r should I continue?” I asked.
With a bloody and swollen face from me laying blows on her body, she weakly shook her head. I nodded and stood all the way up then grabbed her arm. With one arm, I started dragging her ass down the stairs, making her hit the back of her head on each of the wooden steps.
“Stopppp… Daddy, stopppp,” the twins were yelling.
I swear, it didn’t take nothing but a few minutes for me to hear…
“Police! Put your hands in the air!”
I froze and looked down at my wife, who was lying there unconscious as all three of our children held her, shaking her and trying to get her to wake up, but she just wouldn’t budge. I’d never even received a traffic ticket, so for these officers to come and slam me down on my face and put me in handcuffs was a shocker. Like I was a criminal or something, they slapped cuffs on me and all but dragged me outside threw me in the backseat of the police car.
The front door was still open, so I could see inside. The kids were still hysterically crying over their mother, and in the distance, I heard an ambulance coming. I could see Journey standing there as she talked to about three cops, more than likely letting them know what had just taken place. As scared as I was, I knew that I had a bank account that was filled with millions, so I’d be out by the time the sun came up.
12
Za’Kai “Bully” Kemp
“I don’t know why y’all little niggas insist on gambling with me. I don’t do shit but come down here and take all y’all allowance money. It’s cool. I gotta baby on the way, so I can buy a few things with this,” I said, talking shit as I gambled with the locals on the block.
As legit as I was, I still had a thing for shooting dice. It was instant money for me because I’d been doing it ever since I was like eight years old. I wasn’t even pressed for money, but I’d never turn down a chance to get some. It was Saturday night, and I’d just finished about two plates of soul food from my grandmother’s house. Breshay had taken the kids to Tampa for the weekend to go to Busch Gardens, so I was kid free. I didn’t really have a list of shit that I needed to do today because my girl had bad morning sickness, and last I heard from her, she was going to take a nap.
It was confirmed that Takari was indeed pregnant, and honestly, I couldn’t even say that I was shocked. I wish the circumstances had been a little better, like with her not being married and shit like that, but my seed was already inside of her, so there really wasn’t much that we could do now.
In the middle of me talking shit, I noticed that my phone started buzzing in my pockets. One hand held the dice while I used the other hand to grab my phone. Whoever was calling me, their number wasn’t saved in my phone, so I didn’t bother to answer it. Like clockwork, it started ringing again, and this time, I checked it out just to see who it was.
“Yo!” I answered, throwing the dice on the ground.
“Hey, it’s Sky, Kari’s sister. I couldn’t find Kari’s phone, so I had to call Brooklyn, who was able to get your number from your baby mama. We’re at the hospital with Takari. She—”
“She what? I just talked to her like four hours ago and she told me she was about to take a nap. What happened?” I asked, snatching the money from one of the little niggas’ hand and walking away.
I could hear in her sister’s voice that some bullshit had happened, so I started walking in the direction of my car, without even knowing what the hell was going on.
“From what Journey told me, she’d gone to get the kids something to eat for dinner, and her husband stopped by while she was gone, and Journey let him in. He assaulted her. Look, we’re at Memorial West. Text me when your close, so I can give you the room number,” she let me know, and then the call ended.
I didn’t react right away. If anything, I sat in the driver seat of my car and just stared at the phone for a few seconds, waiting for the part where her sister called back and told me that she was just fuckin’ around, but after two minutes of that not happening, I realized that this was some real shit. All I could do was sit and think about the conversation that Takari and I had a week ago. She was worried about my protection, but no amount of prayer that she could do would be able to keep me away from that nigga, especially now. Not only did he violate the fuck out of my girl, but he did the same thing to my child.
I drove to the hospital, not knowing what the fuck to think. I didn’t know what type of condition Takari was in, and I didn’t know if my child was going to make it out of this. I told Takari a week ago that I loved her, but the way that I was zooming in and out of traffic and the murderous thoughts that were going through my head for this nigga proved to me that I loved her. I felt like I had been assaulted too because that’s just how in sync I was with her.
I was about two minutes away from the hospital, so I sent her sister a text message to let her know. She responded quickly, letting me know which room they were in, and that was that. Memorial West hospital was one of those hospital’s that was always crowded, but luckily, I was able to find a good parking spot in the emergency room lot. Because it was night time, it really wasn’t packed inside, so I was able to walk right up, show ID, and have them distribute a badge to me.
Like Takari was having the baby right now, and I was late, I jogged quickly toward the elevators and even quicker once I got off, so I could make it to the room. The moment I walked inside, I noticed that all of Takari’s kids were there. Her twins were sharing a chair and hugging each other tightly. Both their eyes were blood shot red, so I assumed they had to have been there to witness the assault. Her oldest daughter was sitting at the foot of the bed, and she looked both angry and sad. Takari’s mother, sister, and one of her friends all stood up, surrounding the bed that Takari was in.
I walked over, and she was damn near unrecognizable. I mean, both eyes were swollen shut, both her top and bottom lip were busted, and cuts and bruises took up the majority of her face. They had some type of wrap going around her head. I instantly felt like Bully. I was no longer Za’Kai at the moment as I had to stand over her and witness this shit. Instantly, I thought of the different ways that I was going to murder this nigga.
“Anybody know where this nigga at?” I asked after walking away from the bed.
I couldn’t stand to see her like that. One would think that with all the dead bodies and shit that I’d seen growing up, this would be nothing to me, but mannnn, when you love a person so much, you couldn’t stand to see them in a situation like this.
“They arrested him,” Takari’s sister, Sky, spoke up.
Funny how I’d never really been properly introduced to anyone in the room, but I knew all about them from the things that Takari would tell me.
“Did anyone tell the doctors that she’s pregnant? What are they saying? Is everything alright with my baby?” I asked, firing question after question, even though I was scared as hell to find out the answers.
They didn’t even get the chance to answer me because in seconds, the door opened, and a doctor wearing green scrubs walked into the room.
“Takari is going to be okay. We’re going to prescribe her something for the pain and the swelling, but she’ll be just fine. Both her and the baby suffered a lot tonight, but they are both stable. The baby is fine and so is this strong woman here, so you don’t have to worry. The biggest thing was the staples that she had to get in the back of her head, but I think we all can agree that’s minor compared to what really could have happened,” the doctor said.