“Yo! Wake the fuck up!”
I was immediately aware of the sharp pains shooting through my head as I tried in vain to get my heavy eyelids to open. “Mmmm,” I moaned as I became painfully aware of my surroundings. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain penetrate the side of my face. “Ugh,” I grunted from the pain. I actually felt my jaw click from the hit. I didn’t have enough energy to scream. I felt a more intense sensation on the other side of my face. I had been slapped on the other cheek this time.
“Wake the fuck up, bitch!” I heard a gruff voice boom. I finally forced my hyposensitized eyes open. There were at least five people in the room, that much I could tell as I counted the blurry shadows. Someone was walking toward me with fists clenched.
“Please,” I rasped, flinching. My throat felt like someone had shoved a firelit pole down it. I was hit across the face again. This time the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. Tears immediately sprang to my eyes. Not only did I think they were going to kill me, but it seemed like they were going to torture me first. “Please,” I pleaded again through tears.
“Oh, now you want to say please,” a familiar voice said to me as the person grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my downturned head up so that my battered eyes met his gaze.
“Warren?” I murmured through my swollen lips. It was crystal clear now. I was staring in the devilish eyes of my ex. My stomach muscle clenched and I balled my toes up in my shoes. I had been tricked! Warren was already home!
“Didn’t think you’d see me so soon, huh, Gianna, or should I call you Gigi Costner?” Warren spat, tightening his grip on my hair.
Tears were running down my face like a faucet. My body ached everywhere, but nothing compared to how much it hurt my heart to see him. The man I once loved was now getting ready to kill me. Warren’s face was filled with hate, yet seeing him after all of these years made me still feel love for him. For the first time I truly regretted what I had done to him. I hadn’t even called him after he was arrested. I didn’t check for him while he did his bid, nor did I ever put one dollar in his commissary. I had essentially turned him in and left him for dead. Now, for the first time, I realized how serious that shit was in Warren’s eyes. Especially since he had literally taken me out of the worst part of the hood and tried to give me a better life. I had shitted on him real bad. But in my eyes at the time, he had fucking shitted on me too.
“I’m . . . I’m . . . sorry,” I gasped through tears.
Warren finally let my hair go with a shove. The force was so great the chair I was forced to sit in almost fell over. Warren was in my face again within seconds. “Did y’all hear this bitch? She said she was sorry!” Warren yelled out to the others in the room. They all started laughing, including Warren. I squinted until my eyes focused on his face. I saw pain etched on the worry line he’d acquired since going up North. I could tell he was still weak for me. He didn’t want to hurt me, but he was angry, so he had to prove a point, especially in front of his boys.
“Sorry?! You wasn’t fucking sorry when you fucking snitched on me! You wasn’t fucking sorry when you stole from me!” Warren screamed as he paced in front of me. “Not even one fucking visit while I was up North! Not even one dollar in my commissary! You are the worst kind of bitch! A bitch I trusted to be mine! I should’ve known a hood rat bitch like you wasn’t about this life!” he barked. The veins in his neck pulsed fiercely and spit flew out of his mouth.
I was sobbing uncontrollably now. There was nothing I could say in response that would justify what I’d done. Warren’s vituperative words were like open-handed slaps to my face. I think the words hurt worse than a slap would have. Within minutes Warren was back in my face. I was trembling with fear. He grabbed my face, his strong hand gripping both of my cheeks. He squeezed my face so hard I could feel my teeth making an impression on the inside of my cheeks. He forced me to look him in the eyes.
“You have twenty-four fucking hours to bring me those motherfuckin’ diamonds or double what they were worth! If you try anything stupid . . . you and everything you love will die. If you think I’m fucking around . . . try me, Gianna,” Warren gritted. He released my face and waved his hand. The next thing I knew someone was standing in front of me with an iPad shoved into my face. “Play with me if you want to, Gigi,” Warren reiterated. The guy Warren had called over came quickly like a loyal servant. Warren pointed to something in the man’s hand. The guy pressed a button on the iPad and forced me to watch the screen. My eyes widened at what I saw.
“Agggghh!!” I heard the screams coming from the computer device. That’s when I saw the person screaming. It was my mother. She let out more blood-curdling screams as two masked men held guns to either side of her head. I lowered my head and sobbed uncontrollably. “Warren,” I sobbed, barely able to speak. “Please . . . don’t do this.”
“Shut the fuck up and keep watching!” Warren said through clenched teeth. I let my eyes wander back to the screen. The fear in my mother’s eyes made me wish I was dead for the danger I had put her in.
“Beg for your life! Beg, bitch!” the men who’d invaded my mother’s home demanded. “Tell your daughter to play by the rules so you can live the rest of your life,” one of the men commanded my mother.
“Gianna! Please!! Help me!! Give them whatever they want!” my mother cried out. I doubled over in response to her pain.
Suddenly the screen went black. “Please, Warren . . . you can’t hurt her! Not after everything she has done for you! You can’t hurt her! Just kill me, but don’t hurt her!” I managed to scream through my burning throat.
“Oh, now you wanna worry about someone other than your fucking self? If you don’t want to find her dead in that nice house you bought her with my fucking diamonds, you better find a way to either return my shit or repay me double of what they were worth,” Warren demanded again with finality. Before I could even answer him, he flicked a card at me. I flinched thinking he was going to hit me again.
“That’s how you get in touch with me. You better come up with a plan real fucking quick, bitch, because this time, I’m calling the fuckin’ shots,” Warren spat. His words sunk in on me and I felt hopeless. I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do, but I was going to have to come up with a plan. Maybe begging for mercy will work.
“Warren, I love you . . . please. Let’s get back together. Please, baby. Spare me. I can make everything better. I can fix it all. I can get money from Sidney,” I begged.
Warren let out a sinister, maniacal laugh. “Bitch, I don’t care where you get the money from, but I better hear from you,” he said.
My heart sunk as he hawked a wad of spit on me, then turned and walked away followed by his thugs. They were all laughing raucously as they left me in the strange warehouse-looking building all bruised and battered. At that moment, I wished like hell that Warren had just fucking killed me.
9
Scheming
On shaky legs, I got up from the chair I had been forced to sit in and walked in the direction Warren and his boys had gone. My body felt like I had been in a twelve-round boxing match with a heavyweight prizefighter. When I walked out into the fresh air, I bent over and threw up. It was a mixture of fear and overwhelming gratefulness that I was alive. The mere fact that I was still alive made me appreciate the air outside that much more. I knew that the only thing that probably kept Warren from offing me was the possibility of getting those diamonds back or at least the money for them. My insides churned, but not as much as my mind. I cried again when I saw that Warren had at least left my car there for me. I stumbled over to my car. Just as I was about to open the driver’s side door, I noticed that my tires had been flattened. I’d forgotten they had shot my tires out when I first came to the stadium. He had left the car there as a joke . . . to taunt me, because he knew damn well I couldn’t drive it like that. I looked around at the deserted, dark lot. There was no one around for miles. I could hear the cars passing over top on Highway 264. There was no wa
y anyone would even hear me screaming from down there.
“Fuck you, Warren! Fuck you!” I screamed, slamming my fists on the door. Lucky for me he had at least left the doors unlocked. I carefully climbed inside the vehicle and retrieved my cell phone. It was almost dead and there were at least twenty missed calls from my mother. There were also calls from Sidney. I didn’t have time to listen to the voice messages.... I just wanted to use the little bit of battery life left to get the fuck out of there.
“Hello . . . um . . . can I get a cab to meet me in the parking lot of the Tides stadium? Yes! The parking lot . . . I have money to pay for it!” I screamed at the lady. She was acting like I was some damn crackhead trying to play games. It seemed like it took forever for the cab driver to find me, but he finally did. Of course he required that I pay upfront because he had picked me up in that seedy-ass area. “I need to go to the hospital,” I told him.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Just mind your business and take me to the hospital!”
The cab took me straight to the Sentara Leigh Hospital. I exited the cab as fast as my battered body would allow. I looked up at the huge red sign that read, EMERGENCY ROOM. I staggered into the emergency room doors and all eyes were on me. I know I must’ve looked like shit. My hair had been pulled, my lips and eyes were swollen, bloodstains covered the front of my shirt. I looked around and located the nurse. I stumbled over to the triage station and leaned down on the small glass partition.
“Please help me . . . I’ve been attacked,” I sobbed; then I slid down to the floor like I was hurt much worse than I had actually been beaten.
The nurse behind the glass jumped up just as I made myself lay flat on the floor. “Code yellow! Get me a gurney now! Code yellow!” I heard her yelling. It sounded like a million pairs of feet rushing toward me. I closed my eyes, finally feeling like I could let go and relax for a minute. I was quickly hoisted onto a gurney amid the hushed murmurs of the nurses and doctors who discussed my fate. I felt a bunch of hands probing me. They checked for a pulse, tested the rigidity of my abdomen, and shone a light into my eyes to see if my pupils were dilated. “She’s been beaten pretty bad. Let’s get a head CT and chest X-rays right away,” I heard a doctor call out. I kept my eyes closed and let them cater to me. I knew there was much worse shit to come.
After all of the poking, prodding, X-rays, and CAT scans, I was finally placed into a hospital room. I was feeling better already from the pain medication I had been given. I kept rehearsing in my mind the story I was going to tell Sidney when he got there. The nurses had already notified him about my condition. I knew he would be completely falling apart until he got there. It seemed like an eternity before Sidney showed up at the hospital. I could hear him outside of my hospital room asking which room I was in. The heart monitor above my head began beeping as my heart rate sped up. It was time for me to deliver the lies I had conjured up in my head. I couldn’t possibly tell Sidney the truth about what had happened. I was trying to think fast, but in my condition, that was no easy task.
“Oh, my God! Gigi! I’m so sorry! It’s all my fault . . . I drove you from the house. This would’ve never happened if I hadn’t argued with you,” Sidney huffed as he rushed over to my bedside. Tears leaked out of the sides of my eyes and pooled in my ears. I don’t know why the sight of Sidney and his words made me cry immediately. Maybe it was because I knew that it was really not his fault and that I was about to get him caught up in some shit.
“What happened, Gigi? Who did this to you?” he asked, grasping my hand tightly. I could see the strain of sympathy tugging at the sides of his eyes. It was time for me to tell my lies. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.
“I . . . I . . . stopped for gas and some guys . . .” I started, but I let the sobs flow freely. It was Academy Award–worthy acting, although I was still crying over the situation. “They . . . they just . . . attacked me,” I sobbed.
“Shhhh. Don’t worry about it. I know it’s hard to talk about, but you will have to tell the police,” Sidney said softly, stroking my hand. I snatched my hand away from him like a snake had bitten me. My slanted eyes went completely round. There was no way I could let the police get involved. They would be snooping and asking too many fucking questions! No way!
“No!” I raised my voice. “I don’t want the police involved. The guys took my identification and told me if I get the police involved, they would kill me and you,” I fabricated on the spot.
Sidney looked at me like I was crazy. He stood up, his back stiff and erect. I always knew when he was uncomfortable with a situation. His face was serious, angry even.
“Gigi, there is no fucking way I’m going to allow anyone to get away with what they did to you! If you don’t want the cops involved, then I will hire someone to look for these punks, but it can’t go unspoken just like that! They fucking put their hands on you and I am your husband . . . I’m not going to just let them get away with this!” Sidney said through clenched teeth.
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes. I knew he wasn’t going to let this go. I had to think quickly. “Okay . . . if you want to hire someone to look for them. But, you know I don’t trust the police. I don’t want them involved,” I said. Sidney seemed to calm down, but the look he gave me said he was suspicious of my story already.
I was released from the hospital the next morning. The doctors had notified the police anyway since they claimed they were mandated reporters as medical caregivers. When the cops showed up, I told them I couldn’t remember anything . . . that I just woke up on the ground after some guys beat me up and took my car at the gas station. They seemed suspicious, but they didn’t press. Of course, they had found my vehicle with nothing missing from it, so they wanted to know why it was in the stadium parking lot. I had to literally scream at them that I didn’t know because the guys had stolen it. They didn’t have any store surveillance showing a carjacking they had said. I screamed at them so bad they went hightailing away from me. They had even informed Sidney that my tires had been shot out. Sidney seemed suspicious of me as well, so he enlisted a guy named Ricco who worked for him to sit outside of the house and “keep an eye on me.” That frustrated me, but I understood where Sidney was coming from. He stayed with me a few hours, then told me he had things to do at the business.
Damn, he couldn’t leave soon enough. I knew I had to get in touch with Warren or else. As soon as Sidney went to take care of business, I dialed the number Warren had told me to call. I had no choice . . . there was only about six more hours until my twenty-four hours were up. I was fucking trembling as I waited for Warren to pick up the line. I paced the floor of my bedroom and kept peeking out of the windows like a paranoid crazy person. Finally, he picked up.
“G-money . . . I knew you’d be obedient. You ain’t that fucking stupid now, are you,” Warren said when he answered the phone. He got right to the point. “So, you scheming-ass bitch . . . what’s the plan to get me my money or those diamonds back?” I exhaled.
“I don’t have anything, Warren. I don’t have the diamonds and I don’t have any money. I don’t have access to my husband’s accounts like that. He gives me an allowance, but I know he keeps at least five hundred thousand in the safe at the dealership,” I whispered tentatively, my voice quivering.
Warren started laughing like I had said something real funny. I crinkled my eyebrows in response. He stopped laughing abruptly and started talking in a very serious tone. “Yo . . . you really don’t know what you did, huh? You are fucking clueless that you stole twenty rare, precious diamonds belonging to Sensi Akiwaba . . . a fucking warlord from Sierra Leone! You don’t know this muthafucka has had people’s hands and arms cut the fuck off for stealing his diamonds! How you think I’m out here??? That nigga paid the best lawyers in town to get me out just so I could find you, Gigi! You are the most wanted bitch in America right now! And guess what? If I don’t return those fucking diamonds or at least four million dollars, you are fucking d
ead!” Warren barked.
I listened intently, letting his words settle into my brain. It all hit me at once. I felt like someone had hit me in the head with a lead fucking pipe. Warren had just dropped a big bomb on me. I had stolen from the wrong muthafuckas for sure. I had no idea that Warren had been doing business with the Africans. I had heard back when I lived in DC that the Africans had been taking over DC at the time with pure heroin and meth, but I never put two and two together about the diamonds. I never knew I was in deep shit like that. I could really just kill my mother for staying in contact with Warren. It was all because of her that I was in this situation now! Who was I fooling? Those Africans probably would have found me with or without Warren’s help. I was walking around a wanted woman and I didn’t even know it!
“So what am I supposed to do, Warren? I don’t know if Sidney has that kind of money just lying around,” I said through tears. I knew Sidney was pretty wealthy, but I was sure he probably had his shit invested or in overseas accounts. I was so much younger than Sidney, having him killed for insurance money wasn’t an option. That would be a sure way to get myself investigated. Plus, I figured I might be beneficiary on one of his policies, but most of his shit was probably going to go to his kids. My mind was racing at a mile a minute.
“Don’t ask me what the fuck you should do. You didn’t ask me what to do when you stole the shit from my crib!” Warren replied with a lot of base in his voice. “You better fucking come up with something and fast. I guess you will have to do something drastic to get the money . . . I don’t care if you rob a fucking bank . . . you better start thinking,” Warren said. His words caused a chill to take over my body.
“I’ll come up with something. But after you get your money I want you to leave us alone,” I cried.
Warren let out a crazy laugh again. “I’ll leave you alone when I’m ready, bitch. Now you’re going to help me get this money from your man or else,” he said.
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