Chapter 9
Rosalina Romano
“Why the hell are you so damn rude?” I playfully pushed Cairo on the arm when he snapped at the chick named Kateri. None of us knew anything about her beside the fact that my brother broke her hand for minding a business other than hers.
“Ain’t this my shit?” He spat. I swear he was my father’s child. Because Cairo refused to pay any hospital bills once the family doctor stated she needed surgery, he brought her to his house here in the Islands to perform the surgery.
The place was so big he had a small hospital wing in back of the house just in case and it was needed at the moment. He wasn’t cheap but also didn’t feel like it was his place to not only care for this woman but pay for any medical procedures when her hand wouldn’t be broken had she not interfered.
“Anyway, our mother said to take good care of her and not to be mean. Now, if you would like for me to let Anabel Romano know you’re doing the exact opposite of what she requested, I shall do so.” With my arms folded across my chest, I waited for him to answer.
The only female Cairo didn’t fuck around with was our mom.
They had a mother and son bond that no one could break, and if he thought you even looked at her wrong it was off with your head.
My dad said it’s because she babied him.
I said it was over the fact that when he was seven years old, they were at a store food shopping when some man approached them in the parking lot.
He was scary looking from the description my mother gave and they were both scared.
Security wasn’t around because my mother fought tooth and nail with my dad not to have them following her.
Unfortunately, he gave in and it almost cost her life.
The man ripped Cairo’s hand away from my mother’s, started punching her in the face and drug her to a van.
Cairo had a cell phone at the time that only called my father and security.
He made the call and knew they wouldn’t make it in time.
Hearing our mother scream, Cairo ran over to the van with the hunters knife my dad gave him when they went on excursions to kill animals, opened the door and stabbed the guy a few times in the leg and back.
My mother was fully dressed and come to find out; he was her abusive ex-boyfriend from her teenage years. She didn’t recognize him at first but when she did, he wanted to kill her for leaving him but decided to beat her up one last time first.
Little did he know, Cairo was her savior and not to long after, my father and uncles showed up.
From how they tell the story, they took him home and in front of his family, killed him and everyone there.
I couldn’t say it wasn’t a good thing because he deserved it.
Sadly, his family was caught up but it was what it was.
Ever since that day, my father and uncles groomed him to be a maniac. Some people were terrified to look at him, scared to walk by and frightened with thoughts that he may come after them and their family. I guess it would happen that way when you were raised not to care about anyone or anything.
What’s sad, was him taking the life of Victoria.
I despised that bitch and hated her more for cheating on Cairo, but he was in love with her.
I’m not saying she should’ve stayed knowing he was unfaithful or that she didn’t earn the right to give him a taste of his own medicine but why do it with the help.
Everyone knew who Cairo was for sure and Glenn knew better; hell anyone working for my brother knew.
She had the audacity to be crying her eyes out watching her family die as if she wasn’t the cause of it. The icing on the cake was seeing her face after hearing Cairo slept with her best friend. Then again, she had no right to be mad when she was fucking the help.
“Whatever. Just get her out ASAP before she has another accident and succumb to her injury.” Cairo gave the woman a death stare after she gasped hearing him threaten her life. Moving closer to the bed, I stared down at the woman lying in bed appearing to be uncomfortable.
“He won’t hurt you.” I tried to calm her nerves.
“I beg to differ.” She lifted her hand.
“Touché but it was your fault for trying to intervene and help someone who didn’t deserve it.” I tried to be nice telling her to mind the business that paid her.
“I hardly think a young girl deserved to have a gun jammed down her throat or teeth falling out.” She was confident in her response.
“Sooooo, getting smart with Cairo and screaming that he was trying to rape her was ok.” It wasn’t my place to tell her what went down but I figured out quickly that she was one of those women who swore she knew the truth.
“Oh. Well…” Cutting her off was the best thing to do since she thought she knew everything.
“He was taking her down to her father to ask why she worked there at a young age and the girl thought yelling out those words was ok.” I left Kateri sitting there in her thoughts as I went in the bathroom to run some warm water in one of those small bins.
Afterwards, I grabbed a toothbrush, the toothpaste and a washcloth to bring her.
“If you want my brother to pay even an ounce of attention to you, I’d say you have to start with clean breath.” I saw Kateri cover her mouth with the other hand.
“Your hair and eyelashes are still intact but a few fingernails are off. Why don’t you get them done professionally?” Her hair was up in a ponytail inside the cap the doctor put on.
My mom mentioned her friend trying to clean her up after surgery which was why her eyelashes were still there and she had a tad bit of makeup on.
“I usually do but right after my pedicure appointment, something happened with my nail techs family so she rushed out the salon.” That didn’t explain why her nails weren’t done.
“Why didn’t you use someone else?” She explained how she had a bad experience using more than one tech so she only stuck with one. As long as her feet were done she had no problem using press on nails. I get it but then again, I had a private nail tech that came to my house.
“Do you know where my friend is?” She asked, brushing her teeth.
“Somewhere with my cousin.” I shrugged. Raul was in love with her friend and even though none of us physically met her, we knew all about her from Manny running his mouth.
“Did she leave me any clothes and can I leave?” Walking over to the bag her friend left, I placed it on the bed.
I took the other items back in the bathroom for housekeeping to come get and clean.
I may have given it to her to clean up a little but I’m not disposing of her spit.
There’s only one reason I came and helping her wasn’t it.
“You can leave when you’re ready but first, I’m going to leave you with some paperwork to go over. Once you’re done and sign, you’re free to go.” Grabbing my laptop bag, I removed the NDA out, two pens in case one didn’t work and slid the small tray table in front of her.
My brother had the place resembling the exact hospital look. Granted there was a big screen television inside, along with a fridge, a loveseat, table and chairs, a huge bathroom and a beautiful view of the beach.
“Everything is written in dummy terms so nothing in there should be confusing.” The woman looked at me.
“Any questions?”
“Yes. Can…” I cut her off.
“There’s a guard outside the door who will take you back to the hotel after you sign.” I made my way over to where she was.
“He’ll check and make sure your signature was put in the right places.” There were little sticky arrows I placed in the exact spots to sign but people pretended not to know. She tried to protest but the look on my face told her not to fuck with me.
“If by some chance you decide not to sign for whatever reason, just know I won’t be the one returning to ask why. Tootles.” I waved on my way out the door.
I wasn’t about to pacify her feelings or explain what was in the paperwork. I’m pretty sure she knew what an NDA was and how it worked. If not, like I said to her, it was all described in detail what would happen if she decided to do the opposite.
Sitting at the bar of the hotel watching the two of them kissing and feeling one another up had my stomach in knots. How could the man who proposed to me two months ago be outside exchanging spit with another chick?
What’s crazy was Eddie came to the island with me to celebrate my brother’s birthday, so unless he was drunk and acting out, he had to have brought her here but when. We were on the plane together and even stayed up under one another for the last three days we’ve been here.
I loved Eddie yet wasn’t in love and it’s not because I didn’t want to be, but more so due to the fact we spent a lot of time away from one another. He worked in the corporate world and had a high position which allowed him to travel a lot.
I did travel with him on occasion but my job was making sure Cairo’s money was right and to put out all the fires that came his way. Not that there were many but the ones he did have me do were pretty big.
“Hey.” I jumped hearing a woman’s voice next to me. Assuming no one knew who I was since the table sat in the back in a barely lit area, how did she see me.
“Are you ok?” She asked seeing me wipe my eyes quickly.
“Hell no she’s not ok. It’s clear she watching that guy over there. Was he your man?” I had no idea who that chick was but if Kateri came to say hi, then it’s best to assume the loud one was her friend.
“Was? No, is my man.” I slammed the drink down so hard on the table, it cracked.
“Oh shit.” Kateri jumped back and asked the waitress for napkins to clean the mess.
“I say we go over there and beat his ass.” Kateri’s friend said, removing her earrings.
“Sariah, you know damn well you’re not fighting. Raul will not be killing me over you losing his baby.”
“Baby? You’re pregnant by my cousin?” For a second, Eddie didn’t matter. It’s been so long since our family had a baby around it was going to be fun planning a baby shower.
“Yes but Kateri can beat his ass and I’ll stomp on his face once he’s on the ground. That way, he’ll be fucked up and I won’t really have to use any energy.” I had to chuckle because who even says that.
“How am I gonna fight Sariah with a damn cast?”
“Kateri that cast will knock him out immediately. How you think we’ll get the upper hand on his ass? Duh?”
“I know the fuck you lying. Cairo won’t pay for another cast if I break this one doing dumb shit. Bad enough he sent me a damn bill for the doctor.” As those two went on and on, I noticed Eddie walking toward me. Where did he come from and why was he coming over?
“Hey Babe. What’s going on?” He had the audacity to walk over like he didn’t just have his tongue in some other woman’s mouth.
“Babe? Nigga are you serious?” Kateri slapped her good hand across her friend’s mouth.
“Who are they and let’s go.” He gripped my bicep and damn near drug me out the bar.
Eddie had a minor hand problem but nothing too bad because he knew my brother would kill him and his family.
A smack here and there, a few pushes and some punches but nothing noticeable or anything I couldn’t handle.
He’d never let me leave the house without a mark either, at least no visible ones.
“Get off me and go back to your bitch.” Snatching away from him, I felt his nails scraping my arm. Looking down all I could so was laugh because he really was a bitch.
“Don’t you dare embarrass me out here.” He attempted to raise his voice.
“Embarrass you? Are you kidding me right now?”
“Keep your voice down.” He pushed me into the corner by an elevator.
“You were just exchanging spit with some lady and you have the nerve to be mad at me.”
Men loved to make women feel like they were crazy and seeing shit.
I shook my head in disappointment but at myself. Was I blind to his cheating? Did I make
him step out because we weren’t spending a lot of time together. Whatever his reason doesn’t change the fact that he should’ve walked away and never proposed.
“You were following me?” I know he didn’t ask that.
“I’m sure everyone on the island saw you. I mean it was in the open.” I waved my hand at him. He grabbed my wrist and I swore he peed on himself when someone walked up behind me.
“What you grabbing her hand for?” Felix questioned making me turn around. Pulling my hand away from Eddie, I had to take a deep breath. Felix was fine as hell, bow legged and had the biggest crush on me for years. Not knowing what to say, I became shy under his gaze and started blushing.
“Yea, you not fucking her right.” I gasped at how vulgar he was.
“When you want a real man to make that body shake, you know where to find me.” Felix went to walk off but stopped. He turned around and stood in Eddie’s face.
“If you put your hands on her or even breathe on Lina wrong, I’ll break your face. Are we clear?” Eddie nodded his head up and down so fast it looked as if someone was shaking him.
“Lina when you done with this cornball, Cairo looking for you.” I nodded as Felix walked away after winking at me. He was bad for me and we would never work. Those were the words I’ve told myself all these years but now I’m not so sure we shouldn’t at least go on a date.
“We’ll deal with this later. Let me go change.” Eddie walked off with a small wet spot in the back of his pants. Did he shit or pee on himself because why were the back of his pants wet?
“Girlllllll, you better let that man rock your world.” Seeing Kateri and Sariah walking towards me, I chuckled.
“We’re you two standing there the entire time?”
“I was and I’m not sure your brother would be ok with him putting hands on you.” Kateri said, making Sariah lift her head from the phone.
“Shhhhhh and it’s not bad. I do hit him back at times.” I glanced around and peeked behind them to make sure no one heard what she said.
“What? Oh hell no. I’ll fight him for you with this cast and deal with the medical bills from the hospital.
We don’t play that domestic abuse shit. What’s your room number?
” Kateri was mad as hell. It was crazy because we only met a few days ago at Cairo’s mini hospital. Yet here she was ready to fight for me.
“I’ll be ok and please don’t mention it.
If you do, I’ll tell Cairo that you were going to be a witness if that girl pressed charges.
” The way Kateri’s mouth dropped let me know she understood.
Sariah shook her head and told me if she wasn’t worried about me lying on her, she’d tell Raul. At least they both knew what it was.
I have no problem watching Cairo take their life for not minding their business. It’s not right when they were only looking out for me but it was what it was.