Long As You Know Who You Belong To (17 page)

“Keep calling me crazy, and we’re going to play this
game I like to play called how many bullets. The object is to see
how many bullet wounds you can sustain before you bleed out.”

What the fuck?! I knew that my homegirl had a few
screws loose, but the person standing in front of me was sadistic.
Gone was the sister who had come to my rescue and befriended me
when no one else would. She had been replaced by a monster. The
crazy thing was I didn’t know why she thought I slept with Grey. I
would never do something like that to her.

“I had a sneaking suspicion that you were jealous of
me, but I never thought you would take it this far.” She laughed as
she unscrewed the cap to the gasoline bucket. “I thought that, as
friends, I did everything I could to make sure that you had what I
had, or something close to it. But I guess you wanted the real
thing.”

She started to pour gasoline on the body of the dead
man in front of me. I screamed against the tape because I could see
what was going to happen. I didn’t want to die, especially over a
misunderstanding. In that moment I knew that I wanted to live. That
I wanted the life that was growing inside of me. I wanted Kimani. I
was so sure of everything that I wanted. Why couldn’t I have been
this sure a few days ago and told Kimani instead of Grey?

Nakami noticed that I was struggling to speak, so she
walked over and pulled the tape off again. “What bitch?”

“Why? Why would I be jealous of you? You’re my
friend. My only friend. Why would I fuck that up over a guy?”

“People have crossed their mother for less, so how
would I know?” she growled.

“I don’t want Grey. I want Kimani. This is his baby.
Please, don’t do this,” I pleaded.

“You think those crocodile tears are going to move
me? I’ve seen better acting on a telenovela. “

My worry and angst began to turn into anger as I
thought about her crazy and illogical thinking. I don’t know if it
was the pain from the bullet in my arm or the pain from the thought
of losing my life over some bullshit, but I lashed out. If I was
going to die, she need to hurry up and kill me. Fuck this burning
in a house fire bullshit.

“You’re really a crazy bitch. I thought you were a
few letters short of the alphabet, but damn! You’re really going to
kill me over a nigga? And a nigga who don’t even want your ass no
more.”

“Shut up! Shut up, bitch! You don’t know what you’re
talking about!”

“Everyone knows that Grey is over your dramatic ass.
Kimani told me that your father made him propose to you to keep his
business going. Tell me that ain’t pathetic. You ‘bout to kill your
best friend over a nigga who was forced to fuck with you,” I
laughed wildly. I was starting to feel a little lightheaded and
woozy, but I kept laughing until I felt it. My eyes shot open in
shock as I realized I had been shot again. I looked down and saw
the blood pouring out of my stomach, and I wanted to cry. I didn’t
have the time. I felt my head rolling around, and I swore I saw
Kimani and Grey before I felt my soul leave my body and everything
turn dark.

“Noooooooooooo!” Hearing the scream coming from my
brother’s mouth tore at my heart. I watched as he rushed over to
Blu’s limp body and held her. I wanted to be there for my brother,
but I needed to get at Nakami first. She aimed her gun at me with
wide eyes and shaky hands as I trained my gun at her head.

“Grey, what are you doing?” she asked with fear and
confusion illuminating her eyes.

“What does it look like I’m doing, bitch? I’m about
to take care of a problem I should have taken care of a long time
ago.”

We had used Nakami’s phone to track her down in
Phoenix. We hopped the jet and made it to Arizona in time to catch
Nakami running errands. I had Kimani follow her while I hit up a
few of our workers to see if we could find Blu. We used every
resource we had. The trail stopped at the Westin hotel, where she
had purchased a room for two weeks. I linked back up with Kimani
around 3 pm and had been trailing Nakami ever since.

We followed her around from the mall, to the grocery
store, and to the hardware store, waiting for her to lead us to
Blu. Imagine my surprise when I found out she was holed up in one
of my trap houses. When she went in, we surveyed the house and were
surprised to see that the bitch had taken out the whole trap. After
we made sure she didn’t have any help, we moved in.

“She meant that much to you? That baby and that bitch
meant that much that you’re going to kill your fiancé over it? Fuck
her!”

She waved the gun wildly and my brother hopped up
with the quickness, firing two shots; one landed in her leg and the
other landed in her arm. The bullet to her leg sent her crashing to
the ground. She landed on the floor, dropping the gun to grab at
her wounds. She let out a gut-wrenching scream. Carefully, I
stepped closer to Kimani and where the gun had slid.

“No, fuck you, you lunatic ass bitch! Do you know
what you just did? Huh?” I could see my brother unraveling, and it
hurt me to my core.

“Aye, Mani. Get Blu and take her to the hospital. Let
me handle this. Please.” I put one hand on top of his and pushed
the gun down out of Nakami’s face, while I still had my piece aimed
at her. Tears continued to fall from his eyes, as he nodded slowly
and walked over to Blu. I continued to aim and stare at Nakami, who
was also crying, until Kimani walked pasted me carrying Blue and I
heard Kimani close the door. Quickly, I picked up the gun she had
dropped and shoved it in the back of my jeans.

“Grey, please,” Nakami begged.

“Fuck all that. You really killed your best friend
over me? You are a dumb bitch. And to think that I felt a little
bad about having to kill you.”

“Wha…what?” She shook like a leaf.

“See, the thing is…you’re fucking crazy. And I’ve put
up with your bullshit for way too long. All the drama. The damaged
cars, the torn and bleached clothes, the broken electronics. All
that shit done based off of some imaginary shit you’ve concocted in
that tiny ass brain of yours.” I tapped the gun against her
forehead and she flinched.

Carefully, I walked over towards where the gasoline
can had fallen and picked it up. I started to douse Nakami in what
was left. She screamed bloody murder.

“You just killed your best friend, and your niece or
nephew. Fucking killed them! I never had sex with Blu. Not a day in
my life and never would have. But you just had to jump the gun
before you got facts. Like always.”

“So you’re going to kill me, Grey? My father will
fucking-”

I cut her off. “Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you. Your
father died a few hours ago. I was tired of him too. The apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree. I would have hated to know ya
moms.”

Nakami tried to lunge for me, but I stuck the gun out
even further to make sure she knew I wasn’t playing. She couldn’t
get far on that leg Kimani had shot her in anyway.

“Sit that ass back down, girl. You ain’t going
nowhere. You made your bed, and now you’re going to lie in it.” I
took her arm and dragged her to the back of the room to make sure
she couldn’t get out. I pulled out my lighter and flicked it open.
A flame ignited, and I started to feel euphoric. I was about to be
free of this miserable bitch, and knowing it felt damn good. It was
too bad that I had to lose a niece or nephew and my brother had to
lose another girlfriend.

“Grey…stop! I love you! Please!” Nakami begged for
her life, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. I was sick of her
ruining my life and destroying everything around me. It was the
final thing I had to do to start my life again. So I took a piece
of the mail that was on the counter and lit it.

“Grey…nooooooooooooo!”

I dropped the paper on the floor and watched for a
moment as the whole wall went up in flames. Nakami tried to scoot
out the way; she even tried to stand. But it was useless. Her leg
was too fucked up, and she couldn’t pull strength from the arm she
had gotten shot in. I smirked as I watched her struggle. No longer
entertained, I turned around and walked away. Nakami’s
bloodcurdling screams filled the air as I walked out the door and
shut it closed. You may think I’m a monster, but I don’t give a
fuck. Nakami had crossed the line, and she got what she deserved.
Now I was free to live life in peace with her burning in hell.

Three Months Later

My eyes shot open, and I could feel my heart beating
out of my chest. Anxiety blanketed me as I realized I was familiar
with my surroundings. Where the fuck was I? I tried to move, but
pain engulfed my entire body when I attempted to make the smallest
move. There were bandages everywhere and tubes and wires attached
to my body with the opposite sides attached to a bunch of beeping
machines. The room was large and bright with two bay windows on
either side. The room was decorated to a tee by someone with very
expensive taste. There were two arm chairs on the other side of the
room that were well over a rack a piece and the wallpaper on the
wall was at least three-hundred and fifty dollars a yard. There
were two doors on the left side; one open and one closed. The open
door gave way to what looked like a well decorated bedroom.

What the entire fuck?

The closed door opened and a short, dark skinned
woman dressed in lime green scrubs walked into the room. She was
wheeling a metal cart with a bunch of things on them. When she
noticed I was awake, she smiled.

“Good morning, Miss. Glad to see you’re finally
awake.”

“Where the hell am I?” I croaked. My throat burned
like acid had been poured down it.

“You’re in Atlanta, ma’am.”

“I mean…where? How did I get here? What
happened?”

The nurse walked around my bed and pressed some
buttons on one of the beeping machines. A long receipt printed out
before she answered. “Don’t worry, you’re safe. And you’re getting
treatment for your injuries.”

I looked at her skeptically. None of this made
sense.

“I’m Nadine, and my boss saved you from a house fire
that you were in. You were barely alive when he pulled you out, and
you slipped into a coma from all of the trauma to your body. You
were out for about two and a half months, girl. On top of that, you
sustained multiple gunshots and third degree burns from your face
to your feet.”

Tears pooled as I listened to her continue to ramble.
Everything came flooding back to me. Me killing my best friend,
Grey and Kimani coming to her rescue, Kimani shooting me, and Grey
lighting the house on fire. It all came rushing back. Before I
could stop myself, I lifted my upper body from the throng of
pillows behind me.

The nurse noticed and quickly came to my aid. “Whoa,
there! You can’t…”

I ignored her as I continued to get up from the bed.
The pain was damn near unbearable, but the thought of all that had
transpired hurt even worse. I ripped the cords and tubes from my
body, and Nadine ran over to the machines and struggled to keep
them from falling to the floor. I noticed the mirror on the far
side of the room, and I slowly walked towards it. When I finally
approached the mirror, I was mortified at what I saw. Most of my
head was wrapped in bandages but, from what I saw, I wanted to
throw up. My face was completely unrecognizable and covered in
horrifying burns. I had no eyebrows and, from what I could tell, no
hair either. I began to shake with anger as I gripped the buffet
table in front of me for support. Infuriated, I picked up the vase
full of flowers in front of me.

I watched as the glass vase I had been holding in my
hand soared through the air, crashed landed against the white croc
skin wallpaper, and burst into a million pieces. Tears rained down
my disfigured face, burning my open wounds as I tried to come to
grips with what had just happened. 

“Ma’am …you’re not in any condition to be moving
around,” the nurse timidly stated. I whipped around so forcefully
that my neck made a popping noise. 

 “Bitch, if you don’t get the fuck out my
business, you’re going to be the next thing that goes flying across
this fucking room. Now piss off!” I roared. Without another word,
she ran her ass up out the room, heeding my warning. 

 “How could this have happened? Why would he do
this?” I dropped to my knees and landed right on a pile of broken
glass. The glass cut into my flesh, immediately causing blood to
leak all over the mahogany wood floors. The pain of the open wounds
felt like the cusp of an orgasm in comparison to the unbearable
pain I felt in my heart. 

Rage wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the
feeling coursing through my body. It was something worse than that.
Deadlier than that. The feeling was consuming me, eating me alive
from the inside out. It was awakening a dark side of me that no
one, including me, had ever borne witness to.

Stumbling, I rose from the broken glass and limped to
my room. During the short trip from the mirror to my bed, I thought
about the possible ways I could make him suffer twelve times over.
Letting gunshots ring off and hit his body like Fourth of July
fireworks wouldn’t be satisfying enough. Drawing blood by stabbing
him directly in the heart as he had stabbed me—metaphorically
speaking, of course—would be too swift. No, he needed to be dealt
with in a specific manner. He needed to have everything in his life
stripped from him and be forced to live with the daily reminder
that he was the one that brought this on himself. The gauntlet had
been thrown, and I wasn’t going to stop until the nigga that I’d
given my heart to had his ripped out and hung on a wall like a
trophy of vengeance won.