Gutta Mamis (20 page)

“I won't tell. But promise me when it's done, you'll come back to visit me.”

“I'll do you one better. I'll send for you. That way, I'll get the chance to run you ragged and make you fat.”

The women laughed, both proud they had a friend who understood them outside of their husbands.

After Bobbi's departure, Priscilla couldn't help but wonder if she'd gotten away with the tale she'd told and if so, did Jorge live up to his word and agree to work with her. The suspense was killing Priscilla. She planned to ask Bobbi the outcome, but she had left immediately after speaking with Jorge. Piecing together what she imagined their conversation consisted of, Jorge walked into their bedroom and removed his robe. The sight of him caused Priscilla to shake with every move he made. A piece of her scolded her to shut up, stay in her place, while another part urged her to open her mouth, and dare to ask a question. Jorge slid into bed and grabbed his wife's hand.

“You liked having your friend here, didn't you?”

“Yes.”

“Good because you will be seeing more of her.”

“Is that so?”

For a brief moment Jorge remained quiet as if searching for the proper words.

“For a woman to set out to destroy her husband, proves the heart is stronger than any control a husband has over his wife. He broke her and I don't want that to be you, so I am going to work with her. Use her heartache to make me money and examine her ways so that I will know what not to do to you.”

Priscilla was speechless. All it took was for one life to end in order for hers to begin. Holding back tears, Priscilla pushed herself to ask, “How do you know it is her intentions to destroy him?”

“Because Ruben is a dirty man, and although I never took notice into his personal life, I knew the rumors were true. But for your sake, I pretended they weren't. You have enough things to worry about. The last thing I need to do is add to your list of thoughts whether or not I will break your spirit.”

Tears dropped from Priscilla's cheeks. The honesty was astonishing. “What now? What will happen to Ruben?”

“I'll take care of him, sort of like my welcome-to-the-family gift for Bobbi.”

Priscilla turned on her side, facing her husband with wide eyes. “She doesn't know what you're going to do?”

“No and keep it to yourself; things like this is what will keep her loyal.”

“Why the fuck didn't you kill her three days ago when you were supposed to?”

“The timing was never right, but after being the one to find Tabitha's body in front of Ruben's house, aren't you happy I dropped the ball?”

Silence.

“She'll be flying in tonight. Act as her driver and get her then. She's never seen you before, Lawson, so there's no reason anything should go wrong. She'll be the only female on that jet, and all of the things you heard about her face is true, so don't stare. That's the only thing that will fuck you up from getting close to her. She doesn't speak much and more than likely she'll be wearing dark shades, as a way of concealing her face, and combat boots. Her hair is also wild. It covers the majority of her face.”

“Notes taken. What time will she be landing?”

“At eleven p.m. Don't be late.”

•  •  •

Lawson was late for everything in his life, but tonight he was two hours early waiting on Bobbi to land. The conversation between Levi and him replayed in his mind a number of times; he wanted to make sure he got the right woman. He'd heard about Bobbi, but never had he seen her in person. Inside his lap sat a sketch of
what he envisioned Bobbi to look like. He planned to get one good look at her without staring and compare it to his drawing. Maybe after avenging his sister's death, he'd try his hand at becoming an artist.

Twenty minutes later, Lawson looked inside his side-view mirror and saw a head of big hair, and a woman draped in black, walking his way. He looked at his drawing one last time, then jumped out of the limo. The closer she got to the car, the more of Levi's description was checked off his list. The last thing he noticed were her heavy leather boots. She approached the car and he opened the door, her eyes fixated on his face.

“Who are you? And where's Lehman?”

Levi never warned him that she may speak, but he was quick on his feet when responding.

“I'm Stone. I don't know what happened to Lehman, but I got a call from Levi directing me to come and pick you up so I didn't ask any questions.”

Bobbi nodded her head. “Good.”

Bobbi got into the limo and seconds later, Lawson was back in the driver's seat. The partition window was completely down when Bobbi positioned herself directly in front of it and Lawson hoped she wouldn't roll it up. Her sitting there made his job ten times easier. Minutes later, while on the road, the divider remained in place and Lawson was content with putting his plan into action. He made a left where he should have made a right and drove onto a road surrounded by trees. The more he drove, the deeper into the forest they got.

“Pull over, I have to piss.”

Bobbi's vulgar language showed that she was anything but a lady, and because of that, Lawson now understood why she thought she
could get away with killing Tabitha. She thought she was one of the boys.

Lawson smirked. “Sure.”

This wasn't how he'd planned to kill her, but why not; she was making her death extremely easy and inevitable. He drove off the road and deeper into the darkness. Lawson put the car in
park
and after his fingers grabbed a hold of his gun beneath his seat, bullets entered his skull and blew his head off. Brain fragments littered the car's interior and plastered Bobbi's face like a bad prosthetic makeup job.

“Shit. I always forget that shit happens.” She grabbed a shirt from out of her carry-on bag and cleaned herself off. Quickly, she changed into a new outfit and waited for Levi to pull up beside her. Lawson's work ethic was so sloppy he never noticed Levi and another one of her men following a distance behind them. The three switched cars and Bobbi drove off, leaving the men to take care of the mess.

Exiting off the dirt road, Bobbi thought of her sins. After everything she'd done to ruin Ruben's life, she was sure she would have had more leeway to breathe. But the closer she got to destroying him for good, the more disconnected and uncomfortable she felt with life. The lack of air transporting through her lungs forced her foot to crash down harder on the gas. With her mouth agape, she inhaled deeply. Tears surged to the brim of her eyes. Without warning, she released a howling, glass-scratching scream. However, nothing she was doing was easing the pain, let alone filling the void. All she wanted was Harvey, and no matter how much Ruben suffered, it didn't trump her need to be loved. It wasn't until that moment did she realize the more she did to Ruben, the more unfulfilled she felt.

Taking off at the speed of light, Bobbi never stood a chance of slamming down on the brakes before hitting the man staggering across the road. So with only a second to make a drastic decision, she made a sharp left turn, the wheels squeaking in the wind. Tire marks stained the ground and glistened under the midnight after the automobile flipped over and slid across the road, coming to a halt seconds later. Three men, including the staggering stranger, stepped out from the darkness and ran to the car in minutes before it blew up. They pulled Bobbi from the demolished vehicle and threw her into a Jeep pulling up to the scene.

Bobbi's eyes repeatedly opened and closed when her body touched the Jeep's leather interior. The gash on her forehead and busted chin spewed blood. The Jeep drove off and when Bobbi was able to keep her eyes open for more than two seconds, her vision focused in on Ruben. Her head was in his lap.

“I got to give it to you; I would have never thought you'd turn my own cousin against me. But I guess anything is possible. And who knew following my fuck-up of a worker, Lawson, would have led me to all of this. You're slipping, Bobbi. Next time, pay attention to who's following your backup. But I got to hand it to you; you got them all, Bobbi. You got them all good.”

And that was the last thing Bobbi heard before temporarily blacking out.

After an hour of being beaten in the face with brass knuckles, Bobbi became numb to any other hit given to her. Seconds before blacking out, she caught a glimpse of the crystal clock she'd picked out for Ruben's home, hanging on the living room wall.

He brought me back to L.A.? He's going to kill me on his territory.

Her eyes closed just in time before Ruben could land another blow, but this time they didn't reopen because they had swollen shut. Her vision was taken, leaving Bobbi with nothing but her hearing.

“You think I fucked up your face before; wait until you see what I did now!”

Ruben dropped down beside Bobbi sprawled out on the carpet and grabbed a handful of her hair, forcing her to lift her head up. In his free hand, he held a mirror up to her face.

“Look!” he demanded, but Bobbi's eyelids never opened. The heaviness prevented her from showing her irises. “I said look!” He pulled back Bobbi's head harder, her hair ripping from its roots. Frantic, Ruben pushed her right eyelid up until her entire eyeball was visible. “Look! Don't you look great?”

Bobbi could barely see. Everything was blurry and glimpses of shadows flashed before her eyes. But with enough willpower she looked back at the person staring at her from the mirror. She used to think she was unrecognizable before, but she was wrong. There
was no trace of her old face left. Her nose was crooked and bottom lip busted open so deep, it was split in two, the bottom half dangling from a piece of flesh. With what little energy she had left she tried shaking her hair from out of Ruben's grasp. Her sudden movements caught him off-guard and she rammed her head into his chin, his mouth crashing shut and a tooth escaping. Ruben let go of Bobbi and fell backward. Landing on his back, he screamed out in pain while rolling around and clutching his mouth, blood seeping between his fingers.

Short of breath, Bobbi crawled to the other side of the room where the mirror was thrown. After feeling around for it and finally discovering its location, she slammed her fist down on the glass, shattering it. She grabbed the biggest piece she thought she felt. Terrified and seemingly blind, she felt around for something sturdy. She pulled herself up onto her feet, using a bookcase shelf.

Finding her balance, Ruben raced toward her and slammed her body against a row of books. The impact knocked the wind out of her and sent her crashing to the floor. She fought to breathe and then it hit her: if she didn't fight harder, she was going to die. With the glass in hand and Ruben hovering over her, she prayed when she tried to stab him that she'd succeed. She cocked her hand back and with all her might caught him in the leg. Automatically, Ruben's body slithered down the books and collapsed on top of Bobbi, blood seeping through his clothes and making its way through hers.

She wiggled out from underneath him and after still having difficulty seeing, she took her fingers and forced her eyes open. When she did she saw a group of Colombian men with silencers on their guns, pointing her way.

It took a number of surgeries to get Bobbi's face to look one pinch decent. Smith tried talking her into letting him do more. He was sure that later on, he could fix her appearance and make her look normal again, but Bobbi declined. If it wasn't for the severity of her new facial wounds, she wouldn't have even agreed to him touching her face to begin with. She needed the surgery but the
extra
work Smith wanted to do was more along the lines of cosmetic and not a necessity. She wasn't willing to let anyone who wasn't Harvey touch her face for cosmetic reasons.

Everything that remotely reminded her of Ruben was removed. His crew, home, women and the way he conducted business. Everything except for Jorge had been changed and revamped to what Bobbi wanted. After Jorge's hit men took her to safety and got her medical attention, he informed her of his part in Ruben's murder. Bobbi wanted to be angry for not killing Ruben herself, but she had to give props when they were due, and be happy Jorge intervened when he had, because if he hadn't, she may not have lived.

That afternoon Bobbi temporarily traded in her Yankees fitted for a huge, black floppy hat. Sitting upright in her lounge chair beside her pool, she sat comfortably while reading a novel. After finishing chapter fourteen, she picked her eyes up and saw Levi
heading her way. She read the first three sentences of chapter fifteen and waited for Levi to disrupt her reading. But when he sat down and didn't speak, she continued reading.

Bobbi drank some of her juice, then grabbed the pitcher of lemonade and poured him a nice tall glass of his own. She pushed the drink toward him and went back to her reading.

Levi had called her up that morning telling her that he would like to meet with her. It was ninety-five degrees, a perfect day for a drink by the pool so Bobbi invited him over. Levi inhaled the sweet drink, devouring it within a few seconds.

“I needed that, can I have more?” Levi nodded toward the pitcher. And without her looking his way, Bobbi moved her head up and down. After another glass and a half, the pitcher was more than halfway empty. Levi looked at the glass and finally spoke.

“You wanna hear something funny. That night you took Lawson out and Ruben's men rolled up on me, the first thing that flashed before my eyes were Buffalo wings and lemonade. I was like, damn, these motherfuckers are gonna kill me and I'll never have Buffalo wings or lemonade again.” Levi laughed. “But I'm glad that gun dude had to my head, jammed. That one second gave me enough time to take them all out.” Levi rewound back to that dreadful night and when he came back to the present, noticed Bobbi was lost in her world of reading and paying him no mind. So he cut to the chase.