She hadn’t killed anyone, and the whole situation and all of the accusations only added to her frustration. Someone came into that house shortly after she had left and killed Leroy and, in the process, had framed her for his murder.
“Why, Lord!” she shouted, then slammed her hand down onto the coffee table. She paid her tithes every month. Every night she was down on her knees in prayer. She even tried to live her life according to the Good Book. Almost.
Thou shall not commit adultery.
Swallowing, she was unsuccessful at removing the lump from her throat. She was wrong for getting involved with Leroy and now she was paying for it. But the only one who had the right to determine her fate was God, not a courtroom with a jury of thirteen.
Falling to her knees, Kayla bowed her head and closed her eyes. “Lord, I come to you as your humble child because what I did was a foolish act. Please cleanse and make me whole again.” For the next twenty minutes, she prayed for forgiveness.
Kayla rose and paced around the room, feeling slightly better but worried just the same. With each passing hour, her day in court drew nearer. This morning she and her lawyer tried to come up with names of folks who might be able to shed some light on Leroy’s recent behavior and help clear her name. So far they hadn’t been able to come up with any evidence to prove she wasn’t responsible for killing him. All they had was a list of references who could vouch for her character, although their testimonies would carry very little weight against the evidence the prosecuting attorney’s office had already collected. DNA, Leroy’s blood on her shirt, the witness she almost ran her car into, her admitting she stabbed him, and—oh yeah, let’s not forget her fingerprints on the murder weapon. The rest of their evidence was circumstantial but damaging just the same.
Tears flooded her eyes. She hadn’t even been able to come up with any other possible suspects because everyone she thought of had an alibi. Everyone has an alibi but me. She had one, all right. She was at home in her bed asleep. Unfortunately, she had no way to prove it, or her innocence, thus far. Kayla knew that if they didn’t come up with something soon, she was in very hot water.
The phone rang, startling her. She listened to cell phone ring, too afraid to answer it. Moving over to the window, she stared at the neighborhood children out in the playground behind her house. She had spent years, right in this house, watching her own girls out back while she prepared dinner. Tears raced down her cheeks and fear pounded her heart at the thought of never being able to see them again. She couldn’t bear losing her children, and her mother having to raise them for her. She wanted to see them grow up, go off to college, and someday fall in love and start families of their own.
Think, Kayla, think.
She had been thinking. For the last several weeks, that’s all she had been doing, and she couldn’t come up with a single possibility. According to her lawyer, two hours after she had stabbed Leroy in the shoulder, Deacon Williams had arrived at the house and found the body, lying on the kitchen floor. For the longest time she sat there wondering what the deacon was doing at the pastor’s house at one o’clock in the morning. Maybe if she found out the answer to that question, she might be able to find out who really killed him.
Chapter 40
Danielle
By the time Ron put his key in the lock, Danielle had all his shit in garbage bags right inside the door. He stepped in, looked down at the bags, then over to Danielle, who was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed and arms folded, waiting. “Danny, whassup, boo?”
“You’re moving out, that’s what!”
Eyebrows knitted close together, he stepped forward. “Yo, you always trippin’! What I do now?”
“Portia described your dick,” she stated firmly. “How would my daughter know you’re not circumcised?”
Ron’s face fell. Obviously, he never expected to hear those words coming from her mouth. “Okay, I-I can explain that,” he stuttered nervously. “She walked in on me one time I was in the shower. I never mentioned it ’cause I didn’t wanna start nothin’.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. She wanted so badly to believe him, but Ron had had every opportunity to come clean. Maybe then she might have believed him. Now it was too late. “I don’t believe you.”
“Come on. What I gotta lie fo?”
“’Cause you’re a man and that’s what men do—lie.”
“Yo, this is crazy. Boo, I thought everything was cool wit’ us?”
“That was before you decided to take advantage of my daughter!”
“I ain’t touched that girl.” He raked a frustrated hand across his face. “Okay, I’m fin to be totally honest.” At her continued silence, he relaxed his stance, then continued. “Me and Portia were cool as shit, then one day she came running out her room half-naked and tried to kiss me.”
Her eyes grew large and round. “And you slept with her?”
“Hell, naw! I ain’t never touched that girl. I swear. I told her that shit wasn’t cool and if she tried it again, I was tellin’ you.”
“You’re lying!” Danielle screamed and hurled a paperweight at his head. He ducked and it hit the wall.
“Why you buggin’? All I’m tryin’ to—”
She cut him off. “Get out! Otherwise I’m callin’ the police, and if you ever bother me again, I’m goin’ to charge you with rape.”
He stood there for the longest time with an expression of disbelief before finally saying, “You’re gonna regret this.”
“And don’t take my car!”
He tsked. “You got life twisted if you think I’m walkin’ wit’ all these bags.”
“Then you better go call Tyrone, because you ain’t takin’ my car!”
Ron grabbed the two bags and headed out the door.
Danielle came out behind him. “You heard what I said!” she repeated. Completely ignoring her, he pulled his keys out of his pocket and opened the trunk. “You heard what the fuck I said!”
He glared over at her, then gave her a bitter laugh. “What you gon’ do, call the cops? You forget. My name’s on this car, too.” While she stood there, he loaded the trunk and slammed it shut Danielle dashed over and blocked the driver’s door so he couldn’t get in. “Move the fuck outta the way!”
Folding her arms, she refused to budge. “Make me.”
“Listen—I’m not fin to put my hands on you.”
“You are a sick bastard—you know that!” she screamed, pointing her fingers in his face.
Shaking his head, he laughed. “Yeah, all right. Whateva you say. Now move, ’cause I’m outta here.”
“You ain’t going nowhere because I’m callin’ the cops and pressing rape charges against you!”
He gave her a smug look, then held up his hands in surrender. “Yo, lock my black ass up! And I’ll have my lawyer bring in a dozen nuccas who’ll testify they slept wit’ Portia’s slutty ass.”
Danielle swung and got him right under the jaw, then threw another punch that he caught. “Get off me!” she screamed as he pressed her arms to her side. “Get off me!”
“You need to calm the fuck down,” he mumbled close to her ear. “Look at you, actin’ like a damn fool. Got the neighbors watchin’ and shit.”
For the first time she noticed the couple across the street standing in the door staring. “Let me go!” She jerked away from him and dropped her hands to her knees while she tried to catch her breath. “I can’t stand you. You make me sick!”
Ron just stood there looking down at her, shaking his head with this amused look on his face. “You know what? You and yo’ daughter are two crazy-ass bitches.” Turning, he opened the door and she watched as he climbed in and flipped her off.
This time she did nothing to stop him.
Chapter 41
Renee
“Hurry up with the drinks!” I yelled.
“Just hold your horses.”
Nadine was in Danielle’s kitchen making our third round of margaritas. She was slow as hell.
I could have hopped in my car, driven five blocks to a little hole-in-the-wall, ordered a drink, and been back, at the rate she was going. Tonight, was girls’ night out, and the mood wasn’t right without a drink in our hands. At least that was the case for me. Our job tonight was to cheer Kayla up.
We were all laid out in the living room. Me on the couch, Kayla in the chair, and Danielle on the love seat. Everyone, including Kayla’s nondrinking ass, was tipsy as hell. And we couldn’t have a girls’ night out without Lisa. My eyes traveled over to the five-by-seven photo Danielle had placed on her coffee table. See, sis, we haven’t forgotten about you. Lisa had always been the levelheaded one of the bunch. We definitely need her wisdom to vibrate through the room tonight.
The music streaming from Nadine’s iPad changed to old skool. “Ooh! That’s my song!” Danielle cried.
“Ho, every song is your song.” Danielle’s been saying that same shit for the last half hour, although I’ll have to admit that was my song as well. Oh, yeah! The room filled with the sultry sounds of Luther Vandross. I hummed along with him, and Danielle and Kayla both started singing off key. By the end of the song, Nadine finally moved into the living room carrying a blender filled with heaven.
“About damn time,” I said without malice as I held out my glass. She went around and filled each of our glasses before returning to her seat at the other end of the couch.
Danielle rose and held up her glass. “Okay, let’s make a toast.”
“A toast to what?” Kayla asked.
“A toast to our fucked-up lives!” she cried, then fell back onto the loveseat, cracking up.
“I second that,” Kayla replied, waving her glass in the air.
“Hell, I’ve got to toast to that as well.”
I snorted rudely. “Nadine, puhleeze. What’s fucked-up with your life?”
“Jordan wants to have a baby,” she admitted between sips.
Danielle gave a hard laugh. “That ain’t nothing. My man was screwing my daughter.”
“What?” Nadine cried.
Kayla gasped. “Say it ain’t so.”
“It’s so,” she answered with a gloomy look. “And I really thought Ron and I had a chance.”
So, it was true after all. Damn, I wouldn’t put that shit on anyone. “Did you do what I told you to do?”
She took a sip, then nodded. “Yep, and she described it in full detail, foreskin and all.”
“Foreskin!” Nadine cried. “Eeew! You were messing with some brotha who wasn’t circumcised?”
“Like you never have?” Danielle challenged.
Nadine calmed down. “Okay, once, but that was by accident.”
Kayla wasn’t letting it go that easily. “What do you mean, by accident?”
“That football player I met while we were in Jamaica,” she confessed.
I started laughing loud. “RD? What? So, I guess that means you really did screw him?”
Nadine shrugged, faking nonchalance. I could see through her ass. I always could. “If you want to call it that. I was just trying to figure out my sexuality.”
“What she means is, she was trying to fight the fact she was craving pussy by trying one last dick.”
Nadine gave me a disapproving look. “Why you always got to make things sound so damn nasty?”
I spread my legs and rubbed my crotch suggestively. “’Cause I am nasty.”
Kayla reached for the photograph. “Lisa, you hear this mess? Your sister ain’t changed a lick.”
“Oh, I’ve changed quite a bit. Y’all just haven’t noticed. This is my second trip down here in a month, and I still ain’t had no Columbia dick.”
Nadine’s jaw dropped. “Now I know you’re lying.”
“Since when do I lie?”
“She’s right,” Danielle chimed in. “If she got some, we would be the first to know.”
Kayla wagged a finger in the air. “Uh-uh, that ain’t even true. Not no more. To this day, Renee refuses to admit she slept with Everton.”
Danielle’s brow rose. “Who’s Everton?”
“The front-desk clerk at that hotel we stayed at in Jamaica.”
I gave Kayla a serious look. “I admitted I slept with that crazy mothafucka.”
Nadine was quick to agree, “Yeah, he was definitely psycho.”
Danielle pouted. “I hate that I didn’t get to go.”
“There’ll be other trips,” Nadine assured her.
“So, tell me, what are you planning to do about Ron?” I asked between sips.
“Last night my brother and his crew beat his ass.”
I tossed my head with laughter. “I ain’t mad.”
“Yep, he’s lucky he didn’t kill his ass for fuckin’ with his niece. Kee’s pretty certain Ron’s arm is broke. He made him sign over my title and got my car back.”
Nadine shook her head. “Oh my God. Lucky you.”
Kayla rose. “Okay, so are we going to toast to our messed-up lives, or what?”
“No, we’re going to toast to our fucked-up lives,” I amended while trying to scramble to my feet. Nadine and Danielle also stood and held their glasses high. “Here’s to making our lives better.”
“Hear, hear,” we each said, then took a sip from our glasses and lowered back into our seats.
“So, Jordan wants to have a baby?” Danielle asked.
While nodding, Nadine pressed her lips together. “She says her biological clock is ticking.”
“So, what y’all going to do?”
Her shoulders deflated. “I guess we’ll find a sperm donor.”
“Hey,” I interrupted. “That reminds me of the Spike Lee joint, She Hate Me. Anybody seen that?”
‘Yes,” Nadine replied, “and no, she’s not planning on sleeping with a man. Jordan wants to be artificially inseminated.”
“Girl, that shit’s expensive. You’re better off letting some negro bang her for a six-pack and a bucket of chicken.”
Nadine tossed her shoe at me and got me square in the chest. I guess I deserved that one.
Nadine’s wounded look was quickly replaced with a smirk. “Okay, smart-ass. Your turn to tell us what’s so fucked-up about your life.”
I took another sip from my straw before dropping the bomb. “Hell, y’all think your lives are bad—well, guess what? My husband and I have been swinging.”
“What!” Nadine fell off the couch.
Kayla’s eye shifted from one of us to the other. “Swinging? What’s swinging?”
Danielle decided to explain. “It’s when couples have sex with other couples.”
She gasped, then shook her head. “Why am I not the least bit surprised?”
I nodded and took another sip. “Oh, yeah. I’ve had quite a few Mandingoes.”
“So, what’s the problem?” Nadine asked as she returned to her seat at the other end of the couch. You’ve been complaining about John in bed for years.”
“But now it’s too much.” I sat up straighter on the couch. “This may sound crazy, but now I’m actually fucking around on my husband with my husband. And it’s no longer any fun. I like spontaneous sex, not that kinky shit my husband schedules for me. It takes the fun out of it.”
Kayla shook her head. “You are too much.”
“Does he get his groove on, too?” Nadine asked.
“Yes. And he seems to be getting off on that shit.
He ain’t never been able to fuck me doggy-style, but he managed to fuck some big-titty bitch that way with no problem. Oops—sorry, Nadine.” As sensitive as she is about her breasts, I knew she would kick my leg.
“Forget you. That’s why John’s pimping your ass.”
“And that’s why you like pussy,” I retorted.
“Don’t knock it ’til you try it.”
I snorted rudely “Whatever. I am strictly dickly—ain’t that right, Danielle? Oh shit, I forgot. I guess you can’t say the same.”
“Yousa damn liar!” she cried defensively.
I r
olled off the couch, cracking up. “Girl, you know you were rubbing pussies with Trish!”
Kayla gasped. “What? Tell me it ain’t so.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “It ain’t so.”
Nadine gave her a skeptical look. “I don’t know. Y’all were pretty close.”
“Close?” I gasped. “I walked in just as she was strapping on.”
Kayla held up her hand. “Wait a minute. You need to start at the beginning because neither of you bothered to tell me this story.”
Danielle looked over at me and rolled her eyes. “That’s because I swore them to secrecy.”
“Well, the secret’s out now.” Kayla’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as she reclined the chair. “All right. I’m listening.”
I shifted on the couch. “Okay, Da—”
“Uh-uh, heffa,” Danielle interrupted. “The only one telling this story, is me.”
“Okay... we’re all ears.” I jumped up and grabbed the pitcher. “But first let me whip up another round.” I dashed into the kitchen, tossed in a whole lot of tequila and triple sec, then grabbed the ice and margarita mix. I was having a ball hanging with my girls. Tonight, was long overdue. I added a couple more cubes of ice to the blender and listened to Kayla in the living room talking about Jermaine. I was so happy he had come into her life. Now the only thing standing in the way of her future was Leroy’s murder, and I wasn’t leaving Columbia until her name had been cleared.
I skipped into the living room. “Okay, I’m back!” Everyone held out their glasses at the same time. I quickly filled them to the rim, and even spilled a little on the floor that Danielle will have to shampoo later. Right now, everyone was dying to hear Danny’s story. “All right.” I ran over, picked up Lisa’s picture, kissed it, then plopped down onto the couch. “Tell us the story.”
Nodding, Danielle took a sip. “Okay. I met Trish while attending that nine-month LPN program. She was cool as shit and we became study partners.”
Trouble Loves Company Page 26