42. Corinthians
Corinthians
Iexpected Uri to go straight into the house and ask Judah about Orlando, but he didn’t. He went in, had dinner with my grandparents, and then took us back to the hotel. After Judah showered, we all sat in the living room playing Mario Kart before it was time for Judah to go to bed.
“Judah?” Uri called his name, and Judah looked up at him. “I got a question for you.”
“Okay.” He stood and moved his upper body to the side as he steered his car. He quickly looked over his shoulder at Uri when he didn’t say anything. “What’s up, Four?”
“It’s about what your teachers told me the other day when I came to pick you up at school,” Uri told him. I watched as Judah’s shoulders dropped and he slowly sat down. “Your PE teacher said you opened the gate.”
“I didn’t,” Judah quickly denied. “It was already open. He was standing there.”
“Who was it, Judah?” Uri asked.
Judah looked from Uri to me, and I nodded.
He was scared, I could tell, but I could also see the relief in his eyes.
He wanted to tell but hadn’t for some reason.
I always tried to make sure Judah knew he could tell me anything.
Uri paused the game, set the controller down, and gave Judah his full attention.
“You promise you won't be mad?” Judah asked.
“I have no reason to be mad at you,” Uri said.
Judah looked at me.
“I’m not going to be mad at you,” I reassured him.
“It was Sensei Orlando,” Judah quickly said. “He was in the yard. He was already my instructor when it happened. He said he was coming to make sure I was doing good in school.”
“Why didn’t you tell your mama?” Uri asked him.
“Because my other instructor did it before too.”
“What?” Uri turned and looked at me. “You knew about this?”
“Yeah, but it was different,” I told him.
“It was explained in the beginning that their instructor may come and check in with their school to make sure that they were following the rules and things like that. His last instructor did it. I was asked first, and I went with him to the school. It was when he went to that other school that Aurora had suggested. Not this one, and I don’t even know how he knew Judah had transferred there. I never updated his paperwork.”
“Alright,” Uri nodded, then turned back to Judah. “Is there anything else we need to know? Anybody come up to you? Teachers being mean for no reason?”
“My PE teacher is mean to me,” he answered. “He doesn’t let me play. I asked Ms. Campbell why, and she said it's because I wasn’t a good boy. I don’t do anything to get in trouble. But she still makes me sit down. Every time she comes out to the gym and tells him to make me sit down, he does.”
“Alright, yo mama and I are going to look into why that is,” Uri said, and Judah nodded. His iPad chimed in the other room. “That’s probably Deuce calling. Go answer it.”
Judah jumped up and ran to his room.
Uri pulled me to him, and I climbed into his lap. “I already talked to Nine; Judah is going to his house for the night. We are going to the warehouse to get some answers. That’s probably Deuce calling to invite him.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
Judah came back into the living room, iPad in his hand. “Can I go to Deuce's? His daddy already said I could, but I had to ask you.”
“Yeah,” I told him.
“She said yeah, Deuce!” Judah said into the iPad. “I’m on my way.”
***
I sat in the corner of the room Uri had Orlando in and waited for his screams to stop.
They weren’t going to stop any time soon; I knew that.
My left hand tapped against my thigh as I watched him.
My anxiety wasn’t from the things Uri was doing to him.
I had no empathy for Orlando. He was going to die no matter if it came from my hands or Uri’s.
No, my anxiety came from not knowing how Uri was going to pull himself from this dark place he’d put himself in to get the information we needed.
Olando was holding strong. He never asked for mercy; he never offered information.
He just screamed. And the more he screamed, the angrier Uri got.
This was the first time I was the viewer in this.
As fucked up as it sounds, I couldn’t watch; it brought back too many memories, mainly of the man who was standing in front of me.
I remembered how much Robert took pleasure in making me watch while he beat Uri.
How Uri just stood there, not flinching, nothing.
Blood would be everywhere, and he would just be there.
Afterward, he would be more concerned with me than his injuries.
Uri walked around Orlando, his eyes all but empty. He’d zoned out but in a different way than I’d seen before. This side of Uri came after me. This was who Robert wanted him to become.
The door opened, and Nine walked in. He looked at Uri, and over at me, then sighed as he came to stand next to me.
“How long has he been at it?” he asked.
I looked at the clock, then back at Uri.
“Two hours,” I answered. “He hasn’t said anything, just has been cutting.
” While I cut off Orlando’s fingers, Uri had decided to take a different approach.
He found the sharpest knife in the building and cut from the base of Orlando’s neck down to the heel of his foot.
He was slow and deliberate with his cuts, making sure that he didn’t cut too deep but deep enough to inflict the most pain.
“He’s not going to,” Nine said. “Not until he’s ready.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Maybe you shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m not leaving him,” I quickly informed him. “Where he goes, I go.”
“I know you two have a connection, but this is a side of him that you’ve never seen. When Four gets like this, it’s hard to pull him back in. He usually needs a few days.”
I laughed humorlessly and shook my head. “Nine, you have no idea of what I do or don’t know when it comes to Uri.”
He reared back and narrowed his eyes. Orlando stopped screaming, and we both turned to see Uri sitting in a chair in front of him. His clothes were covered in blood, and a knife rested in his hand.
“I-I-I-I-I-I-I’m only g-g-g-g-g-going t-t-t-t-t-to ask this o-o-o-o-o-once,” Uri sat forward and smiled. “Who sent you after my s-s-s-s-son?”
Orlando whimpered, and his body shook uncontrollably. He was starting to go into shock, which I think is what Uri wanted. Orlando’s head rolled side to side, and spit ran from his mouth. “I can’t,” he cried.
“You can,” Uri told him. “And you will.”
Orlando shook his head. “No,” he groaned. “I can’t.”
Uri stood; the knife in his hand went right into Orlando’s stomach. He cut from his left to right side, dropped the knife, then stuck his hand into the cut. Orlando screamed as Uri slowly pulled his colon from his abdomen. He let it go, and it hung from Orlando.
“If my hand goes back in, I’m bringing your bladder out,” Uri told him as he patted his face with a bloody hand. “Now answer my question!”
“Logan,” Orlando cried as he coughed up blood. “Logan sent me.”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Uri asked him as he patted his cheek again. “Now I know who to kill next. You could’ve saved yourself a lot of pain.”
“He did it to scare you,” Orlando cried. “He knows you will do anything to protect her.”
“And I will,” Uri confirmed with a nod. “Have my entire life.”
“Robert is coming for her again,” Orlando mumbled, then his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Uri walked around him, wrapped his hands around his head, then twisted. The sound of his neck breaking echoed through the room.
***
Uri stood in the shower, water running, his head down, letting the water wash away whatever he was feeling.
I sat on the counter, legs crossed, trying to figure out how to get him out of the headspace he’d been in since last night when we left the warehouse.
We’d gone back to his house after leaving.
I don’t think Uri realized where he’d gone until it was too late.
The look of anger and frustration in his eyes was evident; he needed a moment to decompress.
He’d had Nine check his entire security system, and they both agreed no one had been in his house. They couldn’t say the same for mine.
I put my chin in my palm and watched him. He was trying to do it himself, but I could see he was struggling. He’d always done it for me without me having to ask, and I knew that I needed to do the same for him.
My phone buzzed on the counter, and I looked over to see a text from Nine; he wanted to talk.
He’d heard what Orlando had said before Uri killed him and had a million questions.
Sighing, I swiped the screen, then turned back to Uri.
I knew that Judah was safe, so Uri’s mental space was my priority; everything else could wait.
He shut off the water, opened the door, and I picked up his towel from next to me.
He put his hand out, and I shook my head, climbed down, and approached him.
“I’m going to touch you,” I told him. “Not to hurt you or make you feel less than. I’m doing it because I can see you need it.
You take care of me without question or hesitation, so let me do the same for you.
” His eyes watched my every move. I used the towel to dry him off.
I started with his face and made my way down, then went to his back and dried him.
When I was finished, I tossed the towel in the sink, picked up the lotion, and applied it to his body.
I got another towel from the closet, wrapped it around his waist, took his hand, and led him back to his bedroom.
I let go of his hand, went to his drawer, grabbed a pair of basketball shorts and tall socks, and handed them to him.
He dropped the towel, pulled on the shorts, and then sat on the edge of the bed to put on his socks.
When he was done, he looked up at me. “Come on.”
Uri took my hand, and we walked down to the first floor, through the living room and to the kitchen.
I made some sandwiches for us, grabbed some chips and a couple of bottles of water, then took him outside.
It was sprinkling, but that wasn’t going to be a problem.
In the backyard, near the deck, was a large bubble tent.
He’d bought it so that Judah and Deuce could sleep under the stairs without getting eaten up by bugs.
Now, I was going to use it for us. I unzipped the tent and walked in.
Uri followed behind me. The tent was big enough for a full-size air mattress, an air pump to inflate it, a fan, a small table, and for him to stand without bending.
“You don’t have to talk,” I told him once we were finished setting up everything.
The air pump didn’t take long to blow up the bed, and the fan was blowing cool air.
I opened one of the water bottles and drank some.
“I’m good with sitting in silence, but I want you to know something.
” He took a bite of his sandwich and nodded.
“You don’t have to go there for me to love you.
That mental place that you’re in right now? It’s not necessary.”
“I need to protect you and Judah,” he said, shaking his head. His voice was low, rough, and filled with anger. “I don’t want you to have to see me like that though.”
“I’ve seen you every way possible,” I reminded him.
“The good, bad, ugly, and loving.” I wiped my hands, then cupped his jaw.
“I’m going to love you despite any of that.
Hell, I’m going to love you because I don’t know how not to.
No one can stop that, not Robert or Logan.
Without us even having to say it, we knew that Robert was going to show his hand. ”
“I did,” he nodded, then licked his lips. “I didn’t expect Logan.”
“What do you want to do, Uri?” I asked, letting his face go. “Whatever you want to do, know that I’m going to be with your decision.”
His brow creased, and his eyes narrowed. “We aren’t breaking up,” he told me.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “When did I say we were breaking up?” I asked him and smiled when he visibly relaxed. “We aren’t about to do that third act break up thing.”
“What the hell is that?” he asked.
“It's something Krude told me about,” I told him. “In books, after all the drama happens, the characters usually break up for a little while. It’s called a third act break up.”
“We ain’t doing that,” he said, shaking his head.
“I didn’t plan on it, so again I’m going to ask. What do you want to do? Go after Robert and Logan hard and fast or plot some shit out?”
“A little bit of both,” he suggested. “I need to talk to Nine, have him start moving shit around for me.”
“Okay.” I took a bite of my sandwich. “Whatever it is you have planned, I’m game.”