chapter twenty-Eight
Let’s talk Sacrifice
Tasha
I had planned to do this differently, but Czar and LaSalle weren’t having it my way. I was going to fly to Arizona to have a talk with the good old Senator. I have some things I want to get off my chest.
However, LaSalle called my father and told him to get his ass here in twenty-four hours. LaSalle’s words, not mine. I was floored as I listened to LaSalle give the command, before abruptly hanging up.
Needless to say, my father got his ass on a plane and flew in. Kurtrina happened to call me, asking about Milanie and I mentioned our father by a simple slip of the tongue. It only took her a minute to bitterly request to meet him.
In a moment of pity, I said, “Why not?”
So, here we sit, in the middle of a room full of tension. LaSalle reserved a private room in his restaurant for this meeting. It’s not too big, maybe big enough for four round tables comfortably. For now, it is set with only one.
The room is dimly lit from the overhead chandelier. The table is covered with fresh white linens and a single candle is lit in the center of the table. It would be perfect for a dinner party for two, but instead we have this.
The moment my father walked in to see me and Kurtrina sitting side by side, he nearly tripped over himself. I watched as the blood drained from his face. He tried to play it off, but the tick in his neck gives him away every time. It’s how Cee and I always knew we were about to get in trouble.
“I don’t see how this involves you, LaSalle,” my father says bitterly.
“As this involves my soon-to-be wife, it involves me,” LaSalle shrugs. His hand hasn’t stopped stroking my arm.
My father folds his arms over his chest. “Explain to me how this has come about. Last, I was here, you and my son told me it was safer for me to return home. You said that you would make sure Monique was safe. How has my daughter, you were supposed to be keeping safe, become your whore?”
Wrong move, Daddy.
LaSalle flies out of his seat and has my father in the air by his collar. He is breathing in my father’s face, with the darkest look I’ve ever seen on his. I barely realize Kurtrina’s tight grip on my hand, as I hold my breath.
“You ever disrespect my woman again, you will take your last fucking breath. I don’t care if you’re her father or not. I think you have forgotten who the fuck I am,” LaSalle says, in a low hiss.
“I’ve been covering for your lack of attention to your family for years. This shit with the Russian and your daughters comes from you not paying attention to your family. Now you want to question me?!
“Did you even shed a tear after finding out you lost a child? You make me fucking sick. You’re going to sit your bitch ass back in that chair and answer all of their questions.
“If my fiancée decides she likes your answers, you will have your ass on a plane when I call you to walk her down the aisle. You will bring your wife, not your latest whore, and I swear you bring one more woman that’s not your wife around me, I will make sure the world knows everything I know,” LaSalle growls into my father’s face, then flings him towards the chair he snatched him out of.
My father stumbles back and almost trips on the knocked over chair. Czar snorts in the corner with a look of disgust on his face. He’s been looking at my father that way since he arrived.
Daddy straightens himself and then his suit. He dares a glare at LaSalle, but drops it when LaSalle lifts a brow at him. I’ve never seen my father back down from anyone.
LaSalle takes his seat next to me once again, smoothing his tie down. His arm wraps around my waist and his hand splays my belly. He kisses my temple, before placing his lips to my ear.
“Say what you need to say,” he says for me to hear.
I swallow and nod. “Do you even have respect for any of us?” I start. “You just walked into a room with three of your children and you didn’t greet not one of us like a father.”
My father looks stunned at my words. He looks as if he never expected such words from me. I lift a brow at him and give him a pointed look.
“I walked into a room with two,” he pauses and clears his throat. “With three of my children glaring at me like I did something to them. I’m being ambushed and you feel some way?”
“Un-fucking-believable,” Czar and Kurtrina say in unison.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Czar moves from the corner he’s been standing in.
I know he’s been using the wall as a place to anchor him and his anger. He got up from the table right as my father arrived. I can see the anger rolling off of Czar.
“You’re some piece of work you know that,” Czar growls. “How do you not acknowledge you have two other children?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” my father growls.
“Please, do explain,” Czar narrows his eyes, clinching his fist and rocking from foot to foot.
“Their mother assured me it wasn’t my problem. She said she was involved with someone else. I thought it better to cut ties at that point. I found out about the girls after she tried to put them up for adoption. Her sister forced her to come to me for money.
“When I didn’t cough up the cash, she went through with the adoption and I thought it was best to just sign the papers and let the situation be resolved that way,” he explains with a sour expression.
“The situation be resolved?” Czar bellows. He pulls a hand down his face. “Like we’re not talking about human beings.”
“You have no idea the sacrifices I’ve made for all of you,” my father tosses back.
Kurtrina scoffs beside me. Her grip on my hand is painfully tight. I turn to see her looking like she’s rolling something distasteful in her mouth.
“You want to talk about sacrifices? Let’s talk about two little girls that were tossed away and given to two of the worst people in the world. Scratch that, we were given to the fucking devil’s family.
“Oh, from the outside looking in they were the perfect little family. They both seemed to be hard working. Ha,” Kurtrina scoffs.
“Mr. Derrick was so heavily tied to the local biker gang, we were selling drugs by the time we were ten. We all were, Keisha, me and the other four kids they had. That’s the easy part though. We survived that.
“It was the abuse that nearly cracked every single one of us. They would beat the boys, as for me and Keisha,” Kurtrina pauses and rolls her jaw, as tears wet her cheeks. “You want to know sacrifice? I saw when he started to look at us differently. Keisha’s breasts started to come in first, but I knew that man had a thing for a big ass. I was a whole lot of ass by then. So, to keep him from fucking my sister, I let him fuck me. Repeatedly, from the time I was fourteen.
“Delores, our so called mother, she knew. She’d send him to me, so she didn’t have to get on her back. He used to taunt me. He knew I was trying to keep him away from my sister, so he’d tell me I’d better take it however he liked or he was going to get it from Keisha.
“Just before our eighteenth birthday, he made a pass at Keisha. My sister was always so naïve. She brushed it off as him being drunk. Keisha was always nervous and did everything she was told. She was never hit or raped, but she was verbally picked on. She’d do anything to please anyone.
“I knew we had to get out of there,” Kurtrina releases my hand and slides forward in her seat. “I knew I had to do something, once that bastard started talking about selling my sister’s virginity to the highest bidder and pimping me out. I knew he wouldn’t just let us go.
“So, one night, when our dear mother went to work her night shift, and daddy dearest asked me to come ride his dick on the living room couch. You see that motherfucker started to not even care about discretion anymore. The boys had aged out and all left by then. It was just Keisha and me, but people still came and went. He just didn’t care.
“I did as he asked all right. I fucked his brains out, literally. I got him to the point that he couldn’t focus. When he threw his head back, I shoved a rat tail comb right up his nostril and hopped my ass right off his dick.
“I gloved up my hands, cleaned us both up, tucked him back in his sweats and called 911. I told them I found him just like that. You see, I researched how to kill his ass without a trace.
“Keisha was the first to come home that night. I begged her to run with me. She just didn’t understand and I couldn’t chance staying. So, I ran and never looked back. Not even when I found out I was carrying that bastard’s child,” Kurtrina says with so much hatred.
My father’s eyes soften and his face fills with his own hate and anger. “My life has never been easy. I ran with nothing but the clothes on my back. I lost that baby because I couldn’t even feed myself on the streets. I wouldn’t sell my body and I wouldn’t go back to live off my sister.
“Keisha was smart. She was going places. I wasn’t going to get in her way. That’s a sacrifice, Mr. Gabriel. You ain’t never sacrifice shit for me,” Kurtrina spits.
“I used to think there was some reason you didn’t want us. Something I could live with. Truth is, you ain’t shit. You can keep not acknowledging me. If my sister decides you should walk her down the aisle. Act like my ass isn’t even there. Don’t look at me, don’t feel like you should say something to me.
“I’m a survivor, I don’t need shit from you.” With that Kurtrina turns to me and pulls me into a hug. “You’re my sister. I’ll die for my sisters. I’ll kill for my sisters. You need me, you call me.”
“You haven’t said nothing, but a thing. Now that I have you, you are mine,” I whisper back.
My sister stands and starts for the door. Czar steps in front of her, causing Kurtrina to look up at him. Czar nods at her.
“Let’s go have a drink,” he says.
“I don’t want your pity,” Kurtrina snarls.
“You’re not getting my pity,” Czar shoots back. “Now, shut up and let’s go.”
I smile through my tears. That’s Czar’s way of being a big brother. No one will ever fuck with her again. We have her back now.
LaSalle pinches my chin and turns my face towards him. He pecks my lips, then looks me in my eyes. I place my forehead against his lips and take in a deep breath.
When I look back up at him, he asks. “Did you get what you need? Are you ready to go?”
I nod. “Yeah, there’s nothing here for me.”
“Now, Monique,” my father spatters.
I hold my hand up and LaSalle stands to his feet, taking me with him. “Daddy, you made your choices in life. Now, it’s time that we make ours. I’ll live with my choices. The question is, will you? Bye, Daddy.”
I follow LaSalle as he leads me from the room. I’ll need to think about things, but in this moment, I need to walk away. There’s nothing else to be said.