Killer Dolls, Part 1, page 21
part #1 of Killer Dolls Series
The minute he started taking off his clothes, Brandi aggressively charged into the bathroom screaming, “Where the fuck was you all night? Was you wit’ that fuckin’ bitch? And where is your fuckin’ rosary? I haven’t seen it around your neck. Did you give it to that fuckin’ bitch?”
Before B Scientific couldn’t get a word or two out, Brandi slapped and punched him a few times, her frustration finally pouring out. “I fuckin’ hate you!” she screamed. “I hate you and that fuckin’ bitch!”
B Scientific’s backhand came quickly and fiercely and sent Brandi flying, stumbling backwards out of the bathroom. She found herself on the floor with a bloody lip.
“You dumb, stupid bitch!” he shouted.
The assault didn’t deter Brandi’s mouth. She glared up at B Scientific and screamed, “I hope you and that fuckin’ bitch die! Kill yourself, nigga!”
B Scientific struck her again, punching her in the face and almost knocking her out. She tried to fight him, but he beat her severely.
“Stay in your place, bitch!” he shouted, before leaving again.
B Scientific stormed out of his home and quickly dialed Aoki’s number. He was through with Brandi, and he wanted Aoki to get rid of AZ.
When she picked up, he told her he wanted to see her again, but she turned him down because something important had come up. He decided to settle and called Gena, who jumped at the opportunity to be with him.
***
Gena rose up from the motel bed and a sweaty B Scientific. The dick had been good to her again. She’d come like a geyser, and he’d made her body shake like a 5.0 earthquake. She’d also thoroughly pleased him from head to toe. Now it was their intermission before things started to heat up again.
She sat up and lit a cigarette. B Scientific was awake, but he was resting. He stared blankly at the ceiling, leaving no personal interaction for Gena. She took a few pulls from the Newport and blew out smoke. She glanced at him and wanted to converse. She wanted a relationship with him, but he continued to make things very clear to her—she was a jump-off, a bird bitch that was only good for sex.
She started to feel some kind of way. She wanted his attention on something that mattered to her, but he lay there looking uninterested in anything she had to say or what was going on in her life. She pretended to be worried about something, but he didn’t address her sadness. She took a few more pulls from her cigarette.
“I’m worried about my daughters and her friend,” she said. “Things are so fucked up, B Scientific.”
He stayed quiet. It was like after the sex, he wasn’t even there.
She turned to face him, and then she boldly asked, “I hate to ask you for this, but can I borrow five thousand dollars?”
He turned and frowned at her. The intensity written across his face made the cigarette shake in Gena’s hand. “You asking me for money when you know we don’t even get down like that?” he growled.
Quickly, she responded, “It’s not for me. I’m just trying to help out one of my daughter’s friends. Aoki, you know her?”
B Scientific perked up. “Who?”
“Aoki, she needs it.”
“Why you askin’ to borrow money in her name?”
“She’s a friend to my daughters, and she’s been through a lot. I care greatly for my daughters and their peoples. Aoki always had a hard life, growing up poor and having two crackhead parents that abandoned her two years ago. Now she’s losing her home and might be put out on the streets. I hear she owes the bank some money, unpaid taxes or somethin’. I think, eighty-five hundred dollars. She has some of it but she needs to come up with the remaining five thousand dollars soon.”
“And you’re the angel willing to help her so quickly,” he replied coolly.
“She’s like one of my daughters, B Scientific. I love her just the same. But Aoki’s a very resourceful girl. I think she came up with thirty-five hundred already. I think she pawned some chain. But she’s still short.”
B Scientific went from cool to furious in 0.1 seconds. He jumped out of bed and screamed at Gena. “Get out! Get the fuck out!”
“But, baby—”
“Get the fuck out!”
He threw a deadly look at her that made her mute whatever she was about to say.
“That fuckin’ bitch!” He thrust his fist into the wall and made a hole the size of a basketball.
Gena hurriedly got dressed and ran out the room like it was on fire.
B Scientific snatched up his cell phone and dialed Aoki’s number, but her phone was turned off.
THIRTY-SIX
AZ couldn’t stop thinking about that night with Aoki. It meant a lot to him. He wanted some more of it. He didn’t want Aoki to be with anyone else. Connor was officially out of his life, and he didn’t want to be gay anymore. He wanted Aoki by his side and no one else.
He continually dialed her cell phone, but it was going straight to voice mail. He decided to stop by her place and surprise her. He wanted to take her out to dinner and treat her to a very special evening.
He parked and got out of his Benz. It was another glorious and sunny summer day. The block was green with leaves and flowers, and it felt great to be alive. He walked toward the front door with a huge, golden smile and knocked a few times.
AZ waited. He wanted to surprise her with gifts, by taking her on another shopping spree, knowing she would love it. He knocked again, wondering what was taking her so long to answer.
And then it opened, and AZ caught the surprise of his lifetime.
Emilio answered her door in his boxers.
AZ frowned, and he sharply asked, “Where’s Aoki? And why are you here?”
Emilio smiled. “She’s in the kitchen.”
AZ looked at him like he was crazy. He barged right past Emilio and marched toward the kitchen.
Aoki was in the kitchen in her panties and bra, munching on breakfast Emilio had cooked.
“Yo, what the fuck—you got this nigga living here now?” AZ looked like he done lost his best friend, like his puppy had died.
Emilio walked into the kitchen.
“Emilio, can ya wait outside while me have ah talk wit’ AZ,” Aoki said kindly.
“Not a problem,” he replied, quickly stepping out of the kitchen.
“So, you with him now? You love him?” AZ asked.
“AZ, we ah just friends, and I’m nah in love wit’ ya.”
“So what do you call the other night, when we had sex?”
“It was ah mistake.”
“A mistake? Seriously?”
“Ya gay.”
“I ain’t wit’ him anymore. I want you.”
“But ya like ah brother to me.”
“A brother?” AZ chuckled in disbelief. “You have my heart, Aoki. You always did. I love you, and I care for you.”
“And me grateful, always will be, but we can never work,” she said nonchalantly.
He sighed heavily. “You think we won’t work, is that what you’re telling me? After everything I did for you, the secrets I kept for years so you won’t go to jail, from your parents, the ones you still have dead in them containers in the backyard—which is insane! I gave you food and clothes, I always protected you, helped you out. I did those things because I always loved you, Aoki. And you betrayed me.”
“Me betrayed ya? How dat, AZ?” Aoki retorted. She was furious that he would even go there with her parents.
Most times Aoki forgot her parents were even dead. But now that AZ was hitting below the belt, she felt it was time to strike back.
“Me could never take ya seriously, ya hear? Cuz ya a batty bwoy,” she came back. “And don’t forget, AZ, we both have secrets. Me go down, ya go down.”
AZ grimaced. He had nothing else to say to her. He turned away from her and walked out crushed, angry, and confused.
Emilio came back into the kitchen with a concerned look in his face. He stared at Aoki and asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Me fine,” she responded, looking pensive at the kitchen table.
Emilio had his concerns too. AZ was his connect. He would need a re-up when the fall semester came. Would AZ forgive and forget and continue their business relationship, or would he take that he was fucking Aoki personally and not deal with him anymore?
***
Two days later, Emilio spent his weekend with Aoki, helping her do repairs around the house. That Saturday, the HVAC company came by to replace the system. It was costly, but it was worth it. Aoki finally had enough money to put in a heating and air conditioning system. She and Emilio regularly went back and forth to Home Depot for supplies. Emilio was building a deck in her backyard.
She started to spend more and more of her time with him. He was the one. He was almost perfect. He had nothing to do with her world of chaos and murders. He was her escape. She didn’t have to fear him or question his sexuality, since he was 100% straight, a handsome heterosexual male. He didn’t have the baggage that B Scientific had, and it wasn’t about sex with him.
She continued to ignore calls from B Scientific, AZ, and Connor, who was leaving voice messages on her phone, saying that he hated her, and that he was going to stomp her head into the ground, and that she better watch her back. Sometimes he would call from different numbers, or a private number, and she would hang up on him.
But he was pushing her buttons. There was only so much she was going to take from him and his threats.
She decided to keep a low profile for a while and chill at home, making it better. She just wanted a normal weekend with Emilio. He was the one she saw a future with. He was going to be somebody in life.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Gena continued to taunt Brandi with several text messages to her phone.
u stupid bitch, ur man over here now suckin’ on my pussy & I’m lovin’ it. Think about me, bitch! Think about me & ur man fuckin’ our brains out. His dick is so good. I might just get pregnant by him. I know u ain’t got any kids, but soon I’ll have his. What you think about that bitch? I got ur man, bitch, and I’m lovin’ it. Fuck u!
She was on overdrive with her scheme to ruin Aoki’s and Brandi’s lives. With B Scientific and Brandi furious at Aoki, she felt like a mastermind and wanted to pat herself on the back for a job well done.
***
Brandi read the text messages with tears in her eyes and a strong desire to do something about Aoki. She couldn’t take the taunting anymore. She couldn’t take her becoming pregnant by the man she loved. Even though he hurt her bad, physically and mentally, it was hard to let him go.
“Fuck this bitch!” she exclaimed.
Brandi got on her phone and made some phone calls. She reached out to Michelle and Joquia—her closet friend and her first cousin, who both had a reputation for violence. Michelle was in her late twenties and once had ties to the Bloods, but now she was a single mother of two children, trying to live a normal life. She still wasn’t shy about beefing and brawling if she needed to. Joquia was Brandi’s first cousin on her mother’s side. She was fresh home from prison for committing check fraud and was close friends with Brandi. If Brandi had problems, then she had problems.
Both women didn’t hesitate to meet with Brandi and drive to Brooklyn to finally meet and confront Aoki. They wanted to fuck that bitch up so bad.
They drove around Brooklyn in Brandi’s jeep for hours, searching and asking around for Aoki. They parked on the block near Van Siclen, asking around, but there was still no sign of her. Most people said that they hadn’t seen her around in a couple of days.
Brandi didn’t want to give up. She wanted to spend all night hunting the bitch down, even if she had to set up camp on the street. But she also knew that B Scientific would probably beat her down in front of her peoples if he caught her in the neighborhood searching for Aoki.
Hours later, Aoki still wasn’t around. It was time to give up and go home.
Brandi felt defeated. She was upset. She was so tired and stressed, she was losing weight and not looking like herself.
Michelle tried to comfort her, and Joquia was ready to come back the next day and start the search all over again.
Brandi jumped on the Brooklyn Bridge and headed back home. She smoked a cigarette and couldn’t take her mind off of her problems. She drove in an angry trance. She was itching to find Aoki. She wanted to teach that bitch a lesson so badly that her pussy was wet.
Joquia said, “We gonna find that bitch, Brandi. Tomorrow, watch—I don’t care if we gotta kick in every door in East New York and wild the fuck out.”
“We wit’ you,” Michelle said.
Brandi smiled somewhat. It felt great to have true friends. She was determined to end this battle of texts and her boyfriend’s infidelity. She sighed heavily and continued driving.
Just thinking about those texts sent to her phone, including one saying, Suck on my pussy bitch, and another of B Scientific sleeping nude in a cheesy motel room made her so angry, she forgot to brake and accidentally slammed into the car in front of her.
“Aw fuck!”
Brandi shook her head in disbelief. “Everyone okay?” she asked. Why me? She was so stressed out, she wasn’t watching where she was going.
No one in the jeep suffered any true injuries. It was a fender-bender, both vehicles suffering slight damage.
The Hispanic driver and his wife emerged from their car ready to confront Brandi for her negligence.
Just then Michelle curved over, all of a sudden, wincing from sharp pains in her side and gripping the headrest. “I need to go to the hospital. I think I might be pregnant.”
Both Brandi and Joquia blurted out simultaneously, “You’re what?”
***
Michelle found out at the hospital that she had a miscarriage and that they were going to admit her overnight for observation. She cried a little bit.
Brandi had quickly said, “I want you to use my name, Michelle.”
Confused, Michelle replied, “Why?”
“Trust me, I got the perfect plan to finally get this bitch and make her pay for fuckin’ wit’ me,” Brandi replied.
Michelle agreed to go along with the idea. She gave them Brandi’s name as her name, and they admitted her into the hospital. Brandi shut off her phone and stayed with her friend for the entire ordeal. She didn’t plan on going home anytime soon.
The next afternoon, Brandi and Michelle left the hospital with her discharge papers. Brandi asked Michelle to have her back, and to pretend as if Brandi was the one who’d had the miscarriage.
Michelle was giving Brandi a hard time, so she decided to bribe her best friend with two grand and the promise of another two grand at the end of the week. Michelle went with it. She gave Brandi the discharge papers, along with the hospital bracelet with Brandi’s full name on it.
***
Before he made his way home to Brandi, B Scientific decided to make a quick stop at the pawnshop Gena had told him about. He planned on apologizing and making it up to her. Things with Aoki weren’t turning out the way he’d expected.
He parked on the street and climbed out of his Range Rover. He marched into the pawnshop hoping everything Gena said was untrue. He stared at the young female working the counter and looked around the place. They had everything from TVs and laptops, to jewelry and guns.
“Hello,” she said. “Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, you can, I’m looking for a chain, a diamond rosary that was pawned here a few days ago.”
“Do you have a pawn ticket?”
“Nah, I don’t.”
“Well, I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot give out that kind of information unless you are the holder.”
“You see, this thing that was pawned, it didn’t belong to the person that pawned it in the first place. It belonged to me.”
“Still, without a ticket and your identification, there isn’t much I can do, sir. It’s the rules here.”
He frowned. Fuck y’all rules!
She repeatedly glanced over her shoulder, looking at the owner.
B Scientific suddenly got it. He leaned closer to the young woman and whispered, “Look, I got five hundred dollars just for some information.” He pulled out a wad of hundreds, showing her that he was good for the money.
The girl smiled. “I take lunch at one o clock. What is the name of the person who could have pawned this jewelry?”
“Aoki.”
“Do you know her last name?”
He thought about it. “I don’t.”
“Okay, I still might be able to find it. One o’clock then. I’ll meet you.”
***
An hour later, the young girl met B Scientific at the pizza place around the corner. She sat, he stood. She said, “There was a diamond rosary pawned at the shop a couple of days ago by an Aoki Ross. She received thirty-five hundred for it.”
B Scientific wanted to snap Aoki in half.
The girl continued to tell him Aoki’s address.
“Look, can I just give you the cash on it and take it?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. It’s against our policy. I’ll get in trouble. I’ll lose my job.”
B Scientific was boiling hot. It was like reliving how he felt when he’d heard his brother was murdered.
The girl added, “My boss, he really like that piece though. He’s hoping she doesn’t come back to retrieve it. It’s locked away in the vault.”
B Scientific pulled out his cash and peeled off five hundred-dollar bills and gave it to the girl, and she left. He lingered in the place, determined to hunt Aoki down, beat the shit out of her, and then drag her to the pawnshop to retrieve his jewelry. But he wasn’t sure whether he should kill her or not.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Aoki’s home and the deck Emilio was building in the backyard were coming along just fine. Her place was feeling livable again. The sun was beaming as the two lovers took time out in the kitchen to down a cold glass of homemade lemonade and talk. Emilio was shirtless and sweaty. He had been working hard. He had the golden touch when it came to repairs and building.
Before B Scientific couldn’t get a word or two out, Brandi slapped and punched him a few times, her frustration finally pouring out. “I fuckin’ hate you!” she screamed. “I hate you and that fuckin’ bitch!”
B Scientific’s backhand came quickly and fiercely and sent Brandi flying, stumbling backwards out of the bathroom. She found herself on the floor with a bloody lip.
“You dumb, stupid bitch!” he shouted.
The assault didn’t deter Brandi’s mouth. She glared up at B Scientific and screamed, “I hope you and that fuckin’ bitch die! Kill yourself, nigga!”
B Scientific struck her again, punching her in the face and almost knocking her out. She tried to fight him, but he beat her severely.
“Stay in your place, bitch!” he shouted, before leaving again.
B Scientific stormed out of his home and quickly dialed Aoki’s number. He was through with Brandi, and he wanted Aoki to get rid of AZ.
When she picked up, he told her he wanted to see her again, but she turned him down because something important had come up. He decided to settle and called Gena, who jumped at the opportunity to be with him.
***
Gena rose up from the motel bed and a sweaty B Scientific. The dick had been good to her again. She’d come like a geyser, and he’d made her body shake like a 5.0 earthquake. She’d also thoroughly pleased him from head to toe. Now it was their intermission before things started to heat up again.
She sat up and lit a cigarette. B Scientific was awake, but he was resting. He stared blankly at the ceiling, leaving no personal interaction for Gena. She took a few pulls from the Newport and blew out smoke. She glanced at him and wanted to converse. She wanted a relationship with him, but he continued to make things very clear to her—she was a jump-off, a bird bitch that was only good for sex.
She started to feel some kind of way. She wanted his attention on something that mattered to her, but he lay there looking uninterested in anything she had to say or what was going on in her life. She pretended to be worried about something, but he didn’t address her sadness. She took a few more pulls from her cigarette.
“I’m worried about my daughters and her friend,” she said. “Things are so fucked up, B Scientific.”
He stayed quiet. It was like after the sex, he wasn’t even there.
She turned to face him, and then she boldly asked, “I hate to ask you for this, but can I borrow five thousand dollars?”
He turned and frowned at her. The intensity written across his face made the cigarette shake in Gena’s hand. “You asking me for money when you know we don’t even get down like that?” he growled.
Quickly, she responded, “It’s not for me. I’m just trying to help out one of my daughter’s friends. Aoki, you know her?”
B Scientific perked up. “Who?”
“Aoki, she needs it.”
“Why you askin’ to borrow money in her name?”
“She’s a friend to my daughters, and she’s been through a lot. I care greatly for my daughters and their peoples. Aoki always had a hard life, growing up poor and having two crackhead parents that abandoned her two years ago. Now she’s losing her home and might be put out on the streets. I hear she owes the bank some money, unpaid taxes or somethin’. I think, eighty-five hundred dollars. She has some of it but she needs to come up with the remaining five thousand dollars soon.”
“And you’re the angel willing to help her so quickly,” he replied coolly.
“She’s like one of my daughters, B Scientific. I love her just the same. But Aoki’s a very resourceful girl. I think she came up with thirty-five hundred already. I think she pawned some chain. But she’s still short.”
B Scientific went from cool to furious in 0.1 seconds. He jumped out of bed and screamed at Gena. “Get out! Get the fuck out!”
“But, baby—”
“Get the fuck out!”
He threw a deadly look at her that made her mute whatever she was about to say.
“That fuckin’ bitch!” He thrust his fist into the wall and made a hole the size of a basketball.
Gena hurriedly got dressed and ran out the room like it was on fire.
B Scientific snatched up his cell phone and dialed Aoki’s number, but her phone was turned off.
THIRTY-SIX
AZ couldn’t stop thinking about that night with Aoki. It meant a lot to him. He wanted some more of it. He didn’t want Aoki to be with anyone else. Connor was officially out of his life, and he didn’t want to be gay anymore. He wanted Aoki by his side and no one else.
He continually dialed her cell phone, but it was going straight to voice mail. He decided to stop by her place and surprise her. He wanted to take her out to dinner and treat her to a very special evening.
He parked and got out of his Benz. It was another glorious and sunny summer day. The block was green with leaves and flowers, and it felt great to be alive. He walked toward the front door with a huge, golden smile and knocked a few times.
AZ waited. He wanted to surprise her with gifts, by taking her on another shopping spree, knowing she would love it. He knocked again, wondering what was taking her so long to answer.
And then it opened, and AZ caught the surprise of his lifetime.
Emilio answered her door in his boxers.
AZ frowned, and he sharply asked, “Where’s Aoki? And why are you here?”
Emilio smiled. “She’s in the kitchen.”
AZ looked at him like he was crazy. He barged right past Emilio and marched toward the kitchen.
Aoki was in the kitchen in her panties and bra, munching on breakfast Emilio had cooked.
“Yo, what the fuck—you got this nigga living here now?” AZ looked like he done lost his best friend, like his puppy had died.
Emilio walked into the kitchen.
“Emilio, can ya wait outside while me have ah talk wit’ AZ,” Aoki said kindly.
“Not a problem,” he replied, quickly stepping out of the kitchen.
“So, you with him now? You love him?” AZ asked.
“AZ, we ah just friends, and I’m nah in love wit’ ya.”
“So what do you call the other night, when we had sex?”
“It was ah mistake.”
“A mistake? Seriously?”
“Ya gay.”
“I ain’t wit’ him anymore. I want you.”
“But ya like ah brother to me.”
“A brother?” AZ chuckled in disbelief. “You have my heart, Aoki. You always did. I love you, and I care for you.”
“And me grateful, always will be, but we can never work,” she said nonchalantly.
He sighed heavily. “You think we won’t work, is that what you’re telling me? After everything I did for you, the secrets I kept for years so you won’t go to jail, from your parents, the ones you still have dead in them containers in the backyard—which is insane! I gave you food and clothes, I always protected you, helped you out. I did those things because I always loved you, Aoki. And you betrayed me.”
“Me betrayed ya? How dat, AZ?” Aoki retorted. She was furious that he would even go there with her parents.
Most times Aoki forgot her parents were even dead. But now that AZ was hitting below the belt, she felt it was time to strike back.
“Me could never take ya seriously, ya hear? Cuz ya a batty bwoy,” she came back. “And don’t forget, AZ, we both have secrets. Me go down, ya go down.”
AZ grimaced. He had nothing else to say to her. He turned away from her and walked out crushed, angry, and confused.
Emilio came back into the kitchen with a concerned look in his face. He stared at Aoki and asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Me fine,” she responded, looking pensive at the kitchen table.
Emilio had his concerns too. AZ was his connect. He would need a re-up when the fall semester came. Would AZ forgive and forget and continue their business relationship, or would he take that he was fucking Aoki personally and not deal with him anymore?
***
Two days later, Emilio spent his weekend with Aoki, helping her do repairs around the house. That Saturday, the HVAC company came by to replace the system. It was costly, but it was worth it. Aoki finally had enough money to put in a heating and air conditioning system. She and Emilio regularly went back and forth to Home Depot for supplies. Emilio was building a deck in her backyard.
She started to spend more and more of her time with him. He was the one. He was almost perfect. He had nothing to do with her world of chaos and murders. He was her escape. She didn’t have to fear him or question his sexuality, since he was 100% straight, a handsome heterosexual male. He didn’t have the baggage that B Scientific had, and it wasn’t about sex with him.
She continued to ignore calls from B Scientific, AZ, and Connor, who was leaving voice messages on her phone, saying that he hated her, and that he was going to stomp her head into the ground, and that she better watch her back. Sometimes he would call from different numbers, or a private number, and she would hang up on him.
But he was pushing her buttons. There was only so much she was going to take from him and his threats.
She decided to keep a low profile for a while and chill at home, making it better. She just wanted a normal weekend with Emilio. He was the one she saw a future with. He was going to be somebody in life.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Gena continued to taunt Brandi with several text messages to her phone.
u stupid bitch, ur man over here now suckin’ on my pussy & I’m lovin’ it. Think about me, bitch! Think about me & ur man fuckin’ our brains out. His dick is so good. I might just get pregnant by him. I know u ain’t got any kids, but soon I’ll have his. What you think about that bitch? I got ur man, bitch, and I’m lovin’ it. Fuck u!
She was on overdrive with her scheme to ruin Aoki’s and Brandi’s lives. With B Scientific and Brandi furious at Aoki, she felt like a mastermind and wanted to pat herself on the back for a job well done.
***
Brandi read the text messages with tears in her eyes and a strong desire to do something about Aoki. She couldn’t take the taunting anymore. She couldn’t take her becoming pregnant by the man she loved. Even though he hurt her bad, physically and mentally, it was hard to let him go.
“Fuck this bitch!” she exclaimed.
Brandi got on her phone and made some phone calls. She reached out to Michelle and Joquia—her closet friend and her first cousin, who both had a reputation for violence. Michelle was in her late twenties and once had ties to the Bloods, but now she was a single mother of two children, trying to live a normal life. She still wasn’t shy about beefing and brawling if she needed to. Joquia was Brandi’s first cousin on her mother’s side. She was fresh home from prison for committing check fraud and was close friends with Brandi. If Brandi had problems, then she had problems.
Both women didn’t hesitate to meet with Brandi and drive to Brooklyn to finally meet and confront Aoki. They wanted to fuck that bitch up so bad.
They drove around Brooklyn in Brandi’s jeep for hours, searching and asking around for Aoki. They parked on the block near Van Siclen, asking around, but there was still no sign of her. Most people said that they hadn’t seen her around in a couple of days.
Brandi didn’t want to give up. She wanted to spend all night hunting the bitch down, even if she had to set up camp on the street. But she also knew that B Scientific would probably beat her down in front of her peoples if he caught her in the neighborhood searching for Aoki.
Hours later, Aoki still wasn’t around. It was time to give up and go home.
Brandi felt defeated. She was upset. She was so tired and stressed, she was losing weight and not looking like herself.
Michelle tried to comfort her, and Joquia was ready to come back the next day and start the search all over again.
Brandi jumped on the Brooklyn Bridge and headed back home. She smoked a cigarette and couldn’t take her mind off of her problems. She drove in an angry trance. She was itching to find Aoki. She wanted to teach that bitch a lesson so badly that her pussy was wet.
Joquia said, “We gonna find that bitch, Brandi. Tomorrow, watch—I don’t care if we gotta kick in every door in East New York and wild the fuck out.”
“We wit’ you,” Michelle said.
Brandi smiled somewhat. It felt great to have true friends. She was determined to end this battle of texts and her boyfriend’s infidelity. She sighed heavily and continued driving.
Just thinking about those texts sent to her phone, including one saying, Suck on my pussy bitch, and another of B Scientific sleeping nude in a cheesy motel room made her so angry, she forgot to brake and accidentally slammed into the car in front of her.
“Aw fuck!”
Brandi shook her head in disbelief. “Everyone okay?” she asked. Why me? She was so stressed out, she wasn’t watching where she was going.
No one in the jeep suffered any true injuries. It was a fender-bender, both vehicles suffering slight damage.
The Hispanic driver and his wife emerged from their car ready to confront Brandi for her negligence.
Just then Michelle curved over, all of a sudden, wincing from sharp pains in her side and gripping the headrest. “I need to go to the hospital. I think I might be pregnant.”
Both Brandi and Joquia blurted out simultaneously, “You’re what?”
***
Michelle found out at the hospital that she had a miscarriage and that they were going to admit her overnight for observation. She cried a little bit.
Brandi had quickly said, “I want you to use my name, Michelle.”
Confused, Michelle replied, “Why?”
“Trust me, I got the perfect plan to finally get this bitch and make her pay for fuckin’ wit’ me,” Brandi replied.
Michelle agreed to go along with the idea. She gave them Brandi’s name as her name, and they admitted her into the hospital. Brandi shut off her phone and stayed with her friend for the entire ordeal. She didn’t plan on going home anytime soon.
The next afternoon, Brandi and Michelle left the hospital with her discharge papers. Brandi asked Michelle to have her back, and to pretend as if Brandi was the one who’d had the miscarriage.
Michelle was giving Brandi a hard time, so she decided to bribe her best friend with two grand and the promise of another two grand at the end of the week. Michelle went with it. She gave Brandi the discharge papers, along with the hospital bracelet with Brandi’s full name on it.
***
Before he made his way home to Brandi, B Scientific decided to make a quick stop at the pawnshop Gena had told him about. He planned on apologizing and making it up to her. Things with Aoki weren’t turning out the way he’d expected.
He parked on the street and climbed out of his Range Rover. He marched into the pawnshop hoping everything Gena said was untrue. He stared at the young female working the counter and looked around the place. They had everything from TVs and laptops, to jewelry and guns.
“Hello,” she said. “Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, you can, I’m looking for a chain, a diamond rosary that was pawned here a few days ago.”
“Do you have a pawn ticket?”
“Nah, I don’t.”
“Well, I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot give out that kind of information unless you are the holder.”
“You see, this thing that was pawned, it didn’t belong to the person that pawned it in the first place. It belonged to me.”
“Still, without a ticket and your identification, there isn’t much I can do, sir. It’s the rules here.”
He frowned. Fuck y’all rules!
She repeatedly glanced over her shoulder, looking at the owner.
B Scientific suddenly got it. He leaned closer to the young woman and whispered, “Look, I got five hundred dollars just for some information.” He pulled out a wad of hundreds, showing her that he was good for the money.
The girl smiled. “I take lunch at one o clock. What is the name of the person who could have pawned this jewelry?”
“Aoki.”
“Do you know her last name?”
He thought about it. “I don’t.”
“Okay, I still might be able to find it. One o’clock then. I’ll meet you.”
***
An hour later, the young girl met B Scientific at the pizza place around the corner. She sat, he stood. She said, “There was a diamond rosary pawned at the shop a couple of days ago by an Aoki Ross. She received thirty-five hundred for it.”
B Scientific wanted to snap Aoki in half.
The girl continued to tell him Aoki’s address.
“Look, can I just give you the cash on it and take it?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. It’s against our policy. I’ll get in trouble. I’ll lose my job.”
B Scientific was boiling hot. It was like reliving how he felt when he’d heard his brother was murdered.
The girl added, “My boss, he really like that piece though. He’s hoping she doesn’t come back to retrieve it. It’s locked away in the vault.”
B Scientific pulled out his cash and peeled off five hundred-dollar bills and gave it to the girl, and she left. He lingered in the place, determined to hunt Aoki down, beat the shit out of her, and then drag her to the pawnshop to retrieve his jewelry. But he wasn’t sure whether he should kill her or not.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Aoki’s home and the deck Emilio was building in the backyard were coming along just fine. Her place was feeling livable again. The sun was beaming as the two lovers took time out in the kitchen to down a cold glass of homemade lemonade and talk. Emilio was shirtless and sweaty. He had been working hard. He had the golden touch when it came to repairs and building.
