Wounded Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (12 page)

“Hey Cric-kat,” she said in a scratchy voice.

I fell to the floor screaming and reaching out for her. Chyna used to call me Cric-kat when I was little, and hearing it now took everything I had. Jyme was at my side in an instant. I reached out for Chyna; she moved slowly toward me, and Jyme helped me up off the floor and sat me back down on the couch. I held my hand out for her, and she finally put her small hand on top of mine. I gently pulled her to me and then she sat down. I hugged her gently, and she patted my back once. It was obvious she was a bad off junkie, and I didn’t want to scare her.

I turned to Jyme, and the tears were overwhelming. Cinnamon handed Jyme some Kleenex to give to me. He wiped my face, and I introduced him to Chyna. “Jyme, this is my big sister, Chyna,” I hiccupped out.

“It’s nice to meet you, Chyna. I’m Jyme, Cricket’s fiancé.”

“Chyna, where have you been? I thought you were dead.” I asked her.

“I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.”

“Chyna, tell your sister what you wanted to tell her,” Troy said.

She looked at Troy, and he waived her on. “I have a baby,” she said through her twitching. I gasped and turned her back toward me because she was looking at everyone and everything but me.

“You have a baby?” I asked with wide eyes and a smile.

“He’s four, and his name is Michael. Remember?”

Our father’s name was Michael, but I only knew that thanks to Jyme. I also knew we had a baby sister, but I would have to talk to Chyna about that later.

“Where is he?”

“With Auntie Nantucket,” she said.

I glanced at Cinnamon, and her eyes were wide.

“See that right there…what was that?” Troy walked over, his fourth glass of brown liquor in his hand. Everyone looked at him, and my heart started racing.

“Cricket, why did you make that face when your sister said that about Nantucket?”

I said nothing, and the room was silent.

“See…this is what I’m predicting,” he said. He turned to face Trey, and said, “Go get our other guest.”

I turned to face Jyme, “When I say run, you fuckin’ run.”

I glared at Cinnamon and she nodded at me. I stood to my feet and kicked my heels off; Cinnamon did the same. The bodyguards in the room started shifting around. Shit was about to get real. I stepped around Jyme. I was preparing myself for a fuckin’ battle, and Troy was about to be my first victim.

Trey walked in with someone behind him. Trey moved out the way, and it was the house doctor. He had been brutally beaten.

“Cricket, I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry. He’s going to hurt my wife,” the doctor said.

“WOO, CRICKET, YOU WAS ABOUT TO FUCK ME UP! I was scared for real; I tell ya about these damn momma cubs,” Troy said.

I glanced over at Jyme, and he looked confused. Troy fell out laughing. He dropped his glass and was falling all over on Trey. “Man, you lying. You didn’t tell him?”

“Stop it, Troy,” Cinnamon yelled.

“BITCH, YOU BETTER SHUT THE FUCK UP BEFORE I THROW YOUR HO ASS OFF THAT FUCKIN’ BALCONY!”

Jyme watched me; I couldn’t say anything to him yet.

Troy got another glass and poured another drink. “Okay, let me tell him. Let me tell him.”

I went and stood in front of Jyme, “I was going to tell you all this tonight. Remember before I left I told you we had to talk and get some things straight?”

He nodded, and Troy handed him a glass of brown liquor. “You gone need this one, dawg,” he told Jyme. Jyme set the drink down on the coffee table.

“Okay, so what had happened was Cricket told all of us she had a sick aunt down in Nantucket and she needed to go see about her. Well, we all noticed Cricket’s ass and titties were becoming astronomical, but nobody said a thing because the customers loved it. Cricket left back in November and came back in February. First, we thought she was really down with the sick aunt, but we found out before she left that she was going to see this fucker like twice a week.” Troy pointed back at the doctor. “So to make a long story short, she went to Nantucket to have a baby, and she’s been hiding it from us ever since; and from the looks of it…she hid it from you, too.” Troy said.

The room was silent. Jyme’s eyes never left mine the whole time Troy was talking.

“She looks like both of us; she has your hair, your eyes, and your lips. She has my heart-shaped face. Jyme, she’s the most amazing little morsel I’ve ever seen. We made her; you and me. She was born on Christmas Eve.”

Jyme sat down on the coffee table, and I kneeled down between his legs.

“I want to see her,” he said.

“I have a thousand pictures of her. I’ll show you every last one of them.”

He nodded at me and pressed my forehead against his, and we both closed our eyes.

“Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. She
told
you the baby is yours, and you
believe
this woman who hid the baby from you for the
whole
entire pregnancy and the birth of
your
child?” Troy asked.

“I know for a fact she’s mine,” Jyme smiled at me. I smiled right back, and he kissed me on my lips.

“WOW! Cricket you must have that
ILL NA NA
pussy,” Troy said. “Well, since you’re
so
certain, I have a little something you need to see.”

I turned to look at Troy, and Trey was rocking back and forth in excitement. Troy held up the remote to the T.V., and the screen came to life. All of the bodyguards moved in closer to Troy as the picture popped up on the screen. It was a guy standing up, and a woman was giving him head. I focused on the woman, and then I saw her face and shoes.

“Cricket, don’t look at it!” Cinnamon shouted. I turned my hand away from the screen, and Troy turned the volume all the way up. Apparently, the screen had changed because now someone was having sex. I could tell by the things they were saying and all the grunting. Then, the scene changed again. I knew exactly who made those noises. It was Troy, and I was giving him head.

“See? That was just last night. See? Remember she had that on yesterday?” he told Jyme.

“Dang girl, you learned good. I taught her how to do that,” Chyna whispered.

Troy and Trey both busted out laughing, and then, Troy gave Chyna a high five. “You taught her well because your little sister could suck the bone marrow out of somebody.”

Three things happened simultaneously. The drink Troy gave Jyme fell to the floor, Jyme jumped over the couch, and Chyna screamed at the top of her lungs. I jumped up, yanked a heel from the floor and lunged over the couch landing right on Trey. I swung the shoe back and slammed the heel straight into one of Trey eyes. Jyme was on top of Troy punching him in the face and the gut repeatedly. He looked like a well-oiled machine with every punch Jyme was giving the now lifeless Troy; all that could be heard was crunching sounds. I’d stabbed Trey in the eye with one of my heels.

Without him even realizing exactly what was happening, Trey fell to his knees screaming. Trey yanked the heel out of his eye, and blood shot out, spraying the back of the couch. Doc slid a big knife across the kitchen counter toward me. I grabbed it and went straight to Trey’s neck. Trey didn’t even try to get up; he was still screaming from the eye incident. I pressed the knife right up against his jugular. The bodyguards were momentarily distracted by Chyna screaming and the beating of Troy. None of them had touched Jyme, let alone, tried to get Jyme off of Troy yet. They were all staring at Chyna, then at Jyme and Troy, and finally, they focused their eyes on me. Jyme was now standing over Troy’s limp body. Jyme had beaten the living shit out of Troy, and I had Trey by the neck with a big ass knife.

“Don’t you fuckin’ move you piece of shit! I will fuckin’ kill you, and you know it,” I yelled at Trey. “Shut the fuck up, Chyna,” I screamed.

She obeyed my demand and glued her eyes on the door. I looked at every single one of the bodyguards in the eye and they knew I would kill Trey in a heartbeat. The bodyguards didn’t rush us; they didn’t even budge. I noticed the doctor was walking toward us now, and he was holding a gun. My eyes widened as I realized that’s why the bodyguards weren’t moving. Doc had a gun pointed at them.

“CINNAMON!” I yelled, “Get my purse. We have five minutes.”

Cinnamon grabbed my purse and bolted for the door. No one followed her, and I don’t think anyone even looked her way.

“Cricket, you’ve been too good to us. We would never hurt you,” Korliss told me.

A few of the bodyguards shook their heads in agreement, but I noticed a few didn’t. I nodded and told them all to go and sit on the couch. They all obeyed me and went to sit down on the sectional.

“Korliss, I need for you to get everybody’s guns and cell phones.”

Korliss took his suit coat off and collected all the guns and cell phones. When he was done, he tied the coat up in a knot and handed it to me. Jyme was standing beside me; he took over the grip I had on Trey’s neck, and then I gave him the knife. Trey was sobbing now, but it was under control.

“Doc, where’s your wife,” I asked.

“She’s in Mr. Paul’s office.”

I picked up the jacket full of guns and pulled one of them out. I took the safety off and pointed it at the bodyguards. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I sat the guns back down and answered it.

“I’m ready,” Cinnamon told me.

“I need my ring, and Jyme needs a change of clothes.”

Cinnamon and I had been planning this very moment for almost a year now. Adding Jyme to this equation was awkward, but we had to make it work. Once I fully knew I could trust Cinnamon with my life, I told her everything. She was down for whatever I wanted to do. I apologized to her a dozen times for getting her into this shit, but she told me repeatedly that I saved her from the streets. I couldn’t help but think I had only gotten her closer to the grave.

“I’ll get them. I need three minutes.”

“You know where to meet us?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

I looked over at Doc and he was a nervous wreck. This whole entire situation was all my fault and it was a complete clusterfuck.

“Go and get your wife, Doc.”

He nodded back at me and then he watched all of the guards as he ran to the bedroom. My phone buzzed again.

“I’m here and our ride is waiting” Cinnamon told me.

“Sugar?”

“She’s already gone.”

“We’re on our way.”

I hung up the phone and grabbed the bag of guns. I looked over at the guards.

“I never wanted anyone to get hurt, and I’m sorry if I’ve put you all in a situation you didn’t want to be in.” A few of them put their heads down and the others just stared silently at me.

“Korliss, how did he find me in Seattle?”

“There’s a tracking device in your cricket ring.”

I looked down at the ring and then over at Jyme. I yanked the ring off and threw it on the floor. Doc came back with a small Asian women clinging to his neck.

“Doc, you need to leave now and go to your safe place. I will contact you.”

Doc walked passed us and bolted to the door with the small woman dangling from him. I slid another gun out and handed it to Jyme. He threw the knife behind us and grabbed the gun.

“Korliss, I need five minutes.”

He nodded at me, and a few of the bodyguards did as well, but I noticed again all of them weren’t on board.

“Chyna, get up!” I yelled. I walked slowly to her, still aiming the gun at the bodyguards and gripping the jacket of guns in my hand. She shot up like a rocket.

“Korliss, I need my other shoe.”

He handed it to Chyna. I made eye contact with Jyme, nodded at Trey, and then looked down at the floor. Jyme reared the gun back and struck Trey in the back of the head with the butt of the gun. Trey fell to the floor, and Jyme grabbed my bloody shoe off the floor then stood at my side. He handed Chyna the other shoe, and then he got the jackets of guns and cell phones from me. I had to halfway drag Chyna up the stairs; she was whining about how Troy had her package.

“I’ll buy you a package,” I growled at her. That silenced her, and she was ready to go.

“Korliss? Five minutes please?”

“We won’t follow you, Cricket. Good luck.”

All three of us busted out the door and ran to the freight elevator. I pressed B for the basement. The elevator stopped on the L, and I jumped in front of Jyme. One of the girls from the information booth stepped on.

“Hey, Cricket. Hey, Jyme. What ya doing?” the bubbly red head asked. I looked over at her, and she was staring at my feet. I looked down, and they were all bloody. Her eyes left my feet, and she looked Jyme over.

“What have y’all been doing?”

“Major damage in the wine cellar.”

She nodded and the elevator doors opened. The redhead went to the left, and we went to the right. Once we turned the corner, we started running. I pushed through the double doors and saw the black Hummer with all the doors wide opened. We ran to the car and piled in the back. Walt was slamming down on the gas before we shut all the doors. Cinnamon held on to the dashboard, and I buckled Chyna’s seatbelt and then mine. Walt drove over the hill of the shipping hanger, and then we were driving down the shipping docks. I looked at the clock on the dash.