Authors: Nikki Turner
She kept repeating it over and over again. She went into round-the-clock-prayer. She asked God to enter into the kidnappers heart and minister to them not to hurt or kill her. After coming out of prayer, she claimed her victory and put it in God's hands. Then she was not scared. She knew that she'd be delivered from this madness. She realized that it was only one man in her world that wasn't going to leave her or forsake her. That was God, not Bengee. She felt a sense of calmness within herself as well as in the house she was being held captive.
She overheard the kidnappers say, "Man, we gonna have to kill her." The other said, "Let me hit her first, she got a fat ass."
"Look, we ain't in this for murder or rape. We're in this for money!" The leader of the kidnappers screamed.
The kidnappers entered back into the room. They asked her if it was anybody else she could call to get the ransom from. She hesitated about calling her mother because her mother had endured so much with Yarni already. Then she didn't want to put her mother in jeopardy either. She called Uncle Stanka. He'd surely know what to do. The kidnappers allowed her to explain the situation to him, while one listened on the other phone and the other held her at gunpoint. They lowered the ransom to $100,000. Her uncle agreed. He and her mother paid the ransom, and the kidnappers let her go free. The kidnappers kept her truck and took it to the chop shop in New York. She didn't care because she knew that the insurance company would cover it anyway.
Once Yarni was free, she knew from that moment on, that she could never deal with Bengee again. She'd heard that while she was being held captive, Bengee was having parties still balling out of control, along with his normal strip parties.
She called Bengee and told him, "Since you left me for dead, just pretend I am dead. I want the $100,000 my uncle and mother put up to pay the ransom, and as far as I am concerned, never ever bother me again or there will be consequences, and may you die a long, slow painful death, you grimy motherfucker!!"
"Oh, you're threatening me?" Bengee raised his voice, but Yarni wasn't intimidated.
"Just bring my mother and uncle's fucking money or else," she firmly said and hung up on him.
He called back. His attitude reflected as if they had an argument and he could fix it.
"They will get their money. All you need is a $100,000? I'll bring the money when I come pick you up to come home.
A'ight?"
She knew she could've gotten more money out of Bengee, but she didn't want anything else from him. She thought to herself. It's bad when I don't even want this nigga money.
She cried just thinking about him. Although Yarni loved Bengee, she realized two things. She loved herself more and it's a very thin line between love and hate. How you could love someone so much and as soon as they cross over that line, the same amount of love you had for them can turn to hate in an instant. She cried for six days. She remembered reading somewhere that it takes thirty days to make or break a habit. If she could make it through twenty-four more days, she'd be O.K.
Yarni remembered all the turmoil she'd accepted from Bengee. It was in lieu of the money. Money is an addiction in itself. She contemplated: a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. On that note, she picked up the phone called her girlfriend Jewel, who was a drug abuse counselor, and asked Jewel about kicking a habit. She gathered some books on dependency habits. Her habit may not have been chemical, but she sure had two dependencies, that she needed to be rid of, Bengee and the love of money.
Yarni moved in with Gloria until she could find an apartment. When she checked into renting an apartment, she realized that it was more economical to buy a house, condo or townhouse rather than renting an apartment. The rent on apartments that she liked averaged out to be more than a mortgage payment would be. Delayed gratification were two words she hated to think bout. Although she wanted instant results, she realized she'd have to save and sacrifice to purchase a house. She reasoned with herself that it really didn't make sense to have a $50,000 vehicle and no driveway of her own to sit it in. She decided that she would accept the fact that if she couldn't have instant gratification with her own place right then, she'd get a job and save towards her goal.
Yarni received a letter from Des.
Dearest Yarni,
I am going to keep this short and sweet. The streets are talking
about what that bitch ass shit Bengee did by not paying that little funky ass $250,000 ransom. The whole six and a half years
I've been down, not one time have I put locks on you or hated
on any man concerning you. But straight up, a pipe can't take
but so much steam and it busts. The bottom line is this, remember back a few years ago when you gave me the ultimatum,
either hustling or you? Now it's either this joker or me? I can't
sit and watch this nigga play craps with your life. I'm going to
always love you regardless because I've got unconditional love
and that's the love that don't wear off, but I can't allow you to
be in my life if you continue to deal with this Bengee cat. So
you make the decision and let me know.
Unconditional Love,
Des
She begin to cry as she thought about the price she may have to pay if Des didn't want to be with her anymore. Then she thought about the cost of all the things she'd been faced with.
What's the price for someone giving you gonorrhea? What's the price to fix a broken heart? What's the price doing a day in jail?
How much does it cost for you to give your life? What's the price of breaking your mother's heart? How many chances do you really have at love? I can't lose Des in spite of my stupid choic-es. What am I going to do?
While she was sitting there thinking, Jay Z's new song was playing on an underground tape she bought a while back when she in New York. There were only a few words of the song, she could make out, but those words were her inspiration, her stim-ulation, her encouragement and what gave her the will to move forward..." order to survive, you gotta live with regrets." Yarni pulled herself together. She grabbed her cordless phone. She called Jewel and read the letter to her. "Listen, Jewel, I need you to do me a favor. Just play along, O.K.?" Yarni said, and Jewel agreed.
Yarni had Jewel to call the prison where Des was, to speak to the chaplain. She spoke in her professional proper voice.
"Hello, my name is Jewel Rogers and I am a nurse here at Charter Westbrook, and one of our patients is asking to speak to her husband. We feel that this may help her. It's an emergency."
"What's the nature of the emergency of the patient?" The chaplain asked.
"Sir, that's confidential. I can't disclose that."
"Yes, Ma'm I understand." The chaplain said in a concerned tone. "Who's the inmate?"
"Ahhh" Jewel hesitated as if she was flipping through pages.
"Desmond Taylor"
"Your patient is what relation to him?"
"His wife."
"Is there a number I can reach you at?" The chaplain asked.
Jewel gave him Yarni's number, and when the Chaplin called back, he had Des right there. Yarni answered the phone, "Nurses station" and played the whole charade out to the fullest. When Des got on the phone, she dropped the act and told him that it was an emergency and to call when he reached his pod. When he called, she explained that Bengee was a done deal and she would never speak to him again. She kept her word, and vowed to herself to never let Bengee anywhere near her.
EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY
Gloria was so furious with Bengee that she wanted to kill him
herself.
She even talked to her brother, Stanka about eliminating Bengee, but Yarni overheard them contemplating and interrupted the conversation. As she walked into Gloria's kitchen looking in the refrigerator she said to them, "Mommy and Uncle Stanka, save your energy and your money. Killing him is a waste.
Eventually, he's going to commit suicide indirectly sooner or later. His lifestyle and actions are going to be the cause of his death. He's too bigheaded, selfish, and the streets are watching.
He'll self-destruct one way or another. He'll crumble to the ground." Gloria and Stanka looked at Yarni, astonished, as she looked in the cabinet to grab a glass to pour her some juice. She put her hand on her hip, and about to take a sip of her juice.
"And mommy, I am surprised at you. You've always taught me vengeance isn't ours, and you reap what you sow." She drank from her glass. She slammed the glass on the counter hard as she said casually, "After all, I had considered shooting him myself, but I realized that was just too easy of a way for him to die," Yarni said shaking her head with a giggle.
Gloria and Stanka looked at each other as she took another sip of her juice. "The real punishment was cutting all ties with him completely. I'll get the last laugh when the reality hits him in the face." She laughed as she continued. "Whether it's the Feds picking him up and handing him back to back life sentences, once he gets behind prison walls, he'd realize how much he needs me because you see, them other chics, they ain't going to be thinking about him. All they gonna do is run to the next dude with a dollar. So, he'll need me and want me to show him some love, write him a letter, send him a card, some pictures, accept a call.
Then I'll leave him for dead, just as he left me for dead. The only difference is I'll be able to fill my life with activities and events to forget about him. He'll have a substantial amount of time to think about me and how he, excuse my language mommy, fucked that up. I know that none of the women he ever had or will have could measure up to me. I feel that that's the best revenge. And if it doesn't play out like that, just wait and see just how Bengee will fall victim to the streets, and the drug game will see to it that he dies a slow painful death one way or another.
So, just hold your horses and watch what I tell you. His is coming. Just watch and see. Every dog has its day!" Gloria didn't know what to say. She was caught up in "the right now." She never analyzed it as Yarni had. She wasn't sure if Yarni was only saying this to soothe her, heart or if she really meant what she was saying. Gloria got up from the table and walked to her prayer room. She began to pray and ask God to make some sense of this situation.
But months passed, and Bengee still stayed on top. Yarni would some time hear that he just purchased something new and would wonder to herself, when is his going to come around?
How come all the good guys always get caught up? The rotten cats always seem to come out on top. They never get theirs. It always seems like the innocent people die, never that nasty dude. It's always the dude that treated everybody good, the dude that bought all the kids in the neighborhood ice-cream, never the dude who is making crazy money and don't have respect for his own mother, won't give her a dime and will cuss her out, call her everything, but a child of God. Never the cruel nasty dude who doesn't mean anybody any good, the dudes like Bengee. I wonder why it is like that?
People all around town started hating Bengee. He sold his dope so cheap and it was the best dope down south in a while.
He kept it flowing, but there were still a lot of jealous and envious folks. Plus, he'd stepped on too many toes on his way to the top.
Bengee had given some dope to his right hand man, Tank.
Shortly after, Tank wasn't anywhere to be found, leaving Bengee in debt of $325,000. Bengee could've gone into his stash and got the money, but he refused to touch any of his money. He felt like that was hustling backwards. He ended up going to Baltimore, and buying some dope so he could sell it quickly to pay off the Columbians. The dope he brought from B-more was straight garbage and wasn't cheap like the drugs he was getting from the Columbians. He knew that he was supposed to see the Columbians two weeks ago. He'd been ducking their calls, not only was he out of the $325,000 that Tank had got him for, but the $250,000 that he'd went to Baltimore and brought the garbage with. When he finally told the Columbians he had their money, they told him they were sending some one to pick up the money personally. He knew right then that they were cutting him off. It wasn't the money, and what he was getting from them was considered nothing to them. It was just the principle of how he didn't communicate with them, and that was larceny and he couldn't be a part of their organization anymore. There was only one way out...DEATH!!!
Bengee knew he had to go on the low now until he figured out what to do. He wasn't giving them anything until he acquired another connection some way, some how. He went into hiding at a house he had purchased in Caroline county that no one knew about. How could somebody with so much knowledge of the game go into hiding forty-five minutes away from Richmond? The Columbians had people everywhere. They knew somebody who worked at the electric company, and they pulled up his recently opened account. They went to his house out in Caroline County. From the woods they watched him for three days. They waited for him to come out of the house to get some wood, for his fireplace. They beat him unmercifully with a baseball bat, shot him in the knees, and dragged him in the house where they tortured him with a blowtorch.