Her Sweetest Revenge 2

by Saundra

  “I’m so sorry that I have not been there for you, Ma,” Monica apologized.

  “Me too.” I followed suit with an apology, feeling like shit. “Together we will be there. You can always call me no matter what time it is. Our family comes first. You know that,” I reconfirmed. I never wanted that to be misunderstood.

  “Look, I know you two love me, but I have to be strong for myself. Any stress can cause me to relapse. But don’t worry, I just got back into my therapy sessions. And yes, I’m still clean, if you are wondering. I plan to remain that way. This is why I stressed this lunch today. I wanted to let you both know how I was feeling and what my plan of action was.” She looked at us both and smiled. We had her back. “What I need from you is your love and support. That will give me the strength I need to get through this. It means the world to me having you two there.”

  My heart was beating so fast. The thought of her relapsing was more than I could bear. But the fact that she had admitted it and was seeking help showed me that she was a past addict who was not trying to hide or deceive. There was no question that she really wanted help so we had to be there for her. Monica looked as though the wind had been knocked from her. I would have to be strong for her. She took it the hardest when Ma had been addicted. She was what you call a “Mommy’s baby.” But something told me that we would get through this.

  “If you need anything else, just holla at me. I know you started your therapy sessions again, but I also want to get you a personal counselor. I have the perfect person in mind. Would you be willing to see an additional person?” Normally, convincing her to do something could prove difficult.

  Smiling, she answered, “Of course I will do whatever it takes to keep that monkey off my back. I love my new life.” I knew she meant every word. Sincerity was all over her face.

  “Another thing. We all need a vacation, the whole family. So in the next couple of months, as soon as things slow down, we going somewhere to relax in the sun. Any suggestions?” I looked at them both.

  “Hawaii, baby,” Ma suggested. “I can’t wait to learn to hula.” She moved her hips a little from side to side.

  “Heck yeah, me too.” Monica had perked back up and was grinning. All she ever talked about was vacation.

  “Hawaii it is, then. I’ll call my travel agent and book it.”

  As we finished our food, we talked about how we missed Li’l Bo. All the fun memories of him made us laugh. He was loved and we would miss him always, but we had to learn how to keep on living. Li’l Bo would not want his death to destroy us, especially since we were finally getting our family back on a positive track. I knew he was in heaven smiling every time he looked down and saw Ma clean from the drugs and in good health. We would keep our family together in honor of him. And I personally would not fail anyone else in our family.

  Chapter 20

  After having lunch with Ma and Monica, I stopped by the salon and helped Rochelle count the inventory. Every month we did an inventory check to be sure all products were adding up the way they should. Not that we had ever experienced a problem or did not trust anyone in the salon. It’s just that I personally found it easier than waiting until the last minute and trying to do everything at one time. Because if the count happened to be out of whack, we would have a harder time figuring out why.

  After we finished the inventory, Rochelle convinced me to do her hair so I still ended up staying longer than I planned. But soon as I wrapped up with her, I headed home and boy, was I tired when I got there. When I entered our excessively huge home, I instantly realized that Hood had not arrived. It was around seven so it was still light outside. I was tired as hell, though, so I decided to jump in a hot bubble bath.

  Upstairs I grabbed a lighter and strolled over to my Jacuzzi tub. I lit my lemon lavender and harvest scented candles that I had picked up from Yankee Candles. I absolutely loved Yankee Candles. I could easily spend two hundred dollars in there without even blinking an eye. Not only did I supply my house with them, I bought them for Monica and Ma all the time. I had them addicted as well. Within minutes my bathroom and entire bedroom were lit up with the smell of the scents. I poured some vanilla bath beads along with some coconut-scented bubble bath oil before deciding the bath was ready. I climbed into the warm water and got lost in the scent. I closed my eyes and let the warmth of the water cuddle me. I soaked for an hour before realizing I had fallen asleep. I soaped up, dried off, and threw on some Hello Kitty boxers and tank with slippers before going back downstairs.

  Opening the fridge, I knew there was no way I was going to cook anything. Ordering pizzas was the only option. I smiled as I reached for the bottle of Merlot I had put in the fridge earlier to catch a chill. With the bottle and a glass in my hand, I went into the den, where I picked up the phone and ordered pizza. The girl on the other end of the phone told me that they were short-staffed and therefore all deliveries were running behind at least two hours. Instead of canceling the order, I said whatever and placed it anyway. That would be about the time Hood would probably arrive anyhow.

  After clicking through the channels, I found Jumping the Broom on television, and without much thought I decided to watch it. It was not like the television was crawling with good movies. Only forty-five minutes went by before the doorbell rang. I knew it had to be the pizza guy. Rolling my eyes, I sat my flute down on the coffee table and got up. Every time they told me they would be late they showed up early. I was beginning to think they were full of shit. I think they secretly wanted me to cancel my order and that pissed me off. Snatching the door open to say just that, I came face to face with Rico, one of the new guys that was working with Hood. What the fuck was he doing here?

  “Aye, what’s up? Mya, right?” He looked me straight in the eye and spoke with confidence. I’m sure he saw the question mark on my face.

  “Yeah,” I slowly answered, still surprised that he was at my door. “Umm, Hood ain’t here.” I wanted to clear that up so that he could leave.

  “Ahh, damn, really.” He sort of scratched his head. “Man, I been tryin’ to hit that nigga up. He ain’t answer a nigga call, though. I really need to speak wit’ him ASAP face to face.” He looked puzzled. But I could care less about him needing to speak with Hood. I couldn’t do shit about that.

  “Well, he ain’t here,” I repeated and started to shut the door. This conversation was over. Hood was not home and he needed to get the fuck off my doorstep. I didn’t like or trust any of them niggas anyway.

  I had the door almost closed when he asked, “Can I use your bathroom real quick?”

  I looked at him like he was crazy. I almost screamed no at him, but I remained calm. “Actually, I’m sort of busy.” I continued to close the big-ass door that led into our foyer.

  I heard him chuckle a little with a grin. “I know this strange, but it is a long ride back to the hood. And you know these white folks scared of a brotha. If I stop, they might call the cops on a nigga.”

  He did have a point. I decided this was bougie country where we live. “A’ight, but you need to hurry up. Like I said before, I got shit to do.” I used my irritated tone so that he would know I meant business. I stepped aside to let him come inside, then I pointed him in the direction of the bathroom. I headed back to the den to grab my Merlot bottle. I wanted to put it back into the fridge to chill again. It had been sitting out and I didn’t want it to get too warm.

  As I came out of the den, I almost walked right into Rico. He had used the bathroom quick just as I had told him to. I was glad because I wanted him out. I was starting to feel uncomfortable with his presence.

  “Thank you for letting me use your bathroom.”

  Instead of speaking, I nodded my head and pointed toward the front door, which for some reason seemed so far away. Rico turned toward the door but stopped. Suddenly my heart started to race for some reason. Why had I let this nigga in my house? Was I that stupid?

  “Can I have a drink?” I could not believe his nerve. He had to
be kidding! How many times did I have to tell him to leave?

  Now I was nervous as hell, but I tried not to show it. “Look, Rico, you need to leave. You being here is not a good idea. Hood would not approve of this.” I thought the mention of Hood’s name would ring a bell for him.

  “A’ight, ma. I’m out.” He turned to walk away. I could not believe he had the gall to call me ma like I was some trick out on the street and not Hood’s wife. Without warning, Rico turned around and wrapped me tightly in his arms. Dumbfounded, I pushed him off me.

  “What the fuck is your problem? Don’t you ever touch me!”

  Rico pushed me hard into the wall. The look on his face was of evil and lust at the same damn time. I knew what was coming next so I sprang into action. I would not let him touch me. My Merlot bottle went to his face. Blood immediately poured from where I’d cut him.

  He screamed out from the pain. “Bitch!” His hands went to his face and touched the blood. I stood in my spot as my chest heaved up and down. I started to rush him again because I knew I had to fight. His fist met my face with a punch that dazed me. I still had a piece of the bottle in my hand so I went at him with it. He was much stronger than me so he wrestled me to the ground. He snatched at my tank and I heard it rip. I screamed out Hood’s name. In that moment I felt so bad for the way I had treated him. I needed him here to protect me. Where was he?

  When I felt Rico rip my bra off, I sprang back into defense mode. I took my bloody hands and stuck my fingers into Rico’s eye sockets. He yelped out in pain with profanities. I felt the finality when he wrapped his strong hands around my throat. I could not move, and memories of Phil choking me quickly clouded my mind. This time I knew I would die. I had nothing to fight back with. There was no gun hidden in my ankle area and I could not break his grasp. Tears ran down my face as I lay still. I could feel death slowly taking me. Rico’s face was starting to black out.

  But all of a sudden I felt air coming back into my lungs. I was coughing and trying hard to pull in more of that air when I realized Rico was no longer on top of me.

  I pulled myself up and saw Hood on top of Rico beating him in the face with his beloved nine-millimeter. Hood continued to beat him until he was unconscious. Turning around, Hood crawled over to me asking me if I was okay. I was shaking with fear as Hood wrapped his arms around me. I cried, feeling safe in my husband’s arms.

  “Hood,” I screamed out as I watched Rico rise up and go for the gun on his hip.

  Hood immediately turned around and pumped two shots into Rico’s skull. Rico dropped back to the floor with a thud.

  “It’s okay, baby. That nigga fo sho dead now. Ain’t no comin’ back for him.” He kissed me on the forehead. I stared at Rico’s lifeless body that lay on my hall floor and silently thanked God that Hood had come to my rescue.

  Chapter 21

  It had been weeks since the incident with Rico. To clean up the mess Hood had wrapped the body in plastic and taken it to an undisclosed place where he chopped the body up and fed the parts through a weed eater. After that, we moved on like nothing ever happened. However, I expressed to Hood that I no longer felt comfortable in our home so we decided to put our house on the market at the end of the year. Word on the street was that Rico was missing. Dontae and Silk had been looking high and low trying to locate their partner. Their biggest problem was that they were not from Detroit so the streets were on shutdown when they asked for answers. Hood of course joined the search when possible, but ultimately focused on his crew.

  On my drive to the salon I took in the beautiful day. The sun was shining, people were out and about. I felt good. I almost hated to turn off the ignition when I pulled up to the salon bumping David Ruffin’s “Missing You Part 1.” Inside the salon I spoke to Pam, who was on the phone scheduling appointments. She covered the receiver of the phone and greeted me.

  “What’s up, Mya.”

  “Nothing ready to get it in.” I beamed. She grinned and nodded her head and then went back to her call. Instead of going to my station, I headed straight toward Rochelle’s. To my surprise Dontae was in there. They were giggling and talking like two lovebirds. But I could feel both their eyes on me as I made my entrance.

  “Oh hey, girl.” Rochelle spoke, blowing gum bubbles as if she had no cares in the world.

  “Aye, Mya.” Dontae spoke. How dare his punk ass speak to me that way? I knew he could do better than “aye.” Niggas these days, I swear, no respect. Just plain assholes.

  “Hey” was all I managed with an obvious attitude. “Holla at me later when you have time, Rochelle.” I turned and walked away. I had no conversation for Dontae; his whole crew was foul to me.

  Not even ten minutes after I left Rochelle’s station, she walked into mine.

  “Girl, why you run outa there like that.”

  “I ain’t run,” I lied.

  “Shit, girl, you was outa there when you saw Dontae.” Rochelle chuckled.

  “I just ain’t feelin’ him. But you already know that,” I reminded her.

  “Yeah, I know. And I feel you, too. He don’t know it yet, but I’m ’bout to chill on that nigga.”

  “Oh, so you finally see it my way?” I unscrewed the top on a Coke I had pulled out the fridge in our snack area.

  “If you say so. That nigga just gettin’ on my nerves. I think he tryin’ to keep tabs on me. And you know I don’t do well with that controlling shit. Hmmph, I will mess around and catch a charge. So to keep from doing that, I came to the conclusion to let him go. Not only that, but sometimes I get this bad vibe when I’m around him. And that is starting to stick out like a sore thumb. I even stopped bringing Tiny around him.”

  “What he do to make you feel that way?”

  “I don’t know, Mi. I can’t put my finger on it. Just something odd.”

  “Ummm, cut that nigga off then.” I was all for that. Finally she was seeing things my way.

  “You know they homeboy Rico still missing? I think Dontae bugging off that shit, too.”

  “They still don’t know where he at?” I played at being clueless. I hated hiding things from Rochelle, but I knew it was for her own good. The less she knew, the better off she would be.

  “Nah, nothing.” She confirmed what she knew. I was confident that if Dontae suspected anything, he would have let it slip during pillow talk. Dudes had that bad. All of them including Hood.

  “Same thing Hood been tellin’ me. That’s some crazy shit, though. How somebody just gone disappear into thin air? Sound like some bull to me,” I commented, knowing he had got exactly what he deserved. Just talking about him caused my insides to cringe but I kept my cool.

  “What you bring to eat?” Rochelle looked around like she expected food to be somewhere in sight.

  “I ate some waffles at the crib this morning. I ain’t had no lunch.” I took a swig of my Coke. The coldness caused me to burp. It rolled out of my throat like mild thunder.

  “We need to grab some then. It’s almost lunchtime.” I was just about to agree with her when we heard someone scream, and before we could think, we saw Trina running toward us.

  “Teddy is chasing me!” Trina yelped, but her words sounded strangely muffled almost as if she couldn’t speak. Getting a good look at her face, I realized why. Her top and bottom lips were swollen. She had a knot on the side of her face that looked like a lemon, she was bleeding from I have no idea where, and both of her eyes were swollen. I was stunned. Rochelle stood up.

  Then I heard Teddy talking loud with bass in his voice. He was calling Trina a bitch, ordering her to come to him. My instant reaction was to go for the Ruger that I kept at the shop.

  “Help me,” Trina screamed as Teddy entered the room, taking huge steps. Rochelle reached out to grab Trina’s arm to pull her out of Teddy’s reach. But before she could grab her out the way, he reached out and caught Trina by her hair and pulled her to him. He wasted no time yanking Trina to the floor and proceeding to drag her. Rochelle jumped on his b
ack and started punching him and biting him. All the while Trina screamed for help. Rochelle bit into Teddy’s shoulder hard and deep. She came up with a piece of his shirt and flesh in her mouth. He screamed out from the pain and threw her to the floor. Rochelle landed at the feet of my styling chair, inches away from hitting her head on the steel part. I ran for my gun.

  Within seconds I was back and watched as Trina tried to get up but Teddy kicked her in the side and she screamed out in pain. She rolled over to protect herself while he kicked her again, all while yelling he was going to kill her. By this time my Ruger was locked and loaded. I aimed at my target.

  I screamed, “Teddy, get the fuck away from her!”

  “Fuck you, bitch,” he responded. Looking at him was like watching the Terminator in action. But he should have known better than to call me a bitch. I did not put up with that disrespect. Without further ado, I pulled the trigger and shot him directly in his left butt cheek. Teddy screamed out, jumping up and down like he was dodging firecrackers. Had this been a different situation I would have been cracking up, but right now I was pissed.

  “You get the message now, nigga? Now, get the fuck out before the next one hit your punk ass in the head. Don’t you never in your fucking life even think about calling me a bitch!” I yelled. From that point on all I seen was the back of Teddy’s shirt as he dashed out the salon. Rochelle crawled over to Trina, who had passed out. She screamed for us to dial 911.

  While sitting in the waiting area at the hospital to get word from the doctor, Rochelle and I decided that Trina would stay with one of us when she got out of the hospital. More than an hour passed before the doctor came out and told us that Trina was going to be okay but she had a lot of healing to do. She not only had the injuries to her face, but her ribs were bruised. Rochelle and I agreed that this was by far the worst beating that Teddy had administered to Trina. That nigga was Crazy with a capital C. But he would get it together soon enough. I had called Hood and told him everything that had happened. He vowed to handle Teddy for disrespecting me and my business. All I could say was Teddy was gone get a taste of his own medicine but times ten. ’Cause Hood was going to let his ass have it. Served him right. FUCK TEDDY was my final thought on the matter.