by Carl Weber
“Followed you where? Where the hell were you?”
I lowered my eyes and quietly said, “Saint Simons Island.”
“Saint Simons Island?” Chippy repeated.
“Chippy, I know you’re pissed, and I’ll explain everything, but we gotta go find Lou and them quick,” I told her.
“I’m beyond pissed,” she replied. “You better tell me what the fuck Levi is talking about, because the last thing you should be asking about is finding his brothers. They are not gonna want to see your cheating ass.”
“Miss Bettie is alive!” I blurted out. “I saw her. I know where she is, or at least where she was, and you’re never gonna believe who’s involved.”
Chippy screwed up her face like I was talking gibberish. She didn’t believe a word I was saying.
“Belinda Mahogany. She took Miss Bettie,” I said, but that only made Chippy more skeptical.
“What? This makes no sense.” She shook her head. “Even if I believe she’s alive, why would Belinda have Miss Bettie?”
“I don’t know, but the Mahogany family has some plan to take over south Georgia. They sent their son Eric to seduce me into working for them.” It hurt to say it out loud, but I had to admit to myself that Eric had probably never really cared about me. I was a pawn who could give them information in their campaign to get rid of the Duncans.
“Yeah, and it worked,” Donna laughed derisively. I was gonna have to fuck her up in a minute.
“Where the fuck are they now? We have to go find them and make him tell us where Miss Bettie is,” Chippy said. I wanted to jump for joy that at least now she believed Miss Bettie was alive.
“Belinda’s back in Atlanta, and Eric is—”
“H–h–he’s dead. Sh–Sh–Shirley shot h–h–him,” Levi volunteered.
“What?” Chippy looked to me for an explanation.
“He was going to kill Levi, so I had to shoot him. I couldn’t let anybody hurt my baby’s daddy.”
If I was thinking I might earn some praise for protecting Levi, I was wrong. Chippy moved right on without commenting on it.
“If the Mahoganys are involved, then ... oh my God! LC!” Chippy ran toward my office, and we all followed behind her. She grabbed the phone on my desk and dialed.
After a few rings, she said, “Shit, he’s not home. Let me try the dealership.” Again, we waited as she dialed.
“I need to speak to my husband now,” she said frantically when someone answered. “It’s an emergency . . . What? When? How long ago? . . . Okay.” She hung up the phone, looking scared. “LC is with Mr. Mahogany now. We have to get to Atlanta.”
“Wait.” I rushed to the closet in the back of my office and unlocked it.
“What the fuck are you doing? We gotta go,” Chippy said.
I pulled out a large trunk from the back and popped it open, reaching inside and tossing her a revolver. I took out another small-caliber pistol and held it out.
“Who is that for?” Donna’s eyes widened and she stared at it. “I said I would help find Levi, and I did. I ain’t say shit about no gun.”
Chippy took the gun from my hand and shoved it at her. “You said you were family and would always be, and there wasn’t shit I could do to change that. It’s time to go handle family business. Take it, and let’s get the fuck up the road.”
Donna carefully took the gun from her. I reached back into the trunk and picked up a shotgun and another .45. I stood up and said, “We ready.”
Minutes later, we were all piled back into Chippy’s car: me, Chippy, Donna, Levi, and his dogs, as we hauled ass up the highway to Atlanta.
Bettie
50
“Look, Bettie, I’m not going to argue with you anymore, and I don’t want to fight with you. Things are getting down to the nitty gritty here. It’s time to stop playing around.”
I sat tied to the chair, completely unmoved by Belinda’s words as she stood in front of me, attempting to be threatening but unable to lose the uppity tone that instilled anything but fear into me.
“What part of I’m not telling you shit don’t you understand?” I replied. Belinda might as well have hit record and replayed my words in order to save me the breath and time. By now she had to know that my words were bond. I hadn’t told her shit thus far, and I wasn’t gonna.
“So, you’re not telling me anything?” she huffed.
I leaned forward and raised my voice. “Not. Telling. You. A. Damn. Thing.” I rested back against the chair.
I could see her anger rising, and it amused me. She took a step closer and grabbed a handful of my hair. Not wanting to give her the satisfaction, I didn’t even flinch.
“Where the fuck is it?” she demanded. When I still didn’t respond, she smacked me across the face with the back of her hand. My head jerked from the blow, but I refused to cry out in pain.
“You know, Bettie, I thought you were a wise woman, but apparently not. After being away from your family all those years, you would think that you would be ready to see them again,” she said, trying a new approach.
“I am, and I will.”
“They already think you’re dead. There’s no reason for me to let you live at this point.”
My mind flashed back to the sight of Shirley up on the balcony at that house by the beach where they’d held me for a while. What was she doing there? I’d only seen her for a second before one of those bastards hit me on the head, but she didn’t look particularly stressed or disheveled like she was a captive. In fact, she’d yelled out to Belinda’s son like they were familiar. I hoped that she had done what I’d asked her and called my sons, but I couldn’t be sure. Even if she had, they’d moved me from that house, so it would take some work for the boys to find me. Until then, I had to do what I could to stay alive.
“You can’t kill me. If I die, you’ll never find what you’re looking for, and you know that. If you were gonna kill me, you woulda done it a long time ago,” I said more confidently than I honestly felt.
“What’s to stop me from killing your sons one by one until you tell me?”
My stomach churned at the thought of losing one of my boys at the hands of this bitch, but I couldn’t let her see my fear. “Like I told you, if anything happens to my boys, there will be hell to pay, and all over the South will never be the same. I made sure my family and everyone I love is well covered and protected. Even you said it: I’m a wise woman, Belinda.”
“Is that so?” She gave me a devious smile and then walked out of the room, returning a few minutes later with the monster, who held Lisa by her hair. “So, everyone you love is protected?” Belinda asked. “What about her? You seem to care about her a hell of a lot.” She raised her arm and pressed a gun against Lisa’s temple.
“Oh God, please don’t kill me.” Lisa began to cry.
“Well, then you better convince your friend Bettie over there to give me what I want.”
I stared at Belinda, whose hands were trembling slightly as she held the gun. She and Lisa made eye contact for a quick second, and I noticed that for all of her howling, Lisa’s face was not wet with tears. All of a sudden, the truth became crystal clear to me.
“Please, Miss Bettie. She’s gonna kill me.” Lisa’s crying became louder. “I don’t want to die.”
“Lisa, I need you to be strong. She is not going to kill you.”
“You willing to bet her life on it?” Belinda yelled.
“You’re not going to kill her,” I said.
“I will. I’ll kill her if you don’t tell me.” Belinda’s hands started shaking even more obviously as she pressed the barrel of the gun harder against Lisa’s head.
“Please, Miss Bettie. Please!”
“Fine. You wanna know what I know?” I asked.
“Yes!” Belinda said.
“I know that bitch has been working with you this whole time. That’s what I know,” I spat.
Belinda gasped.
“What?” I saw the reaction in Lisa’s face, whose tears
had dried up pretty damn fast.
Belinda was looking at the monster with an expression that asked, What do I do now? His dumb ass stared back at her with a blank face.
“Let’s just stop this little charade, because it’s gone on long enough,” I said.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you, bitch?” Belinda lowered the gun and released Lisa’s hair. Lisa stepped away from her to go stand next to the monster.
“How did you know?” Belinda asked.
I had to laugh at my answer. “I didn’t until just now.”
Belinda’s face turned crimson, and I suspected at that moment it wouldn’t have taken much to provoke her into really killing me. “Shut up, bitch!”
I watched Lisa lean against the monster, and he wrapped a protective arm around her shoulder. What the hell were they, some type of weird satanic couple?
“She told me that what she’s hiding was worth ten million back then and considerably more now,” Lisa announced.
I was totally confused. It looked like somehow I had been conversing with the enemy, giving her secrets she could feed back to Belinda and her goons. Thank God I hadn’t told her where I had hidden anything.
The door opened, and a guy walked in, announcing, “We got him.”
My heart began pounding. I prayed that he wasn’t talking about one of my sons. I had made sure that things would be handled if anything happened to one of them, but it would still mean they were dead. That was a pain I never wanted to experience.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Bring him in.” Belinda exhaled loudly then turned back to me. “I think this may make you change your mind.”
I sat and waited with terrified anticipation for the men to return. Finally, they shoved someone inside. His body slammed up against the wall, and he crumpled to the floor, groaning in pain. A flood of relief washed over me as I realized the man was white. It wasn’t one of my sons.
When the monster went over and pulled the man off the floor, I got a good look at his face and realized I knew him.
Dwayne McCarty looked like he’d been through hell. His clothes were disheveled, and his face was bruised and swollen. He looked a mess now, but I’d always thought Dwayne was a good-looking white boy, much like his father, who had died a few years back. I had always admired and trusted both of them, but he looked scared.
“Do you know who I am?” Belinda asked him.
“No.” His voice cracked.
“Do you know her?” She pointed at me.
He looked at me, and when we made eye contact, I nodded that it was okay for him to tell the truth.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I’m her lawyer,” he said.
“Then you should know why we’re here,” Belinda said.
“No, I don’t.” He shook his head.
“How long have you been her attorney?”
“A few years.” Dwayne was still doubled over in pain as he answered her questions.
“And who was her attorney before you?”
“My father,” he replied.
“And your father gave her something that belongs to me.” Belinda stepped closer to him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. The monster took out his gun and pointed it at Dwayne’s head.
“Tell me what you do know. Bettie here claims that her family is well protected, and we know that you’re a key player in whatever it is that she’s talking about. Now, explain it.”
Again, Dwayne looked over at me, and I gave him a small smile meant to comfort him—as much as that would be possible in a situation as fucked up as this. Poor guy had had no idea what he was in for when he took over his father’s clients. He’d been an innocent kid back then; now he was in way over his head.
“Go ahead. Tell her, Dwayne. Explain to her what happens if anyone harms anyone in my family.”
Dwayne was quiet for a few seconds. Finally he said, “There is a contract in place with certain outfit out of New York.”
“What kind of contract?” Belinda snapped.
“Well, if anything happens to a member of the Duncan family, a series of hits will take place.”
“A series of hits? On who?”
“On a group known as the Council. And their families. Everything is in place,” he said slowly.
“What the hell do you mean everything’s in place? I can kill you right now and that will stop the whole fucking thing.” She pointed her gun toward him.
“If anything happens to me, the contract is set up to be executed as well. We are all protected. My father and Miss Bettie have paid and put things in such a way that no one can stop it.”
“Fuck that! You can’t stand there and tell me that bull. There’s no way . . .” Belinda began ranting in frustration while waving her gun around. Lisa stood in the corner, and the monster took a step back out of Belinda’s way.
Belinda got up in Dwayne’s face. “This bitch just got out of jail. How the fuck can she afford to put a contract hit out on the whole fucking Council?”
“From the gold,” Dwayne answered.
I closed my eyes. That was the one thing I hadn’t wanted him to tell. Belinda was now one step closer to finding out everything she wanted to know.
Her eyes widened. “Gold. What gold?”
“Her gold. It originally belonged to the KKK, and somehow ended up in the hands of her husband. When he died, she hired my father, and they set up the contract. That’s all I know.”
“That’s my father’s gold, isn’t it?” Belinda glared at me. I smirked back. “Where is the gold now?”
I looked up and saw the monster and Lisa were both waiting for his answer with as much anxiousness as Belinda. “I don’t know,” Dwayne said. “She only gave my father a million of it.”
LC
51
What was Mr. Mahogany up to? My mind was still back at Larry’s garage, frozen on the moment I had opened the trunk and showed Mr. Mahogany that body. His mouth may have said he had no idea who the dead man was, but the expression on his face said otherwise. He knew that man, which meant he knew something about my mother, and I wasn’t going to rest until I figured out what the hell was going on. I knew one way of finding out was to follow his ass, but I’d have to hurry up and change vehicles. Him and James would have the body loaded out of Larry’s garage into theirs and be heading off in no time, which meant I basically had no time to get changed, hop in a different car, and tail them, but I was still going to try my damnedest to do just that.
I knew Mr. Mahogany and James would spot a tail from my cherry red Corvette Roadster from a mile away, so I’d given him some BS excuse about a meeting with the fire marshal that I couldn’t miss. I was sure he and James wanted to discuss our mystery guest in the freezer, so he told me he’d handle it. Everything in me wanted to believe that I was wrong in my interpretation, but I would have been lying to myself. And I wasn’t no liar.
I was out the door, in my car, and speeding down the road in a matter of seconds.
“Yes!” I exclaimed when I passed Larry’s place and saw that they were just now heading up the driveway. I put the pedal to the metal, getting a nice distance ahead of them before pulling over.
Slumping down in the car, I waited. As soon as they passed, I eased back onto the road and followed them. I had no idea where they were heading, but supposedly Mr. Mahogany knew a place where he could dispose of the body and it wouldn’t be traced back to us. But right about now, I didn’t trust a damn thing the man said.
I followed them for about fifteen minutes, and they ended up at a warehouse, which didn’t seem out of the ordinary. Plenty of bodies had probably been disposed of in warehouses, dismembered, destroyed by chemicals and what have you. So nothing put up a red flag yet. What did seem peculiar was that when Mr. Mahogany and James returned to the car, it was not to get the body and take it inside, but to get in and drive away.
I followed them at a safe distance, and they ended up stoppi
ng at a house where, once again, they went inside, then exited and drove off without unloading the body. Now I was alarmed. I suspected they weren’t really looking for someplace to get rid of the body; they were looking for someone.
As badly as I wanted to just whip my car in front of theirs, stopping them in their tracks, and demand to know what the hell was going on—what they knew about that dead man in the trunk and his connection to my mother—my chances were better if I kept following to whatever their final destination was. So, I continued to follow them from building to building for almost three hours, until they finally, believe it or not, dropped the body off at funeral parlor.
I was frustrated, confused, and pissed off. I’d trusted this man. I looked up to him. He was my mentor, for God’s sake, and now it looked like he might be wrapped up somehow in my mother’s kidnapping. I wracked my brain, trying to understand his motives. What could he possibly have to gain? Part of me still wanted to give Mr. Mahogany the benefit of the doubt, thinking perhaps he didn’t have anything to do with my mother, but I was certain he knew the person who did—and clearly, his ties to them were stronger than his ties to me.
Once they left the body, they went back to the same routine of driving from place to place.
“Why the hell are they here?” I asked myself as I watched them pull up to a five-story building that was still under construction. It was Saturday, and no construction was going on, yet there were several expensive cars in the lot. I watched as Mr. Mahogany got out of the car and went inside, alone this time, and James drove off.
I pulled a little farther down the block, where I planned to park as I plotted my next move. Then, as if things couldn’t get any weirder, I spotted another familiar car already parked there.
“What the hell are they doing here?” I mumbled under my breath.
I eased up behind them and parked, then got out and rapped on the passenger’s side window.
“LC, what the hell are you doing here?” Larry asked when he rolled down his window.
“I could ask you the same.”
“Hurry up and climb in the back before they see you. Every time you look up, somebody news is popping up around this place.”