Raunchy (42 page)

“Come in, baby,” Harmony smiled hugging Jayden. “You look so beautiful.”

Jayden almost fell over at her mother’s show of affections and she wanted so desperately to believe that she was finally changing. She savored the moment of a mother and daughter embrace and gripped her tightly. Suddenly, the years of physical and mental abuse didn’t matter anymore. She was at home. But when she walked fully into the living room, the white lady sitting on the couch brought her back to a grim reality.

Harmony grabbed Jayden by the hand and led her to the couch. “Jayden, this is Mrs. Katherine Sheers and she is a caseworker with the department of child services. She’s just stopping by to make sure you’re both okay.”

“So you’re, Jayden,” she said shaking her hand. “You don’t look too much like your sister.”

“Well we are sisters. Twins at that.” Jayden assured her.

Jayden’s eyes roamed to her sister Madjesty who sat quietly in a floral patterned dress which she looked uncomfortable wearing. Madjesty’s homely look was completed with a tired pair of patent leather shoes. She looked like a light skin-boyish Celie from the movie The Color Purple.

“I know. Twins are the best. I was a twin you know,” Katherine said. “Before my sister died in a car accident at the tender age of ten.”

Jayden didn’t respond because she didn’t care.

“Well…I was just telling your mother that I hope you and your sister like attending Friendly High School this year. You’ll both be enrolling next week. Right Mrs. Phillips?”

“Oh of course,” she said as fake as hell. “My daughters both are looking forward to the new school. Aren’t you?”

Harmony gave them straight-faced stares. She would not hesitate to rip them to shreds if they fucked this up.

“Yes I am,” Jayden said. “As a matter of fact, mama has already been preparing us. Tell her about the lessons you taught us recently, mama. And how they will lead to better opportunities. You know, ma, the lessons with the carrots.”

“The lessons with carrots?” Mrs. Sheers repeated. “I don’t understand.”

Harmony gave Jayden another evil glare and Jayden returned it. With the stranger in the room she felt bold and she didn’t care. She wanted Harmony to be as frightened this moment as she was all of her life.

“I was using carrots to describe the value of money, Jayden has it a bit wrong.”

“Oh really?” Jayden said. “Because I don’t remember it that way. What do you think, Madjesty?”

“I think ma got it right,” Madjesty said, as it was clear to Jayden that she was mad at her.

“Oh…I see,” Katherine Sheers said. The sisters continued to stare at one another in silence. “Well anyway, I will be in contact with your family periodically to make sure things are in order.”

“Can you tell me why?” Harmony asked. “I mean, we’d love to have you but I’d like to know what sparked this visit.”

“Oh…We got an anonymous call, so we like to make sure things are in order when this happens. But as I can clearly see, everything here is fine. I wish you luck on your job search, too. But I must say that you are lucky to have a home which is rent free.”

No one knew that Cherry placed the call after the confrontation with Madjesty.

“Yes I am, lucky. I will be even better when I can find a job.”

Katherine stood up and said, “Well I better be leaving now.”

“Okay, well let me walk you to your car.” Harmony said rushing behind her before taking one more look at Jayden and then Madjesty.

When she was gone Jayden used the opportunity to talk to her sister.
She sat next to Madjesty on the couch.
“Madjesty, I miss you so much,” she said throwing her arms around her. “I thought about you every day. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Mama is so fake isn’t she?”

“Get off me, Jayden.” Madjesty said pushing her off.

Jayden backed up and said, “What? Why?”

“
You’re the one who’s fake.”

“
What…Are you mad at me or something?”

“What do you think? You’re gone for a week, you don’t bother to call and check on me and then you show up looking like a model while I’m living in hell? I thought you said that we’re all we got. What happened to that, huh?”

“I…I couldn’t call you, Madjesty. I didn’t think mama would let me talk to you, but I think about you every day.”

“Fuck that! Fuck you and fuck life!” Madjesty said standing up. Then she held her stomach and doubled over. She was in severe pain. “I’ll see you around at school. I’m out.” She said walking up the stairs.

The hate festering inside of Madjesty was all over the place and Jayden didn’t know how to react. She was changing and it was obvious that she was changing for the worse.

When Jayden walked outside, she walked right past her mother who was standing in the driveway talking to Katherine. Then she jumped in Shaggy’s Navigator and it was the first time that Harmony had really laid eyes on Shaggy while she was sober. She knew that kid. And although she’d only seen him a few times, because whenever she was hanging with his mother they were on their way out the door, she could never forget his face. He was always very attractive even as a little boy.

“I’ll see you later,” Harmony said to Jayden. “You kids have fun.”

She was being fake in front of the caseworker and Jayden was upset. Especially after the way Madjesty treated her. She believed that it was all Harmony’s fault, because in actuality, it was.

“
You’ll be home in time for dinner right?” Harmony said pushing her luck, thinking she still had Jayden under control.

“You’ll see me when you see me,” Jayden said. “Shaggy, pull off on this bitch.”

Shaggy threw up the fuck you sign with Katherine watching. And the caseworker looked at Harmony wondering what could have possessed them to act in such a way.

“Kids,” Harmony shrugged. “You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them.”

Since Jayden wanted to play hardball, Harmony had plans to hit her where it hurt. And she would start with Madjesty.

Mexico

Jace

Mexico’s weather reminded me of being in L.A. In fact everything about Mexico reminded me of L.A. The palm trees, the water and the people dressed in less than nothing.

I just pulled up in front of the ten million dollar villa I had bought my father. He relocated here, because after Massive had killed off his entire crew, he felt he wasn’t safe anywhere else. But when I got there, something seemed off balance because an unfamiliar car sat in the driveway. Me and Kevin got out of the car we rented and knocked on the door. No one answered.

“You want me to check around back?” Kevin asked.

“Naw, we’ll come back later.”

We were just getting ready to go back to the hotel where Antoinette was waiting on me, when a white man in a pair of tight ass blue swim trunks opened the door. I could tell he had recently been out of the pool because he was wet and had a towel in his hand.

“Can I help you?” he asked dabbing his wet face with the towel. “Are you gentlemen lost?”

“We’re not lost but you can help us.”

“Okay, and how can I do that?”

“I want to know where’s Rick? This is his house right?”

“Rick?” He laughed. “You mean Bad Lucky?”

I looked back at Kevin and said, “Who the fuck is Bad Lucky?”

“I’m sorry, man. But around here we call him Bad Lucky because whenever he places a bet he loses,” He joked. “As a matter of fact, that’s how I got this house.”

I gave Kevin a knowing look, took a step back and watched him drop him to the floor.

“Let me tell you something, mothafucka, this is my house!” I said yelling over top of him. “I own the deed to this property and it’s paid in full. Now I don’t know what deal you had with my father, but that shit is dead. Do you hear me? I want you out of my house by morning.”

Blood was everywhere and I could tell his nose was broken. I was just about to have Kevin hit him again when I saw four Doberman Pinscher’s staring at us growling from inside the house. With the dogs as his guards, he stood up and used the towel to cover his bloody nose.

“The only reason you’re still alive is because they can’t see my face. But dogs are great in that they can sense danger,” he continued looking back at them. “Now if you want to stay alive I’ma make it simple,” he said slowly. “Leave
my
property and never return.”

“I already told you I own this house.”

“And I told you Bad Lucky placed a bet and lost. He owed me three million and I considered my debt paid in full by taking over the deed to his house. Now if you’d like, I can reverse our bet and have him tortured every day of his life, until he gives me my money. And since you’re his son, I’ll leave that up to you.”

“Where can I find my father?” I asked feeling like dropping this nigga myself.

“Bad Lucky hangs out in Cancun, at a resort called Riu Caribe, about fifteen miles from the Cancun National Airport. You can probably find him there.”

I backed away from the door with my eyes on him. Keeping in mind that with one wave of his hands, those dogs would be on full attack. When we made it back to the car I started thinking. All of this drama, including never being able to lead a full life because Massive would forever haunt me, and the death of my mother was all a result of Rick’s gambling addiction.

When we pulled up at the resort, I asked a few people about Bad Lucky. It fucked me up that they all knew where and who he was. And that meant if I could find him, Massive could too. Maybe he knew where he was and wanted him to kill himself slowly.

When we went out back to the beach, I saw him involved in a small card game. A bunch of ones were on the table and I knew he had fallen hard. My father never played with anything less than one hundred dollar bills.

“Son,” Rick said standing up from the table. Five Mexicans who were involved in the game didn’t seem too happy to see me. “What you doing here?” Then he addressed the men who all had serious expressions on their faces. “Amigos, este es mi hijo.”

I knew Spanish from going back and forth to L.A so I understood him to say, ‘This is my son, Friends’. They all grunted and mumbled under their breath.

“Tengo que hablar con mi padre en privado. Esto sólo le tomará un momento.” He continued.

In English he said, he needed to talk to me in private and to give him a few minutes.

One of the men stood up and appeared angry about my father having to leave the game. “No trate de correr de nuevo, Bad Lucky. No vamos a tener un problema de matar a usted oa su hijo.”

I understood him clearly, too. He said,
‘Don’t try to run again, Bad Lucky. We won’t have a problem killing you or your son.’
Rick smiled at the men and walked off.

“How’s it going, Kevin? I see you’ve been keeping my son safe after all these years.” Kevin just nodded, even he was losing respect for him. “You mind giving me and my boy a few moments in private?”

Kevin looked at me and I said, “It’s okay.” Kevin stepped a few feet away and turned his back to the conversation. But he was still close enough to jump in, if something happened.

“Rick, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” He said looking half drunk. “We’re playing cards, son. I’m out here enjoying the beautiful weather.” He said putting his hand on my back as he looked at the beach. “Open your eyes, beautiful girls are all around us.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t.” He said removing his hand. “What do you mean?”

Before we went any further, I needed to know if he would lie to me or not. He didn’t know that I had been to his house and he also didn’t know that I understood Spanish. I never tried hiding my fluency from him, we just weren’t close enough for him to know. Still, whether he would lie to me or tell the truth would help me make my decision about the future of our relationship.

“How’s the decorations goin’ at the house?” I asked. “I figured you’d be stayin’ there instead of hangin’ out at some resort.”

“How did you know I was here?” He asked out of nowhere.

“It’s easy to find you. You’re very popular amongst the ladies remember?”

“True…True,” he smiled.

“Now…How are the decorations comin’ along at your villa, Rick? And when can I see it?”

“Everything’s going along fine. There’s a lot of construction taking place right now, but I should have everything the way I want it by the end of the week,” he said under his voice. “Then you can see it.”

That was his first lie.

“Well I can’t wait to see it,” I said staring at him in his eyes. “And what did the man over there say to you in Spanish? And who is Bad Lucky?”

I squinted to see his face as the sun beamed against my skin and the birds flew around us in a distance. This was the moment that would change everything.

“Bad Lucky is a friend of their’s. You don’t know him,” he paused. Even Kevin had to turn around to look at him on that part. “And in Spanish he told me he would wait patiently for me to reenter the game.” He smiled putting one hand on my shoulder. “So, I have to go, son. I don’t want to be rude.”

“Okay.”

“Are you staying in Mexico long? Maybe we can get a few drinks.”

“Naw, I have to get back to DC. Money waits for no man.”

“I heard that…Well give Antoinette my love.”

“I will.”

One look at the men that were waiting for Rick and you would know that they meant him harm, but I decided that he wouldn’t be my problem anymore. I had to worry about my business back at home and as far as I was concerned, he was cut.

My Blood

Jace