The Score

by Kiki Swinson

“But who are you?” I croaked through my tears. “I feel like I am in love with someone I don’t even know. Who the fuck are you?” I sobbed.

  Drake pulled the car over on a desolate country road. He put it in park and turned toward me. His handsome face melted my insides and I looked away. I was scared of my feelings for him, especially with all the deception between us.

  “Look at me,” he demanded in a soft tone that was almost a whisper. I hung my head and shook it left to right. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the tears drain out of the sides. “I can’t look at you. I don’t know you.”

  “Please. Look at me, Lauren,” Drake said again in a soft whispery voice. This time he extended his hand and put it behind my head to urge me to turn it toward him. “Just give me that . . . at least.”

  “I can’t,” I sobbed. “I just can’t. It hurts too much.”

  “You can and you will. What I have to say I need to be looking into your eyes to say,” Drake said. With sobs hiccupping through my chest, I finally relented. I slowly turned my head and gazed into Drake’s eyes. A flash of heat lit up my face as I stared deep into his beautiful chestnut eyes. I swear his face was so damn fine that it made everything I was feeling even more intensified.

  “My name is Derek Hague. I’ve been working as a cleaner for Kudrin for two years. I gained his trust and I became his right-hand man. When Kudrin sent me to find you, then follow you to the money and then to bring you to him, it was just another assignment for me.”

  I grabbed the handle of the car door, ready to open it and make my escape. His confession made me feel like I’d traded one bad situation for another. My pause gave him time to hit the automatic door locks, trapping me in the car with a man I loved but didn’t really know. I squinted my eyes closed as he continued.

  “But after I met you, I knew I couldn’t . . . do what I knew he’d eventually ask me to do. And as we grew closer, and I began to fall for you, protecting you became my first priority. Not Nik. Not completing my assignment.” Drake leaned over and tried to pull me into his arms. But I wasn’t ready yet to forgive him.

  “A man in my line of work has a lot of contacts and people who owe him favors. That’s how I know that right now police officers are swarming that warehouse. They will save Matt’s life so he can be prosecuted. There are also police officers swarming Yancy’s place and bringing her in. I made sure that I worked behind the scenes to clear your name. I was the cooperating witness. I got you off, simply because I want to be with you. And if you want to be with me, we have to leave this place for good. Will you go with me?” Drake . . . I mean Derek explained everything to me. My head was spinning from everything he had just said. My heart was thumping wildly and I began sobbing like crazy.

  “Nobody has ever cared about me enough to go through all of this. I . . . I . . . don’t even know what to say,” I said through tears.

  “Then just say yes,” Derek whispered.

  Then he pulled my head toward him and leaned closer to me. “Wait, it hurts right there,” I said, referring to the bruises I had alongside my face.

  “I’m sorry,” he said as he loosened the grip on my face. When his lips finally touched mine, the kiss was different from any other one we had exchanged. Our tongues danced together and our hearts, bodies, and minds connected on a level I could never explain with words. I was still scared, but I had also never been this happy in my life. Everything I had been through began to fall away in that moment. Derek stopped kissing me and leaned back.

  “Will you go with me?” he asked again.

  “I will go with you,” I whispered.

  He smiled and I saw his shoulders slump with relief. He started the car and we began to drive. I didn’t know where we were going or what life was going to be like for us, but I knew that the feelings I had for this man were totally different than anything I had ever experienced. I thought about Mrs. Shepherd and how I wasn’t going to be able to see her. I sent a prayer up for her, hoping that she wasn’t in pain and that she’d be able to recover from her stroke. And I tried to keep my last vision of Matt out of my mind’s eye. I felt awful about it and I hoped to God what Derek had said was true about the police swarming the warehouse and saving Matt’s life.

  After a few long minutes, Derek broke the silence inside of the car.

  “I have the money from the safe that you had stashed at the assisted living home,” he said like it was no big deal. My eyes went wide and I whipped my head in his direction. He smiled. “Oh, and Mrs. Shepherd has been moved to a safe place. She didn’t have a stroke. She was never sick. I will arrange for you to see her soon.”

  I let a huge smile spread across my lips. “Who are you? Are you sure you’re not an angel?” I asked. Derek laughed.

  “I also have the money that you stashed in all of the different gym lockers. And from the safe-deposit box. All of your stash spots have been emptied for you,” he continued.

  My eyebrows shot up. This dude had really been trailing me. Thank God he’d fallen in love or I would’ve been fooled.

  “But . . . but . . . how?” I stammered.

  “I told you I was following you. I told you I knew everything. Including the fact that your best friend had tried to set you up,” Derek said. His words were like a hard slap to my face but he’d only confirmed what I had already suspected.

  “Yeah, she was working with Matt to get you back to the area. She was pretty grimy,” Derek said.

  “I knew it. I knew something wasn’t right with her,” I agreed. I felt a pang of hurt flit through my stomach about Daysha but for some reason I wasn’t that surprised.

  “That’s all behind you now,” Derek said, smiling. “It’s just us and the money. Looks like you were the last one standing out of your crew,” he said, and winked.

  I turned my head and looked out of the windshield at the road ahead. All I could do was pray that what Derek had just said was true. I knew things always had a way of coming back to haunt you.

  LAUREN

  One Year Later

  “Push! Push!” Derek urged as I clamped down like a vise on his hand. I bore down and pushed as hard as I could. My entire bottom felt like it was going to explode.

  “Huh, huh, huh.” I threw my head back on the pillow and panted for breath. “I’m so tired,” I whined. “I can’t do it.”

  “Come on, baby. You can do this. You got this,” Derek said encouragingly.

  “I’m exhausted,” I huffed. I could feel the sweat wetting my scalp and draining down the sides of my face. My entire body was hot like I was sitting in a sauna.

  “Agggh!” I hollered as another wave of body-shattering contractions crashed through my abdomen.

  “Okay, Mrs. Hague, it’s time to push again,” the doctor said. He bent down between my legs. “Come on. I see the head. A few good pushes and it’ll all be over.”

  “Mmmmm. Grrrrrr.” I bore down, held my breath, and pushed again. I could feel the vein at my temple throbbing. This time I felt so much pressure in my anus and vagina I just knew it would explode. “Grrrr.” I kept pushing. I could hear Derek cheering me on. It felt like a fiery bowling ball coming through my ass. I squeezed Derek’s hand until I almost broke all of the bones in it but he never complained.

  “Great job! It’s a boy!” I heard the doctor scream. Next, I heard the sweet, musical sound that was the wail of my son’s cries. The sound was the sweetest thing I had ever heard in my entire life. I felt an overwhelming rush of warmth fill me up inside. I flopped my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes. I started crying but these were definitely tears of pure joy. I had finally been blessed with a child. It was what I considered the greatest gift I had ever received in my entire life. I felt like I didn’t really deserve such a great gift from God, but I guess God had seen things differently. I was a mother now. There was nothing more I could accomplish in my life.

  “You want to hold him?” the nurse asked, smiling warmly.

  “Yes. Right away. And I never want to let him go
,” I replied. I opened my eyes and accepted my baby boy into them. I belched out a mouthful of sobs, but this time, they were happy ones. He was beautiful. He already had Derek’s perfect complexion and his almond-shaped eyes. He had my tiny ears and my heart-shaped lips.

  “He’s so perfect,” I said, keeping my eyes on my brand-new baby boy. Derek walked over to the side of the bed and stroked my hair. He leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

  “You did it, Lauren. After all of the treatments and hard times we had to get here, you did it. He is perfect and so are you,” Derek cheered me on.

  “No, we did it. You were so great through everything. You knew this is what I needed to make my life complete and you never complained. You are really a gift from God, Derek. I never want to be without you a day in my life,” I told my new husband. The nurse came over and helped me put my son on my breast so that the first thing he got to nourish his little seven-pound body would come straight from me. It was an overwhelming tsunami of love that crashed through my entire body as my baby boy suckled my breast.

  “I’m going to run home and take a shower, baby. I have been dying to for the two days we have been here. I won’t be long. You know I can’t stand to be away from you but for so long,” Derek said, planting a kiss right on my forehead. Then he gently kissed our son.

  “Hurry back,” I told him. “I can’t stand to be without you, either.”

  With that, Derek rushed out of the hospital-room door. I was alone with my baby. I stroked his hair and counted his tiny fingers. I hummed a song to him too.

  “Now this is what love is. My life is finally complete. I will be the best mother I can be. I will be nothing like my mother,” I said, speaking to myself out loud. I held on to my son tight and closed my eyes. I could feel myself drifting off to sleep. The exhaustion was finally taking hold of me. I heard the door to my hospital room creak open and I could sense someone walking in. I was so exhausted I didn’t even want to open my eyes. With my eyes still closed, I cracked a smile.

  “What did you forget this time, Derek Hague? I think your head is attached to you so it can’t be that but if it wasn’t you would’ve forgotten it,” I joked. I didn’t get a response from Derek. I heard a chair move to my left.

  “Derek?” I called to him. He didn’t answer, which wasn’t like him. I figured then maybe it was a nurse coming in to check on us.

  Finally, I opened my eyes and turned toward the presence. I jumped so fiercely I almost dropped my baby. I sucked in my breath and swallowed hard. Suddenly my exhaustion had faded into sheer panic when I saw Matt’s face. But how? I thought he’d gone back to prison. I opened my mouth to say something . . . anything . . . or even to scream but no sound would come.

  “Congratulations, Lauren,” he said with a sinister grin on his face. I couldn’t speak. I felt the air going in my open mouth, but no words would come.

  “Finally, a baby for you. Damn, after all of this time,” he said evilly. “I guess life is treating you well. I should’ve known you thought you would be the last one standing.”

  I just blinked rapidly. I was clutching the baby so tight to my chest I might’ve been smothering him.

  “I just wanted you to know that you didn’t actually get away with it,” he told me. Then he parted an ill smile that sent a cold chill down my spine.

  “No one ever does,” he followed up, smirking.

  “Wh . . . what . . . do y . . . you want?” I stuttered in a barely audible tone. He threw his head back and laughed maniacally.

  “What I want you can’t give me. It’s too late to buy your freedom with the money. It’s past that now,” he said after abruptly stopping his laughter. His face was deadpan. The look in his eyes scared me to my core.

  “Please, I will do whatever you want, just don’t hurt Derek or my son,” I said, my voice quivering.

  He started laughing. “It’s too late for that, Lauren. Everything you love has been tainted by the karma of everything you did.” He stood up and held his cell phone out toward me. I was puzzled. What did he want me to do with it?

  “Take it, someone wants to speak with you,” he insisted.

  I grabbed the phone from his hand and pressed it against my ear. “Hello,” I said.

  “Hello,” I heard an elderly voice speak. Right then and there I knew it was my foster mother Mrs. Shepherd.

  “It’s me, Lauren,” I told her.

  “Hi, baby, how are you?” she asked.

  “I’m good. What about you?” I asked, looking at Matt, still puzzled why he wanted me to talk to Mrs. Shepherd.

  “I’m fine, darling. I’ve got this nice young man over here standing next to me. He said you wanted to talk to me so he used his phone and called you,” she explained.

  “What’s his name?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know. Let me ask him. What’s your name, sir?” Mrs. Shepherd said.

  “Buddha,” I heard him say. Then he said, “Tell her good-bye.”

  “Well, I think he wants his phone back because he told me to tell you good-bye,” she said, and before she could utter another word I heard a BOOM. The sound ricocheted through the phone. I screamed and dropped Matt’s cell phone from my hand. “He killed her. You had him kill her! I fucking hate you!” I sobbed.

  “That was only the beginning,” he said, and tore my son from my arms. My baby began wailing.

  “No, Matt!” I screamed. “No! Please give him back to me! Please! I beg you.”

  He held my screaming baby up against his face and inhaled deeply. “Was it worth it? Was it all worth it?” he asked me evilly.

  “Please,” I pleaded. I tried to get up but my body was too weak.

  “Shhhh . . . don’t worry. I’ll give you a chance to get your son back,” he said.

  “What do you want?! I have money. I have things. . . .” I said pleadingly. He let out a cacophony of laughter.

  “You damn right I want my money, bitch! Don’t try to bring the cops into this and don’t try to get any of the doctors or hospital security involved. If you do, I’m going to make the call to my other dude who just kidnapped your new husband outside the hospital,” Matt warned.

  “If I give you the money, you promise you’ll let my husband and son go?” I asked him.

  “Do the right thing and you’ll find out,” he said with finality.

  Looking into Matt’s eyes, I knew two things. This was not entirely about the money and my life would never be the same again . . .

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2016 by Kiki Swinson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2015951106

  ISBN: 978-1-6177-3968-2

  First Kensington Hardcover Edition: February 2016

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-967-5

  ISBN-10: 1-61773-967-7

  First Kensington Electronic Edition: February 2016