For The Love Of A Goon 2: A Miami Hood Love Tale (7 page)

C
armen awoke overly excited. She sprang up from her bed and ran to the bathroom. Today was going to be a great day! She was about to start packing her and her daughter’s things. Trent was renting a small moving truck to help her move their things. He had enough room for his entire family, so there was no reason for them to live in two different homes if they were going to stay together. She began to feel like she did years ago when they had first gotten together. The love she had for him had never died, and it seemed as if he was trying to find his way back.

Carmen smiled at herself as she pulled her party dresses down from the hangers in her closet. One by one, she folded them neatly and stacked them on top of each other. She then started with her jeans, and did the same with her blouses until everything hanging in her closet was folded. Carmen then walked down the hallway and lightly tapped on Kira’s bedroom door.

“Moe,” she called out. “You up?” she asked, tapping on the door again.

She entered to find Moe snuggled up tightly underneath the covers still snoring in a deep sleep. She quietly stepped into the room and began to collect her baby’s most sentimental things. She took all of her baby pictures off the walls and the big bold letters that spelled out Kira’s first name right above her bed. She then looked around the room and wondered where to go next.

Carmen started going through her daughter’s dresser drawers and packing her tiny little baby clothes. She almost wanted to burst into tears now that the moment she’d been waiting on had arrived, but she held them back. This was her time to be happy for a change. Trent had finally manned up and she was ready to start her life all over again. This time she hoped he wouldn’t change up on her.

“What you doing up so damn early?” The groggy Moenisha sat up and rubbed her eyes. The bright sun was shining through the blinds and she could still hear the birds chirping.

“Packing,” Carmen responded happily. She turned around and held up an old onesie that belonged to Kira. “Look at how little my stank stank was,” she said proudly. “Do you remember buying her this?” she asked Moe.

Moe giggled at the memory of buying her Goddaughter the onesie that said,
World’s
Greatest Auntie.
“Yeah, I remember,” she replied with a smile on her face.

Kira was only six pounds when she was born, and the onesie looked as if it was made for a baby doll instead of a human baby. “She was a tiny little thing, wasn’t she?”

“Sure was. I wonder what I’m having, and if I should save all this old stuff. You know,” she paused and folded the onesie, “in case it’s another girl.” She walked away from Moe and headed toward Kira’s closet.

She opened the door and stepped inside. Carmen flipped on the lights and started to bring all of her baby clothes and shoes out of the closet and lay them on the edge of her bed. Moe watched quietly until she had exited the closet with the last pair of shoes in her hands. She sat down on the carpeted floor and being to sort her baby’s thing out. She was so happy, she hummed the melody of her favorite love song as she danced in her spot on the floor.

“So we’re packing, huh?” Moe said. She slid her body to the end of the bed then placed her feet on the floor. “And just where are you going?” She pried for more information.

Carmen dropped her head as if she was ashamed to say anything else. “Kira and I are moving in with Trent,” she mumbled.

“Umm, speak up. I can’t hear you.” Moe had an idea what Carmen had said, but she wanted to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. Leaning in as close as she could get, she propped her elbows up on her knees and then propped her chin up on her fist. “I’ll wait.”

Carmen stopped what she was doing and turned to face Moe. “I said, Kira and I are moving in with Trent,” she said loudly.

“Ohh, so that’s why you going down memory lane and talking about you wonder what the sex of the baby will be. Let me guess, you’re keeping the baby?”

“Yes, I decided to keep it,” Carmen answered and turned her attention back to the pile of Kira’s things in front of her. She knew Moe would probably have something negative to say, but she was so damn happy, she didn’t care at all. This was her life, and she’d had enough of everyone trying to tell her how she should live it. Although she knew most of the time Moe was right, she wasn’t about to let her ruin her happy moment. “I think we’ll be just fine, Moe, honestly. And I was tripping for nothing. That baby wasn’t even his,” she said.

Moe took a short while to respond. This time she wanted to take the extra five minutes to think before she just blurted out whatever was on her mind. She didn’t want to hurt Carmen’s feelings again. “I think it’s a good idea that you’re keeping the baby, Carmen. Kira needs a playmate,” she said.

“And?” Carmen said after Moe stopped talking. “I know there’s more. Come on with it.” She stopped folding the clothes again and looked up at her.

“Nothing, C. I’m not going to say anything about you and Trent’s relationship.” She thought about the current drama her and Meek had going on and felt the need to let Trent slide this time. “I think it’s a beautiful thing, friend.” She smiled, bent over, and hugged Carmen tightly. “Besides, what can I say? I think my husband is addicted to coke. Can’t get no worse than that, huh?” She shrugged as one tear slid down her right cheek.

Carmen quickly hopped up and brushed the clothes from her lap to the floor. She threw her arms around Moe and held her closely while she let it all out on her shoulder. “I don’t’ know what to do. I don’t even know what to say to him,” she admitted.

She didn’t want to tell Carmen Meek’s personal business, but she need some advice. After all this time of being so strong for everyone around her, this time she needed someone to be strong for her.

“Calm down, Moe. I’m sure he’s not addicted. Did he say that?” Carmen was clueless as to where all this was coming from. The only thing she’d ever witnessed Meek do was smoke. She didn’t know the signs of being high off coke, so wouldn’t know if he was or not. “Have you asked him yet?”

Moenisha was too saddened by it all that she didn’t want to say any more than she already had. She slowly lifted her head from Carmen’s shoulder, wiped her eyes, then said, “I’ll be okay, C. I’m just having one of those days. You know what they say. It’s hard to see the sunshine through the rain.” She looked off toward the window to catch a glimpse of the bright morning sun then turned back around to face Carmen again. “Earlier this morning when I woke up, I had this feeling.” She stood and walked over to Kira’s dresser and retrieved her purse. Moe dug into the hand bag and pulled out a pregnancy test stick and handed it to Carmen.

Carmen’s other hand flew up over her mouth as it dropped wide open. “I drove to the twenty-four hour Wal-Mart in the middle of the night just to get that damn piss test.” She sat back down beside Carmen on the bed.

“Moe, why didn’t you wake me? I would’ve went with you.”

“I know you would’ve, and I started to, but you was knocked out. I’m talking ’bout you was getting some good damn sleep. Your leg was hanging off the side of the bed, you had a pillow propped underneath your head, and your mouth was wide open, slobbering like a motherfucker.” The girls both laughed at Moe’s statement. “But on some real shit tho, C, I’m scared as hell. I don’t know how to take care of no baby,” she said, admitting her fear of becoming a first time parent. “Then, what if Meek ends up doing the whole fifteen years? Carmen, that means my child will be fifteen years old before he or she even gets to meet their father.”

Her eyes clouded once more as she thought about going through the nine months of carrying a child, labor and delivery, then having to raise her child without Meek for the first fifteen years of the child’s life. “This shit just ain’t fair, C.” She shook her head from side to side as the tears returned to her eyes. “I don’t even know if I’m capable of taking care of another human being besides myself,” she sobbed.

“Don’t worry, Moe. You can do it. I know that you’ll make one hell of a mother. Just look how you look after everyone in the crew. You like the mama amongst us all. You always have great advice and come through anytime anyone is in need. Trust me, If I did it, you’ll be just fine.” She hugged her again then released her. Carmen got up, went into the bathroom, and retuned with a hand full of wadded up toilet paper. “Here, wipe your face and get that snot bubble you got hanging out of your nose.” Carmen giggled, making Moe laugh as well.

“Well, what’s next?” Moe said after a brief silence.

“Next, you get your ass up and put on some clothes. We’re going by mom’s house. I have to pick up Kira today. Then lunch on me, of course, and after that I figured we can stop by and see Ro. What do you think?” she asked.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Moe replied.

She got up off of the bed and stretched her limbs then walked over to the window and stared out on the beautiful morning sky. Her attention was turned to the entrance of the apartment building as she spotted Meek’s truck fly up in the parking lot. She watched as he backed his truck into a parking space, got out, and opened his back door. Meek grabbed his backpack, threw the strap over his shoulder then reached back inside.

When he pulled the bouquet of red roses and the pink teddy bear from the back seat she began to smile as he closed his door and headed for the stairs. Moe hurriedly swooped up the pregnancy test and ducked it off in the dresser drawer. She wasn’t ready to tell him just yet. She sat on the bed and pretended to be flipping through the channels on the TV when he walked in. Moe’s eyes never left the TV screen, nor did she acknowledge the fact that he had entered the bedroom.

Meek walked right over to her and stood in front of the TV, blocking her view. Moe dropped her head and stared at the floor, avoiding eye contact.

“Look at me, woman,” he demanded. She cut her eyes up at him. “Moe, I’m sorry. I don’t want to start our marriage off like this. Yeah, I lied to you, baby, but it was only to protect you.”

“Protect me from what, Meek?” she spat at him.

“From this.” He pointed at her. “You sitting up here mad and hurt and shit. I don’t like to see you like this, baby,” he replied.

“Well, you should’ve thought about that when you were stuffing coke up your damn nose.” She looked him straight in his eyes as she rose from the edge of the bed. “Are you addicted?” she asked.

“Come on now, bae. I know I fucked up, but I ain’t addicted to that shit. I just thought the shit would help me get through what I was going through yesterday. You don’t know what it’s like losing your best friend. I tried to kill the pain I was feeling, but I went about it the wrong way.” He set the roses and teddy bear beside her on the bed and got down on his knees in front of her. “Please forgive me. I give you my word it will never happen again.”

O
ver the next couple of days, Carmen and Moe packed all of her and Kira’s things and moved them to Trent’s house themselves while he and Meek were out getting to the money. Her new place was much nicer than her apartment, and she couldn’t wait to make it their home. Carmen walked through the home, throwing away things she felt Trent no longer needed now that she was there, and putting things up and out of the reach of their daughter. She had fixed Kira’s new bedroom up beautifully with pink princess stickers and fairies all over the walls.

She adored her baby girl from afar as she watched her crawl around on the floor. It just warmed her heart to see her playing with her toys and smiling to herself. Kira and the baby she was carrying were all the reason she needed to not give up on Trent and her family. Just when it seemed like she was out of the door for good, he had reeled her back in.

Her mind flipped to the strange letter that she’d found underneath the door, as if someone had purposely slid it there. She had opened it up and all it said was,
one down
. Carmen quickly dismissed the letter, thinking it could’ve been some kind of code for something he and Meek were into. She tossed the letter in the trash and hadn’t even thought twice about it until now. She ran into the kitchen and rambled through the overstuffed trash can.

Carmen flipped it over, spilling everything to the tiled kitchen floor. She dropped to her knees and slid her hands through the mess on the floor until she uncovered the mystery letter from earlier. She read it for the second time then put it all together in her head. The letter was found right after her and Kira had come back in from the grocery store. So whoever had put it there had to know that no one was home at that time. She quickly began to panic, thinking whoever it was had probably watched her and her daughter leave that morning. And might’ve been sitting outside their home somewhere watching them right now.

“One down? One down?” She repeated the two words to herself as she paced back and forth on the kitchen floor with the letter gripped tightly in her hands.

Carmen took off running down the hallway to their bedroom and unlocked Trent’s cedar chest. She scanned the weapons he had inside and pulled out the smallest gun she could find. She checked the rounds in the .38 revolver to make sure all six bullets were loaded into the gun. She then tucked it into the waistband of her jeans and ran back to the living room and scooped Kira up from the floor. She snatched her baby bag from the sofa and then her car keys.

Carmen peeped out the front door, and when she didn’t see anyone, she quickly jammed her key inside, locked the front door, and hauled ass to her car. She wasn’t sure what or who she was running from, but she knew she couldn’t sit around and wait on whoever it is to come back and get her.

After Kira was strapped tightly in her car seat, she climbed in the driver’s seat and took off, speeding out of the driveway and out of the residential neighborhood. She had no clue where the hell she was going, then it set in. She turned her car around and headed in the opposite direction. Carmen’s parents lived an hour and a half away from her, and that was far enough for her to hide. She took one hand off the steering wheel for just a quick second and grabbed her cell phone.

“Damnit!” She huffed when Trent’s phone went to voice mail.

Kira hadn’t seen him since they woke up in bed together earlier that morning. She only left the house to take Moe the spare key to the apartment and to go by the store for food. She couldn’t have been away for more than an hour before she returned home. Carmen then called Moenisha. She pushed the small Honda Civic through the four lanes of traffic with one hand while holding her cell phone up to her ear with the other.

“Moe, I think somebody’s watching me,” she said when Moe picked up.

“What?” Moe replied, jumping up from her spot on the sofa in front of the TV.

She snatched up her pistol from the coffee table and ran over to the window of the apartment. “Is they following you now?” she asked, thinking back on the blue Nissan that had tailed her a few weeks ago.

“I don’t think no one is following me. I said I think someone has been watching me. Or Trent, I’m not sure who they’re after.”

“What’s going on, C?” Moe asked.

“When I left you at the apartment this morning, I came home. When I opened the front door, there was a letter folded on the floor as if someone had slid it underneath the door.”

“A letter?” Moe questioned as she remembered the blood stained letter Nino had with him the night his girlfriend was murdered. “Carmen, what did the letter say?”

“All it said was one down,” Carmen replied.

“One down? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Moe wracked her brain trying to figure out the meaning of the weird letter Carmen had received. “Oh my God. Where’s Trent? Have you talked to him?” Moe asked, assuming the letter meant that he had killed one and was coming back to kill Carmen.

“No, not since he left this morning. I tried to call him but I keep getting his voicemail. Why Moe? You don’t think…” She couldn’t even bring herself to complete her statement.

“Hell no, we ain’t even gon’ claim no shit like that. We all we got left. Just us four. We ain’t losing nobody else.” Moe was in the process of hopping into her jeans as she talked to Carmen on the phone. She strapped up her tennis shoes and grabbed the keys to her car. “Where are you?” she asked. “You have to get out of that house, C.”

“We’re on our way to my parents’ house.”

“Cool, I’ll meet you over there.” Moe hung up and finished getting dressed.

Before leaving, she rambled through the bag of stuff Nino had left behind, and found the handwritten letter. She folded it up and shoved it into her purse. It was still early in the day, so Moe put on a pair of shades and headed for her door with her pistol in hand. Moe carefully looked all around her from the top of the stairs before she made her way down to her car. She hit the unlock button on her keypad and hopped inside.

Moe locked her doors, laid her gun in her lap and started up her car. She was nervous as hell as her right foot shook on the gas pedal. Knowing Carmen, if anyone was following her, she’d probably panic and wouldn’t know what to do. As far as Moenisha was concerned, not only Carmen, but Kira’s life was in danger as well. Moe flew down the expressway with nothing but ill thoughts flowing through her mind. She fumbled for her phone and nearly side swiped a car in the other lane. She scared the hell out of herself after she’d almost caused a major accident on the freeway.

“Shit!” she yelled and tossed the cell phone in the passenger seat and focused back on the road.

She wanted to call Meek to check on him and Trent, and didn’t want to wait the hour it would take her to get to Carmen’s parents’ house.

Moenisha finally arrived an hour later. She pulled her car on the side of the beautiful freshly cut lawn. The driveway was packed with Carmen’s parent’s cars, and her Honda Civic. Moe reached down and grabbed her pistol from the floor board. It had fallen from her lap when her car swerved on the freeway. She slipped it into her purse, got out, and ran up to the door. Moe knocked twice then waited impatiently until someone appeared on the other side of the clear screen door.

“Hello, Moenisha. It’s so good to see you again.” Carmen’s mother opened the screen door and hugged Moe before welcoming her inside. “Carmen is in her bedroom,” she said, referring to the room she had grown up in as a child.

Moe nodded her head then made her way through the big home. She walked down the hallway, and when she opened Carmen’s old bedroom door, the memories of their high school days came flashing back. Everything in the room was exactly the same. From the posters hanging on the walls, to the ton of cheerleader trophies and awards piled high on the shelf in the corner. Carmen was rocking Kira to sleep on the bed. Moe quietly closed the bedroom door, tip-toed over to the bed, and gently took a seat on the bed beside them.

“Y’all okay?” Moe whispered while looking into her eyes.

“Yeah, we good, Moe. At least for right now,” Carmen stated, unsure of what the near future would hold for her and her daughter. She continued to softly rub Kira’s back while rocking her in her lap. “Is her eyes closed?” She asked Moe for confirmation that her baby had fallen asleep.

“They were closed when I walked in,” Moe replied easing up from the bed to give her room to lay Kira down. They both walked out of the room and left the door cracked.

“Mom!” Carmen yelled through the house once she got into the living room. “I’m going to step outside for just a minute. Kira’s in the bedroom taking a nap.”

They exited through the back door and sat down on the huge patio. Carmen took the folded up sheet of paper out of her pocket. “Check that crazy shit out.” She passed it to Moenisha. “I been driving myself crazy trying to figure out what the hell that shit means.”

Moe opened her purse to retrieve the blood stained letter Nino had received. She then unfolded it and held both sheets of paper side by side. The paper had been ripped out of the same note pad and the messy hand writing was identical. Moe handed them both to Carmen.

“Where’d you get this from?” Carmen asked, taking both letters in her hand.

She opened the blood stained one and read what it said. She then turned and looked at Moe strangely.

“That’s the letter Nino found at his place the night his girlfriend was killed. The handwriting is the same,” she said.

Carmen’s mouth dropped wide open and her heart began to pound heavily inside her chest.

“Carmen, I think the letter means that he has already done something to someone and is coming back for more. Did you ever get in touch with Trent?”

“Yes, he and Meek are fine.”

“Okay, well, what could it be? We gotta find out what’s really going on.”