by Stacy-Deanne
Dee smirked. “It’s nice to meet the real Donn.”
“I gotta go.” He turned his bike in the opposite direction.
“Wait,” Dee said. “Can you point us to someone we should talk to?”
“Why should I?”
“Because you’re not in a position to say no.” Connie stood on the other side of the bike. “If you don’t know who killed the Kengs then it shouldn’t matter, right?”
“I don’t know shit about Faith’s parents except they go to church and her Daddy owned that store. You talk to Priti Yi yet?”
“Who’s that?” Dee asked.
“That’s Faith’s best friend.” Donn straightened his bike. “Maybe she knows something but other than that I can’t tell you shit.”
He jumped on the bike and rode away.
CHAPTER THREE
“No fuckin’ way!” Winston slapped papers off his office desk at the police station. “Jonathan Wild is not getting a deal.”
“You think I want to make a deal with that creep?” Emory touched the gun on his waist. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Then get a choice.” Winston marched from around his desk. “What he did was bad enough but he’s not supposed to pay now?”
“Course he is.” Emory stuck out his chest. “But, we’re cops, Winston. Sometimes we got to make deals when we don’t want to.”
“This is the woman I love we’re talking about.” He stood back, rubbing his disheveled, brown curls. “I’m not selling her out for nothing.”
“Do you want the man who killed Dania Shorter to walk?”
Winston turned toward his desk and closed his eyes.
“Because that’s what will happen if—”
“What in the world is going on?” Dee stood in the doorway, her eyes exploding from her ravishing, brown skin. “The whole station can hear you two.”
Winston presented a shaky smile to play off his anger. “How’s your case going?”
“It’s going.” Dee tipped into the office. “Emory, you look like you’re about to shit yourself.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, glaring at Winston. “This isn’t easy for me to say, but you gotta know. Jonathan—”
“Emory.” Winston squared his shoulders. “I’ll tell her.”
“Tell me what?” Dee looked back and forth at the men.
Emory half-smiled as he left the office.
“Something tells me I won’t like this conversation,” Dee said. “You got one of those faces that can tell what you’re thinking before you say it.”
Winston picked up the photo of him and Dee hugging and smiling.
She took it and set it back on the desk. “Talk.”
“I wish there was an easier way to say this.” He plopped into the squeaky recliner behind his desk. “Jonathan wants a deal for his testimony.”
Her arched eyebrows wrinkled. “What testimony?”
“It’s about the Dania Shorter case.” He rubbed the soft hairs on his chin. “Jonathan can identify Ro Chavis as the killer.”
She sat in the chair across from him and blew out her cheeks, looking more gorgeous by the minute.
“Emory’s known it was Ro for a while but couldn’t get anything substantial on him. Jonathan saved this young woman, Candra Martel, and she was abducted and stabbed the same way Dania was.”
“Wait, how did that even happen?”
“Apparently, Jonathan was in Baltimore.” Winston swallowed. “Probably watching you and in the process, he saved Candra.”
“God.” Dee rubbed her forehead.
“Jonathan says he’ll testify for the prosecution to get Ro if they’ll give him immunity for kidnapping you.”
“No.” Dee stood. “No, Winston.”
“Honey.” He jumped up and rushed to her. “Listen—”
“That bastard almost ruined my life.” She grabbed his shirt. “He stole my memory, kept me prisoner, and thinks he shouldn’t have to pay?”
“Baby, I’m with you.” He sandwiched her face in his hands and kissed her. “You’re right. Jonathan doesn’t deserve shit from you.”
“They can’t give him immunity unless I agree and that’s not happening.” She walked to the floor plant in the corner. “Jonathan’s ass belongs in prison and that’s where he’s going.” She opened the door, startling Emory. “It’s not happening, Emory. You can forget giving Jonathan Wild a deal.”
“Dee.” He walked in, closing the door. “Listen.”
“No, you listen.” She stuck her finger in his face. “You have no right to ask this of me. Do you understand what I went through? This man abducted me and drugged me.” Tears filled her eyes. “He stole three months of memories I’ll never get back. He took me from the man I love.” She pointed at Winston. “How could you even think I’d agree to this?”
“If I was looking at this as your friend, I’d have told Wild to go fuck himself.” Emory held his arms out to his sides. “But, as a police officer who’s desperate to bring justice to a family and put that monster who killed Dania away, I’m asking you to see the bigger picture.”
“Bigger picture?” She got in his face. “Jonathan Wild is a sadistic asshole who deserves to be in prison. I’m sorry for what happened to Dania but I can’t live my life seeing Jonathan walk free for what he did.” She sighed, color draining from her cheeks. “I won’t do it.”
Winston took her hand. “You okay?”
She wobbled. “I’m dizzy.”
“Whoa.” Emory grabbed her other hand. “Sit down.” He led her to the chair. “I didn’t mean for you to get upset.”
The moment she sat, she grabbed Winston’s trashcan and vomited into it.
“Dee?” Winston knelt beside her.
Emory grimaced. “Is she okay?”
Dee lifted her head from the waste basket, throw-up hanging from her lip.
Winston yanked a tissue from the box on his desk and wiped her mouth. “I’m worried about you.”
She cleared her throat. “I’m okay.”
“You’ve been getting dizzy and nauseated for a week now.” Winston pushed her hair out the way. “I think you should go to the doctor.”
“I’m fine.” She huffed and puffed. “If I got Jonathan out of my life I’d be even better.” She looked up at Emory. “The answer is no on the deal.” She closed her eyes, swallowing. “I wish you the best with getting Chavis, but I can’t let Jonathan walk for what he did.” She grabbed Winston’s hand. “I can’t.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“She’ll be fine,” Dr. Begay told Jonathan the next day outside Candra’s hospital room. “The knife didn’t penetrate any organs so she was very lucky.”
Jonathan smiled, lowering the bouquet of yellow roses he’d picked from his garden. “May I see her?”
Begay peeked into the tiny window of the room, batting her blonde lashes. “Normally only friends and family can see patients but she’s on her own.” She sighed. “Said she had no one to contact and that no one cared about her.”
Jonathan looked in the window.
Candra lay on the bed as if she were watching television but appeared distant.
“When can she leave?”
“About a day or two.” Begay checked her clipboard. “I want to make sure there’s no risk of infection.”
“She’ll be okay.” Jonathan touched the door. “She’s strong.”
“You can see her but don’t take too long. She needs her rest.”
Jonathan nodded, entering the room as Begay walked away.
Candra turned her head toward him with sterile bandages on her neck, arms and one of her hands. She jerked up as if seeing Jonathan resumed her strength. “Hey.” Her yellow-green pupils glowed underneath her heavy eyelids. “I’m glad you came.”
“Are you?” He inched toward the bed and held up the roses. “These are for you.”
“Oh, they’re beautiful.” She cleared her throat loud, the bandage bobbing on her neck. “Thank you.” She pushed her pet
ite nose to the roses, her sensual features lifting as she sniffed. “I love roses. Why yellow though?”
“Yellow means friendship.” Jonathan gave a lopsided smile. “They’re from my garden.”
She sniffed them, parting her thick, uneven lips. “No one’s ever brought me flowers.”
Jonathan moved the table beside the bed to get closer to her. “I can’t believe that. What about your boyfriend?” He peeked into her half-empty bowl of red Jell-O. “You were leaving his place when Ro abducted you, right?”
She picked at a rose. “He kicked me out.”
“Why on earth would he do that?”
“We don’t have the best relationship. He wasn’t as kind as he could’ve been.”
“Abusive?” Jonathan held onto the railing of her bed. “How could any man hurt someone like you?”
A grin tore at her lips and her once-matted hair draped her shoulders with a silky sheen and bounce.
“Your hair’s pretty.”
“Thanks.” She touched it. “The nurse washed and brushed it for me.” She dropped her gaze for a second and then her eyes found his again. “I know who you are.”
He chuckled. “I hope so.”
“I don’t mean from rescuing me.” She gripped the railing in between his hand and he got the overwhelming urge to touch her but didn’t. “You’re Jonathan Wild. The leader of The Circle.”
He held his breath.
“That cop says you kidnapped her.” Her flat bosom rose under the sheet as she took a breath. “I saw it on the news. She says you drugged her and made her stay with you—”
“Candra—”
“I don’t believe it.” Redness swam through her pale cheeks. “You couldn’t do anything like that.” She touched his hand. “A man who’d do what you did for me couldn’t hurt anyone.”
“I love Deidra Quarter. She wants to be with me but she panicked. She’ll come back where she belongs.”
“The first time I looked into your eyes I could tell you were special.” She pushed her fingertips into his skin. “You’re an angel, Jonathan.”
He smirked. “Some would disagree with you on that.”
“Then they don’t know a good person when they see one. What’s it like in The Circle?”
“It’s wonderful.” He stroked her hair. “Peaceful and you become free of any worry or negativity.”
“I’d love to experience something like that.” She turned her body toward him. “I’d like to see The Circle for myself.”
“That wouldn’t be a good idea with the legal issues I’m going through right now.”
“I...” She lay on her back. “Have nowhere to go. My boyfriend was it.”
“What happened to your family?”
“Long story.” She laid her head on the pillow. “And, I don’t care to go into it right now.” A tear escaped her eye. “I’m scared.”
He caressed her forehead. “Don’t worry about what happens after you get out just concentrate on getting better. If you need a place to stay, you can come to Broadville Port with me.”
“You mean it?” Her face lit up. “Can I join The Circle?”
“It doesn’t work like that, Candra.”
“Why wouldn’t you want me to join?” She pressed her lips together. “Am I not good enough?”
He kissed her cheek, inhaling the strong aroma of hospital disinfectant. “You’re too good.”
****
Dee drove toward the beige, two-story house as a black Mitsubishi pulled out the driveway. “Hey,” she yelled out the window, honking.
A young, Asian male with a slender face and feminine features turned off the Mitsubishi. “Yes?”
An Asian female sat in the passenger’s side while another Asian boy and yellow-haired white guy sat in the backseats.
“We’re homicide detectives.” Dee jumped out her white Malibu, showing her badge. “We were told by Priti Yi’s mother we could find her here.”
Connie exited Dee’s car and gestured to the cute girl in the passenger’s seat. “Are you Priti?”
The girl glanced at the others as if she didn’t know what to say.
“Answer her.” The white boy lit a cigarette, his giant nose taking up most of his face.
“How old are you?” Connie asked him.
He took a drag, rolling his eyes. “Sixteen.”
Connie leaned on the backdoor. “How about you put that away?”
“Cigarettes are legal.” He scoffed.
“No teenager is smoking a cigarette in front of me.” Connie yanked it from him, threw it on the concrete and stomped on it.
“Hey,” he yelled.
The others laughed.
“You got no right to do that.” He opened the door. “That was my property.”
“Priti.” Dee walked to her side of the car. “We need to speak to you.”
The petite girl exited the car wearing a short, striped dress. Her straight, off-black hair stopped below her cheeks with a part in the middle.
“Yes?” Her loud red lipstick did her pale skin no favors.
“This is serious, okay?” Dee pulled Priti away from the car so the others couldn’t hear. “We need you to be honest.”
“Is this about Faith and her parents?” Her black eyes widened. “It’s horrible. Faith was like a sister.”
“Then you should help us catch who did this,” Connie said. “Since you’re her best friend, we figured you could set things straight. First, who are these guys?”
“My friends.” Priti looked back at the boys. “We were going to get something to eat.”
“You know them well?” Dee asked. “It can be unsafe for a young woman to be around a bunch of boys.”
“They’d never hurt me.” She put her small feet together, wearing black, wedged-heel loafers. “They’re like my brothers. They protect me.”
“Protect you from what?” Connie asked. “Someone been bothering you?”
“No. They’re there for me if I need something. I don’t know why someone would kill Faith and the Kengs.” She lowered her head.
“Priti.” Dee lifted the girl’s chin with her finger. “Are you lying to us?”
She fidgeted. “Did you talk to Donn Cho?”
Dee and Connie exchanged glances.
“Faith knew stuff about the K-Town Crips.” Priti lowered her voice. “She said Donn told her about the things they did. You know, like hits and illegal stuff.”
Dee poked out her lips. “That’s interesting.”
“She never told me anything specific.” Priti waved her hands left and right. “Said the Crips would kill Donn if they even knew he told their business. That’s all I know.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“You’re being unreasonable, Dee.” Lydia Quarter got the bottle of Artezin red wine from Dee’s kitchen cabinet that night. “You have no right to be upset about Grayson and Connie.”
“I’m not upset, but I don’t like how I found out.” The beige, travertine tile chilled Dee’s bare feet as she sat on the island bench. “Imagine my surprise to see my ex and my partner making out in the police station stairwell.”
“What business is it of yours?” Lydia sashayed to the island, holding the wine and glasses in her arms. “Are you jealous?”
“Hell no.” Dee opened her silky, green robe. “It’s a reminder of how much things changed while I was with Jonathan. How much time he took from me.”
Lydia sat beside Dee and filled the glasses halfway with red wine and passed Dee a glass. “I can’t wait until that asshole is in prison.” She raised her glass to her valentine lips. “No way can he get off after what he did to you.”
The spicy, pomegranate flavor of the wine warmed Dee’s tongue. “So, I shouldn’t give Jonathan immunity?”
Lydia ended her sip with a cough. “Hell no. How can you even ask that after what he’s done?”
Dee smoothed her fingers on the acrylic countertop. “What about Dania Shorter?”
Lydia rolled her eyes
to the ceiling.
“I have the chance to put the man who killed her away. What if there are victims, Lydia?”
“This might sound cold but you’re my sister, and I’m concerned with you and not anyone else right now.”
“But, you’re not a cop.” Dee crossed her legs. “My career, hell my life has been built on helping others. It’s in my nature. How can I look myself in the face if I can stop Chavis and didn’t try to?”
“When are you going to stop worrying about everyone else and do what’s best for yourself?”
Dee sighed, rocking her foot. “How was your visit with Cam?”
“We discussed moving to Baltimore for good.” Lydia crossed her legs. “He was surprised but open to the idea.”
“Cam would be bored out of his mind here.”
“If he loves me, then he’d move anywhere to be together.” Lydia caressed Dee’s arm. “Nothing’s more important than you. We’ve wasted too many years being apart and with Daddy gone we can’t afford to do that anymore.” She batted her amber-brown eyes. “I was so scared when you were missing.” She hugged her.
“Sh.” Dee stroked the lengthy strands of Lydia’s auburn hair. “You’ll never lose me.” She kissed her cheek. “I’m just not sure you being here is a good idea right now.”
Lydia moved away, batting those curious eyes. “Why?”
“Jonathan has an eye for you.” She felt Lydia shiver. “He might do something to you—”
“I’m not afraid of some coward who has to lock women up to be with him. I can take care of myself, Dee. You taught me how.”
“He’s dangerous. Before you know it, you could get swept up in his craziness. I’d never forgive myself if that happened.”
“You remember who you’re talking to?” Lydia chuckled, patting her bosom. “I’ve done expeditions in some of the most dangerous places in the world. I’ve been chased by tigers in Africa and almost bitten by anacondas in the Amazon rainforest. Jonathan Wild doesn’t scare me one bit.”
“He should.” Dee patted Lydia’s hair. “He’s probably the deadliest creature you’ll ever come across.”
The doorbell rang.