Taboo 2, p.26
Taboo 2, page 26
While the sanitation crew and the officer weren’t looking, he was able to drop the gloves, the jacket, and the scalpel inside of the bag without detection. He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched one of the sanitation inmates tie up the bag so that he could dispose of it along with the rest of the trash.
Lamont wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and walked briskly toward the control room. He stood outside the door and waited until an officer buzzed him inside. He nodded at her, went into his office, and closed the door. He was drained. Before he closed his eyes, he looked at the date on the calendar. It was July 17, 2009. It was that time.
A few hours later, at 6:00 a.m., Lamont emerged from his office with a large duffel bag in his hand. He was supposed to have worked a few hours of overtime that morning, but, instead, Lamont said good night to the bewildered officers. They watched him walk out of the control room with all of his personal items in tow.
It wasn’t until the next afternoon that they found out that Assistant Deputy Warden Lamont Simmons had officially retired from the NYC Department of Correction.
Chapter 39
India
That same morning, India woke up in her bed. It was 6:30 a.m. She felt an excruciating pain shooting through her head.
India reached for her cell phone and attempted to call Lamont’s cell phone over and over again. He didn’t answer her call. She even called the jail, but the only thing they told her was that he was not in the area.
She sighed and attempted to sit up in the bed. India winced as more pain shot through her head like a bullet. Once again, Sierra had come out as the winner. India didn’t know what to think at this point. She wondered if Lamont had gone back to Sierra or if she was with Rasheed.
It was about an hour later when India found the strength to get out of bed to take some Aleve for the pain. While doing this, she just happened to peep inside of Asia’s bedroom and saw that she wasn’t in there.
“She must have had to work the mornin’ shift,” India said to herself. Suddenly the bell rang. India frowned and tiptoed to the door. She looked through the peephole and smiled when she saw who it was.
She opened the door and Lamont walked in. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked around when he stepped into the living room.
“Don’t worry, Lamont. I’m home alone.”
“Why do you keep callin’ my phone? What do you want?” he asked with an attitude.
She threw her arms around his neck. “I wanted to see you! I missed you so much.” She kissed Lamont on the lips. “I’m so happy that you finally made the right choice. Now that Sierra’s out the way, we can be together!”
Lamont smiled again and put his arms around her small waist. “You sure you wanna be with a nigga like me?”
India kissed him on the lips again. “Yeah, for sure. I mean, Sierra is out of the picture and why can’t we be together? When I press charges on her, she will probably be losin’ her job, too. You don’t need to be with a broke, unemployed bitch anyway!”
“So she ain’t gonna have a job after you report her to the police?” replied Lamont.
“Yeah, baby! After what she did to me, I’m reportin’ her ass, that’s right, I’m gonna tell the cops and IG everything that I know about her.”
Lamont nodded. “Wow. You must really love me, don’t you?”
India kissed him all over his face and she began running her hands all over his tight body. “Yes, I do, baby, yes, I do! Make love to me, Lamont, please!”
Lamont smirked. “I got somethin’ even better than that for your ass.”
India let him go and stood back with an enticing smile on her face. “And what is that?”
Lamont reached around his waist and pulled out his gun. He pointed it at India’s neck. “I should blow your brains out, you bitch,” he said calmly.
India held up her hands. “Lamont, why—” she whispered.
He didn’t let her finish her sentence. “Be quiet, India! And if you scream, I swear to God, I will blow your brains out!”
India felt warm pee roll down her legs. “I didn’t do anything to you, Lamont!” she said, looking down at the urine that had formed a puddle on the floor.
He grabbed her by her hair and pushed the muzzle of the gun into her neck. “So you wanna report my girl, huh? You’re tryin’ to make this shit that we had into a fuckin’ relationship when you was just a piece of pussy to me! I knew that you wasn’t shit when I found out you tried to befriend my woman, tried to make a fool of her and me. Did you think that I was gonna let you get away with that shit? Then you had me come over here just so I could run into Rasheed. Do you think I couldn’t see what you were tryin’ to do to me, bitch?”
India mumbled something, and Lamont gripped her hair even harder. “Bitch, I should kill you right now!” he continued. “You tried to make my life a livin’ hell, tried to get one of the best things that ever happened to me to leave! I can’t afford for that shit to happen to me again, India, that’s why I’m gonna tell you this. You stay the hell away from me. Stay the hell away from Sierra, and, fuck it, stay away from Rasheed too, while you’re at it! And if I so much as see or hear my name or Sierra’s name come across anybody’s desk in the fuckin’ inspector general’s office or any complaint report in any precinct in this city, I will fuckin’ murder you. Do you hear me?”
India nodded. Lamont pushed her onto the couch. She was frozen with fear. He looked like he meant business, and, for the first time in India’s life, she was going to comply with someone’s demands.
Lamont walked out the door without looking back. India slid off the couch onto the floor, and began crying hysterically.
Chapter 40
Rasheed
At 7:40 that morning, Rasheed was smiling as he swept his son into his arms.
“Dah-dee! Dah-dee!” Messiah said, reaching for his father. Ironically, Lamont had dropped off Messiah to Rasheed’s house the night before he went to work. He had to work the midnight shift, and Sierra was in no mood to be bothered with children after all the things that had occurred that day. Rasheed completely understood how she felt, and he was more than happy to be with his son.
The day before, for everyone’s sake, Lamont and Rasheed had buried the hatchet. They realized that their contempt for each other wasn’t doing anything but hurting two of the people they claimed to love so much: Sierra and Messiah.
Rasheed agreed that it was time to move on from the notion that he and Sierra were going to get back together. Lamont agreed to work on his jealousy issues and allow Rasheed to be a father to his only son.
“What are you doin’ up so early, man?” Rasheed asked the toddler, kissing Messiah on his chubby cheeks. “You wake up this early all the time?”
“I want juice!” Messiah replied. Rasheed laughed and they walked down the stairs to the kitchen. While opening the refrigerator door, his house phone rang.
“Hello?” he answered with a yawn.
“What’s up, Rah? It’s me, Si,” Sierra said.
“I know who it is. How do you feel this mornin’? Are you all right?” he asked. Sierra sighed. “I’m as well as can be expected. I’m workin’ through everything, but I don’t wanna talk about it.” Sierra changed the subject. “I can hear Messiah in the background. Got you up early, huh?”
“Hell yeah!” replied Rasheed. “Does he always wake up this early?”
“We’re usually up this early so that we can take him to school. He’s on a strict schedule.”
“Well, damn, you know my no-job-havin’ ass ain’t never up this early, but that’s okay. This is my boy. I’m lovin’ every minute of it.” He paused. “I don’t wanna keep askin’, but I’m worried about you. You okay?”
“My body is sore. My spirit is broken. I feel like I’m about to lose my mind, but I’m prayin’ on it.”
“Prayer is good. I do that myself sometimes, believe it or not. But I think you need to say somethin’, Sierra. You could probably help somebody else who went through the same thing.”
“Rah, I can’t bring myself to say anything. I don’t wanna be the fall guy. Me, you, and Lamont are in a good place right now. Hopefully we all can just get on with our lives after everything that happened.”
Rasheed gave Messiah some juice in his sippy cup. “No doubt. A lot of shit has happened these last few weeks. I know that I’m partly to blame.”
“There’s no need to go there, Rah. I put you through some shit, too. I guess we’re two of a kind when it comes to drama.” Sierra’s other line beeped. “Hold on, my other line is beepin’.” After a few minutes, Sierra came back on the line with Rasheed.
“Oh, my God!” she said in a hurried tone. “Rah, Anwar is dead.”
Rasheed was silent. “What? What are you talkin’ about?”
“Anwar is dead,” she repeated. “Lamont just told me that he just got a phone call about it. He was on his way home from work when somebody called and told him what went down. He was found dead in his cell during the morning shift.”
Messiah was tugging on Rasheed’s basketball shorts. Sierra was talking to him on the other end of the phone, but he wasn’t listening, and he wasn’t paying attention to his son. He was shocked that Lamont actually went through with it.
“Did he kill himself? I mean, how did he die?”
“Lamont said somethin’ about him bein’ found in his cell with his throat cut.”
“When did it happen?”
“He didn’t say, but who knows? I just can’t believe it. Karma is a motherfucker,” she said. There was silence on Rasheed’s end of the phone. He had to agree with her. “Hello, are you there?”
“Damn, Si, I’m sorry but I didn’t expect to hear that that fool was dead. Not in no cell on Rikers Island anyway. Damn.”
“I know that Anwar was your friend and everything—” she began.
Rasheed cut her off. “He was my boy, but he had some psychological and mental issues. It’s like he finally snapped after all these years. I’m surprised he held out this long.”
“You said that you saved his life. How did you…”
Messiah began tugging at his shorts again. Rasheed picked up Messiah and immediately put the toddler on the phone with Sierra. He knew that she wanted to ask him how he had saved Anwar’s life. He was pretty sure she’d figured it out but wanted him to confirm her thoughts. He was putting behind him all of those negative memories of the crimes he had committed.
After a few seconds passed, Messiah climbed out of his lap and Rasheed got back on the phone with Sierra.
“Are you upset about Anwar’s death?”
“Man, fuck Anwar!” Rasheed’s eyes went to Messiah. He didn’t like cussing in front of him. “I mean, forget Anwar! He violated so he deserved everything he got, abuse victim or not. I can’t feel sorry for him when he disrespected our friendship, and, most of all, violated you.”
“I feel you, Rah. It’s okay to be upset, though. I wouldn’t be mad if you were. Y’all were childhood friends.”
“I’m good, Si, trust me, I’m good. He’s better off where he is.”
“So let me ask you another question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are you responsible for this?” Sierra asked, referring to Anwar’s murder. Rasheed knew that she would think that he had something to do with it. But this time she was way off.
“Nah, baby girl, don’t thank me. Thank your man for that when he walks through the front door of your house.”
Rasheed listened as Sierra dropped the phone. Then it went dead. He shrugged, and put his cordless phone back on the base. Not bothering to call her back, he wanted to give her a moment to digest the alarming news. Right after he hung up the phone, Rasheed scooped up his son and went back upstairs to his bedroom to get some much-needed rest.
Chapter 41
Lamont
Lamont had committed the ultimate sin, but had done something that, as a real man, he felt that he’d had to do. In order to protect his family, he had killed a man.
When Lamont arose from his nap the night of his last shift at work, he glanced at Sierra while she was asleep and decided that she was the woman he wanted to be with for the rest of his life. They had created a family, and regardless of the mistakes that they had made in their pasts, they were still going strong. This was another reason why he felt Anwar had to go.
Lamont glanced at the clock on his nightstand. It was 9:00 p.m. This meant he had about an hour to get dressed and arrive at work for the eleven o’clock roll call. He shook Sierra lightly.
“Babe,” he whispered. “Babe, wake up for a second.”
Sierra rolled over and yawned. He knew that she was exhausted from her ordeal with Anwar and India earlier that day. She held her arms out to hug him.
“Yes, baby, what’s up? What you need?” she asked, her voice groggy from sleep.
Lamont planted a kiss on Sierra’s forehead. “I don’t need anything, baby girl. I just wanted to tell you that I’m about to go to work. Trey is at Mo’s house for the night and Messiah is in the bedroom. He was asleep when Monique came to pick up Trey and I didn’t want to disturb him.”
Sierra sighed. “Babe, could you take Messiah to my mother’s? I love my booga bear but I just can’t deal right now. I need a moment to myself, you know what I’m sayin’?” she said with an apologetic look on her face.
Lamont smiled. “I know, baby, I know. You’ve been through a lot this past week. I done put you through my shit and then this fuckery with Anwar and India… It was a lot. I can’t let this shit hold us back.” They both paused. “I got an idea. What if I take him to his father’s house?”
Sierra sat upright. “If you take him where?”
“I said what if I was to take Messiah to his father’s house?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “You would really do that, Lamont?”
He held his head down. “Yeah, I would. At this point, I would do anything to make you and Messiah and Trey happy. I really want us to work. I don’t wanna lose you to Rasheed or any other man for that matter. I want us to work out our problems, and I promise you that I will never, ever put my hands on you again. I guess I got so much anger in me that I lash out at the people I love the most. That’s not cool.”
Sierra’s eyes began to get watery. She kissed him on the lips. “You are one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”
Lamont sighed. “I love you, Sierra, and I promise you that I’m gonna make sure that no one or nothin’ stops us from bein’ happy.”
“I love you too, baby.” They shared an intimate kiss, and Lamont prepared for work. While he got ready, Sierra packed an overnight bag for Messiah. By the time Lamont was dressed Sierra had already called Rasheed to let him know that Messiah was on his way there.
Before Lamont walked out the door with the drowsy Messiah in his arms, Sierra kissed them tenderly. She waved to them from the doorway as Lamont strapped the baby into his car seat. Meanwhile, his mind was going a mile a minute. From the outside looking in, they looked like an average family with not a dilemma in the world.
Twenty minutes later, Lamont dropped Messiah off with Rasheed, and they slapped each other five. From a working Joe to a reformed gangster, they knew what had to be done. For once, Lamont was able to relate to Rasheed and understood why he had chosen to do some of the things he had done in life. There was always someone who could take you there, and for Lamont, that someone was Anwar.
“Thanks, Lamont,” Rasheed said, taking his sleeping son into his arms. “Good lookin’ out, man.”
“Nah, thank you, man,” Lamont replied. “Sierra will probably call you later on in the mornin’.
“So you ain’t had a chance to tell her about the plans, huh?”
“Nah, man, don’t know how to tell her. Maybe you can give her the heads-up when you speak to her.”
Rasheed smirked. “Yeah, I will. And remember how we planned it. You ain’t nervous, are you?”
“A little bit, but, fuck it, I gotta do what I gotta do. He don’t need to walk out of that jail, he needs to come out in a body bag.”
Rasheed gave Lamont five again and went inside with Messiah. Lamont walked to his truck, anticipating what was gonna go down that night.
Now, after leaving India’s apartment that morning, he knew that there would no longer going to be any derogatory talk about crooks and gangsters; for, now, he was no better than they were.
Epilogue
It was the middle of April. The sun was shining brightly and it was an unusually warm day. The First Baptist Church of Jamaica, Queens was packed with at least 150 guests. They were anxiously waiting for the groom and the bride to arrive for the ceremony. It was a joyous occasion, and a feeling of serenity was definitely in the air.
The first vehicle arrived at the church. The groomsmen and the groom emerged from the stretch Hummer, looking dapper as ever. Everything about the men were meticulous, and they were estatic. The six men, including the groom, were all dressed in black tuxedoes with light gold cummerbunds. The photographers took pictures of the men before they walked into the church.
Once the groom and his party arrived and the guests were inside, a late-model stretch Mercedes-Benz limo pulled up. Inside of this vehicle was the bridal party. The last of the guests were quickly hustled inside, for no one was to see the bride before she walked down the aisle.
After everyone was inside the church and seated, the bride finally stepped out of the vehicle. Sierra was absolutely stunning in her beautiful wedding dress. It was the color of French vanilla, with a lace bodice and pearl beading. The dress fit every curve of her body, and the train was approximately four feet long. Her bridesmaids looked amazing in their magenta dresses. They wore ankle-length strapless gowns and metallic gold peep-toe shoes. Every last one of the women was just as gorgeous as the bride herself. Sierra wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
