“Now you coming with us!” Slade was whisked out of the apartment, and the door slammed behind them. Farah leaned on the door and sobbed her eyes out. Just when she thought her life was together, she realized it was falling apart.
Now she was alone with Theo. “Don’t be sad, Farah.” Theo giggled. “At least you still have me. As long as you’re committing crimes, you’ll always have me.”
Farah shook her head. “I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.” Her chest moved rapidly up and down. “Why?”
“Now you know how it feels to have lost.” Theo laughed. “Killing your mother didn’t faze you, so I had to take it a step further.”
“You killed Brownie?”
“Of course I did!” He laughed. “The funny thing is, I was in the closet when you came in and slit her throat. Apparently you hated your mother as much as I did.” He continued sitting on the kitchen counter. “I dreamt about the day where I would get the woman who killed my mother.”
“Theo, I didn’t have anything to do with your mother being killed. You’re right, my mother was responsible for that shit. But what do you want from me now? Why are you ruining my life?”
“I want her children.” He laughed harder. “That’s why I clipped the truck your sister was in with her boyfriend that night, causing them to get into an accident.”
Farah stumbled backward.
“I thought they would both be dead, but when Chloe almost made it in the hospital, I cut the cord to her oxygen, and the hospital covered it up. You know how they hate lawsuits.”
“Theo . . . I . . . I can’t—”
“There’s no need in you saying anything I want to hear. Most of the things coming out of your mouth are lies anyway. Since I ruined your relationship with Slade by showing him that you were responsible for his brother’s death, now I have to finish what I started. ”
Farah couldn’t get over the fact that he killed Chloe. “I can’t believe you killed my sister! She loved you! For a while you were in a relationship and everything.”
“Chloe was a whore! Just like you.” He laughed. “She told me when we were kids what all of you did, said she had to get it off her chest.” He shook his head. “The only reason I didn’t kill you mothafuckas sooner was because she said she loved me. I was confused. But when she left me for Audio, I got wiser.” He hopped down off the counter. “I’ll be in touch, Farah. For now, I’m going to leave you to it.”
Theo was about to walk out when Mia, Shadow, and Bones walked in the apartment. It was obvious that Mia didn’t see Theo, because she said, “We found your friend Bones in the hallway. He was on his way up.” She paused. “He got some smoke, too.” She was all smiles, until she saw Theo standing in her apartment. “Wait, what is he doing here?”
Farah pushed the pain down in her gut and said, “I’m glad y’all are here. We have a situation that needs to be handled immediately.”
“What’s going on?” Shadow asked, remembering what they all did to Theo as a child.
“This mothafucka killed Mama! And Chloe, too. I want him dead!”
Shadow rubbed his hands together. “Consider it done.”
Epilogue
Present Day
Mooney’s House
Mooney sipped from a cup full of brandy and tea as she eyed Cutie.
“You know I hate you, right?” Cutie laughed, throwing herself back into her seat. “I don’t know why I bother with you sometimes.”
“Why would you say something so mean?” Mooney grinned. “I thought we were friends.”
“Because you know I want to hear the rest.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And you and these long pauses are going to be the death of me.”
“And I’m going to tell you everything you want to know tonight. Haven’t I done it already?”
“Tonight?” She looked at the clock on the wall. “But it’s late.”
“Your mother called earlier and said she is working late. Asked me to sit with you and the twins. So you’ll learn the entire story tonight.”
Cutie clapped wildly. “Thank you, Mooney! I have so many questions. Like, I know your mother died, but since Randy did too, weren’t you able to get her estate put back in your name? It seems to me that the house and everything went to waste.”
“Who said the house isn’t in my name?”
Cutie looked around the apartment. “So you prefer to live in the projects?”
“If I told you yes, you still wouldn’t believe me. If I said no, it would lead to other questions. So for now I’ll say nothing.”
“Mooney, can I ask you a question?”
“Wow, the young lady has manners tonight. That’s certainly a start.” She placed her drink on the table.
“I’m serious.”
“And so am I. Normally you’re cussing and fussing. To hear you use appropriate language for a change throws me off. I gotta say that I like it.”
Cutie was hoping the way she worded her statement would make Mooney be honest, so she swallowed and asked, “How do I know anything you’re saying is true? I mean, this sounds like a real tall tale, and my foster mother said whenever somebody pulling your dress real hard, they want some pussy.”
Mooney chuckled. “Well, I’m sure you know that’s the last thing on my mind.”
“To be honest, I don’t know what your thing is.” She shrugged. “You do seem to like me an awful lot. I’m just saying.”
“Well, you can be sure whatever I want, that ain’t it.” Mooney spit back. “Having sex with a child is atrocious, and the mere thought makes my skin crawl. The sad part is, I just gave you credit for nothing! You still the same rude bitch you were when I found you rolling around with the rats downstairs in the basement.” She paused. “And for your information, when I first started telling you the story, I showed you a newspaper clipping.” She got up and showed her the newspaper clipping again along with another. “Here’s the article about my arm.”
Cutie looked over it. The headline read, W
OMAN
L
OSES
A
RM
A
FTER
A
TTEMPTED
B
URGLARY. “
So you broke into her house?”
“That’s what they want you to believe.”
“How come you didn’t tell me that part of the story? About how your arm was cut?”
“Because we didn’t get to that part yet. You’ll find out tonight, remember?”
Scanning over the papers she said, “Well, how do you know the rest of the stuff?”
Mooney frowned and stood up and stared at her. For a second Cutie thought she was about to punish her physically. Instead she went to her room and came back with a boxful of Farah’s diaries under her arm. She set it at the teenager’s feet. The journals were in assorted colors and Cutie picked one up. “Oh my God! How did you get these?” She examined the blue book from front to back.
“I took them. All of them. And since Vivian wanted some dirt on Farah anyway, she helped me out.”
“She hated Farah that much?”
“Wouldn’t you if—”
One minute Cutie was looking at Mooney’s living body, and the next she was looking at her head being split open like a watermelon. Her body fell to the floor, and her blood spilled all over the diaries.
“Ahhhhhh!” Cutie screamed, trembling uncontrollably with bodily guts all over her face and arms. When she turned around and looked through the massive hole in the doorway, she saw Naylor staring at her. Having gotten his revenge, he winked, grinned, and ran away.
Urban Books, LLC
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RedBone 2: Takeover at Platinum Lofts Copyright © 2013 T. Styles
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ISBN: 978-1-6016-2540-3
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