Open Your Heart

by Cheris Hodges

  She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and focused her stare on him. Charles was almost mesmerized by her eyes, but he knew that being bewitched by a beautiful woman was the path to disaster. Turning away from her, Charles pretended he was looking for a stalker watching them. When he felt Yolanda’s hand on the small of his back, he nearly jumped out of his skin. But the moment he turned around to face her, he looked in control and ready to be in charge.

  “I don’t want any harm to come to my family.”

  “Then you are going to have to follow my instructions.”

  She furrowed her brows and sighed. “First of all, I need you to watch how you talk to me. I’m not good at following direction and I don’t take well to being given orders as if I’m a child.”

  “That’s fine. Just do what I say and you don’t have to worry about orders. Yolanda, I’m not here to make your life hard. You’ve done a good job of that yourself. But keeping you safe isn’t going to work if you start off fighting with me.”

  “Oh, this isn’t a fight, Chuck.” Her words flew out of her mouth like bullets.

  “Then what do you call it?”

  She folded her arms across her chest, calling attention to her amazing breasts. Charles turned away and released a low sigh. “Listen,” Yolanda said. “I just want this to stop.”

  “What’s going on? Why does someone want you dead?”

  Yolanda expelled a frustrated breath and tossed her head back. “I saw something that I shouldn’t have seen.”

  “What was it?”

  She looked up at him and he noticed fear clouding her face. “It . . . I saw a murder.” Her voice was low and shaky.

  “And you never reported it to the police?”

  She shook her head. “The security cameras outside my shop caught the whole thing and maybe me hiding behind the trash cans.” Yolanda slapped her hands against her thighs. “I knew I shouldn’t have given that video to the neighborhood watch people.”

  “That’s how the killer knows about you?”

  “I guess. There have been notes left at my house and the shop. Now this phone call. Someone called me using a voice distorter and that’s why Nina went running to Daddy.”

  Charles stroked his face, wondering if those people had gotten access to the video from the police or the media. “Did you trust the person you gave the video to?”

  She shrugged. “Walton Kennerly was the head of the program, and to hear him tell it, he was all about keeping downtown safe. I was hoping that the video would’ve gotten the police the leads they needed and my part would’ve been done.”

  “What do you know about the men who committed the murder?”

  Yolanda ran her fingers through her hair. “I heard a name. Danny.”

  “Do you know who this Danny person is?”

  Yolanda closed her eyes and hugged her waist. “Listen, Chuck,” she said. “I’m tired of talking about this. Just give all of this time to blow over.”

  “It’s been how long since the murder? Tell me how that blow over thing is working.”

  Tears shone in her eyes as she turned away from him. Charles reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. “We’re going to get to work,” he said. “When we find the people who did this, then you can stop running.”

  “All right.”

  Yolanda felt comforted by Chuck’s touch and his voice. This was too intense. He needed to go do something else and not remind her how much she’d risked coming to Charleston and putting her family in this psycho’s sights. What if Danny and his goon squad decided to use her family to keep her quiet? That’s how things happened in the movies, right?

  But this wasn’t a movie; it was real life. “How about this,” Chuck said, breaking the silence. “Where are you based out of?”

  “Charlotte. My sister is moving back to Charleston and I’m taking over her home in Charlotte and opening a boutique in down—Uptown.”

  He looked down at his watch as he removed his hand from hers. “I need to pack a bag, then we can head to Charlotte. I want to check out your security at home and work.”

  Yolanda lifted her perfectly arched eyebrow and stared at him. “Today?”

  He nodded. “Can we just agree that this is serious and you’ve been dealing with this for months? We don’t have time to waste. If you’re being watched or followed, then I need to know that and then I can make the necessary moves to keep you safe and get these killers arrested.”

  Yolanda cleared her throat and looked away from him. “You make it sound so easy and we know it won’t be,” she said. “Do you understand that I’m trying to just disappear in the shadows and pretend . . .”

  “That’s not going to work, Yolanda. These people, whoever they are, will not let you live when one word from you could put them in prison for life.” Chuck placed his hand on her shoulder. “We can meet here around six and head across the border.”

  “All right, but my sister’s getting married soon. I don’t want to be too far away. . . .”

  “I got you. Wait for me inside,” he said, then turned and left the room.

  * * *

  Yolanda closed her eyes and expelled a deep sigh. She had questions about how this protection plan was going to work. Would he be living with her? Going to work with her?

  How in the hell was she going to worry about safety when she’d be trying her best to keep her knees together?

  “Are you speaking to me yet?” Nina asked, breaking into Yolanda’s lustful thoughts.

  “Nope. Why did you . . .” Yolanda shook her head. “I knew you were going to run off at the mouth; this is all on me.”

  “Did you think I was going to sit back and watch . . . Yolanda, I don’t care if you’re mad. I just want you to be alive so I can take all your shit for talking too much.”

  Though she was mad, Yolanda drew her sister into her arms and hugged her tightly. “You do talk too damned much. Now, I have a whole new set of problems.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Keeping my hands to myself when Chuck and I go to Charlotte.”

  Nina rolled her eyes. “Can we focus on the fact that someone is sending you death threats?”

  “That’s why I left Richmond. I’m sure this will all die down once these people realize that I’m not a threat. And if anything, you’ve called more attention to me and anyone who was watching me.”

  “Because you’re a punk and won’t do the right thing?” Nina hitched her right eyebrow up and glared at her sister.

  Yolanda rolled her eyes. But Nina was right. She was afraid to do the right thing and was doing the one thing she and her sisters said they’d never do: She was running.

  But this was different, right? It wasn’t because of heartbreak or a job. She was running for her life. “Why don’t you do me a favor and put those reporter skills of yours to use,” Yolanda said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Yolanda offered her sister a sly smile. “Find out who Chuck Morris is.”

  “Wait.” Nina threw her hand up. “His name is Chuck Morris?” Nina burst into laughter. “I really need a backstory.”

  “Then get busy, sweetheart.”

  Nina glared at her sister. “Too soon, jerk.”

  Yolanda winked at her little sister, who was now anti-sweetheart after the viral exchange with a quarterback who called her sweetheart in a press conference. Because she’d gotten suspended from covering the team after the incident, Nina returned to Charleston and met Clinton Jefferson, the man who’d stolen her heart.

  Yolanda watched their love grow and was excited about their upcoming wedding that Christmas, which was one of the reasons why she was trying not to allow the people who were threatening her to cause any more problems. Was she being naïve about how much danger she was in? What if someone tried to get her at Nina’s wedding? It was time to start taking things a lot more seriously if she wanted make good on her promise to keep her family safe. But until Nina’s wedding was over, she wasn’t goi
ng to the police with any information.

  * * *

  While she waited for Chuck’s return and Nina had gone off to hang out with Clinton, Yolanda meandered around the property and tried to wrap her mind around what was going on in her life. Everything seemed to be in shambles. Though she’d closed her shop in Richmond, Yolanda had loved her life there.

  Starting over in Charlotte wasn’t going to be easy, and it now seemed as if it wasn’t going to be safe either.

  Her father was scared and now she had a bodyguard. A fine one that she was going to have to coexist with for the foreseeable future. How in the hell was this going to work?

  She walked toward the beach but stopped when she heard someone call her name. Turning around, she locked eyes with Chuck. He was early.

  “Why are you out here alone?” he asked as he jogged toward her. She drank in his image, clad in a pair of black joggers and a black sweatshirt. Her eyes traveled down to his thighs and stared. If this was a snack, she wanted to take a bite.

  “Yolanda!” Chuck called out.

  “Huh?” she said as she met his angry glance.

  “I’m sure I asked you to wait for me inside.”

  Yolanda smirked. “I have this thing with doing what I’m told.”

  “Do you want to live? Because you’re going to have to follow my instructions to a tee.”

  Yolanda smirked again and shook her head. “Whatever.”

  Chuck planted himself in front of her and a breeze blew off the ocean and mixed with his clean Irish Spring scent. Yolanda was nearly brought to her knees. “Why are you fighting this when your father hired me to protect you?” he demanded. “There are people who want you dead. They could be anywhere.”

  “Not fighting anything, Chuck. But I don’t like being ordered around.”

  “Asking you to stay inside so a sniper or some other killer won’t get you isn’t an order.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Can we go inside and talk about the rules before we head to Charlotte?”

  Yolanda smiled. “You work for me, right? So that means I make the rules.”

  Chuck didn’t crack a smile as he stared into her eyes. “Technically, I work for your father. And it doesn’t matter who signs my check—if you want to live, you will do what I say.”

  She rolled her eyes and shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “Where do you want to have this discussion?”

  “Someplace private where we won’t be interrupted.”

  She offered him a wily smile. “I know the perfect place. But if you wanted to be alone with me, you could’ve just asked.”

  * * *

  Charles followed Yolanda as she walked toward the pool at the edge of the bed-and-breakfast building. This woman was dangerous and going to be a huge problem. As much as he’d been trying to downplay the bronzed beauty’s sensuality, he was beginning to see that she was a tempting proposition. He needed to get off this assignment sooner rather than later. He respected Sheldon too much to hand this job off to his partner. He’d trusted him to take care of his daughter and he couldn’t let him down. And he couldn’t get beguiled either.

  Yolanda opened the door to what looked like a storage area. Charles hitched his right eyebrow.

  “You said you didn’t want to be interrupted,” she said as she caught his stare.

  “Didn’t expect this.”

  “It’s the honeymoon suite,” she said as she walked in.

  Charles looked around the room and thought it was a romantic little spot. Maybe even a great panic room. Focus, he told himself. You’re here to build a safety plan.

  Yolanda pointed to the settee behind a coffee table. He sat down and leaned back on the soft seat.

  “Do you have the blueprints for your business and your home?”

  “Not with me,” she said. Her voice was low and slightly seductive. “Why is that even important?”

  “One of the first things we have to do is set up a security system in your home and business. I’m sure you’re on social media, right?”

  She nodded, then ran her tongue across her bottom lip. Charles looked away and tried to ignore the tightening in his pants.

  “I need social media for my business.”

  “You’re going to have to adjust your settings.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No addresses, no geotags, don’t go live and . . .”

  “Hold up,” she said as she waved her hand. “How am I supposed to run my business?”

  “You’re creative, I’m sure you will figure out how to market your business in another way.”

  “Yeah, I’m marketing my business on social media.” She pouted and folded her arms across her chest.

  “And you’re giving the people looking to kill you direct access to you at all times.”

  “And my customers. You know most people shop because of ads they see online and especially on social media?”

  “Yolanda, you can’t spend money if you’re dead.”

  “You think I’m that shallow and I’m doing this for money? How dare you. I’m not trying to simply keep a business open. This is my life and I want some normalcy,” she snapped, then turned her back to him.

  “Yolanda, that’s not what I meant, I just . . .”

  Her mouth dropped open and Charles waited for a smart comment to follow. Instead, he saw fear flicker in her expressive eyes. That made him believe everything had been an act she’d been keeping up too long. A single tear dropped from her eye and she wiped it away quickly.

  “Tell me what’s going on, Yolanda.”

  She looked up at him, her face contorted with fear and defiance. Underneath all of her sarcastic quips, she was afraid. He could almost see her heart racing.

  “I just want this to end. I left because I . . .” Her voice trailed off as she began to sob.

  Charles stroked her hair and stopped himself from brushing a kiss across her forehead. “I’m going to protect you. But you have to trust me, Yolanda.”

  She looked up at him and blinked. “Chuck, I’m scared. I’m so scared.”

  Chapter 7

  Richmond, Virginia

  Danny stalked across the floor in his penthouse suite and glared at his two associates. Two men who should have done the work he’d hired them to do.

  “Why is this bitch still breathing?” he demanded.

  “Boss, she hasn’t gone to the police and . . .”

  Danny pointed his bony finger at the stout man. “Dead bitches can’t talk. She saw everything and I’m not going to jail for taking out the trash.”

  The man looked away from his boss. “There was a better way to handle Bobby G. Too many people are looking into who got him.”

  “And I’m not going down for this bullshit. That fashion bitch got to go. Especially since your dumb ass called my name that night.” Danny pushed the man to the floor. “You find her and remind her what happens to snitches.”

  The man nodded. “I don’t think she’s in Richmond anymore. That shop looks closed.”

  Danny shrugged. “Make sure you’re right because you’ll join Bobby G. if she ain’t dealt with.”

  The man nodded then dashed out of the room. Alone, Danny pulled out his cell phone, a burner that was untraceable, and called his heavy hitter.

  “Chase.”

  “It’s Danny. You need to help me tie up these loose ends.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a bitch on the run and she needs to be found and taken out.”

  “So, it’s true then?”

  “What?”

  “You killed Bobby G. Heard the cops got a sketchy video of the shooting outside of that shop.”

  “That’s why she has to go. Check your phone. You got seven days to make it happen.”

  Chase laughed. “I’ll get it done in three days. You know my fee and how to pay me.”

  “I got you. But make it look like an accident or something.”

  “Extra work costs extra.”

  “D
on’t worry about the money.” Danny ended the call and walked over to his desk, where his computer was set up. He tapped a couple of keys and transferred a hundred thousand dollars from his offshore account to Chase. The landline phone on his desk rang. Danny smiled when he looked at the caller ID.

  “Branch Investments, Danny speaking.”

  To the greater Richmond community, Daniel “Danny” Branch was an investment banker from New York with a golden touch. He’d come to the city and made a lot of money for people. He had helped the University of Richmond build its multimillion-dollar endowment. He worked with churches in the area to help fill their coffers through risk-free investments that paid them every month.

  He sat on the boards of several charter schools in the area and often lobbied for those schools in Washington. But at his core, Danny was a loan shark—like the family he’d left behind in New York. He laundered drug money, hiding the dirty money as good returns on his investments.

  Then there were his illegal gambling games. Especially high-stakes poker. That’s where Bobby G. messed up. He’d gotten in too deep in Danny’s games and couldn’t pay off the debt. Danny had actually arranged for Bobby G. to lose because he’d wanted what he’d thought was a profitable business. Turned out that Bobby G. was on the verge of losing everything.

  Since he’d been of no more use to Danny, Bobby G. was trash to be taken out. Just like anyone who became a liability. It was just like getting rid of Simone, his ex-wife. Maybe getting rid of her had been so easy that Danny had felt untouchable. She’d been gone for a year, and because he had accused her of stealing from his company, no one had bothered to look for her.

  Killing Bobby G. was supposed to be simple, but that nosey bitch had to see and hear everything. Danny worked too hard to carve out his place in Richmond society to allow someone’s loose tongue to derail all of that. There was a lot of money to be made in Richmond and he was going to make it. Without worrying about the cops or that woman opening her mouth. If she had to die, so be it.

  * * *

  It was after ten p.m. when Chuck and Yolanda arrived in Charlotte. She felt exposed after her breakdown at the bed-and-breakfast. He probably thought she was some emotional wreck. And now she was never going to be able to prove that she didn’t need him and he should take his fine ass back to Charleston. She’d flipped the radio station every five minutes, looking for something to do with her hands while he drove. Chuck only stopped her once when she’d found a public radio station.