Lisedi
Aubrey and I laid in bed together, having small, funny conversations. His laugh made me laugh, as always. He placed small kisses all over my face whenever he had the chance. He teased me about how my round ears made me look like what he calls a little cute mouse. I laughed because I could see where he got that thought from. But he told me he loved my appearance, so that was okay.
A phone vibrated next to me on our night table.
"Was that me or you?" He asked, staring up at the ceiling.
I looked over to see which phone had a lit up screen. "Yours."
"Who is it?"
I grabbed the phone, "It's an unsaved number. The person said I keep seeing you in newspapers.. I know you well enough to know neither you or this girl got abducted or hurt. You're way too strong. You have a plan going on and it's working well for you. I just wanted to check on you and make sure you are okay, because regardless of anything, I still care," I read.
He wrinkled his eyebrows, "What's the number?"
"416-555-6612," I looked up at him.
"Sounds familiar.. Ask who it is."
"Okay," I used my fingerprint to unlock his phone. He had added my fingerprint onto his phone and I had added his onto mine. We don't go through each other's things, though. It's just the thought of trust.
I followed Aubrey's direction and asked the number who it was.
An immediate response.
4165556612: Jade.
"She says her name is Jade. Who's Jade?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
He sighed, "Wow. Uh, she's my ex-girlfriend," he sounded like he was trying to wrap his head around the fact that she even contacted him.
"Why is she texting you?"
"I honestly don't know, I'm just as surprised as you are. I told you the last time I spoke to her was years ago and she didn't want anything to do with me."
I sighed. I believed him because I trusted him.
"Am I allowed to answer her?"
"If you want to."
"I just want to let her know I'm okay. You can watch me text her, or whatever."
I nodded. I didn't know how to feel about it, honestly. But if he says there's nothing going on between them, then that's what it is. But the fact that he wanted to respond still made me feel a type of way. I watched over his shoulder as he texted her.
Aubrey: I'm fine, thanks for reaching out.
4165556612: No problem. That girl's your new girl, huh? I saw her on your Instagram a while ago, and now on the newspapers they said she's a bail bond agent. Lol that relationship would be something I'd definitely watch a show about.
Aubrey: Lol, yea, it's difficult, but she's great.
4164596612: I'm sure she is. How've you been?
Aubrey: Very happy under the circumstances... You?
4164596612: I'm satisfied with myself lol. It was nice talking to you, maybe I'll talk to you later? I'm about to go out.
Aubrey: Maybe.
He finally locked his phone.
"Are you really going to talk to her later?" I asked him.
He shook his head, "No. I have no interest."
I smiled before kissing his cheek, "That's my boy."
He chuckled, "You handled that way better than I expected you to."
"That's because I understand. You guys loved each other at a point in your lives. It's okay to keep in slight contact without it being intimate. I'd rather you do it in front of me than behind my back."
He kissed my hand, "I love how mature you're being, but again. I have no interest."
I smiled before our topic changed to something else. We talked about a few things for another hour or two before Aubrey's eyelids grew heavy.
He had fallen asleep, but I was still awake listening to the relaxing sounds of his soft snores. His arms were wrapped around me.
Again, a phone went off. I looked over again. It was his. The same number, followed by a paragraph.
I reached over to it, and I began to read it.
4165556612: The way things ended between us wasn't so nice.. I shouldn't have ignored you when you tried to get closure a few years ago. I just couldn't deal with reopening my feelings for you, it was too much for me. And although you deserved for me to leave you, you didn't deserve for me to do what I did after... I really wish I would've kept it. You had your issues but you would've been a great father. I wish you and your new girlfriend the best... She's beautiful. Just don't do to her what you did to me. Cherish this one.
My heart dropped. Kept what? Did he get her pregnant? And she terminated it?
I felt a small kiss on my shoulder.
"Me or you?" Aubrey's lips mumbled. He was such a light sleeper.
"You," I handed him his cellphone.
He narrowed his eyes from the slight brightness until he began to read what was sent from his ex-girlfriend. His reaction was emotionless, but his eyes showed sadness. That was definitely something that hit a soft spot.
Aubrey
I wasn't expecting Jade to send me that. At all. It was something I didn't like to speak on. Something that I held a grudge with her for, for about two years until I decided to finally reach out her. Only to get rejected. After that, I let go of everything regarding me and her. Like she had said, it was just too much.
"I'm not answering that," I handed Lisedi back my phone.
"Okay," she didn't look me in the eye as she placed my phone back on the night table.
"Lisedi?"
"Yes?" She stared up at the ceiling.
"Is there anything you want to know...about that text?"
She looked at me, "Is there anything you'd like to tell me about it?"
I sighed, "Only if you're interested in hearing it."
"My ears are open," she still didn't look at me.
"While I was with her, I was being a dog. Doing what I felt like doing with whoever. But I loved her, the purest form of love. When she told me she was pregnant, I can't explain how happy I was. I was 23, and ready to be a father. I didn't care about anything in the world but the fact that she was carrying my baby. I was still doing stupid shit, fucking other girls. But I wanted that baby so bad. She knew I did. She stayed around until her heart couldn't take my antics anymore. She left me without saying a word. And I could understand the anger she had towards me, but she was still pregnant with my child, you know? Four months. And for a week I called her. I texted her. She gave absolutely no response. So I finally went over to her house."
"And?" Lisedi looked at me.
Flashback
"Go away, Aubrey!" Jade yelled from behind her front door.
I was standing in the hallway of her apartment building, arguing her to let me in. It's been ten minutes and she hasn't budged.
"I know you hate me, you have all the reason to. Just please let me inside so we can talk," I spoke loud enough for her to hear me.
She opened the door, standing in the way of me coming in, "Why should I let you in? So you can sweet talk me into coming back to you?"
"You don't have to. Please, can we just talk?"
She took a deep breath, "Fine," she stepped aside.
I walked inside, and observed her. She was wearing an oversized sweater and jeans, looking beautiful even so.
She locked her door before walking past me, and into her kitchen. She opened the refrigerator grabbing a bottle of water.
I stood in front of the island, looking at her, "You can hate me all you want, but it's not okay for you to just up and leave."
"Why not? Should I have stayed while you went out every night, fucking God knows who? So I can have those same girls posting pictures with you. And have those same girls in my phone showing off everything they do with you?" She took a sip of her water.
"It's not about that, Jade, and even if it was, I can't control what other people do. I'm sorry if they inbox you, but what did you want me to do about that?"
"I wanted you to stop fucking them," she said through gritted teeth, "I was your god damn girlfriend, do you have any respect? If you really loved me you wouldn't let any woman disrespect me, regardless."
I sighed, "Okay. You're right. I should've taken control of those things. And don't say I don't love you because-"
"Because what? Because you love me so much, huh? It's just that you're so used to me letting whatever fly by, you just stopped giving a shit about what I saw and what people told me?"
I looked down, "You're right. I'm sorry."
"Oh, you're sorry? What's this? Your 50th apology for the same shit? No, thank you," she walked into her living room.
I followed her, "You're the mother of my child, Jade. My soon-to-be baby will be here in a few months and it's all thanks to you. Do you know that if I didn't love you, I wouldn't have wanted that baby?"
She shook her head, "Aubrey, stop."
"Why? I know the things I've done to you but you should know that I love you more than anything in this world. I can't be happier right now with our creation inside of you."
"Aubrey, stop it!" She said through gritted teeth, her eyes watering, "I should know? I should know that you love me? Please, cut the bullshit! I'm tired of you, Aubrey. I'm tired of crying, I'm tired of hurting myself to keep you, I'm just tired."
"Jade-" I moved closer to her as she cut me off.
"And don't talk to me about no fucking baby, cause there isn't one," she glared at me.
I scowled at her, "What?"
My whole demeanor changed. I was no longer begging for her, but I was now angry.
"You heard what the fuck I said."
"You got a fucking abortion?" I grabbed her by the arm.
She pushed me with both arms, so I easily let her go, "I don't want to have your fucking baby. All it did is remind of you, and how I'll never have a man who'll love me how he should. Instead, I'm stuck with a motherfucker that I hate. So you know how I got back at that motherfucker for breaking my heart over and over and over? I broke his," she glared at me, "Find another woman to carry your fucking baby, cause I'm no longer doing it."
My nostrils flared and I clenched my jaw, "It's one thing to get back at me, but you took this shit out on our baby?"
"Your baby, I didn't want the shit. I got it terminated three days ago."
I shook my head, "You heartless bitch," I looked her up and down in disgust, "I'm out of here, man," I made my way towards the door.
"Good. Get out," she followed behind me.
"Gladly," I walked my way out of her door.
End of Flashback
"I know I did a lot of shit to her, but I didn't deserve for her to do that to me," I stared up at the ceiling, "You don't get back at somebody by killing their child. I understand abortions for lots of reasons, but out of spite? It's inhuman."
"Very inhuman. You didn't need a girl like that."
"But then when I contacted her years later I had thought maybe it really was my fault that she had the abortion. Maybe I should've treated her right."
She kissed my cheek, stroking my other cheek with her thumb, "Don't ever think that was your fault. She handled that terribly. You don't ever have to worry about a woman doing that to you again. Do you understand me?"
"I don't expect you to do no shit like that," I looked at her.
"Good," she snuggled up to me, "If I'm ever blessed with your child, just know regardless of whatever happens between us, I'll never get rid of it. It'll be our little baby."
I smiled, kissing on her forehead before dozing off together again.
Lisedi
I was asleep for a little while. Sleeping good too. When I rolled over, I woke myself up. In this California King bed, Aubrey still managed to keep me close to him no matter how much we moved throughout the night. Half of me was underneath him as he slept on his stomach. One of his legs in between mine. His left arm draped over me.
My mouth was extremely dry. Guess I didn't have enough water throughout the day. I was definitely craving a nice cold bottle now. I cursed myself when I realized I didn't put a bottle on the nightstand like a usually did.
I tried sliding out from underneath him without waking him, but Aubrey was too alert for that. He was up the second I moved.
"Where you going?" he mumbled, his eyes fighting to close again.
"Downstairs to get some water. I'm thirsty."
"I have something you can drink," he said groggily, smirking with his eyes now closed.
I shook my head. He was nasty even when he was half sleep.
"I'll be back. Go back to sleep," I peeled his arm from around my waist.
"Mmhmm," he groaned, quickly returning back to his soft snores.
He was the cutest thing when he was sleeping.
I put on one of his shirts I found on the floor and a pair of jogging pants over my bra and panties. The house was dark. It was 3:22 in the morning. Usually a couple of the boys would be up, they're known to be night owls. They must have called it an early night, tonight.
I made my way down the winding staircase. The marble felt cold against my feet. The house was pretty big, so it took a minute getting from one end to the other.
Finally I was in the kitchen. The light from opening the refrigerator door was pretty bright. Right on the top shelf was a bottle of SmartWater. Nice and chilled how I liked. I closed the door and opened the top. Drinking a good fourth in one gulp. That's exactly what I needed.
I started to head back upstairs, but before I could fully step out of the kitchen I heard a thud. It sounded like it came from outside. In the kitchen, there were a set of French doors that lead out to the pool.
Splash!
I froze. Something was out there. Or someone. I crouched down and crawled over to the cabinet where I had remembered Aubrey telling me a gun was hidden there. Sure enough I found it. A medium sized handgun. I cocked it and listened for any more movement as I inched towards the door.
I slowly opened the French doors with my gun drawn. I didn't see anything. All looked normal. That was until my feet bumped into something. I looked down and saw a body lying face down. Blood oozing from underneath, creating a trail. The black shirt, pants, and rifle strapped around the body assured me that it was one of Sergio's guys that were guarding the house. It had to be Gustave. His post was at the back of the house. Some nights he'd be sitting out here in one of the chairs. Damn.
I knelt down to see if I could find a bullet. Nothing. Whoever did this must have used a silencer. That's the only way we wouldn't have heard it.
As soon as I stood up, I felt something grab me from behind. Of course my first instinct was to scream and fight back. I was thrown to the ground. The black figure jumped on top of me.
"Exactly what I was looking for," the male voice said.
I didn't recognize the voice. It definitely wasn't Ethan's or Travis'...but I think it's safe to say it was one of his guys.
"Get the fuck off of me," I fought as hard as I could.
My gun had been knocked out of hand when I fell to the ground, so all I had were my fist.
He reached behind him and pulled out a white cloth. His hand pressed against my throat as he shoved the cloth against my nose and mouth. A sweet smell overtook my breathing passages. I could feel myself getting dizzy. I refused to check out here and let whoever this is do whatever it was they had planned.
I kept my eyes on him and held my breath. He reached for something on his side. His cellphone.
"T, I got her," he said.
"Good. Bring her to me."
Travis. That was Travis' voice on the other end of the line. That gave me all the strength I needed to get out of this situation. When he went to our his cellphone back in his pocket he became vulnerable. I head butted him, causing him to let up off of me a little.
"You little bitch!" he shouted in pain.
I quickly freed one of my legs and kicked him in the chest as hard as I could. He went rolling back. My breathing became short as I sat myself up. Still somewhat dizzy, it was a bit of a struggle to get up and locate my gun.
He was now standing up. Stumbling but standing. Then a shot rang out. He clenched his stomach. Keeled over. He looked to his right, towards the house. That must have been where the shot came from. I spotted my gun a few feet away from me. While his attention was elsewhere, I pulled myself over to it, reaching the last few inches. As soon as I had it in my hand, he looked at me. I quickly pointed at him and fired. Right in the forehead. Money shot.
Suddenly my coughs came uncontrollably. My chest felt winded. Breathing became shorter. Dizziness still present. I knew exactly what the sweet smell on the cloth was. Chloroform.
Hush came into view with his gun drawn, still aiming it at the body that now laid next to the other on the ground. I assumed he was the one who took the first shot.
"Lisedi!" I heard Aubrey's voice bellow, "Lisedi! Where is she?!"
"She's out here bro," Hush said with his thick West Indian accent.
I heard quick, heavy footsteps.
"Where is she? Fuck!" I heard Aubrey's voice came closer.
My vision started to blur a little, but I could see him running outside and looking over at me.
I got up to my knees. My attempt to stand up almost made me fall over, but he caught me.
"Baby talk to me. What happened?" he said.
"He called Travis to say he had me. He put the rag on my face and I couldn't breathe. Hush shot him first. I got the head."
I kept coughing, making it hard to saying anything. My breaths were now a deep and gasping. I heard more voices. I recognized them as the boys. There were few Spanish accents. Those were Serg's guys. Guns were cocking. Words exchanged. Aubrey had the command.
"Search the property now!" he ordered, "find that motherfucker."
He pulled out his phone and quickly dialed a number, still holding me in his arms.
"Serg, I need a body cleaned up. Two of them. One of your guys and one of Travis dudes. Hush and Lisedi got him. Cool."
Aubrey
"Where's my sister?" Gissy came running outside, "oh my God! Is she okay?"
She knelt down beside me and ran her hands over her sisters face, "she's burning up...Lizzy what happened?"
"It's chloroform, bro," Mark brought me a cloth and a cellphone after searching the body, "and that phone just received a call from that private number five minutes ago."
"Chloroform?"
"a colorless, volatile, sweet-smelling liquid used as a solvent and formerly as a general anesthetic that when inhaled can render someone unconscious," Gisela said.
Mark and I looked at her surprised that she knew that.
"What?" she shrugged, "Advance Chem II... Ms. Yoanlin's class."
"Yo man, her eyes are closing," Mark alerted us.
"Lisedi, baby stay awake. Come on," I gently shook her. It didn't work. She coughed a few more times before they completely shut. Gissy checked to make sure she was still breathing. Thank God she was. It was slow but steady.
Mark helped us get her inside. We lied her on the couch.
"Gisela, keep an eye on her. Mark, pull up the track on his phone and watch that shit. Make sure she keeps breathing. I'm going outside," I said, grabbing two guns out a book I had carved the pages out of as a little storage place on bookshelf.
"Aubrey, be careful," Gissy looked up at me with pleading eyes.
I nodded, leaning over to kiss Lisedi's forehead before running outside to check things out with my boys.
Once outside, I ran up to Chubbs. He shook his head and shrugged. They couldn't find anything, or anyone for that matter. Serg pulled up a few minutes later with his clean-up crew. Future led the way around the house to the mess in the back.
"So whomever this is snuck around the back, shot my guy and tried to break in," Serg repeated what he had told him.
"Yeah and my girl was downstairs. I don't know how she got outside," I said.
"She probably heard it," Hush said, "she had her gun on her. She made the second shot to the head after I got him off in the stomach."
"That sounds like her," OB said, "she definitely ballsy enough."
"How the fuck did I not hear this sooner?" I beat myself up.
"My room is downstairs bro. It was easier for me to hear the scuffling. You're way upstairs on the other end of the house," Hush said, "it's cool. I had your back. I had her back."
"I appreciate that, bro."
"What did you find on him?" Serg asked as his men began to handle the body.
"A phone that Travis had called while the situation was going on and a cloth soaked in chloroform. Hence, why she's unconscious on the couch. She got a good whiff of it."
"So that's it," Serg nodded, rubbing his chin, "they're trying to get her to get to you. They think once they have her, it'll get you to do whatever they want."
"Not a chance," I clenched my jaw.
"That's a good ass shot," he said, once the body was rolled over so we could see the face.
I recognized him from the little run in we had with Travis the day before. Knowing my woman put the bullet perfectly between his eyes made me smirk cockily. Niggas think they could fuck with her. Like this shit is sweet. She's the female version of me.
"You better not ever fuck up. You have a skilled shooter on your hands," he chuckled, "I like it. I don't get the damsel in distress thing from her. That's dead weight. No offense, but a tough bitch that can hold her own is key in times like this."
"AG, Serg," Mark jogged from inside the house with his computer in hand, "the last number that called that phone...the private number. 52 miles away."
"Roughly an hour," I said to myself.
Sergio cleared his throat, "This place is surrounded. I've got my muscle and fire within the townspeople on alert. There are six of my men stationed in hidden areas throughout the property with semi-automatic assault rifles. Nobody else is getting this close to home again."
The body bags came out. They were zipped up and hauled off. The stone washed of it's blood pools. CJ recovered the bullets. Jibber and Noel collected the guns.
"Aubrey!"
Gisela's voice startled me. Remembering that she was looking over a unconscious Lisedi made me nervous. I left what I was doing and ran inside. Before I was able to see her, I could hear her coughing.
I ran through the kitchen, into the living room. Gissy sat by her, stroking her face. Her eyes fluttered open while being encouraged to wake up.
"Wha- huh? Gissy?" she whispered, "Aubrey?"
"Yeah, baby. It's us."
"Ugh...my head hurts. I feel like I gotta throw up."
"Side effects," Gissy said to me, "but she should be fine. Take her upstairs and get her out of these clothes, so she won't feel restricted breathing wise."
I nodded and scooped her up in my arms, just as Chubbs called for Gissy.
Once we were in our bedroom, I took off the sweats and t-shirt of mine she had on. She was still a little out of it. I brought her a cold wash cloth. She felt hot. I took the trash can from the bathroom and put it beside her. A few minutes later she coughed and started throwing up. I rubbed her back and held her hair while she let it all out. Once she stopped, I wiped her mouth and got her comfortably back under the covers.
"Aubrey?" she said softly, "I'm sleepy. That stuff keeps making me sleepy."
"I know baby. It'll wear off soon."
"I got him. Hush helped me. I couldn't let him get inside and hurt you or my family."
Her family?
I'm not one for sensitivity, but that tugged at me a little bit.
"Ride or die," she made a fist and held it towards me, "they'll have to get through me to get to you."
I bumped her first and kissed her cheek, "Ride or die. Get some rest. You put up a hell of a fight. I'll be here when you wake up."
"Okay," she allowed her eyes to close.
I kept her on her side, so if vomiting occurred again she wouldn't choke by lying in her back. My hand stayed on her stomach to monitor her breathing. I didn't plan on going back to sleep anytime soon.