“Those are good. I get it sometimes.”

  “You must eat here a lot.”

  “I do. It’s close to the house, and the food is good.”

  “It’s my first time. I was just driving around looking for something. Decatur has changed so much, I just picked a spot and parked,” she said and laughed lightly.

  “When was the last time you were here?”

  “It’s been more than five years.”

  “Oh, yeah, there’ve been hella changes in the last five years.”

  “Apache Style burger!”

  “That’s me,” Sheba said and went to the counter. With food in hand, she returned to where Dante was waiting with a smile. “I can’t tell you how good it was to see you again, Dante. We should get together sometime soon and catch up.”

  “I’d like that, but I have a better idea.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Let’s catch up now.” Dante paused. “Looks like you’re going to eat alone, and I was going home to eat and binge-watch The Boys. Let’s get a table and talk.”

  “I’d like that.” Sheba smiled. “But can I get a raincheck? I’m tired, and I have a lot on my mind.”

  “Hey, I completely understand.”

  “Do you?”

  “Sure, I do.”

  “But it really was good to see you,” Sheba said, inching toward the exit. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

  “Can I get your number?”

  “I haven’t got a phone yet,” Sheba lied. “But stop by the house. I’m sure that my grandmother would love to see you,” she said and was out the door before he could offer up his number.

  Chapter 7

  On the way home from the Grindhouse, Sheba’s mind was on Dante. He looked good, really good. He was no longer the tall, lanky kid she dated in high school. Now he was a man, and from what she could tell, he was all muscle. Although the idea of sharing a meal with him to catch up did sound appealing on some level because Sheba was curious about how he was doing, she’d heard from Chanel that he was dating Desinita Shaw, and she wanted no part of that situation.

  “Not again.”

  When Sheba got back to the house with her Apache Style killer burger, she went into the kitchen, heated it up, and got something to drink. She had just sat down and was about to dig in when she heard the front door open, followed by a loud noise. She jumped up from the table and rushed into the living room.

  “What the fuck!” Sheba shouted in justifiable horror at the sight of Demi.

  She was struggling to get to her feet. Her clothes were torn and stained with blood. One of her eyes was bruised and swelling. Demi’s jaw was swollen, and her lip was busted, and blood was trickling down her chin.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Sheba asked, rushing to Demi in time for her to collapse into her arms.

  “I’m sorry. I won’t do it no more,” Demi said as Sheba helped her to the couch. “I don’t wanna be worthless to you. I can be a good girl for you again.”

  “What happened to you, Demi?”

  “I’m sorry, Ty. I won’t do it no more,” Demi said, and Sheba called 911.

  During the ambulance ride to the hospital, Demi kept repeating those words over and over.

  “I’m sorry, Ty. I won’t do it no more.”

  “Who’s Ty, Demi? Did he do this to you?” Sheba asked, but she got the same words in response.

  “I won’t do it no more.”

  “Do what?”

  “I can be a good girl for you again,” she said, and figuring that she wasn’t going to get an answer, Sheba stopped asking.

  At the hospital, the doctor told Sheba that the beating Demi had taken had caused some internal bleeding.

  “Internal bleeding?” she questioned.

  “Internal bleeding caused by blunt force from the violent beating she apparently took. We’re going to keep her overnight for observation. Deeper bleeding, which involves arteries and veins, can result in severe blood loss, which can result in shock.”

  Sheba talked to the police and told them everything she knew, which wasn’t much. Once they had talked to Demi, the police said that there was nothing that they could do because she refused to identify her attacker.

  “I’m sorry, but our hands are tied.” He handed Sheba his card. “If she changes her mind, please, give me a call, and I’ll go get this animal,” he said and left the waiting room, passing Jody and Floyd on his way out.

  “How’s Demi?” Jody asked.

  “The doctor said that she had some internal bleeding from the ass kicking she took. They’re going to keep her overnight for observation.”

  “She say who did it?”

  “Cops said that she refused to tell them who did it. But she kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, Ty.’”

  “Ty,” Floyd spit out.

  “Who is Ty?”

  “The nigga she fucks with,” Jody said in a combination of disgust and regret.

  Floyd pointed in Jody’s face. “I told you we should have killed that nigga the last time.”

  “Last time? What last time?” Sheba asked.

  “Tell her!” Floyd said angrily and walked out of the waiting room.

  “Tell me what?”

  “I told you about me and Floyd having to go get her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She was with that nigga Ty.”

  She exhaled angrily and pointed in Jody’s face. “Floyd’s right, you should have killed him on the spot.” Sheba started to leave the waiting room.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to see Demi, and then we’re gonna go find Ty and kill him.”

  Jody followed Sheba to Demi’s bed in the emergency room. Floyd was there when they got there, sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Demi’s hand while she rested her head on his shoulder, crying and softly mumbling, “I don’t wanna be worthless. I can be a good girl again.”

  “Where’s Ty, Demi?” Jody demanded to know.

  Suddenly, Demi’s head shot up, and her eyes burst open. “No! Don’t hurt him!” She looked at Sheba. “He didn’t mean it. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  “Done what, Demi?” Sheba asked.

  “Please, Sheba, don’t let them hurt him.”

  Floyd let go of her hand and stood up. “She doesn’t have to tell us. I know where to find the muthafucka.”

  “No!” Demi shouted, trying to hold on to Floyd. “Please don’t hurt him!”

  “Let’s go,” Jody said.

  “Please, Sheba, I’m begging you. Don’t let them hurt him.”

  “They won’t, because I’m gonna kill him myself.”

  “No, Sheba!”

  Sheba led her cousins out of the emergency room with Demi shouting, “Please don’t hurt him. It was my fault! I made him do it!”

  As they were leaving the emergency room, Chanel was coming into the waiting room. “Where y’all going?” she needed to know.

  “Stay with Demi, Chanel,” Sheba said angrily, and she kept walking.

  Chanel grabbed Jody by the arm. “Where are y’all going, Jody?”

  He stopped and put his hands on Chanel’s shoulders. “Stay with Demi, and I’ll call you later,” he said and caught up with Sheba and Floyd.

  “So where do we find him, Floyd?” Sheba asked as they exited the hospital.

  “Same place we went to get her last time he did this shit to her,” he said angrily. “That’s what I think.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  Jody regretted that they didn’t take care of Ty when they had the chance, and he had no problem killing him to make up for his mistake. But does Sheba really need to be there? He stopped once they got to his car.

  “You serious about killing this nigga, Sheba?”

  “I am!” Floyd shouted.

  “Yeah, I’m serious. You can’t do shit like that to our family and we don’t do shit.”

  “See? Sheba is with me. Now let’s stop fuckin’ around and go get this nigga,” Floyd said. “We should have been killed him.”

  “He’s right,” Sheba said. “Now let’s go.”

  “Okay,” Jody said, and they got in the car. “Let’s go kill a muthafucka.”

  After they left the hospital, they stopped at Jody’s apartment to get more guns. When they were getting ready to leave, Floyd seemed hesitant.

  “What’s up?” his brother asked, and Floyd looked at Sheba.

  “Maybe we should drop you off at Grandma’s house and you let me and Jody do this.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Nigga, please,” Jody laughed even though he had the same thoughts about the need for Sheba’s involvement. “Sheba’s a combat Marine. You’re more likely to get hurt than she is.”

  Jody handed Sheba a gun. “He’s right, Floyd.” She checked the weapon and put one in the chamber. “I’ll be fine.”

  The last time that Jody and Floyd went to rescue Demi, Ty had an apartment in the White Oak Townhomes, so that was where they were going. When they got there, every light in the house seemed to be on, and Ty’s car, as well as his partner Rick’s, were parked outside. Jody got out to take a look in the window and saw that there were three people inside: Ty, Rick, and another man, whom he had never seen before. He went back to the car to report.

  “How you wanna do it?” Floyd asked.

  “They ain’t ready for us. I say we hit the door and come in blasting,” Sheba said and got out of the car.

  “You heard her,” Jody said, and he and Floyd got out, and they approached the unit.

  When Jody kicked in the door, Sheba came in blasting and hit the other man Jody saw in the living room before he could reach for his gun. Ty and Rick began shooting at Jody and Floyd as soon as they came through the door, and they were forced to take cover. Ty fired shots wildly until he emptied the clip. Then he ran up the stairs, ducked into the first room he got to, and closed the door behind him.

  As Sheba started up the stairs to go after Ty, Rick kept firing shots at Jody, and he fired back. He ducked behind the wall while Rick fired away. When Rick stopped shooting to reload, Jody came out from behind the wall and hit him with three shots to the chest.

  Floyd got to his feet, but when a woman came out of the kitchen and started shooting at him, he dove to the floor and got off a shot. When he got up from the floor, he looked at the woman and saw that he’d hit her with a shot to the head.

  Sheba went up the stairs slowly with her gun raised. When she got to the top, she looked around for Ty but didn’t see him, so she checked the first room she got to. When she touched the doorknob, Ty fired blindly through the door. The second the shooting stopped, Sheba kicked in the door and saw him going out a window as Jody and Floyd came into the room.

  “I’m going after him!” Jody shouted and followed him out the window.

  “I’ll go out the front and cut him off,” Sheba said and ran out of the room.

  Floyd put another clip in his gun and went out the window behind Jody. Once he reached the ground, he took out his gun and looked around. He saw Ty run out of the shadows with Jody on his ass and went after them.

  When Sheba got downstairs and made it outside, she saw Ty run out into the street with Jody and Floyd running behind him. Sheba raised her weapon and hit Ty with two shots, one to the chest and the other in his head.

  Chapter 8

  When Sheba arrived at the hospital room that Demi was assigned to, she wasn’t at all surprised to see that Chanel was still there, asleep in the chair next to the bed. Demi was asleep as well. During the night, she became agitated and made several attempts to leave the hospital and had to be given a sedative.

  Sheba came into the room quietly and shook Chanel enough to wake her. She got up and followed Sheba into the hallway.

  “How is she?”

  “She’s all right now, but she had a bad night.”

  “What happened?”

  “She kept trying to leave so she could get back to Ty so she could apologize, and maybe he’d take her back.”

  Sheba shook her head in disgust. “What happened to her self-esteem?”

  Chanel shrugged her shoulders. “He beat that out of her a long time ago.”

  “Jody and Floyd told me how out of control she is.”

  “You’re considered legally drunk with a blood-alcohol level of .08.”

  “What was hers?”

  “Demi’s blood-alcohol level was .12. And she had cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and opiates in her system.”

  “Damn, Demi.”

  “In addition to the ass-kicking she took, she has burn marks on her chest and arms, and there were signs of vaginal and anal tearing. . . .” Her voice trailed off, and Chanel paused before she said, “She told the nurse that the sex was consensual.”

  “What kind of animal was this muthafucka?”

  Sheba had been feeling a little bit of remorse over killing Ty, but after hearing what he had done to Demi, all that was gone. Ty deserved to die, and she was glad that she ended him.

  “I think Demi needs to be in rehab.”

  “I think so too,” Sheba agreed. She looked sternly at Chanel and shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me that she was that bad?”

  “I did. You’re home, aren’t you?”

  Sheba looked at Chanel and shook her head, only this time her look was affectionate.

  “I told you what I needed to tell you to get you to come home.”

  “You could have just asked.”

  “I did, repeatedly. For years. All I got out of you was that we would be fine.”

  “I seriously thought your aunt was taking care of things.”

  “Be honest, Sheba. You couldn’t stand her, and she couldn’t stand you.”

  “Hated me would be more accurate.”

  “And you let that keep you away.”

  “I did. Y’all didn’t need me.”

  “Bullshit, Sheba.” Chanel pointed in her face. “That was nothing but some bullshit you convinced yourself of so you could feel better about abandoning your family.”

  “I did not abandon y’all,” she said quickly and defensively.

  “Whether you did or not doesn’t matter,” Chanel said because she didn’t want to argue. “You’re here now when we need you.”

  “You’re right.”

  “I always am.”

  “You been up to see Grandma?” Sheba asked.

  “After they sedated Demi.”

  “You tell her she was here?”

  “Are you kidding? I didn’t even mention Demi’s name.”

  “Okay. I’m going up there to see her.”

  “You gonna tell her?”

  “Yes, Chanel. I’m gonna tell her everything. About Demi, about Aunt Millicent, everything.”

  “You’re right. She needs to know.” Chanel laughed. “I just wasn’t gonna be the one to tell her.”

  “Don’t you have to go to work today?”

  “I already called in. My grandmother and my cousin are both in the hospital. My boss said she understood and told me to take as much time as I need.”

  “Okay,” Sheba said and looked in on Demi. She was still asleep, so she went to see her grandmother.

  When she got to the room, Dr. Kulkarni was there making her rounds. She told Sheba that they had run all the tests she’d wanted and that her grandmother would be released from the hospital that day. After Dr. Kulkarni left the room, Sheba sat down on the bed and took her grandmother’s hand.

  “There are some things that I need to tell you about, Grandma.”

  Sheba told her about Demi, some of what she’d been doing, what happened to her the night before, and that she was in the same hospital. Miss Pearl listened in horror, and she cried over what her granddaughter had been doing and what she had to endure.

  “Chanel and I agree that Demi needs to be in some type of rehabilitation program.”

  “I think so too. My God, I had no idea all that was going on.” She wiped away a tear. “Please tell me that my boys aren’t involved in any of this.”

  “Jody and Floyd? Of course not. They’ve been protecting her as best they could, Grandma. And what is this I heard about them being banned from the house?”

  Miss Pearl folded her arms across her chest and looked away from Sheba. “I can’t have them in my house.”

  “They damn near grew up in that house, Grandma.”

  “You need to watch your mouth, Ashebe Lorretta Style,” she said, smiling. “You ain’t that grown that I won’t beat your behind.”

  “There’s something else I need to tell you about, Grandma.”

  “What’s that?” Miss Pearl asked, and her smile disappeared.

  “Did you know that Aunt Millicent had closed your bank accounts?”

  “Why would Millicent do that?”

  “I don’t know why she did it, Grandma, but that’s what she did. She took all your money, and she wasn’t paying for your insurance, so it was canceled. She wasn’t paying the mortgage on the house either.”

  Sheba paused as the hurt set in, and tears filled her grandmother’s eyes. Miss Pearl was both angry and hurt at the betrayal. She felt overwhelmed by the emotions that were so intense that it just didn’t make any sense. How could her own daughter do that to her?

  “You don’t have to worry. I took care of it.”

  She squeezed Sheba’s hand. “Thank you, Sheba. I always could count on you.”

  “I’m gonna make this right, Grandma. I promise.”

  Later that afternoon they were both released from the hospital around the same time, and the four ladies went to Grandma’s house. As soon as they got there, Sheba took Demi upstairs, and she got into bed. Once she was comfortable, Demi told Sheba how much she appreciated what she had done for her.

  “That’s what family is all about. And I’m just sorry that I stayed away so long.”

  “It’s all right. You’re back now.”

  Sheba stood up and started for the door.

  “Sheba.”

  “Yes,” she stopped to say.

  “I understand that you did what you had to do with Ty. I would have done anything for that man no matter how bad he treated me. I needed to get away from him,” Demi said. This was the longest she’d been sober in years, so she was just starting to think clearly and for herself. “I need help.”