“Good, he needs to suffer before he dies.”
When DP opened his eyes, he saw Rain and Carter sitting in front of him. It took a second or two to clear his head and realize that he was gagged and bound, standing on his toes, with his arms above his head, and hanging from a ceiling fan.
Carter smiled. “About time.”
Carter stood up and walked toward DP. He already had his gloves on, so he went right to work. He started punching DP over and over in the face and chest as Rain watched quietly with her gun on her lap until she got bored and told Carter to stop.
By that time, DP’s face was swollen and distorted and his clothes were covered in his own blood. Rain stood up and walked toward DP.
“You know what the sad part about all this is?”
“What’s that?” Carter asked.
“It was all because this nigga wanted to fuck me again,” Rain said and took a step closer to DP. “Yeah, your daddy told me that too before I killed him.”
“You bullshittin’?”
“Nope.” She got in DP’s face. “Why didn’t you just try posting up at the club. The dick wasn’t bad, so I might have let you have some.”
Carter shook his head. “Dumb move.”
Then Rain put her gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-eight
When Sterling left DP at the car drop and headed home, he had Venus on his mind. He sat in the back seat as his men drove, looking out the window, with DP’s words swirling around in his head.
I know Venus was your heart. I’ll get more money, but you’ll never get back what the mutha fucka took from you.
It was true, Venus was his heart, she meant everything to him, he trusted her, and she betrayed him with RJ and just the thought of it hurt, hurt him badly. But being the kind of man he was and having the position of power and authority that he did, he couldn’t show it. He had to appear tough, like the shit didn’t bother him. The truth was entirely another matter. But since Sterling was playing it like it didn’t matter, everybody around him took it the same way. And now that it was over, everybody had a story to tell.
“I thought something was going on between the two of them,” Barnes said.
“I used to see her going and coming out of his office all the time, but I didn’t wanna say nothing,” Hawkins chimed in.
“Venus used to be all up in his face every time you wasn’t looking,” Jamar gladly reported. “Playin’ your ass like you was a fuckin’ fool,” he added and immediately regretted it when Sterling took out his gun and shot him in the leg.
“It’s only a flesh wound, nigga; you’ll live,” Sterling said, and went to his room. He sat down, picked up his bat and twirled it as thoughts of Venus continued to bombard him.
How could she do that to me? With that mutha fucka!
The thought of it may have hurt him, but the knowledge of it was embarrassing. Everybody knew it. Everybody knew that Venus played him for a fool and cheated behind his back. The fact that his own people weren’t just talking about it behind his back, they were in his face with it and that made Sterling mad. He could hear them laughing, knew that they were laughing at him and that he had to do something to regain his honor. He stood up quickly and rushed out of the room and pointed.
“You two,” he said to Barnes and Hawkins. “Go find Venus and bring her to me. By force if necessary,” he said and went back in the room.
As for Venus, she was doing all right after her traumatic experience. Once she regained consciousness, Venus made her way back to The Four Kings and RJ saw to it that she saw a doctor just to be sure that she was all right. She felt free and glad to be done with him. That following Monday morning, Venus got up, showered, dressed, and went to class, determined to move on with life. She was a senior at city college, and when her last class was over, she and Patra were going to catch the train downtown to 34th Street with the intention of doing some shopping. But it wasn’t meant to be. Venus and Patra were walking down Malcolm X Boulevard when a car pulled up alongside of them just before they got to the train station at 135th Street. Barnes jumped out, grabbed Venus and dragged her, kicking and screaming back to the car.
Patra screamed and watched in horror as the car pulled off and sped away. She knew that she needed to call RJ, but she had no idea how to contact him. All she could do was head uptown to the club and hope that somebody was there.
When his men returned with Venus, they brought her to him. “I don’t wanna see that ho. Take her to the basement and tie her up. But don’t hurt her. I don’t want her damaged in any way, understand?”
“Understood.”
“Good,” Sterling said and picked up his phone to call RJ at The Four Kings.
When the call came, they were waiting for it. Patra had made it there and she had told The Kings what had happened and that she was sure that it was some of Sterling’s people that took her.
“I got Venus, and if you ever want to see her alive again, its gonna cost you.”