Darrell heard
the smile in Marcus’ voice. “D, no need to be nervous. You know Roni loves you, and I
know
you love her. Everything’s gonna be perfect. You’ll see.”
“Yeah, you right, man. I’ll just feel a lot better once I slip this ring on her finger.”
“Well, good luck, my brotha. You know I got mad love for you, and tell my ‘sister-in-law to be’ that I said congratulations, I love her - and she’s a brave woman,” Marcus grinned.
Darrell burst out laughing. “Man, fuck you! Whateva…” Marcus’ joke had the desired effect. Darrell felt some of the tension leave his body.
“Alright, bruh. Let me get off the phone and start breakfast. Roni should be back in about half an hour and I want things to be perfect.”
All of a sudden he heard the continuous sound of a horn blowing from outside just before he heard gunshots ring out. His body tensed.
Roni…
Roni’s irritated frown
turned to one of terrified alarm when she saw the men get out of the car with ski masks on.
Was she being robbed…?!
Then she saw the guns in their hands. “Oh my God….” she whispered.
She quickly put the truck in reverse, but it was too late. Gunshots riddled the vehicle for what seemed like forever, but in reality, it was actually just seconds. When it was over, Roni lay slumped over the steering wheel, eyes wide open as she took quick, shallow breaths. Even with the possibility of death looming near, she could only think of one person.
Darrell…
“Are those gunshots?!!” Marcus shouted. “Darrell!”
Marcus continued to yell into the phone, but Darrell was already flinging the front door open, praying the entire time. When he ran out of the house, his worst fears were realized the moment he saw his truck in the middle of the street full of bullet holes. He didn’t even notice the black car that squealed off in the opposite direction.
“NONONONONO…! RONI…! RONI!!”
He took out full speed in a dead sprint towards the truck. When he opened the door to the SUV, he almost collapsed when he saw his baby covered in blood.
“Roni!!
OhGodOh
GOD!!
Please
NO…!”
He quickly unsnapped the seatbelt and lifted Roni out of the truck. “Baby….aw, no…please God!”
He carried her over to the grass and gently laid her limp and unresponsive body on the ground. His eyes quickly scanned her from head to toe.
So much blood…
“Baby? Come on, baby, come on…” He looked around in a panic.
“SOMEBODY CALL AN AMBULANCE…! PLEASE!! I NEED AN AMBULANCE…!”
He swung terrified eyes back towards Roni and brought trembling fingers to her neck. Feeling a faint pulse he cradled her in his arms. “Baby, hang in there. Don’t leave me, got dammit! Don’t you dare leave me!”
“Veronica…! Veronica!”
Relief washed over Darrell when he looked around and saw Luther running down the street towards them. Thank God!
“Luther, Roni’s been shot! We need an ambulance! Please!”
But Luther was beside himself as he fell to his knees. “Oh God, Roni! I tried to stop them! It wasn’t supposed to be you. It wasn’t supposed to be you….” He kept repeating those words over and over again.
Darrell felt icy fingers of rage mixed with disbelief run through his bones. “What?” he whispered. “What did you say?”
One of Roni’s neighbors ran up to them. “Darrell, I called an ambulance! They should be here any minute! I saw the entire thing!”
But Darrell was still staring at Luther, trying to comprehend the words he was muttering
.
Did he say…?
“You did this?” The words came out harsh and incredulous.
“You did this…?!”
He looked down at Roni. The tears rolling down his face dropped down onto her bloody, bullet ravished body as he rocked her back and forth. “Hold on, baby, just hold on.”
Seconds later, an ambulance came screeching to a stop beside them. Everything after that was a blur for Darrell. The EMT’s managed to push him out of the way so that they could work on Roni.
“We’re losing her! Let’sgolet’sgo…!”
Lifting her onto a stretcher, they quickly rolled her to the open doors of the ambulance. Darrell climbed in behind them. Moments before they sped off, Darrell glanced through the back window and saw Luther standing there, hands on the glass, head ducking from side to side, trying to get a last look at Roni but when he lifted his gaze and saw a pair of wintry, gray eyes coldly glowing, watching him with the murderous promise of retribution, he took one step back, then another.
Darrell turned his attention back to Roni. Luther was the last thing on his mind. He would see him soon…
Because the only thing that would stop him from killing Luther Thorpe was death itself.
Chapter 14
Darrell stood aside as they rushed Roni through the emergency room entrance. He ran behind them as they gave a run- down of her condition to the emergency room surgeon. He held her hand and talked to her the entire time.
“Baby, you’re gonna be okay. Just hold on….” His voice cracked with tears that got stuck in his throat as he tried to keep them in.
“Darrell, what’s going on! I’ve been trying to call you….” Marcus was down the hall at the nurse’s station when he looked up and saw Darrell running alongside someone being brought into the ER on a stretcher.
“Marcus, it’s Roni! She’s been shot!” Even saying it out loud he still couldn’t believe this was happening.
“What…?!”
That’s when Marcus looked down and saw Roni. An oxygen mask had been placed over her face. When he saw her clothes soaked in blood, he immediately knew it wasn’t good. He glanced at the one of the EMT’s who stated under his breath to the doctor that he didn’t know how she was still alive at this point.
As they pushed her through a set of double doors, Darrell tried to follow but Marcus held him back. “You can’t go in there, man.”
“Marcus, I gotta be with her! She needs to know that I’m here!”
“D, you have to let them do their job. Let them work on her.” He had to catch Darrell around the waist and physically stop him from going through the doors that lead to the operating room. “Come on. We can wait over here.”
“Marcus….”
Marcus caught Darrell‘s face and physically turned his head towards him so that he could look him in the eye. Although he had a bad feeling about Roni‘s chances of survival, he forced himself to sound calm and confident when he spoke to Darrell. “Listen to me! This hospital has the best staff in the state. If anyone can save Roni, they can, but you have to give them space and time to do their job.” His look was direct as he finally saw Darrell focus on what he was saying. “Okay?”
Finally Darrell moved his head up and down in erratic movements to let Marcus know he’d heard him, but his eyes had a blank, dazed look to them. Still in shock, he let Marcus lead him to the waiting room. Sitting down on the edge of the chair, he leaned his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands.
Marcus sat down beside him and put his hand on his shoulder. “What happened?”
Darrell shook his head and in a gesture of helplessness and ran his hand over his hair. “I don’t know, I…I mean I was on the phone with you and the next thing I knew, I heard gunshots. I ran outside. That’s when….” He shook his head again as he relived the moment he opened the door of the truck and saw Roni slumped over with blood pooling from her wounds.
Darrell covered his face again, all the while, wishing….hoping…
praying
this was just a nightmare and he would wake up any moment. He asked God to let him be back in bed with Roni, holding her close, feeling her heartbeat next to his, smelling the scent that was quintessentially and uniquely her own.
Marcus looked at the anguish Darrell was going through. He found himself swallowing hard, trying to get the lump in his throat to subside. He wanted to cry right along with his friend who was closer to him than any brother could’ve ever been.
What in the hell had happened? When he talked to Darrell, Roni had just left the house not even five minutes prior. Darrell had been so happy, so excited, looking forward to spending the rest of his life with the woman he loved. Thirty minutes later, she was on an operating table barely clinging to life?!
Suddenly, Darrell shot up out of the chair and began pacing back and forth. The front of his shirt and pants was covered in blood. Roni’s blood. Marcus stood up and walked towards him.
“Marcus, I can’t just sit here. How long do you think it’ll be before they can tell us something? Do you think you can find out if they have any updates?”
Marcus shook his head. “Not yet, D, they just took her back there.”
Darrell let out an impatient hiss as he continued to stalk around the waiting room. Fury built up inside of him with every step as he thought about the man responsible for all of this:
Thorpe!
“He’s a dead man walking…” Darrell muttered in a menacing tone.
Marcus frowned. “Who?”
When Darrell didn’t answer and just continued to mumble to himself, Marcus walked in front of him and put his hands on his shoulders to keep him still. “D, who are you talking about? Who’s a dead man?” Darrell turned his head and remained silent. Marcus shook Darrell’s shoulders to get his attention. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Do you know who did this?! Do you know who shot Roni?”
Before Darrell could answer, Bryan, followed by his wife Sylvia, came running into the waiting room. Darrell had made a frantic call to them while they’d worked on Roni outside of her house.
“Darrell! Marcus! How’s Roni? Where is she? Can I see her? What the hell happened? You said she was
shot?!
”
Seeing that Darrell was in no condition to answer the barrage of questions rapidly being thrown at him, Marcus stepped in and told Bryan what he knew which wasn’t much. He left out the part about Darrell possibly knowing who was responsible for shooting Roni.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening.” Bryan covered his mouth with his hand. “Marcus, please, is there anything you can find out? Anything at all?”
Marcus nodded. Now that there was someone here to stay with Darrell, he felt comfortable enough to briefly leave to see what information he could gather. “I’ll be right back. I have some extra clothes in my locker. I’ll stop and bring them on my way back so that you can change clothes, D.”
Marcus' statement brought Bryan's attention to Darrell’s bloody clothes. “My God,” he whispered. “Darrell…what…..” He stopped when he noticed how lost Darrell looked. “Shit.”
He pulled Darrell to him and hugged him tight. At first Darrell just stood there with his hands hanging to his side. Then he slowly brought his hands up and returned the embrace. His shoulders began to shake with the emotion he’d been trying to hold inside. Bryan let him cry as silent tears rolled down his own face. If anyone knew how the other was feeling, these two did. They loved Roni with all their heart. There was no way they could even fathom a world without her in it.
A few minutes later, Sylvia gently put her hand on Darrell’s shoulder. When he pulled back, she nodded her head towards the doorway. Darrell looked over and saw two police officers standing in the doorway waiting to take a statement. They told the group Roni’s neighbor, Mr. Richards, had called to report the shooting. Mr. Richards told them he’d been out walking his dog and had witnessed the entire incident.
Marcus came back in the room right as they were asking Darrell if there was anything he could add that might help them catch who was responsible. Without blinking an eye, Darrell told them he’d been in the house and heard gunshots. By the time he’d made it outside, no one was around. Darrell could feel the force of Marcus' stare, but he kept his attention on the officers. A few minutes later, they left and told him they would be in touch.
Darrell turned his head to look at Marcus. A silent message passed between them before Marcus handed Darrell the spare set of clothes he’d retrieved.
Bryan asked, “Were you able to find out anything?”
“Not much. She’s still in surgery, but…” Marcus took a shaky breath. He loved Darrell too much to keep the truth from him.
“But what, Marcus?” Darrell took a step closer to him.
“I’m sorry, man. It doesn’t look good. They’re not expecting her to make it.”
Sylvia cried out and fell into Bryan’s arms. Bryan stood there in shock. When Darrell’s expression didn’t change, Marcus put a hand on his shoulder.
“D, I know you want me to be upfront with you.”
Darrell nodded. Surprisingly, his eyes were dry. He felt…numb. “I need to find somewhere to change.”
“Come on. I’ll take you to the doctor’s area. Bryan, we’ll be right back.”
Marcus and Darrell walked in silence until they got to the locker room. Thankfully, it was empty. Marcus sat down on the bench and looked at Darrell. “You know who did this, don’t you?”
Darrell didn’t answer right away, just took off the bloody t-shirt and slipped on the one Marcus had given him. After he’d pulled on the clean pair of jeans he just stood there gazing into space. Marcus waited.
Finally, Darrell looked over at him. “It was Luther.”
Marcus jumped up and stared at him in shock.
“What?!
Luther Thorpe?”
Darrell nodded then told him about how Luther appeared out of nowhere. He told him what Luther had said about how ‘it wasn’t supposed to have been Roni’, and that ‘he’d tried to stop it’.
Marcus put his hands on his head and took a few steps away as he tried to process what Darrell had just told him. He knew Luther hated Darrell and he and everyone else knew why. Luther made no secret of the fact that he was in love with Roni. Hell anyone could see how he felt by the look on his face whenever Roni came within ten feet of him.
“He hired someone to
kill you?
So that he could have Roni…?” Darrell nodded. Marcus’ eyes were now as cold as Darrell’s. “Since you didn’t tell the police any of this, I assume we’re goin’ to take care of it ourselves.” It was a given that Marcus had Darrell’s back no matter what he decided.
“As soon as Roni’s better, I’ll definitely be taking care of Luther. Believe that.”
Marcus eyes dropped away from Darrell’s. Darrell was in denial about the possibility of Roni recovering and he understood that. The only thing he could do was be there for his friend. He’d be there for him when he dealt out his own brand of justice to Luther, and he’d be there after Roni passed. Her injuries were so severe that it wasn’t a matter of
if
Roni would die. It was a matter of
when.