Wild Cherry (11 page)

Jackie tried to push me off him, but I dropped my weight down on him, pinning him to the floor. He tried to take a swing at me, but the poison had him so weak that I was able to swat the blows away. The poison was killing him, but it wasn't working fast enough, so I started strangling him. I rode Jackie's cock like I was at the Kentucky Derby, while digging my fingers into his throat. When I looked down at his face, I didn't see Gina's husband, but the man who had been the cause of my misery, Slim. I didn't release Jackie's throat until vomit started spilling from his mouth and nose. It was a disgusting sight, but I was too caught up in my own rage. When I finally heard the death rattle escape him, I climbed off his dick and went to the bathroom to throw up.

After scrubbing every inch of my body, I came back and examined my handiwork. Jackie was lying in a pool of his own vomit, with his limp dick still inside the condom. Shit was pooling beneath his ass, leaving a foul odor in the air. I carefully removed the condom with a paper towel and ran a Dustbuster over his genitals to remove any hair traces I'd left. It was probably unnecessary, but I had seen it on an episode of
Forensic Files
, so I figured it couldn't hurt. After I got dressed, I sat in the far corner of the living room, trying not to look at Jackie's corpse while I waited for Gina to call and tell me she'd done her part.

TWENTY

Gina

I had been sucking on Slim's foul-smelling cock for about ten minutes when I felt his body stiffen. I ducked my head out of the way, thinking he was about to come and felt something drip onto my shoulder. I looked up and saw that there was vomit spilling over Slim's lower lip. I had read about the effects of wild cherries when they were ingested, but seeing it was something else.

Slim staggered backwards and bounced off the wall. “What … what?” He was trying to speak, but his throat was closing up on him.

I rolled to the other side of the bed and collected my clothes off the floor. “Princess sends her love, you bastard.”

At the mention of her name, Slim's eyes went wide. “You bitches … you bitches set me up!” Slim tried to lunge for me, but it was uncoordinated, and he ended up falling over the bed. I ran around to the other side of the room to try and get to the door, but he managed to grab my arm and knock me off balance. I landed on the floor, on top of his pants, with something cold jabbing me in my back. I reached behind me and came up holding the small .22 that had been in his pocket.

“I'm gonna fucking kill you,” he shambled toward me.

“Stay back,” I warned him, trying to scoot against the wall. Even when I aimed the gun at him, he kept coming. At that moment, I saw my life flashing before my eyes and prayed for God to give me strength. From the look in Slim's eyes, I knew that he would kill me before the wild cherry sap killed him. Closing my eyes, I pulled the trigger.

*   *   *

I don't know how long I sat there on the floor, but my legs were starting to cramp. Slim sat on the floor, propped against the bed with vomit staining his chin and chest, while a faint stream of urine was coming from his dick. I had never seen a dead body other than in a funeral home, but even without the makeup and casket, I knew Slim was gone.

I fumbled with my phone and called Princess. When she picked up, I just started rambling. “Princess, it's me. Oh, God, oh God. I did it, Princess, he's dead. The poison wasn't working fast enough, so I took his gun and—”

“Gina, don't say another word over the phone.” She had cut me off. “Listen to me very carefully: Get your shit and leave the motel room. Get to your house as fast as you can, but drive carefully so you don't get pulled over.”

“But what about Slim's body?” I asked.

“Leave it there. It's an hourly motel, so they don't have any of your information. Turn the air conditioner on high and leave. By the time they find him, you'll be long gone.”

“Princess, I—”

“I told you, not on the phone. Slim is good where he is, but we've gotta get rid of this mess you've got over here.”

“Oh my God, is Jackie—”

“Gina, please stop asking me stupid-ass questions and get over here.” She ended the call.

I jumped into my clothes, but was still afraid to leave the room. I kept having visions of the police swooping down on me as soon as I got in the hall. “Get it together, Gina.” I slapped myself. There was a dead body at my feet and one in my house. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

I composed myself enough to get Randy on the line. I figured we'd need some help with getting rid of Jackie's body. I could trust my brother above all else. When he answered his phone, I could barely get the words out without having them sound like the ravings of a madwoman. The only thing he was able to understand was that there was an emergency at my house and I needed him to come over there. He tried to ask me what happened, but I ended the call. Gathering my courage, I slipped into the hall and tried my best not to break into a run as I left the motel.

*   *   *

When I got to my house, Princess was pacing in my living room, smoking a cigarette. Even over the smoke, I could smell death in the air. I didn't have to see what was under the sheet in the middle of my living room to know it was my husband, the man whom I had promised to love and honor, but ended up betraying.

“Are you okay?” Princess rushed over and hugged me.

“Hell no,” I said, trembling. “We're murderers, Princess,
murderers
.”

Princess held my face in her hands and kissed me. “No we're not, Gina, we're free. Now come help me wrap this body up so we can get him out of here.”

Princess and I wrapped Jackie from his neck to his feet in an old carpet that I had in the attic, but he was too tall for his head to fit. Princess wanted to cut it off, but I wouldn't let her. We had already done enough. Instead, we wrapped it in a plastic bag and tied a pillow case over that. I was just cutting the string that we'd tied around the carpet when my front door flew open. My brother, Randy, stood in the doorway with a pistol in his hand.

“Gina, are you okay?” he asked, seeing me standing in the middle of the living room looking a hot mess. “When you called, I thought Jackie was kicking your ass again.”

“Jackie won't be kicking anybody else's ass.” Princess nodded to the parcel lying on the floor.

Randy's jaw dropped. “Tell me that isn't Jackie? Gina.” He turned watery eyes to me. “Please tell me that y'all didn't kill Jackie.”

“Randy, let me explain,” I pleaded.

“Explain what, how you let this dumb bitch gas you up to go to prison?” Randy snapped. “Stupid, just fucking stupid.”

“Well, I didn't see nobody else rushing to Gina's rescue.” Princess glared at Randy. The tension in the air was so thick that I suddenly found it hard to breathe.

Randy paced the floor. “This is fucked up, real fucked up. I can't believe y'all killed him.” His voice was trembling.

“
We
didn't do shit,
I
killed Jackie,” Princess confessed. She sat on the couch and lit another cigarette. “You can call it what you want, Randy, but it was the only way Gina could've ever gotten away from Jackie. Look, I know y'all are scared, but it's gonna be okay. All we have to do is—” Before Princess could finish her sentence, her head exploded. I was so shocked that all I could do was stare at my brother as he placed the gun on the coffee table and knelt over Jackie's body.

“No, no, no,” Randy sobbed, cradling Jackie's body. “You couldn't just leave him, could you? No, you had to kill him!”

“But Randy, I thought you of all people would've been happy that I was rid of Jackie.”

Randy turned his red eyes toward me. “I wanted him out of your life, not dead, Gina!”

“But I don't understand.”

“He was my lover,” Randy spat, shocking me even further. “For the last three years, Jackie and I were having an affair.”

“But Jackie hated you because you were gay.”

“He didn't hate me because I was gay, Gina. He hated me because he knew that as long as he was married to my sister, we would never be more than a late-night booty call. You killed my lover, Gina!”

I felt like all the strength had been sapped from my body as I watched my brother mourn the loss of his lover, my husband. All these years, I would've never expected Jackie to be in the closet, not my Jackie. As I knelt there with my brother and the bodies of my two lovers, I realized that you never really knew someone until you knew them.

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Available from St. Martin's Griffin

 

www.kwanfoye.com

About the Author

K'wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author of over a dozen titles which include:
Gangsta,
Road Dawgz
,
Street Dreams,
Hoodlum
,
Eve
,
Hood Rat
,
Blow,
Still Hood
,
Gutter, Section 8, From Harlem with Love, The Leak, Welfare Wifeys, Eviction Notice, Love & Gunplay, Animal, Purple Reign, The 1st & 15th, Ghetto Bastard,
and
Animal II.
K'wan is also the author of several dark fantasy novels written under a pseudonym.

K'wan has been featured in:
Vibe
,
Pages
,
King
,
The Library Journal
,
Entertainment Weekly
,
The New York Press,
and
Time Magazine
, to name a few. K'wan was also the recipient of the 2012 and 13
Street Lit Book Award Medals
(SLBAM) in adult fiction for
Eviction Notice
and
Animal
. His credits also include featured commentary in the award-winning documentary
Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (produced by Ice-T)
as well as a reoccurring role as an analyst on TV-One's
Celebrity Crime Files.

K'wan currently resides in New Jersey where he is working on his next novel. Please visit his website:

www.Kwanfoye.com

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

WILD CHERRY.
Copyright © 2009 by K'wan. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Cover design by Ervin Serrano

Cover photographs by
shutterstock.com

e-ISBN 9781466849891

First Edition: September 2013