The Prada Plan 2: Leah's Story (17 page)

Chase sat back in his seat and rubbed his hand over his mouth before he blurted out, “He’s with YaYa.”

“What, nigga?” Indie exclaimed as his jaw locked and his forehead frowned in anger. He was enraged, and his heart felt as if it would fall out of his chest.

“Khi-P has been seeing your girl, fam,” Chase repeated, wishing that he had not been the one to break the news.

Indie was hot, and wanted nothing more than to break through the walls of the prison and get at Khi-P, but he was shackled. He was down. There was nothing he could do to stop them. They were both grown, and as much as Indie wanted to believe in YaYa, he knew that she betrayed him. Bars and steel were known for making a woman turn on her man.

He took a moment before he spoke because he needed to calm himself down. If he spoke too soon, he was afraid that an incriminating threat might fall out of his mouth.

Indie went numb as redrum took over his mental. He didn’t flinch or even blink as he absorbed the information. He only had himself to blame for trusting YaYa. He knew the type of woman that she was when they first met. He had hoped to change her, to teach her how to love him, but obviously she hadn’t learned much. A part of him already knew. He didn’t want to admit the truth to himself. The anonymous picture he had been sent marked the beginning of the betrayal. Chase was only confirming what he already knew.

He appeared indifferent because he didn’t want to show his cards, but his insides had turned to mush instantly. His stomach turned, and his heart ached mercilessly. The news was really tearing him up, fucking up his head. It definitely wouldn’t make his time behind the wall any easier.

“Nah, can’t be right. He’s helping her out. I asked him to put her up in her own place and to throw her some dough,” Indie said as he tried to convince himself that what Chase was speaking was false. He was a firm believer that he could control his own universe, and in his world, YaYa would never stray from home.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but she’s still living with him. They hugged up in clubs and shit. I’m telling you they fucking with each other tough, and your man Khi-P is doing everything he can to make it known. He’s real disrespectful with it, my dude,” Chase informed.

Chase waited for the blow-up, but to his surprise, Indie was silent. For a long moment he just sat there, but Chase could see the wheels turning in his head.

Indie wanted to be mad at Mekhi and send the young gunners to his front door, but he knew that this was his own fault. YaYa was a grown woman, and she was choosing this path for herself. He hadn’t expected her to wait, but he did expect her to show him some respect. After all that they had been to one another, he would have never anticipated this. He knew how she used to get down before they met, but time had changed her—or so he had thought. Indie nodded his head surely as he bit his inner cheek. His temple throbbed as he saw red. He was ready to put his murder game down. He ate niggas like Khi-P for lunch under normal circumstances, but there was nothing he could do from where he was sitting.

“What is she doing?” he whispered as he shook his head in disbelief. “I know her. She don’t even fuck with small niggas like him.”

“Nigga ain’t small no more,” Chase informed. “He got put on in a major way. I’m talking a killer connect, fam. Khi-P is on the rise.”

Chase may as well have been speaking Chinese, because Indie just couldn’t understand. He grew tight at just the thought of the two of them together, and he didn’t believe for a second that Khi-P had been put on. Indie knew the game too well to believe that Khi-P had become connected out of the blue. “He was moving that bullshit-ass work before he linked up with us. Where is he getting his work from now?” he asked.

“I don’t know. He won’t say. All I know is he’s been making it snow in Houston, and the streets are eating it up,” Chase replied.

Indie thought of the bricks that had supposedly been stolen from him. Something wasn’t right. Two plus two wasn’t adding up right, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. He stood from the table.

“Bring YaYa up here. I want to see her. I need to see her the next time you come up.”

He knew YaYa too well. There was more to this story than met the eye, and he wanted to hear it from her.

Leah rocked slowly in the wooden chair as she sang to Skylar. Her eyes were distant as she watched the baby girl sucking gently on her bosom. Leah had gone beyond the realm of insanity; she was delusional.

Her own failed pregnancy had allowed her body to begin the process of making milk, and to keep up her production, she pumped her breasts daily, sometimes until her nipples bled. In her head, breastfeeding Skylar was the perfect mother/daughter bonding experience, and it would be as if Skylar were her own child. As she breastfed another woman’s child, she felt no remorse.

“This is how it’s supposed to be. Just me and you,” she cooed.

The longer she kept Skylar away from Disaya, the less she cried. Baby Sky was adjusting to her new environment, and it wouldn’t be long before she forgot her real mother completely. She was young enough to assimilate to a new mother, and to develop a new maternal attachment.

Baby Sky was healing to Leah’s soul, but what Leah didn’t realize was that nothing could erase the ghosts of her past. Her childhood had imbedded hatred so deep within her that she had no empathy for other people’s pain. She thrived off of hurting others. She got off on their misery. Seeing others hurting made Leah feel a little bit better.

As she looked around her new suburban home, she laughed in triumph. She had won. She had beat YaYa, and now she was a half million dollars richer.

Leah began to cough violently and shiver. Sweat rolled down her forehead, but it wasn’t from the Texas heat. She didn’t know what was wrong. She had been almost positive that her womb would heal itself, but the more time that passed, the more her health failed her. Her entire body hurt. She stood and laid Skylar in a bassinet as she made her way to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she lifted her shirt and saw the deep red streaks on her abdomen. It looked like she had been beaten with a sledgehammer.

She grimaced as she rubbed her belly—the same belly that was supposed to be swollen and flourishing with life. Instead of growing a miracle inside of her womb, it was rotting out slowly. She was in desperate need of a hospital, but refused to go. If she took Skylar near any type of authority, they may take her away. Skylar’s picture had been plastered on the news and in the local papers for months. Leah couldn’t take the risk of going to the doctor, so she thugged it out.

She pulled out a bottle of Tylenol and emptied practically half the bottle into her hand. Hoping it would take the pain away, she swallowed them down and then went back to a sleeping Sky. She forced herself to will away the pain. Nothing was going to ruin this for her. Nothing.

As she scooped Skylar up in her arms, she rocked her back and forth. “Mommy loves you. We’ll die together before they tear us apart. I promise.”

Without a consistent coke connect, Khi-P knew his reign wouldn’t last long. Eventually the bricks he had gotten from YaYa would run dry, and when that happened, he would need to re-up. He knew he would never be able to match the quality drug that Indie possessed, so he planned to mix whatever coke he was able to acquire with the bricks he had left in his safe. He had set up a meeting with a hook-up out of Miami, and was on his way out on the next flight.

“You sure you don’t want to come with me, ma?” Khi-P asked.

Under normal circumstances, she would have jumped at the chance to shop on Collins Avenue, but she had other obligations. All week Chase had been asking her to accompany him to visit Indie. At first YaYa declined, but Chase called YaYa every day until she finally agreed to go with him. She knew exactly why Indie was summoning her. Chase was his li’l man, so she never doubted that he had been reporting her actions back to Indie.

During the entire drive, Chase didn’t speak, as if she weren’t even present. The radio crooned Jay-Z as Chase nodded his head to the beat. The three-hour drive was filled with awkward silence, and as they neared their destination, YaYa breathed a sigh of relief.

The barbed-wire electrical fence that surrounded the prison made her feel trapped before she even stepped foot inside. It was the first time she had been to see Indie, and she couldn’t help but feel as though she had helped to put him there.

I should have never gotten the police involved,
she thought.

“You ready?” Chase asked.

YaYa nodded because the lump that had formed in her throat stopped her from speaking. She walked into the prison with a grieving soul as she thought of Indie being locked away from everything and everyone he loved. Just off of what they used to be to one another, she felt sad. The streets had lost a good one.

She gripped the manila envelope in her hand. A confrontation between lovers was inevitable. She wanted Indie to come out of his mouth about Khi-P. At least she had a motive for messing with another man. Mekhi had the power to help her get the revenge she so desperately needed.

When they walked into the gates and into the dreary building, it felt like the life was instantly sucked out of her. She couldn’t imagine what Indie was going through. The prison guards searched her thoroughly, invading the most private spaces of her body. She felt as if they owned her, but that’s what prison was anyway—a different form of slavery, modern day inhumanity—especially when it was afflicted upon men like Indie Perkins.

Chase had paid a guard on Indie’s behalf to have their visit outside where the prisoners roamed during their down time. They didn’t need their conversation on wax. As YaYa sat on the top of the picnic table, she was so nervous she almost forgot to breathe.

“Relax,” Chase said.

She nodded her head, and the clanging of the back prison door caused her to look up just as Indie emerged. His presence was so powerful.

She stood to her feet, fidgeting nervously as Indie walked toward them. As her heart quickened, she breathed heavily. She had forgotten how deeply she had loved him. For a brief moment, all of her animosity toward him dissipated. She didn’t want to, but her feet began to move toward him.

Indie had plans to shun YaYa, to stop fucking with her, to keep his feelings indifferent during her visit, but when he saw his baby girl, all of his plans went out of the window. She ran to him, arms outstretched, and he received her with a warm embrace.

“Indie,” she whispered, burying her head in his shoulder as he held her tightly. They hated each other so much that it could only be love. No one gave that much energy to another unless there were deep roots, and it got no deeper than their bond.

As Indie gently caressed her back and rubbed the nape of her neck, he felt mixed emotions. They belonged to each other. They would always be soul mates, but their pure love had been tainted by so much bad blood that it was hard to ignore. Like two elements, they mixed perfectly; they were cohesive, a perfect combination. Their hearts beat to the same drum, and when they finally pulled away from one another, they could feel the invisible wall that was growing between them, interrupting their connection.

“How we get here, baby girl? You fucking with Mekhi? How did shit end up like this?” he asked.

YaYa didn’t respond verbally, but her head fell to her chest in shame. She couldn’t look him in the eyes.

“What’s down there, ma? Look at me,” he said.

YaYa lifted her head. “I did what I had to do, Indie. You’re not out there. You don’t know what it’s like. Khi-P is the only person I had to go to for help.”

“You could have gone anywhere but there, ma! There’s a million niggas in Houston. I never asked you to wait because I know how bitches are cut,” he said harshly. “But I never knew you would get down like this, fucking a nigga in my circle.”

YaYa could feel the disappointment as Indie stared at her. He had a way of looking at her that made her squirm. There was no use in lying. She knew what he wanted to know. He had already drawn his own conclusions just based off of her body language, but he wanted to hear the words come out of her mouth. He noted the jewels and clothes that she wore. None of them were from the collection he had gotten her. Everything was new, from the diamonds that graced her fingers and ears to the large Hermès bag she carried. She looked like new money. Indie could practically smell Khi-P’s scent on her.

YaYa wasn’t exactly happy to see Indie. She was glad that he was well, but she had harbored resentment toward him. “Bitch, huh?” she scoffed in disbelief. “You know what, Indie? Fuck you! You’re not innocent in all of this. Yeah, I’m fucking with Mekhi to get the bitch that you fucked. To find the bitch that you gave a baby—the bitch you came down here and replaced me with! He’s the only person that I can trust! So yes, I fuck with him. He’s not you, but he’s there for me, Indie. He is going to help me find the bitch that killed our daughter! The bitch that you chose!” She shoved the envelope into his chest and began to storm back to the picnic table where Chase was waiting.

Her rant was incoherent to Indie, and it didn’t faze him, until he opened the envelope and saw the pictures that were inside. He frowned when he saw the photos of him and Leah. When he pulled out the ultrasound photo, he knew that YaYa and Leah had crossed paths. He couldn’t put the pieces together by himself. YaYa was trying to tell him something, but he just couldn’t connect the dots on his own.

“YaYa!” he shouted, causing her to stop mid-stride. She turned around, standing twenty feet away from him. “This shit is obviously your way of telling me something, so say it. How did you get these?” he asked as he closed the space between them.

“She gave them to me. The bitch you got pregnant is the same bitch that killed Nanzi, and I think she killed Sky too,” YaYa said heatedly.

“What?” Indie said in disbelief.

“You heard me, Indie. She came to visit me in the hospital! She made them think I was loony, and she practically told me that she took Sky. So yeah, I’m fucking Khi-P. With his help, I can get to her.”

“Are you sure?” he asked as he processed the information. His head was spinning as he came to the realization that he had been sleeping with the enemy all along. How could he blame YaYa for being with his man when he had fucked the girl who had ruined her life?

“Yes, I’m fucking sure, Indie! It’s her, and I’m tired of letting her control my life. Khi-P—”

Indie gripped YaYa’s shoulders in frustration as he finished her sentence. “Ain’t gonna help you do shit, YaYa! Open your eyes, ma. You’ve been fucking with him for two months, and has he done anything to help you find her?”

The look on her face told him all he needed to know.

“He don’t give a fuck about Leah or you, ma. He’s using you. You’re a trophy to prove to the hood that he’s come up. Let me ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth,” Indie said. “You gave him the bricks out of my safe, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I sold them to him for the other half of Skylar’s ransom,” YaYa admitted without remorse. “He gave me the money for them, though. He came through on his end. I didn’t have any other choice. It was the only way for me to come up with the rest of the ransom.”

“He didn’t come through, YaYa; he came up. The nigga got over on you. He used you because he knew you didn’t know shit about the game. That was four million dollars worth of cocaine, ma! The bricks were given to me on consignment. I still owe for that work,” he whispered as he pulled her arm to draw her near.

“Ain’t nobody came knocking at my door yet to collect that debt, but trust me, they’re coming. It’s only a matter of time before they get a nigga in here to send a message to me, and at that point, it’s going to be a wrap, because I’ma body him, and that’s twenty to life, fuck an appeal.”

YaYa’s eyes grew big. “I didn’t know. I thought he was being a good guy by taking them off of my hands.”

“Do he have any of the bricks left?” Indie asked.

“Yeah. He has half of ’em. There’s still a hundred kilos left. He wanted to keep half so that he could re-up with a different product and mix the two,” YaYa informed.

“It’s time for you to get on your hustle then, ma. Those are your bricks by right. I owe a bitch named Zya the paper for those joints, and I need you to step up and get them off for me,” Indie said.

YaYa felt like a fool for being so naïve. Tired of being used by those around her, YaYa broke down. “I’m not a drug dealer, Indie. I can’t do this by myself.”

“It’s time for you to stand on your own two feet, Disaya. The people I owe ain’t taking no shorts. If I don’t come up with that paper, shit will get real bad for me in here. They’ll kill me, ma. Now I’m not afraid of no man, because every nigga bleed the same as me, but there’s only so long I can hold niggas off. I need you on this, ma.

“If you get the bricks off, you’ll have a lot of paper left over. My connect only want what she’s owed. The rest will set you up, YaYa. You need money to get the power, ma. After you get your paper up, the sky is the limit. That’s when you go for your revenge,” he schooled.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“You have to,” he answered. “I’ma make sure you’re straight. Chase will hold you down. I need the old YaYa back right now. The get-money chick I met in New Yitty. Where you at, ma?”

YaYa nodded her head unsurely. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry about everything. You don’t deserve to be in here. All we ever wanted to do was be together.”

“I’m down, but don’t count me out yet. My day in court will come, and when it does, I hope they set me free. But until then, you have to hold me down…hold us down, YaYa,” Indie said. He kissed her forehead and tapped her on her backside as he pushed her away, urging her to leave him behind.

“I’m sorry, ma. I didn’t know about Leah. I would have handled her a long time ago if I had known who she was. If she hurt my daughter, she deserves everything she has coming her way. She was staying at the house that I built in the country. Ask Chase to take you there. Be careful. I don’t want to lose you too.”

YaYa blew him a kiss and said, “You can’t lose me. I’m yours. I’ma always come back to you.”

Chase and YaYa pulled up to Indie’s country home. No fear dwelled within YaYa as she looked up at the beautiful house. She was ready to get it popping. Her quest for Leah had been like a hunt, and she was eager to go in for the kill. She hopped out of the car before Chase could park the car good.