“Please. . my friend. . she needs help! She’s in the car!” I yelled. Two ER workers ran out to the car. I was so glad to have Chante there. She talked to the police and told them everything we knew, because the rest of us were useless. By the time Chante came walking into the waiting area where the rest of us were, everyone was silent with our own thoughts.
When the doctor came out, he told us that the beating Bella had taken had caused some internal bleeding. “Internal bleeding?” Diane questioned.
“Internal bleeding is the leaking of blood from blood vessels into spaces in the body. Deeper bleeding which involves arteries and veins can result in severe blood loss, which can result in shock.”
“What causes that?” Simone asked.
“It can be caused by a violent blunt force, such as being thrown against an object or the beating she apparently took.”
“But she seemed all right on the way here,” Simone said.
“Signs and symptoms of internal bleeding are less obvious than that of external bleeding. In fact, an injured person may appear normal at first.”
The doctor promised he would do all he could to help Bella, but when he came back an hour later, he didn’t even have to say a word for us to know the diagnosis.
“I am so sorry, ladies. There was nothing more we could do,” the doctor offered up. “The beating she took caused a lot of internal bleeding. It was just too severe,” he said somberly.
My head was spinning and pounding at the same time. I was fuming! I still couldn’t believe Bella was gone. Before the doctor could even finish, two detectives walked into the room.
“We need to know who was the last person to see her alive,” one officer said.
Bullet.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know his government name, but I knew where to find him. And once I did, he’d be sorry he ever laid hands on Bella.
We sat through the intense questioning with the detectives. When it was over, Chante drove us all home, and the ride was the longest I’d ever endured. I couldn’t be sure just when Chante went home, but I know none of us ever got any sleep. We stayed up talking about Bella, still unable to come to grips with the fact that she was dead.
“I’m about to go find this nigga,” I screamed.
“What? And do what when you find him?” Diane wanted to know.
I stormed across the room and dug into a nearby closet, pulling several boxes before I found what I was looking for.
“When I find this muthafucka, I’ve got a bullet with his name on it.”
“Okay, you need to chill out,” Diane said. “You know the cops will find him.”
I looked at her, sucked my teeth, and tossed the gun into my bag. “I’m going to the studio; I’ll be back,” I said, leaving the rest of the ladies in the room in awe.
14
Chante
I could tell something was wrong the moment I knocked on the door and no one answered. I knew for sure they were home. It was as if they were just sitting there, listening to me knock. I reached for the knob, and without much effort pushed the unlocked door opened. “H-h-hello?” I started to reach for my piece, thinking something just wasn’t right. “Is everything okay?” I walked down the short hall slowly, not sure if I should have my weapon drawn already. When I rounded the corner, I was confused by what I saw.
Somber faces stared back at me. I looked around trying to figure out where Jada was. “Hey, guys, what’s going on?” I asked no one in particular.
Diane buried her face into the palms of her hands and started sobbing.
“What’s wrong?” I looked around at Diane and Simone. They sat there stone-faced, not even acknowledging my presence.
“Where’s Jada?”
That’s when Diane looked up at me. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. “She went after him.” She cried. “She went after him and I’m afraid of what’s gonna happen when she finds him.”
I stepped closer to Simone. “Who’d she go after? What are you saying?”
Simone sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “She went after Bullet. And I hope she finds his ass. Bella never hurt a soul. That muthafucka deserves exactly what he gets. I should’ve gone with her.”
I immediately started blocking Simone out. “How did she find him?” I asked Diane.
“She, um,” she said. Diane hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know. She just said she was going to the studio.”
“What studio?” I demanded to know.
“Triple Platinum,” Diane mumbled over her tears.
I turned to leave, but Simone grabbed my arm. “Where you goin’?”
“I’m going to find Jada.”
“I’m coming with you,” Simone said.
“No. You stay here and take care of Diane. Maybe Jada will change her mind and come back here. If she does, call me,” I told her and dashed out of there. I couldn’t allow Jada to go out like that.
Jada West
I was crying my eyes out when I got to the studio. I just hoped that he would be there. There were a lot of cars parked outside, so I didn’t want to walk in there waving my gun and yelling “Where’s Bullet!” Even though that’s what I wanted to do.
Then I got lucky. Bullet came out and walked to his car. I started mine and was about to follow him when he shut the door and went back inside. At least I knew he was there. So I turned off my car and waited.
A few minutes later a group of guys, including The One, came out, and within minutes, Bullet’s car was the only one left. I got out of my car and walked toward the door. As I passed his car I looked in the backseat. It was full of suitcases. He wasn’t getting away after what he’d done. I took out my gun and went inside.
It didn’t seem like there was anybody left in the building. Maybe Bullet had left with everybody else and I just missed him. That wasn’t likely; if he had come out, there was no way I’d miss him. And besides, if everyone was gone, why would they leave the door unlocked?
I wandered around the building looking in every room without success. “Where is he?”
As I continued my search, I began to hear the sounds of music playing and followed the sound. The closer I got, the louder the music became, the madder I got. I was so mad I couldn’t think straight. How could Bullet have done that to her? Bella was the sweetest, most kind and considerate, person I knew.
When I reached the door where the music was coming from, I smelled smoke. Not weed; it smelled more like something was on fire. I opened the door slowly and walked in. There he was standing over a metal garbage can with a fire extinguisher in his hand. The muthafucka was probably trying to burn the clothes he had on when he beat Bella to death. “Bastard.”
The music was so loud that he didn’t hear me come in. With his back turned and his attention on the fire I was able to walk up on him.
“Put the fire extinguisher down and move away from the fire,” I said with me gun aimed at his head.
Bullet hit the extinguisher a few times to put the fire out and turned around smiling.
“I said put it down!” I yelled over the music.
Bullet laughed a little and put the extinguisher down. He tipped his head to one side and looked at me. When he started to move toward me, I took a step closer to him and screamed. “Don’t move!”
“Okay, okay,” Bullet said and began looking around the room before turning back to me. “You know the whole night I been tryin’ to remember where I knew those pretty-ass titties from. Now I remember you, Miss Kitty.”
“Shut up!” I yelled and my hands started shaking a little. This may not have been the time to think it, but I had never shot at, much less killed anybody before. But there I was, ready to put a bullet in Bullet’s head for what he had done. Bella was like a sister to me. I couldn’t let him get away with it.