Daniel believed every word of it. He’d never met a woman her age so knowledgeable on so many topics. For him, it was love at first sight.
She did feel a slight twinge of guilt around Daniel. He was a nice guy, truthful and always loving, no matter if it was a sunny day or a cloudy day. Daniel had the type of attitude that could strengthen a feather to lift a ton of stone up a hill like the stone was light as feather itself.
“Let me take this,” he offered, taking the duffel bag from her hands.
She walked behind him, taking a deep breath then exhaling. She planned on being Beatrice for the next week or two. It felt good to become somebody different. She didn’t want to think about New York or the Syndicate. She just wanted to escape.
She climbed into the passenger seat of his Civic, and Daniel started the ignition and drove off. While driving, he took her left hand into his and glanced at her with a warm smile. “I have missed you so much,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you since you’ve been gone. I’m glad you came back to me safe and sound.”
Cristal smiled. His voice was sweet and velvety, like chocolate. She could listen to him talk all day, especially about his field in medicine and the brain and how it works.
...
Daniel had wanted to become a neurologist since he was twelve years old. When he was eleven, his father died from brain cancer. He was close to his father, who’d had a large primary brain tumor. Daniel felt helpless that he couldn’t prevent his father’s death. It changed him. He wanted to save lives, so he studied everything he knew about the brain. He wanted to be trained in the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system disorders, including diseases of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles.
Through him, Cristal was also learning about the mind and medicine. He was educating her.
He asked her one time, “Did you know that fruit flies have been extensively studied to gain insight into the role of genes in brain development?”
Cristal shook her head.
“Also, the brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals, and guess what?”
“What?” Cristal smiled, loving his mind and passion for the brain, and how he could go on and on to talk about it in a way that even made her interested in it.
“There are only a few invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, adult sea squirts, and starfish that do not have a brain, even if diffuse neural tissue is present,” he explained.
She did not know that either.
Their first week dating, he talked about how the brain was the most complex organ in a vertebrate’s body.
“You see, in a typical human, the cerebral cortex, which is the largest part, is estimated to contain fifteen to thirty-three billion neurons, and each connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons.”
An intelligent and motivated man is so sexy.
Coming from New Orleans, Daniel grew up in poverty and in the ghetto. His father was a janitor and a voracious reader, and his mother was a housewife, and they both provided Daniel with love and care.
After his father’s death, he and his mother moved in with his mother’s sister. During Katrina, he worked with FEMA to help bring his community back to life and help others those trapped or wounded. His warm heart and generosity were inherited from his parents. He brought back a piece of Cristal that she thought had been lost forever.
...
Daniel pulled up to his one-bedroom apartment in Belmont, a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, fifteen miles west of uptown Charlotte and nine miles east of Gastonia. Looking like Mayberry with its small population, it was the perfect place for Cristal to hide and experience the love and romance from her man.
Daniel carried her bag to his place on the first floor. It wasn’t anything fancy, but mostly modest and affordable on his salary. Some would call his place a shotgun house: a narrow rectangular domestic residence, twelve feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the apartment.
Cristal went from staying at the Waldorf in New York City, to a cozy cottage in Martha’s Vineyard, to an apartment looking like it came straight from “Good Times meets a backwoods family in the South.”
“Welcome to my castle,” Daniel joked.
Cristal laughed. “It’s always perfect.”
“Especially when you’re in it with me,” he said.
She smiled at his flattering comment. He was always praising her in different ways. His soothing words took her out of the harsh reality of killing and into a blissful certainty while with him.
Though she had the means for them to live really well, she rather enjoyed the life she’d created with him. They enjoyed cheap takeout from different places, or at times they’d have a home-cooked meal. His furniture was secondhand, the rickety floorboards were a little dusty, the apartment needed a paint job, and it was common to see a mouse or a roach now and again, but it was his home. A place where she felt wanted and safe.
The minute she stepped into his apartment, she plopped down on the old brown couch near the kitchen and propped her feet on the end of it. She closed her eyes and wanted to dream.
Daniel soon joined her on the couch, removed her shoes, and started to massage her feet. His fingers strummed her toes, making her smile and chuckle.
He then worked his way up her shins, the back of her thighs, and was now giving her a much-needed shoulder massage as she sat on the floor between his legs with her back against the couch.
Cristal cooed from his gentle touch. It was a great way to help her relax. “Oh, I so needed this.”
“I know you did, baby, I know you did.”
Through her shirt, she could feel his concentrated touch. He did her neck and upper back.
She removed her shirt, clad in her bra, and with that Daniel applied a small amount of oil. He started using sweeping strokes of his palms over her upper back and shoulders. He worked from her center and up. He plucked the tops of her shoulders from near the neck to her deltoids, holding the top of her shoulder between his thumb and index finger, supporting with the other three fingers, and then he gently pulled up and away.
“Daniel, you’re the best.”
He smiled. It was fun pleasing his woman.
He continued massaging her into an idyllic state, resting his fingers on the tops of her shoulder, making circular movements with his thumbs on either side of the spine, again working up and out. Subsequently, he supported her forehead with one palm and put his index finger and thumb around the back of her neck, pulling toward the back of her neck fairly gently, doing it up and down her neck.
Cristal found herself drifting away from his tender touch. One pleasant move was followed up by another, this time with Daniel’s hands in the same position, trying to find her occipital ridge on the back of her skull, using the same index finger and thumb, one on each side of the center. He worked around her ridges doing tiny circles. He knew the complete anatomy of her body, where to put pressure and how to massage it. His hands against her felt like platinum.
For almost an hour, he continued to satisfy Cristal with his hands, doing a bit more plucking on the shoulders, a few more circles with his thumbs on her back, and then he finished his massage with some effleurage, leading up to the tops of her shoulders, then firmly down her arms and off the elbows.
By the time he was done, Cristal was fast asleep on the floor.
Sixteen
The sunset was drinking what was left of a hot day, quenching its thirst before nightfall. Cristal and Daniel were relaxing over the hillside, where they decided to picnic together on a grassy field and watch the sun fall behind the horizon, the aura a prism spectrum with blended edges of streaking color. It looked like someone had poured a mixture of orange and red over the sky. As the sun descended, the sky became almost a muted brown.
Together, they ate turkey and cheese sandwiches and drank cheap champagne from the local store. It wasn’
t much, but she truly enjoyed it.
Nestled in his arms, and enjoying the moment of tranquility and picturesque setting, she sighed all of a sudden.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“You know you can talk to me about anything,” he said. “No matter what it is, I’m here.”
The corners of her mouth turned upwards faintly. She wished it were true. The one good person in her life, and she was lying to him about everything. Sometimes it was hard to look squarely at Daniel.
What if he knew the truth about her, how would he react? Could he handle knowing that the woman he wanted to marry one day was a coldblooded assassin with anxiety issues and other things? She was a real-life version of Charlene Elizabeth “Charly” Baltimore from the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Cristal adjusted herself while still situated comfortably in his arms so she could softly look him in his eyes. “Daniel, don’t ever change. You’re a really good guy.”
“You think?” he joked.
“You know you’re a good guy. You’re terrific.”
“And you’re a beautiful and great woman yourself, Bee. That’s why I love you, because you’re different. You’re kind and kindhearted. How you’re able to volunteer overseas in these diseased, war-torn countries, risk your life to help others. Not too many women can do what you do. Don’t ever change who you are. Together, I feel we both can change the world.”
“Change the world, huh? You and me.”
“Yup, we’re both good people that can make a difference to anything if we put our minds to it. And once I become a brain surgeon and make lots of money, I can contribute to the needy with both my hands and my pockets. I want to pour my riches into charities, and one day start my own.”
“Good people, huh?” she said softly.
“Good people, yes, like in the Bible, the meek shall inherit the earth. We’re the ones that are going to change the world, Bee,” he said with conviction.
Cristal wanted to believe it with him. But she had seen the world for what it truly was, corrupted and damned. It felt like there was more evil in the world than good, and she had become a part of that evil, and actually experienced that evil when she witnessed her entire family being killed.
“But what if the good is not strong enough to handle the evil?” she said. “I’ve seen the real world, Daniel. I’ve seen how mankind works, and most time it’s not a pretty picture. The evil out there, it has no limits.”
“You got to have faith, baby. Faith, that’s the root to change. This world, especially America, it needs to change. If not, then we will all drown in its iniquity. Do you know that America is a nation deeply rooted in violence? This country holds the distinction of being the wealthiest nation on the planet, but it is also one of the most violent. Baby, you know I’m against violence and bloodshed, I hate it. I’ve seen the aftermath of Katrina, how we treat our own, the destruction and deaths, and I was appalled by it all. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to become a doctor. I want to change people’s lives for the better, give people hope when times can be desperate.”
“It’s the sins of our Founding Fathers,” Cristal said. “This country was founded on violence and bloodshed. It’s soaked in the blood of its original inhabitants, those who fought to steal their land, and those enslaved to build it.”
“And that’s why I’m pushing for a change. I want to make our people aware of our history, where we’ve been and where we need to go. I don’t know how it’s going to be done yet, but it will be done.”
Daniel’s drive and determination to make the world a better place someday was fascinating. He was someone special, not just in her life, but for the future. Men like Daniel, they rarely came along. She believed he did have a calling.
They continued talking until dusk came, and then they packed up their little picnic area and walked back to the car. They laughed and played around with each other. She chased him around the open field, and then he chased her. They looked like two innocent children on a grassy playground in the night, in their own world, making each other happy, their eyes lit up with thrill and joy.
Cristal couldn’t remember a time when she’d laughed so hard and felt so free.
Daniel grabbed her into his arms, twirling her around near his car. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said.
They kissed passionately under a full-moon night. A look between them, with a moment of silence, sparked something, creating an explosion of desire as both of their eyes spoke volumes. They no longer had to say a word to each other, reading what the other was thinking. They didn’t want this day or this night to ever end.
Daniel made her feel like a woman again, a feeling she had been missing for a very long time. Even when she was with E.P., she never felt anything like this.
He smiled. She smiled.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yes, I am.”
A short time later, back at his place, they snuggled beneath a warm blanket as the atmosphere outside once again changed from balmy to rough. The wind howled as the rain battered the window in the dead of the night. They had arrived home just before the storm happened, escaping the torrential downpour spreading across the town. The cracking sound of thunder boomed, and lightning struck from the dark clouds, brightening up the sky for a second before vanishing.
Cristal’s body lit up with pleasure as Daniel’s kisses moved down her stomach. He was just a breath away from kissing her clit, and enjoying her womanhood below. Her mind whirled with delight.
For a moment, he tasted her pussy, lingering on her scent and pink lips with his tongue.
She moaned. Her nipples were hard as stones with the heat built up inside her. She could feel her juices leaking out of her and running down between her ass cheeks.
After Daniel had feasted between her legs, she angled her hips and gripped his ass tightly, her nails dug into his flesh. The sensation was authentic. Her legs came up and wrapped around his thighs, and she pushed him down. She wanted to feel him deep inside her.
He guided his erection near her. The moment his dick touched her pussy, Cristal felt a great heat rush through her. She moaned beneath him, her arms and legs tightened in a grip, and quivered from the dick thrusting in and out of her. Her pussy pulsed nonstop around his shaft. For a slim nerd, Daniel was packing eight inches and width.
Daniel set a slow and steady pace while inside of her, wanting the moment to last, while their mouths hungrily devoured each other’s lips.
With the suction and her quivery heated velvet walls massaging his tool, Daniel moaned with throaty abandon as he thrust his dick all the way to her cervix. The pussy was too good. He felt his balls contract and release his seed deep into her.
Cristal’s mind spiraled into a touch of bliss as her orgasm rocked her into screams for more.
Afterwards, Daniel held her in his thin arms, comforting her as the two immersed into some pillow talk. Cristal didn’t want to leave anytime soon or have this moment stolen from her. She’d already lost so much, this little bit of happiness in her life was refreshing.
She closed her eyes, feeling Daniel’s breath and his heartbeat against her, and exhaled.
Seventeen
Since the shooting in the Bronx, Sharon was now on leave with pay, before being placed on light duty. In the papers, they called her a hero, and some called for her badge, calling her a murderer. The NYPD was still investigating the incident thoroughly, and everything looked to be in her favor. But, in reality, she knew that a white male in her same position wouldn’t be under that long an investigation. As a matter of fact, it would be congratulations on a job well done, a child saved, and a thug dead—and most likely a promotion. She decided not to dwell on her job, and continued to focus on Pike’s case.
It was another late night for Sharon in her dark apartment, seated at her desk near the living-room w
indow, a modern table lamp on her right. The coffee she’d made earlier was already cold, and her eyes were heavy. It was three in the morning, and she was still going over a few witness statements from the day Pike was killed. She read each statement thoroughly, thinking the lead detective on the case could’ve missed something or investigated the case half-assed.
She assumed the NYPD viewed him as just another black male, most likely another drug dealer or gangbanger killed. Not even a blip on the radar.
There were about six witness statements saying they saw two or three black males wearing black and bandanas jump out of a maroon Chevy and kill Pike.
Meesha, Pike’s ex, came across Sharon’s mind. Did she have something to do with his murder? Everyone knew she and Pike had been feuding. Meesha wanted back in Pike’s life, but he was dating Sharon. Did jealousy get Pike killed? Cops had questioned Meesha too, but she had a solid alibi, and there was no reason to suspect that she had set him up. Sharon wasn’t going anywhere with the case, but she wasn’t about to give up.
Two witnesses, one a crackhead, and the other a career criminal, in and out of prison multiple times, had both said in their statements that they got a good look at the occupants of the Chevy as it turned the corner, and they both swore it was two females inside the car wearing large sweat hoods. But, somehow, the detectives on the case convinced them that it couldn’t have been two females, since too many other eyewitnesses said they saw two black males leaving the scene.
Something wasn’t right with the case. It was back and forth. Strange. Two men suddenly become two females from two witnesses’ accounts. Sharon had her suspicions about something or someone, but that thought was kind of far-fetched. Yet, anything was possible.
With dawn a few hours away, she decided it was time to get some sleep. She placed all the papers back into the manila folder, turned off the light on her desk, and went to bed. Tomorrow the groundwork would start. She would go out and talk to the witnesses herself.
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