Eye for an Eye

by Dwayne S. Joseph

  “Aren’t you worried about your neighbors seeing you swimming with someone who’s not your wife?”

  “The pool is completely fenced in. No one will see anything. We can swim with only our birthday suits on.”

  “Sounds enticing.”

  “Say yes,” Ryan said again.

  I said, “You’re sounding desperate, Ryan. It’s not very attractive.”

  It was very unlike him.

  He said, “It’s not that I’m desperate. I’ve just been watching a lot of Turn Up the heat with G. Garvin lately. I want to impress you with my skills.”

  I laughed. “I’m not easily impressed.”

  “I think I’m up for the challenge.”

  “Others thought they were up for the challenge too,” I said.

  “The others didn’t have the skills I have.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Say yes and you’ll see.”

  I was silent for a few seconds. I wanted to make him think I was really giving his request some thought. As I did, I thought about Aida’s question to me.

  Had I been caught up?

  My answer to her had been the truth, but I had to admit–Ryan was intriguing.

  I said, “OK.”

  “Great! I’ll come by and pick you up around seven. Where in the city do you live?”

  “I’ll drive to you,” I said.

  “Navigating your way here can be a little tricky. I don’t mind coming to pick you up.”

  “I have a GPS. The navigation won’t be a problem.”

  Ryan sighed. “OK.”

  I took his address down and then ended the call. As intriguing as he was, I was looking forward to getting the job completed. I needed to be able to focus solely on trying to figure out who sent my mother to me, and I needed to be ready for them–because I had no doubt they were going to make their next move.

  I spent the rest of the day getting ready. I went to Saks and bought a new outfit. It wasn’t necessary. I just felt like wearing something new. After Saks I called Myles’s cell phone and made another pass by Starbucks. As had been the case the previous times, he was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t help but wonder, had his disappearance been related to the person who sent the clippings? After all, if this person knew about Kyra, then he or she knew about Myles too.

  I’d spoken to Marlene before I confirmed everything with Shante. She still hadn’t spoken to Lisa. She was supposed to have called me back later on in the afternoon with a better update. I was now on my way to the Hamptons and she still hadn’t called.

  I grabbed my BlackBerry and hit the speed dial.

  She spoke before I could say anything. “Lisette I’m so sorry I didn’t call you earlier, but I had to take Ben to the ER.”

  “Is he OK?”

  Marlene took a breath. “He had an allergic reaction to something and his eyes became swollen and he broke out in hives. I was in the hospital all afternoon with him while the doctors ran test after test trying to figure out what caused the reaction.”

  She paused to take another breath.

  “Is Ben OK now?” I asked.

  “Yes. Thank God. The doctors still don’t know why he broke out, but they managed to get the hives to go away and the swelling in his eyes to go down. He’s sleeping on top of me right now.”

  “Good.”

  “With everything going on, I didn’t get a chance to call Lisa again. But I’ll do it now and call you back.”

  “OK.”

  “Any luck with Myles?”

  “No.”

  “Damn. I know you’re not one to worry, but his sudden drop off the face of the earth worries me, Lisette.”

  I clenched my jaw and tightened my fingers around the steering wheel as I drove down Route 27.

  Marlene was right.

  I was never one to worry.

  But this had to do with Kyra, and that connection did have me worried.

  I said, “Call Lisa, Marlene. She’s the key. And give Benji a kiss for me.”

  I ended the call and hit play on my iPod. Pink Martini began to play. “Amado Mio.” I took a breath and let it out slowly.

  Thoughts of Lisa, Myles, my mother, and the newspaper clipping, the person who had sent her, and Kyra ran through my mind, along with their accompanying whos, whats, whens, wheres and whys.

  “Amado Mio.”

  I listened to it. Listened to Chyna Forbes’ sweet voice.

  I drove at a steady seventy-five miles per hour and focused. I had to get centered. I had a job to complete.

  36

  Aida was conflicted.

  In a few hours she was going to help Vivian Steele back Griffin into a corner and force him to go to marriage counseling because she loved her husband, despite the fact that he slept with other women, and because she was a dependant bitch who was too damned scared to stand on her own two feet.

  The day after her work was done, Aida would receive the other half of the $50,000 Vivian was desperate enough to pay. Check in hand, she’d go to the bank, deposit the money, and then head to SoHo to buy a new designer purse from Marc Jacobs. After that, she’d go to Alexis Bittar for a pair of teardrop earrings and one or two knuckle-engulfing rings. Purse and jewelry in hand, her next step would be Te Casan on West Broadway for a pair of sleek black and brown leather boots, and a pair of pixie-like, pointy-toed pumps. She’d then go to Barneys New York on Madison Avenue for some designer tops to match the shoes, and a few pairs of the latest hot denim jeans. Her day would end at Juvenex on West Thirty-second Street, where she’d get a full body scrub.

  This excursion was a ritual for her. It was something she did after every completed job. It was something she always looked forward to.

  Until now.

  Aida sighed and looked at herself in her dressing table mirror. She was drop-dead sexy in a form-fitting, sleeveless black dress that stopped two inches above her knees, and her hair was teased up into a bun so that her neck and shoulders were exposed.

  She always went extra sexy for her final night, her final performance. She wanted the men she fucked over to remember her despite the drama and shit they would be going through dealing with their scorned wives. She got off on knowing that they would.

  Until now.

  Now she was troubled.

  She had to set Griffin up. It was what she was being paid to do. She had to set him up and keep moving. But looking at herself in the mirror, she admitted to herself that she didn’t know if she could go through with it.

  Lisette may have never fallen, but Aida had.

  She’d tried to fight the truth, especially after her conversation with Lisette, but the harder she tried to fight, the more the truth refused to stay buried.

  She was falling for Griffin like she’d never fallen for anyone before, and the thought of helping Vivian force him to remain with her had Aida’s stomach in knots.

  Vivian didn’t fucking deserve him.

  To hell with her looks, she wasn’t in his league. Griffin was sexy, successful, and overflowing with swagger. Vivian didn’t complement him. She didn’t bring anything to the table.

  “Why the fuck should I help you?” she asked herself.

  She stared at her reflection. Her reflection stared back, with hard stark, unblinking eyes. Eyes that said, “You know why, bitch.”

  Aida dropped her chin to her chest and sighed.

  She knew why. The life she lived was dependent on helping Vivian get exactly what she wanted. She had no choice.

  And it sucked.

  For the first time, she disliked her job. For the first time, she wished she’d never taken the assignment. Of course, she would have never met Griffin had she not.

  She looked at herself. “Meeting him isn’t the fucking problem though, is it?” She slammed her palm down on the dressing table. “Cono!”

  She exhaled and looked down at her watch. She had to get on the road. It was going to take about an hour to get to Griffin’s, who, when she spoke to him earlier to confirm
their date was still on, had begged her to give him more time and arrive by nine o’clock. He was cooking her dinner. A meal she’d requested. Rice with potatoes and red kidney beans, topped by baked chicken. Griffin said he’d felt a connection with her.

  He was a liar.

  Aida knew this.

  But as he’d made that statement, she felt that she’d seen truth in his sexy, brown eyes.

  Aida gave herself a long, hard look in the mirror. She was a home wrecker. Griffin was a man who deserved to have his home wrecked, because, ultimately, he was just like all of the other men she’d taken down. Only she wasn’t taking him down. She was helping Vivian, stay with him. Vivian who had no right being with him.

  Aida stared.

  Her reflection stared back at her and said, “You know what to do.”

  Aida nodded and then turned around.

  She knew what to do.

  But could she?

  37

  “Are you serious? Rebecca, you’re . . . you’re crazy!”

  Rebecca sat up. “How am I being crazy, Kay?”

  “Because . . .” Kay Gardiner looked from left to right as though she and Rebecca weren’t the only ones in her home. “You just offered to seduce Craig.”

  “Yeah, and why is that crazy?” Rebecca looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow and the right corner of her mouth closed tight and hitched up.

  After her adventure with Cole at the hotel, Rebecca had become more determined than ever to convince Lisette that she could and would be great at setting up an unsuspecting husband. She’d called Marlene numerous times, practically begging for another meeting with Lisette. She was sure that one more face-to-face meeting would have been all she needed to convince Lisette to give her the opportunity. Her confidence was high, and she just knew that she’d take the opportunity and turn it into gold.

  Lisette would be pleased, impressed, and maybe even a little jealous of the skill she’d demonstrate. Rebecca just needed that chance.

  Unfortunately, getting Lisette to agree to meet with her again was proving to be damn near impossible.

  It stung when Lisette brushed her request off and told her to go home as though she were a child. For a couple of days, Rebecca actually began to question the decision she’d made.

  Maybe being a home wrecker wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing. Lisette hadn’t verbalized it, but her eyes and the brush-off had said it all; maybe she wasn’t good enough. She was talking a good game, but when the time came, perhaps she wouldn’t have the guts to go through with it. Who the hell was she to think the name she’d taken on–her destiny–was to help other women?

  For three days, Rebecca doubted herself, her ability, her belief that doing what Lisette did was supposed to be in her future. But then her soon-to-be ex, Bruce, called, begging her for another chance.

  “Please, ’Becca. I need you at my side. The congregation needs to see our holy union. They need to know that Christ can truly fix all things. That Christ can heal all wounds.”

  Bruce’s words and tone of voice seemed genuine, and, for a moment, Rebecca thought about the parishioners. Many of them envied Bruce and Rebecca’s partnership. On different occasions, comments were made about their blessed union, and how perfect their paring was. But of course they’d all been looking through a one-way mirror. They never knew about the horror behind the glass. The physical and emotional hell that Rebecca went through. What they saw as perfection had really been the perfect deception.

  “I’m sorry, Bruce, but it’s over between us, and it’s staying that way. And it’s Rebecca.”

  His voice with a harder edge to it, Bruce tried again. “Please, Rebecca. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes He puts us through trials and tribulations that we don’t always understand. I know I was wrong for some of the things I did, but–”

  “Some?” Rebecca cut in. “Are you kidding me?”

  “I’ve been praying on it a lot, Rebecca, and I believe the good Lord put me through those things to make me a better man.”

  “Put you through those things? I don’t recall me ever putting my hands on you, or speaking down to you,” Rebecca snapped.

  “You may not believe me, but it tore me up inside when I wronged you, Rebecca. In some ways I think I hurt more than you did.”

  “What!”

  “Your wounds healed, but mine stayed with me as guilt. And when you left, those wounds got wider. The Lord made you go away to teach me how to be a better man. Give me a chance, Rebecca. You’ll see I’ve changed.”

  Rebecca could only shake her head at Bruce’s words and rationale for the things he’d done. “Bruce,” she said, glad that the conversation was taking place over the phone and not in person, “I’m glad you realize the error of your ways, but my answer stays the same. It’s over.”

  “But, Rebecca–”

  “I still have the pictures, Bruce. So does my friend. Do yourself a favor and find another woman to be a changed man for, and don’t call me anymore.”

  “You bitch!” Bruce yelled out suddenly. “Do you have any idea what I’m going through right now? Do you know how embarrassing it is for me to walk around now? I’m no longer just Pastor Bruce Stantin. I’m now the divorced Pastor Bruce Stantin. I’ve lost respect in people’s eyes. They may not say it, but it’s in everyone’s fucking eyes. The stigma of being divorced is not a good one for me, Rebecca. Goddammit–you need to bring your ass back where you belong!”

  Bruce paused and breathed heavily into the phone. Images of him with his eyes closed to slits, his nostrils flared wide, and his jaw hard, flashed through Rebecca’s mind. This image used to make her shiver. Now it just made her shake her head and frown.

  “You have a gift, Bruce,” she said, her voice as calm as a serene lake on a sunny day with no wind. “I truly believe the people need you and your gift of spreading God’s words. But you need help. And I don’t think the Lord’s help will be enough. Now . . . good-bye. And don’t call me again, or I swear to you, everyone will see those fucking pictures. Trust me, the stares you get now will be nothing compared to the stares you’ll get after that.”

  Rebecca hung up the phone as Bruce called her a bitch again.

  That phone call erased all doubt from Rebecca’s mind, and she knew in her soul that setting up pathetic, weak men was her calling, her destiny.

  Darrin had been a test run that she needed to do just for final confirmation. She wanted to tell Lisette all about it, but couldn’t get through. Discouragement tried to rear its ugly head again, but one morning, she woke up and realized that if she really wanted to capture Lisette’s attention and respect, then she had to truly do the deed.

  That’s where Kay came in.

  Contrary to the shock in her voice, Rebecca knew that having proof of her husband being unfaithful to her was something Kay needed desperately. She was miserable. Her husband, Craig, was and always had been unfaithful to her, but because of the life he provided for her, Kay dealt with the disrespect on a daily basis. She had no say in the marriage. They did what Craig wanted to do. Went where he wanted to go.

  Lisette had shown Rebecca how to gain control and Rebecca knew that, without a doubt, she could do the same for Kay.

  “It’s . . . it’s crazy because . . .” Kay paused and frowned.

  Rebecca leaned forward in the black leather love seat she was sitting on. She remembered when Kay called her one day to complain about the furniture.

  “It’s so . . . so manly. It’s something a bachelor would have!”

  “So tell him to take it back.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  Kay sighed. “It’s his money, Rebecca. I don’t really have a say about what he does with it.”

  Rebecca put her hand on Kay’s knee now and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Kay, Craig is a controlling, cheating son-of-a-bitch, but I know you don’t want to leave him because of the life you have. What I’m offering to do isn’t for you to leave him. It’s si
mply to give you something you can use to shift the balance of control.”

  “So you want to seduce him at our barbeque?”

  “I know you’ve seen the way Craig looks at me, Kay. You know it wouldn’t really be me seducing him so much as it would be me just giving him what he wants and has probably had in his mind. All I have to do is play up to him when he’s alone, and have you walk in on it happening.”

  Kay shook her head and looked at her. “I’m sorry for asking this, but . . . are you sure you don’t just want Craig for yourself?”

  Rebecca gave her a disappointed frown. “Come on, Kay.”

  Kay sighed. “I know, I know.”

  “Just let me do this, Kay. I promise you’ll be able to get rid of this ugly leather and get what you want without him saying a word. I promise you’ll be able to do a lot of things after that, because, trust me, letting you do what you want is far less costly than going through a divorce. Just ask Bruce.”

  “If you’re guaranteeing me so much control, why did you leave Bruce?”

  “I had a path I needed to follow,” Rebecca replied with a glint in her eye.

  Kay sighed again. “You’re really serious, aren’t you?”

  “You’re miserable, Kay. And this furniture is disgusting.”

  Kay laughed. “I hate this furniture so damned much! And the marble rhinoceros by the fireplace, and the ugly-ass pictures on the walls. Hell, the only thing that I like is the house itself, and that’s only because you can’t go wrong with a house in the Hamptons.”

  Rebecca and Kay broke out in laughter for several seconds.

  “So you’re really serious,” Kay said one more time. It was more a statement than a question.

  Rebecca looked at her friend, whom she’d met in aerobics class two years ago and had an instantaneous bond with. “Say yes, Kay, and you’ll have this place redecorated before the summer’s over.”

  Kay looked around in her living room. The house she shared with Craig was a four-bedroom, four-bath, 4,523–square foot dream home with cathedral ceilings, a study, a sunroom, and an in-ground pool in the back.