An Inconvenient Friend

by Rhonda McKnight

  “So, what are you saying? She’s stalking me?”

  “When I saw the paper I ... the world isn’t this small. I knew something had to be going on. And the name. I know her as Samaria. Samaria Jacobs.”

  Angelina tried to let it sink in, but what he was telling her was the stuff B movies were made of. Then she remembered that night at the hospital. The nurse had called, “The family of Winnie Jacobs.” She’d assumed Rae and her mother had different last names, for whatever reason, but an imposter? This kind of drama wasn’t real. People didn’t do this in real life. “Are you telling me what I’m thinking? That she sought me out. She came to the church looking for me?”

  “I think so, but I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t talked to her?”

  “I have.”

  “That’s where you’ve been tonight? With her?” She flung a fist at him.

  Greg took the blow. “I had to wait until she came home tonight from work. I checked her place to see if see if I could find anything that looked like she had ill intentions.”

  “You let yourself in her home? You have a key?”

  Greg took a deep breath and washed his face with his hand. “I did. I did have a key. I don’t have one now.”

  Anger was boiling. Hurt was the steam. The more she knew, the more they both grew, but she couldn’t stop now. It all had to come out tonight. “So what did she tell you she wanted?”

  Greg shook his head.

  Angelina rushed out of the bathroom, reached the nightstand and picked up her phone.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m calling that—”

  “No.” Greg took the phone from her. “Don’t. I’m going to the police to get a restraining order first thing in the morning.”

  Angelina reached for her phone. He put it behind his back, and with all the strength she had in her body, she raised her hand and smacked him across the face. Hard. “You don’t have the right to tell me not to call her. You’re not the only one she betrayed!”

  Greg put the phone on the bed. Angelina wanted to reach for it again, but her hand was stinging like it was on fire.

  “I deserved that.” He raised a hand to his reddening cheek. “But this is not about her. This is about me. Me not being faithful to you. You wouldn’t have known her if it weren’t for me.”

  Angelina shook her head. He was right.

  “I don’t think she’s stable. She can’t be, and I want you to stay away from her.”

  Angelina let out a sour chuckle. “There’s nothing wrong with Rae except that she’s as conniving—” She stopped herself. “I’ve spent time with her. I’ve talked to her.”

  “I have too, and I didn’t see this.”

  Angelina sucked in her breath. “That might be because you were—” She shook her head. “You were a little busy, Greg.”

  He continued to stroke his red cheek. “She’s turned into some kind of fatal attraction, and I’m asking you to stay away from her until I can get a restraining order, please.”

  Angelina sat on the bed. Greg reached for her, and she pulled away. “Stop trying to touch me,” she said. “I want you to get out. Now.”

  Greg nodded. “I’ll sleep in the guest bedroom.”

  “Tonight,” Angelina stood to her feet. “Tomorrow I want you out of this house.” She heard Greg’s intake of breath, heard him say her name as she walked out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and into the powder room in the foyer. She grabbed a wad of tissues just as the first tear fell. She groaned and swallowed a knot of pain that almost choked her going down. He was cheating. Greg was always cheating her or maybe it was life. First her father, then Danielle, now her marriage. What had she done to deserve this stab in the back? This betrayal?

  Rae had been smiling in her face, working at the church, pretending to be her mentee, and studying the Bible with her. How could that woman be so cold, so calculating, and black-hearted? And Greg; she’d held out a sliver of hope in her heart that she was wrong. That he wasn’t doing this to her. But she knew better. If she’d been honest with herself, she knew when it began.

  Angelina had no idea how many hours she cried. She vaguely remembered waking in the arms of her husband. Him saying how sorry he was as he carried her up the stairs, laid her in their bed, pulled the comforter over her body, and darkened the room before he left. She remembered more tears erupting from a soul that she was sure was empty of them.

  She rolled over in her bed and cried some more. She cried until restless sleep came, when exhaustion pushed out the awful video that played over and over again in her mind like clips from an X-rated film. The movie featuring her husband and Rae Burns, making love.

  Chapter 36

  I didn’t slept all night worrying about this mess I’d made. Greg was going to tell Angelina. I wanted to believe he didn’t have the nerve, but the look in his eyes told me he did. My only hope was that he would punk out, decide to save himself like any man in his position would. But I knew the message from Mekhi and his joke about a murder for hire had tipped the scales some. I’d have to wait to see what happened, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I hated that I cared so much. These people shouldn’t have even mattered to me, but they did. Or at least she did.

  I hated the idea of her knowing I had betrayed her that way. I hated the thought of her being hurt that I was sleeping with her husband. That anyone was. She deserved better than that. Angelina was a good person.

  The locksmith I’d called handed me a key, and I practiced making sure it worked in the lock before I held a check out to him. Greg had left his key, but no telling if he’d had more than one. The last thing I wanted was to find that man waiting in my bedroom again because depending on what his wife said when he told her, he might be coming back to choke me for real.

  “I appreciate the quick service.”

  The jaggedly older man walked through the door. “No problem. Let us know if we can service you again.” He winked and closed the door behind him. I turned the lock and went to get dressed for work.

  I’d done my best to clean up the mess Greg made before I lay in the bed last night. I had to admit I was a little scared to close my eyes with him being so angry. Plus I kept seeing Angelina’s face. Her reactions—would she want to come over here and beat me down, or would she get on her knees and pray for me? Who knew with her? She was so holy, but I was thinking her knees weren’t where she’d be going with this bit of information. It bothered me that at this very moment she might hate me because for the first time in my life, I wanted a woman to respect me. Or maybe it wasn’t the first time. Maybe it was the first time I was admitting it to myself, and for the first time I’d actually had it. Her opinion really mattered.

  I turned my new lock, jogged down the steps, and out to my car. Just as I turned onto the interstate, my phone rang. Mama and Mekhi’s calls came within minutes of each other. Hers to say she needed some pills and to cuss me out about telling Mekhi her problem; and Mekhi’s to say he was in New York getting a supply for her. I wondered why he couldn’t buy the stuff here, but he said he couldn’t answer that on the phone. All he would say was everything was cheaper in bulk and closer to the source. So I had to conclude that meant they made oxycontin up north, and it didn’t cost as much. I was impressed that the man had gotten on a plane for me. I was worried about how he would get it back to Atlanta.

  We talked for the entire ride from Roswell to the hospital in downtown. Talked until my phone darn near ran out of battery. Hearing his voice made me feel giddy, like a stupid teenager in love. Like the stupid teenager I was once upon a time.

  Mekhi said he wasn’t going to be back until late tomorrow, which meant I was going to have to steal one more time because Mama would be climbing the walls and roaming the streets by midday tomorrow. Since I was temporarily back to being her supplier, I had to get her at least two more pills to tide her over.

  When I arrived at work, I found I was in luck. Nadine and I were the only R
Ns on the floor until 7:00 P.M., and she preferred to do patient care rather than pass meds. We had four new admissions from surgery. All taking OX. I reached into my pocket and felt around for the aspirin I’d brought with me. Since Nadine liked to see pills go in the sink, I had some to substitute for the drugs I was going to steal. I smiled to myself. This one last time would be a breeze.

  My phone had an insistent beep. I looked and found I’d had seven missed calls from Mekhi and one from Angelina. Just as I was getting onto the elevator it rang again. It showed Mekhi’s number, so I answered. “Hey, you really trying to get me—”

  He cut me off. “You got anything on you?”

  The elevator doors closed and the signal became really bad.

  “Sammie—” Crackle, crackle. “If you got anything on you, get rid—”

  I couldn’t make out what he was saying. “Mekhi, let me call you when I get to the car. I need to plug my phone in the charger.”

  “No, Sammie—Nadine—wait!” I heard him yell right before my battery went dead. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. He’d said Nadine. I guess his friend had found something out about her. I couldn’t wait to get to the car and call him back to find out what.

  The elevator stopped at the lower level. When they opened things seemed to be happening in slow motion. Nadine and two men with jackets that had the letters G.A. DEA on them were standing at the opening. I cursed and tried to push the close door button, but Nadine put her body against the elevator sensor and stepped inside. One of the men grabbed my hand and Nadine grabbed the other. Nadine removed handcuffs from her jacket. She smiled the most sinister and satisfied grin I’d seen in a long time. She slapped the cuffs on my wrist and said, “Samaria Jacobs, you are under arrest for felony theft.”

  Chapter 37

  Slam! The bars closed, and another woman stepped into the hole that had become my home. Girlfriend didn’t have that deer caught in the headlights look in her eye. She didn’t even do the customary scan of the occupants of the cell, which meant she was familiar with this joint. I gathered from the tacky way she was dressed, her frequent visits were for prostitution.

  The only seat that was available was next to me, so down she plopped, bringing with her a stench that was dying to wash down a drain somewhere. I let out a deep breath and scooted away from her. Lord, if I don’t get out of here soon, I’m going to lose my mind.

  It had been almost sixteen hours since they’d bought me in. I had a bail hearing facilitated by the ridiculously stupid public defender. I winced at the thought that I would be headed to the county lockup in another few hours if I didn’t make bail, and winced again because I knew there was no hope of that. Mekhi was in New Jersey. Ebony was judgmental and broke. My mama was broker and out of drugs. There was no one else in my world. Not anyone that really cared about me.

  Tears stung like tiny chards of glass behind my eyelids. I was twenty-seven years old, and honestly I had no one who would get me out of jail. It was a good thing I had reconnected with Mekhi, otherwise I’d be locked up until my court date. He’d come get me. Wouldn’t he? I pushed out the voice in my head that said he would not. Mekhi was older, wiser, and his butt wasn’t on the line this time. He’d come through. My stomach flipped. I felt sick and stupid. What was I doing? Having faith? Hoping? Believing in a man again? Was that what I was supposed to do? Oh God, what was I even supposed to be thinking? I was so confused. I didn’t know.

  I looked across the cell at the other two nurses who’d been arrested last night. We three were the last of the group still in jail. There had been six of us, easy to pick out because we were dressed in scrubs from our night’s work. Two had been bailed out, and one had been taken to medical for a fake asthma or panic attack; some crap she did to get out of central holding. In any event, that had been earlier this morning, and the drama queen hadn’t come back. My eyes locked with one of them, and she quickly cut hers away. We had no solidarity. I’m sure we were stealing for different reasons, mainly because she looked like a user. I wondered if she would be charged with the same thing as I would since my drug test had come back clean.

  “I don’t think a negative drug test is a good thing in this type of case,” my lawyer said blowing his scarlet red nose. “I’ll have to look it up, but I’m certain being addicted to the medicine lends itself toward some leniency. With no history of abuse, you appear to be another drug dealer.”

  Drug dealer? I wasn’t selling anything. I made no profit from my theft, but drug enforcement saw it different. I was actually going to be charged with a crime I hadn’t committed.

  Nadine was a Georgia DEA agent in the diversion control unit. Those were the folks that came after doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. I was sure that’s what Mekhi was trying to tell me in the seconds when I’d heard him yell her name. I’d walked right into her trap. My instincts had tried to warn me who she was.

  The story of the arrest played on the guard’s television in the hall at least four times throughout the day. With each broadcast, they announced the names of the five nurses who’d been arrested by the undercover team who’d busted up a ring of drug thieves on one of the floors of the hospital. The sixth nurse, Samaria Jacobs had been a bonus. “We were about to make arrest in the other cases when pharmacy alerted us of a high amount of waste on one of the other floors. So we delayed those arrests in order to continue our investigation,” a representative from the DEA was saying. It wasn’t Nadine, but I could imagine that bucked tooth heifer sitting around somewhere enjoying her success; enjoying looking at the pictures of all of us that were no doubt shown each time they read the list of our names.

  Greg, Angelina, my neighbors, and everyone in White Gardens knew I was locked down. Last weekend, I was on the news being celebrated as Rae Burns. Now I was being laughed at as Samaria Jacobs. People probably thought I was addicted to the stuff. Not the folks in White Gardens, but Angelina, Greg, my coworkers, and neighbors. The people in White Gardens knew I was stealing for June. Once they stopped pointing fingers and saying, “Dang that’s messed up,” some of them might actually appreciate the fact that I was trying to do the right thing. In the hood, all you had was family and taking care of your own brought much respect. That respect, however, only reached as far as the broke down gates. It wasn’t going to help me now.

  I let my head fall back against the concrete wall and fought to keep tears from falling. I was out of a job, definitely wouldn’t have a nursing license, and would probably eventually be going to jail. All this crap over a few oxycontin pills. If I weren’t so cheap, I could have bought the things on the street or even doctor shopped for a prescription like most addicts did. I hadn’t made time. Stealing was easier and faster. Stealing came second nature to me.

  “Jacobs, you made bail.” A guard yelled through the bars.

  I jumped up. My arm was still sore from the brawl I’d had with another woman they called Big Tina. Last night Big Tina wanted my seat. I preferred not to sit on the floor. Big Tina had won.

  I was never so glad to see a set of keys as the ones the guard pulled out to open the lock. I stepped through, and although I knew I was in the same space, the air that had been choking me suddenly felt clean and fresh.

  “This way,” he grunted, and I followed close enough to count the razor bumps on the back of his neck. He led me to a desk, offered my name to the sergeant behind it, and made the slow stroll back to the cage he’d taken me from.

  I looked to the left and right, but I didn’t see my mother, or anyone else I knew. “Who paid my bail?” The sergeant at the desk returned my personal items to me and had me sign for them. “My bail, who paid it?”

  He didn’t answer. Just nodded toward the entrance that was now to be my exit. I took a deep breath, pushed the revolving door, stepped in, and did the twirl around. I was momentarily blinded by the sunlight’s reflection off a copper Lexus that was parked in a lot across from the station.

  “I drove as fast as I could.” His voice came from the le
ft of me. “I know I’m about eight years late.”

  I turned and looked at Mekhi, the only man I’d ever loved, the only one who’d ever loved me. “You have no idea how on time you are.” I walked toward him, reached up and put a hand on the side of his face.

  “I was young. I should have been there for you years ago. If you don’t want to be with me, I can accept that, but I need you to forgive me. I mean, we been shorties since we were eight, I don’t want the past—”

  I put my finger against his lips. “Do you have my mother’s stuff?”

  “Yeah, that’s why I had to drive—”

  “Then you came through.” I pulled his head down and he drew my body to his. Pain shot through my arm before our lips met, and I pulled away. “Ouch,” I winced.

  Mekhi’s eyes asked the question.

  “Don’t ask ’cause I’m too embarrassed to tell you how I got my butt beat last night.”

  Mekhi rubbed my arm where it was sore. “Some big girl whupped ya’ behind. Dang, baby, I didn’t think you’d get a beat down so fast.” He chuckled. “I got a suite up at the Ritz. Thought you might need the luxury after being in holding. I already hooked up ya’ moms so we can go straight there.”

  I shook my head. Greg and countless other men had taken me to the Ritz Carlton. I didn’t want to be reminded of that. “Is it too late to cancel it?”

  Mekhi looked confused.

  “You spent a bunch of money on my mother’s stuff. You bailed me out of jail. Now I don’t know what you doing to make your money—”

  “Ask me,” Mekhi said. His eyes burrowed into mine with an intensity that almost knocked me back a few steps. “I’ve been waiting for you to care about what I do.”

  I hesitated. I’d been fighting the caring. I swallowed and let fear hit the bottom of my empty stomach. “How do you make your money, Khi?”

  Those dimples I loved and missed so much stretched down both sides of this face. “Music, baby. I’ve got my own record label. I signed Benxi a few months ago and got a great distribution deal because of her.”