Boss Bitch (Bitch Series) (4 page)

“Get well soon, Precious,” Maya smirked before making her exit. When Maya left I sat there for a few minutes regretting that I didn’t allow Supreme to have someone kill her or better yet that I didn’t kill her myself. I wanted Quentin to live but at that moment I promised myself that if he didn’t pull through I would see to it that Maya died right along with him.

AS I STOOD WAITING for the police officers to escort me into the courtroom the fear that I had buried for the last few months swallowed me. The day had finally arrived, the beginning of my trial. I was facing First Degree Murder charges and Attempted Murder. For some reason I didn’t believe this day would ever come I guess because I didn’t want to believe it.

“Let’s go,” I heard the officer say, grabbing my arm. When I entered the courtroom even though the air conditioner was blasting I could feel sweat surfacing on my forehead. I felt like I was in a sauna. Luckily my hair was pulled back in a bun or it would’ve been sticking to my face.

“Are you okay?” my attorney asked me when I reached the table where I would be sitting for the duration of the trial. “Sit down, you look like you’re about to pass out,” he said, pouring me a glass of water. “Drink this.” Mr. Anderson practically had to shove the glass in my hand because drinking water was the last thing on my mind. There were only two things I kept thinking about: spending the rest of my life behind bars and my grandfather dying.

“I’m fine,” I finally said as my voice cracked. I took a few sips of water and rubbed my sweaty palms together. I looked around and saw my mother and father sitting together. A few seats behind them I saw Nico and Genesis sitting together. They all gave me warm smiles trying to reassure me that everything would be ok. Then my eyes darted to the other side of the courtroom and I saw Justina. When I thought my heart couldn’t be crushed any further, a painful knot in the pit of my stomach formed when I saw Amir sitting next to Justina. Our eyes locked for a few seconds and then I turned away as I didn’t want him to see the single tear that had escaped my eye. I tried to discreetly wipe it away but wiping away the tear couldn’t wipe away the pain.

“Please rise.” I heard the officer say when the judge presiding over my trial entered the courtroom. My legs felt so weak when I stood up I was afraid they would buckle up under me. I held on to the table to maintain my balance. The room seemed to be spinning and I was relieved when we were able to sit back down. My mind had zoned out. I was no longer in the building. Instead of listening to opening arguments I reflected on what my mother said to me yesterday when she visited me in jail. She promised me that I would beat this case and be able to finally come home. My mother seemed so sincere when she rubbed the side of my face, looked me in the eyes and told me that. I looked down at the taupe colored dress she brought for me to wear. With the bun and the conservative dress I resembled a young and innocent schoolteacher. But all of us knew it was going to take much more than a pure as the driven snow image to beat these charges, it would take a miracle.

I looked over at the jury that consisted of five women and seven men and the two alternates. When they were sworn in I wondered would these be the people that would give me back my freedom or have me locked up for the rest of my life. My attorney told me the trial shouldn’t last longer than a week, two weeks max but I knew it would be the longest week or two of my life.

“Your Honor, the first witness we’ll be calling is Justina Morgan.” When I heard the prosecutor say that it got my attention and snapped me out of my daydreaming. As scared as I was I needed to focus.

“I had no idea Justina was the first witness,” I whispered to my attorney.

“Clearly the prosecutor is trying to set the stage early.”

“What do you mean?”

“She wants to immediately imprint in the minds of the jurors that you are the killer. So either they believe they have a very strong case or a weak one.”

Fuck . . . Fuck . . . Fuck is all I kept screaming to myself. I watched in disgust as Justina’s pathetic ass strolled to the witness stand with her head slightly down like she was a victim. Her hair was blown out straight hanging slightly past her shoulders. She had that, I really don’t have that much makeup on look but in all actuality her face was beat to perfection in very natural tones. Her pink blouse and pencil skirt with heels gave off young but sophisticated. Justina must’ve had her mother dress her because the outfit had Chantal written all over it. Yeah, these heifers were no doubt out to fry me and came dressed for the occasion.

“Would you please state your name for the courtroom,” the prosecutor stated after Justina was sworn in. Damn, we done heard her name a few times we know who the fuck she is, I said to myself, trying not to let the repulsion I had for Justina show on my face. My attorney had already warned me not to wear my emotions on my face unless it’s one of innocence. The thing was, I knew I was innocent so every face I made still made that true but I guess jurors didn’t see it that way.

“Justina Morgan.”

“Justina how do you know the defendant?”

“We grew up together. We used to be best friends before I was shot.” I caught the jurors glance their eyes towards me and tried to sit up a little extra straighter. I felt those sweat beads about to accumulate again so I quickly took another sip of water. My attorney gently touched my hand letting me know it would be ok.

“Justina, can you walk us through the events that led up to the shooting on July 15th.”

“It all started when I caught Aaliyah trying to have sex with my boyfriend.”

“Objection, your Honor,” Mr. Anderson swiftly stood up and barked. Now I understood exactly why she was the prosecutor’s first witness. They wanted to assassinate my character before jurors even had a chance to hear the evidence. By the time we put on a defense in their mind I would already be guilty. I sat in horror for the next hour listening to Justina give her version of the play by play of that night. Most of what she said was completely one sided. She was the loyal sweet girlfriend who was backstabbed by her conniving best friend. The way she described what went down she almost had me not liking myself until I realized it was all lies.

“I have no further questions,” the prosecutor said, sitting back down. I let out a sigh of relief. I was tired of hearing Justina spew her lies so eloquently. I was now praying that my attorney could do some damage control but I wasn’t optimistic. The scary part was that Justina really was a victim, which didn’t help my cause. Somebody did put a bullet through her but the problem was it wasn’t me. But how did my attorney prove that Justina was lying without attacking her since she was a victim.

“Why were you in Sway Stone’s hotel room in the middle of the night?” that was the first question out of my attorney’s mouth. I was surprised but pleased he took that route. He completely bypassed that love triangle bullshit that Justina conveniently threw out there to make me look like shit.

“I already answered that question,” Justina responded in a sugary tone.

“Actually you didn’t. So can you explain that to me now.” When I thought about it, my attorney was right, the prosecutor never asked her and she never explained. They just conveniently jumped to the hotel room without explaining how she ended up there.

“Yeah, expose all her hoe shit,” I mumbled under my breath as I waited for Justina to give her explanation. Justina looked over at the prosecutor’s table as if she expected for her to object but instead she leaned forward with her glasses perched on the tip of her nose as if anxiously awaiting the answer too.

“He invited me there,” she answered clearing her throat.

“Mr. Stone invited you there for what reason?’ “He wanted to talk.”

“About?”

“He was interested in pursuing a relationship with me as he had grown tired of dealing with Aaliyah.”

“I see. So it was a romantic conversation?”

“Yes. Sway Stone was romantically interested in me.”

“Was the feeling mutual?”

“No I still wanted to work on my relationship with Amir.”

“But you were still at Mr. Stone’s hotel room in the middle of the night.”

“Objection Your Honor, this is argumentative,” the prosecutor barked.

“Strike that, I’ll move on to my next question, Your Honor. Justina, after Sway made his intentions known to you what happened next?”

“That’s when Aaliyah showed up. Sway asked her to leave because he told her he wanted to be with me and he was done with her. ”

“Didn’t Aaliyah show up because Mr. Stone left the room key at the front desk for her?”

“Yes, but that was only because he wanted to break things off with her, face to face.”

“And that’s what he did when she arrived?”

“Yes, as soon as she arrived they started arguing because he said he was done with her.”

“But you just testified that when Aaliyah got to the hotel the two of you were arguing about Amir, which one is it?”

“It’s both.”

“It can’t be both. It’s called a sequence to events. Did Aaliyah argue with you first or did she argue with Mr. Stone?’

“She argued with me first and then Sway,” Justina huffed.

“So after the two of you argued about Amir, that’s when Mr. Stone then told Aaliyah he wanted to be with you and not her?”

“Yes. She couldn’t take the fact that after she threw herself at Amir he didn’t want her and now Sway didn’t want her. They both wanted me.”

“Stop lying! You came to that hotel room and threw yourself at Sway and he still turned you down!” I yelled out as if I wasn’t in a courtroom full of people.

“Aaliyah, sit down,” Mr. Anderson directed me, coming towards the table.

“Justina, why don’t you tell the truth for once and stop lying! This is my life we’re talking about,” I continued, sick of this deceitful bitch playing with my livelihood.

“Control your client, or she will be escorted out of this courtroom, immediately,” the judge threatened as he banged his gavel up and down.

“Aaliyah, get a hold of yourself. Are you trying to spend the rest of your life in jail?” Mr. Anderson said in a low but furious voice. “I understand you’re upset but let me handle the witness. You need to sit there and just listen. Can you do that?”

“Yes,” I answered still ready to give Justina the riot act.

“Are you sure because if not then you need to leave. You’re no good for me if you can’t sit there quietly.”

“I’m sure.”

“Are you able to get your client under control because outburst like that won’t be tolerated in my courtroom.”

“Yes, Your Honor and we apologize. It will not happen again.”

“It better not or your client will be in even more trouble than she already is.” I caught the smirk on Justina’s face and I swear I had to call on the good Lord to give me strength. I turned around and I caught my mother mouth the words be strong to me. I turned back around and shook my head. There was a part of me that wanted to believe that maybe the injury Justina sustained had messed up her memory and she was confused and that’s why she was pointing the finger at me. But now it was clear, Justina was malicious and she was willing to tell whatever lie necessary to bring me down.

The only way I was able to sit through the rest of Justina’s testimony without flipping was to completely tune her out. I pretended to be somewhere else other than a courtroom at my trial.

This bitter hoe was gambling with my freedom and quite frankly she was winning. Is this my destiny to spend the rest of my life behind bars? My freedom gone and left with no hope, I thought as I put my head down wondering what would become of Aaliyah Mills Carter.

“This is some bullshit,”
I said to Supreme as we were leaving the courthouse. When we got outside we came up on Justina, Amir and her parents. My mind told me to keep walking but my mouth didn’t listen.

“This is the type of daughter the two of you raised? One that would lie and let an innocent girl spend the rest of her life in jail over a boy?” I spit, eyeing Amir.

“How dare you. You want to blame us because you raised a murderer. I think she takes after her parents, all three of you,” Chantal said, with a smug look on her face. I jumped at her ready to knock it right off.

“Precious, don’t do it,” Supreme belted holding me back.

“Yeah, I advise you to control your wife.”

“What the fuck you say to me?” Supreme stepped in front of me and got in T-Roc’s face. “You heard what I said, you need to check your wife.”

“My wife is good but if you don’t get your people under control you gon’ have to check yo’ entire family if you know what I mean.”

“Nigga, is you threatening my people?”

Supreme paused for a moment, nodded his head and responded calmly with a, “Yes.” Then all you saw were fist swinging. It happened so fast that I couldn’t even tell who threw the first punch.

“Stop!” Amir yelled out but that wasn’t stopping nothing. It wasn’t until Nico, Genesis and Lorenzo came running up that they were able to pull the two men apart.

“Motherfucker, don’t you ever threaten my family!” T-Roc roared, while trying to straighten up his suit.

“Nigga, that wasn’t a threat. You and yo’ people keep fuckin wit’ what’s mine, it’s a done deal. No threats . . . promises, nigga.” Supreme made clear.

“Are you okay?” Lorenzo came over and asked me in the midst of all the chaos.

“I’m fine. I just don’t know how much longer I can take my daughter being locked up.”

“Your daughter is where she belongs,” Chantal said walking up on us.

“Chantal, that’s enough. You need to go.”

“Lorenzo, why are you defending her? Her daughter killed a man and tried to murder Justina. Precious doesn’t deserve sympathy.”

“Why don’t you go over there and be with your husband because we’re having a private conversation that you’re interrupting.”

“Why don’t you take your own advice and go be with your husband.” I glanced over in Supreme’s direction quickly and saw he was still in a deep conversation with Genesis.

“Lorenzo, I’ma go but I’ll talk to you later.”

“Call me if you need me.”

“I will . . . thanks.” As I walked away I could hear Chantal still running off at the mouth to Lorenzo and I didn’t even know the two of them knew each other. But knowing Chantal they didn’t she just wanted everybody to be #teamjustina and against Aaliyah. She was probably over there trying to convince Lorenzo of just that.

“Precious, hold up a minute,” I heard Nico say before I reached Supreme.

“What’s up?”

“That girl we were looking for has finally resurfaced.”

“Are you serious?” my eyes widened in anticipation, wanting to believe all hope wasn’t lost.

“Yes. I just had a chance to check my voicemail and my investigator left me a message. He knows exactly where she is and I’m going to get her.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“I don’t know. If you tell Supreme he’s gonna want to come too and I think we need to keep the number count low.”

“I’ll handle Supreme. Just wait for me. Give me five minutes and we can go.” It worked out perfectly that Supreme and I arrived in separate cars so all I would have to do was come up with an excuse as to why I wasn’t going straight home.

“A’ight. I’ll be in my car. Call me when you’re ready.”

I couldn’t believe we finally found her again. While I was in the hospital Nico broke the news to me that the one person who could get Aaliyah out of jail had fell off the radar. It was like she vanished and nobody could find her anywhere. That shit had me depressed for the last few weeks. At the time I was relieved I didn’t tell Supreme about the possible lead because when it fell through I knew he would’ve found a way to blame me. Now that Nico was able to locate her again I wasn’t letting anything fuck it up.

“Hey, not to interrupt but I wanted to check on my husband.”

“We were just finishing up. I know this is tough for both of you but hang in there. Trust me you have all of our support.”

“I appreciate that, Genesis. I know this must be hard for you especially since T-Roc is a friend of yours.”

“I’ve known Aaliyah since she was a little girl and yes she is her mother’s daughter but I also know she is not a killer. I put that on my own life.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“It’s the truth. I don’t know what happened that night in the hotel room but what I do know Aaliyah didn’t pull the trigger. We’ll get to the truth. I just pray it will be in enough time to save Aaliyah,” Genesis said, before rubbing my shoulder and walking away.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine once our daughter is out of jail. Until then no I’m not okay.”

“I feel the same way but we’ll get through this and our daughter will come home.”

“I hear you,” he huffed. “Listen, I have a few things to take care of. I’ll see you at home later on.” Wow that was much easier than I expected. I didn’t even have to bother trying to come up with an excuse because Supreme was off doing his own thing anyway I thought as I headed towards my car.

When I reached my car the first thing I did was call Nico. A few minutes later he pulled his car up and I followed behind him anxious to get to the final destination. When we got on the Brooklyn Bridge I realized the girl was no longer staying in the City and wondered if she was hiding out. We eventually got on Flatbush Avenue until we reached Park Slope. We turned down a quiet tree lined street that seemed more appropriate for a suburban family trying to escape the big city instead of a girl who facilitated in helping someone commit murder.

I noticed Nico motioning me to park my car and I did so a few feet away from where he had found a parking space. Before getting out I reached for the 9mm I kept in a secret compartment for emergency purposes. Hopefully I wouldn’t need it but being prepared was always a must.

“Are you ready?” Nico asked as I stepped out the car.

“I’m good.”

“Glad to hear. But listen just to give you a heads up I got three of my men with me.”

“I can understand now why you didn’t want Supreme here.”

“Yeah, it would’ve been too much because I brought these men just in case we have to do some damage. I know for a fact the girl is in that apartment,” he said pointing to a spot three buildings down. “We’re getting to her by any means necessary so it might get ugly.”

“I have no problem with that but remember we need her alive.”

“True, but she doesn’t need to know that. Now you ready.”

“Following you.” When we got to the front door, Nico’s goons were already there with the front entrance open. I didn’t even ask how they got in. All I did was watch. Nico and I had been on these sorts of missions more than once but this time the stakes were much higher. We all got on the elevator and one of the guys pushed the seventh floor. Nico and I stood in the front while the three men were behind us with their arms to the side and fist clutched. Their muscles were bulging through their black ribbed shirts and their faces showed no emotions.

When the elevator doors opened Nico stepped to the side letting the goons know to lead the way. When we got to the apartment at the very end of the hall I was expecting one of them to knock on the door instead that two hundred and fifty pound nigga of pure muscles kicked that motherfucker open.

“Get the fuck down and put your hands on top of your head!” One of the goons barked, as all three men pulled out their guns simultaneously. They all had a gun in each hand. I noticed two women that looked to be in their early twenties and both screamed out in fear as the weapons were pointed at them. They were sitting on the couch with the television on and seemed to be eating. But they both dropped their plates and the open cans of soda spilled on the hardwood floors from the shock.

“Please don’t kill us,” one of the girls pleaded as they both jumped to the floor as they were directed to do.

“Danny, close the door and keep watch out front,” Nico ordered one of the goons. The other one did a search of the apartment while the other kept his guns aimed at the women.

“Its all clear,” the goon said after looking around the apartment.

“Which one of you is Jessica Vasquez?” Nico asked, bending down looking both women in their eyes.

“She is,” one of the girls said quickly.

“Is that true? Are you Jessica Vasquez?” Nico’s authoritative voice seemed to make the girl resistant to answer. But when that gun touched her temple she admitted the truth and then the tears began flowing.

“Please don’t kill me. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Can I please leave? I don’t have anything to do with this,” the other girl begged.

“Neither one of you are going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know. So we’re clear, if either of you lie, these men will kill you. Then we will find out who your family is and kill them too.” Nico warned without hesitation.

“Jessica, tell them whatever they want to know. I don’t want to die!”

“What do you want to know?” Jessica sniffled. “Who paid you off for helping them kill Sway Stone?”

“You helped somebody kill Sway Stone!”

Jessica’s friend shrieked. Jessica’s eyes became enlarged as if in disbelief that we were here about Sway.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jessica finally said, sounding totally unconvincing.

“This is my only warning to you and then I’m going to let these men start blasting . . . ”

“Oh gosh, please don’t kill me,” Jessica’s friend bawled interrupting Nico’s threat. “I have nothing to do with this. Jessica answer his question. I don’t want to die!”

“Like I was saying. This is your only warning. Tell the truth or my man here is going to put a bullet right there,” Nico said, tapping Jessica’s forehead. So the girl knew Nico wasn’t playing the goon took the tip of his gun and massaged the center of her forehead with it.

“Okay, I’ll tell you what I know but you have to promise you won’t kill us.”

“I’m not promising anything until you tell me what I want to know. This is not a negotiation.”

“Would you please tell him what he wants to know!” Jessica’s friend cried out.

“I didn’t know Sway Stone was going to die . . . I swear. All I was told was that I could make some quick money if I gave them the hotel room key. It wasn’t until after the shootings did I realize what I had done. By then it was too late. Then the money just kept coming in to keep me quiet. I knew I should’ve left New York for good,” Jessica said, shaking her head.

“I need a name. Who gave you the money?” Nico was growing impatient and so was I.

“Tell them!” Jessica’s friend chimed in as we all waited, eager to hear the name. And when Jessica finally said it, my mouth dropped. It made no sense to me. I was more confused than ever.