Chapter 6
6
T ito Montalvo sat on the ratty couch in his apartment which also served as his office. Local leader of the Sixers, he usually had plenty of people around to do his bidding and today was no different. Jazzie and Waldo, his right-hand men, were lounging in front of the TV arguing over what to watch. His mind ran through the things that needed to be done by the end of the weekend, but visions of Gabrielle kept running through his thoughts. Bitch. I offered her a chance to be my main pussy and she fuckin’ leaves.
He looked over to another gang member, a real up-and-coming go-getter. “Tank? Get over here.”
The large, Hispanic man lumbered over, eyes on the leader. “You need somethin’, boss?”
“You in the car the other day where Gabby’s hanging out?”
“Yeah. She’s in some house where some other girls live. Looks like some kind of school, with some white bitch running the place. Bitch came out with a bat the other day, but some big fuckers followed her so we left.”
“Keep an eye on Gabby. Don’t make no threats, but you report back to me what you see. And if that skinny ass white bitch thinks she’s gonna disrespect the Sixers, she’s got a real surprise comin’ her way.”
“Sure thing, boss. You want me to start now?” Tank asked.
“No, fucker. I want you to sit on your ass for a while first,” Tito growled sarcastically.
Duly chastised, Tank headed out of the apartment. Tito moved to the kitchen table and snapped his fingers. Jazzie and Waldo turned off the TV and joined him. Getting down to business, they began their meeting.
Tito had every intention of making the Sixers one of the biggest street gangs in Richmond but knew the competition was stiff. Crips and Bloods were at war with each other, leaving some of the picking ripe for his group. The money coming in from drug sales was good, but Tito wanted a bigger slice of the pie. Even if that meant cutting into the piece from the national gangs. And that was dangerous. He wanted more…and had a plan on how to get it.
“I want our girls back on the streets running drugs. They need to put out to do it, fine. But the money’s in the drugs, not their pussies.”
Jazzie reported, “Gotta tell you, boss, that a few girls saw Gabby get out and they’re wondering what you’re gonna do about it.”
“I’m not gonna do shit right now. That bitch wants to work at McDonalds flipping burgers for fuckin’ minimum wage? Let her. You show these girls that they can make bank running my dope. And they want to score johns at the same time? Fine with me. Their pussy can bring in some more money.”
“We’re being watched, boss,” Waldo added. “I seen the cops hanging around our old meeting places.”
Tito glanced over, bored with the conversation. “I don’t give a fuck what the cops think they got or don’t got. They ain’t got me and if we keep working it like we have been, they ain’t gonna get me.”
He sat for a minute, his plans formulating in his mind. “Tank’s gonna get some info for me and when he does, I want you two to roll.”
Jazzie and Waldo both nodded, understanding what he meant.
“You want us to take anyone with us? Anyone need in?” Jazzie asked.
Tito thought for a moment and then grinned. “Yeah. Take that crazy ass, motherfucker Poco with you. He’s eager to get in. He lasted a beat in, so let’s give him a job to do with you two.”
The two associates grinned. “You got it, boss.”
Tito leaned back in his seat, pleased that everything was going according to his plans. Everything except Gabby. But that bitch will soon see what happens to people that try to help her get away from him.
* * *
Mackenna pulled into her driveway, noticing a strange black pick-up truck parked on the street in front of the house. It was not unusual since most of the neighbors parked a car on the street, but she wondered who it belonged to.
She juggled the grocery sacks on her arm as she turned the key in the doorknob and walked into the house.
“Mom? I’m hom—”
She stopped mid-sentence, staring dumbly at the scene in front of her. Penny sat in one of the chairs in the living room…with Jobe sitting on the sofa sipping a glass of iced tea. With mint. Mackenna blinked. Twice. Still not believing her eyes. What the hel—
“Mackea, loo who ca ta see me?” her mother said proudly, smiling at having a visitor.
Mackenna, still too stunned to say anything, just stared. Her mother’s smile began to droop, so Mackenna quickly forced a smile on her face as she held her mother’s gaze, refusing to look at Jobe.
“I see, mom. Um…let me get the groceries put away while you…um…visit.” She hustled into the kitchen before her mother could see her frustration. Why is he here? What is he up to? And why in the hell did she have to let him in?
Hands shaking with anger as she tossed the frozen items into the freezer, she then shoved the vegetables into the refrigerator. So filled with her own thoughts, she never heard anyone approach.
“Mackenna?” came Jobe’s voice from behind her.
“What?” she shouted as she raised up, hitting her head on the still open freezer door. “Auggghh!” she screamed as she fell to the floor holding her head, sure that blood would start running everywhere.
Jobe rushed forward, kneeling, and quickly assessing the knot on her head. “Oh doll, I’m sorry. Here let me see.”
She wanted to push his hands away from her and tell him not to call her ‘doll’, but the splitting pain in her head had her hoping she was not going to throw up on his shirt.
He slid down taking her in his arms, with one hand wrapped around her middle and the other grabbing the frozen peas that were on the floor and holding them to her head. He said nothing but rocked her for a moment, allowing the pain to slowly subside. He felt her body begin to relax into him, but did not know if it was because she was comfortable with him holding her or because the pain had her addled. Probably the latter , he assumed. In a few minutes he knew he was right when her body went stiff as she struggled to get out of his hold and try to stand.
Refusing to let her fall, he held onto her as she stood before reluctantly letting go. He saw the trail of a few tears before she quickly brushed them away.
Before either could speak, Penny walked into the kitchen, seeing the freezer door standing open, Mackenna with a pained expression on her face, and Jobe holding on to the pack of peas.
“Ya shudn leave tha freeza doo open,” her mother chastised, much to Mackenna’s chagrin.
“I was just closing it, mom,” she said, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice. She glared at Jobe, but his handsome face never lost its smile.
“Ya stay fa dinna?” Penny asked as she shut the freezer door.
Jobe watched Mackenna’s eyes widen at her mom’s suggestion and he wanted nothing more than to do just that. But it was too soon. One step at a time.
“Thank you, Mrs. Dunn, but I have to be getting back.” He walked over giving Penny a hug, allowing her the time to lift her right arm to hug him back.
“I’ll walk you out,” Mackenna said, a forced smile on her face. “Mom,” she yelled, “I’ll be right back and then fix dinner.”
He stepped to the side to allow Mackenna to exit the room first and tried to keep his eyes off of her ass as she walked ahead of him to the front door. Oh yeah, she’s pissed.
Mackenna managed to wait until they were off of the stoop and walking toward his truck when she whirled around, poking him in the chest with her finger.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, coming here like this? Invading my privacy, not to mention invading my mom’s privacy?”
He glanced down at her small finger and lifted his hand to gently remove it from his chest and hold it in his hand. “Your parents meant something to me and I felt like shit when you told me your dad died,” he said.
She stepped back but did not pull her hand out of his grasp. “You’d have known about it if you’d never left, so I don’t care how that made you feel,” she accused.
“You’re right, I would have. And for that, I’m so sorry, doll. But I wanted to see your mom and let her know that I was sorry about her loss. Your parents had a marriage like mine did…strong and happy. And I couldn’t take away the fact that I didn’t know, but I could pay my respects.”
Still glaring, she sifted through his words searching…and finding truth. “You still shouldn’t have just dropped in. Mom’s…better, but…”
“I know, but she seemed fine with the visit. I know what you’re thinking. That I also didn’t know about her stroke,” he said, still gently rubbing her hand with his fingers.
“Were you able to…um…understand her speech?”
“Yeah, actually very well. I realized right away that she had had a stroke and she seemed self-conscious at first, but we began to talk.”
Mackenna’s eyes darted away, clouding with sadness.
“I kinda got the feeling that she was lonely,” he added. Her gaze jerked back to his, the sadness replaced with anger again. Fuck, it’s like walking on a verbal landmine!
“I’m doing the best I can, Jobe. We moved to Richmond so she’d be closer to the rehab center and I managed to rent this house that has everything on one floor. She really didn’t want to live in an apartment with no view of trees or flowers. I know the neighborhood is kind of crappy, but it was the only thing I could afford. She had a day nurse that was with her full time and has made so much progress that the day nurse only has to be here three mornings a week.”
“Doll, I wasn’t criticizing. It just seemed like she was happy for the company,” he assured, but noticed that she was still upset.
“I know she needs to get out more, but I can’t do that and work full time. And if I’m not working full time, then she might not get the health care that she needs. Don’t you see,” she pleaded angrily, “I’m doing the best I can?”
“I can tell you are. She’s happy an—”
Suddenly Mackenna jerked her hand out of his, seeming to realize for the first time that he was still holding it. “Don’t call me doll. And don’t patronize me. And…and…just go away,” she said, trying to hold back the tears that were prickling behind her eyes.
Jobe looked down at his feet for a moment, before sighing. “I really fucked things up, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.” Both stood, nervously looking at each other. Mackenna stared at the large man in front of her, opening himself to doubt and recrimination. The ex-girlfriend in her wanted to rail at him some more for breaking her heart. The counselor in her wanted to know what had changed the man so much that he would turn his emotions off to the point that breaking up with her was all he could do. And the woman in her wanted to take him in her arms. Still. After everything, she wanted to hold him once again.
Forcing her arms to stay at her sides, she lifted her chin and said, “I do thank you for visiting my mom and for expressing condolences about my dad. I need to go in and make sure she’s all right and fix dinner.”
He saw the proud stance, recognizing it as one he had adopted many times. The corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile. “You’re welcome. I hope to visit again sometime.”
She neither accepted nor denied, for which he was glad. At least she’s not throwing me off of the property.
With her body still stiff as a board, he walked by, touching her hand once more as he passed her on his way to his truck. The feel of her soft skin stayed with him as he drove away.
Mackenna stood on the walk for a moment after he had left, her hand still warm from his touch.
* * *
After dinner, Mackenna was washing the dishes when her mom moved behind her, wrapping her right arm around in a hug.
Smiling, she said, “I love you, mom.”
“Lu ya too, baby ga.”
“Oh, I haven’t been a baby girl in a long time,” Mackenna protested.
“Ya alwa be to me,” her mother said, with one last squeeze.
Sitting at the table, Penny peered at her daughter. “Tak ta me?”
Sighing deeply, Mackenna faced the window looking out into the small backyard at the setting sun. “Something happened over there, mom. He never told me and wouldn’t tell me. He just sent me a Dear John email and no matter how many letters or emails I sent back begging him to not break up with me, he stayed firm.”
She turned, leaning her hip against the counter and stared at her mom’s sympathetic expression. “I was going to wait for him…fight for him. But that next month dad got cancer and it just seemed like the next year was a blur. I was finishing college, sitting with dad when he had chemo and trying to help you help dad. And then a year later, daddy was gone. By then, I didn’t care what Jobe Delaro had gone through. I was worth more. We were worth more than just him tossing us away.”
She gave a little shrug and finished wiping down the counters. Her mother was quiet and she wondered what was going through her head.
“Ya da wa in Vie-nam,” she said, struggling with the words. “He came bac not good.”
Staring at her mom, Mackenna realized that she had never heard this story. “Do you know what happened to him, mom?””
Shaking her head, Penny replied, “Na. He sad. Na sleep. Som-ti mad.” Lost in her thoughts for a moment, she then said, “It hur ta see him like tha.”
“What did you do? How did you survive?” Mackenna whispered.
Her mother gave a lopsided smile. “I jus lov him. Tha wa all I knew ta do.”
As her mother stood, Mackenna embraced her, holding tight. “I love you, mom.”
Later that night after her mother had gone to bed, Mackenna pulled her laptop onto the bed with her and began looking up sites on PTSD and soldiers. So much of the information she had seen before, both on the news and in articles, but none of it seemed to fit Jobe. So many talked about disengaging from work or friends. That’s certainly not him. Depression. Lack of energy. Nope, not him either.
Then she dug a little deeper and found that the symptoms could vary considerably from patient to patient. Detaching from loved ones. Difficulty imagining a future. Fear of losing control. Becoming workaholics. Now that describes him.
Reading a little more, she was vaguely aware of the sounds of a car backfiring on the street, piercing the quiet of the night. Then the shattering of glass. Shit, it’s gunfire!
Dropping to the floor, she threw open her door and crawled toward her mother’s bedroom. “Mom, Mom, don’t move,” she screamed. Her mother’s room was at the front of the house and she could see the window was shattered. Crawling through the glass on the floor, she glanced at the bed finding it empty.
“Mom?” she screamed again.
“I hea,” came her mom’s voice from behind. “I wa in ba-room.”
“Stay down,” Mackenna yelled as she crawled back to the hall, hugging her mom. Once out of the sight of windows, she grabbed her cell phone dialing 911. Quickly explaining the process, she pulled her mom back down the hall.
Instinct kicked in; assuming this was a gang drive-by she wanted to warn the center. Little John did not answer the phone, so she scrolled through her contacts to see who she could call. Jennifer. She can tell Gabe, who can have someone check the cameras.
She dialed Jennifer and told her what had happened, but before she could get out what she needed, Gabe came on the line.
She told him that the police were on their way to her house, but she was scared for the center. He assured her that Alvarez Security would take care of the center but wanted her to stay put until the police arrived. “Are you away from the windows?” he barked.
“Yes, we’re in the hall. I hear the sirens now.”