There was silence upstairs, then: “Fine,” Deja said. I heard her stomping across the floorboards into another part of the house. “I’ll stab that bitch to death.”
Then her footsteps were coming back, closer to the basement door.
I had to hurry!
“No, Deja!”
“Move, nigga!”
The home screen appeared and I clicked the internet icon. It started to buffer. I glanced up the steps, hearing them yelling at each other close to the door. When the Web finally popped up, I logged in to The Site and typed in my username and password. There was more buffering—I turned and looked up the stairs again, told Kylie to say a prayer—and then my profile page popped up. I dug the sticky note out my pocket and typed Gideon’s address in without using the missing letters. Also, The Site had a navigation feature that pinpointed the exact location posts were coming from; I clicked it.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard, trying to think of a message I could post that didn’t have an “H” or “E” in the spelling. I couldn’t put “help me” or it would read “hlp m.” I couldn’t put “save me” or it would just come out as “sav m.” My brain wasn’t working fast enough!
Then a thought came to mind, the only thing I could think of.
Tyesha816: 349 Dnvr av CALL_COPS!_#KIDNAP_#QUICKLY!
The basement door flung open. Me and Kylie ran back to the gas pipe and I stuffed the computer behind the washing machine. We both wrapped our arms around the pipe as if we were still tied to it. The box cutter was still in my pocket, the handle sticking out. I placed my elbow over it to conceal it.
Deja came flying down the steps. When I saw the large kitchen knife in her hand, I grabbed Kylie around the waist and was about to roll us out of the way when there was a loud blast. Deja’s mouth widened in shock—and I thought she was surprised to see our arms untied, until I saw the blood pour out her mouth. She collapsed to the cracked concrete right in front of us. I quickly made Kylie hug the pipe again.
Gideon slowly trotted down the steps. When his face came into view, it was a mask of deep regret. He sat down on the last step and looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. Then he closed them, lowering his head.
I looked behind the washer and saw that I hadn’t clicked “post” yet. My message was just sitting there. Secretly, I stuck my hand out and tapped enter. His head popped up and I jerked my hand back.
“I just wanted you in my life,” he said to me. “That’s what this was all about. She wanted Rodrick, I wanted you.”
“Are you gonna kill us?” I asked him.
“I think I have to, Tyesha. It was just supposed to be your daughter. Because me and Deja knew the only thing keeping you and Rodrick together was Kylie. But then you came here and threw everything off. I knew I couldn’t let Deja kill you. If anybody is gonna do it, it’s gonna be me.”
I glanced over at the screen.
“But I don’t know if I can go through with it,” he continued. “I love you too much.”
Confused, I said, “You don’t even know me enough to love me, Gideon.”
“I know
I was so stunned. He lied to me about not having a Site page. Because everything he mentioned was things I posted about myself on my profile, things I didn’t think people paid that much attention to. And it scared me that he knew my posts almost word for word.
The blood pooling from the hole in Deja’s back streamed close to Kylie’s shoe. She scooted her foot back and the path of the blood went down the drain.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “Those are just simple things I know about you. Even though I think the simple things count, I also know about your intimate thoughts. In one of your letters you wrote to Rodrick you said all you wanted out of life was a husband, children, and a happy home. You would make your dreams whatever your husband’s dreams were and support him to the fullest. You don’t know how hard that hit me. I’ve always wanted a real woman like that.”
I gasped. “He let you read my letters?”
“No. I would sneak and read them whenever he left the cell. My favorite one was the letter you sent him where you told him how you missed him being inside you, from the side with one leg in the air. I learned in that letter that you liked being touched or kissed behind the ear. I actually took that letter from him. It’s in an envelope upstairs.” His eyes bore into me. “I made it a point to stay in touch with Rodrick when we got out of prison. Just so I could get close to you.”
“Gideon, you’re crazy.”
“If I’m crazy, then you’re crazy if you think Rodrick will ever change. Honestly, I think we could be one big happy crazy couple. I would love you to
Something beeped in Gideon’s pocket and he started pulling out his phone. When I glanced at the computer screen I saw that my message had posted. I suddenly realized that Gideon probably had all of my status updates synced to his phone. I quickly tried to distract him.
“Gideon, I realize why you did it,” I said.
He took his eyes away from his phone. “You said what?”
“I know how you feel about me. I felt it every time you came around. But if you didn’t think me and Rodrick would work, you should have waited our relationship out.”
“I did wait! I waited forever! You kept going back to that fuck nigga.”
“You didn’t wait long enough. You kidnapped my daughter because you couldn’t wait. If you knew anything about me, you’d know I like a patient man.”
His eyes grew dark. He set his phone on the steps. “Don’t talk to me about patience. I did seven years in prison, waiting for my turn to find a good woman. And when I found her, she was with a man that was taking advantage of her like it was a fucking sport!”
His phone beeped again and he looked down at it.
“Look at me, Gideon,” I said. “I need you to look at me. Please?”
He glanced at me, then his attention went back to the phone. He picked it up and stared at the screen.
“Gideon, look at me and talk to me! I’m begging you!”
When his brow furrowed, I knew he was seeing that he had a Site notification. I looked over at the computer screen and saw that 21 people had already Liked my status update. But I didn’t want them to Like it; I wanted them to call the damn police! There were five comments:
Rita RealSpit Gibson: R U in trouble?
Bobby Mason: No, her daughter is. If you see her, call the police.
Diva Lee: Her daughter was kidnapped yesterday.
Rita RealSpit Gibson: I know.
Shake-it Girl12: We’re praying for you, Tyesha.
I looked back at Gideon and I knew he was reading my message on his screen. His eyebrows were slanted angrily.
“What the fuck?” he uttered. Then he looked up at me and I saw hell in his eyes. “How the fuck did you just make that post?!”
He got up and stormed over to me with the pistol in his hand. He was about to shoot me until he saw the soft glow behind the washing machine. He leaned over it to see what I was hiding.
This was my only chance.
I sprang to my feet with the box cutter in hand and stabbed Gideon in the neck. He squealed, slapping his
