Invincible: A Novel (13 page)

Kim answered: “Pull the car over” in a tone of voice Jake had never heard from her. He pulled the Corvette over on a somewhat empty road with feelings of paranoia entering his body. He knew something was wrong. Kim looked into his eyes; she looked as if she thought these would be the last words she would ever say to him. “Baby, I want you to understand that the way I feel about you is real. I truly love you more than anything, and living life the way I’ve been living it for so many years has become difficult.”

Jake interrupted her. “What up, Kim? What you trying to tell me, baby?”

Kim didn’t say a word. Tears dropped from her eyes. Out of nowhere she jumped out of the car, and yelled, “You can’t trust Mitch!” Then, as she fell to the ground, in a God-forgive-me-for-what-I’ve-done voice, she said, “You can’t trust me, either!” As she said that, Jake knew he was in even more trouble than he had thought.

“WHY THE FUCK SHOULDN’T I TRUST YOU OR MITCH, KIM?”

“Because we’ve both betrayed you before, Jake!”

“How?” Jake demanded.

“We had an affair,” Kim blurted out.

Jake was shocked and at a loss for words. He grimaced—his face looking as if he had just inhaled and tasted the nastiest shit in his life. Kim could almost see the steam coming off his head. Jake told her, “I don’t believe this! When did this happen? When I was in a coma? Before that? ANSWER the fucking question, Kim!”

“We’d been messing around for a few years off-and-on before the coma,” Kim replied sadly.

“How the fuck could you do that, Kim?” Jake asked. “Was you trying to get me back for M.B.? You fucked my uncle to get revenge on me?”

“Jake, I don’t know why I did it to be honest with you. Maybe she’s the reason, I don’t know,” Kim said with a shrug of her shoulders. “But don’t sit there and act like you ain’t do me dirty time after time! Our whole relationship was a joke to you!” Kim started getting loud like she could feel the pain of the past running through her body like a cold gallon of water.

By Kim’s reactions and her body language, Jake thought maybe she was telling the truth.
But
my
uncle wouldn’t do that
.
Mitch was too real to let a woman come between them, but anything was possible and he wasn’t putting anything past anyone right now.

“Kim, get in the car! We’re getting out of here. It ain’t safe for us to be staying still like this.”

Kim did as she was told and they drove off. For a couple of hours no one said a word. Jake started to ponder, to put things together in his mind. As they got closer to home, Jake felt relieved that he hadn’t put Kim on the plane. He never would have the answers or the info he needed. Before they got to their destination Jake asked Kim, “Why you trying to play me for a fool? What’s the real deal? What’s really going on? There’s been three attempts on my life and you’re gonna try to throw me off? I just got out of a fucking coma and you gonna pull some shit like you and my uncle fucking? Besides that, are you lying about the money, too? I didn’t have no five hundred fifty thousand dollars! Whose money do you have and why you keep lying?”

It was dark out and the parkway they were driving on was mostly empty. With the frustrations of being a marked man and really wanting the answers to his questions rolling through his mind, Jake pulled over and faced Kim. “Make your decision,” he said. “Is this the spot you wanna die at?”

Kim started to protest, but before she could get the words out Jake caught her with an open-palm blow to the forehead, then grabbed her throat with one hand and wrapped his other around her pinky finger. “I’m gonna ask you again. Is this the spot you wanna die at?”

Kim could tell by the look in his eyes and the energy he was
giving off that he would do it. He would kill her right here. She regretted telling him about her and Mitch, but she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She said, “No Jake,” shaking her head like a toddler desperate not to get a beating. The inside of the Corvette on a dark parkway was not where she wanted to die.

“Listen to me good then, Kim! Are you telling the truth about Mitch?”

“Yes,” she whimpered in a little-girl voice. “I said that so you know to stay away from him. You think he’s a good man, but you can’t trust him.”

“Who’s trying to kill me?” Jake asked. He started to bend Kim’s finger back with the intention of breaking it. He wasn’t feeling her answer. How could she sleep with his uncle and how could he sleep with her? Jake was enraged. He never felt so hurt and betrayed at any other time in his life. He wondered if it could get any worse. Then it dawned on him that maybe that’s what Nine-One was trying to school him to.
Maybe that’s why he said he didn’t think my uncle could help me. He knew what was going on with Mitch and Kim?

Kim was crying hard; her eyeliner was running and her shirt was soaking wet from a mixture of tears and sweat. She was scared for her life.

“Shut the fuck up, you dirty bitch,” Jake yelled.

During all of these years Jake had never laid a hand on her. She didn’t expect him to get violent. “It was Phil Rosenberg. He had me set you up, Jake! He’s the one trying to kill you! I’m sorry, baby, I’m so, so sorry!”

“You fucking bitch,” Jake whispered.
Snap
. Her finger was broken. “How you like those apples, bitch?”

“Jake, please please please please stop!”

“Please what, Kim? Why did you do it?”
Snap
. “Now that’s your ring finger you fucking bitch! I can do this all night, Kim!”

Kim yelled, “Stop please! I did it because of your baby, Jake. I wanted you to hurt like I was. I’m supposed to have your child not that BITCH!”

“Mary-beth has a kid by me?” Jake asked his question with a look of confusion on his grill.

“Yeah, Jake. A li’l girl.”

“And that’s why you want me dead? Because of that, Kim? Is that worth getting a nigga killed? Huh? So how much did you sell me out for?”

“That five hundred fifty thousand that’s in the trunk. Please stop hurting me,” Kim begged. “I will tell you everything, Jake.”

Jake could tell Kim was being truthful from the sound of her voice. She became too weary, couldn’t take the pain any more. He was actually thinking to himself that he should kill her and leave her right there, but he decided not to. He let his grip of her throat and fingers go before he went too far and killed her for real.

That was exactly what Kim was waiting for. Without hesitation she reached to her side and came up with a .38 revolver with no hammer and aimed for Jake’s head. She felt she had to kill him because he was on the verge of killing her. It was a move purely based on self-preservation.

“Motherfucka, stop hitting me,” she screamed.

“What the fuck?” Jake yelled. He smacked the gun from her hand. In the process, a shot went off and hit Jake in the leg. He didn’t feel it but he knew he was hit. The gun ended up on the floor on his side of the car. The Corvette was a tight fit for him
so as he was fidgeting around to get the gun, Kim, scared for her life, jumped out of the car. “KIIIMM,” Jake yelled. “Get the fuck back here!” Jake hopped out of the car and tried to see where she was running to and what was around.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Four gunshots suddenly went off. “Jake, help! Help!” Kim was screaming.

“Where are you?” he yelled, pulling the automatic he took from his last victim off his waist. “Where are you?” Jake couldn’t believe what was happening.

BOOM BOOM.

Two more shots rang out. Jake’s right leg felt hot from the bullet he’d caught in the car and he felt he was on the verge of falling out. He looked down at his pants and noticed two holes, one where the bullet entered and another where the bullet exited. “Oh shit,” he said to himself, but he had to block out the pain. “KIIIMM!” No response from her. He was hoping she wasn’t dead. Then he saw her about fifty feet away, laying in the street, and ran over to her. “KIM! KIM, you a’ight?” She was laying facedown. He turned her over. “Kim!” From the looks of it she was done. Jake counted three bullet holes in her. He put his hand under her nose to see if she was still breathing. She was.

In a voice that was a little lower than a whisper Kim said, “I’m so sorry, Jake! I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Ssshhhh! Sshhhh! Just hold on, Kim. You gonna make it. Stop talking!”

Kim knew she wouldn’t make it and felt horrible for setting Jake up. She would try to make it right before she passed on; this would be her last chance to confess her wrongdoings.

“Jake, listen to me! Don’t go back! Keep moving. Besides Phil wanting you dead, there’s other people who want you dead. Phat Murphy has family who runs that 300 Crew. I don’t think you can trust anyone. You’re a marked man!”

“Take it easy, Kim! Tell me later. We got to get you to a hospital.”

“Please listen to me, Jake!” Kim was stressed. “I loved you and you’ve always been good.”

Three more gunshots went off in rapid succession. This time Jake saw where it was coming from. A Corvette that looked just like the one he had been in was flying toward him with the shooter hanging out the passenger-side window squeezing off something large. Jake let every shot off he had in the automatic and it didn’t stop a thing. They were still speeding toward him and Kim. The only thing left for him to do was to try to pick up Kim and move out of the way. As he attempted to pick her up, he prayed that God would spare Kim’s and his life and allow them to make it out of the situation they were currently in. He felt God was listening because he scooped up Kim and moved out of the way in the nick of time, as the car barreled past them. Jake hoped his bullets touched the shooter in the passenger seat and that the driver decided to just keep it moving.

He wondered if those were Phil Rosenberg’s people. Maybe it was Phat Murphy’s brother or maybe it was the people who sent him the mystery letter in jail. Jake looked down; Kim wasn’t looking good. He thought she was dead until she coughed up blood.

“Hold on, baby! Hold on, you’re gonna make it! You’re gonna make it,” Jake repeated over and over in her ear until they
reached the car. As he put Kim in the car all kind of thoughts were running through his head. Then he raced to the hospital. He didn’t want to go there but he knew time was against them and his choices were limited.

As Jake was driving, he noticed three more Corvettes in the rearview coming toward him. “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Jake said. Then he looked over at Kim, and he knew she was dead. “Fuck!” He tried shaking her hoping he could get her up, but it was over. She was gone. He had a lump in his throat and a sharp pain in his chest. He was furious and had a taste for blood. He was feeling under his seat for the .38 that had landed there, while keeping an eye on the Corvettes. The cars were gaining on him, which was exactly what he wanted. He finally found the gun. It had five shots left. Jake let the cars gain on him a little more. Then he pulled into the right lane and made a quick U-turn. He was now headed northbound in the southbound lanes with the pedal to metal. He was going straight toward the three cars that were after him.

“Y’all motherfuckers ain’t got to chase me. Here I come!”

Jake was on the verge of insanity. He was over the edge. Nothing mattered anymore. Kim was dead. It was partially his fault and to make things right he was gonna kill as many people as possible. He drove toward the car in the left lane. “Let’s see if you wanna play chicken, motherfucka!” The drivers of the triplet ’vettes didn’t expect, nor were they prepared for, the move Jake made. It was instant death for whomever he crashed into. The impact would tear both cars to pieces. The ’vette in the left lane, which was normally the right lane, had no choice but to go left, which caused him to smash into his partner’s rear end in the middle lane. That caused two out of the three
’vettes to spin out of control. The one that was in the far left lane couldn’t do anything but speed up in order to not get caught up with his two partners. Jake did the smartest thing he could think of and continued northbound on the southbound side. “Thank you, God,” he whispered because no cars were coming toward him. He reversed up the nearest exit. His heart was pounding and his head was ringing. His leg was bleeding and Kim was dead. Jake had to ditch the Corvette. He knew nowadays there were cameras in almost every streetlight, and police were probably gonna be looking for any black Corvettes on the road. He still wasn’t sure how the fuck these people kept finding him.
Why would Kim trust Phil Rosenberg for anything?
This had to be the work of this so-called brother of Phat Murphy who wanted him dead. Phil was a lawyer, which meant he was too smart to have a team of killers. One or two yeah, but a team? No fucking way!

Jake was determined to make it. He had a child he had to see. “Where the hell is M.B.?” He felt awkward thinking about that with Kim dead in the passenger seat, but it was what it was. Jake had only two options. The first was go to his mom’s spot; the second was going to his and Kim’s old crib. He chose to do the second. Maybe there were some clues or something he could use to find out how to get to Phil and Phat Murphy’s brother.

———

Meanwhile, in Phil Rosenberg’s office …

“Are you still holding that grudge against me, Frank?”

“Why would I hold a grudge against you, Phil? You gave me my life back. If it wasn’t for you I would still be in jail, and when
you got me out, you put me on payroll. So no, I don’t hold any grudges. If anything, I appreciate all you have done for me, Phil!”

“Well I hope so, Frank, my man, because I have a feeling the shit’s going to hit the fan pretty soon. I never heard back from his li’l girlfriend, which was expected after that little shootout. That 300 Crew sure is relentless. Why couldn’t they wait until he was settled down? Why try to kill him at the hospital? That made no sense!”

“Hey, Phil, tell me something. How did you get his girl to turn on him?” Frankie was really interested in the answer; curious what made a woman flip on her significant other. He never got to ask his wife or his brother how it happened or what he did to deserve that.

“Well, Frank, first I let her know about the child he had with Legs. Second, I let her know Jake was about to be picked up by the feds and she was going to go along for the ride. Third, I let her know that if she worked with me, nothing would happen to her. Then I threw the cherry on top with a nice payment. It all made sense. All she had to do was get him somewhere, settle down, chill out for a while, and I would handle the rest. With Jake out of the way she wouldn’t have to worry about doing time. You can get a scorned woman to do a lot of things, especially one who is scared to go to jail.”