Hated by Many, Loved by None 3 (3 page)

“
Happy? Man, I don’t think there is a word for what I’m feeling right now. Thank you so much,” I said and gripped Mr. Segal’s hand with force and shook it, showing my appreciation for what he had done for me.

I was still in the hospital and the doctors told me that within a week or so I would be able to go home. My uncle B.B. had hired me a lawyer and the two of them went to the court for me since my medical condition wouldn
’t allow it. They had brought back the news on a recorder, and I swear I wanted to jump out of this bed and run around in fucking circles. As much as I hated that bitch, Jahzara, right now, I was glad that she was alive to be able to tell her side of the story and help me get off for these trumped up charges.

Hell, everybody knew that I had done all of this shit because I was trying to save her ass. Had it not been for her, then I wouldn
’t have been in this position at all.

“
I told you once I took this case that it was open and shut. I mean, the Mexican chick was on the run for murder and Quin was wanted for questioning on a few robberies. This was simple for me and your girlfriend telling the police that it was all done in self-defense made it that more simpler,” my lawyer said.

I pushed the button on the side of the bed to allow my bed to be lifted a little higher and once again told my lawyer how thankful I was for him. He nodded and left B.B. and I in the room alone.

“Thank you B.B. I know I ain’t been doing right, but I appreciate you for coming through for me,” I said sincerely.

“
No doubt. You fam. You good now, nigga? Maybe your ass will stop crying like a lil’ bitch now you know you not gonna be locked up the rest of your damn life,” B.B. said as he smirked at me.

I laughed,
“What the fuck ever. Hell yea I’ve been crying. I’m in pain and these crooked ass cops wanted to send me to prison for some shit that I had a right to do. None of the shit they were saying even made sense; I knew I had to get a lawyer and quick. They wasn’t about to have me go down for this shit.”

“
You was gonna go down if that bitch didn’t save you. So what you gonna do about her anyway? I hope your love sick ass is done. Get rid of her like you did Rain.”

“
First off, Jahzara didn’t save me. She was the one who killed fucking Honey, and she tried to kill Rain. I only shot that bitch because she was out of fucking line. Put me through all this shit and she wanted to kill the one bitch that was standing by my side and being loyal to me,” I huffed. “She better be lucky I didn’t tell the complete fucking truth or she would be the one facing the damn charges.

“
You still haven’t heard from Rain?” B.B. asked as he sat in the chair that was close to the window.

“
Nah, and the crazy thing is no one has mentioned her at all. It was like she wasn’t even there. I don’t know where the fuck she is or if she is even okay. Maybe she’ll pop up once everything dies down.”

I rubbed my facial hair thinking about Rain and what could have possibly happened to her. Last week
, when the police stormed in my room throwing out all these charges at me, they never once mentioned her name or even asked about the other woman in the car. It was only Honey, Quin, and Jahzara—what the fuck happened to Rain? I shrugged it off and looked over at my uncle.

“
Aye, I’m ready to go. I think I want to take me a little vacay and chill out in Lubbock until I heal. Then I gotta figure out what the fuck I’m gonna do from there. I haven’t said anything, but Tamar came through here and told me that he was cutting me off because he was gonna handle things on his own.”

“
Yea, I know all about it,” B.B. said and sat forward in his seat.

“
What you know about it?” I asked suspiciously.

“
Dom had a meeting with him the other day. He agreed to give us ten percent monthly as long as we allow him to move his work here in Dallas. We looking at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars a month from him give or take.”

“
Wow,” I shook my head in disbelief.

I couldn
’t believe what I was hearing. Tamar had cut me off because he feared that I was gonna turn on him for my uncles and he ended up working with them in the end. I felt more than betrayed at the moment and my plan of leaving the hospital against medical advice and getting the fuck out of Dallas was starting to sound better and better.

“
Shit, dude would have been a fucking problem so we did what we had to do. Besides everyone gets to eat and that’s all that matters in the end,” B.B. added.

“
Everyone like who? I haven’t heard shit from Dom and I damn sure ain’t heard shit from you. You’ve been here every damn day and ain’t said shit about me getting money,” I said.

“
First off, you fucked up when you continued to do business with Tamar after you were told not to. Secondly, you almost died, Imran. It’s probably best that you take some time off and get yourself together. When are you being discharged?”

“
I’m not waiting to be discharged. I’m ready to go now. I will just have to pick up Kira and tell her to take care of me for a while.”

“
I’ll call her and let her know,” B.B. said and jumped up from his seat.

I shook my head and thought about what I was gonna do
since I’ve been forced out of the game. The only thing I know how to do is move weight and I honestly ’don’t know if I’m good at anything else. I’ve never tried my hand at anything other than hustling. It’s the only thing I was taught as I child. Not doing it anymore would feel strange.

Maybe, I
’ll take the money I got saved up and see what Lubbock got popping. Or shit maybe I can go up North and get money with them Jersey niggas. I got family in Jersey.

I began to remove the blood pressure cuff that was strapped to my arm and then went to pull the cords loose that was hooked up to the vitals machine. I needed to get out of this hospital and get to a calm place where I could think more clearly.

While B.B. was out in the hallway on the phone, I pressed down on the button to call a nurse, and then walked over to the closet area that held all of my personal belongings. I opened up the closet door and pulled the bag out. It contained my wallet, my torn and bloody clothes and that was it.

I sat the bag down on the floor and thought about everything that I had on me before I had gotten into the accident. There was the gun that was taken into police custody, there was my cell phone that was sitting on the lunch tray by the bed, and then there was---my keys.

Where the fuck are my keys?

I jerked the closet door back opened and looked around the space to see if maybe they had fallen. When I didn
’t see them anywhere, I frantically began to search around the hospital room.

“
Can we help you Mr. Jackson? You should not be out of your bed right now. What is it that I can get for you?” the nurse asked and gripped my arm.

I jerked my arm away from her and turned to look into her face. She was a heavy set black lady that looked to be in her mid-thirties. She had cute chubby face and wore her hair in neat bun with some bangs that fell down the middle of her forehead.

“Where the fuck are my keys?” I asked with as much patience as I felt.

“
What keys? Everything that you had on you when you came in was placed in a bag that is labeled personal belongings and is tagged with your name,” the nurse said and reached for my arm, but I pulled away before she could grip it.

“
Okay, but my keys were not in there. I would have had them on me when I came in. They’re always on me.”

“
Mr. Jackson, I need you to calm down. I will check the log book to see what was recorded and I will check with Lost and Found. Just get back in your bed right now.”

“
I’m not getting back in no fucking bed. As soon as I find my damn keys, I’m leaving!”

“
The doctor hasn’t discharged you yet. You need-””

“
I said I was fucking leaving! Find my damn keys!” I yelled putting more bass in my voice than before so she knew there was nothing to argue about.

She stepped away from me and swiftly walked out of my room. B.B. stepped back inside and saw that I was pissed and panicking.

“What the hell going on? Step outside to call Kira and hear you in here-””

I cut him off
. “My fucking keys are gone. Have you seen them?”

“
Nope. Did they not put it with the rest of your stuff?” B.B. dumbly asked.

“
Nigga, if they had put it with the rest of my stuff then I wouldn’t be going crazy looking for the shit.”

I stood frozen trying to think. The last time I had my keys they were connected to the keys of Jahzara
’s rental car. I had to go and find her. She was somewhere in this hospital. I had to go talk to her and see if she had my keys in her possession.

I placed a spoonful of
Jell-O into my mouth and frowned at the television as they began to play an episode of The Simpsons. I was so fucking tired of watching the same shit over and over again and couldn’t wait to leave this place so I could see some real damn cable.

I was healing quicker than the doctors had expected and would be well enough in a few days to go for my third surgery that was required to repair the tear in my aortic wall. They had temporarily placed an instrument there to keep it together until I was well enough to go under the knife again. I was scared to damn death, but
I knew it was something that had to be done so I was ready. I wanted to get it over with as fast as possible because after that I would be in the process of healing so that I could go home. I still had yet to decide where I was gonna go after leaving here or what I was gonna do with myself. All I knew is that I wasn’t going back to my parents’ house.

My mama and I couldn
’t get along for shit and every time I saw her step through that damn door, I pretended to be so sleepy and in pain that it was a hassle to talk. It worked like a charm too. Every time she would sit her country ass in the corner of the room and work on the ugly ass baby blankets that she planned to give to her grandchildren one day.

She had this new love of knitting and sewing and I promise you, you couldn
’t tell her that she wasn’t the shit. Those blankets were ugly as hell, but I would always pretend like it was the best thing I had ever seen. There was no need to hurt the woman’s feelings seeing as how she had even suggested contacting Disney to see if they would be interested in buying her blankets for their baby products. I had laughed so hard on the inside when she’d told me, but who was I to stomp all over her dreams?

I brought the spoon up to my mouth about to devour another taste of this Cherry
Jell-O, when suddenly my hospital room door flew open, and Imran came storming in like he was here to save the day.

Shit. He looks good.

Even with the hospital gown on and a pair of holey jeans he looked gorgeous as ever. His scruffy chocolate skin was as beautiful as ever and he looked well. He didn’t look like he’d been shot or even been an accident, and I was happy to see that.

Before the police was standing over me with all of their questions, I had assumed that he had ran off with Rain and had left me for dead until they told me about the accident.

Funny thing is they had never asked me about Rain and when I had brought up her name and told them how Imran had only shot me because he was protecting Rain; they had looked at me rather strangely.

I rushed to sit the
Jell-O down and went to fix my hair as if it mattered. Hell, I was on my sick bed just as he was so I know he wasn’t expecting me to look the part when he’d walked in. I couldn’t believe how my stomach had begun to turn flips as if it was the first time I was seeing him. My feelings for him were still there even though I had hoped that they would disappear. There was too much damage done between the two of us to have anything and I just wanted to put him in the past along with the rest of those that I loved. Part of me wanted to stay around so that I could try and make things work with him, but the other half of me was telling me to just let it go.

“
Imran, what are you doing here? Are you okay?” I asked noticing the menacing, hard glare that he gave me as he came closer to my bed.

“
The keys to the rental you were driving. Where are they?” he asked getting straight to the reason he was here.

“
Keys? I don’t know anything about any keys, Imran. I don’t remember anything past you pumping those two bullets into me,” I said bitterly. I could tell that he sensed that by the way his jaw tightened before he spoke again.

“
Mmph, so you haven’t seen any keys?” he asked me and then he looked over in the corner of my room before he just bolted off in that direction. He pulled the little closet open and pulled out my bag. I oddly stared at him as he poured the contents of my personal belongings bag onto the floor. He rummaged through the things and his shoulders dropped in defeat when he didn’t find what he was looking for.