I waited his ass out as the minutes went by. I pushed those dead images of G and Jimmy to the far corners of my mind, and instead thought about my brother being whole and happy, and my man, Gino, loving me with everything in his heart. Pluto could go ahead and shoot now, I thought to myself, and I was just about to open my mouth and tell him so when he spoke first.
“Juicy, we fin’ta find somewhere to stash them bodies, so I’ma give you the chance that somebody shoulda gave my little sister.”
My eyes flew open and I found Cooter looking down at me.
“What?” I said softly, confused as hell.
“Dig this,” Cooter said, and he sure as fuck wasn’t stuttering. “You lucky, Juicy, cause ain’t no such thing as an ex-bitch with G. You don’t just walk away after fuckin with a niggah like him. You end up in a graveyard. G fucked my whole family up when he killed Charlene. Broke my mama’s heart and she ain’t been right since. So I’ma do for you what I wish somebody woulda been man enough to do for Charlene. I’ma accidentally forget to lock that door when we leave up outta here, but if you still around when me and the crew get back… I sure hate it for ya.”
“W-w-where’s Moonie?”
“Moonie? He’s outtie. My man kept his family in a one-bedroom on Tiebout while G tricked his money away over on Central Park West. Don’t worry about Moonie. He done stashed away enough yardage to live larger than ten Gs, and ain’t a dime of it traceable back to this Spot.” Cooter tossed me a fat envelope. “He left this for you, though. It should help you start over again.”
I bit down on my lip as Cooter turned a key in the chain’s lock, and the next thing I knew my arm was free and I was staring at his back as he walked up the stairs.
It coulda been a trap, but I trusted Moonie and somehow I believed Cooter, and two seconds after that door slammed I was on my feet. Weak and sore, I searched around trying to find something to put on, but the only thing in the room besides my bloody shirt and drawers was the sheet on the bed and one dirty tube sock.
I wrapped that sheet around me the best I could, then grabbed the envelope and crept up the stairs and listened at the door. Even the air at the top of the stairs was foul, and I forced myself to chill and wait, instead of busting through the door and running.
I figured if I counted to one thousand real slow, chances were they’d be long gone. When I got up to 999 I turned the knob on the Dungeon’s door and crouched down low. Moving through the doorway and into the darkness, I hugged the wall and led myself through the warehouse by touch. Moments later I pushed out the front door of the G-Spot, wrapped in a dirty white sheet and squeezing a sock between my legs. Running barefoot through the ice and snow, I staggered to the curb, flagged down a bootleg taxi, and collapsed inside.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I fell into Rita’s arms as soon as she opened the door. I was numb and could barely answer her as she yelled in Spanish and her sisters ran and got me a blanket and a housecoat.
“Oh my God, Juicy,” Rita switched to English as she pulled me into the bathroom. Even though I’d made it out of the Spot alive, most of me was already dead. I was like a baby as Rita put me in the shower and washed the blood off of me with soap and warm water. All I could think about was Grandmother and Jimmy. Gino and Dicey. I cried my heart out and Rita just let me. She didn’t even ask me what had happened. She just did her best to help me the only way she knew how. She had to climb in the shower with me in order to shampoo my hair, and for the life of me I couldn’t lift a finger to help her. I was just that through.
“Jimmy’s dead,” I told her after she had dried me off and given me a tampon, a housecoat, and some warm socks to put on. “G and Gino, too.”
Rita cried along with me then. She’d gotten soaked trying to get me cleaned up, and now she sat next to me wearing a green duster and holding me in her arms as I told her how G had set us all up, how Jimmy found out G was gonna kill me and had come back to help me. I cried as I told Rita how guilty I felt because me and my bullshit had cost my baby brother his life.
“Jimmy came back because he loved you, Juicy. Don’t let that grimy motherfuckin G steal what you and your brother had. G is the one who was guilty. Jimmy was straight-up loyal to him, but G still set him up too, right? Just like you wouldn’t have left Jimmy out there hanging, your brother couldn’t leave you out there like that neither. Come on,” she said, pulling me to my feet, “you need to lay down, Juicy. Get some rest, chica. Later, we’ll figure out what to do.”
I followed Rita into her bedroom dragging my feet.
“I got that package for you,” she said, and reached into a closet and handed me my dance bag and the MGM bag that contained half of the money that had been in G’s safe.
I dropped the bags on the dresser next to the envelope I’d gotten from Cooter and just stood there.
Rita had just pulled down her blankets and was ordering me to get in the bed when I eyed the telephone on her nightstand. I knew it was crazy, but my emotions were wrecked and I needed to hear his voice one more time, even if it was only on his voice mail. “Okay, Rita,” I told her. “I’ll lay down for a while. But first let me make a call.”
I dialed his cell phone digits and screamed out loud when the phone was answered on the second ring.
“Speak.”
“Gino!” I started babbling and crying all over again. I couldn’t believe it. Gino was alive. I was expecting his machine to pick up, but my man was alive and somehow I wasn’t by myself anymore.
“Juicy, Juicy, Juicy, Juicy…”
All he could do was say my name. Over and over again.
I heard all kinds of noise in the background and it sounded like somebody was making an announcement over a loudspeaker.
“Baby, you okay?” he shouted. “Juicy, where are you? I’ve been calling the Spot. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I sniffled. “I’m… okay. They said you were dead. I’m at Rita’s house. In Harlem. Where are you?”
“At the airport, baby. I just landed at JFK. I caught a flight back as soon as I could. Hold tight, baby. I’m coming to get you.”
I reminded him of Rita’s address but I was scared to hang up. Scared the whole thing would have been a dream if I disconnected the call.
“I’m on my way, baby. Just let me rent me a ride, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
I forced myself to hang up the phone. Rita was squeezing my hand and we both started crying again. “He’s alive, Rita,” I said, still trying to convince myself. “He’s really okay.”
“Yes,” she nodded, and wiped her nose. “It’s all right now, Juice. Everything’s all right now.”
I waited like a crazy person. Pacing back and forth around Rita’s living room table. Wearing a path in the floor between the twelve steps from her kitchen to her bedroom, and then the four from her bedroom to her bathroom. I darted to the window every time a car went by, although common sense told me it was gonna take a minute before Gino could rent a car and get here through traffic.
I was doing my best to hold on until my man arrived, knowing how bad grief was gonna come down on both of us when he heard about G and Jimmy. I didn’t have it in me to tell him about them over the phone. That was something I thought he should experience with me right by his side.