Chapter 28
twenty-eight
The moment Dania pulled up to the house, Kamilla was out and stomping toward the steps with her bag flung over her shoulder. Past Hype and Chuckee and inside finding the state of Aunt J’s house.
“I wouldn’t go in there. That nigga is fucking,” Chuckee taunted blowing the smoke to Kamilla’s back because he knew he couldn’t touch her.
When Kamilla entered the once put together house she was welcomed by a weed tainted living room, take out containers and dirty dishes scattered about.
Music blasting and clearly no sign of Aunt J.
This only made her phone call even more erroneous.
The nerve of her to demand anything when the very nigga she was protecting had her house looking and smelling like this.
“Nasty ass muhfucka,” Kamilla grumbled, moving down the hall to the room she occupied. Upon opening the door, a waft of dirty pussy and unwashed balls hit her nose. That along with the sight of Martez’s naked body sprawled over the bed.
“Yeah bitch, bounce up and down on this dick,” Martez grunted over the music. When he caught Kamilla standing there, he grinned at her. His face still tattered from his encounter. QaMeesha and Martez in a bed she once laid in was doing a number to her sense of smell. “Grab my chains.”
Kamilla squinted finding her father’s rings on every one of Martez’s nasty fingers and his gold chains around his neck.
All she could see was red. Forget the disrespect they’ve both been serving and gotten away with.
This was an unprecedented violation. If Martez fished out her father’s jewelry for her locked chest, that meant everything else of KP’s was potentially gone or disturbed.
A heat like no other flooded her body. Anger in the worse way; a temper that she’d done a great job of keeping locked way behind the bars of her innocence.
Bag dropped on the floor, she charged them.
KP taught his daughter three things – how to fight, how to shoot, and how to get out of a situation high speed – but only when absolutely necessary.
He’d say “You’re too pretty to be doing all that fighting but if a muhfucka tries you, off with their fuckin’ head.
Save all that crying for later. If a nigga ever tries you, one shot to the chest. Make that nigga drown while he thinks about his violation. ”
It wasn’t until right now that Kamilla was willing to perform without issue, all three lessons her father imparted on her.
Flying across the bed, she tackled QaMeesha to the ground, stomping her out before rounding her bed to jump on Martez’s back.
Like a woman possessed, she clawed at his eyes wanting to rip them out his head.
“Take my daddy’s shit off, bitch!” Kamilla gnashed.
“Aghh!” Martez shouted, as he tossed her onto the tainted bed.
She hopped up as QaMeesha ran out the room, having flashbacks of what happened to her the last time she put her hands on Kamilla.
“Take the shit off!” Kamilla demanded, throwing anything at him she could get her hands on.
Martez dodged the last vase that was on the dresser Kamilla tossed.
“Fuck you think this is? Huh, little cousin? Don’t you know I’ll fuck you up and pass that tight pussy over to my homies.
We’ve been waiting to get our hands on you.
Teach you a fuckin’ lesson about turning your back on your blood.
Like your bitch ass momma. Fuckin’ with that Azul nigga knowin’ what he did to my pops. ”
Martez was corning her. In a swift move, he reached out and yanked her up by her shirt.
Like she was a ragdoll, he tossed her to the ground and pinned her there.
Kamilla, now in fight or flight, kneed him in the balls and crawled to her bag.
Even in Martez’s pain, he was fueled with the evil need to shatter her world.
He grabbed her by the leg, taking the kicks to the face, neck and chest.
“Get the fuck off of me! Get off of me! You nasty ass nigga!” she shouted, kicking and padding the carpet for her bag. She never took the gun out. Just like Cairo had directed when he gave it to her weeks ago.
Martez pinned her down and glared at her with darkness she never encountered before. “I found your momma’s ashes. I poured that traitor ass bitch in the toilet and shit on her. Fuckin’ with the nigga that took my pops from me. Yeahhhh, you just like her.”
Kamilla hawked a spit in his face. “Fuck you and your daddy. Get the fuck off me!”
Martez licked the glob of spit from his face and grinned. “You’re going to make this fun for me, aren’t you? You ask your nigga how your pops died? Huh? You asked him who fuckin’ did it?”
Stupidly, Martez released her right hand while attempting to pull her shorts down. Too blinded by his demons to see that Kamilla was going for the kill. Her fingers inched inside the bag while Martez continued his attempt.
“That bullet your pops took was for him. I was trying to kill C4, got me an OG in the process. Then came to your house and watched your mother grieve like they watched my momma grieve,” Martez confessed, pulling her shorts down.
Tears threatened to cloud Kamilla’s vision but this wasn’t a time to cry. She had to survive. The bedroom door flew open and a deafening ring of three shots rang out before Martez’s lifeless body dropped on her.
“Get him off!” she cried. “Get him off! Get him off! Get him off!”
Cairo kicked Martez’s leaking body off her. Before he scooped her up off of the ground, he stuffed the gun in the back of his pants. Scooping her up, he held her trembling body close.
“His stuff. I need his stuff. He took his stuff,” Kamilla whimpered. The smell of gunpowder and burnt flesh only adding to her disgust. “I need his stuff.”
Cairo fixed Kamilla’s shorts before rushing her out the room. “I’ll get it, go with Nate.”
A dazed expression came over her while she stood in the doorway watching as Cairo removed everything that was once KP’s from Martez’s body.
“We got to go,” Cairo urged, knowing that because this commotion ended with a body, things were about to change and quickly.
Kamilla moved throughout the space in shock.
Still shaking, still taking in all the damage Martez had done while trying to cypher through his last words.
The spot where her mother’s urn was located was empty.
He’d really desecrated her resting place.
As she was rushed out the house and gently pushed into Cario’s car, she sat paralyzed.
From the car to the shower, Cairo scrubbed her trying to rid her of any evidence of the crime.
He’d taken her clothes, put them in a bag of bleach, and handed it off to Dania to discard.
In the room, he dressed her and she finally muttered, “He killed KP.”
“Mariposa,” Cairo called, trying to pull her out the stupor so he could direct her. The next moments were critical. “Baby, look at me.”
“He killed KP…he was trying to kill you,” she whimpered, a tearful snap of the eyes to him.
Cairo didn’t have time to relive that night and give her the heartbreaking details. Right now, he was throwing himself on the sword to save her. To keep her magical. To keep her innocent and free.
“Kamilla. I need you to hear me. You’re going to go with Dania,” he spoke evenly.
“No. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you! You need to tell me!” she fired back. “I’m not leaving you, Cairo. I’m not-”
The hyperventilation cut her words short as she snapped into the sobering reality. “Leaving! I’m not leaving! No! Tell them it was me. Tell them he was trying to violate me. I shot him in self-defense. Tell them!”
“Kamilla!”
“Tell them, Cairo! Tell them!” she sobbed, fighting his hands from holding her. “You can’t leave me! No. Tell them! Tell them!”
Kamilla didn’t stop until he firmly grabbed her tear-riddled face with both hands. She whimpered. “Baby, tell them. Please.”
Cairo shook his head. “No. You’re going.”
“Don’t make me be without you. We can talk about it. You can tell me why, just don’t make go,” she begged. “You’re all I have left; don’t make me go.”
Cairo fought tears of his own. Letting her go would be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. The weight of releasing her to save her was heavier than anything else he’d ever wore. He shook his head.
“Mariposa,” he crooned, knowing that once she left his sight, this would be the last time he said it.
“I need you to steal the fuckin’ moon. I need you to go to school and make a nigga proud.
That’s what I need you to do. I love you, with every part of my soul.
Do you understand me? I love you so much I won’t make you wait.
Go get our moon and you hold on to the muhfucka, aight? On Azul.”
Kamilla’s lip quivered as Cairo placed a final kiss to them. “On Azul.”
“Go,” he demanded, releasing her. “Dania! Get her out of here. Now!”
The entire time Kamilla was forced out of the house, all she could do was stare at him. And helplessly watch the life she thought she was going to have with him flash before her eyes.
Cairo mouthed, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she muttered. “I’ll steal the moon.”
In the car with Dania, Kamilla watched the back window, the once clear street now full of blue lights.
“Dania, stop!” she croaked. “Please stop! Please.”
Dania stopped, guilt weighing heavily on her that she wasn’t in a position to help Kamilla.
Guilt that this didn’t turn out differently.
Kamilla got out and jogged to the corner and watched the officers arrest Cairo; watched how easily he gave in.
Out of the corner of his eye, he offered her one last soft gaze and then held his head up to the midnight sky. “Moon.”
She nipped her quivering lip and yielded.
It took everything in her to drag herself back to the car and not run down the block and plead.
Slouched down in the passenger seat, Kamilla pulled the hood of Cairo’s sweatshirt over her head and sobbed.
The love that pulled her out of the darkness was gone and she swore she would never have another like it.