Wifey 4 Life (13 page)

Some way or another, though, they needed to pay for what they’d
done to me. Everyone, including my uncle, needed to suffer on some level. I had
no idea how it would happen, but I knew it needed to be done.

Every child in the world had their own imaginary superhero, but
I really needed one to rescue me now. Where the fuck was Superman when I needed
him?

Tied up to a chair with my mouth duct-taped, all I could think
about was where I’d gone wrong and how I’d ended up here. I believed that God existed.
I was brought up in the church, so I knew He was real. But what I wanted to know
was,
Where is He when I need Him the most?

From the day I’d met Ricky, I thought my life had turned around
for the better, but in all actuality, it had made a turn for the worse. All the
expensive cars, the clothes, the money, and our beautiful home blinded me from
seeing that I had fallen into a trap. From the moment I had a taste of the good
life, it was hard for me to have anything less. After Ricky got killed, every man
I’d affiliated myself with had plenty of money. And if I looked at the pattern,
every last one of those cats had some type of baggage, so our relationship always
fell to the wayside.

Unfortunately, my cousin Nikki followed in my footsteps, because
I created an image in her mind. She was so blinded by all my possessions, she couldn’t
see the shit I had to go through to get them. In her twisted head, I was an idol.
And because she wanted to walk in my shoes, she created a similar life, and it resulted
in her own demise. Now I had to pay for her mistakes with my own life, which was
really fucked up. If I had a choice to turn back the clock, I would’ve walked in
the opposite direction when I saw Ricky coming my way, and then my life would’ve
been drama-free. My grandmother would still be here, Quincy would still be here,
and Nikki would still be here. Most importantly, I wouldn’t be tied up in a stash
house, praying that God would spare my life.

The pain in my head started subsiding, but my insides still throbbed
with intense pain. I knew the only thing that would help ease the soreness was some
type of narcotic. Not only would the narcotic numb my pain, but it might even help
me to forget where I was.

As I was daydreaming about pain relief, I heard a loud knock
on the door. My heart fell into the pit of my stomach. There was no doubt in my
mind that it was Uncle Lanier. He had already called Dré and informed him that he
was on his way, so it had to be him.

Kasey jumped to her feet and dashed to the front door. I looked
at Dré and Breon, and they both looked back at me. I knew they saw the fear in my
eyes because my pupils became enlarged, and sweat pellets poured from my forehead.

I heard the front door open, and then I heard a voice say, “Where
is Breon?”

I couldn’t believe it. It was a woman’s voice asking for Breon.
She sounded really upset, so I figured it had to be his baby’s mama.

Kasey yelled, “Breon, Sabrina at the door.”

“Oh, so you ain’t gon’ let me come in the house?”

“Nah, ’cause they handling some business back there.”

Sabrina snapped. “When the fuck did y’all change the rules ’round
here? Kasey, you know you been letting me come in the house when they handling business
in the back!”

Kasey sighed. “I know, but it’s really some heavy shit going
on back there. And, plus, we got this new dude back there, and he’s real paranoid
about letting people in the house when he’s here, so that’s why I can’t let you
in.”

Sabrina sucked her teeth. “What the fuck ever! I didn’t want
to come in this piece of shit anyway!”

Breon hopped up from the sofa and raced to the front door. If
I had a chance to get her attention, I wouldn’t care if these motherfuckers in here
killed me afterward. Just knowing I took a chance to get out of this place would
allow me to die peacefully.

When Breon got to the front door, I heard him say, “What’s up,
boo?”

“Why the fuck you ain’t been home yet?” she screamed. “You knew
I had to be at work over an hour ago.”

While Breon stood there and explained himself, Kasey brought
her gay ass back in the room with me and Dré.

Dré looked at her and whispered, “I’m glad you didn’t let that
bitch walk in here.”

“She tried to,” she whispered back, “but I stuck my foot in the
door and stopped her.”

“Can you just give me about fifteen more minutes? The nigga I’m
waiting on said he was on his way here.”

“How the fuck you gon’ tell me to give you fifteen more minutes
when I’m already late for work? Them crackers in that nursing home already trying
to fire my ass for all those other times I came in late, and now you telling me
to give you a few more minutes. Fuck that, ’cause you sound real stupid!”

Then it got really quiet.

Next I heard some footsteps, and then I heard Breon say, “What
the fuck you doing?”

Several seconds later, a child’s voice asked, “Mommy, where you
going?”

Then another child chimed in and asked the same question. The
children sounded like they were at least four to five years old.

“Come on, Sabrina, you know you can’t leave them here like that!”
Breon yelled.

Kasey and Dré both jumped to their feet and rushed toward the
front door to see what was going on.

Boy, this would’ve been a perfect time for me to escape. No one
was in the room with me, so if I had enough strength to get my hands untied, I could’ve
gotten the fuck out of there, and they wouldn’t have been able to do shit about
it. Unfortunately, all my strength and will was gone from the abuse I’d suffered.

“Yo, dog, they can’t stay here,” Dré said.

“Yeah, Breon. What the fuck is she doing?”

Breon ignored them both. He was more focused on trying to get
Sabrina not to leave the kids with him. He must have known how detrimental it would
be to those kids if they saw me bound and tied up. “Fuck you, nigga! I gotta go
to work! And I’m not gonna let you or

anybody else get me fired!”

Shortly after that I heard a car door slam, and then I heard
tires squeal as the car drove off.

Breon must’ve walked away from the house, because Dré and Kasey
both were talking mad shit about him while his kids ran around on the front porch.
I guess Dré and Kasey stood at the front door to keep them from running into the
house.

Several minutes later, I heard Breon’s voice again. “Man, I hate
that bitch sometimes!”

“Whatcha gon’ do with the kids? You know you can’t bring ’em
in here,” Dré said.

“So what I’m gon’ do with ’em? Leave ’em outside?” Breon asked.
“Come on now, dog. Don’t ask me that!”

“Well, I’m telling you right now that I ain’t gon’ leave ’em
outside!”

“Take ’em upstairs,” Kasey suggested.

I was waiting for Breon to respond, but he didn’t. All I heard
was a clatter of footsteps going up the staircase.

Kasey and Dré marched their asses back in the room with me. As
soon as they sat back down, they started running their mouths about Breon. Kasey
thought it was funny that his baby’s mama dropped off the kids at the front door
and then bailed on Breon.

“She’s stupid as hell!” Dré said. “I don’t even know why he still
puts up with her shit! I would’ve packed my shit a long time ago.”

“I would’ve left her ass a long time ago too,” Kasey said.

I sat back and listened to them bad-mouth Sabrina. They spoke
in a low tone to prevent Breon from hearing them. I had only been here for a few
hours, and I could tell that Breon was a different breed from Kasey and Dré. It
seemed like these two leaned on each other, while Breon stood alone, because he
had more backbone. I could also tell that they wouldn’t stand up against him if
a war ever broke out amongst them.

Dré and Kasey drowned themselves in the television, surfing through
the channels, looking for rap videos. Then, when they got tired of that, Kasey persuaded
Dré to stick in a porno DVD. Kasey sat back on the sofa, giddy as hell, when the
movie started.

I was fucking disgusted. I would’ve puked on myself if I my mouth
wasn’t duct-taped. How dare they watch this bullshit in front of me? I felt violated
all over again, especially after what they’d done to me.

While all the fucking and sucking was going on with these characters
on this bootleg movie, I saw a shadow move through my peripheral vision. The shit
scared the hell out of me, so I jumped and got the attention of Kasey and Dré.

“What the fuck!” Dré jumped to his feet.

I saw a little head and hand peer around the corner into the
room where we were, and then the person vanished. I knew it was one of Breon’s kids.

Dré caught the little kid before he or she could get away. “Yo,
Bre!” Dré yelled when he got into the hallway.

“Yeah,” I heard Breon reply, but it was very faint.

A little voice said, “He’s in the bathroom.”

“Yo, Damon, get your ass upstairs with your pops before I take
my belt off,” Dré threatened.

When I heard Dré chastise the child by his name, I knew it was
a little boy who’d sneaked downstairs. I didn’t get a good look at him, so I couldn’t
say how old he was, but I just hoped he had enough sense to go home and tell his
mother what he’d seen.

“I told him not to go downstairs,” a little girl said.

“Shut up and stop being a tattletale,” Damon said as he marched
upstairs.

“Get cha ass up here!” Breon roared.

“Yo, man, he came down here and peeped into the back room,” Dré
told him.

“Did he see homegirl?”

“Hell yeah, he saw her.”

Smack!

“Oooowww! That hurts,” Damon said.

“Nigga, get your ass in that fucking room, and don’t you come
out!” Breon growled.

Dré was pissed off, but he didn’t dwell on it. All he said to
Breon was that he needed to handle the situation.

“I got this,” Breon said.

Dré didn’t say another word. He walked back into the room where
Kasey and I were and sat down.

Kasey asked, “How the fuck he let Damon get out the room?”

“He
was in the bathroom, and Damon snuck out.”

“You think he gon’ tell his mama what he saw?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, we can’t take that chance,” Kasey said. “As soon as L.L.
gets back, he’s gon’ have to take her out of here.”

“Where the fuck he gon’ take her?”

“That ain’t our motherfucking problem. We did our part. We knocked
her out, tied her up, and held her until he got here. Now all the rest of that shit
is on him.”

“I know he ain’t gon’ be trying to move her out of here. It’s
gon’ be too risky.”

“So what the fuck was he gon’ do with her anyway? I mean, he
was gon’ have to take her out of here eventually.”

“Whatcha think Breon is here for?” Dré asked. “I’m not following
you.”

Before Dré said another word, he hesitated and looked at me.
I looked straight into his eyes and waited for him to explain himself, but when
realized I was eavesdropping on their conversation, he tried to put a lid on it.

“Come here and let me holler at you for a minute,” he told Kasey,
and got up from the sofa. And they walked into the kitchen.

I strained myself to hear them, but it was impossible. I heard
them whispering, but their words were indistinguishable. Whatever it was they didn’t
want me to hear had to be bad. I mean, what could be worse than what had already
been done to me? Unless my uncle planned to kill me or have me killed. Knowing that
could be a possibility scared the shit out of me. I didn’t want to be killed. I
wasn’t ready to meet my Maker. I still had some things I wanted to do before I left
this earth.

While they were in their huddle, someone knocked on the front
door. My heart skipped a beat. This time I knew it was my uncle. He was the only
one they’d been expecting to come here.

Dré strolled toward the front door, while Kasey walked back into
the room with me.

Immediately after Dré opened the door, I heard my uncle say,
“Man, you won’t believe all the shit I had to deal with.”

My heart started racing. Whatever his plans were for me, I knew
he was about to carry them out. It became clear to me that his only purpose for
keeping me alive was for me to tell him what had really happened to Nikki. Once
he got me to spill the beans, I wouldn’t be any good to him.

I heard both of their footsteps walking down the hallway. The
closer they came to entering the room, the faster my heart pumped. I was filled
with so many emotions, I couldn’t think straight. I knew I was about to embark on
yet another one of my uncle’s grueling torture sessions.

When he turned the corner, he looked straight at me. Then his
eyes drifted toward my legs. His eyes looked bloodshot, and his face menacing. Everything
about him looked evil, so I became more terrified than before.

“Didn’t she have on some stockings?” he asked.

Dré started stuttering. “Yeah-uh-uh, she had some on, but, uh-
uh—”

“She had to use the bathroom,” Kasey said. “She just didn’t put
’em back on.”

“Y ’all took her to the bathroom?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Kasey told him. “Why? I mean, was we not supposed to?”

“I would’ve made her piss on herself and see how she liked it.”

“Nah, we didn’t
want to be that cruel,” Kasey said. “Besides, we got bigger problems than that.”

“What’s the problem?” Lanier looked at Dré and Kasey.

“You gon’ have to take her out of here,” Dré said.

“Why the fuck I gotta take her out of here?” he roared. “I thought
Breon was gonna handle it when I was done with her.”

“That’s how it was supposed to be. But Breon’s baby’s mama came
by and dropped off her kids on the front porch and left, so Breon took ’em upstairs.
But while he was in the bathroom, his son snuck downstairs and saw homegirl tied
up. Now the li’l boy is six years old, so he’s old enough to understand what the
fuck is going on. But we’re not sure if he’s gonna go back and tell his mama what
he saw.”