RedBone (24 page)

His heart skipped, thinking his brother might be dead. “What’s up?”

“Son, it ain’t good.”

Slade frowned and drove slower. “You got word on Knox?”

“It ain’t about my boy.” Slade exhaled in relief. “They found your cousin Devon’s body roped to a car. He was dragged a few miles out on a dirt road before they finally killed him. We barely recognized him, Slade, ’cause his face had been rubbed off on the gravel. No nose or lips. Your aunt Betsy is beside herself. These mothafuckas done took shit to the next level.”

Slade swallowed the hurt and held it in his gut. He needed to be strong for his family. “How you doing, Ma? I mean, how you really holding up?”

“I’m Della Baker. I guess I gotta be all right, don’t I? My sons are still alive and they need me to keep it together. I don’t want y’all worrying about me. Just find Knox and your brothers. I’m counting on you, son.” He could hear that her voice was different and knew she’d been crying. “Let me go see about my sister. I’ll talk to you later.”

Slade ended the call and drove in silence, while Audio waited for the word. “What happened?” Audio asked. “Big bro, what’s wrong? Ma okay?”

“Somebody killed Devon.”

Audio dropped his head, looked back at Slade, and said, “Now what?”

Chapter 19

“You mad at me over a stupid-ass game?”

—Farah

The bass from the loud music playing in the living room rattled the bathroom door. Farah sat on the toilet with her legs cocked opened as Coconut licked her pussy clean, on her knees. They were drunk and horny and this was the only time they played the licky-licky game. “I’m about to cum,” Farah said, grabbing her head. “Keep flicking that tongue.” She was overwhelmed by the sensation that Coconut’s long, hard, warm tongue was putting on her clit.

Coconut removed her wet lips from her pussy and said, “Shh... .” She looked at the closed bathroom door. “I don’t want nobody to come in here.”

“The door locked. Stop worrying about it,” Farah whispered. “Now keep doing it.” She continued to eat her out until Farah felt her body tingle all over. Her legs tensed up and she came in her mouth. Since she was on the toilet, her body automatically released a drop of urine and Coconut frowned.

“Ugh,” she said, wiping her mouth. “I hate when you do that shit.” She stood up, wobbled to the sink, and washed her face. Then she grabbed Lesa’s toothbrush, instead of Farah’s, and scrubbed her teeth. “You gotta tell me if you gonna pee before you do it.”

Farah spun the toilet roll around and grabbed a few pieces to wipe her pussy. “When I did you and you pissed in my mouth, I ain’t say all that shit. Let’s hurry up and go back to the party before people come looking for us.”

Knock. Knock. Knock. The rapping on the door caused both girls to quiver in shame. “What y’all doing in there? Rhonda asked on the other side of the door. “It don’t take all that time to put on no makeup. Mothafuckas gotta use the bathroom.”

Farah and Coconut weren’t acting like themselves, because of the liquor in their blood. Randy had been stressing Farah out so much about the marriage that all she wanted to do was have a little fun. “We coming out now, Rhonda.”

“Well, hurry up. You got a whole rack of niggas we don’t know in your house. Some of them fine as shit, too.” She screamed, as the music suddenly grew louder, “And if somebody steal something in this bitch I don’t wanna hear your mouth.”

Since they were being freaky, they cleaned up and walked out of the bathroom. On the way out, Farah could hear her dogs barking in the guest bedroom so she played with them for a few minutes to put space between her and Coconut. At first the dogs were getting on her nerves but now she loved them a lot because they were always happy to see her. After entertaining her dogs, she joined the party and was immediately overwhelmed by so many people. Most of them were friends of Coconut, Rhonda, and Lesa. They were celebrating everything from Farah’s new roommate, who was a hit with her friends, to Knight asking Rhonda to be his wife. When she saw everyone, she couldn’t believe how many people were in her house. She and Coconut was fucking around so long in the bathroom that she didn’t monitor who was coming in or out. The smell of weed and the scent of an apple pie baking in the oven were dominant.

When Lesa saw Farah through the crowd she waved from the sofa. She looked real cute in her tight blue jeans and smooth ponytail. She was sitting next to Diamond D from Southwest DC, who was known for robbing niggas, and she was sure he knew Randy. She wanted to keep the apartment a secret from him but by having the party, she was going about it in the worst way. When Mia walked in Farah felt better, because at least someone was there who had her back.

“Hey, Farah ... where you been?” Lesa yelled over the music. “I been looking for you all night.”

“Me and Coconut was in the bathroom putting on makeup.” She smiled weakly. “I didn’t know you knew Diamond D.” She pointed at him. “You gotta watch that nigga.”

“Yeah ... we go way back. He cool though,” she said. “I’m surprised Rhonda knew him ... She the one who invited him over. Anyway, you got any tampons? I came on my period.”

“Yeah ... they under the sink in my bathroom.”

“Cool.” She turned around to Diamond D and said, “I’ll be right back.” He raised his beer and bopped his head to the music.

“Farah, come over here right quick!” Coconut yelled. She was in the middle of a crowd and had a drink in her hand. “We ’bout to play smack down.” People were already preparing for the show so whether Farah wanted to or not, she couldn’t back down. Normally Coconut was good at this game, but since she was drunk, Farah couldn’t be sure. The object was simple: you had to smack your opponent as hard as you could until someone raised their hand and gave up.

“You know you don’t need to be playing that shit, Coconut,” Rhonda said. “Your ass twisted.” She pulled her arm. “Come on over here and sit by me.”

She shook her off. “I got this.” She pushed her drink into Rhonda’s hand. “Come on Farah ... you first.” The crowd around them grew tighter.

Without waiting, Farah smacked her so hard her neck snapped to the left.

“Damn!” Diamond D said. “She nailed that shit.”

While the game was in session, somebody knocked on the door and Mia opened it. Farah couldn’t see who it was because the house was so jam-packed. In every available place there was a body. When Coconut refocused after her smack, she hit Farah with all she could. Farah laughed and said, “You gotta do better than that shit.” Then she smacked her back and she stumbled backward. She was now enjoying the game.

“That’s enough!” Rhonda said, looking at Farah. “The girl can hardly stand up.”

“Well, she needs to raise her hand if she wants it to stop. She know the rules.” Mia refereed from the sidelines. “You want her to stop, Coconut?” Coconut looked at Farah and stepped to her. They’d played this game many times before, yet at the moment she couldn’t hold her own. As hard as she could she hit Farah again, but it was weak. Farah slapped her again and the right side of her mouth bled.

“This too much for me to watch,”Lesa said, grabbing Diamond D’s hand and taking him back to her room.

The party was supposed to show Coconut what she was missing out on by not moving in with her and now it had turned into something else. Coconut, feeling slightly unbalanced, got her bearings and smacked Farah back, but her face didn’t move one inch. “Farah handling that shit! someone said.

Mia laughed and yelled, “Make this one count, RedBone! It’s your turn.”

When Farah looked at Coconut, she saw that she was pleading with her eyes to stop. Farah looked around and saw all of the people waiting for the show to continue. She didn’t want to look like a punk, so using all of the force she could manage she smacked Coconut so hard that she stumbled to the floor. “Damn!” people yelled.

“You handled that bitch!” another said.

“You give up?” Farah asked, looking down at her. Coconut looked up and slowly raised her hand. She’d given up and everybody went wild.

An hour later, when people were dancing and getting high, Farah was in the kitchen making sandwiches. When she looked toward her sofa, she was confused at why everybody seemed to be consoling Coconut, as if she hadn’t initiated the game. Rhonda was rubbing her back and Lesa was sitting on the other side, talking to her and stroking her leg. Farah didn’t even know she had come back to the party after fucking Diamond D on her period. They were giving her unnecessary attention and she wanted it to stop. This was her party and her house yet the feeling of being an outsider, as a kid, was looming in the air. She needed her medicine.
That bitch started it with me first. I was minding my own business when she asked me to play that stupid-ass game. Now they trying to turn my roommate against me, too.

“Lesa, you mind getting some ice?” Farah said loudly, trying to break up the group. “We ran out and I’m making sandwiches for everybody.”

“I ain’t got no gas!” Lesa yelled, trying to be heard over the music. “I’m broke.”

“We got an ice machine on every floor in this building. Ours is on the other end of the hallway.”

Lesa said something else to Rhonda before walking into the kitchen. She seemed angry.

“You mad at me over a stupid-ass game? Because I didn’t even wanna play, and Coconut been playing that shit since we were kids.”

Lesa grabbed a bowl for the ice and said, “No ... but you know that girl was drunk, and you should not have hit her that hard. She supposed to be your friend.”

“I was drinking too. So what, I’m supposed to go apologize? What about my sympathy credits?”

“What?” she asked. “Never mind. It’s whatever you want, Farah. If that was my friend I would never have treated her that way.” Lesa took the bucket and walked toward the door. A few dudes in the party tried to get her attention on the way out but she ignored them all.

Farah thought about what she said because she didn’t want them angry with her and now her mind was all over the place. She needed a smoke and decided to get her secret stash from her closet to roll a jay. Going to her room and into the closet, she was caught off guard when someone walked in, turned off the light, and pushed her into the closet. Her forehead slammed into the back of the wall. She fell on top of the shoes on the floor when he grabbed her and turned her around. She just knew it was Randy. “Get the fuck off of me!” she screamed, trying to be heard over the music. He didn’t seem fazed as he managed to pull her pants down.

Farah was fighting hard until he stole her in the face and bent her over. Her panties were down and she could smell the funk of his feet rising from his wet Timberland boots. His penis was out and he was about to ram it inside of her when the lights came on. Mia opened the closet door and pulled him off of her sister, by way of a chokehold, as if she were a grown-ass man. Enraged, Mia kicked and hit him all over his body.

Farah crawled out of the closet to join her sister in the beat down. It wasn’t until he turned over, and she looked at his bloodstained shoe, that she realized who he was: Kirk, the man who was about to hit her the day she knocked on his door for sugar. “You dirty mothafucka! What the fuck you doing in my house?”

Lesa went to the ice machine on their floor but it was out of order. Deciding to go to another machine, she took the stairs when the elevator wouldn’t open. When she made it to the fourth floor, someone was at that one too so she took the stairwell to the fifteenth floor. Filling her bucket with ice, she walked to the elevator, hit the button, and waited. But five minutes later, it still hadn’t come. “I hate fucking elevators,” she said to herself. “You can never use them when you need them!”

She went into the stairwell and walked down the steps toward her floor. All of a sudden, she heard someone above her say, “There Farah go, right there! Get that bitch before she get away.”

When she looked up, she saw two men moving speedily in her direction. Her heart kicked into overdrive and she felt adrenaline course through her body. She dropped the bowl filled with ice on the floor when a bullet smashed into the wall next to her head. They were shooting at her and she was so scared she was weak. “What did I do?” she cried. “Leave me alone!”

One of the men slid on the ice she dropped and she hoped it would buy her some time. Her hopes were in vain when, seconds later, she could hear two sets of footsteps moving toward her again. It seemed like it took forever to reach the 13th floor and to make matters worse, she fell and injured her elbow. One of the men grabbed her leg but she was able to kick him off, forcing him backward into his partner.

Both of them rolled down a few steps and she got up and ran again. Finally she was able to gain space and made it to her floor in one piece. Yanking the door open, she sprinted through the hallway, screaming at the top of her lungs. She could see the door to her apartment at the far end of the hallway and prayed she’d reach it before they got a hold of her. When she turned around she was disappointed to see the men were hot on her trail. She didn’t know what they wanted, but they clearly had the wrong person.

“Help me!” she screamed. “They trying to kill me!”

When the elevator opened and two cops got off and walked into the hallway, she fell to the floor, unable to believe her good fortune. But the men ran back through the stairwell and out of sight before the officers could see or apprehend them. They were actually responding to a rape call from Farah’s apartment. The officers rushed to her aid and she sobbed heavily in their arms.

Chapter 20

“I spent most of my childhood in bed ... All I wanna do is have fun with my friends.”

—Farah

Farah was on her way to the gym with Lesa, who was driving. After what Kirk did to her, she was thinking heavily about life, and wanted to talk to her grandmother. “Grandma,” she said from her cell, “remember when you were talking to me about keeping my heart in check, when I was a kid? What did you mean by that?”