Entry# 9: No Turning Back

OMAR

My head was pounding.  I reached into my jacket pocket and took a packet of BC powder and ingested it dry.  I sat down at the kitchen table as I rubbed my temple.  AJ clearly had lost her mind and now created a mess that I had to clean up.  She's lucky I have love for her because my services do not come cheap.  AJ began to explain how she had sent the package that was sitting on the kitchen table while I went through the contents in the box.  I picked up the letter that she wrote and tossed it back onto the table.  No sense in reading it cuz we were already in deep shit.  Apparently the wife was in on the scam.  My head throbbed.  When AJ stopped talking, I turned to her and saw that she realized that she was way in over her head.

"AJ, what is the most important rule of revenge?  I told you time and time again that you have to be prepared for the unexpected.  Instead you went rouge followed your emotions with no clue as to how your shenanigans were going to play out," I said as shook my head.  I got up from the table and walked over to ol' boys wife.  She was holding onto her fingers and seemed to be grimacing in pain.

I looked at AJ.  "Damn girl what did you do?"

"Hell she was trying to choke me I had to get her off of me, it's your fault you taught me that move in the first place," AJ responded.

"Get her some ice, her fingers are swollen," I directed AJ.  Even though the wife deserved it, there was no sense in making her suffer any further.

I sat down on the couch across from the wife.  "Where's your son?"  I asked.

"He's upstairs, leave him out of this please!" she pleaded.

"You ain't got to worry about that.  AJ go check on the kid."

"Shit, I promised him some cookies,"  AJ said as she started going through the kitchen cabinets.  She located a box of cookies, grabbed a napkin and headed upstairs.    I needed to talk to the wife alone.  AJ messed things up enough and I needed to do some damage control.

I turned back to the wife.  "What's your deal?"

She looked confused.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you are married to a criminal and you willingly participated in this scam and you have a little boy to think about. What made you think that you would never get caught?"  I asked.

"I knew about it to a certain extent.  I didn't think he was out there fucking bitches," she said as she turned her head towards the window.  She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.  "I should have known that it was more than spending time with lonely women in order to get close to them and then rob them.  I feel real stupid right about now."  She turned back towards me and looked me in the eyes.   One thing about the eyes, it's not hard to tell what someone is thinking.  Out of all of the emotions in the world, this woman's eyes were filled with regret and pain.  "So what now?"  She asked.

I rubbed my hand across my head.  I felt like this chick was trying to play me.  Women know how to play a man to get his guard down.   I don't play that shit.  Your emotions will get you killed.

"You tell me.  I'm sitting here in your house filled with a lot of what I am assuming is stolen goods.  What do you want to happen next?"

The woman looked bewildered.  She didn't realize that I was getting her to let her guard down. 

"Somehow I get the feeling that you are not going to turn us into the cops."

She was right.  I couldn't do that because that meant that I would have to explain how we ended up at the house of the people who AJ would have pressed charges against.  Then she looked as if a light bulb went off in her head.  "Where's my husband?" She asked.

I didn't answer her.  I stood up and motioned for her to go into the kitchen.  She hesitated.  I pulled out my taser and without thinking twice again, she got up.  I led her to the garage and walked over to my car and popped the trunk open.  The wife gasped at the sight of her husband's swollen face.   I grabbed ol' boy and yanked him out of the car and pushed him towards the door to the kitchen.  "Get inside,"  I said to the both of them.  The wife seemed to be in shock but she suddenly snapped out of it and grabbed one of those oversized a ceramic mugs from the kitchen counter and smashed it against ol' boys head.  He fell to the ground as the mug shattered and she jumped on top of him.  My first instinct was to pull her off of him but I decided to let the scene play its self out.

While pounding on the dude she began yelling and screaming.  "You son of a bitch!  Got damn rat bastard!  You were out there fucking these bitches?  How could you?  This was supposed to be easy money!  A flawless plan.   We weren't supposed to get caught you dumb ass motherfucker!  How the hell could you have messed up this badly?"  She jumped up off of him and then kicked him in the side.  She then bent over him.

"What are we supposed to do now?  Huh? Do you realize that your ass can go back to jail? I'm not going anywhere.  I have your nappy headed son that I need to raise.  You were supposed to make sure that my name never ever came up!"

Ol' boy looked up at his wife.  He managed to drag himself enough to sit up and lean against the fridge.  He then shifted his weight and grimaced in pain.  "Ter I don't know what these people told you but I ain't do none of that shit.  I only spent time with these chicks."

I shook my head.  Ol' boy was really stupid.  He clearly was going to keep this lie up to the bitter end.

"Then how this bitch know about your tattoo and birthmark?" the wife asked.  Just then AJ appeared in the kitchen.

"Yeah?" AJ asked.  "Answer the question.  Go ahead tell her!"

"My son," the wife said.

"He's fine.  He fell asleep, he'll be fine.  Go ahead Geoffrey.  Tell her how I know about the tattoo and the birthmark."

The wife looked at ol' boy.  Suddenly I saw a very large wet mark appearing on the crotch area of his pants.  "Ain't this some shit," I said.  "Dude just pissed on himself."  I started laughing so hard I had to grab the edge of the kitchen table to balance myself.  AJ started cracking up as she walked over to him.  She stooped beside him.

"What's the matter?  That's not happiness to see me,"  AJ said.  "We should leave your ass right here and make you stew in your own piss for a few days.  Bet you won't be scamming another woman after all of this."

"What do you want from me?" Ol' boy said through clenched teeth.  Dude was trying to stay hard core while sitting in his own piss.  I shook my head.

AJ nudged his head with the gun.  "Well, no sense in asking for my stuff back.  I'm sure that it's sitting in a pawn shop somewhere.  We could go get it but then how do I account for your bruised face?"  AJ scratched the side of her head.  "I don't suppose you have my money?  You know, you are so pitiful.  Omar is right.  You are a punk ass bitch.  You can't even man up and tell your wife the truth."  AJ then turned to the wife.  "I suggest you go and get yourself tested.  Who knows where else his thang has been."  She then stood up and looked at me as if to say, "So what happens next?"

"We're not calling the cops," I stated.

AJ looked taken aback.  "Why the hell not?" She asked.

"Look around AJ," that's all I said.  About a minute went by and the look of comprehension finally overcame her face. 

She kicked ol' boy and said, "Get up."  She looked at the wife and nodded her head towards the kitchen table.   "Have a seat.  The both of you."  AJ began pacing across the linoleum kitchen floor. 

"This was supposed to be a simple confrontation and now the two have you have made it a real sticky situation.  Since we are not calling the cops, here is how this is going to go down.  Geoffrey, you are going to go with Omar. "  She then looked at me and said, "I don't give two shits what happens to him, I just want him out of here.  I trust that you will make him pay."

"As for you," she said as she turned to Terry.  "You and I are going to have a little chat."

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

"Don't worry Omar, I got this.  I'll be fine I won't hurt her.  Well not again anyway."

I took my cue and grabbed ol' boy by the arm.  "Let's go," I said and shoved him into the garage. 

As I popped the trunk open, I heard ol' boy pleaded for me to not put him in the trunk.  By the time I flicked the switch on my taser, he jumped into the trunk.  I slammed the lid shut, got into the driver seat.  It was going to take about an hour to get to where we were going.  I plotted the route in my GPS and pulled out of the garage.  I still was toying around with what would happen next.  All I knew was that by the time I was done, ol' boy was going to be shitting in his pants.

AALIYAH JASMINDA

Once the door closed, I turned to Terry.  She sat at the kitchen table looking like a woman scorned.  I
couldn't help but feel sorry for her.  It was almost as if we somehow switched places but we really didn't. We were both victims of a different kind.  I suddenly felt the need to understand why she went along with this scam in the first place.  I sat down against the kitchen table and said, "How did you get here?"

"Where?" She asked.

"I mean how did you end up here?  Running scams?"

Terry sighed as tears rolled down her face.  "Hell I don't even know."  She threw her hands up in the air and then grimaced at the pain in her fingers.  She laid her hands on the kitchen table and sighed.

"Fine.  A few years ago I had met Geoffrey at a club.  We had this instant connection.  We were spending a lot of time together and I fell hard for him quickly.  I knew he had a criminal past but I didn't care.  I loved him.  That's all that mattered to me.  The fact that I had someone who loved me was more important to me than anything else in the world and that is why I married him.  From time to time he would run a credit card scam and we would go shopping and buy things that we normally couldn't afford.  I mean, truth be told, we wasn't hurting anybody.  The credit card companies were going to refund the cards back anyway so to us, it was like free money.  As long as we kept the amounts small, it kept the risk of getting caught low."  Terry paused and then shifted in the chair.

"The plan was to run this scam until my cleaning business was up and running full-time.  It was something that I was doing part-time until I had enough clients to work on the business full time.  The money was good enough to keep us afloat but then I found out that I was pregnant.  The money that I was bringing in was not enough to support Geoffrey, myself never mind a baby.  With Geoffrey's criminal history, it was a challenge for him to find a job and he was desperate to find a way to provide for his child.  He then came up with the idea of working alongside me so that we could perhaps cut the work time in half and acquire more clients.  About one or two months into it, I found out that Geoffrey was lifting the numbers off of the credit cards of some of my clients.  He would take a picture of the front and back so that the card never appeared to be missing from the wallet.  Again, no harm right?  They would have had the money refunded to their cards anyway.   So I figured that if it didn't matter to them it shouldn't matter to me, so I went along with it. "  Terry paused again and shifted the ice pack on her fingers.

"When the recession hit, clients were dropping like flies.  Their houses were going into foreclosure; they were losing their jobs, which meant I was losing income.   Amazingly enough, no one ever seemed to suspect that we were behind the mysterious charges on their credit cards.  By this point, I had given birth to our son and money was very tight.  One night Geoffrey approached me with the idea of scamming women out of their money.  Of course as a man he didn't want me scamming men, he simply would not be able to handle it even though it was just a job.  So I gave him the idea of creating online profiles and it was as if we hit a gold mind.  Who would have thought there were so many desperate women who would have fallen for the story about his mother dying and needing money to help pay for funeral expenses."

"Damn shame, ya'll killed his own mother," I said.

"We had to sell it," Terry looked away.  "The more sympathy we created the more money and things we could get out of them.  I weeded through hundreds of profiles everyday and selected the targets.  They were exchanging emails with me and I would make the arrangements for them to meet.   As long as Geoffrey used a fake name, the women really couldn't report him to the police.  By the time they realized their credit cards had racked up a ton of charges and that their belongings were stolen, Geoffrey was long gone and moved onto another chick.  This scam has been working for us for the past two years and we never thought that we would get caught."

I rolled my eyes.   "Clearly you never heard of the saying that whatever is in the dark will eventually come to light."  I shook my head.  "I have to ask, just out of curiosity, how did you function the times Geoffrey was in jail for credit card fraud?"  I asked. Terry looked surprised. "Oh you can take that look of your face.  Once I found out his real name, I did my research."

"We never spent cash if we didn't have to.  We would use the credit cards to buy gift cards for later use and max out the credit card as quickly as we could before the women reported the charges. We would pawn the items out of state just to be safe.  So whatever cash we got out of the scam held me down until Geoffrey was released.  We figured as long as we stayed under $1,000 on each purchase, the penalty for getting caught would be minimal and his jail time would not be for a long period of time."

"Well now we know why we couldn't find any criminal info about you.  He kept you out of the so called lime light.  That way if he got caught, you could play dumb and say you didn't know. "

"I had my son to think about,"  Terry said.

"Well you should have thought about that before you decided to scam people."

"I'm sorry that I even got involved in this mess."

"Now are you sorry for the countless damage you have caused or are sorry that you got caught?"  I asked.

"Truth be told, I'm sorry I came up with the idea to scam lonely women.  I practically gave Geoffrey permission to cheat on me."

At that moment, I wasn't sure which direction to go in.  Do I help this woman get a clean start?  Give her a chance to leave this life behind?  Fight now pray later?  All I knew at the time was that this saga had to come to an end.  I knew for sure that it wasn't going to end well for Geoffrey and quite frankly that was not my problem.  As far as I was concerned, one must reap what they sow.  One thing I knew for sure, Omar was not going to tell me what happened after he and Geoffrey left the house.   I looked over at Terry.  She began sobbing quietly.  I didn't know what to do.  For all I knew, this woman was trying to get my defenses down.  So I just sat there and looked at her while holding onto my pistol and waited for her to say something.

Finally she asked, "So what happens now?"

"Well, I could make you disappear and make it so that you never saw your son again.  But I won't.  He may not have a father after tonight."

Terry looked at me in horror.  I smirked.  "What did you think Omar and I were running?  A Mickey Mouse operation?  You and your husband crossed the wrong person.  For every action there is a reaction so brace yourself."  I got up from the kitchen table and began pacing.  "Here's the deal, I don't care what you need to do but I want my money back."

"I can't do that," Terry said.

"I thought that you said that my money was upstairs?" I asked.

"Clearly I was lying, I was trying to get to my son."

 Then it suddenly hit me.  Omar had taken out all of the money from the bank account.  "So where is it?"

"I don't know," Terry said in a frustrated manner.  "Geoffrey said that the money in the account was gone but he never explained why."

I quickly switched the subject.  "Do you own this house?"

Terry looked puzzled.  "No."

"I want you to get up and pack a bag for you and your son."

Again Terry looked puzzled.  "Let's go," I said.  "Let's get to it."

"Where are we going?"  She asked.

"For a little drive.  Get your ass up and get to packing!"

Terry got up and I followed her upstairs.  I myself was still trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do.  All I knew in that moment was that I never wanted to see this bitch's face ever again. 

©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2012-2013

Entry# 8 - The Digging of the Second Grave.....

Dear Diary -

Confucius the Chinese philosopher once said that when you embark on a journey of revenge, you should dig two graves.  Perhaps things would have gone differently if I heard this quote before I started going down this path but then again, everything happens for a reason.  It's been awhile since I last made an entry.  I'm trying to still put some of the pieces together but I am going to write down what I can remember. 

After I witnessed the delivery of the package to Geoffrey's house, I came home to gather my thoughts and get ready for my "date" with "Jason".  Omar had hacked into Geoffrey's cell phone account and made it so that Omar nor his wife couldn't make or receive any phone calls that day which worked out great because I'm sure his wife was trying to call him about the "gifts" that she had received.  Omar and I met in the parking lot of the diner and we went over the plan.  I knew how much Geoffrey loved his truck.  You would have thought that it was a newborn baby the way that he treated it.  The plan was for me to drive off with the truck while Omar had a little chat with Geoffrey.  So in an effort to get Geoffrey to get out of the car and leave his keys in the ignition, Omar would have to cause a distraction.  While we were going over the details of what was supposed to happen, Omar asked if he could see my phone.  He said he wanted to take a look at the messages that Geoffrey and I exchanged.  As I passed it to him, he dropped the phone and the back came off as the battery fell out.  He apologized and put the phone back together and powered it back on while I gazed out of the window.  When he was done, he gave me back the phone and told me to wait in my car.  As I was walking back to my car, I saw Geoffrey's truck coming around the corner.  Thankfully I had on my big hat and shades so my face was hidden for the most part.

I hurried back to my car and slid down the driver's side and kept my head just high enough for me to see what was going on through the windows.   Just when Geoffrey was about to park the car, Omar swerved out and hit the back of Geoffrey's truck just enough to make him stop and jump out.  Geoffrey threw his hands in the air and screamed, "What the fuck?"  Just like Omar predicted, Geoffrey did not take the keys out of the ignition.  Geoffrey stormed to the back of the car to see if there was any damage as Omar got out of his car.  Omar positioned himself so that Geoffrey had no choice to stand in a spot where he would not be able to see me creep up to the side of the truck.  When Omar gave me the signal, I crept up to the door and jumped in the driver's seat, slammed the door shut and drove off.  I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Geoffrey trying to run after the truck but whatever Omar did or said, it made Geoffrey stop dead in his tracks, turn around and walk toward Omar's car.  I turned my attention back to the road so that I wouldn't cause an accident.  The plan was for me to wait at the gas station down the street until Omar called me and I did plan on doing so right after I took a little detour.

My mind was racing as I drove towards the highway.  I had to move quickly because I knew if Omar ever figured out what I was doing, he would probably kill me, yell at me and then shake me to make sure that I heard him.  I was  headed back to Geoffrey's house as I decided to confront the wife and to let her know who I was and that she needed to prepare herself for what was about to happen with Geoffrey.  I had planned to report him to the credit card company and to the local authorities about the fraud that he had committed.  I was so deep in thought that it was as if I was on auto pilot because before I knew it, I was sitting in front of Geoffrey's house again.  I pulled into the driveway and saw that the lights were on.  I searched the car for a garage door opener and found it in the glove compartment.  I pressed the button and parked inside of the garage and shut the engine off.  I grabbed my purse and took one last look inside to ensure that the Beretta 92 pistol that Omar had given me was still in my purse.  He always felt that I needed a gun for protection and took me to a gun range a few times to learn how to shoot.  I didn't think that I would need the gun, but it made me feel safe.  I felt my phone vibrating in my bag and I then looked at my watch.  It had only been twenty minutes since I left Omar so I figured it was not him and did not bother to look at the phone.  Whoever it was would have to wait.

With my heart pounding, I got out of the car and closed the garage door.  I walked over  to a door in the garage and turned the knob.  Just like I thought, it was unlocked.  As I pushed the door open, I heard a beeping sound.  I looked to the side of the door and saw the alarm panel.   I looked around and saw that the door led into the kitchen.  Right across from me was a wooden knife block that housed a set of knives.  I quickly pulled all of the knives out, carefully wrapped them in a kitchen towel and dropped them into my handbag.  As I was about to turn around, I saw the alarm remote for the panic button.  What luck, I thought.  I threw the remote in my handbag as well.  I walked over to the kitchen table where the flowers, card and package were staged.  I pulled out a chair and sat down as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and a voice saying,  "Geoffrey I have been calling you all day, where the hell have you...."  Terry stopped dead in her tracks as she entered the kitchen.  Her eyes darted to wooden block.   "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my house?"

I smiled at her and said, "Hello Terry, I'm Karma."

Terry's eyes went back to the block.  "No need to look for the knives or your alarm remote.  I got rid of them.  Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you.  I just want to talk to you."

Terry looked as if she didn't know what to do next.  "Karma," she stammered.  "You are the one who sent me those items?"  She pointed to the kitchen table as she slid her hand in her pocket.  I didn't see a massive bulge so I knew that she wasn't packing.  She pulled out her cell phone.

"You can forget about that, your signal is jammed.  Please, have a seat," I said in such an eerily calm voice that she actually walked over to the table and sat down.  "If you're wondering how I got into your house, I didn't break in.  I drove your truck here and parked it inside of the garage.  Your door was unlocked.   It wouldn't have mattered anyway, I also have the keys to your house.  Your husband is, shall I say, occupied?"

"What the hell do you want?"  Terry asked. 

"To talk.  I'm sure that you have read my letter by now."

"Yeah, that bullshit letter that you sent me?  Bitch please, you really think I believe that you were seeing my husband?  Yeah he may have conned your ass out of some money and bought me some shit with your credit card but he damn sure wasn't sleeping with you nor was he in a relationship with you.  Your ass was just dumb enough to fall for the con."

I couldn't believe my ears, did she just say what I think she said?  The room seemed to be turning red.  I held my breath and counted to ten to slow my heart rate down.  I took a deep breath and said, "You can act like that all you want, I saw you when you opened that card this afternoon.  I saw when you rushed your son into the house.  I know for a fact that my letter rattled you because......"  The room began spinning.  It was in that moment that I realized that Terry didn't look surprised because of what was written in the letter.  She was in shock because her and her husband got caught.  It was at that moment of comprehension of what really happened to me, without evening realizing what I was doing, I pulled the pistol out of my purse and set my hand on the table with the barrel pointing at Terry. 

"I see our conversation is going to take a little bit longer than I thought,"  I said.  "Before we get started, let me say this; con or not, I was sleeping with your husband.  That may have not been a part of your plan but it made for a really convincing con.  If you don't believe me, how would I know about the tattoo on his upper left arm or the tiny little scar up his left thigh?  You know, the one that is really close to his crotch area?"

Terry jumped up from the chair in an attempt to lunge at me and screamed, "You lying bitch!"   I shifted to the side and she ended up falling over the chair I was sitting in.   Without thinking twice, I slapped the stupid look off of Terry's face.  "One move and I will shoot you.  I am going to ask you some questions and you are going to give me some answers.  Sit your ass back down."

Terry looked as if she was trying to compose herself and then a smirk crept onto Terry's face.  "You don't have it in you to shoot me.  Why do you think you were a target?  You were an eager and willing participant.  Downright desperate almost I think.  Me and my husband have been running this scam for awhile now.  Do you know the amount of dumb chicks that are so willing to help a brother out? "  Terry threw her head back and laughed.  "Okay, so maybe you did fuck my husband.  You were nothing but a cheap thrill to get what we wanted all along."

I sat silently as my mind raced as I breathed so heavily that I didn't realize that my chest was moving up and down at a rapid pace.  So his wife was in on it.  What made her nervous earlier today was the fact that someone figured it out.  Knew where they lived, knew about their life.  Now here she was trying to act like she was the Bonnie to Geoffrey's Clyde.  I looked around the kitchen to see if there was something that I could use to tie this bitch up.  Nothing worth using.  I took a deep breath and cleared my throat and looked at Terry and out of nowhere, I began smiling.  I think it was at that moment I felt like I was turning into someone else.  I felt so far out of my own being there was no stopping me at this point.

"Okay,"  I said as I tilted my head to the side.  "You got me."  I shrugged my shoulders.   "I fell for your scam.  So what?  You got some money?  Some free stuff?  Half the stuff you have in this house is probably from previous scams.  Big friggin' deal.  You seem to be so proud of what you have to show for your quote un quote way of life.   Well guess what?  You didn't plan for today.  You thought you were dealing with woman scorned by a man.  You assumed that I was an emotionally distraught woman over your husband.  I bet you are banking on me not having a clear head as we sit here.  You think that you if you cut me deeply enough with your words, you can get me to slip up somehow." 

I got up from my chair keeping my eyes trained on Terry as I yanked her chair towards me and got so close to her face that our noses practically were touching.  "Remember, I told you that Karma is a bitch.  Say hello to Karma Terry, your whole operation is about to be blown to bits. "  I mashed her in the head and nuzzled the barrel of the pistol into her temple.  Terry's smirk suddenly disappeared.  I got back in her face and said, "The one thing that you were banking on in each and every one of your scams was that you would never get caught.  Well guess what honey, today is your unlucky day because by the time I'm done, I will have your husband by his balls and you will be begging me not to turn you into the authorities.  Now get the hell up out of that chair."

Terry slowly rose from the chair and at that moment we heard a sound coming from upstairs.  To be honest, I truly felt that I was in another world so I didn't care about anything in that moment.  I felt nothing but rage and anger and collateral damage didn't mean crap to me.  Terry's eyes darted to the archway to the family room.  I realized that her son must have still been in the house.  She looked like she was about to make a move.

"Don't even think about it.  As long as he stays upstairs, your son will be just fine. "  I poked her in the back with the gun and nodded my head in the direction of the family room.  "What you are going to do now is you are going to get your purse and we are going to go for a little drive to the bank and you are going to get my money."

"No need for all of that, your money is upstairs, I just need to get it," Terry stated.

I didn't trust her.  I hesitated.   At that same moment I heard the movement of small feet coming down the stairs.   Terry took that as an opportunity to attempt to wrestle the gun out of my grasp.  We both fell to the ground and were rolling back and forth with the gun above both of our heads.  I heard a crashing sound by my head.  I glanced over my shoulder to see that it was a vase that was on top of the coffee table.  Terry raised our arms and slammed them so hard on the ground that the gun flew out of my hand and the next thing that I knew, Terry was on top of me with her hands around my neck trying to choke me.  I managed to grab a hold of both of her pinky fingers and bent them both as far back as I possibly could forcing her to loosen her hands from my neck.  I continued to press harder and harder until I heard a cracking sound.  Terry withdrew her hands from my neck and screamed.  I scrambled to my feet and quickly surveyed the room.  I saw the handle of the pistol sticking out from under the couch and I dove for it.  Once I had the gun back in my hand I looked over at Terry who was doubled over in pain.  I pulled her up from the floor and threw her on the couch.  Just went I was going to knock her upside her head; I heard a soft voice say, "Mommy."

I turned around and saw the same little boy that I had seen earlier that day.  I wondered if he had seen what had just happened.  Considering he was not crying, I figured that he didn't.  I looked back at Terry and said, "Your son is innocent in all of this.  I won't hurt him.  But if you move off of that couch, I may just change my mind."  I took the little boy by the hand and said, "Mommy is not feeling well, why don't you go on upstairs and I'll bring you some cookies okay?"  The little boy smiled at the word cookies and the pulled his thumb out of his mouth and said, "Okay," and then raced back upstairs.

I didn't have a lot of time before the little boy came back downstairs.  I grabbed my handbag and pulled out my cell phone.  I needed Omar.   I realized that I was way in over my head because this was not a part of the plan.  The last thing that I expected was for the wife to be in on this scam.  This was supposed to be a simple conversation.  She was supposed to cry and we were supposed to come up with a plan to deal with Geoffrey.  I once read somewhere that the conversations that you have in your head never play out the same way in real life.  Whoever said that was right.  I began dialing Omar's number when I heard the garage door open.  I froze.  I looked at Terry and she looked just as puzzled as I did.  I then heard the alarm beep.   I turned around only to see Omar standing in the doorway.

*             *             *             *             *

BONUS ENTRY - INTRODUCING OMAR

Let's pause, let's break.  I can't sit here and let Aaliyah take all of the credit for what went down.  So it's time for me to tell my part in the story.  Yeah it's me, Omar.  I'm quiet, I don't say much, but if you go after anyone I deeply care for, I have a lot to say.  Not with words but with my actions.  I've known Aaliyah for a long time and I knew she was going to go rouge.  She's a wild card sometimes.  Not just in the bedroom but in the streets as well.   But that is a story for another time.

When AJ told me about this dude, things about him didn't add up and whenever I tried to point it out to her, she brushed it off and changed the subject.  I'm not trying to say that I told her so, I'm just saying I told her.  The day that I got the call from her about how she was conned, my immediate reaction was to get his address and deal with him all on my own.  Perhaps put a hurting on him so bad he piss on himself at the thought of conning anyone again.  But AJ is as stubborn as a mule sometimes and when she approached me about being involved in the handling of the dude, that was an automatic no in my book.  I felt that the less that she knew, the better off she was.  I know all about clean up duty, I've been in the business for a long time and I always escape unscathed from situations that need to be handled.  This is why I prefer to work alone.  AJ just wouldn't let up so I figured if I gave her a simple task, she would be satisfied.  The instructions were simple.  Get in the truck and drive it to the gas station down the street until she heard from me.  However, I have very strong instincts.  Perhaps it is from years of experience, but I just knew AJ was going to do whatever the hell she wanted to which is why I placed a tracker in her cell phone.  I slipped it in after I "accidentally" dropped the phone in the car while we were waiting for ol' boy.  I couldn't risk AJ doing anything that was going to get us into any kind of legal trouble and I wanted to make sure she was safe.

After AJ drove off with dude's truck, he started running after it.  I called to him and opened up my jacket and tapped the holster holding my gun.  When he saw that I was packing he stopped dead in his tracks.  Just as I suspected, this dude was a punk who scammed innocent women as a way to make easy money.  I motioned for him to walk back in my direction.  When he was close enough I told him to get into the car.  Ol' boy looked around nervously.  Finally I said to him "Get yo' ass in the car.  No one can help you. Why do you think we chose this spot?"  I walked towards him with my hand on my gun and grabbed his arm and shoved him into the passenger side from the driver side.  I slid into the driver seat and locked the doors.  "Don't bother trying to get out, the child safety locks are on."

Geoffrey finally opened his mouth and said, "Who the fuck are you and where are you taking me?"

"We are going for a little drive and we are going to talk.  No harm in talking now is there?"

"Look man I don't know who you are but someone just stole my got damn truck."

I laughed.  "Man, that is the least of your trouble.  You see, you messed with my family and anyone who messes with my family is messing with me."

"Oh so this is about me sleeping with your girl or something?  Look man she told me that she was single."

As I drove off, I shook my head.  This dude was dumber than I thought.  "You stole from my family."

"Man I ain't steal shit.  You need to be mad at your girl for cheating on you.  Now let me out of this damn car I need to find my truck!  I don't have time for these dumb bitches out here!" Geoffrey yelled. 

I pulled the car over and punched Geoffrey in the face.  I need him to shut the hell up.  I shoved his face onto the dashboard and grabbed his arms and zip tied his hands together and slammed his back against the seat. 

I continued to drive silently as his face became slightly swollen.  I approached the gas station down the street and I saw no sign of AJ.  I pulled into the station and looked around.  That's when I knew something was wrong.  I pulled out my cell phone and opened the tracking app that I had installed to track AJ through her phone.  I zoomed in on the map and looked at the location of the blip that represented AJ's location.  "Shit," I didn't even realize that I said it out loud until I saw ol' boy looking at me all puzzled.  "Give me your home address," I demanded.

"Motherfucker I ain't givin' you shit!  First off I don't know you and I don't even know why I'm here in this car!"

"Okay, since you want to play things this way, perhaps you will change your mind after some convincing."

I pulled out of the gas station and headed 2 miles to a dark abandoned parking lot.  I got out of my car and popped the trunk and pulled out my taser.  If he wasn't going to cooperate, I would give him a reason to do so.  I walked over to the passenger door and yanked it open and pulled ol' boy out and kicked him down to the ground.

I held the taser right at his groin area and said, "Once again, what is your home address?"

"Motherfu--", I tased him in the groin.  Ol' boy hollered like a little girl and then gave me his home address.  It matched the one that showed up on the map.

"Is your wife home?"  I asked.

Dude was still rolling around on the ground whimpering.  I kicked him and asked him the question again.  I bent over him and held the taser up.  "If you don't answer the question, I will break your dick.  Now is your wife home?"

He screamed yes.  I looked at my watch and I figured it would take about twenty minutes to get to the dude's house.  I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the car and got so close to his face that I could smell his sour breath. 

"You stole from AJ.  You infiltrated her life.  You scammed her out of a part of her savings.  I'm going to make sure that you never pull this stunt on another woman ever again in life and if you even think about going after her when I am done with you, I'm going to make this little incident here look like a sweet dream compared to what I really will do to you.  Now get your punk ass in the car."  I shoved him in the car head first and slammed the door shut. 

I rubbed my temple and got back in the car.  Things were not going according to plan.  Just like I thought, AJ went rouge.  She let her emotions get the best of her and that was never a good sign.  As I drove to ol' boys house he said, "So this  is what this is about?  Aaliyah?  Man that bitch gave me the money."

I slammed his face into the dashboard and continued to drive in silence.  If Aaliyah was talking to the wife, who knows what she was saying or doing.  I pulled out my cell phone and called AJ.  No answer.  Either she was ignoring me intentionally or she was occupied.  Whatever she was doing, I needed to put a stop to it.  The one thing that you cannot do is let emotions get in the way when plotting revenge.  That is how you mess up and get caught.  It is the reason for grave number two or something of the other.  You know that saying about revenge and digging two graves.  The plan was to ensure that ol' boy got arrested but if AJ is in his house the whole game changes.  As I sped down I-20 I glanced over at ol' boy who was slumped down in the seat.  Apparently he realized that if he opened up his mouth again, he risked losing his teeth.  As I approached the exit, dude asked me why we were going to his house and said that his wife did not need to be involved.  I didn't answer.  As I turned down the street where he lived I looked for his truck.  I finally pulled up in front of the house.  No sign of AJ or the truck.  I checked my phone one more time to ensure that AJ was still there.  According to the map, she was in fact at the house.  I realized that the car had to be inside of the garage.  I saw a key pad at the garage door entrance.

"What is the code to your garage door?" I asked Geoffrey.

He then gave me the code.  I got out of the car and punched in the code.  I then saw the truck and noticed that it was a two car garage.  I pulled the car into the garage and popped the trunk.  I walked over to the passenger side and yanked dude out of the car.  I reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone.  Apparently the signal was still jammed but I took the phone anyway.  Pushed him to the back of the car and said, "Get in the trunk."  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I pulled out the taser and before I could even place it near his groin area, he leaned into the trunk and I shoved him in there and slammed it shut.  I didn't know what I was going to be walking into and the less ol' boy saw the better off everyone was.

I walked over to the door in the garage and opened it.  Sure enough, there was Aaliyah with the pistol that I gave her in her hand and a woman on the couch with a painful look on her face.  I didn't know what happened but I knew that I had one hell of a mess that needed cleaning up.  I closed the door, walked over to the family room and sat on a chair and simply said, "Start from the beginning."

©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2012-2013