Unique I

Chapter 10 - Faded to Black

Since the Tabby was hosting a lot of the major events associated with the fight of the decade, Kennard booked in advance more than a hundred rooms for the week for his VIP friends and guests, including the Presidential Suite for himself and Unique.
     While Kennard was running around doing a million things, Unique was relaxing under the masseuselike pellets of hot water spraying from the hotel’s custom showerheads. She vacillated over whether or not she should come clean with Kennard about being accosted by Fat Tee yesterday. If she did, then she would have to tell Kennard about everything. But did she really want to open that can of worms? And hell, from the beginning God made it clear that man didn’t need to know everything. So why should I play devil’s advocate and give Kennard a bite of the apple? Some things were just better left unknown.
     Fortunately for Unique, last-minute details had Kennard ripping and running so they had next to no time alone all week. The night before when he finally came to bed, all he wanted to do was make love, but he was so tired he could barely do that.
     Still, Unique knew that she would have to open up to Kennard and tell him sooner rather than later. The last thing she wanted was for someone else that may have witnessed the incident in the lobby to tell him first . . . or worse, for Fat Tee to manage to bump into him and drop a dime of the details of her checkered past plus God knows what else. How would that look? Like she was keeping secrets, that’s how—which she was. The problem with secrets, she thought, was that they ate at one’s conscience bit by bit. If one wasn’t careful they could consume one’s entire life. One secret oftentimes led to another, then another, multiplying like rabbits.
     Unique couldn’t take it: her mind was made up, she couldn’t hold water anymore. She made a promise to herself as she rinsed off the luxurious shower gel that she was going to tell Kennard everything. Every single sordid detail of her past—well, at least the Fat Tee and Took episodes. So just as Eve had done with Adam, she would practically hand-feed him the forbidden fruit. Let the core fall where it may, because she would leave no seed unplanted. She’d tell him it all . . . well, maybe not every shiesty detail.
     She’d talk about the robberies she and Took pulled off together. She would even share how while they were supposedly on a romantic vacation, Took had drugged her and then sold her to a whorehouse in Mexico for a key of cocaine and a chicken, leaving her with no passport but wanted by the law in the United States. He didn’t do it because he needed the drugs, and he sure as hell wasn’t hungry. He did it because he had a warped sense of humor and no sense of forgiveness. The funny thing, Unique thought, as her mind conjured up vivid memories of the past like a blooper reel of her life, was that although she was pissed to the highest level of pissitivity for what Took had done, she knew, deep down, that she deserved his treachery. She had crossed that invisible but very tangible line of trust first. She, too, had convinced herself that his actions were only a reaction to her action.               
     If Kennard wasn’t run off by then, she would also finally come clean about Fat Tee. How she and Took robbed him back in the day. How Fat Tee found her by seeing her on ESPN. Leaving the note on her Benz, following her, breaking into their house, raping and then blackmailing her. The stolen diamonds to get Fat Tee off her back, which obviously didn’t work.               
      She would leave no stone unturned. No more secrets. If Kennard left her, which he probably would if he had any sense, so be it. At least she would be at peace with herself. And if he stayed, which was a long shot, but if he did, their relationship would be stronger for it. They could truly be a family—him, her, and the baby growing inside her stomach.               
     Knowing that there was no perfect time to confess something as complex and of this magnitude, she decided to do it after the fight tomorrow night. No need to destroy the man’s mood before one the biggest milestones in his professional career.               
     One more day to pretend, but right now all she could do was get herself together, put her game face on, and focus on the here and now. Turning the volume on the shower radio up—tuned to Hot 97—she closed her eyes and let the water cascade over her face and the rest of her body.
     The built-in steamer inside the shower melted away some of the stress she felt. The weigh-in for the fight was this evening, and Unique had agreed to meet Kennard downstairs at 6 p.m. for photos. In another hour her makeup team would arrive, and thirty minutes later, Tyeedah would be knocking on the door.               
     Unique had chosen a stunning custom-made dress for tonight, a prelude to the eye-popping, body-hugging peek-a-boo she planned to debut tomorrow. She rubbed the soapy sponge across her flat stomach, which was hard and toned. She worked diligently in the gym to keep her body in tip-top shape. The fight would probably be her last stage to flaunt it before she started showing a baby bump.               
     She planned to make the most of it.               
     Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and Inside Edition had already asked Kennard for interviews, and Unique wanted to look her best in case they flashed the camera on her. Unless there was a crime against being drop-dead fabulous, she had no worries about being criticized by any of the glorified tabloids’ in-house fashion police.               
     Just as Unique was finishing her shower, the lights went out, blanketing the bathroom into complete darkness. She figured Kennard had come back up and caught her in the shower and was in a joking mood.               
     “Ha-ha,  Kennard, real funny. Now turn the lights back on. I’m running late as it is,” she said, while trying to feel for the knob to turn the water off.               
     “Maybe you will think this is funny now.” The voice shocked the hell out of her. It wasn’t Kennard.               
      Fear replaced the water enveloping her entire body and within a blink of an eye, a pair of hands ripped her from the shower and then punched her in the face so hard it rattled her teeth.               
     “Where’s your pistol now, bitch?”
     Unique absorbed the punch and was still on her feet. Hell, if she made it through this mess, maybe she’d be Kennard’s next big prizefighter. She could take a blow, that was for sure. And to take a blow of that magnitude from a dude like a champ showed that if she was in the ring with a broad she’d definitely make it to the final round. But then again, hadn’t she always been the last bitch standing?
     “You ain’t bad now, is ya, bitch?”               
     She wondered how in the hell had Fat Tee gotten into her secured hotel room. And why had she left the gun in her purse in the chair? Of course, she hadn’t expected a maniac to break into the room of a five-star hotel’s Presidential Suite.               
     The initial shock of the moment waning, Unique took a looping right-handed swing that clipped Fat Tee on the chin. To spend extra quality time with Kennard and to stay in shape, she had taken boxing and self-defense classes at the boxing gym. The trainer had said she was a natural. But with the slippery floor under bare, wet feet, she wasn’t stable enough to create the force behind the blow that she tried to throw.               
     Fat Tee wasted no time landing another sledgehammer against her temple. This time, Unique’s legs wobbled like a bowl of cheap ramen noodles before quitting on the job.               
     Once Unique hit the cold marble floor, Fat Tee dropped down on top of her, knees straddling her upper body. The bastard moved around like he had been slithering in the dark all of his life. Who knew shit would play out like this? But then again, Unique should have known, for it had already been written.                   
     “I told you this wasn’t over until I said it was over. But you wanted to play rough. So,” he said, with one hand around her neck and the other holding her wrists above her head, “I’ll show you what the fuck rough looks like, bitch.”                   
     She could smell the Hennessy on his breath.                   
     Unique wanted to beat herself up for underestimating Fat Tee, but there was no time for woulda-shouldas. Besides, Fat Tee had literally beaten her to the punch anyway.                   
     But regardless of how daunting the situation seemed, she didn’t intend to be raped by Fat Tee again. Unique was going to fight with everything she had—for herself and for the baby growing inside of her.                   
     Fat Tee had enough pressure on her neck to prevent her from screaming. And she could barely breathe. The hold was similar to the way he had handled her when he had overtaken her at the house. But this time Unique was determined not to let him achieve the same results. One was her maximum limit in this lifetime to be raped by this stupid fuck-off.                   
     “It didn’t have to be this way,” he said.                   
     Unique tried to speak but the words couldn’t get past the grip he had on her neck.                   
    Fat Tee sensed that she was trying to say something, and he loosened his grip . . . slightly. Unique mumbled, but there was no way he could discern what she was saying. She couldn’t even recognize the garbled words as they squeezed through her windpipe.                   
     “What did you say, bitch?”                   
     She heard the greed in his voice. He probably thought she was giving in, trying to tell him how he could rob Kennard.                   
     She spewed off a few more, low words.                   
    Fat Tee bent over, placing his ear closer to her mouth so that he could hear better. He wasn’t taking any chances by loosening the choke hold, allowing her to scream for help.                   
     The side of his head was inches from Unique’s face.                   
     She raised her head to get closer. Close enough to kiss him if she wanted to. Instead, Unique clamped onto the lobe of Fat Tee’s ear with her teeth. He screamed, “Ouch, bitch,” but she held on like a mother pit bull fighting for her pups. Yanking her head, she tore a chunk of his ear away, kindred to the way Mike Tyson disfigured Evander Holyfield in the ring.                   
     Fat Tee screeched like a wounded mutt and jerked back, which gave her just enough to—with all the strength in her body—swing her knee upward, Tae-Bo style, toward his petite dick. Praying that size didn’t matter, she felt the softness of his testicles crunch under the hard bone of her kneecap.                   
     Fat Tee sang in soprano, curling up on his side.                   
     Unique hurried to her feet before Fat Tee recovered and headed toward a sliver of light, peeking under the bathroom door. She took off toward the light. Her mind quickly ran through her options. She had no time to get dressed, and Fat Tee would be back on his feet at any minute. She either had to flee the hotel room naked and get help, or retrieve the gun from her purse and help herself.                  
     She was no more than two feet from the light—near freedom—when Fat Tee grabbed her ankle. She tried to stomp his hand with her free foot, but she hit a slippery spot on the floor and her feet skated from beneath her. She lost her balance.               
     Regaining his composure, Fat Tee was back on top of her. He slammed his fist into her face so hard she thought she saw the Big Dipper. She raked at his face with her nails. She felt the manicured claws dig into his flesh. She smelled his blood, or maybe it was her own blood—no, she was sure it was his—but Fat Tee kept pounding her with blow after blow until Unique eventually faded to black. When Fat Tee finally stopped, he realized that she wasn’t moving and all he saw was a puddle of blood. He smiled because he never thought in a million years that Unique would ever go out like a blood bitch. He washed his hands and looked at Unique’s lifeless body bleeding out on the floor, and said, “What goes around comes around, bitch.”

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