2. Sixtine Trevino
Sixtine Trevino
“ S ix! Hold up!” Brick yelled from behind me, his footsteps picking up pace when I neared the corner.
My phone vibrated in my hand just as the black Nissan pulled up matching my Uber description.
I had to get the fuck out of here! Reaching for the door handle, I immediately got inside and told the driver to take off.
I spotted Brick stopping in the middle of sidewalk surrounded by flickering cameras as we sped away.
The notifications on my phone were ridiculous.
I kept them on because people were always reaching out now about different products and asking me to do live reviews for cash.
In just the last week, my bank account had fluctuated in the right direction.
All because of him. Now all I wanted to do was jet!
It was one thing to fall for Brick, but the humiliation was not what I signed up for.
Seeing his screen name pop up on the display, I quickly sent his ass to voicemail before blocking him altogether.
This wasn’t how this night was supposed to go.
I noticed I’d been tagged in all kinds of shit.
Might as well get this over with. I went right to the Instagram app.
The first video that was shared was that man Raphael’s live where he caught the tail end conversation between his wife and Brick outside.
The minute that bitch looked at me and tried to sneak diss, I knew what it was.
It was just embarrassing to now have the rest of the world know too.
I told Brick from jump not to do this to me. I didn’t deal with shit like this well.
Twenty minutes later, my car came to a stop outside the Guardian Lodge.
I was just going to stay here tonight because I couldn’t deal with any of this until I figured some shit out.
Right now, I wanted to get out of these clothes and into something comfortable then crawl under the covers to tune the rest of the world out.
I had enough saved now to leave and try to have a fresh start somewhere, but I didn’t know where to go, so I’d have to regroup and figure that out.
Omaha wasn’t an option, and now Oak Bluffs was losing its appeal.
“Hey! Six, what are you doing here?” Kiara emerged from the living room when I passed.
I was so deep in my own head I hadn’t even noticed her sitting there. Shoving her cell phone into the back pocket of her jeans, she looked me up and down. I wasn’t in the mood, and it wasn’t even Kiara’s fault. Brick had pulled the rug from under me with this bullshit.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the event?”
“Kiara, don’t act like you didn’t see what’s going on. You comment on shit all day, every day. By now it’s gone viral all over this city, I’m sure. I came here because I need a minute alone.”
“Okay. No need for the attitude though.” She turned her nose up and popped her neck.
“If you had the night I did, you’d have one too.” I gripped my clutch a little tighter in my hand.
“Brick is going to be Brick. It’s always going to be a bitch that don’t like you because of him.
You might as well get over that now, or not even bother being with somebody like that.
” She shrugged. “Maybe think about going back to your old life.” Kiara’s gaze shifted behind me to something, and my veins ran cold with ice.
I didn’t have to turn to know that something evil lurked behind me.
My stomach did karate kicks, taking in the cold satisfied grin on Skully’s face when I saw him.
The stitches across both cheeks had him looking like a character out of a Tim Burton movie.
His glossy, bloodshot eyes told on him. He was high as hell, probably off some A1 narcotics for the pain.
In slacks, a gray button-up shirt, and a black vest over it, he exhaled from the cigarette in his hand.
Slowly pivoting my eyes back to Kiara, a slow rage brewed inside me.
“You did this?”
“Not on purpose,” she answered. “I was asking around about you and Skully got wind of it, so he hit me up. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Me and Kiadra are out of here first thing smoking. So . . . I guess I should thank you. You became the meal ticket I didn’t know I needed.”
“Nice doing business with you, sweetheart.” Skully grinned. “Six, come outside and talk to me. Now.” He turned to leave, but my feet were still cemented where I stood. “I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Each step behind him to the sliding doors was like a death sentence with lead weighing down my feet. I’d been dreading this moment since fleeing Omaha. Pausing beside one of the columns, he put his cigarette out in one of the ashtrays.
“What do you want?” I paused, leaving a few feet of space between us while he inhaled and brought his eyes up to the night sky.
“Ain’t never been here before. I would have never found you in this small ass town.” He chuckled. “I guess this what a muhfucka call fate, or whatever.”
“I have your money. You can take it and leave me alone,” I offered, voice quaking.
He was calm. A little too calm for my liking, as something in the air shifted, causing me to take in my surroundings. The suspicion crawled up my back like a spider, paralyzing me.
“We’re beyond that, Six, because now the debt has gone up.
” He swiped his beard and faced me, eyes raking over me in a way that left me feeling naked.
“You look good. I mean, you really selling this shit. Kiara told me this nigga you fucking with papered up . . . like old school money. He got you all fly and shit. Draped in diamonds and designer like a bad bitch. How about you help your family out.”
“You ain’t never been family to me, Skully,” I scoffed. “And Darlene . . . that bitch ain’t winning no awards for motherhood.”
“Well, we all you got.” He threw his hands up and sniggered before stepping into my space. “Shit, you practically famous now.” His tone was low as his tongue swept over his lips and his eyes drifted over my breasts.
He lifted his hand to touch me, and when I smacked it down, he snatched me up, knocking my clutch from my grasp. With his hands locked around my wrists, he jerked me into his chest. Jaw locked tight, his dark beady eyes bounced around mine.
“Let me make this simple for you, Six. Either way, you coming with me, bitch! Not only did I lose money behind you, look at my fucking face!” he growled, orbs swirling wild like an animal.
“You think this nigga fuck with you enough to pay up? Because that’s the only way you walking away from this. I got plans for you, baby.”
Fighting against the firm grip he had on me only angered him.
Skully swung me around, pinning one of my arms behind my back and fisting my hair.
He slammed my face into the brick wall ahead, leaving me temporarily blindsided as something warm and wet dripped from my nose and down my lips and chin.
Dizzy with blurry vision, I tried to focus on what was happening, but Skully whistled and one of his men appeared.
“Take her to the car,” he ordered.
“No! Son of a bitch!” I screamed and swung my fists at his henchmen’s back.
Unfazed, he slung me into the back of a black SUV and slammed the door shut.
It locked automatically, and I couldn’t undo it as I yanked at the door handle and beat on the glass with my fist. Skully hopped in beside me with a chrome pistol aimed in my direction as his boy got behind the wheel.
Cowering into the leather seats, my chest heaved anxiously.
“Take us to the location,” he told the driver.
He shifted gears and the car smoothly pulled off, leaving the Guardian Lodge behind me.
I prayed to God that somehow he pulled me from this situation, but with my luck, some new horror awaited.
Not sure how long we’d been driving, I faded in and out of consciousness, blinded by headlights flashing against the window of the car when I occasionally came to.
We came to a final stop and the engine shut off but still ticked for a few minutes.
A splitting headache held me hostage, nearly blinding me when my eyes flickered open.
The driver got out and pulled on my door, and only the illumination of the moon glowing in the sky lit up the night.
“Bring that bitch out of here so we can get this shit over with,” Skully commanded.
Although I was awake, my entire body was limp. Snatching me out of the car, Skully’s man carried me over his shoulder once again. His shoes crunched against the gravel on the ground, and I listened to metal scrape against metal when a door opened ahead.
“Skully, you’re late,” an unfamiliar voice with a Middle Eastern accent announced.
“Ran into a little issue or two. As promised though.”
“Bring her in. Let’s get her cleaned up.”
Cigar smoke and expensive cologne immediately struck my nose.
The maroon carpet stood out to me as I hung off Skully’s henchmen’s shoulder.
Classical music played in the distance while people chatted and laughed in conversation.
Another door was propped open, and we started down a winding concrete staircase.
It grew colder the further we traveled, causing me to shudder as the hairs on my arms and neck stood tall.
“In here,” the man with the accent directed. “Put her there.”
Slowly, I was placed on a soft surface, and my head rolled from one side to the other to observe my new surroundings.
The walls were concrete, like a basement.
There was a bed where I’d been placed, a sink in one corner, a vanity with a matching chair in the other, and a full-length mirror beside it.
A clothing rack full of dresses was on the other side of the room.
Palettes of makeup and hair utensils and products covered the surface.
A very dark-skinned man with round brown eyes and a slim nose stepped closer, surveying every inch of my body.
“I thought we talked about not harming her face,” he noted with a frown.