Murderville 2: The Epidemic (27 page)

Ayo cleared his throat, and Rocko laughed as he hit the blunt. “My bad, fam. I mean, I don’t keep no steady woman, and I don’t have any kids. If something happened to me it wouldn’t be fair to them. But I see my niggas like you and Po with families. If anything ever happened to where you couldn’t take care of them, I’d step in. They would be straight. That’s what a real nigga do.”

“Indeed,” Ayo answered as he took the blunt. “Appreciate that.”

Ayo noticed that they had arrived, and he nodded. “This is it? Where we supposed to be meeting your man? Who is it again?”

Rocko shrugged. “Some nigga Po know. He meeting us under the pier on the beach. Let’s go.”

Ayo slid out of the car, and Rocko followed. The carnival-like atmosphere on top of the pier was crowded and noisy, but the beach below was deserted. It was so dark that they could barely see underneath the pier.

They stepped out onto the sand, and Rocko looked around to ensure that it was deserted. When they were at the edge of the water Ayo stepped underneath the pier. The waves crashed into the wooden columns that held up the pier, providing a peaceful soundtrack to the night.

“Where is he?” Ayo asked.

His question was answered when he felt the cold steel of Rocko’s gun on the back of his head.

“I meant what I said about your lady and your son. Rest in peace, my nigga,” Rocko said. He pulled the trigger just as the roller coaster above them zoomed across the track. The ride was so noisy that no one heard the gunshot that ended Ayo’s life. His body hit the sand with a thud, and Rocko pushed him into the water, allowing the waves to carry him out to sea.

Po had told Rocko to kill Ayo slow for his betrayal, but Rocko couldn’t torture the nigga that he had spent every day with for the past few months. Rocko felt in his bones that Po was calling out the wrong play, but as his lieutenant, it wasn’t his place to ask questions. Rocko snuffed Ayo’s lights out because that’s what the order had been, but out of respect, he made it quick, and he hoped that the weed helped to make it painless. Dahlia had planted a seed of deceit in Po’s head that had caused him to have Ayo hit. Rocko had no idea how true his intuition was. He had just killed an innocent man.

TWENTY-THREE

LIBERTY HUGGED THE TOILET AS SHE VOMITED
her soul into the bowl. Her body was so weak. She had no idea that carrying a child would be so hard and the further into her pregnancy that she got, the more symptoms arose. Po held her hair and rubbed her back as he tried his best to comfort her. He felt horribly because it was his seed that was causing her so much pain. Liberty had demanded that he take her to three different doctors because they all told her that she was just fine, but she didn’t feel fine. In fact, it felt as if she were dying in order to birth this little person.

“I can’t keep anything down,” she moaned miserably in between heaves.

“Everything is going to be okay, ma. Just be strong for our little one. You can do this,” Po said supportively.

“And what the hell are
you
going to do?” Liberty asked whining, because she felt that she was going through all the
hard stuff while Po just watched. “You got to do the fun part. I have to put up with this.”

Po couldn’t help but laugh as Liberty pulled herself up from the floor.

“It’s not funny!” she cried as she hit Po on the chest.

“Why don’t you take a warm bath? Relax, and I’ll go get you some crackers, cheese, and sparkling cider,” Po suggested.

She nodded and reached up for a kiss, but Po dodged her lips. “No offense, ma, but you smell like throw-up,” he said with a charming smile.

Liberty shook her head pathetically and said, “I can’t believe I have seven more months of this torture!!”

Po kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the room. He went to the kitchen to make Liberty a light meal and saw Dahlia standing over the blender. Fresh fruit littered the counter.

“Oh, hey!” she said in surprise when she noticed him standing in the doorway. She quickly grabbed the small, crushed up pills in front of her and threw them into the blender. Then she pressed the button and made the blades spin, dissolving the pills into the smoothie she was preparing. “Lib is having a hard time, huh?”

Po nodded and said, “Yeah, that baby’s fucking her up.”

“Well, I think a fresh fruit smoothie will make her feel better. It’s not solid so she shouldn’t have a hard time keeping it down, and it’s healthy for the baby,” Dahlia said.

She poured the concoction into a glass and placed a straw inside. “There you go.”

“Thanks, Dahlia,” he replied as he took the glass and headed out. He stopped and turned around abruptly. “Thanks for understanding. She’s pregnant, and she needs us both. I don’t want it to be uncomfortable between us . . .”

Dahlia waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it, Po. I know my place. We’re partners now. I’ll never blow up your spot, and I’ll keep it professional, unless you ask me to do otherwise,” she said, openly flirting with him. “Anytime you want me to . . .”

“We can’t, Dahlia. Not anymore,” Po replied. “It’s good, ma. Very good,” he said as he eyed her voluptuous body, “but she’s the mother of my child.”

Dahlia nodded and watched him walk away to cater to Liberty. She smirked and mumbled, “She won’t be the mother of your child for long.” She pulled out the bottle of Plan-B pills that she had purchased from a street dealer and gripped it tightly in her hands. She read the warning:

Do not take if already pregnant. Can cause miscarriage.

She would stuff those smoothies down Liberty’s throat every day if she had to. There was no way that Dahlia was letting that baby be born into the world. It was the only thing standing between her and Po. At this point, Dahlia wasn’t even sure if it was her attraction to Po that made her want him. Dahlia just didn’t like to be told she couldn’t have him. It only made her crave him more, and anyone who knew her well knew that she refused to lose.

*    *    *

Po fed Dahlia’s smoothies to Liberty every day, and Liberty never questioned what she was ingesting. She trusted Po too much to ask what was being put in it, and because she barely left her room she had no clue that it was Dahlia that was actually making them. Dahlia was slowly sabotaging Liberty’s pregnancy and felt no remorse about it. It was one of the sacrifices in the war she had waged against Liberty. The only problem was Liberty didn’t even know she was fighting one. She couldn’t defend herself when she had the enemy sleeping in her home, right beneath her nose.

Po and Liberty descended the stairs as Dahlia went into the kitchen to prepare another batch of her magic potion. She knew that they were headed to a doctor’s appointment, and she hoped that they came back with bad news. Dahlia was getting impatient.
When are these pills going to work?
she thought.

“We’ll be back a little later. We’re going to the doctor’s, and then I’m going to see if some shopping will make Liberty feel better,” Po said as he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

“Nothing is going to make me feel better. I’ll feel better once this baby is out of me,” she said.

That will make two of us,
Dahlia thought. “Have fun you guys,” she said aloud.

Po nodded and replied, “Lock the door behind us.”

She waited until she saw Po’s car disappear from sight before she rushed into the kitchen. She was finally home alone so she could experiment with her smoothies and try
to make them as potent as possible without altering the taste. She had been spoon-feeding Liberty the Plan-B pills, only putting a little bit in at one time because she didn’t want Liberty to detect it, but her patience was running thin. Watching Po’s love for Liberty grow by the day was disgusting. Liberty only had one advantage, and as soon as that was out of the equation the playing field would be equal. She couldn’t snatch Po as long as he was playing the role of doting father.

She pulled all of the fruit out of the refrigerator, and then pulled the Plan-B pill bottle out of her handbag. She put it on the center island, and then grabbed the blender from out of the cabinet.

“This fucking baby is messing up everything! Po would have been mine if it wasn’t for Liberty’s stupid ass getting pregnant!” Dahlia mumbled harshly as she took a silver spoon and crushed the pills into a fine dust. “This bitch is in my fucking way . . . stupid bitch!” Dahlia’s frustration was on ten. She had all of her ducks in a row, and Liberty was the only loose end.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, bitch?”

The voice behind her caused Dahlia to freeze. She immediately put down the spoon as she turned to find Trixie standing behind her. Trixie held a white bag in her hand and she held it up slowly. “I know Lib’s been sick so I brought her some soup . . .” Trixie peered around Dahlia at the countertop behind her.

“Mind your own business,” Dahlia said.

“What are you doing?” Trixie asked. She pushed past
Dahlia and saw the white pills crushed up on the counter. She noticed the fruit that was thrown into the blender.

“These are the smoothies that Liberty’s been drinking?” Trixie asked. She turned and picked up the pill bottle. “Plan B!” She knew exactly what the pills were for. She fed them to her own hoes on the strip to ensure that they didn’t come home pregnant. Trixie had also seen the devastating effects that those pills could have on an expectant mother. She had made the mistake of giving one to a ho that was two months in and within a week she had miscarried. Trixie put two and two together, then opened her mouth in disbelief. All the femininity left her body as her voice deepened to its natural octave.

“What the fuck are you doing to her?” Trixie turned toward, Dahlia to confront her, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Dahlia standing behind her with a .22 in her hand.

“Bitch, you done lost your fucking mind,” Trixie said. She pulled off her wig and removed her earrings, placing them on the table. “What, you gon’ shoot me, ho? How you going to lift my big 200 pound ass up outta here to hide the body? Huh, bitch? You’re poisoning your cousin! Do you know what that will do to their baby?”

Dahlia chambered a bullet into the head of the gun and screamed, “I don’t have to hide your fucking body, you fucking faggot. You shouldn’t have come here today, Trixie, but now I can’t let you leave. Get your ass in the basement!” Dahlia said as she put the gun to Trixie’s head and forced her to move.

“Ooohh, you sneaky, dirty bitch,” Trixie said. The situa
tion was too serious for Trixie to put on any character. She was all-man as she walked down the basement steps. “What did Liberty ever do to you?”

“Stop talking,” Dahlia said coldly. “See, this wasn’t in my plan, but it’s brilliant actually. You came here today to rob Po’s safe. I had to stop you, so I shot you,” Dahlia explained.

“Liberty will never believe you. She knows me!” Trixie said.

“Liberty doesn’t have to believe it. Po will,” Dahlia replied. “Now turn around.” Trixie slowly turned, and without even thinking twice, Dahlia put a bullet between her eyes.

Trixie dropped to the floor instantly, and a foul stench filled the room as her bowels released in death. Dahlia quickly went up to her room and removed one of her guns from the top of her closet. She had an arsenal of dirty guns that she had purchased off the streets of L.A. She may have been a female, but she was never unarmed. Dahlia stayed strapped so that no one would try to test her. In this circumstance she needed to make it look as if shooting Trixie was self-defense. She ran back to the basement, grabbed Trixie’s hand, and wrapped it around the gun.

Next, Dahlia removed her cell phone and dialed Po’s number. When he answered the performance began. She burst into tears instantly.

“Po . . . Po, please, you have to come home. Please turn around. Trixie . . . I shot her! Please hurry!” Dahlia cried. She hung up without saying anything further, then stepped
over Trixie’s body with a smirk on her face. “Let the games begin.”

Po immediately called Rocko who met him at his home. They rushed into the house with Liberty on their tails, and as soon as Liberty saw Trixie’s body she rushed to Trixie’s side and fell to her knees. “No! No! No! What happened?” Liberty yelled as she looked up at Dahlia.

“I don’t know,” Dahlia said shakily as she put her hand to her forehead in distress, forming tears of her own. Her hands shook. Po touched Dahlia’s shoulders and made her face him. “It all happened so fast,” she cried as she looked into his eyes.

“I need you to calm down and explain it to me, Dahlia,” he said grimly.

Rocko went to Liberty and picked her up from the floor. She shook her head from side to side, distraught that after everything Trixie had been through, she had died like this.

“How could you do this to her?” Liberty shouted.

Po shot Rocko a look that told him to remove Liberty from the basement.

“Yo, Lib, let’s get you upstairs. You don’t need to see this,” Rocko said.

“No! Trixie was my friend,” Liberty protested angrily.

“I was upstairs when I heard the front door open. I was stupid. I left the front door unlocked after you guys left. I thought you had come back for something, but it was Trixie. When she saw me she pointed a gun at me and forced me into the basement. She tried to make me open the safe. She came here to steal the diamonds. She was
going to kill me! I didn’t have a choice! I had to shoot her before she shot me!”

“That’s a lie!” Liberty shouted.

“Liberty!” Po barked, louder than he intended to. “Let her speak,” he said, this time in a calmer voice.

“I’m sorry, Po. I didn’t know what to do. It just happened. I pulled the trigger before I could think. I thought I was going to die,” Dahlia cried. Her eyes were so sincere that Po felt sorry for her. He pulled her close for a hug and felt that she was shivering in fear.

“It’s okay. I’m home now. Me and Rocko gon’ take care of it. You did good, ma,” Po said.

“What?! Po! Trixie wouldn’t do this! She wouldn’t steal,” Liberty argued.

“Didn’t you say she stole from you back in the day, Liberty? Open your eyes! The bitch was dirty. Dahlia gave her what she deserved,” Po said harshly.