Retribution (9 page)

He smiles. “I got you.”

I smile back, wait for him to shut the door, then get up and walk over to where Mona is sitting and sit beside her. “Girl, what is going on? You've had me on pins and needles ever since you called me Saturday.”

I give her a hug.

She immediately bursts into tears. “Pasha, JT's dead! And I helped get him killed!”

My eyes pop open in shock.
“Whaaaat?
Girl, what do you mean ‘JT's
dead
' and
you
helped get him killed?”
Ohmygod, so that's why Jasper's running around acting all nutty. But he didn't say anything about JT being dead. Only missing. Wait. Maybe he doesn't know.
“Was it some kind of set-up or something?”

She shakes her head, clutching her chest, crying. It takes her almost five minutes to pull herself together before she's finally able to speak. “No. It wasn't a set-up. I mean it was sort of. But not like a robbery kind of set-up, or anything crazy like that.” More tears start rolling down her face. “But I got him killed, Pasha.
I
got my cousin killed.” She covers her face in her hands, sobbing.

“Mona, what the hell is going on? You need to pull yourself together and tell me what the hell you're talking about.”

She looks over at me, swiping tears from her face. “Pasha, you have to
swear
to me you won't repeat this shit to anyone..” I stare at her. There's a glint of desperation in her tone, and in the way she's looking at me.

“You have my word. Now,
please,
tell me what the heck you're talking about.”

“It…” She shakes her head, wiping more tears as they fall from her eyes. “It wasn't supposed to go down like this.”

“Like what, Mona? What wasn't supposed to go down?”

Her hunched shoulders shake. I get up and grab the box of tissues from off my desk, then walk back over and hand them to her. She takes a few, then starts blowing her nose. She takes a few more, wiping her face. I wait for her to finish. She shakes her head, shutting her eyes tight. I sit back down beside her. And wait for her to start talking.

She takes a deep breath. Grabs more tissues and blows her nose again. “Okay. A few months back I ran into Cassandra at the Prudential Center after the Trey Songz concert and she gave me her number and told me she had something to talk to me about. Now, you know she and I have never been cool like that, but she said it was important. And that what she had to say I needed to keep it under wraps.”

“Okay. And?”

“When I finally decided to call her, she wanted to talk to me about
you.”

I blink. Inch up in my seat, plop my hand up on my hip. Tilt my head. “Me? About what?”

“About everything. What happened with you when you were kidnapped, that shit with some nigga coming here to the salon and disrespecting you, then you being attacked in your yard—I didn't even know about that. I knew about the front window and your car window getting smashed. But the shit Cassandra was telling me was news to me. She told me she was going to track down the niggas behind it. She wanted them to get handled for what they'd done to you because you didn't seem too pressed to handle it.”

I frown. I had told that bitch to let it go when she had asked me if I wanted her to track his ass down and get her goon squad on him. I told her no, to leave it alone. And she assured me she would.

Now I hear this shit.

Mona blows her nose again. “Cassandra told me that you told her to drop it. But you know how she stays in the streets, and in drama. She said a few niggas were talking about some chick sucking niggas' dicks behind her man's back and got her ass beat after he set her up when he found out. Then Felecia got up in her ear telling her shit about you, lies or not.”

I blink.

I keep my tone even. “And did she find out who it was.”

“Well, not at first. But she said she thought Jasper was behind it. And that Felecia also had something to do with it. But you know how extra Cassandra can be. I thought the bitch was reaching. Then she came up with this bright idea to start fishing JT. She knew he was digging her and since he was always in her face tryna fuck her, she thought she could reel him in real good and fish him for info on the sly while running his pockets.”

“Wait!
Cassandra and JT were fucking?” She nods. “How in the hell did I miss that?” I ask her how long it had been going on. She tells me for about seven or eight months, maybe longer. “Wow. She definitely kept that quiet. I had no idea. Then again, she's so sly with her shit, you never know who she's fucking unless she putting the nigga on blast.”

“Exactly. That was the whole idea. To keep it real quiet. JT didn't want anyone to know he was creeping with her, either. Besides, you know how crazy Leticia is. If she had caught wind of it, all hell would have broke loose. And you already know how sneaky JT's ass is.”

Mmmph.
Leticia and JT had been together since she was sixteen. And he'd put her through the wringer with all of his sidepiece bitches and street antics. Yet, she stood by his side through it all, fighting other women, throwing him out, then taking him back, him beating on her, bringing her home—not
one
, not
two
, but
three
—STD's. And she still stayed with his trifling ass.

Not that I'm tossing shit on her after all the craziness Jasper's done to me, and put me through, over the years. The only thing he
hasn't
done is, give me a damn disease. Anyway, Leticia's thing has always been, “It comes with the territory. So you buckle up and stay ready to fuck a bitch up.”

I guess—no I
know
—I used to be stuck in that thinking, too, at one time. But, shit, she's thirty-three years old now. It's time to let that crazy shit go.

“Okay, so JT and Booty were fucking. How does this add up to him getting killed?”

“She told me his ass started getting possessive, acting like he owned her. You know his ass has always been two screws from nutty.”

I nod knowingly. JT's ass is crazier than Jasper. So I can only imagine what he tried to do to Cassandra with all that mouth she has.

Mona tells me how he popped up at her house last Thursday and snatched her by the throat and started beating her ass. I shake my head, not surprised at that. But I am surprised that he went over there and didn't get jumped on by all Cass's crazy-ass kids.

“None of her kids were home. They were still in school. Cassandra was on her phone with her oldest son when she opened the door and he started blackin' on her.” She repeats what Cassandra had told her. That he was going to gut her insides out and kill her for always running her mouth. “He pulled his gun out and put it to her head. Then he tried to rape her.”

I gasp, grabbing my chest. Hearing this hits painfully close to home for me, confirming what I've felt in the pit of my soul. That JT was definitely one of the niggas Jasper let violate me. “Ohmygod!” I cover my mouth, feeling myself getting sick. I lean forward, clutching my stomach. All of sudden images of the six masked niggas who ravaged me start popping up in my head. My mind starts reeling. I start rewinding the imageries. There was the tall thick nigga with the jeans; the first one to violate me—the one who snatched me by the neck and started choking me when I refused to suck his dick.

“Bitch, don't you know I will snap your muthafuckin' neck? You either suck my dick or you gonna die tonight, ho.…”

I didn't want to die. So I sucked him as if my life depended on it. And it did. Then bit into his huge, hairy balls and tried to chew them off, causing him to let out a blood-curdling scream as he tried to punch me off of his shit. I chewed his balls until I drew blood. I remember someone had to run down the stairs to help pry my mouth open. But I didn't let go of his balls until the nigga's knees buckled and I had blood seeping out of my mouth.

No, that wasn't JT.

I blink another nigga into view. The one with long, muscular legs in the Duke Basketball shorts. I kept referring to him as Calm One because out of all the others he wasn't aggressive or disrespectful to me. In fact, he tried to keep them from hurting me—too bad.

His voice drifts through my memory. “…If you wanna get out of here alive, then you gotta do what they tell you, understand me?”

Something in his eyes told me I knew him from somewhere—the way he walked, his body build, was familiar to me. But I wasn't able to put my finger on it. I still can't. At the time, I was too frightened to try to figure it out. I only wanted to come out of that shit alive. But now…now, I'm certain, I
know
him.

But that wasn't JT, either.

Wait…there were more than six niggas that night. The nigga I bit, Quiet One, then the six rowdy motherfuckers, all liquored up, who came stomping down the stairs—one after the other, faces masked, wearing different colored basketball shorts. JT had to be one of them…

I blink the memory away. Swallow back the rising anger swelling in the pit of my stomach. I turn my attention to Mona. “Then what happened?” She continues. Tells me that Booty was able to
find one of the knives she keeps stuffed down in her sofa cushions and stabbed him in his stomach with it.

She swipes tears from her face as she's telling me this. “None of this shit would have ever happened if JT hadn't been so busy tryna fuck that whore-ass, gold-digging bitch. It wasn't supposed to go down like that, Pasha. You know I would have never gotten involved in no shit like this. All that bitch was supposed to do is fish around for info, maybe catch him slipping during one of their fuck sessions.

“Then she was going to come to you so she could help you get them niggas back. But you know her ass is money-hungry so she started running JT's wallet, making him one of her sponsors. And you already know how JT is about his money, and the side bitches he fucks. Anyway, he attacked her because of how she turned up at the shop that day, calling Felecia out in front of everyone and putting Jasper on blast. Pasha, I swear I think Jasper knew he was creeping with her and told him to check her ass on her mouth. Why else would he go storming over there like a maniac?”

“Oh, I'm sure Jasper knew they were fucking. And he probably did tell him to check her. But to
kill
her?” I shake my head. “That makes no sense.”

She gives me a grave look. “Pasha, there's never any rhyme or reason for nothing JT does. He's unpredictable. He probably went over there thinking he was gonna snatch her up for running her mouth, and she went in on him, which only set him off more; who knows. All I know is, he's dead.”

Mmmmph. Good for his ass. Dirty bastard!

Payback is a motherfucker isn't it, nigga?!

“Pasha, that crazy bitch didn't have to do all that. She stabbed him, for God's sakes. Then she turns around and bashes him in his head with a baseball bat.”

I take a deep, painful breath. “Mona, listen. I know you're upset, and rightfully so. But there's something you need to know. I think JT was one of the niggas who sexually assaulted me the night I was taken.”

Her eyes widen. “Ohmygod,
nooo
. Are you sure?” I tell her I'm almost ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent certain of it. “And Jasper?”

I blink back my own tears.
“He's
the one who set it all up. Then turned around and almost beat me to death.”

Mona covers her face in her hands and sobs. In all the years I've known her, I've never seen her this emotional. I reach over and pull her into my embrace. She's crying so hard until she's hiccupping. Snot and tears all running down her face. I rub her back and rock her, doing my best to help calm her.

I get up and open the door, calling out for Lamar. I tell him that this might take longer than I thought. That he can leave. He tells me he's good. Then stops midway as he turns to leave and says, “Pasha, listen. I got your back, for
whatever.”
I wonder where this is coming from. The way he looks at me when he says this, I know he's serious. “I'm not clocking out until you clock out. So, do you. I'ma be right here.”

I smile. Thank him. Make a mental note to give him a nice bonus for his loyalty. Then shut and lock the door, bringing my attention back to Mona.

I sit beside her. “Mona, I know you're hurting. But, in all honesty, JT got what he deserved for trying to
rape
her. I'm sure she did what she felt she had to do in that moment.”

The tears continue streaming down her face. “My cousin is dead, Pasha! Because of
me!
Now everyone thinks he's missing. And I
know
he's not only missing. He's
dead
, Pasha! And I can't say
anything
to
anyone
in my family about it because
I
helped Cassandra do him in. I knew I should have avoided that bitch and never let her drag me into her shit.”

“Mona, listen to me,” I try to reason, grabbing her hand.
“You
didn't tell JT to go over to Cassandra's house. And
you
didn't tell him to beat her or try to
rape
her. He got himself killed. So stop blaming yourself.”

“I
can't
help it. It's tearing me up inside knowing that he's dead somewhere. And now you're telling me that Jasper's the one who had you kidnapped and beaten. And that JT was somehow involved as well. You've never wanted to talk about it, none of it. And I never pressed you.” She shakes her head, taking a deep breath, then exhaling. “What the fuck is wrong with them niggas? Why would he do that shit to you?”

She starts wailing again. And I let her get it all out. The whole time I'm trying to console her, trying to get her to see it's not her fault, my mind is racing with questions: How much does Cassandra really know?