Hardhearted

by Sherrod Tunstall

  Blake giggled, but on the inside, he was thinking to himself that he finally got the woman of his dreams. He knew that her time in prison would change and humble her real fast. And now she had no one to turn to but him.

  If only Blood saw the scowl on King’s face. She’d already worked out a plan in her head. It was only a matter of time before she gave Blake’s ass something he could really feel.

  Smiling, she faced him, thinking of all her bloody dreams coming true. But until then, King was going to play the role of the good wife.

  Epilogue

  Swag . . .

  Swag woke after weeks of being in a coma. He thought he was in the next life, which, in his case, was hell. The last thing he remembered was being in Africa in the sweatbox tied up. Then the day King popped up after thinking she was dead. He tried to look around but realized he only could see out of one eye. He felt the eye that wasn’t working and realized an eye patch was on it.

  Damn, he thought, remembering one of King’s goon’s cut his eye out.

  He breathed heavily, thinking of all the shit he’d been through. A beeping noise was driving him crazy. He looked around with his eye and realized he was in a white, brightly lit room. Monitors were everywhere, so he realized he could be in a hospital.

  “About time you came back to the Land of the Living,” said a polite male voice.

  Swag turned his head around and saw Bruno Bello standing there with a big smile on his face.

  “Where am I?” asked Swag.

  “All you need to know is I have you in a secret location with the best doctors, nurses, and therapists looking out for you.”

  Swag’s eye widened. “How—”

  “Well, my crazy-ass child sent you special delivery in a wooden crate to my house, along with some dead chick with her throat cut.” He walked back and forth, looking at Swag’s bandaged up broken legs. “Thank God, my wife and kids opened that shit. Then I took care of you.”

  Swag looked at Bruno, remembering the dead woman was Zaria. “Zaria? What happened to her body?”

  “Don’t worry about her anymore. We sent her corpse to her family,” said Bruno going to Swag’s nightstand to get a mirror. “You need to worry about yourself.” He showed Swag his reflection. Both of his arms were broken.

  Swag looked disgusted at himself. Not only did he lose his eye, but also King’s boys did a number on his face. He had black marks, bruises, and stab wounds. And the biggie was that he was missing some teeth too. Swag closed his eyes with tears coming down. “Take the mirror away. Take it away.”

  Bruno put the mirror down.

  Swag cried, realizing he was no longer the pretty boy. Then his mind went back to the warehouse, remembering what Blood said to him after one of King’s goons finished beating and breaking bones in his body. “King did this to you!”

  Swag also thought about Tyler’s death, Josie’s screams, and his boys. “Josie! Josie! Where is Josie? Where’s Li’l Swag and Namond?”

  “Who the hell is Josie, Li’l Swag, and Namond?” asked Bruno, folding his arms and not giving a shit.

  “That’s my girl and my sons. PJ Hernandez took her, and some people named Santiago took my boys. I need to get them all back.”

  “My friend, first off, you’re a cripple now. And like I said before, you need to worry about yourself.”

  Swag continued to cry, remembering the promise that Bruno made to him back in Brazil. “What about my $500K and erasing my criminal charges here?”

  Bruno raised his eyebrow, surprised that Swag remembered that. But he knew if it’s one thing that eggplants will remember, it’s money. He chuckled. “Okay, as I promised, I cleared your criminal charges back in the States. You’re no longer a convicted felon.”

  That put a smile on Swag’s face.

  “But that 500 grand, it’s spent on this remote location and these folks helping you. So, my debt is paid. Once you get back on your feet, I wish you luck in whatever you’re going to do.”

  Then Bruno walked away.

  Swag was disgusted with his life right now, but he focused on getting better and finding Josie and his sons. His primary focus was to get revenge on King’s evil ass.

  Josie . . .

  Josie was living in a big mansion in Beverly Hills, California. She was now the main girl/personal sex slave to Paco “PJ” Hernandez Sr. since she cost him a lot of money. She was able to shop and was driven around, but PJ’s bodyguards guarded her constantly.

  Her first night at her new home, she tried to escape, not knowing where she was going. She went to a police officer on his beat nearby to get help, only to have him take her right back to the mansion. On her return, PJ didn’t beat her. He just punched her in her stomach once, drugged her with more heroin, and raped her to the point where her walls bled.

  When alone in the mansion, she continued to dance, thinking about Swag, hoping he was okay. Occasionally, she looked out the window and gave up hope for freedom and living her dreams. One day, she got very sick . . . only to find out she was now pregnant with PJ’s child, which made her feel so damaged.

  King and Blood . . .

  Back in Costa Rica, King, now a married woman, went by a new name, King Fernandez. They returned to the Palace in San José, buying it and making it a legit high-class hotel that King operated. And she went almost a year playing the good wife in the background. Blake handled the business of the Leopard Clit. He loved the fact that he could be the man of the relationship and that he had gotten King, or should he say, King as his girl. Sometimes he even laughed at the thought that he set her up to get her, but that was something he was going to take to his grave.

  Even though King played wifey, that didn’t stop her from having her twisted way of fun. For example, she had Santana tied in the closet and pimped him out to dirty old men for pennies and nickels, knowing Santana stole $5 million from her. After mocking her brother for his downfall, she told him, “Only $4,999,900 to go.” Or tell him, “Hope you repay my money before Ivy dies.” She laughed at him.

  But now it was time to fry bigger fish . . . and that was Blake for what happened.

  For the last few days, Blake was on a business trip, which left King to having some more fun of her own. She was so tired of Blake’s dick inside of her. She needed her assorted variety of men and women—and the perfect way to get back at Blake.

  Once Blake got back in town, Cleo texted her to let her know he had returned. King got everything ready for her husband.

  Blake came to the hotel, went to the elevator, and took it up to King’s and his penthouse on the top floor. Once there, he went to their suite and opened the bedroom door. He came in and saw King in a bra and thong sitting on the bed, looking like the king she was.

  Blake paused when he saw a half-naked man get out of his bed. King knew shit was going to really hit the fan. She lived for moments like this.

  Blake was so heated that he was sweating bullets. “Hold on! What the hell is this? Another one again?” He knew that when he went out of town, she had her lovers but never addressed it.

  King smiled and didn’t say a word.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? You made me a promise! I was going to be your one and only!”

  King laughed and stood up. “First off, I didn’t promise you shit. I’m a king, and I do whatever the hell I want.”

  Blake was furious. “You ungrateful bitch.” He felt stupid for getting her out of prison. He should’ve known King was never going to change from being the hardhearted bitch she was. “I should’ve left your ass in that prison to rot!”

  “You should have, especially since you were the one who set me up!”

  Blake tried to play it cool. “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, don’t play stupid with me. Don’t think I don’t know about your little meetings with the police chief, my father, and the president of Costa Rica. And especially the meeting with Santana and Tyler at the gay club. Are you that stupid to think I didn’t have my guys sp
ying for me in the clubs? Also, I know you talked to the police in St. Louis about the missing boys. And the list goes on.” King waved for the half-naked man who had all the evidence in his hands. He went over to Blake and gave the evidence to him.

  Blake looked at all the photos of him in St. Louis, at the gay club, and the hotel meetings. “You bitch!” He threw the pictures down. “How?”

  “Like I said, I have spies everywhere.”

  Blake was outdone. “So, now what? Kill me?”

  “Of course.”

  Blake turned into a bloodthirsty animal and tried to ram King, but someone suddenly shot him in his chest. He stopped, looking down at his bloody chest, feeling his life quickly ebbing away from him. He looked back at King. “Why? I had to stop you. You were getting out of control. And—”

  King strutted over to him, and to shut him up, she sliced his throat with her switchblade.

  Blood grabbed his neck and looked at her with wide eyes. “Shut up! I don’t take orders from no one. This kingdom is mine, not yours. This is my throne.” With that, she licked his blood off the blade.

  “Bit . . . ch,” Blake said his final words as he fell to the floor and was no longer a part of the living. King looked at Cleo, who was the one who shot Blood in his chest.

  “Will there being anything else, Ms. King?” Cleo asked.

  King loved a good kill, and she wanted more. “Yes, have one of my spies go to Miami Beach and kill that whore of a mother of mine. I’m so tired of looking at Santana’s ass.”

  Cleo nodded. “Done.”

  “Now, excuse me. I’m about to take a shower before I plan my flight to see the Santiagos in their new location in Luxembourg, according to Blood’s notes. I need some alone time with them.”

  “As you wish, Ms. King.”

  Cleo left. The half-naked man started to leave the room, but King shouted at him, “Where are you going?”

  He halted his steps, not knowing what she was going to do to him.

  “After all this, I need some dick in my life, so come here.”

  The man’s shaft was as hard as a rock. Despite the bloody corpse in the room, he wanted to feel some King. She sat back on the bed with her legs wide open like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She was ready for the man to eat. As he ate her kitty-kat, King Kia Costello closed her eyes and thought about her new life. She was still hardhearted, and one day, she was going to show the world why it’s better to be feared than loved.