“I was there!” He pressed the barrel harder against Michaella’s temple and I watched the tears roll down her cheek. “You and Whitey threw him off the roof! Then the two of you stood over his body like he wasn’t shit! That’s what really happened, mutha fucka! That’s why I had Whitey killed, and that’s why you’re next.”
“Look, kid. I didn’t kill Montel.”
“You killed my father!”
This shit was getting me nowhere. Even though I knew I could argue the finer points about how Montel died, fact was, I did kill him. What was important was that I needed to get Michaella away from him. I knew that I wasn’t gonna be able to talk him down, so I had to get him to let her go and then I would kill him.
I took a step closer. “Let her go, bitch-nigga,” I said and Michaella’s eyes opened wide. “Prove to me that you’re a man.”
“I am a man!”
“No, you’re not,” I said calmly and took another step closer to him. “You’re a punk ass, bitch-nigga that gotta hide behind a gun and her skirt.” I laughed and took my hands out of my pockets. “This is how real men settle shit.” I held up my balled fists. “With these,” I said and put my hands back in my pockets and my fingers back on the triggers. “Be a fuckin’ man, punk. Let my woman go and face me like a fuckin’ man!”
I could see that the words, my woman, made Michaella smile a little and I looked at her in a way that said, be cool. I’m gonna get you outta this.
“I am a man!” he yelled again.
“All right, prove it to me. My woman doesn’t have anything to do with this. So, let her go.” I took a step closer. “I don’t have a gun,” I lied. “Be a man, put down the gun and fight me like a man.”
He seemed to be thinking about it. His grip around Michaella’s waist was loosening and he was looking at me like he was thinking about whether or not he could take me.
“I don’t need this gun!” he moved it away from her head. “And I don’t need her!” he screamed and let her go.
As soon as he did, Michaella ran away from him screaming. “Help!”
When she did, he turned and watched her with his eyes opened wide like he was surprised that she screamed. He raised his weapon, but he was too late. My gun was out and pointed at his head. I fired once and he fell to the ground. I walked over to him, looked down and put two more in his chest.
I put my gun away and looked at Michaella, glad that we were able to escape death tonight. She rushed into my arms.
“Are you all right?”
Michaella didn’t say anything. She just nodded her head and held me tightly as tears rolled down her cheeks. She was probably glad to escape death tonight too.
“I gotta get him off the street. Go upstairs and call Bobby at The Late Night. Tell him that I said to wake up Billy and then get over here now. Nothing else. Understand?”
“I understand.”
I held up her chin and kissed her. “Come on now. And stay inside until I come back,” I said and then I watched Michaella until she got inside.
I got ready to move the body thinking that this was the thing that took Vickie’s life. This was why instead of fighting to keep her, I let Carmen go before it took her.
Death.
These streets and this dirty game we play for money were filled with it. And tonight, death was right here, ready to take me and Michaella along with him. I wonder sometimes will I survive. But since I had no answers and I was still alive, I moved his body away from the car and out of the light. Then I covered his body with garbage bags and waited for Bobby to get there.
Before I let you go …
… I need to tie up some loose ends.
When Bobby pulled up, he helped me place the body in his trunk and then I went to check on Michaella while Bobby waited outside. I found her sitting on her couch, rocking back and forth and rubbing her arms. She had just been through the most traumatic experience of her life and I knew she needed me to comfort her, but I had shit that I needed to do. So, I told her that I would be back after I took care of the body. She looked at me like I was Boo-Boo the Fool.
“After what just happened, I do not want to be alone.” Michaella stood up and stepped to my chest and I could feel her body shaking against mine. She looked up at me. “I am going with you,” Michaella said in barely a whisper.
Since I couldn’t argue with her logic, I didn’t. “Let’s go.”
When I came out of the building with my arm wrapped around Michaella, Bobby just shook his head and then he opened the back door of his car for us.
“Hello, Michaella,” Bobby said with a smile as she got in.