by Brick
“So what’s next? We’re on our way to Augusta, right?” I asked, anxious.
Tone dropped his head a bit before looking at me. “Yes, but we’re going to wait a few hours before we go, maybe even a day. We’ll arrive at night when we can catch him off guard just in case he’s got backup.”
My leg started to shake and I scratched the back of my head. “I don’t understand why we can’t just go now.”
“Because he’ll be expecting us, Kenya. And who knows what else he may do to her if he sees us coming. As badly as we want to go speeding down the freeway, it’s imperative we remain smart about this, a’ight?”
I blew out steam and sat back. To be in the same state with her and not be able to get to her right away was killing me. Tears clouded my eyes as I stared out the window at nothing and everything.
“Kenya, will you trust me on this? We’ve come too far in this journey for you to start doubting me when we’re so close,” Tone said.
I glanced at him then quickly turned back to the window when a tear slipped from my eye. Tone waited a few moments. Then he used his pointer finger to bring my face back around to his.
“We got this, okay?” he asked.
I nodded or, at least, I tried to. My head was too heavy to hold up, really.
“Good. We got this and I got you. Trust me.”
I nodded as did he and we remained silent on the ride back to Alpharetta. After getting back to the mansion, I locked myself away in my room to wash up and to get my thoughts together. Isaac kept calling. I finally decided to answer my phone a few hours later after I realized he wasn’t going to stop calling.
“Hi, Isaac,” I answered.
“Where the hell have you been?” he barked into the phone. “I’ve been calling and calling.”
“Looking for my daughter, Isaac. I’ve been looking for my child,” I answered wearily.
“You couldn’t answer the phone? You couldn’t let me know you were okay? Where the hell are you?”
Somewhere in my head, I heard him. I wanted to be rational, but I couldn’t help but realize he hadn’t once asked me how I was doing. He hadn’t asked me if I’d heard anything of Jewel. He only wanted to know why I hadn’t answered the phone.
“I’m doing fine, Isaac. We found some information on Jewel’s whereabouts,” I said in a calm voice.
He grunted. “Clearly, you’re doing fine.”
I took a deep breath. I had to remember that I was the one who had cheated on him and he didn’t even know it. I had to remember I was the liar. I was the one who enjoyed having Antonio touch me. I was the one wanting that old thing back. In the midst of it all, I couldn’t help but think that if Tone and I had stayed together, Jewel wouldn’t have suffered such a fate.
“I’m in Atlanta,” I told Isaac.
“You’re that close to home and didn’t think to check in?”
“I haven’t even taken a minute to rest yet.” It was technically the truth.
“Where is he?”
“He, who?”
“Antonio. I bet he’s there with you.”
“Yes, he’s in Atlanta too. We followed the trail to Jewel here.”
“You two in the same hotel room?”
I sighed and tried to remain patient. He’d assumed the same thing when I was in Cuba. He was accusing me of being untrustworthy without coming right out and saying it. “No, Isaac.”
“Well, when will you be home?”
“When I get Jewel. When we find Jewel. Has she tried to reach out to you?”
“If she had, you wouldn’t have known since you didn’t think to call me.”
“Isaac,” I snapped, yelling his name then catching myself. Tears rimmed my eyelids again. I felt like I was losing my mind. I had already lost control of my emotions. I said through clenched teeth, “Can you stop? Will you stop making this about me and you when the most important thing is finding Jewel?”
There was a knock at the bedroom door that I ignored.
“Do you know what’s happened to my child? You haven’t even fucking cared to ask what I found out. You’re just worried about whether I’m fucking Antonio! I saw video of my child being raped! I don’t give a damn how you feel about me not calling you. I am hurting. I am in pain. I don’t know where my child is and all you fucking care about is why I haven’t called?”
Isaac got quiet for a moment as if he was thinking about what I was saying. It was as if I was having an out-of-body experience. I was floating somewhere above the room watching myself pace back and forth as I yelled into my cell phone. I had no idea what Isaac said in return. For moments, he was quiet. All I could hear was him breathing on the other end of the phone.
After a while he said, “I told you about yelling at me. Don’t yell at me,” he snarled. “I told you over and over again to not raise your voice to me. You speak to me harshly when you’re angry and sometimes even worse when you’re not. You’re abusive, verbally so. Is that what you’re used to? Is that what that nigger, Antonio, taught you?”
I frowned, pulled the phone back, and stared at it like it had offended me. Isaac had called Tone “nigger” as if his kind of black were better than Tone’s. As if Tone weren’t a renowned surgeon. As if him being a scientist trumped Tone’s smarts and status as a doctor. That angered me. The way he spoke of Tone, my missing daughter’s father, made me want to fight him. If he had been in front of me, I would have tried to.
There was another rapid knock at the door. Tone yelled, “Kenya, get dressed. We need to meet the old man on the veranda.”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t seen it before now. Yes, Isaac was a true-to-form Southern gentleman but he was also possessive and he believed in gender roles. If I were to be honest, I hadn’t liked it from the beginning, but because I’d been told I had the mouth of a sailor when angry and words that could cut deeper than a double-edged sword, I was trying to do things differently. I was trying to be more submissive, so to speak.
“Fuck you, Isaac, and I mean that,” I said.
“Don’t do that, Kenya. Stop talking to me like that.”
“Fuck off. You called me, knowing that finding Jewel is my top priority, and all you can ask about is Antonio and why I haven’t called. I’ll never forgive you for that.”
He made some kind of guttural sound in his throat. “Listen, you’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come at you like that, but—”
Whatever he was about to say got lost in transmission. Tone pushed the room door open. He walked in dressed in all black like he was about to go on some kind of blackout mission.
Tone used the heel of his foot to kick the door closed behind him then he closed the gap between us. “You need to put some clothes on and come downstairs,” he said. His face told me he didn’t give a damn who I was on the phone with, and common sense told me he had been standing outside the door long enough to know it was Isaac on the other end of my phone.
“You’re naked with him in your room?” Isaac asked.
“I have to go,” I said.
Tone took my cell and pressed the end call button. I wasn’t naked. The towel was still wrapped around me. He stepped back and gave me a look up and down before moving to the closet in the room. A few seconds later, he came out of the walk-in closet with black leggings and a black tank. I hadn’t even bothered to shop for any clothes so I was thankful that some woman in Caltrone’s harem had clothing that fit me. I took the clothes and quickly put them on.
I made a move to walk out the door, but Tone stopped me. I whipped my head around to look at him. “What?” I asked.
“What did I tell you about being around these people?” he asked. He’d said “these people,” not “my family.” That wasn’t lost on me.
I shrugged.
He said, “Fix your face, Kenya. Whatever Isaac said to you, put it in the back of your mind for now. We’re in a house full of predators. If they smell any kind of fear or emotions, they’ll eat you alive.”
“I’m h
urting, Tone. I can’t just turn my feelings on and off like that.”
“You can and you will. I’m not giving you a choice. So fix your face or I’ll have you shipped back to Miami. I’m here with my father. I can make it happen and there would be nothing you could do or say about it.”
I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath while glaring up at him. Did he just threaten to send me home without my child? I got ready to rip him a new asshole too, until he cupped my chin and came closer to me.
“Before you get ready to cuss a nigga, know I’m not here to be an asshole. I say that out of love and concern for you. That’s it. I don’t want these people to latch on to you. And I don’t want you to lose your mind. We’ve come too far. We’re almost there. Like you told me earlier. We’re close to her. I can feel that too. So take a few minutes, a’ight? Get rid of those tears. Forget Isaac right now. Focus on Jewel. Jewel is all who matters right now, okay?”
I didn’t nod. I didn’t say anything. I just looked at him through blurry vision. He was right. I knew that. But my emotional state was so fragile right now, I could barely think straight. He knew this. He knew me. We gazed at one another that way for a long time. Memories danced behind our eyes. I could see myself in his eyes and I was a mess.
“Take five. Get it together. Come downstairs,” he said.
I thought he was going to kiss me. I needed it. Would have been all for it, but he walked out, leaving me to all my demons.
Ten minutes later, I walked downstairs, expecting to see a house full of Orlandos. However, on the veranda there were only Tone, Caltrone, Benita, who was sitting a few paces behind Caltrone, and that Lilith woman. Benita looked up at me when I walked down. She was as relaxed as I’d ever seen her: hair down and biker shorts and a black sports bra on with casual running shoes. There was no doubt in my mind that she was armed, though.
Lilith sat dressed like she was in a corporate business meeting. She wore a power suit, white, that framed her athletically curvy body, with red bottom pumps on her feet. Her hair was pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck. She wore minimal makeup and watched Tone a little too closely for my liking.
Tone and Caltrone were in the middle of a conversation about Augusta when I took a seat next to Tone. He gave me a cursory look then continued talking to his father. “I want to move in on the area just before nightfall. I need to draw out any security he may have,” Tone said.
Caltrone nodded. He looked stressed. I’d never seen Caltrone stressed. But something was bothering him. Maybe it was the fact that Knights had been spotted in the area. “I agree, mijo,” Caltrone said.
“Draw them away from wherever he is then move in on him when he’s not expecting it. Clearly, homeboy isn’t that smart.”
“So tomorrow then? We move out. Get this thing handled as quickly and as smoothly as possible.” Caltrone’s accent was thicker than normal. He had a glass of rum in his hand but he barely took a sip. “How are you, Kenya?” he asked.
I glanced over at the old man. “I’m going to be a lot better once Jewel is back with me, us.”
“Understood,” he said. “You need anything, ask Lilith. She is at your disposal.”
Lilith’s body stiffened and she put her wineglass down. Benita cracked a hint of a smile but kept her head down as if she were reading her book.
“You want me to be her handmaiden?” she asked Caltrone.
“If that is what I asked of you, that is what you’re to be,” he responded. There was no nonsense in his voice.
Lilith looked at him head-on. “You’re serious?”
Caltrone tilted his head and gave the woman a look that dared her to challenge him again. Lilith backed down.
“As you wish,” she said.
I chimed in. “I don’t need her to be or do anything for me.”
I was about to say more until I saw Tiffany making a fast approach to Caltrone. She’d come from the house, dressed similarly to Benita. She stopped just inches away from Caltrone. He gave her a passing glance then turned back to Tone.
“It’s been almost two weeks,” Tiffany said.
Caltrone stopped whatever he was about to say to Tone. I thought he was about to say something to Tiffany, but he went back to his conversation with his son. Tiffany shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Benita laid her book down. There was concern etched on her features.
Tiffany looked as if she was about to cry. “You said for me to wait and I did. You said wait until Thursday and I did. It’s Friday now.”
Caltrone ran his tongue over his teeth and his brows furrowed. He turned to the girl. “Go to Marco or Frederick. I am in the middle of speaking to my son. Do not interrupt me again.”
Tiffany shrank back a little. I thought the girl would have some sense and go on about her business, but no. Lilith was shooting daggers at her. Benita watched Lilith. I had the feeling that if Lilith did anything to Tiffany, Benita would have no problem blowing her brains out.
Caltrone continued talking to Tone. Tiffany looked as if she was fighting with what to say or do next. Part of me wanted to tell the girl to leave it be for now, whatever it was. But I knew trying to get her to let it go was futile, and I was right.
“I don’t want to go to Frederick and I refuse to go to Marco,” she blurted out.
The girl was wringing her hands and tears were in her eyes. I had the urge to get up and drag her away. I didn’t want to see what Caltrone would do to her when he was angry. She had been nice to me and Tone. She always had a smile for me and she regarded Tone with much respect, not ass kissing, just simple human kindness.
“You said I just had to wait. I’ve been waiting and—”
Caltrone stood so fast, it scared me. I shrieked. Dishes fell from the table and a wine bottle spilled onto the floor. Tiffany screamed out and dropped to her knees like she was regretting her decision to speak up, like she knew she had fucked up. Benita toppled the chair she was sitting in and rushed to stand in front of Tiffany.
Benita threw her arm up to stop what I was sure was going to be a backhand from hell. I was certain that if Caltrone’s hand had connected to Tiffany’s face it would have broken a few bones.
“She didn’t mean it,” Benita yelled out.
Tiffany was cowering on her knees still. Lilith was laughing.
“She didn’t mean it, papi. She’s not in her right mind. Please,” Benita pleaded. “I’ll take her in the house and give her something to put her to sleep. I’ll take whatever punishment meant for her. Just don’t. Por favor.”
The fear in that woman’s face was real. It made me think about Jewel. Was she that scared of Keith? Had he instilled this kind of fear in her? I’d kill him if he had.
Caltrone dropped his hand and looked at the mess that had been made. “Get her away from me,” he said coolly. “Then get back out here to clean this mess. Vamanos.”
Benita quickly helped Tiffany from her knees and ushered her into the house.
“Silly-ass little girl,” Lilith quipped.
I’d no idea what Tiffany wanted or needed that badly to risk the wrath of Caltrone Orlando, but I didn’t like the vibe Lilith was putting off. Clearly, she was getting off on the young woman’s misery and that didn’t sit well with me. I could have been a bit biased. Maybe every young woman I saw put me in the mind of Jewel, but I wanted to tell Lilith to go take a hot bath in a tub of molten lava.
I asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
“Little nympho,” Lilith chortled.
I’d asked Caltrone, but she’d answered.
Caltrone grunted.
“Should probably get the little bitch some help, get her fixed,” she continued.
“She would need no more help than you. Have you been fixed?” Tone cut in.
I quirked a brow then looked at him, wondering what he knew of the woman.
Caltrone had leaned to the side in his chair. His thumb and pointer finger resting against his face, reminding me of the photo of Malcolm X d
oing the same. I turned to look back at Lilith, who now had a scowl on her face while studying Tone.
With a look that said something stank, Lilith regarded Tone. “You don’t know me,” she said to him.
Tone sat back and, like a mirror, leaned over and propped his thumb and pointer finger against his face. Same as his father. He looked resolved, as if he was tired and had no desire to trifle with pettiness. “All bitches are the same when it comes to my father,” Tone answered, coolly.
“Would that include—” Lilith started.
Both Tone and Caltrone turned their heads to look at her so slowly that the air chilled. The wind picked up as if even it knew that Lilith had almost signed her death warrant. Trees on the land rocked and swayed as if even they had become angry. I knew what she was about to say before she even thought it. She seemed to be a petty immature woman as such. She was also Caltrone’s right-hand woman. A woman who could stand next to Caltrone had to be petty and a bit devilish, hence the name Lilith.
When both Caltrone and Tone said, “Say it,” in unison, I knew Lilith backtracked to where she had them fucked up and decided to go in the other direction. Her face reddened and she took several deep breaths before turning her head toward Benita, who had cleaning supplies in her hand.
Benita rushed over and was set to clean until Caltrone touched her arm and told her to step back. She did as she was told.
“Erica, clean it,” Caltrone said.
I looked around, wondering if there was a woman there I hadn’t seen, but when Benita’s eyes widened and Lilith looked as if her soul had just been snatched from her body, I figured that her real name was Erica. That smug look and arrogant demeanor went from simmering to lukewarm. She swallowed, pushed her chair back, and then stood.
I watched as Lilith knelt, in her power suit, on her knees like a servant, and started to clean the broken glass and wine from the veranda.
Caltrone said, “Knights are on the grounds in Atlanta. And they want me to know they’re here. They’re not hiding.”
“I thought Uncle Rueben was handling that,” Tone queried.