Cheaper to Keep Her (part 1) (22 page)

“
Who is this!” I screamed, my voice cracking.

The next thing I heard gave me a sharp stabbing pain in my chest.

“
Lynise! Please do what they say! Help me! Don’t let me die!” I heard Diamond boom through the phone in a bloodcurdling scream.

I cupped my hand over my mouth. She sounded as if she was in a lot of pain.

“
Was that enough of a warning for you? If not, we can continue to send you those types of calls,” the mechanical voice told me.

My legs got weak and I fell to my knees in the middle of the living room floor. I cried and couldn’t even speak. I had put Diamond in harm’s way. This was definitely all my fault. Duke was going to kill her now.

How could I have been so stupid and so selfish?

“
What do you want from me,” I managed to say through my tears. At this point, I felt like I’d truly do anything to get my friend back. No amount of money was worth her life.

“
You will be contacted again with instructions. If you fail to do everything we say, or if you try to go to the police, your friend will die and you will be next,” the computer-generated voice threatened.

The tears fell from my eyes even harder.

Once again, I had been bested by Duke Carrington.

At least for now.

Cheaper to Keep Her Unique

Chapter 28—A Diamond Is Forever

After the call I had a pounding headache.

Understandably I felt like shit. I had let my best friend down. I could only hope and pray Duke didn’t kill her. Of course that was a stupid thought on my part. All the shit he had done and I was blind to how ruthless Duke Carrington really was. I loved a relentless, ruthless fool who was more criminal than businessman. And now, that fact finally hit me and didn’t escape me. He had the acumen of a crude businessman coupled with the undying coldness of a ruthless criminal. A deadly damn combination.

I was truly lost for a solution. Waiting was all I could do and it was absolutely killing me inside. I had been up almost twenty-four hours waiting to hear back from Duke and his little goons that had kidnapped Diamond. I had cried until I was literally out of tears. I had also tried to call Diamond’s phone back several times but it was going straight to voicemail, which left me with an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I figured maybe reasoning with Duke was what I needed to do. If he had agreed to just let Diamond go, I would give him his shit back and call it fair. That was a big fucking pipe dream. I knew Duke didn’t want to hear anything from me at this point.

I had fucked up. I couldn’t let sleeping dogs die . . . now my best friend was going to die for my selfishness and pride.

As I waited to hear back from them, Brian showed up at the apartment. He came in with a key and scared the shit out of me. He didn’t speak because that’s just how things were between him and me. He headed straight for Diamond’s room.

“
She’s not in there,” I called out to him. I had no choice but to put my differences aside and speak to Brian. I busted out crying. Brian came back in the living room and looked at me strangely.

“
What’s up?” he asked, his face in a scowl.

Inside, I was scared as shit. As much as I despise this man, he was the love of Diamond’s life and I was the reason they may not ever be together again. But I had to woman up.

“
Somebody got Diamond!” I blurted out. It felt real good to tell somebody about what was going on. I needed to get it off my chest. I was very happy to see Brian for the first time since we’d met.

“
What the fuck you mean somebody got Diamond?” he asked with much attitude. He disliked me just as much I did him. I swallowed hard when he yelled at me.

“
Me and Diamond was gonna . . . well . . . I was gonna,” I tried to get the words out but they were stuck. I couldn’t speak or look at Brian. He grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me hard. That made me cry even harder.

“
What the fuck is you trying to say Lynise? What the fuck you talking ’bout right now?” he urged, shaking my shoulders frantically. I was crying so hard I was hyperventilating. Brian pushed me down on the couch so I could try to calm down.

“
Yo, I’m fucking listening!” he growled, standing over me as he waited for an answer.

I inhaled deeply and steadied my voice. “They took Diamond because . . . because . . . I was going to blackmail my ex. He killed this girl and I have proof, so me and Diamond was gonna pick up some money tonight and I was gonna give Diamond some of it. But I told her not to stay here by herself last night. I just don’t know what happened! I don’t know how they got her! I’m sorry!” I was rambling like a fool and I knew Brian couldn’t make heads nor tails about what I was talking about.

Between my tears, I told Brian more about what was going on. Afterwards, I cried some more. The tears wouldn’t stop.

“
Yo, who is it? I will murder a nigga right now!” Brian gritted, moving around the room as if he could kill somebody right then and there.

“
No! You can’t go after them or go to the cops or they said they will kill her!” I pleaded frantically.

“
How they gon’ know? I’m saying they got my girl, what the fuck I’m supposed to do, just sit around here and do shit,” he huffed.

I was shaking my head left to right. I had to make Brian understand just how serious this was. He couldn’t play tough guy in this situation.

“
I have to wait until they call me and tell me what to do next. I’m sure they want the pictures and the paperwork back. I think once I give it back they will let Diamond go. Fuck the money.” Honestly, I didn’t know if they even wanted the pictures back or if they were just going to kill Diamond to teach me a lesson.

“
You really think it’s gon’ be that easy? If they real niggas, they ain’t just gon’ let her go like that!” Brian screamed on me. “I’ma call her phone,” he said defiantly.

“
No, please Brian! Give them a chance to call me because if they think I told you they might hurt her,” I begged him.

I could see him thinking. That was a good thing.

“
Fuck!” Brian screamed, throwing his own cell phone against the wall. That was exactly how I felt as well. Brian and I sat in silence for the next two hours. He would get up, peep out the window and come back and sit down again. I was so tired my insides hurt, but I refused to go to sleep for fear that I’d miss their call or Brian would call and make things worse.

I got up to use the bathroom and that was when I noticed something sticking under the door. I walked over, picked it up and examined it. It was a manila envelope. The handwriting was horrible but readable:

A DIAMOND IS FOREVER.

I clutched it tightly. Somebody had come right to the fucking apartment door, which caused a chill to shoot down my spine. “Brian,” I said quietly, barely audible. I waved the envelope in my trembling hands.

He rushed over to me and snatched the envelope from me. I pointed to the door to alert him where it had come from. Brian pulled a pistol out of his waistband and rushed to the door. He snatched it open and peeped outside. Then he stepped out and whirled around with his gun in his hands.

“
Fucking cowards!” he hollered and came back into the apartment. He ripped open the envelope and slid out the contents.

“
Awww!” Brian cried out when he examined the contents. I put my hands over my mouth and the tears flowed in buckets once again. I could see it was pictures in Brian’s hand. I could tell by his face it wasn’t good. I snatched the pictures and looked at them. No lie, I swear I felt my heart seize. A tight feeling came over my entire body and I imagined that’s what people who had heart attacks felt like.

“
Aggghhhh!” I screamed, dropping the pictures onto the floor as if they had burned me or something. I looked down at them again through tear-filled eyes. Diamond was naked and tied to a chair. Her face was completely covered with blood and I could tell her hair had been haphazardly cut. One of the pictures was a close up of the blood on her face and the cuts and bruises on her body. It looked as if they had been beating her for days, instead of hours. I knew I had to act fast. From the looks of it, there was no way Diamond could withstand much more of what they had already done to her.

“
Ohhhh, Diamond!” I cried out. “I’m so sorry I got you into this.”

Before I could say another word, my cell phone rang. It was Diamond’s cell. I showed the screen to Brian and told him to be quiet by putting my finger up against my lips.

“
Hello?” I gulped, swallowing back tears and snot.

“
I guess you and your company know we’re serious now, huh?” the computer-generated voice stated.

“
Please! Take me. She has nothing to do with this,” I pleaded.

“
It’s too late to think about that now. You have twenty minutes to get to the women’s homeless shelter. I’m sure you know which one, since you seem to know a lot. You need to be alone. There will be two pregnant girls in the front. They have something for you. Pick it up and wait for further instructions.” The line went dead.

I looked at Brian, my eyes filled with tears. I didn’t even think about the fact they knew he was there.

I was fully focused on following their instructions to get Diamond out of this.

Cheaper to Keep Her Unique

Chapter 29—If I Should Die

I practically argued with Brian convincing him he couldn’t go to the woman’s homeless shelter. He didn’t want to listen to reason. He was ready to go wherever with guns blazing.

“
Do you want her to die without even letting me try to get her released?” I screamed at him.

Finally, after about ten minutes of arguing I was able to get through to his stubborn ass. I was confident if they saw him with me they would do something even crazier to Diamond. Brian told me I could use his car to go to the shelter. He told he was going to have one of his boys pick him up and he would meet me back at the apartment later. All the time I spent hating him, I was now happy to have his ass around. Brian was like a man apart when he found out about what was going on with Diamond.

Maybe he did actually love her.

I took his keys and we left the apartment together. He walked me to his car and told me to call him as soon I could.

“
Brian, if I should d-d-d-die,” I paused. Just the thought sent chills through my body. “What they want is in my room. It’s hidden real good. You’ll find it eventually if you look.”

He nodded and I got into his car. I began backing out of the parking spot and left Brian standing on the curb waiting for his friend to pick him up. I looked down at the stick shift to put the car into drive when suddenly I heard a BOOM BOOM! Two loud cannon sounding shots explored in the parking lot. I jumped fiercely.

I grew up in the hook. I knew the sound of guns. This was the real deal. These shots sounded close. My eyes went as wide as marbles when I saw Brian’s body shrink to the ground. He was laid out in front of his car on the concrete.

“
Oh my God!” I screamed. I started shaking all over again. Barely able to catch my breath, I wheeled the car around and the tires started screeching. I was trying to get the fuck out of there. I sped out of the parking lot like a mad woman and as I eased onto the highway my phone started ringing again. I was scared as hell to answer it. But I was also scared of what might happen if I didn’t answer it. I reached down and picked it up, keeping my other hand on the steering wheel.

“
You just had an innocent person killed,” the same computerized voice said. “Matter of fact, you were the one to kill him. Now I guess you will listen to the instructions you are given.”

I just sobbed into the phone. I couldn’t speak. I was damaged. I was a bitch. I was a complete fuck up. If I could rewind back to the day I met Duke, I would just walk away and don’t fall for the hokey doke
.
It was the same hokey doke that had gotten my best friend’s beaten and possibly killed and her boyfriend shot.

I had gotten myself and Diamond into this shit. It was up to me to get us out of this shit.

I drove like a bat out of hell to the shelter as I was instructed to do. When I got there, I saw the two pregnant girls the voice said would be there standing outside. Then the phone rang again. I answered right away.

“
Put them both in the car and drive them around the block two times and then bring them back,” the irritating computer-generated voice commanded me. “No matter what you have to do to get them in the car, you better do it. Diamond’s life depends on it.”

Even though the voice was disguised, it still came across as pure evil. What the fuck kind of crazy demands is this bastard giving me now! I thought to myself. I put the car in park and got out. I walked up to the girls and told them they needed to come with me. One girl handed me an envelope and looked as if she was scared to death because when she extended her hand with the envelope it was very unsteady from shaking so badly.