maj. You at the hospital. And no, you are not buggin’. It’s really me. In the flesh. Your man, Vega.”
“But how? You are dead and everyone knows this. I was there,” Semaj said.
“I know. But I was only shot. My brother was into some deep shit and some niggas came back and tried to kill everyone in the house including me. I flat lined twice, but they brought me back to life. The authorities felt it was necessary to say that I was dead so that the people my brother was dealing with wouldn’t come back to kill me thinking I’d rat them out. That’s when I had to move out to Baltimore with my aunt and I ain’t looked back since then.”
Tears came down Semaj’s face. She felt guilty and knew it was once again her fault. She had set his brother up and put his life in danger. She had to confess. There was no way that she was holding back this information. She’d already betrayed Quasim. She didn’t know how Vega had caught up with her, but she felt that she owed him her life and he deserved the truth. Semaj wanted to begin her new life with a clean slate. “This is some weird shit. But before I allow you to stay here and be by my side I have to tell you something.”
“Anything.”
“Well, when my father was released from prison, we was all fucked up because we thought our life was gonna revert back how it used to be. But that wasn’t the case. Then me, without any persuasion or anything,” Semaj wanted to take full responsibility. “I came up with the idea of setting your brother’s connect up. I told my Dad where you dropped money off at for Boo. He kicked in the door and robbed the trap. I’m sorry for everything and I can understand if you wanna leave. But I just want you to forgive me. If nothing else comes out of this, I just want your forgiveness.”
Her words shocked the hell out of him, because he never took Semaj as ruthless or a do by any means necessary type chick. But then again, baby girl was thorough and he knew it was what the streets had showed her. She was young and hungry for the material world, so how could he blame an immature mind that hadn’t actually affected him or his deceased brother? “I forgive you,” Vega declared. “Streets be wild like that sometimes. But on some real shit, shorty, Boo was in debt with many niggas so that trap your people hit ain’t have shit to do with the shooting that night.”
“Are you serious? So he got killed over some other shit?” she asked, surprised.
“Something a lot deeper than that li’l money. But you gotta promise me one thing,” he said, ready to get this situation behind them.
“Anything.”
“That you will never cross me, ever,” he stated as he gazed into her eyes.
“I promise. I won’t ever cross you, Vega.”
“Then we forever good.” he nodded. “And I know you fucked up right now, but the moment I saw you running up to the club all my feelings for you rushed back. I know we were young, but even then I knew you were special. You held a part of my heart since the day I met you. Where I’m going with this is…that I want us to start all over. Brand new.”
“You’re willing to do that with me?” Semaj asked surprised by his request.
“Why wouldn’t I? I’ve never stopped loving you and a day didn’t go by that I didn’t think about you, Maj.”
“Why didn’t you contact me?” Semaj asked sadly. She hated the fact that he could actually move on with his life without at least trying to reach out.
“It was for your own safety, honestly. I wanted to and attempted several times to reach out but couldn’t go through with it. I had to leave my life in New York behind. Until the feds were able to get the people responsible for the shootings everybody I loved was in danger including you. By the time it was safe to reach out to you it had been so long and I felt the damage was too deep to repair with you. I doubted you gave a fuck I was alive. You had already mourned my death and moved on with your life. You gotta understand that.”
“I do, but I never stopped loving you,” she replied.
“Just know I’m never letting you go again. Not neva,” he expressed with more sincerity filling his voice with each word. “I’ma be with you forever.”
“I wanna tell you everything that has happened since you been away from my life.” She filled him in on each detail, not leaving out a robbery or a killing. She even told him about Paris and Quasim. She didn’t want to lie to him about a thing.
“Damn, you gangsta for real!” he said, impressed. “You were on your grind and I ain’t never knocked a person that hustled no matter their hustle. But I’m just glad you wiser now, shorty, because that robbing shit for the birds. We know how to get to this dough without all that bullshit. I admire you for jumping into a legit place. But we together now. I’ma make sure you forever and a day straight.”
“Vega, I’m so happy to have you back in my life because everybody else is dead and I was feeling completely alone. I was beginning to think I had nothing to live for.”
“I’m here, Semaj. You don’t have to feel alone anymore. We together now.”
“And that’s a beautiful thing but know my heart is still aching over the loss of Quasim. I believed I was going to spend the rest of my life with him.”
“I understand that. And no disrespect because I know you loved that man, but he’s dead now. He would want you to move on and find happiness with a nigga that will love you as much if not more than he did.”
Semaj thought about what Vega said and a feeling of guilt quickly swept over her. She had just lost a love that she considered to be real, but here she was considering going back to her first love. She couldn’t deny it, her feelings for Vega never left. She just repressed them because she thought he was dead. But now he was alive and this was their opportunity for a second chance at love. Semaj did believe in the old adage: If a love leaves and comes back it’s destined to be.
At that moment, the news broadcast came on. There it was… Club Rich, still roped off with police cars and uniformed authorities everywhere still doing their work.
“I’m standing behind the nightclub where the brutal massacre occurred two nights ago, leaving thirteen dead and a countless amount wounded and injured. Police officials are still investigating what many sources are saying was a shootout between two rival drug lords. What makes this case so much more complex is that Brandon “Block” Stevens, who has been under federal surveillance for nearly two years, and federal agents labeled as the kingpin of Newark, tried to escape as an innocent bystander. With the details they have through wiretaps on Stevens’s phone, agents are saying that the intended victim Quasim Santana has had prior altercations with Stevens, but the police aren’t releasing too many details on the wiretaps. But they have released a statement confirming that the suspect Brandon Stevens was found last night in the county jail dead in his cell after being fatally stabbed. Currently there are no suspects. The case is still under investigation we’ll bring you more details as the story develops.”
The newscast had brought tears to Semaj’s eyes. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around how the fuck this shit happened. Quasim was always alert and aware, but now he was dead. Though she didn’t know where their relationship would have gone had he not been murdered, the shit broke her heart.
“It’ll be a’ight,” Vega promised.
“I just can’t believe he’s gone. I had just talked to him. It’s crazy because that was the main reason he wasn’t dealing with Block. He knew the feds were watching him, but no, Block wanna take it like Qua was try’na play him. That’s that fuck-nigga shit. And all along, police were really onto his ass. Hell, if Qua would’ve fucked with dude he’d be in jail doing that stupid long time. That’s wrong and I feel so bad for what happened. Everybody is dead because of Block’s bitch ass.”
“Don’t feel bad. You couldn’t stop what happened. I’m just glad you wasn’t there when it went down.”
“I know. It’s like God keep try’na tell me something. He’s always sparing me. I guess it’s true, everything does happen for a reason because if Qua wouldn’t have never found out, I would have still been at the club partying.”
“You special. Believe that,” Vega smiled.
“What I can’t understand is how Block got murked that quick. I know Quasim got pull even through death, but damn, niggas work quick.”
“You know ain’t no niggas have shit to do with that. Only folk with mafia ties could get some shit done that fast.”
Instantly, she thought back to what Quentin had told her. “Oh, his plug…my…my…grandfather.”
“What?” he asked perplexed.
Semaj explained to him how Quentin had told her that she was allegedly the granddaughter of the infamous Gio Milano and how it all made sense. To say he was taken aback would be an understatement. Vega was astonished and couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d heard a lot about the man, but had never known anybody that was actually kin to him.
Paris grabbed the cordless phone from the end table and dialed Vega’s cell number as she had for the past three days. It was going straight to voicemail. When she arrived to his home on New Year’s Day, she was worried to death. She called every hospital and jail in all of Maryland, learning that none of the facilities held a Nathan Giles. It wasn’t until she pulled down on his block this afternoon that she found out he was more than good. His little man told her that he’d indeed talked to Vega, and he said he’d be back home no later than evening.
That information pissed her the fuck off because she wasn’t even aware that he was out of town. To add insult to injury, the nigga hadn’t even attempted to call her.
What had her fucked up was when his soldier told her that Vega was in New York. It was something extremely fishy about that shit, and Paris was sure to drill his ass to death when he did decide to stumble his black ass through that door.
As each minute passed, she grew even more irritated, assuming that he had taken one of his little hoes to experience the ball drop in Times Square. Though she was aware of the chicks, Paris didn’t care, because a fuck was a fuck. But the thought of him lavishing some other chick and he was fucking her naturally bothered her.
What Paris was oblivious to was the girl that she was trying to destroy, the chick that she was supposed to ruin and take everything from was about to erase her out the equation.
Needless to say, trying to wreck Semaj’s life caused Vega to run straight into her arms trying to play hero. He was getting a bad vibe about “Egypt.” She left him without notice over two years ago after their brief two-month relationship, and one day she popped back in his life wanting to give their relationship another try. Things had been going smoothly but his hustler’s intuition was telling him something wasn’t quite right. He didn’t know if his uneasiness was due to his paranoia for women but deciding not take any chances he had followed her to her destination. It eventually led him to the nightclub. He parked outside waiting on any suspicious activity, and miraculously spotted Semaj. Now “Egypt” was no longer a factor.
Vega had the woman who he felt was made just for him, and with her in his life there was no turning back. Unknowingly, Paris caused the unintentional as she anxiously
paced back and forth, waiting for Vega to arrive home so she could curse his ass out for having her stressing, and then fuck the shit out of him. Little did she know that would never happen again, and she was one of the girls left in his rearview mirror.
Still in tremendous pain, Semaj made a great effort to slip out of the issued hospital gown, so that she could get out of the place that held her captive long enough. Her body was weakened and her spirits was even weaker. She was so afraid to turn around and look at her face. She was afraid of what she might see. Her body was drained in every way, so she knew her face had to be fucked up, being that she’d gotten beaten more than once in the same night—with pistols and anything else niggas could grab a hold of.
Her curiosity was getting the best of her. She slowly turned around and saw her reflection. Her face was swollen with black, purple and blue bruises. Cuts and slices appeared on both cheeks. She just wanted to scream and cry. She couldn’t fathom how Vega could stand looking at her as if her face was normal.
“This is some ugly shit. How I ‘pose to walk around like this?” Semaj thought aloud as she examined her face in the mirror in horror. It was a hideous sight to see and no longer able to take it she turned around to grab the items out of the bag. Vega had left and got her an outfit to go home in. He knew she’d probably have a fit if she had to leave in her hospital gear.
Slipping into the almost too small teal jogging suit, Semaj laughed at his effort. She put on the sneakers he bought her and shielded her face with a pair of oversized designer sunglasses. After she dressed, she felt a little at ease, though she knew she wouldn’t be back to her normal self until her face cleared up.
“Damn, ma, ya hips sprouted something crazy. Maybe I should’ve gotten a medium,” Vega commented as soon as Semaj came out of the restroom.
