Brick (Double Dippin') (36 page)

R
edbone observed Brick, and her bewildered gaze quickly changed to irritation. “Can’t you read? This area is off limits, asshole! The bathroom for guests is inside the ballroom.” She shooed him away, gesturing with her hand.

“When’s the last time you saw Felice…or maybe you know her as Juicy,” Brick said in a low tone.

Redbone’s delicate features contorted. Her thin lips twisted in disgust. “Who’s asking?” She flattened her hands against the tarp-covered cushion, lifting herself up.

“A friend of a friend,” Brick said coolly as he approached her.

“You’re an asshole,” she snapped. Moving swiftly, the naked stripper attempted to get past Brick.

He grabbed her by the arm. She opened her mouth to scream. “I’ma fuck up that pretty face permanently if you scream,” Brick threatened, prompting Redbone to shut her mouth. “You understand me?” Brick gave her arm a harsh jerk.

She nodded quickly.

“Where’s Juicy?”

“I have no idea. What’s this about?” she said in a whispery voice.

“I’m asking the questions. Are you still working for Juicy?”

“No.”

“Who do you work for?”

“What’s it to you?” she snarled. “You got a lot of balls, coming in here. Do you know whose house you’re in?”

“I don’t give a fuck. If you come out your mouth all greasy one more time, I’ma knock your teeth out the back of your head. You hear me, ho?”

She twisted her face angrily, and reluctantly nodded.

“Let’s start with a different question.” Brick paused a beat. “What do you know about Misty?”

At the mention of Misty’s name, Redbone’s eyes grew large. She wrestled free of Brick’s grasp. Barefoot and naked, she fled to the entryway.

Anya stepped out of the shadows. “Where you going, bitch?” Anya shoved her so hard, Redbone stumbled backwards.

Brick caught Redbone and slapped a palm over her mouth. “I’ma ask you again…what do you know about Misty?” he persisted. He had only wanted to question the woman about Juicy, but her reaction led him to believe that she was much more involved than he’d suspected.

Before he removed his hand to allow Redbone to talk, Anya had moved to a clutter of worker’s tools and grabbed a nail gun. In a blink of an eye, she shot a spiked nail into the top of Redbone’s foot. The stripper’s mouth widened as she tried to release a piercing scream. But Brick tightened his hand around her mouth, smothering the sound.

“Try to run somewhere now, hooker!” Anya spat.

Anya was ride or die! Brick looked down at the spike that held Redbone frozen in place. Blood oozed around the head of the nail. “Remind me never to piss you off,” Brick told Anya.

Anya gave a wry smile. “Now you know,” she remarked.

“How’d you know I was back here?” Brick questioned.

“Miss Thang. I had to pay him a stack to let me join you in a ménage for an hour. Guess what Miss Thang said?”

Brick lifted a questioning brow.

“Miss Thang said, ‘I expect you to turn a blind eye when your man and me get together after this soiree is over.’”

Brick laughed. “Yeah, I gassed him up. So how much time do we have with Redbone?”

“The crowd’s gon’ be here for at least another two hours.”

Redbone trembled. Her tears trickled onto Brick’s hand. Brick spoke softly in her ear. “I’m taking my hand off your mouth, but if you yell, she’s gonna nail your other foot to the f—”

“Fuck that other foot,” Anya cut in. “Hmph. I’ma aim for her fake-ass titties. I wonder if we’ll hear a ‘
sssss’
when I burst them bitches like balloons.”

“You hardcore, babe!” Brick said. Anya was a little spitfire. Her fearlessness reminded Brick of Misty.

Forcing the end of the nail gun into Redbone’s right breast, Anya repeated Brick’s question. “Whatchu know about Misty? Don’t make me have to ask that question again.”

Lips trembling, teeth chattering, Redbone moaned from pain, unable to produce coherent sound.

Alerted by the clatter of stilettos coming in their direction, Redbone yelled, “Help!”

Brick and Anya dove for cover, hiding behind covered furniture.

“You’re supposed to be back on the swing,” boomed the familiar voice of the stilettos-wearing supervisor. He suddenly gawked at Redbone’s impaled foot. “Ooo, chile, what the hell did you do to yourself? And why you back here fiddling around with the tools and shit?”

Redbone sniveled. Eyes darting to the area where Anya and Brick were hiding, she frantically wiggled her foot, trying to work the nail out of the floor. “I…didn’t… Redbone stuttered. The pain was so severe, she was unable to get her words out.

“Stop twisting your foot around. You’re making it worse.” The
supervisor rubbed his bald head in aggravation. “I don’t know how to get that nail out of your foot. I can’t bring unwanted attention to the Playhouse, so you can forget about an ambulance.”

“Please,” Redbone moaned the word.

“No! I’m not losing my job over this. Smash is not gon’ appreciate the way you done fucked up his showcase. I’ma go get Malaysia…see if she can help me get this thing out.”

“No, don’t leave me, Horatio! They’re behind the couch,” Redbone shouted, miraculously regaining her ability to speak clearly.

Horatio! The supervisor bull is Horatio, the bodyguard dude that Misty took to Miami!
Brick snatched Anya’s purse, without explaining, whipped out her fake cell phone, and then leapt out of his hiding spot.

No questions asked, Anya was right behind Brick when he zapped the supervisor twice. Horatio fell into a twitching and heaving mound.

Crying and moaning, Redbone attempted to yank her foot from the binding floorboard. Instantly, the large head of the nail disappeared and became embedded inside the top of her foot. Blood spurted, yet Redbone remained fastened to the floor.

“Hand me that tape.” Brick pointed to a spool of electrical tape that laid amidst the construction crew’s tools.

Anya grabbed it. “I got this.” She began unraveling tape. Mimicking Brick’s actions in the warehouse, she wrapped the tape three times around the mouth and head of the shuddering and sobbing stripper. After silencing her, Anya dragged a chair over to the naked girl. “Take a load off. Have a seat.”

Brick zapped Horatio again. “I need the tape, babe,” Brick said as his victim lay twitching.

Anya tossed it to him. “We should get Redbone to call Juicy. Lure her to us.”

Brick smiled as he taped Horatio’s mouth. “We don’t need Juicy. This high-heel-wearing punk-ass is the mufucka I’ve been looking for all along.”

Anya frowned in confusion. Brick picked up the nail gun. He stretched out one of Horatio’s arms, and shot a nail into the middle of his palm. Horatio screamed in anguish, but the sound went unheard as it reverberated behind his taped mouth.

Brick repeated the process with the other hand. As the spike entered his hand, Horatio banged his own head against the floor, groaning in agony.

“I’ll put a spike between your eyes if you bang your head again.” Horatio nodded, and mumbled incoherently. His legs curled up involuntarily as he tried to endure the excruciating pain.

Anya’s eyes drifted down to Horatio’s ankles. As if reading her mind, Brick said, “Nah, the nail won’t go through his ankles. They too thick.”

“Lemme try it,” she said, reaching for the nail gun.

Brick gave it to her.

Panicked, Horatio kicked his legs and squirmed wildly, causing the Christian Louboutin stilettos to fly off his feet.

Anya scooted down to his feet. “If you kick me, I swear to God, I’ma nail your dick and your balls inside your ass.”

Horatio became completely still. He squeezed his eyes closed as Anya widened the space between his legs, bent his knees and then placed the soles of his feet flat against the plastic covering on the floor.

Two nails were fired into each foot, ensuring that Horatio stayed put. The big man howled, but the contractor duct tape was doing an excellent job muffling the sounds.

Anya waved the thick roll at Brick. “Yo, babe, this is some good shit right here. We should cop a couple on the way out.”

“Uh-huh,” Brick responded absently as he got down on one knee and looked Horatio in the eyes. “You’re the one who fucked up Misty. Did you really think you were gon’ get away with it?”

Horatio’s eyes widened.

“You fucked with the wrong one when you came at Misty.” Brick looked the man over sneeringly. “Look at you...wearing high-heels and dressed like a bitch. It’s Judgment Day, nigga!”

Horatio murmured in denial and shook his head violently.

“Take the tape off his mouth,” Anya suggested. “Let him plead his case.” She looked at Horatio. “We spent a lot of bread to get this private session, so don’t be wasting time. Ain’t no rescue team coming back here looking for your ass.”

After hearing that no rescue mission was in progress, Horatio and Redbone both groaned in distress. Horatio writhed in pain. His eyes began to roll into the back of his head.

Brick smacked his face. “Ain’t no time for passing out. Wake up, nigga. You got some explaining to do.” He ripped the tape from around Horatio’s mouth, tearing off pieces of a mustache and other facial hair, along with some skin in the process.

Anya grinned as she mused, “That tape is some real good shit!”

Anya held up the cell phone as a warning to Horatio. “Holler, bitch. Please!”

Wide eyes and trembling lips, Horatio quietly whimpered.

“Misty was a paper maker,” Brick said. “You didn’t like that, did you?”

Unable to disguise his disdain for Misty, Horatio’s mouth curled viciously. “She was shady; always tryna beat somebody out of what they earned.”

“And so you tried to kill her over a coupla dollars?” Brick said with contempt.

“I wasn’t trying to kill her; I wanted to make sure she couldn’t keep using her looks to scheme and connive. She always had an unfair advantage. I just wanted to give her some permanent imperfections. You know, even out the playing field.”

“And you wanted her out of the picture, so you could have Smash Hitz to yourself,” Brick added.

“I wanted my fair share; that’s all.”

“So how does Redbone fit into the picture?” Anya asked.

“Juicy got burnt by Misty, too.”

“I asked about Redbone.” Anya nodded her head toward the shivering stripper.

“Redbone and Juicy had a thing.”

“What kind of thing?” Brick barked.

“You know…they were messing around together. So they cooked up a scheme where Redbone and I would put on a sex show for Smash Hitz. But Misty messed it up by sending this skinny bull named Ashy Cashy to the crib.”

“Cash Money?” Brick asked.

“Misty called him Ashy Cashy.”

Brick had only heard Misty refer to Cash Money as Troy, but being that the bull always looked dusty, he could understand how Misty had come up with that nickname.

“I’m in a lot of pain, man. You gotta take these spikes out my hands and feet.” Beads of sweat dribbled from Horatio’s forehead. He closed his eyes and bit down on his lip, trying to fight the pain.

“Nah, I’ll pull those nails out with a pair of pliers after you finish talking.”

“Please.”

Brick ignored his plea. “So you were supposed to get down with Redbone over here, but Smash didn’t need you because he had Misty’s worker. And you were jealous and full of hatred.”

“Yeah, man. If it wasn’t for me, Misty wouldn’t have been all in with Smash Hitz. She used me to get to him, and then she dumped me—like I was trash.”

“I have another question. How’d you know Misty was taking Smash Hitz’ chain to his crib? And by the way, what happened to the chain?”

Horatio looked stunned that Brick knew about the medallion. “Redbone. She was there with him. She overheard Smash on the phone arguing with Misty. She heard him tell her that she had a half-hour to bring his chain back.”

“Where’s the chain?” Brick asked again, more forcibly.

“After I took it out of Misty’s car, I called Juicy and told her I had it. She told me to take it to the crib with me and slip the
chain to Redbone. That’s what I did. I swear to God, I thought they gave the chain back to Smash Hitz.”

Anya didn’t waste any time yanking the tape from around Redbone’s mouth. “Start talking, bitch.”

“I…me and Juicy…” she stammered. “We were supposed to split the money after she sold it. But I never got paid.”

“Where’s that bitch, Juicy?”

“I heard that she’s sick. In a hospice program, dying of AIDS.”

“Ew. All y’all nasty, diseased mufuckas is fucking and sucking each other. This Playhouse should be quarantined and condemned.”

Brick’s eyes went vacant for a brief moment.

“Brick?” Anya said with concern in her voice. She patted his hand until Brick blinked a few times. “You zoned out for a minute, babe.”

“Oh, yeah? I’ve heard enough of this lying nigga’s mouth. Now it’s killing time. Shut him the fuck up,” Brick instructed Anya.

Brick had been reliving what Misty must have experienced on that fateful night at the hands of this big, angry faggot. He had brutalized Misty and left her for dead on that lonely road. Left her beyond unrecognizable and only suitable for a closed casket. But Misty was too strong to go out like that. No, this man didn’t kill her. But he had done much worse. He had killed Misty’s spirit and her will to live.