“The flashlight.”
“Oh.” He searched around and found the flashlight next to one of the pokers on the hearth. “Here you go, son. You want us to go with you?”
“I’m not going,” Mya insisted, crossing her arms. “I don’t want her here.” At the look on her father’s face, she added, “And I’m not being mean, I’m being honest.”
“I’m starting to believe there’s such a thing as being too honest.” Javid stood. “C’mon, li’l man. Let’s go.”
Mya folded her arms with a huff and watched them head out of the family room.
“You can come with us if you want to,” Javid said, sensing she didn’t want to be left alone. But on top of being argumentative, Mya was stubborn. “Suit yourself.”
“Don’t worry about her,” Mykell told his father. “She’s mad because she thinks you like Grandma more than you like Momma.”
“What?”
Mykell hitched his shoulders as he climbed the staircase. “Yeah, she said she saw you kissing Grandma like you used to do Momma, but I know she’s making it up because she wants Grandma to move out.”
Javid glued his lips shut while they lumbered up the stairs. He’d tangled himself in a web. It was only going to get worse when Klaudya was released.
“Whoa.” Mykell skidded across the floor and fell on his ass.
Javid glanced around. “Sorry, son. I must have tracked more water in the house than I thought. Are you all right?”
Giggling, Mykell lumbered back onto his feet and reclaimed the flashlight. “Yeah. I’m all right.” He rushed to his grandma’s closed bedroom door and pounded on it like the police. “Nichelle,” he called. “Are you up?”
At Nichelle’s silence, Javid sighed. “Hey, let me try.” Gently, Javid moved his son away from the door and knocked. “Nichelle? Can you hear me? The kids would love it for you to join us in the family room. We’re doing a whole camping thing and—”
“We’re making s’mores,” Mykell yelled.
“Yeah, it’s going to be fun.”
Something rustled behind the door.
Javid placed his ear against the door. “Nichelle?”
No answer.
“Maybe she’s already asleep,” Mykell suggested.
Javid twisted the doorknob. It wasn’t locked. He looked at his son and opened the door. “Nichelle?” He crept inside, his gaze going to the open window. A fierce wind billowed the curtains while sheets of rain poured inside onto something lying on the floor. “Son, give me the flashlight.”
Mykell handed it over.
Javid swept the beam of light across the floor. “Nichelle!”
“Grandma!”
They raced to the motionless body.
Javid rolled Nichelle over. A thin stream of moonlight highlighted her face and the ghoulish gash across her forehead. “Nichelle! Nichelle!”
Mykell inched away. “Is she dead?”
Javid’s heart plummeted. Was she? He checked for a pulse.
There wasn’t one.
“Call 9-1-1!” Mykell snatched the abandoned flashlight and raced to Nichelle’s nightstand for the portable phone.
“Bring it here,” Javid ordered.
When Mykell returned to Javid’s side, he frowned. “I can’t hear anything.”
Javid snatched the phone. No dial tone. “What the fuck?”
Mykell gasped. “Oooh. Daddy, you said a bad word.”
“Not now, son.” He raked his hand through his hair, urging his brain cells to work. “My cell phone. Take the flashlight and go into my room and grab my cell phone off the charger.”
“Okay.”
“Hurry!”
Mykell took off like a flash.
Javid attempted to find a pulse, but with his own racing heart, he had a hard time distinguishing if anything moved beneath the pads of his fingers. “Here you go, Dad.”
“Thanks, son.” Javid took the cell phone, but after punching in the emergency number, he got nothing but dead air. “No. No. No.” He looked at the top of the screen. “Cellular service is out.”
“Does that mean you can’t call for help?” Mykell asked.
“Shit.”
“Daaad.”
“Mykell, please. I need a second to think.”
Mykell buttoned his lips but couldn’t hide the hurt of his father yelling at him.
“I’m sorry, son. I didn’t mean to snap. But we’re going to have to get your grandma to the hospital, okay?”
Mykell wiped the tears from his face and nodded.
“Good. Now, go and tell Mya I need you two to get dressed and put on your coats and meet me in the car.” Javid carefully slid his arms underneath Nichelle’s body and lifted with a groan.
“You all right, Dad?”
“Yeah, go do what I told you.”
“Yes, sir.” Mykell raced out again.
“All right. Nichelle, don’t you die on me.” He struggled toward the door. “We’re going to get you some help.” He feared the worst while he lifted her dead weight. More than ever, Javid hated the time he’d missed in the gym, especially when he failed to protect Nichelle’s head as he bounded onto the staircase.
Thump!
“Fuck. Sorry.” He hobbled to the second floor. “Guys, hurry!” He rushed to the second staircase and burst out of the front door into the torrential rain with arms ready to dump Nichelle onto the asphalt. It didn’t help he’d forgotten to grab his car keys.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” He tried the back door to the Mercedes and was relieved when it opened. “Okay. Here you go.” He slid Nichelle onto the backseat. “All right. Hang in there.” He slammed the door and turned back toward the house for the car keys and the kids.
“Mya! Mykell! We gotta get going. Now!” He grabbed the car keys from the hook in the kitchen and stopped long enough to jam his feet into a pair of Nikes. But the kids were still nowhere in sight.
“C’mon, guys! We don’t have all night.” He jingled the keys.
Still no answer.
“You got to be kidding me.” Javid took the stairs two at a time. “What is taking you guys so long?”
On the second landing, Mykell appeared at the family room’s entrance.
Javid spread out his hand. “Well, c’mon, buddy. What’s the hold up?” He looked over Mykell’s head. “Where’s your sister?”
Mykell’s eyes watered. “I don’t know. She’s not here.”
“What? What do you mean she’s not here?” Javid thundered past his son to take a look for himself. Sure enough, the room was empty. “Well, where is she?”
Tears splashed Mykell’s face. “I don’t know. I looked everywhere. I can’t find her. She’s gone.”
CHAPTER 14
2015
A beautiful blond, blue-eyed Barbie answered the front door, took one look at Lieutenant Armstrong, and launched into a sex kitten act. “Well, hello.”
Armstrong smiled. “Good evening. Are you Tabitha Montgomery?”
“Depends on who is asking.”
He flashed his badge. “I’m Lieutenant Erik Armstrong, and this is my partner, Lieutenant Joe Schneider. Do you have a few minutes? We’d like to ask you a few questions about your neighbors—the Ramseys.”
“Oh?” Tabitha pulled the door open wider. “That poor family. They have been through so much.”
“Can we come in?”
“Why, sure.” She stepped back from the door to allow them entry. After closing it, Tabitha led the way, exaggerating the sway of her hips, to an over-decorated salon. “Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink? Water? Tea? Me?”
Schneider brows jumped.
“We’re good,” Armstrong cut in before his partner said the wrong thing.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
Schneider opened his mouth.
“We’re sure,” Armstrong answered again.
“All right. So, what can I help you with?” Tabitha asked, settling into the plush sofa across from them.
&n
bsp; “How well do you know the Ramseys?” Schneider asked.
“Well enough, I guess. How much can you really know anyone these days? They built their house about two years after we built ours. Our kids are about the same age. They went to each other’s birthdays and play-dates. You know, the normal bougie shit.” She smiled and opened a crystal decanter and removed a joint.
Armstrong lifted a brow.
“Don’t worry. It’s for medicinal purposes.” She winked before she lit up.
The partners shifted glances but said nothing as Mrs. Montgomery puffed on her thin joint.
“Back to the Ramseys,” Armstrong said. “Klaudya and Javid. Ever notice any problems between them?”
“Notice? It was kind of hard to miss. Especially after that party last year.” Tabitha threw her head back with a laugh. “People are still talking about that one. I didn’t know Miss Thang used to be a stripper until that night. But, honey, she showed us. She still had the moves.”
“What else do you remember?”
“Well, I spotted Klaudya a few minutes after I arrived . . .”
2014
“So, what’s with all the firepower around here?” Tabitha asked, pushing her way toward Klaudya.
“I was trying to get to the bottom of that,” Nichelle said, eyeballing her daughter.
Tabitha finally noticed Nichelle. “Oh, hello. I’m Tabitha Montgomery. I don’t believe that we’ve met.” She offered her hand.
“No, we haven’t. Nichelle Mathis.” Nichelle accepted Tabitha’s bejeweled hand. “I’m Klaudya’s mother.”
Klaudya groaned.
Shocked, Tabitha turned toward her. “Didn’t you tell me your mother was dead?”
Nichelle choked on her champagne. “Dead?”
“A girl can dream,” Klaudya deadpanned, glancing around for a tray of alcohol.
Nichelle laughed bitterly. “My daughter and I are working trying to heal our troubled relationship. So far, it’s a long, hard, bumpy road.”
“Aw, that’s nice.” Tabitha sighed. “I wish me and my mother had patched things up before she died. But we were both so damn stubborn. When I look back on all the fights we used to have, they all seem so petty. You two are doing a good thing.”
Nichelle’s smile bloomed. “There. You hear your friend, Klaudya? We’re doing a good thing.”
Klaudya rolled her eyes and searched for a nearby waiter.
“I’ll get you a drink,” Nichelle said. “Maybe it’ll cool you off, and you can enjoy the party.”
“Thanks.” Klaudya rolled her eyes at her mother’s back.
Once Nichelle was out of earshot, Tabitha asked, “So what’s the real deal between you two?”
“She was released from prison, and the cops dropped her off at my door,” Klaudya admitted.
“You’re kidding me. Prison? For what?”
Klaudya sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“I love long stories,” Tabitha admitted, inching closer.
Klaudya shook her head.
“I went to jail once,” Tabitha confided.
Klaudya eyed her suspiciously. “For what?”
“I did some shit. You and Brandi aren’t the only ones with a past. You guys always think I’m such a goodie-two-shoes—but I have a couple of skeletons in my closet, too, you know.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
Tabitha’s voice lowered to a whisper. “I dealt drugs for some extra cash while I was in college.”
Klaudya assessed Tabitha like it was the first time she had ever laid eyes on her. “You’re shitting me.”
“My not looking the type was exactly why I was so good at it.” She winked.
“Here we go,” Nichelle said, returning with a bar drink. “Whiskey sour. Your favorite, right?”
Klaudya grunted. “No. it’s your favorite.” She accepted the drink anyway.
Since she didn’t get an answer to her question, Tabitha went to the source. “So, Nichelle. You were in prison?”
Nichelle’s fake smile melted before she stabbed her daughter with a hard gaze. “Wow. You guys had an Oprah moment in ten minutes?”
“Excuse me.” Klaudya drifted away from the conversation to make small talk with the other guests. All the while, she kept an eye out for Javid’s return. But the more she sipped on her whiskey sour, the more tension ebbed from her body. In no time, she felt good. Damn good.
She laughed at every joke, told a few corny ones, and danced with anyone who was willing. Soon she was lost in the music and hopped onto a table. Before she knew it, her red-faced husband charged through the crowd.
“What are you doing? Get down from there!”
The crowd booed and jeered him.
Worse, Klaudya resisted his attempts to drag her off the table. That angered him even more.
“Get down! Get down!” He swiped at her legs until he knocked her knees out from under her and toppled her toward him.
Everyone gasped, but Javid’s ex-college All-Star football player reflexes kicked in in time to catch his intoxicated wife before she hit the floor. He also pulled a muscle in his back. Where moments earlier, Klaudya was shrieking for him to leave her alone, she was now laughing hysterically and blowing kisses to the crowd.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Javid tossed her over his shoulder and marched toward the front door.
Tabitha shook her head. “Frankly, I thought she livened up the party. She gave everyone there something to talk about. I loved it.” She puffed out a ring of smoke.
Armstrong stood from the sofa. “I see. Thank you for your time.”
“Anytime.” She raked her silver gaze over him and smiled. “Are you sure there isn’t something else I can do for you, officer?”
Armstrong’s brows furrowed at the way she licked her lips.
“The kids aren’t due home for a few hours,” she added, making her intention clear.
“I’m good,” he said, struggling to hold on to his stony expression. “Schneider, let’s go.”
Tabitha stood. She twirled her hair around her finger as her gaze raked him a second time. “Pity. Well, you know where to find me if you have any more questions.”
“We’ll be in touch. And we can see our way out.”
CHAPTER 15
2014
Javid tossed Klaudya into the limousine and climbed in. “What the fuck? What in the hell has gotten into you?”
“Oh, calm down.” Klaudya giggled, worming her way into his lap as the vehicle pulled off.
Javid shoved her back to the other seat.
“Hey!”
“Hey yourself,” he roared back. “This isn’t funny. You made a complete ass out of yourself in front of everyone, including Señor Vargas.”
“Oh, fuck Señor Vargas. Did I ever tell you he used to have the hots for me when I danced at the Kitty Kat?”
“Oh, fuck Señor Vargas? So fuck me, too? Is that it? That man has the power to make muthafuckas disappear, and you just made a fucking scene at his place like that shit ain’t going to blow back on me? What the fuck? Are you high?”
“Lighten up!” She laughed. “If anything, I livened up the party. Everyone was having a good time.”
“I don’t know about everybody else, but you were.” He tugged his tie loose. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but you need to snap out of it. The drinking, the smoking, the pills—it’s like I don’t fucking know you anymore.”
Klaudya sighed but didn’t give up trying to seduce her husband. She turned up the heat by spreading her legs and caressing her inner thighs. “You sure you don’t want to play right now?”
Javid frowned. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah. It’s been a long time since we’ve done it in the back of a limousine.” She peeled out of her panties and tossed them at him. She glanced toward the driver’s rearview mirror. When their eyes connected, Javid hammered his fist down and powered up the partition.
“It’s not happening,” he grow
led.
Klaudya’s playful mood deflated. “Party pooper.”
“No. The party ended when Vargas threatened to kill me.”
“What?”
“Oh, do I now have your attention? While you were shaking your ass among the hors d’oeuvres, my life was flashing before my eyes.”
Klaudya attempted to concentrate. “What did he say?”
“Nothing much. He only accused Ari and me of stealing from him—and in the next second blew holes into Harry Goodson and his two sons while we watched with our fucking dicks in our hands. The shit was right out of a fucking Godfather movie. I gotta get out of this shit. I ain’t about this life no more. Bullets are fucking hazardous to a muthafucka’s health.”
“But why? Do you think he’s on to us?”
“How the fuck would I know?”
They rode the rest of the way home in silence. And when they climbed out of the limo, Javid crammed his wife’s panties into his jacket pocket.
In their bedroom, Javid paced back and forth while Klaudya undressed. It didn’t take long before the pacing got on Klaudya’s nerves. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. If he suspected you, you would be dead.”
Javid laughed in her face. “When it comes to Emilio Vargas, there is always something to worry about. When you’re sober, you know that shit.” He pulled a deep breath. “I have to go to the office and look over the numbers. Vargas is fishing for a reason. He didn’t need us in that room to witness that shit. It was a warning.”
Klaudya pressed her body flush against her husband and looped one arm around his neck. “You’re working yourself up for nothing. Let me relax you.” She tugged on the belt of his trousers.
“Baby, this is not the time.”
“It’s always the right time.” She sank to her knees.
“I’m serious, Klaudya. Not—”
The zipper zoomed down, and Klaudya grabbed his cock.
Angry, he leaped back. “I said not now!” He crammed himself back into his pants and zipped up. “I got shit I gotta take care of.” He marched toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
No Loyalty Page 9