17. Uri
Uri
Iheard the whip crack, the pressure on my back for a few seconds, and then nothing. Again, Robert took his anger out on me, and I just stood there. Strapped to a table, not caring, yet allowing my anger to build.
“Never hesitate!” Robert yelled as he continued to hit me.
“No matter the person, no matter the reason. Never hesitate!” The crack of the whip echoed through the room.
I could see Robert through the mirror on the wall.
His sleeves were rolled up because he was hot and sweaty, his eyes wild, his hair all over his head—nothing like the man in the boardroom that he commanded.
“I told you to fight! To kill him! But you didn’t listen!
You never listen!” Again, the pressure from the whip pushed into my skin—no pain, never pain, just the feeling of pressure for a moment, then nothing.
“You may as well let him go,” Logan chuckled from his corner as he ate an apple. “You know the nigga don’t care, and he can't feel shit you doing.” He bit into his apple and chewed slowly. “You are working yourself up for nothing.”
“He still has to learn,” Robert huffed. He dropped the whip on the table beside me, then picked up a towel and wiped his face. Sweat and blood mixed, leaving the white towel pink-spotted.
“Ain’t shit else you can teach him,” Logan chuckled. “You took everything away from him.” He pointed around the room. “You locked him in this damn basement and only let him come out when you want him to fight.”
“Everyone always has a lesson,” Robert said, stepping around me. He grabbed my face to make me look at him. “You have something you’re holding on to, or you wouldn’t still be standing here. You have a reason to fight.” He got in my face. “What is it?”
I didn’t say anything, and Robert wasn’t expecting me to.
I hadn’t said anything in years. Not since he dragged me to Corinthians’ family funeral years ago.
He’d killed them, had a car crash into them, and then put bullets in their heads afterward to make sure they died.
How do I know? Because he told me. He gloated about the car wreck and his ability to get away with ten murders.
The only couple that lived was Mathew and his wife.
Why he let them live, I will never know, but he killed the rest. I saw the satisfaction he felt watching their funeral, but what turned my stomach was the enjoyment in his eyes when he saw Corinthians.
When we got back to the warehouse, he’d been so excited at the thought of Corinthians living with him that he could barely sit.
Our lawyer coming in and breaking the news to him that the paperwork hadn’t been properly filled out had sent him into a rage.
For hours he beat me, breaking my ribs, left arm, leg, and crushing the bones in my hands.
And even then, that wasn’t enough. He went home, beating my mama to the point that now she walks with a permanent limp.
For months after, Robert had tried to find every loophole and came up empty-handed. I did not pray, but I started after I found out he wouldn’t get her. I prayed that whatever was going on would stay in place until she was old enough not to need a guardian.
Corinthians, Psalms, and her cousins all lived with their grandparents. Everyone except Cross and her parents, who moved to Arizona to hide from Robert and Logan, but they knew where they were.
Robert let my face go, then hit me. My head flew to the left, and blood ran from my mouth. I didn’t lift it, not because he had won but because there was no reason to. Robert would stop hitting me when he became exhausted.
“Just kill him,” Logan laughed. “That’s the only peace you’ll ever feel.”
“Shut the fuck up, Logan,” Robert said, then threw the towel on the table. “Shut up before it’s you I kill.”
I lifted my head to see Logan glaring at Robert. He shut up and continued eating his apple, which made me smirk. Logan was weak, but his patience was starting to thin. Robert didn’t have the hold on him that he once did. The constant disrespect he subjected Logan to was becoming too much.
Robert stood near the door, crossed his arms, and watched me. “Call the doctor to have him checked out,” he said glaring at me. “Untie him and take him to his room.”
“His room?” Logan asked. “Why?”
“Drug him and make it look like he’s sleeping. Bradon is coming by,” Robert instructed, then left.
“I hate that nigga,” Logan said as he stood.
He could have been talking about either Robert or Uncle Bradon.
Over the years, Uncle Bradon had made both their lives a living hell.
After Robert paid back the money he had embezzled from the life insurance policy he held on Ruben and Angel, Uncle Bradon took over this office.
Robert and Logan answered to him. Robert and Logan went to the office every day and at night still ran the fights.
That was the only control they had; Uncle Bradon had no idea of what they were doing.
And to keep him in the dark, they kept Kenbral and me away.
Robert told him that we went to boarding school across the country.
Every so often, he would have us around, saying we were home for break.
Hearing that Robert had planned for me to be in my room when he came was a surprise.
In the corner of the room was a medicine cabinet where Robert kept the sedative that he used on me. That’s where we were now; he drugged me to make me comply. Otherwise, he knew that I would fight.
Logan took out a prefilled syringe, uncapped it, then approached me. He jabbed it into my neck. I closed my eyes and waited. In my dreams, I was free.
***
I kept my eyes closed until I heard the door close, then I slowly moved my hand from my face.
The room was dark; I could hear people talking, but I wasn’t in the basement.
Logan had left me in my room; every so often, he’d check on me and, if he felt like I needed it, give me another shot.
This time he hadn’t; he’d gotten a call. Robert needed him to get a girl.
I got up from the bed and looked around.
My eyes stopped on the clock on the dresser.
Thunder clapped through the air, and I shook my head.
I wasn’t about to waste time. I didn’t know how long Logan would be gone, and I wasn’t taking any chance of not being able to leave.
Moving quicker than I probably should have, I went to my closet and got the only pair of shoes up here.
My room wasn’t bare; Robert had things in here, so it looked like I used it when I was here.
I climbed out of the window and used the trellis bolted to the house to lower myself to the ground.
I’d done this enough times to know where to step and grab so that I wouldn’t fall.
When I got to the ground, I looked around to make sure that no one was around, then snuck along the side of the house and down the driveway.
Even though it was raining, I wasn’t stopping.
I made it to the other side of town, then caught a bus.
I had a thirty-minute ride to where I wanted to go.
The rain stopped by the time I got to my stop.
I got off, made my way through the neighborhood, eventually making my way to the blue house that sat in the middle of the block.
The sky started to get dark again, and I knew the rain was about to start up.
I snuck around the back of the house and tapped on the window.
No one came to the window. I stood, looked around, then pushed open the window and climbed inside.
The room was clean, there was nothing out of place, and it smelled like lavender.
This wasn’t the first time I’d been here, but I still looked around, taking everything in as if it were my last. I knew if I got caught, I’d never be able to do this again. Robert would kill me.
I sat in the corner of the room under the window and watched Corinthians sleep.
She looked peaceful, like nothing bad ever happened to her, and I wished it didn’t.
She didn’t deserve the things she’d been through.
I looked at the clock near her bed; it was a little after two am.
In the past I’d only stayed for an hour; tonight, it would be no different.
I’d been coming to check on her every chance I got since Robert had her parents killed.
She never knew I was here; no one did. I always came through the window and left before anyone found me.
My eyes started to close; it was like my body knew I was safe and could relax.
I don’t know if it was because of lavender or because I was close to Corinthians; whichever one it was, I was good with it.
Just for a little while, I was happy because I knew she was safe.