“Nothing. Never mind.”
Simone ordered some Buffalo wings for them. Jasmine knew it was going to be a long night, but she was working, and that’s how she looked at it.
She sat for about two hours and listened to Simone talk about how she was so certain that Ish was going to be getting her an engagement ring real soon and how she couldn’t wait for him to ask her to marry him.
“No offense, Simone, but do you think Ish is the marrying type?”
“Yup,” Simone immediately replied.
Jasmine left it alone and didn’t try to argue with her.
Before long, Simone was asking Jasmine what she had planned for Saturday, which was the next day.
“Nothing at all. You don’t understand how boring my life is right now. It’s like all I do is go to school and come home and study.”
“You need to stop acting like you married to Nico and start doing you. That’s your problem,” Simone had the audacity to say.
Jasmine just nodded. “So what about you? What’s up for tomorrow?”
“I’m probably going to go with Ish to the new casino that opened up in Queens.” Simone then excused herself to go to the bathroom and told Jasmine that after that she was probably going to get ready to leave.
“Let me guess—You’re heading to Ish’s house for some dick?”
Simone smiled and pointed at Jasmine, and then she walked off to the bathroom.
As soon as Simone was out of eyesight and earshot, Jasmine pulled out her phone and called Homicide. “We about to leave now, so figure in about thirty or forty minutes.”
“That’s what’s up. I’m good. I’m here,” Homicide replied. “Everything sound a’ight?”
“Yeah, everything is good. She talking about she heading there now to get fucked.”
“No doubt. Just keep your phone on.”
“Okay.” Jasmine ended the call.
***
Homicide and his homeboy, who went by the name of Cash Out, were parked three houses down from Ish’s house, sitting in an all-black Audi with tinted windows. Ish lived on a quiet middle-class block, where all of the neighbors parked their cars on the street, so the Audi didn’t look out of place, even though it was two in the morning. Ish’s house was completely dark, and the white Mercedes-Benz S550 that he drove wasn’t on the block or in his driveway.
At two fifteen in the morning Simone pulled into the driveway of Ish’s house and turned off the engine. It took her about two minutes to get out of the car, and when she did she was talking on her cell phone. Simone was fully engrossed in her conversation so she was distracted and didn’t see Homicide and Cash Out exit their Audi wearing all-black and black ski masks.
Ish’s house didn’t have a fence or any bushes. It was just wide-open landscape and layout, so it would have been
easy for Homicide and Cash Out to be spotted.
Simone ended her call with Ish just before unlocking the front door. As she opened the door she felt somebody grab her forcefully from behind, rush her into the house, and close the door behind her. Simone’s heart dropped to her feet and she desperately tried to free herself from the intruder’s grip.
Homicide’s left hand was inside of a black leather glove that completely covered Simone’s mouth, and with his right hand he gripped a black semi-automatic weapon and pressed it to her temple.
“Shut the fuck up! Stop fighting me, and I won’t kill you!”
Simone stopped resisting, but her chest was visibly rising and falling because she was nervous and breathing so hard.
“Who’s in the house with you?” Homicide asked.
Cash Out turned on the lights and closed the vertical blinds, so no one could see inside the house.
Simone shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she didn’t know who was home. She didn’t know who was gripping her from behind, but she could see Cash Out in his ski mask, and the sight of him terrified her.