Reggie's Girl Ch. 04

"So you refused?" Jasmine asked with such hope that Ted quelled a grimace.

"No. And before you get all disappointed, Jazz," he added in an earnest rush, "there was a reason. Like I said, I knew this kid and, well... I guess I kinda grew fond of him 'cause I didn't want to see him go down that road. It's dangerous, and guys a lot sharper than Krow have ended up getting caught - or worse. So I didn't flat out turn him down. I just said he could holla at me when he had a solid plan. I was sure he'd never come up with one, and I was gonna keep poking holes in this scheme till he talked himself out of it."

Abandoning her defensive pose, Jasmine uncrossed her arms and went to sit down beside Ted. "But he didn't," she finished for him quietly.

"Ambitious as a motherfucker," he agreed with a rueful groan. He shook his head as his arm came round her shoulders. "Next thing I know, he's showing up at my door with a bag full of drugs, asking me when he can come for the dough."

"Oh God," Jasmine muttered, feeling sick.

"I tried telling him he was being hasty, careless, but he wasn't having none of that. Just wanted to know if I was in or out. I had to say I was out. He cursed me out and left. Two days later, he was arrested, the charge was possession with intent to distribute. When he got out on bail, word went out that I'm a marked man for snitching. The last thing I'd do, ever, is snitch, and especially on Krow; I couldn't do that shit. But..."

His hopeless shrug said it all. It didn't matter what the truth was, only what Krow believed. He thought Ted was an informant and that was that. His chief concern now was silencing Ted before he could testify against him.

Jasmine sat with Ted in contemplative silence for a while. Then a thought came to her. "Where does Reggie fit into all this?" she asked in sudden puzzlement.

Her best friend's answer came in reluctant, even grumbling tones. "I don't know, he was saying some shit about knowing my father; how Reggie owes him a favor and now it's time to- I don't know." He broke off with a scowl and shook his head. Ted's father was serving a life sentence and he was almost a taboo subject.

"Is there any reason to doubt that story?"

Ted took on a distantly interested demeanor as if the matter was nothing whatsoever to do with him. "You know, I'm not even sure. It might be. God knows, my father hung out with some crooked types in his day."

"And he did something for Reggie..."

"I don't know." Ted withdrew his arm from around her and came to his feet. Jasmine did not press him further. She at least had answers for what mattered most at present.

"You want some pop?" She smiled up at him. "I feel a craving coming on."

Ted shook his head. "Girl, you know we agreed to give that shit up."

"And we will. Someday. Just not today." Jasmine stood up and strode to the door. "I'll just run to the store and get some. Feel free to hang out in here."

"Thanks, I think I'll do just that!" Neither of them relished sitting across Reggie and the mildly accusatory regard of her mother. As it was, Jasmine could barely look at her as she walked to the door and explained where she was going.

Once she was out on the sidewalk, she walked fast to keep warm. It was quite chilly and the overcast skies promised more of the same for the rest of the day. As she was leaving the store with the soda, a big raindrop splashed on her nose. With a groan, she broke into a jog.

People everywhere in the streets were running, which was why she did not pay attention to the sound of running feet behind her until it was too late.

A hard arm hooked round her ribs and all the air whooshed out of her lungs as Jasmine was hauled into a nearby alley. She was slammed against the wall and then her vision was filled with an ebony face, whose evil grin revealed the wide gap between the two upper front teeth.

"Well, look what we got here," the stranger leered in a coarse voice. "Ted's little snowbunny."

"Let me g-" She never saw the backhand, but felt it delivered with enough force to cut the inside of her cheek on her teeth.

"Oooh, even the likes of you shouldn't come out to play when it's raining, ain't that right, ghetto princess? Yeah, just like you shouldn't be spreading them for snitches!"

Jasmine heard the deadly click of a switchblade and screamed when the ice-cold metal touched the fragile skin of her throat. Immediately, a meaty hand clamped over her mouth.

"Keep your fuckin' mouth shut!"

Jasmine nodded frantically. Some part of her had the strange feeling that none of this was actually real, but another agonized part was counting all the imminent dangers the present boded. She knew this was no ordinary robber. He was almost certainly Krow, the man with a well-known vendetta against Ted. And now, by extension, herself too.

"You scared, little girl?" His eyes went round, mocking hers. "You should be. I been waiting a looong time to get my licks in, and since Ted and his family ain't around, then you'll do real nice. My oh my, you will indeed. Now let's go!"

Then right before her eyes, Krow's head received a violent blow to the side with what looked like a tire iron. His eyes grew heavy-lidded and his grin loosened.

"Must be outta your mind messing with her, motherfucker!"

The tire iron swung again but this time Krow anticipated it, ducking before it struck. The motion of the metal fanned Jasmine's face as it passed scant inches before her face and she pressed herself even tighter against the wall. Krow stumbled away from her then broke into a run.

The newcomer started to give chase till a silver car zoomed up at the other end of the alley and halted. Jasmine watched in dazed disbelief as Krow opened the door and staggered in, the vehicle then screeching off before the door was closed. The danger, it appeared, was gone but she didn't dare believe it.

"You alright, D?"

At the sound of Xavier's voice, Jasmine looked up at her rescuer. Her mouth opened and closed without a sound. She was distantly aware of weaving on her feet, then Xavier suddenly leaned in and caught her by her arms.

"Whoa, it's alright, girl, you're safe. He won't be bothering you no more, trust me," he chuckled. "Here."

He bent and picked up the mud-coated bottle of pop from the ground and handed it to her. Her fingers gripped the plastic so hard, they went numb. "You get on out of here, before you get soaked."

It was too late, her hair was already wet and plastered to her skull. Jasmine remained where she stood, shaking her head as she stared down the opposite end of the alley where her attacker had gone. It had all happened so fast she couldn't get her bearings just yet. The rain pounded down on the pair, unheeded by each.

Xavier bent his tall frame to peer into her face. "What is it, D? You don't wanna be alone? Is that it, you want me to walk you there?"

Just ten minutes ago, she would have been extremely leery of such an offer from Xavier. That it was so very welcome now came as a shock to her usual self-reliant mentality, prompting the old trait's forceful reappearance.

"No, I'll be fine." Her gritty tone sounded ungracious, so she offered him a wobbly smile. "Really, it's nothing."

Her immediate concern was finding a way to comfort her mother, because if she walked in as she was now, she would just give her an anxiety attack.

"Yeah, I doubt Reggie'll see it that way," Xavier predicted darkly as he watched Jasmine arrange her wet hair over the cheek that still bore Krow's handprint. Then he shook his head and stepped aside. "Go on, D, I'll be right behind you."

Jasmine walked past him back to the sidewalk. The rain had eased to a light drizzle so she didn't bother running. It helped slow down her racing thoughts. She was even calm enough to laugh at the doorman's exclamation at her bedraggled appearance.

When she walked into her mother's living room, she forestalled all questions by announcing that she needed a shower right away. She didn't even take off her soaked sneakers, just squished her way across her mother's second-hand Axminster.

Jasmine ignored her dismayed protests, did not stop moving until she was locked behind the bathroom door. Then setting the bottle on the floor, she stood there waiting.

For what, she wondered. The tears to come? But of course not. She had learned early in life the isolating dangers of emotionalism. She had trained herself to keep a lid on troubling feelings all her life, lest she drive away those she loved. Not even violence had the power to change that now.

But then she turned around and saw herself in the bathroom mirror. Her gaze was drawn to the slight swelling that had begun at her cheek, and at that moment, she freaked. Because while it was one thing to feel like hell, it was quite another, and completely unacceptable, to show it.

And right now, she was starting to show. It would only get worse if the swelling continued.

For the next half hour, Jasmine let the icy water from the shower fall on her upturned cheek. Her teeth were chattering though she tried to keep her lips pressed together. The water snaked down her naked body, leaving her chilled to the bone. All over her were goosebumps puckered so tight, her very skin felt ill-fitting.

Oh well, it couldn't be helped. Her cheek had gone from hot to numb, and that was a good sign, surely. The swelling might even go all the way down if she kept at it.

She gasped when she heard a sudden rap on the door.

"Jasmine? Jasmine, honey, open up."

The knocking continued and she might have answered her if it had been her mother. But it was Reggie's calm voice.

"Jasmine. Don't make me come in there, girl. Open this door."

Of course, the barbarian would not leave her alone when she most desperately needed to be. She was sick to death of men like Reggie, men who just pushed her around without compunction, without fear of consequences. Who did they think they were?

In sudden blinding wrath, Jasmine reached for the rose-shaped cake of soap and hurled it at the door with a savage roar. The soap was flattened along the edge on impact before flipping through the air to the floor.

"Jasmine!"

This time, it was her mother's voice: the poor woman sounded mortified.

"It's fine, Mom," Jasmine groaned, rage giving way to deathly exhaustion. "Just give me a minute, I'll be out in a minute."

She heard Reggie's lowered voice as he conferred with her mother. He must have talked her into letting him handle her because when she emerged wrapped in a towel, he alone was waiting for her.

"Hey baby," he said, coming to rub her bare arms. "How you feeling?" He paused and gave her visage a frowning assessment.

"Hot water run out, hun? Your lips are blue."

"Leave me alone, God..." Jasmine pleaded.

"Jesus, you're a block of ice," he complained as a shiver rattled her for the umpteenth time. "What the hell were you doing to yourself in there?"

Jasmine paused then went ahead and explained her actions, but try as she might he could not be made to understand her reasoning.

"Oh, come on-"

"No, she's the parent here. Let her take care of you, you're the one who needs it right now."

"What I need is for her to be okay," Jasmine argued. "Which she won't be if I go on an oversharing rant so she leaves a mom-shaped hole in the wall getting away from me!"

"Really, that's how it shakes out in this family? You get attacked and she's the one that needs coddling? Are you fuckin' serious?!"

"Keep your voice down," she hissed. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you, I should've known you wouldn't understand!"

She braced her hands against his chest and tried to push him away. He prevented it by holding on to her forearms.

"Okay, you win," Reggie conceded. "Let's get you into some warm clothes."

"What do you mean, 'let's'? I don't need your help!"

"Not really, seeing as I'm not a mental health professional," he agreed in irate tones, "but I could at least have stopped you giving yourself hypothermia if I'd been in that shower with you!"

"So I'm batshit loco, am I?" Jasmine snarled, narrowing her eyes.

"What you probably are, Jasmine," he growled, glaring back at her, "is traumatized." Unable to detect any sarcasm in his answer, she just stared at him without replying.

"That asshole put his hands on you," Reggie fumed, an uncharacteristic gruffness in his voice. "That should never have happened, X should've been there sooner. Damn, you must feel like you need a ten-hour shower."

"That's not it, but... It was Krow," she blurted out, fixing him with a wild stare.

"I know."

"He said he wanted to hurt Ted, and- and his family-"

"Ted is just fine, and his family were relocated weeks ago. He's not gonna find them."

"He couldn't. So he came after me." The memory of the attack somehow was more shocking than the event had been at the time. Suddenly, she needed to tell him everything. "He held a knife to my neck. He hit me, then he said he'd use me to get back at Ted, and I thought he meant to rape me-"

"Listen," Reggie grated. "You're never gonna see that bastard again. And that's my word, Jasmine. Now just calm down-"

"I am calm," Jasmine whispered as she embraced him in a sudden rush. "I'm alright, Reg, I promise."

There was the briefest of silences. Then a soft laugh shook him as he gathered her closer. "Get a load of you, trying to make me feel better."

"Is that what I'm doing?" she asked, sounding completely unconcerned if it was.

Reggie laughed again then pressed a kiss to her forehead. He rubbed his chin over the top of her head for a long time, which hypnotic motion did wonders for her tattered nerves.

"You know if Krow is coming after you," he mused at length, "he's probably got someone staking out your apartment, just waiting for you to come home."

"I can't do anything about that," she pointed out with a touch of irritation. Why did he have to ruin the moment? "I'll just carry on like always and hope like hell he doesn't know where I live."

"Come on now, there's no chance of that; you know this!"

"Then what happens, happens!"

"Dammit-" Reggie stopped himself, drew a deep breath then began again with deliberate composure. "Look, just go put on some clothes and come with me. We're leaving."

Jasmine's mind rebelled at once. "No! No, you are not taking me to Miami or anywhere el-" Her protests were cut short when he inclined his head and murmured in her ear.

"Your face is already showing the first signs of bruising." He paused to tap her damaged cheek. "This keeps up, you'll be unrecognizable by lunchtime. Now, how you gon' explain that to your mama, huh?"

"Oh thank goodness," came her mother's relieved voice a short distance away. "For a moment there, I thought you two were fighting."

"We just needed some space to talk things out, Ms. Wells," Reggie answered as he set Jasmine back at arm's length.

"So everything is fine?"

He looked at Jasmine, leaving her to answer. "Yeah, Mom, it is," she said softly, smiling at her mother.

"I'll be in the car, Jasmine," Reggie remarked, looking Jasmine right in the eye. "Send Ted down. We'll be waiting for you."

He seemed to be daring her to contradict him, no great difficulty for Jasmine. "I will do no such thing," she stated, crossing her arms. "I am spending the weekend with my mom, right here in New-"

"Stop. Just-" Ms. Wells lifted a hand as she interrupted. On her face was an expression of supreme distaste, like she'd bitten a lemon. "I'm sorry, but we need to... Could you excuse us a moment, Reggie?"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

Taking her nonplussed daughter's hand, she marched to Jasmine's bedroom. On the bed, Ted looked up from his phone, his earphones buzzing noisily. Without looking at him, Ms. Wells told him to leave them. He did so, looking rattled at this coldness as he shut the door behind him.

"I distinctly recall," her mother began, pacing from one end of the room to the other, "asking you to tell me something, anything, about your life. I ask you again. Humbly."

She stopped and faced Jasmine. "What is going on in your life?"

"Mom-"

"And let's just start with Reggie, if you please."

"He... Look, the only reason you don't know about Reggie is because- well, it's nothing serious-"

"Of course not!" Billie Wells flashed her a furious smile. "It doesn't mean anything that he is asking your mother's permission to take you out of state. That happens in any casual fling!"

"He asked- what?!" Jasmine exploded in outrage. "He had no right to do that! I don't want to go with him!"

"What did you want?" Ms. Wells asked softly but with a fierce light in her eyes. "To spend the weekend with Ted behind this man's back?"

"Mom!" Jasmine cried in dismay. It was exactly what she had planned to do, but without the sleazy undertones her mother assumed were there.

"And you were happy to let me think you were spending time with me when in reality, you were making me an unwitting accomplice in this- this tawdry charade!"

Her mother looked at her with such disappointment in her eyes, it was on the tip of Jasmine's tongue to beg her forgiveness. "I don't understand why you couldn't just go be with Ted without embroiling me - or making a fool of Reggie."

"Making a fool of... Mom, why are you defending this guy?" Jasmine cried. "You don't even know him!"

"You're right, Jasmine, I don't. So tell me about him. Tell me everything!"

"Look, I know Reggie seems polite and sophisticated and charming, and to an extent, he is all those things. But there's also a dark side there," Jasmine stressed. "He's not... kosher."

Ms. Wells sent her daughter a sidelong glance. "Kosher," she repeated tonelessly.

Jasmine nodded and moved closer to the older woman. "People say he's done some pretty bad things, Mom," she went on in hushed tones. "He's supposed to be this big-time drug kingpin, just a violent, sadistic guy. He beats people up, tortures them for kicks..."

Her voice trailed off as her mother's forced giggles began. Jasmine stared at her for a second. "Mom."

The laughter jumped an octave higher, acquiring a hysterical edge. Jasmine stepped back from her mother, inwardly cursing herself up and down.

The overloud laughter tapered off, and her mother wiped her wet cheeks with trembling hands. "A drug kingpin," she echoed, still trying to catch her breath. "And a sadist, you say? Oh, Jasmine... Oh, do be serious."

She'd known this was a dead end. Of course it was, why the fuck had she expected it to be different? Jasmine shook her head slightly and went to take her some clothes from her overnight bag. She pulled on a top over her towel as her mother went on.

"I suppose that's another unimpeachable fact they're bandying about in your neighborhood? Along with the true story of how the government gave black people syphillis and AIDS? And - what's the other one? - how rap music was invented by the white man to facilitate their self-genocide?"

Another peal of unhinged laughter filled the room.

"It does sound hilarious, doesn't it," Jasmine muttered grimly. She pulled on her jeans underneath her towel then kicked the latter off.

"You know, I wish I lived there sometimes, just for the entertainment! I guess with such conspiracies stacked against their race, our Reggie must seem too successful to be true."

There was a brief pause in which the only sound was Jasmine folding her towel with rather more force than necessary. She heard her mother heave a wistful sigh, but she could not find it in herself to look at her.

"For the last time, sweetie, tell me something about Reggie, please," Ms. Wells persisted.

"Tell you what, Mom?" Jasmine almost shouted, spreading her hands and facing her at last. "What is it you want me to say, what do you want to hear?"