I took a deep breath and put my head back down. Deep down I knew I was seeing the consequence of Jason thinking I was the one stealing. He had finally figured it all out: me hiring women, me collecting money, and money missing. It was me all along.
The only problem was he couldn’t find the money and so that left a doubt that it could possibly be someone else. That probably saved my life for now.
I was scared to death in my place, trapped like a caged animal, but I was still reckless. All I could remember was Kev telling me to stop . . . stop stealing or else. I did I stop for the next couple of times. This last time was going to be just that, the last time. This was going to be the time that embarrassed Jason and left him standing alone, looking stupid!
Kev reminded me that it was out of his hands. I thought about him holding me that night on Miller Avenue and what he said then.
“Reese, before we leave let me make something clear.”
I looked Kev in the eyes, still scared from all the drama and still a little frightened of Kev.
“You can’t beat Jason, baby, you gotta let it go.” He touched my shoulders with his hands as he talked to me. “Jason ain’t to be played wit’. Listen, that’s my boy, I wouldn’t tell you nothin’wrong. You need to just walk away.”
I honestly was ready to stop and I knew in my heart it was only a matter of time before Jason figured it out that I was stealing.
“Okay, Kev, I promise you.” I smiled.
I knew Kev was telling me the truth but I couldn’t walk away. I wanted to get Jason back, and that was what led to me now being on the bathroom floor hurt and scared. I lifted my head up and looked around the tiny bathroom. “Sorry, Kev, but I just couldn’t stop there . . . Not until I had it all,” I whispered.
I kept having flashbacks of what happened before Kev got him to leave.
“Where is it, Reese? I know you took it! Tell me where the money is.” He huffed while he, Kev, and I smoked weed.
I smiled, puffed on the blunt, and looked at him. “Jay, I don’t know what you talkin’ ’bout.” I smirked.
Jason stood there laughing. “Girl, you gonna make me hurt you! Who do you think you talkin’ to?” Then he turned to Kev. “Man, who do she think she talkin’ to? Man, you better get her.” But I couldn’t help it. I knew I had made him look foolish even if he hadn’t figured it out yet. I was high and sick and tired of all his mess and I didn’t care at that moment what he was going to do to me. I laughed.
Jason got up from the couch and stood over me while I continued to laugh. Kev stood up too realizing our fun moment of smokin’ some weed was gonna turn real bad. And it had. But it had been worth it.
“Reese! Where’s my money?” he shouted while walking up to me and hitting me in the mouth with the gun. “I ain’t got time fo’ this! Give me my money! You the only one who could have it. Before we included you in the game, we never had this problem.” He kicked me in my side.
“Stop, Jason!” I screamed. I was tired of his abuse. “I hate you, Jason, I hate you!” I continued to scream from the floor. I tried covering myself the best I could but he did it so fast that even Kev couldn’t stop him from hitting me.
“Jay! Man, what you doin’?” Kev tried to get him to stop but he wouldn’t. They scuffled a little; then Jason walked away.
I watched to see what he was going to do next. He went in my kitchen. I could hear him pulling out my draws ’cause I heard silverware moving around. He came back in the living room and he began to tear open my leather sectional with a knife from my kitchen.
“Jay! Come on now, it ain’t that serious,” Kev tried reasoning with him.
I got off the floor slowly and followed Jason going up the stairs. He went straight to my bedroom and cut open my mattress. He turned around and looked at me.
“So you wanna play this game?” His eyes were piercing through me. He walked up to me and grabbed me. “Reese, now you gonna make me hurt you!”
“Stop, Jason! I don’t have yo’ money! I swear I don’t!” I lied. It was too late to turn back now and if I had admitted to having it I was surely dead.
I heard Kev coming up the stairs.
“Hey! Y’all chill out before somebody get hurt.”
“Kev, stay out of this,” Jason ordered; then he went in my sons’ room and flipped their mattresses up, lookin’ for any missing money and /or drugs. My heart started beating fast, then faster. I knew that Jason was completely out of control.
I was scared; if it hadn’t been for Kev I knew I would’ve been dead.
“I know I need to get it together. I need to get out of here now, huh, God?” I questioned. I’d even asked God a time or two what to do, but not even He had given me the answer. But then again, my life was so full of mess, how could I have even heard God’s voice through all the noise, although He was giving me plenty of signs?
I scrambled myself together, first grabbing my head with one hand, then grasping for the toilet to get off the floor with the other one. I trembled from head to toe, hoping that I reached the front door in time to lock it before Jason decided to come back and finish the job.
I tiptoed to the bathroom door and opened it slowly, just in case Jason was still there. I thought I’d heard them pull off, but wasn’t positive. I watched the front door while I walked down the stairs and prayed it wouldn’t open. I reached the door and locked it, then went over to the picture window and looked out the blinds.
“He’s gone,” I said with a heavy sigh of relief.
I lay back on the couch and closed my eyes a second, trying to catch my breath. I opened my eyes, then smirked and grinned. Regardless of what I’d gone through, what I’d been through with Jason, I’d gotten over on him in the end.
I got up of the couch and I ran to the kitchen. I opened the door to the washer and dryer room and pushed the dryer forward. I lifted up a loose floorboard and there it was: all the money I had taken.
I put the Saran-Wrapped money to my nose, closed my eyes, sniffed it, and started laughing. “Now, it’s over.” I cracked up thinking back to how Jason looked for it earlier and never even came in this room.
I started talking out loud. “He wasn’t gonna find this!” I began to mock him by sticking out my chest and putting my shoulders back. “Where is it, Reese? I know you took it! Tell me where the money is.”
The final part would be me and the boys leaving Columbus, Ohio and leaving my broken past behind.
I looked around at how Jason had torn up the place looking for this money I was now holding in my hand. “Ha, you wasn’t gonna find this, stupid! It’s over!” I walked back into the living room while I talked aloud. I screamed and fell back on my soft sofa with the money.
I ran back up the stairs, two at a time, and went into my bedroom. I looked around at the new bedroom set that Jason had just purchased for me. It was a cherry wood canopy bed with the dressers and nightstands to match. “I don’t care about what that fool has done for me or given me. He deserves this!”
I opened up my closet and reached past the furs and all the designer clothes that were hanging there. I went straight to my little pink .22 revolver that Jason had given me for my last birthday.
I did exactly what Jason had taught me; I put the gun in the back part of my jeans between my skin and pants, securely tucked away. I grabbed my luggage, threw it on the bed, and packed my bags.
