Thirsty 2 (27 page)

“OH MY GOD! NOOOOOOOO!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. The scene before her was unbelievable!

There was so much blood! The floor, the counter and the walls were all splattered with it. On the floor lay Carlos with multiple gashes, which Justice knew to be stab wounds. She ran to his aid, but already knew there was nothing that could be done for him. From the loss of so much blood, Justice knew he would soon be on his way to the afterlife. Other than Carlos’s struggling breaths she didn’t hear a sound in the house, so she assumed that whomever the assailant was had fled. She dropped to her knees and cradled his limp head in her lap while crying uncontrollably. She couldn’t believe that someone had done Carlos like that. Nevertheless, she also knew that Carlos had done so much dirt in his past that maybe it had finally caught up with him. “Baby, breathe . . . please breathe.” She cried as she rocked back and forth with his head still buried in her lap.

Carlos opened his weak eyes and attempted to open his mouth to speak, but no words came out, only globs of blood. “Baby, who did this to you?” Justice screamed, her mind now bent on revenge! Carlos couldn’t answer but Justice noticed he cut his weak eyes as a warning toward the door that led into the sunroom before he took his last exasperated breath and exited this world. “No baby . . . Nooooo . . .” Justice pleaded while still cradling his lifeless body. His still eyes were fixed on the sunroom as Justice gently ran her trembling hand from his forehead to his mouth, shutting his eyes once and for all.

Still in shock, Justice gently lay Carlos’s lifeless head back onto the floor and slowly arose to her feet with the pistol aimed in the direction of the sunroom.

Justice screamed into the sunroom. “Muthafucka, you got two seconds to show yo’ face before this pistol start spittin’ lead at yo’ ass!” She knew there was only one way in and one way out of the sunroom, and the killer would have to exit past her to get away. And that was definitely NOT happening! As far as she was concerned, whoever was in the sunroom was already a dead man because murder was inevitable.

“One, muthafucka . . .” Justice counted. “Tw—” Before Justice could finish, out stepped the killer with the bloody knife still in hand.

“What the f—” Justice started. She was in unbelievable shock by who she saw standing there covered in Carlos’s blood. She glared at the killer in disbelief while slowly lowering the pistol to her side. She could only manage to utter one word, “Why?”

Sapphire dropped the bloody knife to the floor and looked down at her crimson colored hands before speaking barely above a whisper, “He—he, almost had me killed, Justice. And for what? For what he
thought
I did. That nigga . . .” She pointed a bloody finger at Carlos’s corpse. “He had no value for human life! He killed without hesitation and with no remorse!” Sapphire began crying. “I had to learn to walk, talk, and function like a normal human being all over again because of that monster.” She was still pointing at Carlos. “They declared me partially brain dead at one point . . .” Then her tone changed, “I warned you that I was capable of doing shit that your mind could never conceive.”

 Justice was confused as hell because she remembered all that “forgiveness” shit Sapphire had preached to her.

Sapphire had never gotten past the fact that Carlos was the reason she had been scarred for life. Carlos had told Sapphire too much throughout the years. She knew his strengths and she had also learned his weaknesses. She knew Dave was a weak nigga and that was why she had tipped off the Miami police as to what Dave would be driving with the kilos in it. In fact, it was one of the detectives who had called her phone for a follow-up while she and Justice were in the limo on the way to her mother’s burial.

She knew Dave would snitch and Carlos would do what he had to do. She also knew Dave’s death would cause beef with Carlos and Joe. She was also the one who had paid two young goons to run up in Carlos’s trap houses on the west side so the beef could escalate. She was antincipating Joe, Supreme, Face and Carlos killing each other off sooner or later because of all of the ongoing conflict. That would have gotten rid of everyone who had been involved in her brutal attack. But to her dismay, Joe never stepped up and handled Preme and Face like she had planned. Joe and Carlos both had gone soft and wanted to “talk”. Sapphire became fed up and decided to handle the shit on her own. After killing Carlos, her plan was to escape unnoticed and unsuspected and let the situation die down before going after Supreme and Face herself.

 Joe had wanted to go to Carlos and talk to him like a man and let him know that he didn’t have anything to do with the robberies, but Sapphire could not have that so she had convinced him to let her talk to him instead. “He listens to me,” she had told him. “Don’t speak with him until I talk to him.”

“Aiight, but if you ain’t talked to him before I get back from Atlanta I’mma talk to him.” Joe had told Sapphire.

“Don’t worry. When you get back everything’ll be back to normal,” she said, convincing Joe.

Once Joe was in Atlanta, Sapphire began baiting Carlos for deception. When Justice moved back to Charlotte, Sapphire knew Carlos would have his guard down. She had called and told Carlos that Joe was back in town and he was ready to meet with him. When Carlos opened the door to greet Joe, he was surprised to see Sapphire standing there. “What’s up, girl? I thought you was Joe,” he had said before turning his back to walk back through the house to rejoin his fianceé. “Justice in the back—” was all he was able to get out before Sapphire plunged the knife deep into his back, puncturing his kidney and slightly severing his spine causing instant paralysis. She kept plunging the knife into his back until his body went limp. Once on the floor, she continued to stab him until she heard Justice’s voice. It was then when she hid in the sunroom.

Sapphire had played everyone! Out of all the players in their crazy ass circle, Sapphire was the one who had exacted the ultimate revenge.

Sapphire was still rambling on like a mad woman, but Justice didn’t hear a word she was saying. It all sounded like gibberish because her head was so clouded with confusion and shock, to the point in which she felt like she was spinning out of control. Her thoughts were all colliding into one another. Her man was lying dead on their dining room floor, and his killer was her best friend who had slain him because of a vendetta. A unsettled score Sapphire had begged Justice to settle and one of the reasons why Carlos was her man again to begin with.

Justice grabbed her head with both hands in an attempt to stop the cyclone that was swirling through her brain. She shook her head uncontrollably as the tears fell in droves, staining her chiseled cheeks.

This
couldn’t
be real! Justice had finally found happiness and now in a blink of an eye it had all been taken away from her! Why did this world continue to treat her so cruelly? Why didn’t anyone want to see her happy? Why when every time she thought her life was about to be on the correct path, somebody did something to cause it to spiral out of control again?  She couldn’t understand it! Truth be told, at that instant she couldn’t understand
anything
. Her understanding was ZERO!!

She heard a voice but could not decipher the words as she pointed the pistol at the cause of her latest despair. Justice heard what sounded like pleading, but had no regard for Sapphire’s words as she closed her swollen, bloodshot eyes and squeezed the trigger six times in rapid succession.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Do you think Carlos truly loved Justice or was his conscious for his past actions beating him down and he felt obligated to right a wrong?

Do you think Justice should have forgiven Carlos and allowed him to re-enter her life again as her lover after all that transpired in the past?

Do you think Carlos’s death was Justice’s karma for the murders of J.T., Tan and the abortion?

Was Carlos’s death his own karma for Tan and Dave’s murders and the murders of so many others he was responsible for in his past?

Do you think Sapphire should have told Justice about her plan to exact revenge on Carlos so Justice wouldn’t have fallen back in love with him?

Overall, do you think Justice made rational decisions throughout the book, i.e. the situation with precious and Virgin? The decision of not telling her father about J.T.? Deciding to move back to Charlotte?

Who did you think was hiding in the sunroom before the killer revealed herself? Lil’ Joe? Tan’s cousins?

Do you feel as if Sapphire’s motives for revenge were strong enough for her to take the extreme measures she had taken? Were her intentions well enough hidden throughout the book?

Was Justice wrong for shooting Sapphire? If so, how do you think she should have handled the situation with Sapphire at the end?

 Who do you think was the THIRSTIEST character in this book?