Still thicker than water (39 page)

“
I need my IB profin,” she proclaimed, searching for her Prada alligator purse.

“
Where is it?” Tatum asked, breaking her trance.

“
Shit! I left it in the car.”

Jayde started to get up, holding her head in agony, but Tatum stood.

“
Don’t worry, I’ll get it. You stay with Bri… is your door open?” Tatum wanted to check on Ree anyway.

“
Yeah, it’s open. Thanks Tatum.”

Meanwhile, Capo was riding in the passenger seat of one of his chick’s cars. They were coming from her crib, when he spotted Jayde’s Range Rover.

Still with the cast on his leg, it was easy for him to remember the mini shootout they had recently exchanged.

“
Drive slow, shawty,” he drawled to her as he took out his nine and finessed it in his hand. “I’m ‘bout to dead this bitch.”

He recognized the missing side mirror that she had failed to get fixed since they had shot it out, and to his luck, he noticed her, with her back to the street, leaning into the car with the back door opened.

“
Yeah bitch…got you now.”

He slowly lifted his gun out of the passenger window as they cruised by, and once he squinted and had the perfect aim, which was too close to miss, his finger found the hairpin trigger.

Pow
!

One bullet was all it took.

The girl in the driver’s seat screamed at the sound of the shot, but floored the gas to pull off.

She looked over at Capo, who fell back against the seat, a hollow bullet hole smoking in his forehead.

“
Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!” She shrieked in terror, but her cries were cut short instantaneously by a shot that exploded the back of her head like a watermelon.

The car continued to cruise way down the street but then reached the end of the block, swerved and crashed hard into a pole. It was pure madness.

Tatum was frozen in the street, trembling, as Ree stood by the doorway, his smoking gun in hand, only two precise and direct shots fired.

She looked over at him, tears in her eyes. Her mouth was opened but no words would come out as he made his way quickly to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“
It’s okay…It’s alright.”

Her body continued to shake as he walked her inside, where Jayde was now standing at the doorway in complete shock.

Ree continued to console her as he kissed the top of her head. He was fuming at the fact that someone had raised a gun to her and he knew that she was traumatized.

But little did he know, Tatum was not only shocked by someone attempting to shoot her, she was also surprised, almost alarmed, by Ree’s primal, in fact natural, killer instincts.

If she didn’t know it, or if she had ever doubted it, she now had no choice but to accept it…

She was sleeping with a killer.

“
Why are you doing this?” Sasha cried, sitting in the middle of the bed in the cold and desolate cabin. “I said I was sorry…we can work it out.”

Mike looked at her lovingly but then his face changed to one of anguish. She had ripped his heart from his chest. He had finally gotten her, he had finally won, and then she had humiliated him.

It was just like every other moment of his life when he had lost. He had always been… a loser.

“
I want to believe that baby, I really do. But for now, my mind is set.”

He twirled a pair of handcuffs in his hand, his other gripping the gun.

“
Maybe when the baby comes, I will change my mind. But for now…in nine months, you die.”

Sasha cried hard, terrified, and she looked around the barren room for some type of escape, some type of weapon, some type of sign. And then she saw one, and she knew she would be fine.

Mike neared her with the handcuffs.

“
Okay, you have to put these on. Please, don’t try to fight me.”

He moved closer to her and grabbed her wrist.

“
That won’t be necessary.”

Before he could even turn around, Mike felt the cold, hard steel against the back of his head and he knew it was all over.

He took a deep breath, and before he could lift up his gun, Chauncey struck him hard with the butt of his own, knocking Mike down. He grabbed Mike’s .38 and tossed it to Sasha, who was still on the bed.

“
Go wait in the car.”

She looked down at Mike, her breathing heavy. She couldn’t believe that she had actually married this man.

“
Now, Sasha. Move,” Chauncey demanded. He lifted his gun, ready to blast Mike as soon as Sasha was safe and away. He didn’t want her in the room, he knew the effects of watching someone die, even someone you hated.

She jumped up and started for the door, but then she thought of Aubrey and what he had done to her, and she turned around.

She walked up to Mike and sneered down at him and then she hog spit right in his pathetic face.

“
Burn in hell mothafucka,” she hissed, knowing Chauncey was about to send him to his maker.

Mike weakly wiped away the spit while laughing, and then with it dripping from his fingers, he licked it away.

“
I… love… you-”

Boom
!

The single shot caught Mike square in the neck, his eyes bulged wide open. After a few seconds of gargling on his blood, his body twitched, and then lay lifelessly.

Chauncey slowly turned his head toward Sasha and her face was blank, her hand still shaking with the smoking .38 in it. After a few seconds of silence, she finally realized what had just happened.

“
I…I killed him. Is he dead?” She whispered.

Chauncey with his mouth open in shock, walked over to her and gently took the gun from her as she stood stunned, in disbelief.

“
I …I killed…I killed Mike,” she repeated.

She finally looked at Chauncey with panic in her face. She couldn’t believe that she, Sasha, had killed someone.

“
Oh my god…I’m going to jail,” she panicked.

Chauncey took her face into his hands.

“
Ssshhh, no one’s going to jail. It’s okay…It’s gonna be alright. I’ll take care of it.”

She shook her head.

“
I did it Chauncey…I killed him… I killed Mike,” she continued to cry.

He hugged her tight and rubbed her head. He knew that she was distressed and scared to death.

“
No you didn’t, I did…. I killed him.”

She hugged him back for dear life, knowing that he would always protect her. This would forever be their secret.

“
You hear me? Don’t ever say that again. Not to your family, not to Tatum, no one.
I
killed him,” Chauncey repeated, not ever wanting her to get into any trouble. “You were already in the car.”

Sasha nodded understandingly but still knowing the truth, and as they hugged again, she looked down at Mike’s corpse, who seemed to be staring back at her.

Without another word, Chauncey grabbed her bags and walked her outside, and then he called Bleek and told him to come and clean up the mess.
His
mess.

Tatum ran downstairs to where Ree was with a look of relief on her face.

“
That was Chauncey…he has Sasha. Everything is okay.”

Ree nodded, glad to hear the news and also glad that Tatum had calmed down and was now distracted from the earlier incident.

The police had come and questioned everyone on the block, and no one knew anything, especially not Jayde, who pretended to be there alone with her daughter. The car had also mysteriously caught on fire making it even harder, almost impossible, for the police to find out exactly what had occurred.

Jayde came down the stairs, from out of the restroom, and overheard the good news.

“
That’s great,” she said, grabbing her coat.

Tatum turned to her, confused.

“
You not waiting here for them?”

Jayde shook her head.

“
No, but I’ll be back. I have an important meeting with someone, it won’t take long.”

Tatum raised her eyebrows, surprised, but said her goodbyes.

“
See ya later,” Jayde said casually, and then she headed out of the door.

As she hopped in her now twice shot at new truck, she thought over the past days’ events.

“
That’s it for me and Range Rovers,” she mused.

She drove in contemplation and in deep thought for about twenty minutes. She was glad that Bleek was able to set that car on fire before the police had arrived. Finally, she reached the restaurant.

After parking in her reserved spot, she stepped out of the truck, put on her alarm, and strutted to the door in her black alligator stiletto heeled boots. A large bodyguard opened the door for her and she continued inside, never slowing her walk.

“
Has my guest already arrived?” She asked, approaching another henchman.

“
Yes, right this way Big-J,” he based.

They made their way throughout the empty restaurant. Jayde had ordered it be cleared out for her meeting.

As she approached the table, dead in the center, she smirked at her visitor.

“
Hello, long time…no see,” she humored, taking a seat.

Jayde sat her purse down and stared with poise.

Neli sat up and folded her hands on the table, her face stern.

“
Yeah well, you’ve been a hard person to catch up to Miss Jayde Dupree.”

Jayde laughed lightly and took a sip from the water that was already on the table.

“
What can I say, places to see…people to do…” She smiled sinisterly and her green eyes twinkled. “But I’m sure you can understand that…Miss Neli.”

Neli rolled her eyes and reached into her purse swiftly, but two henchmen nearby pulled their guns and she froze.

“
Whoa, whoa guys…cool out,” Jayde told them giggling. “Me and her go
way
back.”

Neli glared at them all, but then continued into her bag cautiously. She pulled out a manila envelope wrapped in a rubber band and threw it dead smack in the middle of the table, hard.

Jayde’s face gradually became serious and she just looked at her.

“
What’s that for?”

Neli kept her intense stare.

“
You
know
what it’s for…it’s the money.”

Jayde chuckled and leaned back in her seat, slightly amused with Neli.

“
I don’t need the money, love. It’s fine.”

Neli’s blood began to simmer.

“
No it’s not!” She looked around at the henchmen who were getting antsy, and then she lowered her voice. “It’s not fine, Jayde…It’s over. Just take the money, and leave it alone.”

Jayde started to laugh hysterically at Neli’s seriousness.

“
Take
the money Jayde, leave it alone,”
she mocked.

“
Neli, Neli, Neli…when will you learn? I’m the one that calls the shots. What’s wrong…you having a revelation now? The looney bin took all of your big, bad, problems away and now you want Jayde to change her ways, too? You must have forgotten… you started this love.”

“
Yeah, and now I’m ending it. It was a mistake,” Neli sassed back.

“
Oh so
now
it was a mistake? You tracked me down, and you paid me to finish what you started…you wanted me to make sure that Sasha wasn’t done suffering when you found out that she was moving down here, you paid me to finish ruining her life since you couldn’t do it, because you were locked in the looney bin. This was your crazy ass obsession with her, baby doll.”

“
I was sick!” Neli yelled. “I was wrong…and now I’m paying you to stop…so just stop.”

Jayde shook her head at Neli as if she were clueless.

“
Stop what? I’m not doing anything…” Jayde popped an altoid and then looked at Neli sincerely. “Oh wait…you thought that was
me
the whole time? Poisoning the kid, all of that bullshit? No sweetie, that’s not my forte. Besides, I wouldn’t have fucked that up.” Jayde took another sip and leaned into Neli, her bad bitch aura overpowering Neli’s pathetic attempt at confidence. “No see, that was her little weak ass husband, Mike. In fact, he’s a lot like you. Well,
was
like you, I’m sure Chauncey has killed him by now. But anyway, he was ridiculously obsessed with the broad, just like you, to the point where he couldn’t see her happy with anyone else… Oh, and for the record, you can’t pay me to leave anything alone, because I never did it for the money.”