24. Chapter 23 #4
"Nuuuh" He tried saying no, but again, the sock was still in his mouth.
June pulled it out and threw it on the floor.
She walked back over to the shelf and put the bat back.
She looked inside of the tool box and saw a crowbar, a utility knife, a hammer, and a hand saw.
She picked up the hand saw and waved it around.
Marcus's eyes landed on the saw in June's hand and all the color drained from his face.
"Now hold on..." he started.
June looked down at the saw then back at him. "What?"
Marcus swallowed hard. "June..."
"What nigga?" June asked rolling her eyes.
"Let's not make any decisions we can't take back. You done already punched me with the brass knuckles and hit me with the bat. You ain't gotta use the saw."
She stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing.
Marcus didn't laugh though, he looked genuinely terrified.
She looked back at the saw again and pondered for a moment. "You know what?" she said thoughtfully. "This don't really feel like me."
Marcus let out the breath he'd been holding.
June nodded. "Yeah. We not doing this."
"Thank God." Marcus breathed a sigh of relief.
June placed the saw down. A long silence passed. Then she smiled.
"Relax baby. You over there looking like you just seen the gates of hell open up." She snickered.
"But anyway, I'm not done with my confessions boo." She said as she walked back over to him. She tugged on his shirt.
"Here's one that'll make your toes curl.
" June threw her head back laughing. "Remember when you truck got fucked up?
Yep, that was me too. I paid a few niggas to fuck yo shit all the way up.
I made sure they hid their identities so you wouldn't figure out who it was.
I disabled the cameras before I left to go out with Mercedes. "
"You fucking lying." Marcus replied.
"What the fuck do I gotta lie for Marcus?" June asked while narrowing her eyes. "I'm being completely honest with you right now."
She snapped her fingers as if she suddenly remembered. "Oh, I almost forgot the best part."
Marcus rolled his eyes angrily. "Let me guess, you was behind the shooting too?"
"Ding, ding, ding!!! You are right." June clapped her hands. "Damn, you really aren't as stupid as I thought you were." June replied.
"At first I wasn't even gonna have the club get shot up, but when I seen that mothafucka that was with you thirteen years ago show up to the Halloween Party, I made one phone call and I had that bitch get lit up like the fourth of mothafuckin' July.
I guess ya mans Damon thought karma was gonna come for his ass, huh?
Now that nigga is resting in Hell." She beamed with joy.
"Ooh wee, I wanted to laugh so bad when they posted his picture on the news and they said he died, but I couldn't cause you looked so heartbroken.
" June pretended to make a sad face. "But I had a role to play.
I had to pretend to be the loving, caring girlfriend…
Damn I think I deserve a fuckin' Oscar the way I played in yo face. "
Marcus looked on in silence. Hearing June say that she was just pretending the whole time shattered his heart to pieces.
"Damn Marcus, you ain't no fun at all baby. You not even gon ask me who I called to shoot up the club?" She had her hands on her hips.
"Who did you call June?" Marcus asked feeling too through and uninterested.
"Your favorite person, good ole STG Maverick." June laughed comically.
Marcus' entire face dropped. June smiled wide seeing it happen.
"Yep, me and STG been having a bomb ass time together.
On the days you thought I was with Mercedes, I was with STG bending it over for a real nigga.
I mean yeah, I was with Mercedes most times, but a lot of the times I was chillin' with him.
He helped me set the entire thing up…Turns out, you had more enemies than you thought.
I just happened to cross paths with the right people.
I literally handed your ass to them on a silver platter, but your simple ass ended up not getting shot. "
Marcus' face turned white like he saw a ghost. "You evil as shit…" he muttered through gritted teeth.
June's smile vanished. "No." She stepped closer to him. "I'm hurt that you would say something like that." She wiped a fake tear from her eye. "You know what evil was?" she snapped. "Walking into my daddy's store, robbing him, and then killing him."
Marcus looked away from her. June grabbed his jaw harshly forcing him to look back at her. "You know what evil was?" June paused then continued. "Hearing him beg for you not to shoot him while I hid behind those shelves scared for my father's life."
Marcus breathed heavily through his nose now.
June bent down to where her lips touched his ear. "And do you know what haunted me the most?" she whispered.
She squeezed his jaw tighter. "The sound of the gun when you pulled the trigger."
Marcus' breathing became uneven now. June released the grip she had on his face. "While you were busy being a pussy whipped nigga in love, I helped set your entire life on fire piece by fucking piece."
Her eyes darkened as she chuckled bitterly. She smiled directly in his face. "All this time."
Marcus looked completely defeated, but June looked as if she had never felt more powerful in her life.
"I'm glad you didn't get shot that night though, cause I wanted you to suffer. I wanted to break you down to your lowest point in life. I needed to fuck with you mentally and make you lose shit that mattered most to you."
She started counting on her fingers. "Sleep."
Another finger. "Peace."
Another finger. "Money."
Another finger. "Control."
Then she pointed to his heart. "And eventually?"
Her smile turned evil. "Life."
Marcus stared at her in sheer terror.
Then June started laughing again. "You blamed everybody except the bitch that laid beside you every night."
Marcus stared at June like she was possessed.
June walked back over to the shelf and grabbed the gun then she walked back over to Marcus and stood between his legs.
He looked up at her with desperation in his eyes. "So the love you had for me was fake?"
June opened her mouth, then stopped. That tiny hesitation made Marcus catch his breath. Cause for half a second, it looked like she hated the answer that she was about to provide.
June stared at the gun and then her face got hard again. "You should've never killed my father."
The countdown had finally begun.
“TEN!”
People screamed excitedly from upstairs.
Marcus looked at her as he pleaded for his life. “June please…” A tear ran down his left eye.
"NINE!"
She slowly lifted the gun.
“EIGHT!”
Marcus shook his head frantically. "I was young. I was stupid. I ain't mean for that shit to happen."
“SEVEN!”
June laughed bitterly. "And my daddy still dead ain't he?"
“SIX!”
Marcus' breathing turning shaky now. "Please, baby, don't do this.
June’s hand trembled for the first time.
“FIVE!”
June's eyes filled with tears. Something inside her was cracking, but she told herself she couldn't live her life fully until she got her revenge.
“FOUR!” Marcus looked directly into her eyes. "I loved you so fuckin' much."
That shit hit June real fuckin' hard. She blinked back tears while tightening her grip on the gun.
“THREE!”
She started having flashbacks of the good times the two of them had together. She quickly blinked them away.
“TWO!”
June stepped closer until the barrel pressed directly against Marcus’s forehead.
Then she smiled. "You should have checked to see if there were any witnesses before you ran out the door."
“ONE!”
“Happy New Year, Marcus.”
“ONE!”
She pulled the trigger and silenced Marcus forever.
Upstairs, gold confetti rained from the ceiling while people celebrated the beginning of a new year.
And downstairs?
Marcus Johnson bled out alone.
For the first time in thirteen years, June was finally at peace.
Marcus' body slumped forward in the chair while blood slowly poured onto the concrete floor beneath him.
June stood there breathing hard while taking a few more puffs from the confetti blunt before she put it out. She stared at Marcus's lifeless body and smiled as tears ran down her face.
Then calmly…
she wiped underneath her eyes.
Fixed her ponytail.
Adjusted the oversized blazer hanging from her shoulders.
And walked upstairs like nothing happened.
The party was so chaotic nobody even noticed her slipping through the crowd toward the back exit.
People were too busy dancing. They were too busy getting fucked up. And they were too busy celebrating the new year.
Outside, snow fell heavily across the city while music still thumped faintly from inside Heaven’s Door.
A black G-Wagon waited near the alley with the headlights running.
STG sat behind the wheel wearing all black looking fine as shit. He was smoking calmly like tonight was just another night.
He then put the blunt down and unlocked the door for June and she climbed inside silently.
STG looked over at her for a long second. “Did you get his ass babe?”
June stared ahead through the windshield while distant sirens echoed somewhere far off in the city.
Then she nodded.
STG pulled off into the snowy night just as screams suddenly came from inside the club behind them.
Somebody had finally found Marcus.
But by then?
June was already gone.
The End