Murderville 2: The Epidemic (4 page)

Liberty’s entire body went numb as she stared down at the elaborate headstone that decorated A’shai’s grave. She knew
that it was foolish to be there. Her actions right now were reckless and completely predictable, but she couldn’t leave town without visiting him one last time. His absence in her life was so surreal. Even when they had been apart she could still feel him. His presence had always been prevalent in her life. Their spirits were always connected. This was the first time she had ever felt separated from him. She could no longer feel A’shai. She was so blinded by the pain of his death that there was no room to feel the love that he had left behind. A part of Liberty was mad at A’shai for deciding his own fate. His act was so selfless that in the end it had backfired, leaving her bitter and lonely without any hope for love in her future.

“I wanted you to live for both of us, Shai, not die with me,” she whispered. “I will love you forever, A’shai Montgomery. You gave me life.”

She kissed her fingertips and traced the letters in his name before walking away, her heart grieving, but her face silently solemn.

She got into the cab that awaited curbside and gave the driver directions to the home she once shared with A’shai. She hadn’t been back since the dreadful night that A’shai had taken his own life. She was too afraid of what she may see or the way that she would feel when she stepped inside. Liberty had avoided their home, but now she couldn’t any longer. She needed A’shai’s money to survive.

“That’ll be forty bucks even,” the cabdriver announced as the car came to a halt.

Liberty looked up but quickly ducked back down when she saw the familiar faces walking out of the house.

“Please drive away,” she instructed. “Now! Hurry!” she urged as she slumped low in her seat.

“Look, lady, I don’t need no shit. Do you have my $40 or not?”

Liberty reached into her handbag and pulled out two twenty-dollar bills and tossed them in the front seat. “Now drive this car!” she whispered harshly.

The cabdriver eased away from the curb reluctantly while Liberty lay concealed in the backseat. She peeked out of the rearview mirror carefully and fear gripped her as she saw Samad’s goons carrying bags out of the house in which A’shai had stored his hard-hustled cash. Everything that she needed was in those bags. She may as well have been dead, because being broke was the next best thing. She couldn’t hide for long in her current predicament.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. He’s going to find me,
she thought frantically. Liberty went into her hobo bag and pulled out the small wad of money that she had on her. She flipped through the small bills frantically, realizing that she only had a few hundred bucks. The rest of her financial worth had been inside of that house, which was now under surveillance by Samad. Her hope sank as her eyes met the cabdriver’s in the rearview mirror.

“You want to tell me where I’m driving to?” he asked obnoxiously.

Liberty wiped the tears from her face. She was tired of wallowing in her own weakness. For as long as she could
remember she had been the victim. Victim to the rebels, victim to Ezekiel, to the drug cartels, to Abia, then Samad . . . It was time to say enough. She wouldn’t be a victim anymore.
If I give up then Shai died for nothing . . . all of this is for nothing. I have to live for him,
she thought. Liberty took a deep breath and held her head up high. She was a fighter, and she was going to use everything she had to survive.

“The bus station.”

Liberty was about to start her life over as a hunted woman, but she would make Samad chase her to the ends of the earth to catch her. She was just trying to live.

TWO

PO PACED BACK AND FORTH AS HE
clenched his jaws tightly, obviously outraged. Rocko sat on the couch inside of his trap house watching his right-hand man try to figure out the next move. The chain of events had just rocked Po’s world, and he knew that he couldn’t just take the loss. He had lost close to $250,000 of straight drug money. There was no recouping that. He stacked that money up a thousand dollars at a time, anticipating the day that he could retire. He had lost the love of his life over that money, and now, in a blink of an eye, it was all gone.

“Everything is gone?” Rocko asked, already knowing the answer to the question.

Po slowly nodded his head while giving Rocko the coldest stare. He then reached into his Levi denims and looked at the note for the tenth time.

If you want your belongings back bring the girl to me.

Beneath the message was an address in Los Angeles. Po couldn’t believe what he was looking at. He knew that whoever the man was, he meant business.

“That mu’fucka took everything I had. All the money is gone. Every single dime. I have no money to go back to my connect with, nothing in the bank, and no product. Shit is all bad, bruh,” Po said as he shook his head in defeat.

“So, let’s just go grab the bitch up and serve her to the nigga on a platter,” Rocko said as he gripped his handgun tightly in his right palm. His short dreads were neatly twisted and rested against his jet-black skin. His short physique was toned and muscular. Rocko wasn’t too much of a hustler; he left that up to Po. He was an enforcer . . . a shooter. His game was murder. He had no remorse for any life he took, but was as loyal as they came. He had been running with Po since they were young boys.

“Shit is just fucked up. I saved her from the nigga at the hospital, and now I’m thinking about delivering her to him. I don’t know, fam,” Po said as he looked over at his friend. Rocko’s face instantly frowned up; Po wasn’t acting like himself. Rocko stood up and shook his head from side to side in disbelief.

“What’s wrong? You acting like you soft on the broad or something,” Rocko said, trying to figure out what was stopping Po from feeding Liberty to the wolves.

“It’s not that,” Po said as he dropped his head. He mumbled under his breath, “She reminds me of . . .” Po kept seeing Liberty, and then his slain girlfriend. Although they didn’t resemble each other physically in the slightest, Liberty
reminded him of Scarlett. There was something about her eyes. Po quickly shook the notion and thought about his stash being gone. He then took a deep breath. “We have to go get her,” Po said as he started to devise a plan.

“Where is she? Do you know where she lives?” Rocko asked.

“No, but she left a bus ticket for today on the nightstand at the motel. She’s taking the next thing smoking out of the city. Let’s go. Hurry!” Po said as he shot for the door. Rocko followed closely behind, and just like that, they were gone.

*    *    *

Liberty sat on the outside bench, waiting for her bus. She had a one-way ticket to Arizona. She didn’t know what would be waiting for her when she got there, but she still was heading west. She only had the money that A’shai had put in a bank account for her, which was a tad under ten thousand dollars. Samad’s goons had cleared out the safe with the big money, so she would have to spend wisely to avoid going broke. Ten racks wouldn’t last forever, but she hoped that it was enough to help her start over. She was headed toward a new beginning while running from her past.

Liberty looked at her watch and noticed that she had three-and-a-half more hours before her departure. Her heart pounded and pain shot through her chest as she nervously looked around, hoping to God Samad wouldn’t find her. “Come on, come on, come on,” she whispered as she glanced at her watch again while anxiously tapping her foot on the ground. Just as she lifted her head, she noticed a tinted black truck pull in front of the bus station. The
passenger window came down, and Liberty was frozen in fear as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them back up, she saw a face appear, looking directly at her. It was Po.

“Need a ride?” he asked as he glanced at his side mirror, and then back at Liberty. Although Liberty barely knew Po, she was actually glad to see him. Knowing that Samad and his goons could have popped up on her at any moment had her paranoid. Liberty returned the smile and looked around.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I’m here to come get you. You just dipped out on me. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” Po said. “Where are you headed exactly?”

“Arizona,” she answered as she looked down at her ticket.

“What’s in Arizona?” he asked with a frown.

“Nothing, but that’s kinda the point. You know?” she replied. Liberty was seeking solace and going to a discreet town in the middle of nowhere was right up her alley.

“I need a road trip anyway. Get in,” Po said as he hit his unlock button.

“Are you serious?” she asked in disbelief.

“I’m here, aren’t I?” he replied as he stepped out of the car and walked over to her. He picked up her duffle bag and headed back to his car.

Just before opening his trunk, he looked at Liberty. “Come on, it’ll be fine.” Liberty couldn’t help but smile as she stood up and shook her head.

“Okay, let’s do it,” she said as she headed to the passenger side and got in. After loading her bag in the trunk, Po joined Liberty in the car and slowly guided the car away from the curb. Although Po felt slightly guilty about deceiving Liberty, he knew it was all business. He was not about to get into the unfinished business that Samad and Liberty had going on. He just wanted his money: nothing more . . . nothing less.

Po left Rocko behind; this was something he had to do by himself. The way Samad’s people moved, he knew that he was feeding Liberty to the wolves and he wanted the blood to be only on his hands. As Cash Money’s latest hit lightly pumped through the speakers, they merged onto the highway and headed west.

“Why are you doing this?” Liberty said as she pulled off the hair tie that held her ponytail and let her hair flow onto her shoulders. Po briefly looked over at Liberty and couldn’t help but notice her beauty and flawless skin. He focused back on the road, reminding himself that this was a business trip.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. That’s a good question,” he responded. So many thoughts ran through Po’s mind as he tried to ignore his conscience. He was literally trading someone’s life for money. He tried to convince himself that it was just business, but there was something about Liberty that drew him to her.

Liberty reached into her purse and pulled out a Lauryn Hill CD, her favorite. She then looked at Po for approval, and he grinned and nodded his head. She slipped the disc
in and the melodic sounds filled the car as they listened closely to the lyricist. Two hours passed and not one word was spoken between the two of them. It seemed as if Lauryn Hill soothed them, making the ride easy and comfortable.

Liberty turned down the music. “So, Po . . . tell me about yourself. At least we can keep each other entertained. It’s a very long car ride,” she said.

“Well, what do you want to know?” Po asked as he kept his eyes on the road.

“What do you want to tell me?” Liberty responded as she turned her body and folded her legs Indian-style. She looked directly at him.

“I’m twenty-five. No kids, no family.”

“Girlfriend?” Liberty asked, as she raised an eyebrow.

Po glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he gripped the steering wheel with one hand. “That’s a long story,” he said.

“I’ll just bet it is,” Liberty replied with a small smile.

Liberty could tell that Po wasn’t open to discussing his personal relationships so she quickly switched the subject and one small conversation led to hours of debating, questions, and good times. They talked so much that the hours seemed to zoom by and they were across country before they knew it.

Ten hours later they were entering the state of Colorado. Po began to get heavy eyelids so they stopped at a hotel to get rest. He suggested that they sleep in the same room “so he could protect her,” and she agreed. She felt secure with him, but what Po was disguising as protection was really
peace of mind for himself. He wanted to keep a close eye on the key to his money, which was Liberty. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight.

The conversation didn’t stop when they got in the room. They sat up all night and talked about everything under the sun, and both Po and Liberty felt a connection to each other—like a force was bringing them together. They eventually fell asleep with their clothes on and both had sweet dreams.

THREE

THE BEAMS OF THE MORNING LIGHT CREPT
through the blinds of the hotel room. Po slowly opened his eyes and felt the weight of a body on his chest. He looked down to see Liberty peacefully sleeping on him. They had fallen asleep while talking into the wee hours of the morning. Po slowly cracked a smile as he admired her natural beauty, then a sudden wave of guilt overcame him as the smile quickly faded from his face. This was the part of the game that he hated. The treachery, the betrayal, the hidden agendas. His hand was being forced to set up a woman he barely knew. Her life for cold cash didn’t seem like an even exchange, but it was what it was at that point. It was too late to turn back.

“What the fuck am I doing?” he said to himself as he stared at Liberty. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Painful images of a slain Scarlett appeared in his mind. He missed her so much and having a woman close to him reminded him of the times they had shared. Tears formed
in his eye and a single drop cascaded down his cheek. The wound was still fresh, and he missed her so much.

Po slowly slid from underneath Liberty and stood up. Liberty was sound asleep and seemed so innocent. He wiped his tear away and headed toward the shower. They were only a few states over from Los Angeles. He knew that the unique circumstances would soon be over, he would get his money back, and he would never see Liberty again.

Po made his way over to the shower and stripped. He turned on the shower and stepped in, letting the hot water cascade down his toned body. At that point the tears began to flow freely as the burden of not having anybody in his corner sunk in. Scarlett was his only family, and now that she was gone, he felt alone in this world. Rocko was there, but there was nothing like a woman’s companionship.