The following morning, I woke up in bed with Michaella, thinking about Vickie. I guess it’s natural, but I can’t get her out of my mind. And I wanted to. I didn’t want to deal with all the guilt and pain I felt. I wanted to do something, anything to dull the pain. Anything to make it stop.
“I gotta go to work, Mike,” Michaella said dragging me out of thoughts of Vickie. “You need me to take you somewhere?”
I started to get out of bed. “Take me by Andre’s,” I said and followed her to the shower.
As she does every time we shower together, Michaella gets a loofah and soap, lathered herself until there was soap all over her body, and then she rubbed her body against mine. While she did, and as much as I tried not to, my mind eased back into thoughts of Vickie and the one time we had sex.
I guess we were maybe like sixteen, maybe seventeen I guess. That night, it was just me Bobby, Wanda and Vickie. The four of us had been hanging out, drinking and smoking weed and all of us were fucked up. When we got to the block, we walked Wanda home and then me and Bobby were walking Vickie home when he saw Rasheeda and he ran off to catch up with her, so it was just me and Vickie.
When we got to her house, Vickie said that she wanted to show me something. So, we very quietly snuck into her house and made it to her room without falling or breaking anything.
“Don’t laugh, okay?”
“I won’t.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise,” I said and plopped down on her bed, because I was so fucked up. “What you got to show me?”
“I’m serious, Mike, don’t laugh, okay?”
I laughed. “I’m not gonna laugh.”
“You’re laughing.”
I tried my best to stop laughing, but I couldn’t. Vickie folded her arms across her chest and plopped down on the bed next to me.
“Come on,” I said and tried hard to stop myself from laughing. “Show me what you gotta show me.”
“Okay.” Vickie bounced up and once she caught her balance, her smile returned. “You ready?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re not gonna laugh, right?”
“Just show me, Vickie.”
“Okay.”
I swear, when Vickie grabbed the bottom of her halter-top and started to pull it up, my head began to spin.
“See.”
“See what?” I squinted.
“My belly piercing.”
I moved closer. “Oh, that’s cool.”
Vickie giggled. “I got my nipples pierced too.”
I laughed. “Let me see.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause.”
“’Cause what?”
“’Cause I said so,” Vickie giggled, but she hadn’t let go of the bottom of that halter.
“Come on.”
Vickie giggled some more and looked around the room like there was somebody else in there. “Okay, but you gotta promise not to tell anybody?”
“I promise,” I said quickly.
“Not even Bobby.”
“Not even Bobby,” I said, nodding my head quickly and raised my right hand. By then, I was leaning forward anxiously anticipating seeing Vickie’s titties.
“I’m serious, Mike.”
“I am too. I swear, I won’t tell anybody, especially Bobby.”
And I wouldn’t because if I did, he would sweat her relentlessly about showing him too. I wouldn’t do her like that. “Let me see.”
Vickie pulled the top over her head; she wasn’t wearing a bra and those fuckin’ tits were a thing of beauty.
“Can I touch them.
“Go ahead,” Vickie said quietly and of course, touching them led to sucking them and sucking them led to me fucking Vickie that night, in her room, while her parents were asleep in the next room.
“You need to give me what I need,” Michaella said to bring me out of thoughts of Vickie and she assumed the position with her hands against the wall. After I fucked Michaella, she dropped me off at Andre’s.
Bobby was there when I got there, and Andre handed me something I wanted. I let it be known that I wanted to know who Vickie used to buy from and who she got high with.
People were falling all over themselves to tell me that she got high with Erickah Green and I knew where she got her shit from.
“I need the two of you to find Ronin. Get my money and remind him that Friday means Friday, not the next fuckin’ Wednesday.”
“Ronin?” Bobby questioned. “You need us … for that?”
Andre got in his face. “Yeah, Bobby, I need you and Mike for this. Since the two of you have been focusin’ on the gambling, mutha fuckas been getting lax. I need them to know without question, that if you fuck up in my house, Mike Black and Bobby Ray are coming and they will kill you over my money. That clear enough, Bobby?”
“Yeah, it’s clear.”
Billy Ronin. Bobby was right; Andre could have sent Benny and Dupre to collect from Ronin. He just wasn’t the type that was gonna be a problem. But I saw it from Andre’s point of view too. Nobody feared Benny and Dupre, and Andre needed to make a statement about his money.
Even though it was beneath our talents, I was excited about going to see Ronin, because that’s who Erickah Green did her business with and I knew that Ronin liked to let women smoke there.
They run out of money … and they always do … that pussy is mine, he told me once.
When we got to his apartment, Ronin was not only waiting for us, he was glad to see us, which was rare when me and Bobby show up at your door.
“Black, Bobby, come on in,” Ronin said and stepped aside. “I just wanna say that I’m real sorry about what happened to Vickie,” I said as he went in another room. “She was real cool people, you know what I’m sayin’,” he shouted as Bobby sat down at the kitchen table and I looked around the apartment.
When he came out of the other room, he had a bag with him and he put it on the table in front of Bobby. “There you go. It’s all there, you can count it,” Ronin said and that was when I saw it.
I was looking at the pictures that he had on the mantle when I noticed the glass vases on each end. Hanging from one of the vases was the necklace that Wanda gave Vickie for her birthday the year before. Since I was with her when she bought it, I was sure of it.
“No need for that, I’m sure it’s all there,” Bobby said.
“And tell Andre that I’m sorry about being late. It won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t, Ronin” I said. Bobby was about to get up to leave. “What’s your rush, Bob? Relax a minute,” I sat down at the table next to Bobby. Ronin looked at me strangely, “I need a drink.” I looked at Bobby. “What about you? You wanna drink?”
Now it was Bobby looking at me strangely. “Yeah.”
“What you got to drink in this camp?”
“I got some gin,” Ronin said sheepishly.
“That’s fine. Make it two,” I said and now Bobby was looking at me like I was crazy. I never drink white liquor.
I sat there, looking between Ronin, that necklace, and Bobby. He had known me long enough to know that something was going to happen, so while Ronin poured the drinks, Bobby discreetly checked his weapon.
“Here you go,” Ronin said when he put the glasses on the table.
“Thanks,” I said, but made no motion toward that glass as Ronin sat down across from me. “Yeah, it was a real shame about Vickie. Did you come to the funeral?”
“No, Black, I’m sorry. I was tied up with some business and couldn’t make it.”
“That’s all right. It was a good service. How close were you and Vickie, Ronin?”
“We were cool, know what I mean. Like I said, she was cool people. Always had a smile and something nice to say to everybody. People like that, they’re a rare jewel, know what I’m sayin’.”
I looked at the necklace and then I looked at Ronin. “Vickie … she come here a lot?”
Ronin sat back and looked between me and Bobby.
“Sometimes,” he said and that was the moment when Bobby realized where I was going and his facial expression changed. “But, not very often.”
“I heard her and Erickah Green used to be over here all the time,” I said and stood up. Bobby picked up his glass of gin and drained it.
“Where’d you hear that from, Black?”
“Erickah.”
I stopped in front of the necklace. “I swear, Black, I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to her.”
Bobby put his gun on the table.
“I know that.”
“Okay, yeah, her and Erickah used to come here to smoke.”
“All the time?”
“Yeah, yeah, she was over here a lot, but she wasn’t here the night she OD’d.”
“I know; she was with me that night.” I picked up the necklace and looked at Ronin. “She give you this when she ran out of money?”
Ronin dropped his head in his hands and Bobby picked up his gun. “Please don’t kill me, Black,” Ronin pleaded, and Bobby put one in the chamber.
“You served it up for her.” Bobby put the gun to his temple.
“Probably sitting right here at this table.” I stood in front of Ronin.
“I’m sorry, Black.”
“For what?”
“For whatever.”
“It’s cool.”
“Please don’t kill me, Black.”
“I’m not gonna kill you, but this is gonna hurt,” I said.
“It’s gonna hurt a lot,” Bobby said and stood up.
Bobby pulled Ronin up from his chair and punched him over and over again in the face. And then he reached back and punched him again. This time Ronin went down from the force of the blow.
I stepped up quickly and began kicking and then stomping Ronin repeatedly in the face. Bobby grabbed Ronin by his shirt and pulled him to his feet. Bobby reached back and hit him several times in the face and he went down again. I grabbed the back of Ronin’s head and began pounding his face into the floor. By this time, Ronin’s face was a bloody mess, but I didn’t give a fuck, I pulled his ass up from the floor and began to ram his face into the wall. I let Ronin go and once again, he slumped to the floor.
“You done?”
“No.”
I looked around for something to beat Ronin with. I picked up a chair and stood over Ronin. He tried to cover his head as I beat him with that fuckin’ chair until it broke. I dropped what was left of that chair and pulled Ronin to his feet. I dragged him out of the apartment, down the stairs and into the street.
I picked Ronin up and slammed him down on the hood of a car. Then I got out my gun and I shot Ronin twice in the head to put an exclamation point on that statement.
As long as Andre got his money, and the statement he wanted was made abundantly clear, he didn’t seem to care that I killed Ronin.