4. Vanya
VANYA
“I’m not fucking with you anymore after tonight,” I rolled my eyes at Tee doubting she would remember anything I said to her once she woke up and was sober.
Tasha picked me up which I knew was a mistake, but I had a slow leak in one of my tires, and I hadn’t had a chance to go get it plugged.
Getting a rideshare was heavy on my mind, but Tee convinced me to ride with her.
The moment I got in her car, she tossed back a bean (ecstasy pill).
At the party, she drank like a fish, and she wasn’t driving me anywhere.
I wasn’t as inebriated as she was, so I drove her car to her house.
If I was smart, I would have gone home and hid her keys, so she was forced to spend the night with me.
Now, I was exhausted and would have to sleep in her spare bedroom until I got enough rest to feel comfortable in a rideshare.
I had taken a shower right before the party, but I couldn’t get good sleep if I didn’t wash my ass before hitting the sheets.
In Tee’s guest bathroom, I took the fastest shower I’d ever taken.
Shit, I didn’t stink, I just wanted outside off me.
After drying off, I put on the spare shirt and panties I had in my dance bag and snuggled underneath the covers.
Tee spent more time running the streets and sleeping than she did cleaning, so her living room was messy as fuck, but that didn’t concern me because the guest room was clean, and the bed was comfortable.
My eyes closed, and I waited for sleep to consume me. Just as I felt myself drifting off, my body jerked, and I jolted awake. I was confused why until I heard it again. Tee’s headboard knocking into the wall and her loud moaning.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I mumbled through gritted teeth.
I should have just chanced it and got in an Uber.
Putting a pillow over my head didn’t even muffle the noise completely.
With a groan, I sat up and reached for my phone.
It was four in the morning, but I was taking my chances.
After pulling on a pair of black sweatpants, I put my slides on.
The noise stopped just as I grabbed my phone to go in the rideshare app.
“Damn that was so fucking good,” Tee crooned through the thin ass walls. Once again, I rolled my eyes.
“You think my driver wouldn’t realize I was being followed?” the man speaking had a voice that would make the average woman’s panties moist, if he was saying anything other than what I had just heard. His tone was low, but the walls were thin.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Followed? Why would I have someone to follow you to my house?”
There was a brief silence followed by a loud thud that made me jump. My eyes narrowed as I tried to assess what had happened. Did he knock her into the wall?
“Oh you don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about?
Bitch, I don’t go anywhere without shooters much less to a hood rat’s apartment.
You live in a nice area, but you can’t take the rat out of a bitch no matter how you dress that hoe up.
The niggas you thought were going to rob me are already standing at the gate waiting to get into hell. ”
My heart galloped so ferociously in my chest that it almost prevented me from hearing because of the way it filled my ears. I swallowed hard while straining to hear.
“Kalim, stop!” Tee screamed at the top of her lungs.
My heart was pounding so fast my chest was starting to hurt.
I took one hand and rubbed like that would make the tightness disappear.
Kalim?! As in our boss, Kalim? Fine ass, rich, gangster turned businessman, Kalim?
Tee’s mother was very sane, so for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why she did the dumb ass shit that she did.
I turned the volume all the way down on my phone and dialed 911.
As soon as the dispatcher answered, I whispered Tee’s address into the phone while there was more thumping and bumping in Tee’s room.
Of course, she was attempting to ask me questions, but the address was all she was getting.
Just as I was about to repeat the address, a deafening pop sounded off, and my entire body jerked, as I covered my mouth with my hands.
Kalim Moore had just shot Tee. The second shot made my knees buckle.
All I could do was pray the dispatcher heard the shots and would send someone ASAP.
When I heard footsteps, I grabbed my phone and rolled underneath the bed.
Hanging up on the dispatcher, with shaking hands, I went to my camera and pressed record.
I pushed the phone down in my shorts and tried very hard not to move.
The room door slowly opened, and my body began to tremble.
When I saw Kalim’s knees touch the carpet, I knew I was cooked.
He lifted the comforter, and we locked eyes as he peered underneath the bed.
The devilish grin that crossed his face made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I had never seen a man so damn fine yet so damn ugly at the same time.
His cold, dark eyes told me that if he had his way, I wouldn’t be leaving Tee’s house alive.
All I could do was pray that someone found my phone.
His face wouldn’t be on it, but maybe his voice would.
He grabbed my arm and dragged me from underneath the bed. My skin burned as he yanked me roughly across the carpet. I kicked with all my might, but that didn’t do anything. He cocked his gun and stared down at me with empty orbs as he pointed the gun at me.
“Kalim, please no. You don’t have to do this,” I cried.
Kalim’s head angled slightly to the left as a curious look covered his face.
I was sure he wondered why I’d called his name.
Or maybe I was imagining things. Either way, I didn’t have to dwell.
I was barely able to complete a prayer asking God to forgive me for my sins before a deafening pop sounded off followed by a searing burning pain in my stomach.
It was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life, but two more shots ended that as I fell into darkness.
When I finally woke up, the bright light in the room made me frown and blink rapidly, so my eyes could adjust. I’d opened my eyes plenty of times, saw that I was in the hospital, and went right back into an abyss.
There were times that I could hear everything going on around me, but my body felt as if it weighed a ton.
I couldn’t move or open my eyes. I spotted my mother sitting in a recliner that was tucked in the corner of the room.
When she noticed that I was awake, she jumped up and ran over to the bed.
“Vanya. Oh my God, I’ve been so worried.”
My tongue felt thick and as heavy as my body. It was stuck to the roof of my mouth which was so dry that it hurt to swallow. “How long have I been here?”
My voice was extremely low and hoarse. On top of that, my nerves seemed to be waking up and the pain in my body was so intense that my teeth began to click together as if I was cold. The extreme discomfort reminded me that Kalim stood over me with a gun and shot me three times at close range.
“Tee.” My heart slammed into my ribcage, and I panicked.
“You’ve been here for two days.” My mother’s voice cracked. I held my breath while wondering why she was avoiding the question about Tee.
My chest felt like an elephant was standing on it. It was uncomfortably tight, and I had parted my lips to speak when a nurse entered the room halting my words.
“Well, hello. We’ve been waiting for you to stay awake for longer than a few minutes. How do you feel?” she inquired in a chipper tone.
I couldn’t answer her. All I could do was stare at my mother, who had eyes filled with sadness. I choked down a sob as she mumbled the words, “She didn’t make it.”
Pain radiated through my neck down to my chest, abdomen, and even my thighs.
No matter how much my body ached, all I could think about was Tee.
There were plenty of times she worked my nerves but dead?
Fuck. As tears spilled over my eyelids, the nurse alternated between comforting me and asking me questions.
I’d been shot in the side of my abdomen, my left thigh, and my right shoulder.
Thanks to the call I made to 911, my mother told me the paramedics got to me before I bled out.
Even with my eyes open for a moment, all I could see was Kalim standing over me.
A chill so cold ran down my spine that I shivered.
It wasn’t until the nurse asked me if I was hungry that I realized I was actually starving.
She knew more than likely I wouldn’t be able to handle anything heavy, so she promised to return with chicken broth and Jello.
“Baby, do you remember what happened?” my mother asked as soon as the nurse left the room. “The police have been up here three times in the two days that you’ve been here. They leave a card every time.”
I blew out a shaky breath. I absolutely remembered who shot me.
I also remembered everything that happened.
I knew my mom wouldn’t say anything, but I wasn’t telling her who killed Tee and tried to kill me.
Tears burned my eyes as I thought about the fact that Tee was dead, and I could have been dead.
I had no clue if she actually had someone to follow him but if so, that was the dumbest thing she could have ever done.
The nigga was more than rich. He was connected.
A connected, cold-blooded savage that didn’t make it this far in the game without being smart as hell.
It had to be the drugs that clouded her judgement because what the fuck?
There was no telling who the men were that Kalim killed.
All I could do was hope they weren’t anyone in our family.
Between anger and sadness, I wasn’t sure which emotion I felt the deepest. Opening my mouth to lie was a task I wasn’t up to completing.
I simply shook my head no, and my mother released a small sigh.
“This is crazy. Who would do something like this? Why? She had finger marks around her neck and bruises on her face. She was also naked.”
My mother didn’t know I danced. I was an adult, but I didn’t want her to know her thirty-year-old daughter danced topless for money.
She already felt bad accepting money from me because she knew I really didn’t have it to spare.
If she felt like she was part of the reason I was dancing, she really wouldn’t want to take the money.
Thinking about dancing was another reason for me to cry.
I didn’t want the tears to fall in front of my mother, so I rested my head on the pillow and closed my eyes.
There was no telling how long I’d be out of work.
I needed my money out of Tee’s house and my phone. My phone! My eyes flew open alerting my mother.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just remembered my phone. I had my phone on me when I was shot.” My neck was stiff, but I ignored the pain as I looked around the room.
It wasn’t like I’d be sad if the police got in my phone and heard the recording of me saying Kalim’s name.
However, I wasn’t going to cooperate with them.
Diamond Cove PD would be quick as hell to ask me to write a statement and get on the stand but when Kalim sent someone after my ass, they wouldn’t be anywhere to be found.
I was about to be out of work and fucked up physically.
I couldn’t even turn in bed without wincing from the pain, so I wouldn’t be dancing any time soon.
On top of that, when Kalim found out I wasn’t dead who was to say he wouldn’t come back and try to finish the job.
I didn’t know what to do and suddenly, despite the growling in my stomach, I couldn’t fathom eating.
The urge to vomit was consuming me. Every time I’d swallow, saliva would quickly fill my mouth.
A sure sign that I was about to throw up.
If the police didn’t have my phone I needed it. As soon as I could get it.
My mother looked over her shoulder. “Your clothes had to be cut off of you, and they were bloody, but they didn’t throw them away. They’re in that plastic bag right there. Your phone is too. It’s dead.”
“What else did the police say?” Breathing a sigh of relief that I at least had my phone, I asked my mother for more information.
“Just that they aren’t sure whether she willingly had sex or if she was raped. They weren’t able to get any DNA, so the person she was with must have used a condom. They’re also pretty sure that she was beaten and shot after she had sex. You didn’t see the face of the person that shot you?”
“No,” I lied. “Tee and I had been drinking, and I wasn’t comfortable driving home.
I took a shower and went to bed in her guest room.
When I woke up, I heard a loud thump. I wasn’t sure what happened, so I called 911.
After I heard the gunshot, I put my phone in my shorts and got under the bed. That’s all I remember.”
“I can’t believe this. You two were in bed. Tee was in her own home. People are so damn cruel.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “And that’s not the only thing we’re dealing with.”
My stomach churned as my mother shook her head. “What else?” I was afraid to hear the answer.
“Marlon hasn’t been seen since that day. He hasn’t been home. He hasn’t called your aunt. She thinks something may have happened to him. Both her kids,” my mother sobbed, and tears once again filled my eyes.
Tee must have done exactly what Kalim accused her of, and one of the men had to be her brother.
Soon, I wasn’t going to be able to keep myself from throwing up.
It was coming. I could feel it. I couldn’t imagine how my aunt felt.
The entire situation was messed up, and I didn’t know what to do.
Neither one of them really sat back and thought their plan through because if they did, they would have never tried it.
I was alternating between being afraid for my own life and wanting Kalim to pay.
I would never say my cousins deserved to die not even when they were in the wrong.
But I damn sure didn’t deserve to be almost killed.
Now, I was going to be out of work and lose everything I’d worked so hard to save, and it wasn’t fair.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do or how I was going to handle the situation, but I was beginning to feel like I didn’t really have much to lose.