Brickhouse

by Rita Ewing

  She closed her robe, covering her breasts. “I’m not doing that.”

  “You call me fifteen, twenty times a day. You interrupt me in meetings; you harass me when I’m home. You’re worse than the paparazzi.” He paused and turned his back. “I’m sorry, Leila. I told you. It’s over.”

  “I promise, sweetheart. I’ll be better.” She lifted herself from the bed and let the robe slide from her shoulders. She posed, the way she’d seen Toni Lee do in so many movies, and she could tell from the way his Adam’s apple jumped that the see-through teddy was working. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” she purred.

  His eyes moved from her crotch to her eyes, and he twisted his mouth in disgust. “Put your clothes back on, Leila. Begging doesn’t become you.” He looked at his watch and sighed. “Look, it’s more than what’s been going on between us. There’s a lot happening, and I can’t put my life and career at risk anymore.”

  “But I love you.”

  He shook his head.

  “No, please …” She grabbed his wrist as he turned to the door.

  “I’ve said all I came to say.”

  “But, sweetheart, how can you just leave me like this? Don’t you know how much I love you?”

  He yanked his hand from her grasp. “Don’t make me sorry that I ever got involved with you, Leila.”

  “Please, I said I’d do anything.”

  He moved toward the door and reached for the doorknob. When he looked back, his eyes were blank, as if he no longer even knew her name.

  “Anthony, please. Don’t go.”

  “Good-bye, Leila.”

  And she cried as she watched the mayor walk through the door and out of her life forever.

  twenty–two

  It had taken almost everything Nona had inside her to stay in bed until the first morning light. Still, she’d dressed and walked into Brickhouse before the clock ticked to seven.

  She entered the building, nodded at the first-shift employees, and then rushed to the security room. There were three keys–only she, Allen, and Charles, the chief of security, had access. But only she and Allen knew the combination to the master safe.

  She stepped inside the darkened room that was the size of a small walk-in closet. In here, she kept her most important business papers, membership files, anything that she wanted to make sure would never become available to the public.

  She walked slowly to the safe in the back and trembled as she punched in the digital code. She paused a moment when it beeped three times. After taking a breath, she pulled the door.

  It took seconds for the sight to register. The disc was in the safe–lying on top of a pile of folders. She was surprised, and relieved. At least the vision that had filled her dreams all night of her disc traveling across the country from one counterfeiter to another wouldn’t come true. Unless multiple copies had already been made.

  Nona sorted through the rest of the files, making sure nothing else was missing, especially the file that Anna had given her. Everything was where she’d left it–although she didn’t know what else had been taken and returned. She closed the safe, then shuddered as she looked around the room. Who had been here?

  There was little comfort in finding the disc. If it had disappeared once, it could happen again.

  In her office, she glanced at her watch. It was just ten after seven. Charles, the chief of security, would be in at nine, and Nona wondered how she’d survive that long. She shifted through the mail Sarah had left on her desk, but the words blurred together on every page. She shoved the pile of letters aside. From the moment Derrick told her this news till now, it had consumed her, but she hadn’t been able to make sense of it. Who would make copies of her video? And, how did they get into her safe? She was more convinced now than she’d been last night that it wasn’t Allen, but that left her with a blank mental canvas of suspects.

  By eight o’clock Nona was staring out the window watching Harlem come alive. Residents moved through the streets, tending to their lives–on their way to work, to school, to taking care of whatever business needed to be done. It was a normal day. Normal for everyone except her.

  By quarter to nine, she was speed-walking across her office, checking her watch every thirty seconds. At nine, she was waiting at Charles’s door.

  “Nona, good morning,” Charles said, taken aback by her standing guard in front of his office. “Did we have a meeting?”

  She shook her head. “I just need to speak with you.” She folded her arms as he unlocked his office, and then she followed him inside.

  “What can I do for you?”

  She waited until he hung his jacket behind the door and sat at his desk. “I want to review the security check-in log.”

  He frowned a bit. “Sure.” He unlocked his bottom desk drawer, pulled out the ledger, and rested it on his desk.

  After her first two years in business, Nona realized that not many members used the club after nine. Since then, she’d made nine o’clock the closing hour, but Brickhouse was open until midnight during the week for members to have access to retrieve any personal effects from lockers. It was Charles who suggested, when he joined the Brickhouse team, that after nine, everyone should sign in.

  It hadn’t made much sense to her then.

  “Just extra precautions,” he said at that time.

  She was grateful for it now.

  Nona flipped back the pages. “You were on duty on Friday night.”

  Charles looked at the page Nona turned to. “Yup. That’s my late night. It was pretty quiet. Fridays always are.”

  Nona looked down at the page and at first sighed with relief. Allen’s name was not on the list. But then lines of anxiety creased her forehead. There were only two names: Tracie, a young trainer she’d hired two months before and … Toni Lee.

  Nona inhaled when she saw Toni’s name, but she harnessed the runaway thoughts that were ready to take her to places she didn’t want to go. “Do you remember these two women?”

  Charles squinted at the names. “Oh, yeah. I remember both of them.” He leaned back in his chair. “They came in about ten minutes apart and both stayed about fifteen minutes.”

  Nona glanced down at the log that kept check-in and check-out times. He had it almost down to the minute. “You have a good memory.”

  He grinned. “Part of security.” He turned serious. “But I remember both because, well … who doesn’t know Toni Lee. But that night she was acting weird. And so was that other woman, Tracie. She’s one of the trainers, right?”

  Nona nodded.

  “Well, I teased them both about acting like they were running from the cops. They were acting all nervous, like they were doing something wrong. I remember laughing, but neither one of them thought that my little joke was funny.”

  Nona closed the book and stood. “Thank you, Charles.”

  “You’re welcome. Is there something wrong?”

  “No, I just needed to check out something.”

  He looked as if he didn’t believe her. “Okay, but let me know if you need my help.”

  She felt faint as she stepped outside his office and closed the door. Toni Lee. Could she be the one? There was also Tracie, but she’d been with Brickhouse for only a few months. What could she possibly gain? Nona shook her head–neither one of them had any motive to harm her.

  “Nona?”

  She looked up, into Allen’s concerned face.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded.

  “You look like you’re not feeling well.”

  “I’m fine,” she whispered.

  “What were you doing in Charles’s office?”

  She looked into Allen’s eyes and remembered his warning about Toni at the premiere. Had he been right?

  She shook her head slightly. She didn’t have any information. She couldn’t say anything until she was sure. “I … I’m thinking about expanding the security team.”

  “Really? I didn’t know that.”
<
br />   “It’s only because of a few articles I’ve read recently.” She waved her hand in the air as if it wasn’t important. “Anyway, I have a class.” She rushed to her office.

  She couldn’t wait to be alone. Toni Lee. It just wasn’t possible. It seemed as if they had been friends forever. Toni was the one who helped her get financing for Brickhouse. She wouldn’t have this business without Toni.

  She doesn’t seem to like the idea of you working with Derrick. I think she might be jealous. Nona remembered what Allen had said to her at the premiere.

  “It can’t be,” Nona whispered as she sank into her chair.

  The telephone rang, taking her away from the disturbing thoughts.

  “Nona, how are you this morning?”

  She almost smiled at the sound of his voice. “Not good, Derrick.”

  “Have you found out anything?”

  There was no way she was going to tell him what she suspected. No one would know anything until she had all the facts. “I haven’t found out much, but I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”

  “Just know that I’m here for whatever you need, Nona.”

  His words made her pause and remember the way he’d kissed her last night. “Thank you, Derrick.”

  “I’ll be waiting for your call,” he said, then hung up.

  She rested the phone on her desk, but a moment later, she picked it up and dialed.

  “Hello, Sam. This is Nona. May I speak to Toni, please?”

  She knew what was coming before he even said the words. “I’m sorry, Nona. But Toni is not–”

  Nona had hung up before Sam could utter the last word.

  Tracie or Toni. Nona didn’t know what to think. She wanted to get into her car and track Toni down, but she had a class to teach in two hours.

  She’d have to start with Tracie, although Nona didn’t expect to find out anything from the young woman. She was a graduate student at Columbia, studying physiology, and had come to Brickhouse with a few clients whom she’d been personally training at school. During her first month, Tracie had worked with her clients under Allen’s guidance, but since then, she’d been working on her own. According to the monthly performance reviews that Allen and Isaac provided to Nona, she was doing very well.

  “I think Tracie is one of the best new trainers we’ve hired in a while.” Allen had told Nona about three weeks ago. “She’s ambitious, she’s hungry. We can use that to our advantage … and hers.”

  Nona shook her head. Tracie wasn’t the one. It was Toni whom she wanted to speak to. And she wouldn’t be able to search for her for a few hours.

  It felt as if the air was being sucked from her office, and she stepped outside. “Sarah, call me on the walkie-talkie if you need me. I’m going to walk around and check on things.”

  As she wandered to the front of the gym, she wondered if she should tell Allen what she’d found out. He’d have ideas about Toni. He’d probably suspected something all along–after all, he was the one who warned her.

  She didn’t have any information, but she needed her friend. As she knocked on Allen’s office door, Isaac came out of his.

  “Hey, Nona. Allen’s not here.”

  “I just saw him a little while ago.”

  “Yeah, but he had to run out. He asked if I would cover his first client. Said he’d be back about noon.”

  She sighed. “Thanks.”

  “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “No, thanks.” She forced herself to smile and turned toward the workout room.

  She glanced through the glass windows. There were three trainers inside; two were working with clients. One was working alone–it was Tracie.

  Nona edged closer to the glass doors and watched the petite woman with shoulder-length twists as she lifted a dumbbell. Trade’s back was to Nona, but Nona could see her face through the mirror. There was nothing unusual–she was working out, before meeting her clients.

  As Tracie raised one of the weights to do a biceps curl, she looked in the mirror, and her glance met Nona’s. She froze. Tracie dropped both dumbbells and turned toward the door where Nona stood.

  Nona’s heart pounded as she walked into the room, taking slow steps across the carpet to Tracie.

  Even from several feet away, Nona could see the young woman’s fear, the trembling of her hands, the widening of her eyes.

  “Nona, I’m so sorry.”

  Nona wanted to ask Tracie what she was sorry for. She wanted to ask why. She wanted to ask what she had done to her. But shock kept her silent, and she stared at the woman she’d just hired.

  “I knew it was wrong because you told me that room was off-limits to employees when you hired me, but I was only returning the disc.”

  Nona couldn’t breathe.

  “I didn’t want to do it, but Allen has been so good to me. And it was only opening the safe and putting the disc back.”

  Allen? It felt as if her heart had stopped beating.

  “And I really needed the money. And it didn’t seem like it was too big a deal. I swear I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”

  Nona inhaled to get oxygen to her lungs and to get her heart pumping again so that her lips would move.

  “I asked Allen what was going on, but all he would tell me was that you couldn’t know–”

  Nona held up her hand, stopping the girl. It was too much, coming too fast. Tracie’s words were jumbled in her mind, like jigsaw puzzle pieces. She couldn’t put them together–not yet. Even though the final picture was very clear.

  “Tracie, you have fifteen minutes to get your personal belongings and leave Brickhouse.” Nona was surprised at the calmness of her tone, so different from the emotions that raged inside, fighting to burst out.

  The girl took a step toward Nona, but Nona backed away.

  “I’m so sorry, Nona. I wanted this chance. I was only trying to help Allen.”

  “Get out of my gym.” Nona turned, not noticing the stares from the others in the workout room. She rushed to her office.

  “Nona, what’s wrong?” Sarah asked just before Nona slammed her door.

  With hands that were still unsteady, she called Charles.

  “I just fired Tracie Santos. Please escort her out of Brickhouse in ten minutes.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And she is not to return for any purposes.”

  Nona slammed down her phone.

  Allen. Allen. Allen. He had taken the disc, given an employee the key to the security room and the combination to the main safe.

  Her eyes watered as the full understanding of the betrayal sank in. She felt heavy, and sank into her chair.

  She and Allen had been a team–from the beginning. But it was obvious she was the only one who still felt that way.

  She thought about the conversations they’d had in the past weeks. How he’d tried to get her to leave Brickhouse and Harlem. How he’d tried to convince her that one of her best friends was jealous of her. He was trying to destroy her at every level of her life.

  She closed her eyes and lowered her head onto her desk. Her mind was blank for a moment, but then the image of the night when she discovered Ron was cheating on her filled her thoughts. Even now she recalled how that news hit her, the pain of her husband tossing aside his marriage vows–and his wife at the same time. He had kicked her, right in the center of her heart. Breaking her into tiny, irrelevant pieces. She had never known a greater pain. Until now.

  Allen paused the moment he stepped inside his office. “Nona, what are you doing here? Did I forget about a meeting?”

  Her back was to him, and she used a tissue to blot at the tears that still rolled down her cheeks.

  He stepped in front of her. “Nona,” he called her name gently. “What’s wrong?”

  She had it all planned–how she was going to show her indignation and then demand that he leave the premises and never enter her life again. She wasn’t even going to ask him why–she wasn’t going t
o give him the satisfaction of providing her with an explanation.

  But the moment she heard his voice, her tears started again. This man could have come from her mother’s womb. He had been more than a brother to her. And she thought he’d felt the same way. From the moment they met and she found out that he had no family, he’d become part of hers. But something had changed, and she didn’t know why he had betrayed her.

  When he noticed her tears, he knelt at the side of the chair where she sat. He took a breath. “Did something happen with the rezoning committee?”

  She sobbed and shook her head. She kept her eyes down, knowing the moment she looked at him, their friendship would be over forever.

  “Nona, please tell me what’s going on. You know I’m always here for you.”

  Always here for you? His words made the water that flowed from her heart through her eyes stop. She looked straight at him.

  She tried to decipher what she saw in his eyes. Worry? Love? His fake concern pulled her emotional trigger.

  She raised herself from the chair slowly. Her eyes blazed with anger. “You mother–”

  “Nona.”

  “You betrayed me. I trusted you,” she screamed.

  “Nona, what are you talking about?”

  “About the disc, Allen. And how you made copies,” she yelled, pointing her finger at him. “And how you’re selling them on the street. Were you the one selling bootleg copies last time? How long have you hated me, Allen?” she cried.

  He backed away, her words striking him like bullets. “Nona, I don’t hate you, I love you.”

  Her laughter was filled with pain. “Keep your love, Allen. I don’t want to have anything to do with you and your love and your concern and your–”

  Before Nona could utter another word, Allen stumbled backward, then collapsed onto the floor, his body limp, as if there was not a bone inside.

  It took a moment for Nona to comprehend the sight. The anger that filled her twisted to fear.

  “Allen?” she whispered. When he didn’t respond, she rushed to him. His eyes were wide open, but Nona knew that he did not see her staring down at him. “Allen,” she called, louder this time. A second later, she jumped up and opened the door to his office. “Help,” she screamed.