Kayjah
Days later, we were back in New Orleans. March was slowly approaching, the cold westher was leaving.
I walked back and forth on the Ave in a tight blue dress and a jacket.
"Damn, baby. That ass phat!" I smiked and waved at the man strolling down the street in his Chrysler 300. He looked like the type that didn't have to pay for pussy.
The next vehicle that pulled up didn't have to pay for pussy either. He got it from me everytime he asked for it.
"Lilly, come here!"
I trotted towards Santana's truck as the rest of the girls smirked and giggled. They thought it was cute how Santana had turned him into his bottom bitch.
"What's up?" I asked him as I sat in the passenger seat.
"Take a ride with me."
"I'm working," I reminded him.
He sucked his teeth. "This money ain't shit like what we was makin in D.C. I ain't sweatin' it."
He was feelin' himself. He made a lot of money in D.C. and was pissed we had to leave. As he pulled away from the Ave, he started talking about plans of going back to D.C.
Lights and sirens caught my attention.
Santana pulled over without a second thought. Just as I said, he assumed that they weren't stopping him, but when the police merged into the lane behind him, I freaked.
"Fuck," he grumbled. "Stupid ass cops."
My heart began to beat out of my chest as he pulled over.
I urged him, "Pull off, Santana."
He looked at me like I was crazy. "Why? Its probably just a traffic stop."
"What if it's not, we just left the Ave."
"They weren't behind us." Then he chuckled at the way my eyes widened with fear. "Chill, ma. We left the feds in D.C."
He didn't know that. He fucking didn't know that! I knew this was something else, I felt it in my gut as I noticed that the car that pulled us over wasn't a squad car. It was unmarked.
Detectives don't make traffic stops. I thought as I took in my surroundings. I even kicked off my shoes. I w as preparing to swing that door open and run. I couldn't get arrested. The moment that they would fingerprint me, my life would be over.
My hands gravbed the door handle as soon as a flashlight shined into the dark car and blinded both of us.
"Put your hands up and step out of the car!"
Shit, shit, shit. I was bugging out. I freaked when Santana put his hands up and stepped out of the car so willingly. I spazzed, jumped into the driver's seat and snatched his gun from his waistband as he got out.
***
Detective Parker
Santana got out of the car with no issue, just as we had planned hours ago when I pulled him over the first time.
"Look, Santana. I'm a homicide detective, not Vice," I explained to him once I pulled him out of his truck and put him in the back seat of my car. "I'm looking for Kayjah Woods-"
"I don't know no Kayjah, yo'."
"She goes by the name Lilly." I watched his eyes widen in the rearview mirror.
"She arranged to have a pregnant woman killed. She killed her friend, a baby, and most likely that girl that was burning in the Chalmette City Forest Preserve a few months ago."
His eyes widened even more as I continued, "I need your help to get her, and in exchange, I've talked Vice into turning a blind eye to your bullshit.... for a while."
He was down without a question. The plan was for him to go on the Ave and pick up Kayjah. I didn't think he really would, but as I watched him get her into his truck, my mouth started to salivate with the chance of finally getting this bitch.
And here we were. I had my eyes on Kayjah as he exited the truck. I couldn't wait to put handcuffs on this bitch. The thought had just ran across my mind, This was easier than I thought, when I heard Santana say as he walked to the back of the truck, "She grabbed my gun."
Fuck!
I eyed Kayjah as she sat in the car nonchalantly. I eyed Shay as she stood on the other side of the driver's side door with her gun drawn as well. I was inconspicuously placed a few feet behind the passenger side window.
I didn't want her to hear or see me because she would recognize even my voice, but time was up.
As soon as I spat out the order, "Put your hands up, Kayjah! Put the fucking gun down!" I saw Shay tense up.
"Don't shoot!" I told her. Death was too easy for Kayjah. She didn't deserve to get away with all of the shit she'd done by dying. She needed to live miserably behind bars with women that shoved pointed objects up her ass because they hated her for killing a pregnant woman and a baby.
"Put your hands up, and get out of the fucking car, Kayjah!" The longer she took, that antsier I got. I knew that she was inside of that car trying to plot an escape route in that birdbrain of hers.
Just as I was about to snatch the door open, it opened itself, Kayjah's hands appeared first and then her bare feet and legs. Out came a woman that I hardly recognized.
Gone was the woman with expensive weave and designer clothes. She looked poor. Beyond the synthetic wig and cheap clothes, she looked tired. When she stood in front of me and laid eyes on me, a smirk fell across her lips as she recognized me.
With my gun pointed at her, I inched towards her. It alarmed me as she inched away.
"It's over, Kayjah." I told her. "Put your hands behind your back."
Her arms moved, but not in submission. She swiftly reached into her cleavage. I wondered what for for only a few seconds before I seen the handle of a Smith & Wesson.
"Gun!" I heard Shae shriek as I reluctantly pulled the trigger.
Pow!
My heart broke as I watched Kayjah's forehead split open just before her body hit the ground.
Shit! I cursed inside of my head. I grimaced when I realized what I had done, what I had to do. My heart went out for August. For every one of her victims.
Out of my peripheral, I saw Shay comung towards the curb where Kayjah lay with blood spilling from her wound. I walked a bit closer, kicking the Smith & Wesson a few feet away. But there was no more alarm.
Kayjah Woods was dead.
***
Atika
I was waiting for the moment that I lost it; for that moment I took my own life, because living without him was like not living at all.
Ironically, as I lay on the floor in my bedroom, I could hear my sister's tears throughout the house. She was crying just as hard as I was.
She was in just as much pain, and it sounded like her heart was just as broken. What was even more ironic was that I had helped Jared run from this. I helped him run from any punishment for his involvement in Teyanna's death. I thought he was innocent because of his troubled past.
But as I lay in the middle of the floor, gripping my chest, attempting to massage away the constant aching in my heart and praying for the pain to go away, I realized that this must have been how August felt when he watched Teyanna die.
At that moment, for the first time in a year, I felt sorry for August more than I wanted to help Jared run from this.
I felt bad for his loss, and, just as much as I was sure that August wanted to kill Jared - just as sure as I was that he had killed him or someone close to him had - I wanted to find August and do the same.
But I wouldn't. I would continue to live and keep Jared in my heart. I would be able to live because now Jared was at rest.
There was no more missing the family that he never knew. He no longer had to feel inefficient. He no longer had to struggle in hiding and live his life looking over his shoulder.
Ironically, as much as I missed him, I was happy for the freedom that he must now be feeling. I just hated that he died without my last words being to him "I love you."
He died because I lost faith, because I was insecure and allowed our circumstances to make him flee what should have been a sanctuary from what he knew as chaos. He ran away from me and into a bullet.
I had pushed him away, and I would have to live with that forever.
***
August
Selena let out the giggle that always made my dick resemble steel. "You like that?" I asked as her. My mouth was so close to her pussy that my lips brushed against her clit as I spoke.
Two of my fingers played with her g-spot and she moaned, "You know I do, baby."
I groaned. "Feed me, baby. Give me that-."
She lifted up and I used my tongue to open her folds and sucked on that clit just as she liked me to. "Fuck," she moaned. "Yes, baby."
I locked my free arm around her waist, locking her down right where I needed it to be, and started my feast. I loved this girl. She still hadn't returned the favor, she still hadn't said it back, but I still didn't need her too.
She was still a little scared, but so was I. And I was prepared to fight and protect us from everything that tried to prove our fear right.
Shit, I thought as my phone started to ring again. "Answer it, baby," Selena breathed.
"Unh uh," I managed to mumble with a mouth full. "It might be important. They keep calling."
I kept eating but was interrupted when the ringing was right in my ear. Selena was handing me the phone. I reluctantly released her out of my mouth, leaned against her hip and answered without even looking at the Caller ID.
I even continued to finger fuck her as I answered. Mesmerized at the sight of her juices as I went in and out. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle her moans.
"Hello?"
"August..." It was Detective Parker so I took my fingers out of my baby, and I was drawn to how much of her dripped down my hand.
"I'm proud of you, Detective Parker. You finally learned how to use the phone."
She giggled. "Yes, I did."
"What's up?" Suddenly, her voice changed to a triumphant tone.
"I got her." With my interest now peaked, I sat up in bed. "Got her?"
"You haven't seen the news?" I hadn't. I looked at Selena and smiled. Instantly she smiled back at me, looking so beautiful with her hair all over her head and tired eyes from the long day we'd had in bed.
"Nah. I've been a little... busy."
Then I playfully pinched Selena's thigh. Detective Parker let out a long satisfying sigh, "Well... Kayjah's dead... For real this time. She's in the morgue."
The feeling that came over me was better than any nut I'd bussed. It was even better than learning that Dahlia had survived the shooting. I was proud.
No longer was my family's death lingering in the air above my head, taunting me because I hadn't made sure that somebody paid. I hadn't pulled the triggers but it finally felt like it was over.
There was finally a period at the end of this tragic sentence. Teyanna and Zahir could now rest in peace. They could finally use their wings and be free.
I closed my eyes. I fought the tears, fought looking like a bitch in front of my lady. But I relished in the feeling of there finally not being a bad thought when I remembered them. I could finally remember them without the black cloud of their killers roaming free, living and breathing, while they lay in the cold ground.
"Thank you," I told Detective Parker.
"I'm sorry it took so long... Take care of yourself, August."
"You too." I hung up and met Selena's curious eyes. I tossed the phone to the side and fell into my baby's chest.
She wrapped her arms around me asking, "What's wrong? Everything okay? Who was that?"
"Everything is okay." I sighed with relief because finally everything was okay. I had brought Kayjah into my life.
I had had a hand in Teyanna and Zahir's death, and I would pay for that by living with that fact for the rest of my life. That would be the sentence that I would serve for the rest of my life; living with the guilt.
But moving on would be a bit easier now because their killers had paid the ultimate price.
"They got her. Kayjah's dead."
"For real this time?" she asked with a chuckle.
"Yea, for real this time." She let out a breath and I knew its meaning. Finally, her hurt had been vindicated as well.
We could be in this relationship without the tension, without the hurt, without the constant fear and reminder. I nestled closer into her warm embrace, even though physically I was as close as I could be. Jasmine wrapped her arms around me even tighter. We intertwined our legs with one another's.
I felt her kiss my forehead and I promised, "I love you, baby."
"I love you too, August."