ADDICTED TO HIM II (14 page)

Tamia

When the first bullet hit me, it was so powerful that it spun me completely around. I was confused and in pain wondering why I was shot with my hands up. I looked down at the old lady with tears streaming down my face as I mouthed the words
I’m sorry
to her before another bullet hit me. Everything went dark.

“Hey baby. I’m so happy to see you,” a sweet voice said in the distance. I stood up and walked to her. It was pitch black everywhere except surrounding her. The closer I got, the more angelic she looked. Tears began to stream down my face once I got within arm’s reach of my mother.

“Mommy,” I said as I reached out to hug her. She returned my hug and I felt a love like never before. I felt safe and secure as we stood there hugging. “Mommy, I missed you so much,” I cried with my head on her chest.

“I miss you too baby. I’m so proud of you, sweetie,” my mother said to me. As I looked up into her eyes, I could see she was crying as well. “I need you to take care of yourself, sweetie. You have done awesome so far but you shouldn’t have opened that door. I need you to pay attention to your surroundings so you’re not blindsided again,” my mother said as I continued to cry while shaking my head no.

“I’m just going to stay here with you, mommy. I’m tired of living,” I said and laid my head back on her chest.

“Baby, you haven’t begun to live yet. You won’t even love freely. You’re just surviving. I’m proud of the things you’ve accomplished sweetie but I want some grandchildren,” she said and wiped my tears away.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said to her.

“You have to. It’s not your time yet,” she said and stepped away from me. I took a step closer but for every step I took, she seemed farther away. “I love you. Remember what I said,” my mother said and smiled. I took off as fast as my legs would carry me but she was moving farther and farther away.

“Mommy WAIT! I LOVE YOU!” I screamed and dropped to my knees crying.

“No more tears. I love you too,” she said before she disappeared completely. “Live baby.” I heard as her voice faded away along with the darkness.

“We got a pulse!” someone yelled which caused me to look around frantically. There was a paramedic working on me in the back of an ambulance and a police officer staring at me like I killed his best friend. I mugged him right back because he’s the asshole that shot me! He shouldn’t even be back here with me. I thought he had to wait and speak with someone over him about the shooting, yet here he was in the back with me. I continued to stare at him until we pulled up to the emergency room.

“Give me a few minutes to talk with her,” the officer said to the paramedic.

“But-”

“Three minutes tops,” the officer said. I watched as the paramedic turned to look at me before shaking his head and hopping out of the ambulance.

“You like beating old ladies, huh?” he asked with an evil face.

“Lawyer,” I answered him.
Whap!
He punched me so hard I almost fell off the bed I was on. If I wasn’t strapped down at the waist, I’m sure I would have fallen off. I hung off the bed, dangling like meat in a freezer until he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back on the bed completely. I screamed out in pain but was silenced with another punch but this time, in my mouth. I could taste the blood in my mouth instantly.

“Why’d you do it?” he asked. Gathering all the blood I could in my mouth, I spit in his direction, landing just a few centimeters short of his shoe.

“Lawyer,” I said before I smiled at him. He began to hit me over and over. Even though my hands were free, I didn’t fight back. I didn’t want to give him a reason to kill me.

Not long after the beating started, the back doors were opened and he was pulled out of them. “What the fuck James! I should have your balls on a platter and your ass hanging on a plaque for this stunt!” I heard someone say as I logged his name into my brain. The paramedic hopped back into the truck with me and checked my eyes before he and the other paramedic wheeled me out and into the hospital. I glanced back and saw Officer James and the other officer in a heated argument. I kept looking at the paramedic that left me with him and he couldn’t even look at me. Looking at his name tag, I logged him in as well.
I’ll see you soon Jeff
, I thought to myself.

I half listened as the other paramedic ran off report to the emergency room staff as they hooked me up to different equipment. I couldn’t believe my life’s turn of events right now. I know God makes no mistakes and you should never question his plan, but I’m trying to figure out what part of the game this is.

The ER doctor came in and gave me shots to numb both shoulders before leaving back out of the room. He didn’t even check to see if the bullets were in there or not. I hadn’t even noticed the nurse had place an IV in me until the drowsiness set in. I began to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My eyelids began to flutter and I almost gave in until Officer James walked into my room. “You won’t get off easy at all,” he said, as he leaned down close to my face. I felt him grabbing my hand and cuffing it to the bedrail, followed by one of my ankles. “Don’t move away from this door!” I heard him snap at another officer but I drifted off to sleep.

*****

When I woke up, my shoulders, neck, and head hurt like hell! I reached up with my free hand and touched the gauze on my shoulders. I can’t believe I’m lying in a hospital bed, bruised up, shot up, and under arrest. Talk about karma. Maybe I shouldn’t have helped Armani get to Steve because then I wouldn’t even be in this situation. I put my life on the line for someone who only cares about herself. I know now that if I ever needed her, I’d just be in need because she didn’t care enough about me not to sleep with Amere! She can’t even say it was an accident because she continued to sleep with him even while we were living together. I feel like at some point before I found out, she should have ended our friendship. Instead, she belittled me as much as she could and treated me like a maid, all the while laughing behind my back. One thing you may say I’m dumb about is if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would still help her. The only thing I’d do different is stopping her before she was able to finish him off.

“I need to talk to her alone.” I heard a familiar voice say. As I looked up, my eyes connected with Nurse Jennifer and embarrassment filled my body instantly.

“Only for a second,” the officer placed at my door said to her.

I watched Nurse Jennifer pad across the floor slowly with a look of concern. “I’m glad you’re ok, sweetie. What happened?” she asked as she pulled a chair up to the bed. I don’t know why I trust her but I do.

“Do you remember the girl that got abducted a while back?” I asked as Nurse Jennifer nodded her head, once she remembered. “That was my best friend. After she was kidnapped, I received a letter saying I’ll see you soon. Then someone tried to grab me, only I wasn’t driving and they grabbed my friend. We were able to fight him off though. I crashed at her place and the man that took my friend showed up. I was able to get out the house and run,” I said as low as possible.

“Oh my gosh, Tamia! Then what happened?” she asked as she sat on the edge of her chair. I glanced at the door to make sure the officer wasn’t listening.

“I hid in someone’s yard and right when he was passing by, the old lady came out yelling and asking me why was I in her yard. When he stopped his truck, I ran in her house and pulled her inside. She called the police while I hid. She was calling the police on me for being there. She had no idea I was running for my life,” I said and paused to look at the door. By this time, Nurse Jennifer had tears welled up in her eyes. “He kicked the door in and asked her where I was but she wouldn’t tell him. I had my chance to run out the house but I couldn’t leave her. I jumped up and attacked him but he overpowered me and that’s when she started hitting him with the phone. He pushed her before dragging me out the house,” I said, shaking my head at the memory.

“So, how did you get away?” Nurse Jennifer asked.

“The police came down the street. He got scared and left, but not before telling me he’d be back. I went back inside to check on the lady. I needed to cut her clothes, so I could see what I was doing but the police shot me twice. On the way here, the paramedics let the officer that rode with me in the back beat me up,” I said as I watched anger wash all over her face.

“I’m going to help you,” she said before she left my room.

I watched the door like a hawk for several minutes before my body started to get tired. I zoned out as I began to think of good memories I’ve had with my mother. The good times I’ve had with her keeps me sane.

“Taaammmia!” my mom sang shaking me lightly. “Waaaakkkke uuuuuppp!” she continued while tickling me. This was our routine every morning before school. “C’mon sleepy head. Breakfast is ready,” she whispered into my ear. I jumped up, flinging the cover onto the floor while running into the kitchen. “Slow down child!” she snapped at me but it was too late because by then, I was already seated at the table. “No ma’am!” my mom said, popping my hand after I picked the fork up. I was so hungry that I forgot we had to say our grace.

“Sorry mommy,” I said, bowing my head.

“Lord, I thank you for waking us up this morning. I thank you for all you have done and all you are about to do. Lord, I understand everything happens for a reason and we thank you for the lessons. Thank you Lord for this food and I can hear baby girl’s stomach growling, so we have to eat. Amen,” my mom said before looking at me and smiling.

“Amen,” I said before digging in.

My mom helped me get dressed for school then we raced to the bus stop, just like every school day. I always won too. After school that day, we played outside just like every school day while we waited on the ice cream truck. I remember the truck because it never played the kind of music an ice cream truck played. This truck played rap music. As soon as I heard it, I took off running into the road. If it wasn’t for our neighbor, I would have been hit by the car that was flying up the street. I just knew I would get a whooping and no ice cream but I got a hug and no ice cream.

“Baby, you can’t run out in the street like that. You need to always pay attention to your surroundings. You could have gotten killed had that car hit you,” my mother said to me after sitting me down to talk to me.

“I’m never gonna die momma. I’m going to stay with you forever,” I said looking up at her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I saw her eyes water briefly.

“Baby, we all have to go some time but I’ll always be with you,” she said smiling.

“How?” I asked confused. At school, they say when someone’s dead that they’re gone, so how can she be with me and gone?

“I’ll always be right here,” she said, pointing to my heart.

“Hey Tamia. I’m Michelle. I’m going to check your vitals, ok?” I heard her say, which caused me to look up at her. I was slightly confused about Michelle being in my room with scrubs on. She didn’t seem like the girl I met here in this very hospital. She seemed a bit off and I began to have a bad feeling about her presence being in my room.

“Ya know when I first met you, I admired you. I thought you had it all put together but you’re nothing but a man stealer and murderer! How dare you shoot that little girl? I can understand if the man hurt you but children are innocent!” Michelle said while frowning at me. The scrubs already had me throwed off but she lost me completely with that one.

“What little girl?” I asked, clearly confused. Never in a million years would I ever harm a child. Michelle had me fucked up with someone else, just like these police officers.

She took a step closer to me and I wished like hell I wasn’t handcuffed to this bed! “Why’d you shoot that little girl?” she asked, sticking her thumb in the hole the bullet created. At this very moment, I wished I could kill her. I screamed out in pain as I fought back tears. The last thing I wanted her to see was me crying. “You think you’re tough huh?” she asked, smiling the evilest smile I had ever seen. It kind of put me in the mindset of the guy who played Candyman in the movie Candyman. She squeezed harder this time and I yelled a bit louder. All of a sudden, she reached completely over me and squeezed both shoulders, and I felt like I was going to pass out.

Closing my eyes, I could feel the tears welling up as a lump formed in the back of my throat. “No more tears,” I heard my mom’s voice say in the back of mind. I have no idea where the strength came from but I punched Michelle as hard as I could and watched her fall down, taking everything down with her. She ripped my IV out in the process and dark red blood started leaking from the open wound. I felt around the bed until I had the call button.

I pressed it over and over, hoping someone would answer before she got back up. “May I help you?” I heard a voice ask.

“Help me!” I said as loud as I could. I watched Michelle walk out the door that once had a police officer guarding.

“The whole world against me,” I said out loud to myself.

Rashard

Leaving Tamia again under damn near the same circumstances was the hardest thing I’ve had to do so far. I know she’s going to hate me if they let Candy go back and I’m not there, but she’s going to have to understand I needed to make these moves for us. My first order of business is to find out who the officer is that shot her.

I hopped in my car and headed down to the police station. I’m trying to get facts and what better way to get it than straight from the horse’s mouth? As I walked into the police station, I noticed about six of them off to the side congratulating the guy in the middle for being a great shot. I walked closer towards them, so I could hear everything clearly. “Man James, you came outta nowhere and shot her! That was supposed to be me!” one officer said while frowning.

“Well, you took too long.” the one I assumed is James said.

“That’s because her hands were up!” the first guy said, which caused everyone that was surrounding them to gasp.

“She hadn’t dropped the knife though!” Officer James said.

“Well, you better hope she don’t tell anyone she was surrendering,” the first guy said as the other officers started leaving the group. I turned to walk away because I had heard all I needed to hear.

“Well, I beat that bitch’s ass in the ambulance so she won’t say anything,” Officer James boasted. I looked back just to make sure it was the same guy.

Storming out of the precinct, I was beyond pissed off! This man admitted to shooting her with her hands up and beating her, and nobody batted an eyelash! “I need you to find out everything there is to know about Officer James. I don’t know if that’s his first or last name but he shot a female in an old lady’s house today,” I said as soon as my boy Geek answered the phone.

“Alright. Give me thirty,” he said before he disconnected the call.

Geek is the guy you call when you need to find someone, hide from someone, or just need help. The man is a genius, no lie! He used to work for the FBI but got fired after he was caught smoking weed at headquarters. Now he works for himself, making way more money than he did working for them. Mostly niggas like me keep him on my payroll. He worked completely from home, so he’s never tied to anything. I could have had him shut the camera system, along with the power, down at the precinct and he could have done that from home. Granted, I would have had to kill everybody without leaving a trace but I wouldn’t be seen. Not that I’d do something that reckless. See, I have people to do that type of stuff for me.

Now, this situation with Tamia is personal, so the only person I’m calling is Dre. I’m calling Dre because he can do stuff to him that I can’t stomach. I want him to hurt worse than I can hurt him. I’d end up killing him but death is too easy. He better hope he ain’t married because I’m going to do to her exactly what he did to Tamia and make him watch.

I rode around for about twenty minutes before Geek called me with the information and a lot more than I needed, at that. “Yo!” Dre said as he answered his phone on the third ring.

“I need ya, man,” I said into the phone.

“One of them?” he asked, referring to his skills.

“Yes. I’m coming to get you right now. You home?” I asked.

“Yeah.” he said and disconnected the call.

About ten minutes later, I pulled up to Dre’s apartment where he was waiting outside for me. This left me twenty minutes before Officer James got to join his wife. Their kids were sleeping over at a friend’s house and it had already been confirmed. Geek’s aunt lived a few houses over from Officer James, so I parked in her yard before we jogged over to his house. I stood back as Dre rang the doorbell. We waited a few minutes but nobody came to the door. I watched Dre turn the doorknob and it was unlocked. I had no idea why people move in this kind of neighborhood and forget a robber don’t care where you live if you have something they want.

I followed Dre slowly into the house and closed the door softly behind me. It didn’t take long for me to realize wifey was taking a shower. We checked the house to make sure she was alone before setting up in the living room. All I did was put two chairs from their dining room table in the living room and grabbed some duct tape.

We waited about fifteen minutes for her to finish, leaving us less time to have her situated by the time Officer James walked through the door. Had she finished sooner, I would have allowed her to get dressed first but time was of the essence. As soon as she opened the bathroom door, I grabbed her and threw her over my shoulder. She was kicking and screaming, so I slammed her head into the wall and knocked her out just to shut her up. By the time I had her taped securely to the chair, I heard the front door open.

“Honey!” he yelled and walked inside the house. “Linda! Did you start dinner?” he asked as he rounded the corner into the living room. As soon as he saw his wife taped to the chair, his hand flew to his mouth. Wrong move. His hand should have gone straight to his gun in his holster on his damn hip. Dre stepped out of the shadows and gave Officer James a swift uppercut and removed his gun with one swift motion. Together, we taped Officer James to the other chair.

“I’m going to put you under the jail!” Officer James said through clenched teeth.

“What’s that smell?” I asked as his wife Linda was waking up. They both stared at me like I was dog shit on the bottom of their shoes. Leaning closer to James, I continued sniffing before laughing.

“What happened?” Dre asked confused.

“This mufucker got him some pussy before he came home asking his wife for dinner,” I said as I continued to laugh at them. Dre joined in after Linda’s facial expression went from one of anger to one of hurt as she looked at her husband before dropping her head.

Lifting her chin, I noticed the tears had already started rolling. “Don’t touch my wife! I’ll kill you!” James threatened.

“Do you really think you’re in a position to threaten anybody?” I asked as I stared at him. He coughed up a lot of spit and spat in my direction. It didn’t hit me but it landed too close for comfort. I turned around and looked at Dre before nodding my head. Dre left the room.

“Mrs. Linda, let me tell you what’s going to happen to you because of the man you married. First, I’m going to shoot you in the shoulder from where I am. Now, if you spin, I’m going to shoot you in the other shoulder but if you don’t, I’ll just walk behind you to shoot you,” I explained as she began to cry harder.

“What is this about?” she asked before glancing over at her husband.

“Well, you see, my girlfriend was running for her life and ran to this old lady’s house. The guy that was after her hurt the old lady. My girl was trying to help her when your husband came in and shot her twice. Guess what he did after that?” I asked, smiling at his wife.

“I don’t believe you,” she said to me before turning to her husband. “Is this true?” she asked him.

“As true as him being knee deep in some pussy before he came home to you,” I said before I laughed at them.

“I’m going to kill you,” Officer James said.

“Not in this lifetime. All you’re gonna do is watch me shoot your wife and then beat her the same way you beat my girl. Only difference is I’m going to kill her afterwards. My boy in there is going to torture you until he’s tired, then you and your wife will be reunited,” I said and his wife began wailing out of control.

I punched her hard enough to knock the chair over but not hard enough to knock her out. Officer James lunged at me with the chair still taped to him. Luckily, I saw him coming and a swift uppercut stopped him and sent him back into a seated position in the chair. I turned around to his wife, who looked at him the entire time as she cried. I know that fucked him all the way up.

I grabbed my .45 and attached my silencer before shooting Linda in the shoulder. “I’m going to kill you!” Officer James said again through gritted teeth, which caused me to laugh.

“I bet when you were shooting my girl, you didn’t think about how you would feel as a man for that shit to happen to your wife? The only difference is I’m going to kill you both,” I said and walked behind Linda. I shot her in the other shoulder as she sobbed uncontrollably while staring at her husband. “You’re strong Linda. From what I heard, when he shot my girl, she flat lined but they brought her back,” I said to Linda who didn’t even acknowledge me. She continued to look at her husband, who couldn’t make eye contact with her.

Anger quickly set in as I thought about Tamia being laid up in a hospital under arrest and shot the fuck up!
Whap! Whap! Whap!
I hit Linda three times fast when an idea popped up in my head. “It’s going to be ok honey,” I heard Officer James say as I headed out the room.

No, it won’t be
, I thought to myself as I entered the kitchen. I grabbed the biggest knife I could before returning back to the living room. I walked right up to Linda and stabbed her forcefully in the stomach as she gasped, trying to reach out to her husband but the tape prevented her from doing so. She had tears streaming down her red cheeks as I twisted the knife and jerked it towards her chest as hard as I could. I pulled the knife out then slit her throat. When I took a step back, I noticed her eyes were still on her husband.

I glanced over at Officer James, who was staring back at his wife in disbelief. “Any last words?” I asked, which caused him to look over in my direction. He stood up and lunged at me again, like he didn’t fail the last time. He ran directly into me with so much force, it knocked me over and I dropped the knife. Officer James began head-butting me over and over. I could feel the blood sliding down my cheeks but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I grabbed the back of the chair and pushed it over before I wiped my face on my shirt. The blood continued to pour but now, I could tell it was coming from my nose.

I grabbed the knife and stabbed Officer James in both of his thighs as he yelled out in pain. “Aye, go get some wine or something,” I said to Dre. Both of them looked at me like I was crazy. For some reason unknown to me, I didn’t need Dre to torture Officer James for me. I figured that out from the feeling I got cutting Linda open. As soon as Dre showed up with a bottle of Hennessy, I looked up to ceiling. “Ain’t he good?” I asked Officer James. “See, I didn’t think you would have anything strong here so I was going to use wine to set ya’ll on fire,” I explained as James’ eyes got big. I heard Dre chuckle lightly as I took a swig of the Henny. I poured a little on Linda, being careful to pour just enough so she could catch on fire.

I pulled out my lighter and burned the tablecloth before lying it over her body. We watched her deceased ass burn until the chair fell over and hit the couch. As soon as the chair hit the couch, the fire spread to it. Officer James hopped up and tried to run but Dre knocked him off his feet. I poured the rest of the Henny on him before lighting his ass up. He broke free of the tape and ran around, trying to put himself out as his screams filled the air. I laughed as he tried to stop, drop, and roll, which only caused the fire to spread more. We stood there watching until he was no longer moving.

I walked right out the front door. When I looked back, Dre was wiping the door knob off with a rag. As soon as we got in the car, I saw Dre had also brought the knife and the Hennessy bottle. “Better safe than sorry,” he said and laughed as I pulled off into traffic. We headed straight for the incinerator to get rid of this shit permanently. “So, your girl in the hospital?” Dre asked while texting.

“Hell yeah man and under arrest but once they talk to the old lady, I’m sure they will let her go,” I said and tried hard to convince myself.

“So, what’s next?” Dre asked.

“Gotta find the nigga tryna get her and kill him,” I said.