“Damn. I’m sorry to hear that. Rik, you know I’m here for you.”
“I was hoping that you would say that. I need to get these guys off of my back, and then come up. You know me, Gena, it won’t take long for me to get back on my feet.”
“I know you a hustler, boy.”
“Can you do me something?”
“What you talking?”
“A half a ticket, no more. I can get it all back to you in a couple months. Say four months at the latest.”
“That’s a lot of bread, Rik. Besides, I wasn’t planning on being around here four months from now.”
Damn, bitch, a month ago you had two mil to get me out of jail, now a half is a problem? Rik couldn’t help his greed, but he didn’t want it to show. “Gena, this is your boy. I’m good for it. And even if you ain’t around here, planes fly. I’ll take it to wherever you at.”
“Damn, why now?” How the hell am I going to get the money and get it to him, and do everything else I need to do before I fly the chicken coop?
“Gena, you’re the only person I can turn to. They gonna kill me, and my whole family, if I don’t pay them.”
“All right. I’ll get it to you. But you gonna have to meet me today.”
“No, problem; just tell me when and where.”
“Um, let me think.” Gena thought of all she had to do and the places she had to go. “Okay, I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
“Cool. Thanks, baby.”
“Talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
“Later.”
Quadir strolled across the lanai and seated himself on a recliner near the pool. The maid had set him a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade out by the pool, and he wanted to take in the sunset and relax. He had a lot on his mind, a lot of things that he had to make sense of.
He couldn’t help replaying his last conversation with Gena before she snuck out to only God knew where. In a way, it was his fault. Maybe if he had stopped her when he first had the chance at the apartment building that night, she would never have gotten onto the highway, never have stopped at that gas station, and never have met Jerrell. Damn, he was really going to kill her. She had gotten caught up in something that was completely beyond her control. He thought back to New Year’s Eve and the night he was gunned down, the night he almost died. He remembered how scared she looked, how broken she was, how her tears and screams for him flew freely out of her. He could hear her voice begging him not to leave her, begging him to hold on, begging him not to die. She hadn’t asked for him to be shot, and she hadn’t asked for him to die before her eyes. It wasn’t her fault that she was forced out onto the street, forced to survive without him, without anything, and forced to make something out of nothing. She was just playing the cards she was dealt. And now, it seemed as if she had been dealt the losing hand.
“Hey, you okay? You always seem like you’re miles away,” said Amelia as she bent and kissed Quadir on the side of his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine. What are you doing here? Aren’t you suppose to be at the hospital?”
“Would you believe I have the afternoon off? I know, go figure. There was a mixup with the schedules. So I have an entire day to play house with you,” she said, unable to control her smile as she sat on his lap, straddling him like a pony.
“Wow,” said Quadir, never once taking his mind off Gena’s situation. He pulled Amelia closer to him and kissed her lips.
“Oh, and did you hear what happened?”
“No, what?”
“Haven’t you heard the news?”
“Yeah?”
“I overheard my colleagues talking about an elderly woman who had been beaten and raped. She underwent surgery and was placed in ICU. They asked me to look at her chart and check on her. Which I did. I looked in on her, and it turned out the elderly woman is Gena’s grandmother.”
“Really?” Quadir gave her his full attention. He had had absolutely no idea that the family on the news was Gena’s.
Amelia shrugged. “She suffered some pretty traumatic injuries. She’s having a lot of complications.”
“What type of injuries?”
Amelia shook her head and looked down. “She was raped, Quadir, brutally raped and brutally beaten. She has all kinds of injuries, from internal bleeding to a concussion.”
“I didn’t hear all that on the news. She was raped?”
“Yes, and beaten.”
“Damn, I can’t believe it,” he said as he began to pace up and down the lanai.
“I thought you heard the news.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t paying attention, you know?”
How can you pay attention to anything when all you do is daydream about Gena and your hidden treasure?
“Do the police know anything? Did they get the bastard who did it?”
Amelia shook her head. “No suspects, from what I hear.”
“Raped. That’s crazy, right?”
“Sick, really sick,” Amelia agreed.
Quadir shook his head. “She’s an old woman. Who in the fuck would do that to an old woman?”
“A sick and crazy man,” Amelia whispered. “There was also the grandson, Gary Scott. He’s the one that tried to protect her, but the rapist shot him in the stomach. So I checked in on him also.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He’ll live, but he’s going to need multiple surgeries. He was shot in the stomach, you know, his lower intestine is useless for now. He’ll probably wear a bag for the rest of his life unless surgery can correct it.”
“A shit bag?”
“Um, yeah, if that’s what you want to call it. Then there’s another granddaughter, Bria Scott, who was assaulted by this same guy. The police brought the girl into the ER. I saw her, but I didn’t treat her.”
“Well, what happened?”
“Apparently this rapist guy felt her up and kissed her on the mouth after shooting her date, who was also brought into the ER, but died on the operating table. I think his name was Kevin Coffield. Police had the medics swab the girlfriend’s tongue for DNA at the crime scene. I guess they checked it against the DNA taken from the grandmother and got a match.”
“Damn, that’s crazy,” said Quadir, thinking things over. “No wonder I can’t find Gena. I bet she’s scared to death.”
“Yeah, she probably thinks it’s you coming after your money. I’m sure she’s avoiding you like the plague.”
“Why would you say something like that?” Quadir asked, taking offense.
“Gosh, I’m just saying, she was here, realized you were alive, and not only have you moved on, but you want your money back. She leaves, out the window, and never returns. She’s not come back and she’s not made any contact. She knows she has your money; she knows that you want it, I’m sure. Meanwhile, someone attacks her grandmother and her cousins, allegedly looking for her. In her mind, who else would be looking for her, except you, for your money? Which technically is correct because that’s exactly what you do every day with your life.”
“So, it’s not random?” asked Quadir, completely ignoring her sarcasm.
Amelia shook her head. “Some fucking animal is fucking with them.” Amelia nodded solemnly. “And he’s after Gena.”
“Maybe he’s not after Gena, maybe you just think that,” said Quadir, really hoping Amelia didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Well, after I heard my colleagues talking about the family of patients they had treated, I spoke to a friend of mine who is a detective at the Thirty-first Precinct. She told me that in both incidents, the rapist was looking for Gena.”
“Somebody’s after Gena? What the fuck for?”
Amelia lifted an eyebrow as if stating the obvious. Quadir nodded, once his mind caught up.
“They want my money!”
“Bingo!”
“Jesus, that fucking money! Talk about more money more problems. Somebody’s after my money!”
“Your money and God only knows what else,” Amelia said as she rubbed Quadir’s arm. “She’s in danger,” said Amelia as she rose and lifted her shirt over the top of her head to reveal a stunning two-piece.