Betrayal (2 page)

CHAPTER 1

My wedding guests never did get to see me in my white designer bridal dress. Instead, two days after I was supposed to get married I woke up in a hospital bed wearing a plain old cotton nightgown.

I opened my eyes in a state of total confusion. Machines beeped all around me. I had tubes coming out of everywhere. I tried to sit up but my body felt weighted down, and a white-hot bolt of pain drilled into the deepest part of my stomach.

I held my breath, sweating through the agony. The beeping machines scared me, and I closed my eyes again. My thoughts were hazy and all over the place. Nothing was making sense, and I figured I must’ve had one of those crazy dreams again.

But this dream had taken place in my bridal suite. Gino had snuck up on me while I was praying. He was trying to get him some, and he had just pulled up my dress and pushed his face between my legs when I heard somebody coming. Gino had stood up to listen too, and then out of nowhere the door busted wide open.

In a flash, Gino spun around and damn near jumped on top of me. A popping noise exploded in the air, and then something hot thumped deep in my belly.

The next thing I knew we were on the floor. Gino’s body was covering mine and he was holding my hand. I felt myself fading off. Gino was whispering softly in my ear, but I couldn’t stay focused. Everything started going black.

The beeping machine cut into my thoughts and I opened my eyes and saw a nurse walking out of my room. And that’s when I knew my dream was actually my reality, and suddenly I was wide-awake. Now I remembered! I remembered it
all
, and immediately my heart reached for Gino.

Gino!

I actually heard myself gasp as he fell on top of me. I felt his body jerk when the bullet sank, first into him, and then into me, piercing my stomach like a spear. I felt us falling together. And then the ground jumped up to catch us like it was a brick mattress. Gino’s body was all dead weight as he covered my heart with his.

Please God,
I prayed as I lay in that hospital bed more scared than I had ever been in my entire life. The searing pain in my belly was now throbbing all the way down in my booty.

Lord, I know I ain’t been right. I’m trifling and I’m a sinner. I admit that. But if you gotta punish me, if you gotta take something away from me, let it be the baby! Take it. Just take it. Me and Gino can have us another one. Just please,
I squeezed my eyes closed and prayed so hard my whole body trembled.
Please don’t take Gino. Please don’t take my man!

I must have fallen back to sleep because the next time I opened my eyes there were two doctors looking down at me. I struggled to sit up, and one of them took my hand and told me to hold still.

“Try not to move,” he said, gently. “You’re in the hospital and you’re safe. We have a security guard outside your door, and everything is going to be fine.”

My back hurt like hell and my gut was just crazy sore. I slid my hand over my belly and I was shocked to feel the thick bandages that were taped to my skin. But as bad as I was aching, I didn’t give a damn about myself. I could still feel Gino pulling me into his arms as the gun boomed behind him. I could feel his lips, wet on my ear, as he used his body like it was a shield just for
me
.

“Gino…” I whispered as the other doctor came closer and stood beside my bed. She had red hair and big blue eyes. She reached for my hand and her skin felt soft and cool.

I licked my lips and my eyes searched hers.

“Where’s Gino?”

She squeezed my hand.

“He’s here,” she said softly. “I’m sorry, but the bullet passed straight through you and it caused quite a bit of damage. You’re having a boy, Juicy. We operated on both of you, and we hope your son will cooperate by staying in your womb for a while longer so he can develop more fully.”

“Where’s Gino?” I cried out as loud as I could, but my voice was barely a whisper in the room. I’d heard what the hell she said about a baby boy and an operation, but couldn’t she see I didn’t care about none of that?

“Gino?” I pleaded weakly. My eyes darted all over her face. “
Gino
!”

“He’s in intensive care,” she finally told me. Her blue eyes looked so, so, so sad, and that scared the hell out of me because doctors weren’t supposed to get emotional, even when shit was real bad.

She said, “Gino was shot in the back. The bullet passed through his body and into your stomach. He suffered severe damaged to some of his internal organs.”

She shook her head and sighed as she continued. “We have a fine team of surgeons here and they repaired things as best they could. But I won’t lie. It looks pretty bad. Right now it’s touch-and-go. We’ll know more about his condition over the next forty-eight hours. For the time being, all we can do is wait. And pray.”

Wait and pray. Pray and wait. I closed my eyes and that’s exactly what I did. All those long nights that Grandmother had kept me and Jimmy on our knees were about to pay off. I knew how to pray.

And I knew how to beg too.

I begged God for Gino’s life.

There wasn’t a drop of shame in me as I kissed up to the man upstairs. My lips moved frantically as I gave Him a list of all the reasons why Gino’s life had beauty and promise. Why his soul was special and worthy.

I didn’t give a damn about myself. And at that moment I didn’t care about my baby boy, neither. I just wanted my man to be okay. I wanted him to
live
. There was no way I could make it without Gino. I didn’t even wanna think about being in a world without him there to love me and keep me warm. For the first time in my life I knew what it was to really, really
need
somebody. And not just to set me up in a fancy crib, or to splurge on me at expensive restaurants, or to keep me laced up lovely with designer shit on my back neither.

Nah, I needed Gino the way the sun needs the moon. The way a flower needs rain. The way a woman needs her man.

Please God…

I begged and begged, over and over again.

Please God…

Don’t take him. Please, touch him.
Heal
him!

Please God…

I’ll do anything. Anything! Just don’t take him.

Please God…

With Gino’s name on my lips, I drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Please God…

$$$$$

The next time I opened my eyes Renata was standing there.

“Where’s Gino?” I asked hoarsely. She had been right by my side, holding my hand as I slept.

Slowly she shook her head. “He’s still fighting, Juicy. The police think it was a robbery attempt. Somebody must have snuck into your dressing room. Most of your guests were already upstairs in the chapel, and it was your friend DarQuese who found you. She walked in and saw you and Gino lying on the floor covered in blood. She ran upstairs screaming and Frankie heard her and called an ambulance.”

DarQuese
. The sound of that bitch’s name filled my whole body with rage and I started trembling under the sheets.

“Did they catch Pit?” I whispered. It took every bit of strength I had just to speak, but right then nothing could have kept me quiet.

Renata frowned. “Pit?

“DarQuese’s man. The midget. He was outside the church getting high with all those young girls last night, remember?”

She shook her head. “It was dark out there, and I didn’t get a good look at him. But the police questioned everybody.” Renata shrugged. “But you know how it is. Nobody saw anything.”

“
Uh-huh!
” I shrieked. I tried to raise myself up on one elbow, but my stomach muscles screamed, burning like they were on fire.

“
DarQuese
saw something!” I insisted as I remembered how anxious she had been to get out of my dressing room. She had claimed she needed to go upstairs and get something real quick, and now I knew that something had been
her man!

I inhaled deeply, trying to breathe through my pain. “Quese saw who shot us, didn’t she?”

Renata shook her head again. “I don’t know, Juicy. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. All I know is that she came running upstairs to Frankie. She was crying and screaming that you and Gino were both dead. And just like everybody else, she claimed she didn’t see anything.”

That was some bullshit and I knew it! As bad as I was hurting my blood was on boil. DarQuese was a low-life schemer! No wonder that bitch had two sides to her face! She was the one who had brought Pit up to the church to shit on my rehearsal dinner, and I knew damn well she’d brought him to spray me and Gino at our wedding too! I closed my eyes as my body was racked with waves of pain. Wasn’t nobody fuckin’ stupid. Quese could stunt all she wanted to, but that bitch knew exactly who had shot me and Gino.

“So where is she?” I asked, opening my eyes again. I had been laying in this bed for a minute now, and the only familiar face I’d seen so far had been Renata’s. “Has Quese been up here to see about me?”

Renata shook her head. “I really don’t know where she is, Juicy. I haven’t seen her at all. But you need to relax, cara. You’ve lost a lot of blood, and the doctors aren’t sure what’s really what with you just yet. And besides, you have your baby to think about too. Congratulations! We were all surprised to hear that you were expecting. I’m told you’re having a boy.”

I nodded. “Gino doesn’t even know yet,” I said sadly as my heart filled with regret. “I was gonna surprise him with the news right after we got married.”

“Well, there will still be plenty of opportunities to tell him later,” Renata said. “I don’t want you to worry about anything, okay? There’ll be enough time to figure everything out when you and Gino are both a little stronger.”

I was still mad and scared and gripped in sorrow all at the same time, but I was doped up and in crazy pain too. I opened my mouth to rage some more, but that groggy sense of heaviness settled over me and once again I fell off into a deep sleep.