Free The Corner II by Alex Richardson Page A

throat. She was almost there ready to commit the murder when she stopped. Her switch was still on and it told her to use this as an opportunity. Not to go to jail for killing her stepfather but to let someone who claimed to love her with all his heart take care of the situation—that same someone who vowed to kill anyone who brought harm to her. She returned the knife to its place in the kitchen and went upstairs to pack but then thought that that wouldn’t be a good idea. She then picked up her phone, dialed Carlos, and told him that she was on her way over.
    *     *     *
    “What’s the matter, mama?” Carlos asked, softly. He and LaTanza were lying on his bed in his north side condo. When she arrived she was smiling and looking sexy in her jean shorts and mid-drift top. She smelled so good. A new body wash, but he couldn’t figure out what fragrance. He assumed she was horny and wanted to do it. He thought about the first time they had made love. She seemed as if she was in another place but he figured it was because she was a virgin. He did all the work and over the past six months he taught her a lot of things about sex. Now she would wear sexy lingerie, was more aggressive and willing to please him. He would massage her and take his time with foreplay. To sum it up, their sex life was great.
    She rolled over on her stomach as she answered. “If I tell you something will you promise that you will love me the same?”
    Carlos told her to sit up. He gently cupped her face with his strong yet well-manicured hand. A hand that only got dirty when it needed to. A young man of his status rarely had to put his hands in the mix.
    His brown eyes showed his seriousness when he said, “I’ll always love you. What’s up?”
    She turned her head.
    “Lil’ mama, what’s up? It ain’t another dude, is it?” he asked. Now she was able to read nervousness and anger in his eyes. She knew that he would flip if she was seeing another man but little did he know he had nothing to worry about when it came to that. She loved him dearly and he had taught her so much, things that a father should teach a growing girl and the things that a lover should also. He was her rock and she knew he would take care of any problem that she had. So she let it out.
    Tears streamed down her face as she told Carlos, “I was raped tonight.”
    He jumped from the bed and yelled, “What the fuck! By who?”
    She cried even harder as she covered her face with her hands. She was hurt by the situation and that switch that had been turned on in her showed her the way of manipulation and tears from a woman usually helped them get their way from people who loved them—especially men.
    “My stepfather!” she blurted out.
    “That muthafucka! I knew it was something wrong with his ass. I’ma kill that fucker!”
    “Baby, no,” LaTanza halfheartedly said as her man went to the dresser and checked the clip in his loaded Glock.
    He shook his head at the thought of another man entering his baby—he was ready to kill over that. Let alone someone who forced himself on her.
    LaTanza stood. She walked over to her man and asked him to calm down. He couldn’t so she wrapped her arms around him and asked if he would lay with her and listen. That she needed to get years of pain off her chest and he was the only one she could talk to. The only one she loved like that to tell the horrible stories of her life of abuse. She wanted him to know. She wanted to create a bond between them so strong that they would do anything for one another. They lay on the bed and it took a while for Carlos to calm down. He leveled his anger after LaTanza told him the story of how she had been abused for over seven years—he knew he had to be there for his girl. She also went play by play of what happened tonight and it infuriated him to the point that he agreed to kill her stepfather so she could be free and so he would pay for his sins. Carlos was religious to a point and