Chapter 21
(Die/Beanie Sigel)
“Die cause them niggas was jeal and envied me…”
“Hi.” a bald headed jogger spoke as he floated past me.
“Hey.” I replied as I continued on at my own pace.
I was desperately trying to take my mind off all the drama going on.
Things had gotten so crazy that I had to turn off my cell phone.
Somehow the haters had gotten a hold of my new number.
I thought that everything would have died down by now, but it just wasn’t the case.
I received prank calls all day long. I tried to brush the shit off, but it was starting to get under my skin.
So, I was walking around the track in the park near my home to relieve some stress.
All of my children were either in daycare or at school.
Jahrein was out trying to handle some business.
He was hell bent on getting at Khalil, and at that point I couldn’t blame him.
Some asshole left seven dead roses on our front door step.
Somehow our mailbox gets knocked down every night.
We found a dead cat in our driveway. So, whoever was behind that had too much time on their hands.
I was starting to think that Khalil wasn’t doing those things.
I mean, the dude was a hustler on a major scale, so when did he find the time to do this bullshit?
I was putting in a real workout. I had so much on my mind that I didn’t even realize how long I’d been walking.
I took a look at my Movado watch and saw that it was almost three o’clock.
It was almost time for me to pick up my kids from school.
So, I made my way to my Benz. Parked right next to me was Khalil’s Lexus truck.
In fact, he was leaning on it with his arms folded.
My heart rate instantly sped up. I decided that my best bet would be to get in my ride and get the fuck out of dodge.
I was kicking myself for leaving my cell phone inside the truck.
I scrambled to find my keys. Before I could even unlock the doors with my alarm switch he was standing in front of my door.
“Move.” I said trying to sound strong. I was scared shitless, just because he‘d obviously gone out of his way to find me. Had he been following me?
“Now why would I do that?” he gritted.
“What do you want?” I attempted to back away. He quickly grabbed my arm forcefully.
“Where you going, huh? Don’t tell me that you scared. No, not Ms. Bad Ass Raven.”
“Khalil, there are people out here that can call the police on you. So, if you do anything to me you’ll go straight to jail.”
“Do you think that I give a fuck?! Do you honestly think that’s it’s that simple? You can just throw a nigga away when you’re done?”
“Khalil, I didn’t do anything. I always told you that I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do. You chose to stick around.” I reminded him.
“Yeah, so that you could fuck me with no Vaseline. You knew what you were doing. You didn’t stop me when I gave you damn near ten G’s to put down on that Navigator.
You didn’t stop me when I got that damn house with the 1900 dollar mortgage.
You never said a damn thing when we stepped foot in Saks. ”
“Khalil, those are all material things that can be replaced. If it means that much to you we can pay you back.” I told him. I was saying anything to get him out of my face.
“We, huh? You and your husband would actually reimburse a nigga, huh? Yeah right. That nigga aint gon give me a dime. I don’t want his money, anyway. This aint about that. I gets money. You couldn’t come close to breaking me, but bitch you owe me.”
“Owe you? What are you talking about?”
“A nigga is out on bond right now, because of your trick ass.”
“How can you blame me? You showed up to my house unannounced. I can’t control what Jah did. Why are you trying to make me out to be the bad guy?”
“Bitch, because you don’t give a fuck! You moved on and didn’t even look back. You don’t remember laying in the bed with me every night telling a nigga you care about him?”
“And that was the truth. I care about you. The three and a half months with you were nice, but I’m trying to do what’s best for my family.”
“Well, why didn’t you tell me this like a real woman?”
“I don’t know. I often run from things. I didn’t want to hurt you, so I avoided the situation.”
“No, see you been playing games from the beginning. You knew that you was going to go back to that nigga. You have had enough kids to know when you’re pregnant, so your ass was on borrowed time from the get go.” he growled as he tightened his grip.
“No, I didn’t know that I was pregnant because my periods are sometimes irregular. It didn’t really dawn on me until me and Jahrein were on real bad terms. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried to keep you at a distance. You was just so persistent.” I tried to get him to understand.
“So, this is my fault?”
“It’s nobody’s fault. The timing is just not right for us.”
“So, you never really loved me?”
I gave him a crazy look. “I never told you that I love you, Khalil.”
“Cause, I aint Jahrein, huh?” I could see the hurt in his eyes.
“Come on, Khalil. Why are we even going here? You should know by now.”
“Shut up!” he barked as he reached back and slapped me.
The right side of my face was stinging. The situation was getting uglier by the second. Reasoning wasn’t going to work with him, so I tried pull away from him. His grip was extra tight. “Let me go!” I screamed as I flailed my arms.
“Naw, you gon listen. Fuck that little nigga! Do you know how many bitches would love to be with me?! What can his bitch ass do that I can’t, huh?
” he asked as he violently shook by body.
I was finally beginning to see what Khalil’s dilemma was.
This situation messed with his ego. Up until now, there wasn’t a woman in his life that he hadn’t conquered. My rejection was killing him.
“I don’t give a damn about who wants you! Let me go!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Somebody help me!”
“Shut up!” he whispered harshly as he slapped me repeatedly while he had my body pinned up against my truck.
I couldn’t believe that this was happening. Khalil was the easy going suave nigga. He didn’t hit women. The blows he threw were like none that I’d ever felt. Each hit damn near dazed me. There was some real anger behind those slaps. He was overpowering me, and that scared the hell out of me.
I really tried to fight his ass off when I realized that he was opening his truck’s door. He was trying to shove me inside.
“No! No! Help me!” I cried. I saw my entire life flash before my eyes. I just knew that the nigga was going to kill me.
I was calling God and whoever else would listen. “Somebody help!” I screamed with all the strength I had left in my body. “Lord, help me!”
God is always on time. I felt a strong push and soon realized that someone else had entered our tussle. The bald headed jogger had come to my rescue! With the extra help I was given renewed strength. I was throwing jabs all over the place.
Finally, Khalil released me. He and the bald headed guy were in a full fledged brawl by then. Khalil was beginning to gain momentum on the older black guy. That’s when I knew that I had to make a break for it.
I stumbled to my truck and hopped in. I hit the locks and started the engine. I backed out of the lot, without looking back. I thought about running Khalil’s ass over. I hated to leave the bald-headed man on his own, but I had to get out of there.
I was out of breath as I dialed 911. “Somebody just tried to attack me!”
“Where are you now, ma’am?” the dispatcher asked me.
“I’m leaving the scene right now.”
“Where’s the attacker?”
“He’s still at Riley’s park. A pedestrian stopped and helped me. When I left they were still fighting.”
“Do you know the attacker’s name?”
“Yes, his name is Khalil Hodge and he‘s wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. And he has braids.”
“Okay, well, I’m sending a unit out right now.”
“Thank you.” I said before I hung up the phone, then I called Jahrein.
As the phone rang I thought about how close my life came to being over. I was crying so hard that my words were barely audible once he answered.
“Hello. Raven?” I heard Jahrein say into the phone. I knew that he could hear me crying.
“Hello.” I sniffled.
“What’s wrong?” he asked me.
“Khalil just tried to kidnap meeee.” I sobbed.
“What?!”
“I was jogging at the park by the house.” I sniffed. “He, he was standing by my truck. He tried to force me into his truck. I think he was going to kill me.” I bawled.
“Where are you right now?!” he shouted into the phone.
“I’m on the freeway.”
“What freeway?”
“59.”
“Okay. I want you to get on 288 and drive to me. I’m on Cullen and Reed Rd.”
“Okay.” I sniffled.
That ride seemed like the longest ever. I kept checking my rearview mirror to make sure that no one was following me. When I pulled up at Jahrein’s boy Tony’s house he was standing in the driveway. Along with like twenty other niggas. Before I put the truck in PARK Jahrein snatched my door open.
“You alright?” he asked as he examined my face. My lip was busted, there was a speed bump on my forehead, and a few scratches on my face and neck. “That nigga is dead!” Jahrein roared.
After my Benz was completely parked I hopped out. “Yeah, we should’ve been handled that nigga when you wanted to, Jah.” Jared said as he looked up at saw my battered face while going through the trunk of his car.
“Oh, I got something for that ass.” Tony claimed from his garage. The nigga was holding a Mack 10.
Things were about to get real in the battle field. I never saw that day coming and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. A part of me wanted that nigga Khalil to suffer for terrorizing my ass, but I didn’t want my man to get locked up behind it.