Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
KAIRI MOORE
ONE MONTH LATER
“Kairi, there’s someone in booth two, go and take their order,” Mr. Blair instructed me.
I turned in the direction of the booth and froze.
That was Havoc’s booth. It had been a whole month since I last saw him.
Even though that time I was drunk out of my head.
It was never my intention to call him. I’d gone out hoping to have a good time, get a little drunk, and get rid of any thoughts of him, but that wasn’t the case.
In my drunken state, I called him, and he showed up.
After that, everything else was a blur, but Sparkle had let me know what went down, and of course, Shakur had a whole lot to say about it too. He cussed me out the whole ride home and for days later.
He made me promise again that I’d stay away from Makari. And even though I meant it, I just didn’t expect us to never see each other again. A month was a long ass time.
It had been affecting my moods, making me feel stressed all the time. Even work had been feeling heavy later. I knew why, even though I lied to myself, but the thought of seeing him again had me conflicted.
I stood there in the same spot thinking about what I could say to him after all this time. Would he even want to hear anything I had to say? But the fact that he came to the club knowing I was going to be here had to mean something, right?
“Kairi,” Mr. Blair snapped his fingers in my face. “Go now.”
I nodded, grabbed my notepad, and made my way over. Every step, I could feel my heart racing uncontrollably, and my legs felt weaker the closer I got. My palms were sweating.
I took a deep breath and finally mustered up enough courage to open my mouth.
“Hi, can I take your order?” I said because those were the only words that formed in my mind to say.
He lifted his head to look at me, and I froze. It wasn’t him.
The unknown older man gave me a half smile before giving me his order. I made a note of it and quickly rushed back to the bar, feeling both relieved and saddened that it wasn’t Havoc after all.
“Maybe it’s for the best,” I mumbled to myself, knowing it was a good thing that it wasn’t him.
I pushed myself through the rest of the night and had to will my mind not to wander on Havoc again.
Give another month, and I won’t even think about him again, I thought as I left the closed bar and made my way to Shakur’s car.
“I definitely need to get myself my own car. I can’t keep borrowing my brother’s.”
I’d grown used to my dad dropping me everywhere, so getting a car of my own was never a priority, but it was time to grow up.
I took a brief look around, hating how quiet the parking lot got after closing. I found myself jumping at a shadow—a bad memory hitting me. I shook it off.
As I searched for the car keys, I heard a car door open and close behind me, but I didn’t pay it any mind.
I then heard footsteps behind me. My breathing hiked. Was it Makari?
I slowly turned, once again, expecting it to be him, but it was Sony. My lips twisted in frustration as he slowly approached me.
“Kairi, let me take you home. I wanna talk to you about something,” he said as if he and I were ever friends like that. I looked at him like the stupid nigga he was.
“You must be out of your mind, Sony. Leave me alone.”
There was never a time that we were friends, but we damn sure weren’t after what he did to my dad. I was never going to forgive or forget that. He was just lucky I didn’t want to get my brother in trouble, or I would have told him the truth by now.
I rolled my eyes, turned on my heels, and continued on my way to my brother’s car.
“Oh, but if I was Havoc, I bet I wouldn’t even have to ask twice.”
His words made me stop in my tracks because that wasn’t anything he should know. I slowly turned back to face him, and he had a scowl on his face.
Before I could ask him what he just said, Sony grabbed me by the hair and pulled me into his body.
“You think you’re too good now? Huh? You think you’re better than me!” he yelled in my face.
What the hell was he talking about?
“Let me go!” I tried to slap him in the face, but he grabbed that arm and bent it back, making me scream.
He started to drag me by my hair over to his truck. When I tried to kick him, he let my arm and hair go and picked me up off the ground and put a hand over my mouth.
I struggled to get free as he brought me over to his truck. I looked around. Nobody was around. Sony opened the back passenger door of his truck and threw me inside.
He then climbed in next and closed the door. I tried to go out of the other side, but it wouldn’t open. The childproof lock was on!
Sony turned me around and slapped me across the face a few times, completely dazing me.
“Bitch, you wanna look down on me! I’ll kill you!” he gritted in my face.
He was sounding crazy and unhinged.
He wrapped his left hand around my throat and squeezed, cutting off my air. I clawed at his hand, but he wouldn’t let go.
While he continued to choke me with one hand, I kicked and swung my fists recklessly, hoping to catch him. I felt my eyes getting heavy. I was losing consciousness. He yanked my sweatpants down and ripped my panties. My eyes rolled just as I heard his zipper go down.
Suddenly, someone opened the passenger door, and I felt him being dragged off me. I inhaled sharply and coughed violently, my throat burning from the lack of oxygen.
“Nigga, are you out of your fucking mind!” I heard a woman’s voice. After taking a few minutes to recover, I looked and saw that it was River.
“Baby, what you doing here?”
“What am I doing here? What the fuck you doing here?! I knew you were caught up on this bitch! I knew it! You really that pressed for some pussy that you were gonna take it!” she yelled and shoved him.
I quickly pulled up my sweatpants, jumped down, and ran past them.
I could hear them arguing and fighting as I rushed for Shakur’s car. My hands shook as I unlocked the car, hopped in, and started it. The tires screeched from how fast I sped out of there.
Tears poured down my face. What if River didn’t decide to follow him? He would have raped me and killed me.
I started hyperventilating so much that I had to pull over. I clutched my chest and cried hard.
A numbness washed over me.
Did that really happen? Was that real? I really couldn’t tell anymore. A sudden feeling of nausea hit me, and I closed my eyes, wishing I had someone to help me.
Even now, I knew that I couldn’t tell Shakur what just happened. I knew Viper, and he would kill my brother and maybe even my daddy, too.
Suddenly, the thought of going home hit me hard. There was no way I could go home in this state. My father and even Shakur would immediately pick up that something happened to me.
Thoughts of Havoc then clouded my mind. If he and I were still talking, would I have gone to him?
I jumped at the sound of a car door slamming shut. Panic made me immediately pull away and head for Sparkle’s house, which felt like the only place I could feel safe.
She was the only one who truly knew what happened the first night Sony tried to assault me. My dad heard the water downed version, and that was only because I made the choice to report it to the cops, but Sparkle was there that night. She knew how bad it really was.
As soon as I pulled up on her driveway, I saw her open the front door. Like Shakur, she had installed one of those Ring doorbells, so I knew she saw me before I even finished getting out of the car.
“Heffa, what you doing here this time of night like you my man or something?” she jested but stopped when she saw my face. “What happened?”
Tears rolled over my cheeks as I walked toward her.
“Sony—he—” I couldn’t even finish what I was saying. Sparkle took my hand and led me into her house.
“He what?” she fumed. I sighed and then went on to explain what happened.
“Kairi, I’m so sorry!” Sparkle cried, then she wrapped me in her arms.
We remained hugged up for a few minutes, until my phone ringing put a stop to it. My eyes widened when I pulled it out and saw that it was Shakur.
Seeing me stall, confused on whether I should answer it or not, Sparkle took it from my hand and answered it on speakerphone.
“Excuse me, can I have some time with my best friend without you bothering us?” she said and giggled.
I couldn’t help smiling when he sucked his teeth.
“I should have known she was with you,” he said.
“Mmhm, now good night, we busy,” Sparkle playfully sassed, and he hung up.
“Thank you,” I said. I knew if I had answered, he would have picked up that something was wrong from my voice, even if I told him that I was with Sparkle. And Shakur was crazy enough to show up at her house, even in the middle of the night.
Sparkle led me to her living room to take a seat. Even now, my hands were shaking.
What would have happened to me if River never showed up?
Now that she caught him in the act, I knew that he wouldn’t try it again any time soon, but I knew that eventually, he would. Then what would I do?
“You know he’s gonna try that shit again, right?” Sparkle asked as if she could somehow read my mind. I nodded to agree.
Sony was relentless, and for whatever reason, he had his eyes on me, so I knew there was no getting away.
Sparkle cupped my hands in hers, making me look at her.
“He’s already tried twice. I’m not letting him get a third chance,” she said. Her words made me bite into my bottom lip.
This was the second time I’d gotten away from him, but would I get away if he tried again? It was merely chance that River followed him tonight, and I didn’t think chance would be on my side for the third time.
“Do you trust me?” she asked, staring me in the eyes.
“Yes, you know I do.”
“Good, because I have a way to get rid of Sony, and nobody will ever find out.”
She didn’t have to say; I could read between the lines. Getting rid of him meant taking his life. I wasn’t stupid.
I never ever saw myself as being a person who could take another person’s life, but right now, it was either him or me, and I was choosing myself.
I looked my best friend in the eyes and asked, “What do you need me to do?”