Chapter 30
“They're here! There's Lucky's truck!” Kat exclaimed as they pulled into the front entrance of the warehouse. She looked around anxiously. “And it doesn't look like the police are here yet. We have time!” Kat shot out of the car before Secret barely had a chance to put it in park.
“Kat, wait!” Secret yelled out the open window. All of the windows were rolled down except for the back ones. Secret didn't want the air to be too much for Dina.
Kat ignored her sister and proceeded into the warehouse.
“Damn it!” Secret snapped, jumping out of the running car. She had only a split second to think about Dina and taking her inside. She had no idea what was going down in there. She had no idea what they might do to her. Whatever it was, she didn't want it done in front of her daughter.
Secret raced inside the warehouse and through the door. She saw Kat clearing the hallway. Secret got halfway through the room to the hallway before she stopped. She turned back around and looked at the toolbox she'd recalled Fonda making mention of. She said a quick prayer that the gun was in that box. She exhaled as she lifted the box. It was there. She removed the black piece of steel from the toolbox.
Secret had only been to the shooting range once, but she had enough confidence in her abilities to handle business with the weapon if need be. She hoped it didn't come to that though.
With the weapon down to her side, Secret made her way toward the back room. She could hear voices and all kinds of commotion coming from the room. But the sound of a toilet flushing startled her.
Secret panicked, looking from left to right. There was a door beside what looked like a huge storage cabinet to Secret's left. She tried the knob but it was locked. Her only other option was to try the storage cabinet. Secret was relieved to swing open the door and find it practically empty. To the left was a row of shelves that had a few automobile-related items positioned for show. The other side was where work uniforms probably would have hung if there were actual real mechanics working there. There was one lone jacket hanging up. It was navy blue and had a patch on it that matched the sign out in the lot: L
UCKY'S
G
ARAGE.
Secret jumped into the larger side of the cabinet and closed the door.
No sooner than Secret closed the door had a door down the hall opened and Secret could hear footsteps coming in her direction. They then sounded as if they were heading in another direction, like back in the main garage area.
All of a sudden the loud voices from the room got louder and louder.
“What the hell you talking about? Slow the fuck down. Where she at?” That was Lucky.
“Yo, Lucky, everything all right back there, man?” Secret recognized Fonda's voice.
“Where the fuck you been? How she get back here?” Lucky's voice was right up on the cabinet.
“I had to take a shit real quick,” Fonda said.
“Did you lock the front door, or did your dumb ass forget like the last time?”
There was silence. Secret imagined Fonda giving Lucky the doofus “uh-oh” look.
“What I tell you was gon' happen the next time you did that shit? Huh?”
“Lucky, pleaâ”
A large booming sound blasted through Secret's ears. She threw her hand over her mouth to hold the scream she wanted to let out inside.
“Arggh.”
Secret cringed herself at the painful-sounding yelp. She heard a thud and figured it was Fonda on the ground taking his last breath.
“Fuck!” Lucky said, almost sounding regretful.
“We've gotta go,” Kat warned.
“Go where?” That was a male voice Secret didn't recognize. It must have been one of the guys Lucky was doing business with.
“Mafucka, you tried to set us up?” That was another male voice Secret didn't recognize.
“Please, do I look like I'm in on this shit?” Lucky snapped.
“It's Secret,” Kat said. “She's been playing you the whole time since she got out of jail.”
Secret's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe her sister was turning on her like that.
“We have got to go.” Kat's voice was shaky and full of fear. “Hell, for all you know, they five-oh and part of this setup too.”
There was a moment of silence then gunshots could be heard. Secret covered her ears and kneeled down. It sounded like she was front and center at a Fourth of July fireworks display.
It was a matter of seconds and it was all over. The sound of gunfire ceased.
“You okay?” Kat asked.
Secret had no idea who she was asking though. Then she heard a reply.
“Yeah,” Lucky said. “You know I'm good with this thang. But it doesn't look like Shawn is good though.”
Shawndiece!
In that moment in time all Secret could do was picture her best friend lying there shot, bleeding to death. Without even thinking she pushed all her weight against the cabinet door and rushed out. She felt a huge weight and then saw Lucky on the ground. The gun he had been holding fell from his hand. He went to reach for it and instantaneously Secret pulled the trigger of her gun.
“Fuck!” Lucky shouted as he grabbed his side.
Kat had the nerve to run over to Lucky and check on him.
Secret began to tremble when she saw Shawndiece lying face down. There were two guys next to her. A pool of blood seeped underneath all of them.
A shrilling cry escaped from Secret's lips.
“You shot him,” Kat looked up at Secret and yelled.
“Fuck him!” Secret snapped. She couldn't care less if Lucky lay right there on that floor and bled to death. That's exactly what Shawndiece was doing. How had Secret gotten them all mixed up in this mess? This was all her fault. Why did she even take Lucky's phone number the day they met? If only she could turn back the hands of time.
“It's just a graze, a flesh wound,” Lucky managed to say, still trying to keep his cool. But the agony in his tone gave him away. It might have been just a graze, but it was hurting him like hell.
“Oh, just a flesh wound, huh?” Secret spat. “Then it looks like I need to finish the job.”
“Secret just cut it out,” Kat snapped. “You know this ain't even you.” Kat, not taking Secret seriously, helped Lucky up off the floor. Once he was to his feet, Kat started walking him into the main garage area.
“What do you think you're doing?” Secret asked, following them.
“I'm taking him to get some help.” Kat continued walking.
“I can't even believe you, Kat. Do you really have that low of self-esteem? He's been playing you like some bottom bitch whore for all these years and you're still concerned about whether he lives or dies.” Secret let out a tsk. “Did not having Daddy in our lives fuck you up that much? You're going to just let him keep playing you?”
Kat let go of Lucky's arm. He continued hobbling toward the door while Kat addressed Secret with a pointed finger.
“He loves me.” Kat rammed her index finger into her own chest. “Can't you see that you're the one he's been playing all along?” Kat shouted at her sister. “He's been bragging about his secret little weapon for over a year now. That day I picked Lucky up when you were arrested, that's when I found out just what this secret was, or should I say who?”
Secret looked to Lucky who was halfway to the door. “Stop or I'll shoot your ass again.”
He hobbled around and faced Secret. “Don't listen to her, Secret,” Lucky begged, gripping the wound where the bullet had grazed his side.
“Shut up!” Secret yelled, her hand trembling while she now held the gun aimed toward Lucky. She turned her attention back to Kat. She wanted to hear everything Kat had to say, no matter how much it hurt her. What would it matter anymore anyway? Any minute now the cops would be showing up. This time they'd be hauling Lucky off to jail. There would be no pleas or deals for him to get back on the streets. He was the kingpin the police had been trying to nail for years. Well, before they took him to prison and threw away the key, where Secret would never talk to him a day in his life, she wanted to know just who the real Lucky had been all this time.
Kat looked over at Lucky. “Why don't you man up and tell her the truth? What do you have to lose now anyway? She's about to blow both our brains out. Die with the balls of keeping it real. It's over.”
Secret looked to Lucky. Her eyes pressed him to come forth with the truth.
“It wasn't all a lie,” Lucky admitted. “When I first met you, I really liked you. I thought you was going to be the one I wifed and brought to my home.” He gritted his teeth in pain. “No broad has ever laid her head in my home.”
Secret looked over to Kat.
“Not even Kat,” Lucky confirmed what he knew Secret's eyes were questioning. “But once you tried to set me up, I knew I couldn't trust you.”
“And when he can't trust you, he can groom you,” Kat jumped in.
“Bitch, shut the fuck up,” Lucky snapped, causing a pain to rip through his side. He looked down at the blood seeping between his fingers. “Please. I need a doctor.”
“Just talk!” Secret yelled, waving the gun.
“Kat is right,” Lucky said, hunched over in pain. “I've learned you can only give a person one chance at trust.”
Secret looked at him with complete shock. All that talk about giving him a second chance after he showed her his true colors. Even though she had forgiven him mostly because she had to according to her deal with the state, a part of her had felt for him and felt he deserved a second chance. Now come to find he hadn't truly given her a second chance after finding out her initial intentions with him. He'd just been playing on her emotions and personality all along.
“I'm not like you, Secret,” Lucky told her. “You have a good heart. You haven't dealt with some of the shit that I've dealt with to know that when a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time. So when you told me how you was going to try to scheme me, I knew you had it in you to scheme. The fact that it was in your blood let me know I couldn't trust you on that tip.”
“Then why did you continue to fuck with me?” Secret asked.
“Because on the flip side, you were loyal to a fault. I knew eventually, after you had the baby and all, I could get you on my team. And then when you went down for me on that drug charge, I knew I had to have you. You were the diamond in the rough I'd been looking for all my life.”
“Your secret weapon,” Secret said, her eyes filled with tears.
Lucky shrugged. “What can I say? We was all in it for our own reasons.” He looked at Kat and then back at Secret. “I really was done fucking with Kat up until I saw her with you in the restaurant.” He looked at Kat regretfully. “Sorry, shorty, but I only start fucking with you again because you was close to her.” He nodded toward Secret. “I needed you to watch her, to be my eyes and my ears. I knew that no matter what, you'd always have my back.”
Kat's mouth dropped. Kat's heart dropped.
There was a tornado of emotions going through Secret's head. She thought she'd heard it all until Lucky put the nail in the coffin.
“Then Major confirmed your story about what you did for your pops, and that convinced me even more,” Lucky added.
“Our pops,” Kat chimed in. She looked to Secret and shot her a “what is he talking about?” look.
Secret's mouth dropped. “Major? What does he have to do with this?”
“Come on, Secret.” Lucky rolled his eyes. “It's all over. Like Kat said, everybody might as well come clean. You know exactly what Major has to do with all this.”
The humiliation and the shame she felt the night she slept with Major Pain for her father all came back to her. Bits and pieces of the night her father begged her to atone for his mistakes ran through her head.
“Remember when you said you'd do anything for Daddy?” Secret's father had asked her. “Well, baby, right now I really need you to make good on your word.” He squirmed a little in the driver's seat while he looked over at his seventeen
-
year
-
old daughter in the passenger seat. “You see Daddy is having it real hard right now. I been off that stuff a little bit now, but you know I did that bid in jail, too.”
Secret didn't know exactly which bid he was talking about. He'd done several. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons why he'd been out of her life so much, because he was in jail so much.
Her father continued. “I just need you to do me this one solid. Please, Secret, and I promise I won't ever ask you to do anything like this again.” He nodded over his shoulder to the man standing outside the window. Then in a whispered tone he said, “Just a couple hours with him and I swear to
â
”
“Daddy, no!” Secret yelled out, her eyes filling with tears. “How could you?” She turned to try to get out of the car but her father stopped her by grabbing her arm.
“Just wait, Secret. Please, Daddy needs you to do this. Look, keepin' it one hunnid; Daddy owes some really bad people a lot of money. If I don't pay them, baby girl, you probably won't ever see your daddy again
. . .
alive that is. And I ain't just talking shit either, Secret. They gon' kill your daddy if I don't get them their money.” He fought back tears of his own.
Secret became so emotional that she wrapped her arms around her father and began to cry just as hard as he was. She hated seeing him like this. The way he looked, he was already dead. And how Secret saw it, his blood would be on her hands. How would she be able to live with herself? So she gave in and agreed to sleep with the man for money to help pay for her father's debt.