Chapter 2
Two
Cali was warned but she didn’t listen. She thought she had it all figured out, but who knew she’d end up in a position like this? The cold steel pressed against the back of her head incited enough panic to make her heart burst. Slow, labored breaths pushed from her nose.
“Turn yo’ ass around.”
“So what?” She snorted. “You gonna kill me because I didn’t choose you?”
Braye smirked at her with the gun pointed in her face. “Get on your knees.”
“What?” she fumed, peering at him as if he had sprouted two heads.
“Get on your fucking knees and beg for my forgiveness.”
Cali mumbled under her breath then peered around the park at the people who were near the slide. They were oblivious to the fact that she had a gun pointed at her head.
“You're real sick, you know that?”
“No, bitch, you're a lousy hoe that think you can fuck over people when you feel like it. You came here to do what? Try that reverse psychology on me? Yeah, that’s not gon’ work because I know who you are, Calia.
You're a terrible person. You don't love nobody because you too selfish to do it. Now get on your fucking knees and beg me not to kill you.”
Cali gulped, wishing she had listened to her sisters. They warned her not to meet up with him, but she swore she could handle Braye. Sadly, she was mistaken. This man was too far gone. He clearly needed a psych ward to regulate his system because letting her go was something he refused to do.
“Do it, now!” he commanded.
“Okay.” Her hands were up as she gradually descended. Her knees were bent but before she let them touch the gravel, Cali yelled out, “Fire! Fire!”
Frantically, Braye looked around, gun still pointed at Cali. She used the distraction to her advantage and hit his arm. The gun immediately fell to the ground.
“Bitch!”
Cali ran toward the crowd of people who were hurrying toward her. “Help me! That man has a gun. He’s trying to rob me!”
She looked back at Braye who picked the gun up from the ground.
“Hey, drop the weapon!” an older gentleman, commanded, drawing his gun from a holster.
Braye pointed the gun at him and fired two shots! Pandemonium broke out in an instant with people screaming and running for cover. Cali dropped to the ground, covering her head with her hands. More shots rang out but she couldn’t stomach taking a peek.
“Someone call the police!” a woman’s voice screamed.
Soon after, screeching tires rang out in the air, provoking Cali to see who it was. When she spotted Braye’s Camaro speeding out of the parking lot, Cali breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh my God. He was hit.”
She looked to her left and spotted the man, who had drawn his weapon, bleeding from his arm. Quickly, Cali scrambled to her feet and rushed over to him.
“Are you okay?” she asked, genuinely concerned.
His teeth was clenched before he groaned, “Yeah, he got me good.”
“Don't worry, I got his license plate number,” a young, Black girl told him.
Cali sprinted to her car and grabbed some napkins from the middle console. She ran back and attempted to clean up the blood. Sirens rang out in the distance and before she could look, the paramedics were rushing toward them.
“Excuse me!” one said to her, and she stepped back.
Immediately, she felt guilty for her actions. Cali had left a bloody trail due to her infidelity. First, it started with Rio, and now this innocent man had been shot.
“I’m so stupid.” She smacked her forehead, wishing this was all a dream.
While they worked on the man who had been shot, the police interrogated all of them. Cali wrestled with telling them Braye’s name but withheld that information. She wanted justice but street justice. The kind that didn’t involve any police.
After being questioned, she went to her car and noticed her bloody shirt. She usually kept a gym bag in the back seat but realized she had taken it out days ago.
“Fuck,” she muttered, starting her car. She raced home and dialed the person who she knew would take care of Braye.
“Hello?”
“Dad, can you meet me at my house? It’s an emergency.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone, but I need you to meet me right away. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there. I’m in Emerald Village so give me a minute.”
“Okay.”
Just as she finished the call with Douglas, Cali pulled into her driveway.
She was relieved to see that Rio wasn’t there.
Right away, Cali dashed into the house and went straight for the bathroom.
She discarded her bloody clothes and put them in a garbage bag before throwing them out.
Afterward, she took a quick shower before stepping out.
Cali didn’t realize how shaken she was until she noticed her trembling hands.
“Shit.” She shook them, hoping to soothe the angst dwelling inside her body.
In a matter of an hour, Cali had been held at gunpoint and caused an innocent man to be shot. Now she was about to reveal to her father the mess she’d made so he could clean it up without Rio knowing.
“Lord, please help me out of this.”
Cali had a lot of nerve to be praying for her relief when she was the main culprit of everything. Granted, Braye played a big part in this ordeal, but she was ultimately to blame for this situation.
“Cali!”
She froze at the sound of Rio’s voice. Could he tell that she had almost lost her life? Could he smell the betrayal on her? Cali’s nerves were so frazzled that her stomach bubbled in fear.
“Cali!” He knocked on the door before opening it.
Instantly, she smiled, hoping her face wouldn’t showcase the anxiety wrecking her body. Rio stepped inside, looking handsome but she couldn’t appreciate it at the moment. His cologne swarmed her as he studied her from head to toe.
“Where you been?”
She gulped and cleared her throat. “I had some errands to run and spilled food all over me. I came home to take a shower.”
There was something different in Rio’s eyes. They were dark, lacking the shimmer that Cali loved.
He nodded. “Come out here. I need to holla at you.”
“Uh, o-okay. Let me throw on some clothes.”
Without saying a word, Rio stepped out of the bathroom.
Cali grabbed a sun dress from her closet and put it on.
Afterward, she slipped her feet into some sandals and walked out of the bedroom.
She stopped in her tracks when she heard a set of voices.
When she couldn’t make out who it was, she stepped into the living room and noticed Rio seated with Cee and another unknown man.
He looked older with salt and pepper hair along with a goatee.
Once he noticed Cali standing, he smiled and stood.
“Hello, Calia.” He extended his hand. “I’m Nathaniel Rogers.”
Cautiously, she shook his hand then looked at Rio. “Why is he here?”
Rio peered at her with an intense stare. “Have a seat.”
“Babe—”
“Sit down, Calia,” he ordered with a tad more bass in his voice.
Taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor, Cali’s head slightly jerked before she sat down on the chaise.
Nathaniel cleared his voice. “Well, I would like to say that I am a private investigator.”
“Private investigator?” Cali questioned. “To investigate what?”
Nathaniel gracefully held his hand up. “I was brought in to investigate DuRio’s car crash.”
Cali peered at Rio, who intensely stared at her. Her leg bounced as she willed herself not to overreact. She had no idea that Rio was interested in the cause for his crash. He never let her in on it and now Cali was worried.
Rio leaned forward with his thick forearms bulging with veins. “Shit wasn’t making sense to me, and neither was it making sense to Cee.”
Cali looked at Cee, who avoided her gaze.
“Well.” She swallowed hard. “I was told by the police that you ran a red light.”
“That’s not true,” Nathaniel interjected and pulled out a laptop from a messenger bag. “I have evidence that he never ran a red light. In fact, someone tampered with his car. It’s right here.”
Cali’s chest immediately tightened when a video emerged on the screen. It showcased Rio’s car parked in a lot. Then, seconds later, a person appeared wearing all black.
Stupid-ass Braye…
He walked toward the front of the car and kneeled down. He was there for what seemed like forever before he stood, looked around, and ran away.
“As you can see, someone tampered with the brakes.”
Cali swallowed the access saliva in her mouth and looked at Rio. “Did you have some kind of beef with someone?”
He smirked. “Nah, not that I know of. I think Nate figured out who did it, though.”
Cali was afraid to ask the million-dollar question since she already knew the answer.
“Play the rest for her, Nate,” Rio instructed.
“Okay, so the person runs away…” Nathaniel explains.
He has to know…
There was no way Rio wasn’t aware. The way he looked at her with hidden disgust alerted Cali, as if his wrath waited behind a curtain to unleash.
Cali hesitantly watched the screen. The video showed several clips of Braye running down different streets.
Several angles unveiled him taking the ski mask off and shedding the bulky clothes he wore in a nearby trashcan.
After a several-minute walk, he finally got inside his car and drove away.
“I ran the plates, and the car is registered to a…” He glanced down at his phone. “A Braye Hilson.”
“You know him, baby?” Rio asked, wearing a smirk so sinister that chills sprouted on her skin.
Cali loathed lying to Rio despite it being a part of her regimen for the last three years. Unable to voice the lie, she shook her head instead.
Rio leaned forward, wearing rumpled brows. “You sure you don't know him?”
Again, she shook her head because admitting that her lover of three years tried to kill her husband was a confession she didn’t have the courage for.
“He’s the same nigga I saw you arguing with in the parking lot at the hospital,” Cee revealed.