Damon
“Stay back, son.” I put a hand on
his shoulder, letting Lamar know to stay by me and away from what's
about to happen.
“But dad, Elyssa--”
“--is handlin' business. This is
something damn personal, so let it go. There's a lot riding on this.”
Lamar pushes my hand off his shoulder,
and I almost forget he's my son. Almost. “She's hurt! This ain't a
fair fight!” His eyes blaze with fire. He wants to get in there and
help his momma, to be a part of the action. He's had enough for one
night.
“Enough! She's doing this the best
way she knows how. Chill and watch.”
Lamar hangs his head in defeat. He
turns to watch the rumble that's about to start. He stands next to
me, fists balled up by his sides.
Elyssa throws a right punch,
connecting with Jackie's left eye. Her head snaps back, but comes
back smiling. Jackie answers with a left front kick to the gut,
doubling Elyssa over. El doesn't make a sound.
Jackie tries to follow up with with a
right roundhouse kick to the head, but it's a feint. Elyssa dodges to
the left, the kick throwing Jackie off balance. El throws a right
roundhouse of her own to Jackie's thigh, connecting hard and making
her buckle to one knee. The kick also hurts El's leg, who got shot
earlier in the evening. She shakes her leg, looking at Lamar. El throws him a wink; he cracks a smile and his grip tightens on my
hand.
Jackie bounces back up and attacks El
with her full kickboxing skills. Combos of punches and kicks are
thrown, some connecting, some missing, some setting things up for
more punishment. But for every attack, El counters with her own
bombs. All that goes out the door when Elyssa connects with a big
haymaker to Jackie's eye, and she counters with a left hook to El's
eye. Both women pause, holding their faces.
They growl like dogs at each other, and
hell breaks loose.
Finesse is exchanged for raw brawling.
They grab hold of each others hair and swing, each punch lands on the
others face, sounding like they're clapping hands, each punch
getting harder. They scream, kick at each other, throw knees, and
take each other to the ground. El's on top smashing Jackie with
hammerfists, while Jackie swings and just tries to hit.
Jackie flips Elyssa on her back when
she pulls her in close by the hair and bites her cheek. That's when
places are exchanged, and Jackie reigns hammerfists on Elyssa. But
El's more the street brawler, trapping Jackie's punching arm and
thumbing her in the eye. Jackie lets go of Elyssa hair, and applies
an armbar on her. It's in deep, even when Jackie tries to roll up and
counter the hold by trying to grab her own hand to loosen it, El
takes her right back down.
Snap, Jackie's elbow twists in the
other direction. Her scream is music to my ears.
Pop, there goes Jackie's shoulder as it
dislocates in a direction that it's not meant to go.
Still hanging on to her arm, El rolls
Jackie to her stomach and gets her in a rear naked choke, squeezing
the fuck out of Jackie's neck, fighting for air, her eyes bulging out
at us.
“Gimme a name, ya fucken piece of
shit whore! Who drop a name on my family?!”
Jackie's still trying to fight off
Elyssa's hold, not caving in to the torture of lack of air. Elyssa
eases off the hold a bit and Jackie takes a ragged breath of air.
Lamar and I strain our ears in their direction, thinking she said
something.
“A name, bitch. Give it up.”
“Mutha...fuck you...”
Elyssa sinks the hold in again, but
this time, she scissors her legs around Jackie's waist and squeeze
the living hell out of her. She's trying her best to claw Elyssa's
face but keeps falling short. She's tries to hit Elyssa's shins to
make her let go, and even socks her on the right leg where she was
shot; El doesn't let go. She knows what's riding on this, and I know
she's doing this for us, the same way I protected her years ago. This
is her “thank you” to me.
Suddenly, Jackie can't take anymore.
She's tapping Elyssa's leg, and she loosens up.
“Ready to talk? I can do this all
fucken night...”
Jackie talks between gasps for air.
“...Wilda...came...to Duval...said Damon wanted to...take over his
terr...territory...told us about the...separation...and
gave...us...the address...”
My stomach hardens and I wanna throw
up. That no good fat fuck helped set us up and put all of us in
jeopardy. Most of all, I helped do it. I didn't have to go to my
uncle to help me out, but I got desperate. I saw no other choice.
Joke's on me.
Elyssa squeezes her legs, making Jackie
groan in pain. “Where is she? I know that two-ton bitch is still in
Grande somewhere. Talk!” Elyssa squeezes her legs again, this time
harder, and this time—judging the way Jackie's eyes widened—she
broke a rib or two. She coughs up blood and almost chokes on it.
“She's with Duval at his crib!”
shouting matter-of-factly. Satisfied, Elyssa loosens her legs, but
maintains the hold.
“Time to go, baby. My turn to dish
out an ass-kicking or two.”
“Fuck all ya'll!” Jackie starts
laughing, either from pain, or she's about to drop her final bomb.
“He's killing all ya'll. He's saving the little punk for last.
Gonna make sure he watches both of you die...maybe sell his ass to
some dirty old bastards who like little boys.” Lamar's trembling,
burying his face in my side.
It's a good thing he did.
The lioness in
Elyssa roars back to life and clamps down on Jackie like an anaconda
squeezing it's prey. Jackie makes a gurgling sound, her hands and
feet quiver.
Seconds later, Elyssa twists and there
goes Jackie's neck. As well as her life.
