It Was Me
“You sure you don’t need any more favors from me man? Shit, I’m willing to do whatever to make a few extra dollars,” my cousin, Easton said to me, as he walked into my office at my house that I owned on Miami beach.
I had a document pulled up in front of me, that I had been looking over, when Easton barged into my office without even knocking.
I looked up at him with annoyance all over my face. I was pissed that I allowed him to handle my dirty work for me because he did the job sloppy as hell, and I could feel it in my gut that it was going to backfire on me.
Easton was my younger cousin from Chicago. He was thirty- four, and he’s been in Chicago, struggling for a little while. Him and I weren’t the closest because there was a significant age difference between the two of us. Not only that, but our lifestyles didn’t align, either. Throughout my whole life, I can literally count on one hand the number of times that I’ve seen him.
Everyone knew that I was the breadwinner in the family, who had gone on to make big moves, so whenever someone found themselves in a bind, they would typically reach out to me. So, a few months ago, Easton called me, telling me how hard it hadbeen for him in Chicago to find steady work, that would pay him well. Over the years, he’s had his share of run-ins with law enforcement, which caused him to go to jail a few times, so with that, he had a terrible record, which is why it was hard for him to find a decent paying job.
When it came to family asking for money, or any kind of handouts, I’ve done my fair share of helping over the years, so now, I was at a spot where my answer was always no, or I wouldn’t even pick up the phone when certain family members called me. For whatever reason, I felt bad for Easton because when you think about it, he was doomed from the start. Easton was my mom’s sister’s son. His father was never present in his life, and with the way he was brought up, living in the hood, it was expected for him to become a product of his environment, which is exactly what happened.
When he called me, he wasn’t calling, asking for money. He wanted to know if I had a position for him at one of my lots. He told me all the things that he had been dealing with in Chicago, so with me having a heart, I booked a one- way flight to Miami for him, and once he arrived, I had a driver pick him up, and bring him to my house, which is where he had been staying for the past few months,
During his time here, all I could do was think about Dionne every single day. I genuinely missed her. I was just having a hard time understanding her right now. Her logic wasn’t making any kind of sense to me.
Throughout our time of being in each other’s lives, one of the things that we would always clash about was the fact that I was still married. Dionne was in love with me, and I was in love with her, and with that, I would feed her lies that my wife and I were going to divorce, but that moment never came. Now, here it is, my wife is incarcerated, and I could finally fully give Dionne all of me like she wanted, but her ass didn’t want me anymore.
My pride couldn’t handle her leaving. I lost so much behind dealing with her. Even with my wife behind bars, she was still asking for a divorce, and I no longer had a relationship with either of my children because they blamed me for their mother being in prison. I didn’t want to sound crazy, but she didn’t get to just come into my life, make me fall in love with her, put me in a position to lose so many things, and then suddenly, just decide that she didn’t want anything to do with me.
“Nah man. I don’t need you to do anymore favors for me. You move too sloppy for my liking. Continue washing the cars at the lot. That’s all I need you to do,” I replied, not even able to hide the annoyance that was dripping with each word that I said to him.
I could tell that my words annoyed him, and maybe even made him angry by the way he sucked his teeth, and he walked closer into my office space.
I didn’t miss an opportunity to tell Easton about the sloppy job that he’d done, and by this time, I had to have sounded like a broken record, and I was sure that he was tired of hearing it from me.
“Damn G, a nigga make one fuckin mistake, and you trying to crucify me for it. When you gave me that little job to do with the puppy, I didn’t even want to do that shit at first because I don’t fuck with dogs, but the money was a good enough incentive, so I handled my business. I know we discussed that I was never supposed to harm her dog, but that lil fucker was in the back, making all that fuckin noise, kept jumping in the front seat, so I handled my business,” he responded, sounding ignorant as hell.
“You killed her fuckin dog and then sent a picture of the dog to her! That was nowhere in the fuckin instructions, nigga! I told you to text a picture over of Bagel to her, but I said to keep him alive. I was going to eventually give her the fuckin dog back. I just wanted to scare her ass a little bit. I know how much thatdog meant to her. Shit, that dog meant a lot to me as well. I was the one that bought it for her. I can’t do my dirty work with you. You’ll have me in prison,” I snapped, still angry about how he went about the situation.
I was at a point in my life where I was desperate to get Dionne back. I knew that it was sick for me to come up with a plan like this, but I set something up to have Easton go down to the pet care center at her condo and take her puppy. The plan was great. With all this AI shit going on these days, I was able to go deeper, and have it sound like Easton had been on the phone with Dionne, when he went down to the center to pick Bagel up.
All I wanted him to do was take the puppy for a few hours, text a picture of Bagel to Dionne, just to freak her out a little bit, and in that plan, I thought that she would reach out to me frantically, since I was the one that purchased it for her. None of that shit happened. This stupid nigga killed the dog and then sent the image to her. Now, police and shit were involved, and with the way Dionne loved Bagel, I knew that she wouldn’t stop at anything until she found out who had done it. I couldn’t have this shit pointing back to me. I had way too much to lose.
“You sound like you still in love with that bitch. Why you care so much about what I did with her dog? You told me to kidnap the little fucker, and then you mad at me for doing something to him that you didn’t sign off on. I don’t understand you, nigga!” he voiced, taking a seat in the chair that was facing my desk.
There was this casual, goofy tone that he was talking to me in, and you could just tell that this entire thing was a joke to him, and that he didn’t have any remorse about what he’d done.
In this moment, it’s like I regretted allowing him into my space. I should never have answered the phone call from him when he called me begging for a job. Sometimes, I allowed my heart to be so big, and pure, always feeling the need to makeother people problems my problem, and in the end, I get the short end of the stick.
“I’m glad you think this shit is funny. I actually am still in love with her, and that is a part of the reason why I’m angry because the feelings that I have for her makes me damn near want to kill your ass for killing her dog. I never told you this, but she came down to visit me the other day at the office. She was pissed, too. Out of all the people in the world that she could have accused of killing her dog, she knew to come right to me. She’s running around with this nigga named, Tank. I did my research on him, and I know that he used to move weight years ago, so even though he’s cleaned up his act, he’s still a street nigga at heart. She told me that he’s willing to do whatever she wants him to do once they find out who killed her dog. Dionne already told me that she wants whoever killed Bagel to die. If they find out that you did that shit, he’s going to kill your ass, nigga. I bet that shit ain’t too funny no more, huh?” I asked him.
“That was supposed to scare me or something? Nigga, you know where the fuck I’m from. Being raised in Chicago has taught me to fear nothing! I done damn near saw it all already! Can’t no man walking this earth put fear in my heart. I don’t give a fuck who her nigga is, or what he used to do. You saying this to me like you’re safe. If they do they homework like they supposed to, then they’ll find out that I didn’t act on this alone, and that you were in on this with me, so if I die, get ready to die with me,” he finished with a smile on his face.
I sat back, leg bouncing up and down, wanting to reach into this drawer, pull my gun out, and just kill this nigga. I was living with so many regrets.
Just when shit in my life felt like it was slowing down, and all the drama was over with, I put myself in another bad situation for more drama to unfold. I just hoped that the shit that Dionnewas talking in my office were just tactics that she was using to scare me.
I would hope that she wouldn’t go through these kind of measures to have her man kill me over a fuckin dog. He could easily buy her another one. I just prayed that her little boyfriend could shoot because although I was an older dude, and wasn’t anywhere near as young as he was, I wasn’t a pussy. I knew how to handle my own and shoot back if I had to.
Chapter 6
Tavion ‘Tank’ Briggs
Rounds
Istayed the night at Dionne’s crib last night. All this sleeping at her crib a couple of times out the week, and then having her come to my crib, where we would sleep a couple of nights was starting to become too much. I was seconds away from asking her to pack all her shit and just move in with me, but I didn’t know how she would feel about that yet. Shit, I didn’t know how I would feel about it either because I’ve never stayed with a woman before. I feel like a lot of shit wouldn’t really change, though. It felt like we damn near lived together, already. Since the night I got the pussy from Dionne, we haven’t slept in different beds from each other. I make it my business to come to her at the end of each night, or she’ll come to me.
