CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Receiving the informative call about his uncle, Li’l Ronnie was done playing games with him. He was done being embarrassed and done having it seem like he wasn’t next in line to take over the family business, which had been passed down from his father when he got gunned down while protecting Ethan, who had been accused of cheating one night at a dice game. As far as Li’l Ronnie was concerned, his uncle owed him more than just loyalty and respect; he owed him the entire dynasty that had been built on his deceased father’s spilled blood. Now he would make his uncle play his game. Now he would lure him into his own web.
“Sable, please do yourself and me a big favor. I’m trying to tell you, don’t fight this. Just chill. Let this evening just go down the way I want it to.”
“What, boy? Have you gone all the way crazy?”
“Naw, girl. I mean, seriously, there ain’t no type of win in this bullshit for you. Just chill. Relax, baby.” Li’l Ronnie cracked his knuckles. Rubbing them together, he felt his palms become sweatier as he took the initiative to transform his recent nightmarish life into a beautiful reality. This day and evening were turning out to be everything he had wished for and more. In between getting revenge on Black Tone and having a box full of money, he was good. If ignoring the multitude of insults being directed at him was the price Li’l Ronnie had to pay for the pleasure of the company he was forcefully keeping, then so be it. The lovesick captor was willing to listen to whatever she claimed him to be.
“Chill? Relax? Have you lost your entire mind, you bastard? Let me the hell go.” She squirmed feverishly, setting him on fire with her eyes.
“Girl, I can’t never let you go. You know that! We gonna go the distance, the whole nine. So you might as well just fall back with all that. As much as I used to like seeing you sweat when we’d be getting in, a guy hate to see you making yourself all tired for nothing.” Li’l Ronnie grinned devilishly as he had a brief flashback of the life they used to share back in the day, before his uncle ruined it. “That is, unless you want me to put in some work or something. I know that fool Ethan you been dealing with ain’t been putting it down like me. He been jealous of me since I was a kid growing up with his ugly ass. He’s always wanted what I have, with his ho ass. It wasn’t bad enough he was older than me and getting all the females. He had to want you too.”
“I don’t give a fuck about y’all’s family beef back then, growing up in his household or anywhere else! Just let me the fuck go. I ain’t playing around, Li’l Ronnie. And you can stop talking about him, ’cause when Ethan find out you got me, that’s your ass, and you already know it!”
Spread-eagle, Sable bucked her partially clothed small body in defiance. Her eyes darted from the door, which was missing a knob, to the blue blanket covering the window and back to her captor as she tried to figure out a way to escape. She felt as if she was running out of energy both mentally and physically. Drained from the entire tailspin roller coaster of horror she’d been going through, her body was starting to break down.
Since the very moment Sable woke up and her feet touched the floor, she had had an awful feeling about the day and hadn’t been able to shake it. She had had two cups of herbal tea and had tried to meditate, as one of her many white, suburban hippie friends who also danced had instructed her. Yet she had still felt uneasy. Wanting to get her exercise on, she walked on her treadmill for over thirty minutes or so and still had visions of bullshit occupying her brain.
Not wanting to bother Ethan by having him pick her up and drop her off at work, like he usually did, especially considering the citywide power outage, Sable was dressed and heading out the door to drive herself when she got the call from her ex. Her first notion was to ignore him, as she’d done so many times before, but this time was different. Li’l Ronnie, unlike the other people that’d come and gone in her young life, was a huge concern. She knew he was still hurt and feeling like she’d betrayed him. Sable knew Li’l Ronnie could have been acting out lately because he’d heard Ethan had asked to marry her. She knew the strange mood she was in could only be attributed to one of the things that had hurt him. She had to make it right; karma was showing up and showing its ass.
Wanting to make sure that at least all was good with Li’l Ronnie, Sable slid the green TALK button on her phone over to the side. Within a matter of seconds of them speaking, Li’l Ronnie asked if he could fall through and at least tell her what he wanted face-to-face. Against her better judgment and the warnings from Ethan about her ex man being bitter, she unfortunately allowed the impromptu meeting. Now here they were. Here she was, fucked up, tied up, and at her lunatic ex’s mercy.
As the flimsy headboard knocked back against the wall, Li’l Ronnie derived more and more enjoyment. He was not bothered by the idle threats she was spewing about Ethan. No number of consequences was great enough to deter him. Sable was not just any girl, and as he began to slowly stroke her jawline, his manhood twitched. She was more than the average female who displayed a pretty smile, with each tooth perfectly lined up and full lips. Being blessed with shoulder-length hair and a sassy swag to her attitude was definitely a plus. That deep, rich brown skin tone, despite the few blemishes, only added to her beauty. Sable was everything and more than Li’l Ronnie had ever dreamed about, ever wanted, and ever needed to have in his life.
“You know how gorgeous you are to me? You know how much I dreamed about this day since you started acting like I didn’t matter, since you started fucking my uncle? Come on now. You’re my soul mate. You know that bullshit, baby. Hell, the entire city knows it and knows how we used to get down.” He stood to his feet and paced back and forth, still rubbing his hands and proclaiming his feelings for Sable.
“What?” She grimaced, seething with anger and defiance.
“Yeah, Sable, I don’t know why you been out in them streets, bugging, treating me like I don’t matter no more. You belong to me, like I belong to you. Fuck that old man! Talking about he wanna marry you!”
“Fucking stop touching me, you moron.” Her voice echoed off the wall as her heart raced at twice its normal pace.
“Come on, Sable. It’s me, Li’l Ronnie, you with now, not Ethan. You ain’t gotta front for the streets no more! Think about it for real, though. We’re made for each girl, on some old ‘red light, green light, Simon says, tag, you it’ type of shit. You feel me? Bonnie and Clyde, Kanye and Kim, naw naw Jay and Bey, that’s us, freaking hood royalty. That’s how we started off making that paper being in love. That’s how it was always meant to be, and that’s how we gonna end this thing we got going on—in love and on top!”
“Trust me, Li’l Ronnie, we ain’t got nothing going on no more. You fucked that up by getting locked up! You. Not me! You! And you know why? Because you’s a weak-ass pussy and always have been one! I swear, I hate your dumb ass and hate you even more right about now for this stunt you done pulled. Matter of fact, fuck you and all that ‘way back when’ bullshit! That life been dead to me! I tried to rock out with you, but you ain’t never want shit. No real hustle unless your uncle gave you one, no true ambition!”
Li’l Ronnie was almost six feet tall. Recently, he had shaved his head completely bald but had kept the full beard he started growing some months back. Out of character, he’d started reading books geared toward natural supplements and the effects they had on one’s body. Popping pills and drinking way too much, he’d transformed into a person she could honestly say she hardly knew anymore. Now here he stood at the foot of the four- poster bed, listening to Sable berate him.
Irrational, Li’l Ronnie looked at Sable with the eyes of a man in love. It mattered to him none what she said as he smiled. He knew “his girl” didn’t mean what she was saying. How could she? Despite her words of discouragement and rage for what he was doing to her, Li’l Ronnie remained in his calm state of mind. He refused to waver. His spirit and soul wouldn’t let him. Nothing could knock him off his square of revenge. At this point, he’d be content just to look at his resentful, bitter queen for the rest of his life and pray that after a while, in due time, he’d once more be her king and she’d forget about Ethan. In his mind, no sooner than he murdered his uncle, she’d be begging him to be by her side. Li’l Ronnie’s adrenaline jumped as he played his fantasy over in his head and leaned in closer to Sable, this time tracing the outline of her lips.
“Get your damn hands off me! I’m not playing around with you, boy, fucking nothing-ass punk! I swear to God, this shit ain’t gonna just go down the way you think it is.”
“Oh yeah? Is that right?”
“Yeah, I swear, it ain’t, you fucking asshole. It ain’t,” she said angrily, turning her head to the far right and attempting to avoid further physical contact. Not wanting to subject herself even to seeing Li’l Ronnie’s face, let alone experiencing the rough feel of his weatherworn fingertips on her skin, she cringed. Wanting to throw up in her mouth as he sat down on the edge of the bed, she took a deep breath.
The dancer turned part-time drug hustler at the strip club wanted to break free. However, the restraints Li’l Ronnie had wrapped around each of her wrists were much too tight. It felt like the circulation in her ankles had been totally cut off. Her feet, like her hands, were numb. Sable hated her former monkey hustle partner in crime, who had learned so many ways to tie knots in summer camp when they were ten, maybe eleven. But he had, and now he was putting his expert skill in tying fisherman and square knots to work. Sable just wanted to go home. In the time that she’d been there, she’d searched the room for any weapon she could possible grab when she broke free. Regretfully, a determined Sable had struggled for hours on end already and had made the reinforced rope that bound her grow tighter with each twisting movement.
Standing to his feet, Li’l Ronnie felt a sense of entitlement when it came to this female, who was technically no longer his, but his uncle’s. He wanted to beat on his chest and shout out his victory in making Sable his woman again, whether it was true or not.
She might not love me now, but she will again real soon! Arrogantly, he walked over to a bookshelf on the far side of the dimly lit room. With his back turned to Sable, he removed several items off the shelf and set them on the table. Making sure he had everything required for his street love potion, Li’l Ronnie took a seat. Removing a lighter from his front pocket, he lit the vanilla-scented candle that served as a centerpiece. Placing a bottle cap right side up and a cotton ball alongside it, next to a syringe, he was almost ready to make magic pop off for his renegade lady love. Cutting his eyes back over to Sable, he knew it wouldn’t be long before she stopped resisting the inevitable and loved him once more.
Li’l Ronnie reached over and took one of several small Baggies out of his jacket pocket. He lifted it up and held the edge tightly with pinched fingers while tapping the sides to bring the addictive mixture down to the bottom. Seeing that it had evened out, he ripped the top of the Baggie off. He poured a small bit of water into the bottle cap and felt anxious, as if he was about to feel the ultimate rush, not the virgin veins of Sable. Soon the spoon was heated over the burning candle, bringing the sometimes lethal combination together, to where it needed to be. As he allowed the cotton ball to serve its purpose of filtering out the unneeded bullshit in the barely stepped-on product, Li’l Ronnie’s smile grew wider. After sticking the needle into the center of the cotton ball, he filled the syringe with Ethan’s product. Finally ready to put things back in order, Li’l Ronnie stood to his feet.
As he approached Sable, sweat was pouring down her face from fighting a losing battle to get free. She’d been watching him like a hawk as he prepared a blast, which she prayed to God would be for him. The closer he got, the more she continued to buck and rattle the entire bed frame. Her wrists and ankles were now bleeding as the twisting rope had gnawed through her skin. Li’l Ronnie got closer, and Sable grew more terrified with each passing second. Her heart felt as if it was going to jump out of her chest. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think or see straight.
“Li’l Ronnie, get the fuck away from me with that bullshit! Are you fucking crazy or what? Get the fuck back, nigga! I ain’t playing. Get the fuck on.” Sable knew what his intentions were and was going berserk. In all her years of living, she had not once smoked a cigarette, smoked weed, or even been drunk. Now this asshole who claimed he used to love her so much and still did wanted to shoot some dope into her, like she was some common junkie off the street. Sable couldn’t fathom the thought of being high on any shit but counting her money. Not her. Not now. Not ever.
“Look, look, listen. Hold up, boy! Wait! Chill! Wait,” she begged, hoping to reason with him, convince him to put the needle down so they could talk. “Why you doing this, huh? Why? You said you love me so damn much. This how you gonna do me, huh? Like this? Damn, baby! Hold the fuck up!”
Li’l Ronnie paused. He watched “his girl” slowly abandon her attempts to break free. Sympathetically, he listened to her pleas and questions as to why it had come down to this. Caught in his feelings as well, he wanted nothing more than for them just to kiss and make up and let things go back to the way they were before Sable decided to be “a bad bitch out in these streets” and leave him behind in the dirt, like he was nothing but a piece of shit. However, Li’l Ronnie knew there was no changing Sable’s mind-set without a little bit of help. Never once giving up on the dream, he’d done and said just about everything he could think of underneath the sun, stars, and moon to get Sable to just love him again—but, tragically, no dice. So just to make his uncle hurt, he would now use her as bait.
As he looked around the small, filthy, out of the way house he’d rented from a crackhead for a few days, he grinned. He was killing two birds with one stone. He was making Ethan suffer, and he was back spending one-on-one time with his precious Sable.
“Me and you are made for each other. We done been through hell and back. I was there when you ain’t have shit. I put up with all your garbage and still loved you.” He reached for the small amount of rope that was left after tying her up. Carefully, he set the filled syringe on the edge of the nightstand.
As Sable continued to fight, Li’l Ronnie grabbed her arm forcefully and wrapped the rope tightly around it. After he tied her arm, his beloved multiple veins started to emerge. Having his choice, he tuned out her panic-filled screams.
“Look, be still. Just relax, before you mess around and get this needle broke off in your arm. You’ll have a blister growing full of this shit and a damn sore. So stop fighting me.”
Sable’s eyes seemed to pop out of her face. She was going into shock. She couldn’t stop him. She was trapped. “Please don’t,” were the last two words she said as Li’l Ronnie stuck the needle through the first layer of her skin and finally filled her vein with the unstepped-on poison she’d sold grams and grams, for which she’d gotten paid. As Sable’s bloodshot eyes rolled in the back of her head, her body tensed up, then started to tremble. Her arm started to bleed as he eased his love potion out and grinned with satisfaction. She’d never felt no shit like this before. The room started to spin as she had been made to break the first law of the game. Don’t get high on your own supply. As Sable drifted off to a place in her mind she’d never been before, Li’l Ronnie stood up and waited. After taking pictures with his cell phone of Sable sprawled out in the bed, he started texting them to Ethan.
* * *
It was now pitch black outside, and Ethan was constantly getting reports from all his lieutenants on how the various dope spots they were in charge of were going. His first mind was just to shut all of them down for the night and start back slinging at the crack of dawn. However, the product they had was already stepped on twice and had to be sold before he fell. Ethan had stretched the rest of his last shipment as much as possible, anticipating the re-up that should have taken place earlier. But now, thanks to Li’l Ronnie, he was almost at point zero. After speaking to Amir two separate times in the middle of the afternoon, he felt like he was making a little progress in securing his new bag, in spite of the confusion. But after the last embarrassing and remorseful conversation he was forced to have, Ethan knew that deaded their union.
Leaning back on the couch in the dark, he tried to gather his thoughts and see who he could call to get his stash off craps. The other few dealers he was somewhat cool with would have no problem asking why Amir had taken him off his line, and then either he’d be forced to fess up and tell them or they’d check with Amir and find out on their own. Either way it went, he was fucked. Push come to shove, he’d have to take a flight down to Miami and secure a new avenue. Lost in his thoughts, he closed his eyes and nodded off for no more than a few brief minutes before his cell notification alerted him.
Oh, hell naw! What this nigga want?
Ethan was disgusted that J-Blaze hadn’t caught up with his nephew and done what he was asked to do in the name of crew loyalty. Here Li’l Ronnie had the nerve to be sending him a text message after all the dirt he’d done.
After tapping the icon on his phone, he read the first of three back-to-back texts out loud. “Catch me. I got you.”
Ethan didn’t understand the first secret squirrel message, so he went on to the next. Upon opening the second text, he almost dropped his cell to the floor. His eyes burned and filled with blood. His entire body stiffened with resentment for Li’l Ronnie. In disbelief, he stared at a picture of Sable, his woman, half naked and tied to some bed. In the next picture his nephew so proudly sent, he showcased the empty Baggie that had clear heroin residue on it and a needle mark in Sable’s arm.
Enraged, Ethan tried over and over again to call Li’l Ronnie’s cell but was sent straight to voice mail. He left messages and tried texting back but received no response. The old-school player knew the boy had crossed the line. He knew he was playing the game with him, making him suffer by not knowing Sable’s whereabouts or fate, so the only thing Ethan could do was wait it out and hope J-Blaze found him or, hell, even Black Tone at this point.