Cheaper to Keep Her Part 3 (7 page)

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Authors: Kiki Swinson

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #United States, #African American, #Urban, #Women's Fiction, #Genre Fiction

BOOK: Cheaper to Keep Her Part 3
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I let out a long sigh. “I don’t know Sean. Something just ain’t right.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just remember that I got the same call earlier. But whoever it was didn’t say anything. I said hello about two or three times and they didn’t say anything. So I hung up.”

“It’s probably just someone pranking you.”

“I hope so,” I said and then I tried to block the whole incident out of my head, so I could enjoy the rest of my date.

As the night ended and Sean and I stood in the parking lot of the restaurant near our cars, Bishop made it his business to get me on the line. I answered his call while Sean stood next to me. “Hello,” I answered.

“Where the hell you at?” he didn’t hesitate to ask.
“I ran out to get myself something to eat. But I’ll be back at the house in about thirty minutes.”
“Yeah, a’ight,” he said and then he hung up before I could utter another word.

After Bishop hung up on me, I casually dropped my phone back into my handbag and then I turned my focus back to Sean. “I take it he summoned you to get back to the apartment.”

“Something like that,” I responded nonchalantly.
Sean extended his arms. “Can I get a hug before you leave?” he asked.
I extended my arms and stepped towards him, but then I stopped in my tracks. “Oh, nah. I can’t do that.”
“You can’t give me a hug?”
“No. Because your cologne may get on my clothes and I wouldn’t know how to explain my way out of that one.”
“Well, can I give you a kiss on the cheek?”
“Sure. Why not?”

Sean leaned towards me and planted his semi-wet, soft lips on my left cheek. When he pulled back from my face we looked at one another and smiled. “Maybe next time I’ll give you some lip action,” I commented.

“That would be nice,” he replied.

He watched me get in the car and waited for me to pull out of the parking lot, before he got into his SUV. I blew him a kiss and made my exit. As I drove away I checked him out through my rearview mirror and noticed how quickly he grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and placed it up to his ear.

That move definitely raised a red flag for me. And it led me to believe he had to check in with his woman, despite the fact he claimed not having one. The more I thought about it, the more turned off I was getting.

Okay, granted, I was supposed to be fucking with Bishop. But guess what? I made that known from the very beginning. But I really couldn’t say the same about Sean. And as I thought back on dinner, his phone hadn’t rang the entire time he and I hung out together, which was probably because he had it powered off.

Realizing this placed a nasty taste in my mouth. “Niggas are always talking about how much they keep it real when they’re lying the entire time,” I uttered from my mouth and then I shook my head in pure disgust. I was pissed that I was risking what little security I had with Bishop for a bitch ass nigga like Sean. This so-called lunch date was a bad idea.

The radio took my mind off my bad move for a minute. During my drive I came up with a good story to tell Bishop if he asked me how long I had been gone and where exactly was I? Oh yeah, I had my lie mapped out to a tee. I figured lying to him wouldn’t do our relationship much harm since he started lying to me first. And in the end, things would play themselves out the way they supposed to. That’s called divine nature. And no one escapes that. Not even me.

What’s yours is yours!

 

Cheaper to Keep Her part 3 Unique

Method To The Madness – Chapter Seven

Bishop, Monty and Torch were sitting in the living room when I walked into the apartment. My heart kind of fluttered when everyone’s attention turned towards me. My first reaction was to run but Bishop told me to come in and close the door. I felt a little at ease because his tone was somewhat calm.

I stepped completely into the apartment and closed the door behind me like I was instructed, but I didn’t move too far from it. “What’s going on?” I asked, still standing within arm’s length from the front door, holding a McDonald’s bag in my hand I had just picked up.

“Remember when you told me you went looking for Bria at the shop earlier?” Bishop spoke first.
“Yeah, why?” I asked as my heart began to pick up speed.
“We think she’s gone missing.”
“Get the fuck out of here! You can’t be serious!” I blurted out.
“No, I’m serious. And we think it’s the niggas that I got a beef with across town who kidnapped her.”

My heart stopped cold turkey and collapsed in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t nearly as close to Bria as Bishop was but the thought of her being kidnapped and possibly hurt was gut-wrenching to think about. And what if it was me? The same way those niggas snatched Bria up could have very well been the same way they could’ve gotten me.

“Oh my god! I got two calls today and it was probably her trying to tell me where she was at,” I announced to everyone in the room.

Bishop sat up in the chair. “When did that happened?” he asked me.

Wanting to help him as much as I could, I rushed over to him and showed him in my call log the two calls I received hours apart from one another. “If this was her, this was the first time she called me,” I began to explain. “But for some reason she didn’t say anything. And then we got disconnected. And this was the second time she called. And when I said hello, I heard a woman whisper, ‘help me,’ and when I asked her to repeat herself, the phone hung up again.”

“Did you hear any noise in the back ground?” Bishop asked me.
“No, I didn’t hear anything. It was completely quiet.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because it didn’t dawn on me that it could’ve been her.”

Looking a little frustrated, Bishop got up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen. I turned around and watched him leave. Several seconds after he walked into the kitchen, he turned back around and re-entered the living room. “Are you sure you didn’t hear any background noise?” he wanted to know.

“Yes, I’m sure. All I heard was when she said ‘help her’.”

Bishop started pacing back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. It was evident that he was trying to devise a plan. The details of this plan remained unclear as he kept quiet in thought.

I couldn’t stand being in the dark so I asked him, “Do you know how long they’ve had her?”
“As far as we know, they scooped her up two nights ago after she left the shop.”
“How do you know that?” I continued my inquiry.
“I’ve got my sources.”

“Well, did your sources tell you where she was taken?” I could understand that he was under a lot of stress but so was I. Hearing about a woman whom you had close ties to being kidnapped was scary.

“Do you think we would be having this conversation if I knew where she was?” he replied sarcastically.
“Well, don’t bite my fucking head off. I’m only trying to help.”
“You can help me by staying out of my way. I’ve got everything under control,” Bishop snapped.

Taken aback by his disrespectful behavior I wanted to curse him out, but instead of choosing that way, I threw my hands up and went into my bedroom. After I closed my bedroom door, I stood next to it to eavesdrop on Bishop’s conversation with Monty and Torch. I heard all three of them talking amongst themselves but I couldn’t decipher a word they were saying, so I acted as if I had to use the bathroom and walked back into the hallway. It shocked me that the living room went completely silent the moment I came back out of my bedroom. Noticing this gave me an uneasy feeling, so I went straight into the bathroom and closed the door behind me.

While I was washing my hands, Bishop knocked on the door and told me he was about to leave. I hurried up to draw my hands with one of my decorated bathroom towels and opened the door before he walked away from it.

“So, you’re gonna leave me here by myself?” I wondered aloud as he stood before me.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Nobody knows where this apartment is,” he assured me.

I kind of believed him because why else would he hide his dope here? Cats in the game only stashed their money and drugs in spots where people would least expect or had no knowledge of. Because of this, I started to feel just a tab bit better.

“Are you coming back?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, would you at least call to check on me every so often?” I damn near pleaded.
“Yeah, I’ll call you when I can,” he said.

Before he walked away I leaned towards him and he kissed me and said goodbye. I followed him along with Torch and Monty to the front door and watched them all as they left. After they hopped into of Bishop’s vehicle, I closed the front door and locked it.

I tried to cope with the fact that Bria had been kidnapped and that she tried to call me, but my mind wouldn’t allow me to come to grips with it. The thoughts of someone hurting her gave me chills. I didn’t care how or why she was kidnapped; I just knew that she didn’t deserve any of this. So, I hoped that Bishop and his crew got to her before something tragic happened.

I swear I was mentally worn out. I was so tired of placing myself in the middle of violence. Damn, I actually felt like a violence magnet. I couldn’t get away from the shit. Can’t we just all get along?

I knew if Bishop came back and told me Bria was found dead, I’d flip out and cry my heart out first and then I’d catch the next bus out and heading west. The next time anyone would see me would be in the afterlife, sipping on a Blue Martini with an orange slice garnished on the side of my glass. I figured that life would be better than the one I lived in now. Between the bitches I deemed a friend and the niggas that called themselves my man, I struck out every time I swung at the bat. Now how fucked up was that? If my mom would’ve played the mommy role in my life, I knew I wouldn’t be here.

Life is a BITCH!

 

Cheaper to Keep Her part 3 Unique

America’s Most Wanted – Chapter Eight

Several hours after Bishop left, I got in the bed and tossed and turned all night. The different types of sounds I heard outside of my bedroom window had me somewhat on edge. At one point I thought there was someone inside of the apartment, but when I got up to investigate, I realized I was the only one in the apartment. Relieved that I was just hearing imaginary sounds, I was able to get back in bed and fall asleep.

The following morning I woke up around nine and immediately zoomed in on my Blackberry and noticed Bishop hadn’t called while I was asleep. A little worried because I hadn’t spoken to him since last night, I called him. To my surprise Keisha answered his phone.

“Bitch, you ain’t got enough of fucking with my man, huh?” she spat.

Hearing Keisha’s rant coming through the phone made me cringe. I had called to check on Bishop and to find out the status of Bria, but got this bitch on the phone instead. I swear she had barked up the wrong fucking tree this time and I unleashed my wrath with vengeance. “You got a motherfucking nerve, you fat bitch!” I roared. “Why do you insist on thinking Bishop is your man? He’s my man, you slut bucket! He came all the way down south to pick me up and brought me back to his hometown so we could be together. Now, shouldn’t that tell you that he’s my motherfucking man?”

“Listen, you fucking ho! Bishop and I got history, so I wouldn’t let you or any other gutter ass bitch jeopardize that!” she snapped.

“Bitch, please! He and I are already making plans to leave this fucked up ass place and head out West,” I laughed in her ear. I wanted her to hear the humor in my voice, so she would know I wasn’t fazed by her threats. I also had to show her that I was in a better position to walk away with Bishop. I was more of a thorough bitch than she was. All she wanted to do was sit around and eat herself too death and try to scare off every chick that Bishop brought into his life. Evidently, he was tired of her fat ass. Why else would he put me up in a place, pay all my bills, put me in a car and give me an allowance once a week? Okay granted, he had been acting kind of shitty these last few days. But with all the stress and demands he had on a daily basis he’s entitled to have mood swings. I just wished he wouldn’t take his frustrations out on me anymore.

“Why the fuck you answered my phone? And who the hell you talking to?” I heard Bishop roar in the background.
“It’s that dumb bitch you had with you at the mall!” Keisha yelled.
“Give me my motherfucking phone!” Bishop snapped and then I heard a little scuffle noise. Seconds later, the line disconnected.

Shocked at what had just gone down between Keisha and Bishop, I stood there with my Blackberry in hand and waited for him to call me back. I waited for three minutes and when my phone hadn’t rung, I called him back. Unfortunately, his line wouldn’t ring. It went directly to voicemail. After trying to reach him four more times, back to back, I gave up.

It took me about ten minutes to get over that argument I had with Keisha’s dumb ass. I swear, if I was standing in front of her when she started popping off at the mouth like she did over the phone, I would’ve spit on that bitch instantly. I thought I hated Diamond’s guts, but Keisha definitely put a new meaning to the word hate. Because I seriously hated her and when I hate someone, I could cause some serious damage to their asses. I knew one thing, Keisha better stay away from me or she’ll find herself pushing up daisies like Diamond’s and Duke’s dumb asses.

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