by S. K. Lessly
He knew that if Nora meant anything of substance to Brad, he wouldn’t have treated her the way he had. He would have acknowledged her the moment he walked inside the house. Brad is not a mean hearted person; that was Lock’s job. Brad was considerate of people’s feelings. He didn’t go out his way to hurt people, unlike Lock. Therefore, what Lock had just witnessed had shaken him.
Nora stood from the table. Still put together considering, Lock thought to himself as she said to him, “So you heard him. You have forty-eight hours to figure how you’re going to break those two up so he can come to his senses.”
Lock frowned and stood. “Are you fucking delusional? Did you not see what I just saw?”
Nora smoothed out the front of her jeans and shirt as if something was there. “Yes, of course I did.”
“And you think he’s just going to come back to you that easy?”
She nodded. “Yes, of course. Once you prove to him that she isn’t worth the dirt under his shoe, he will come to his senses and come home.” She then laughed. “Do you really think that was love? That his declaration of love was real?”
Lock scoffed and folded his arms. “And you think it wasn’t?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Please. What that was was simply confusion and lust. But I have a plan on reminding Braddock the difference, so make sure you do your part, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Brad suddenly emerged with his bag in his hands.
Lock instantly frowned. “What’s this shit?”
“I’m going to go and find me a hotel to stay for a few days. I need to get some shit together in my head.”
“Yeah, what shit would that be?” Lock asked him.
Brad looked at Nora, then at his brother. “I need to figure out how the hell my brother and ex-fiancée found each other and how she managed to find where you lived. Because the last time I checked, I never gave you her phone number. Nora doesn’t have a clue that anything exists in the world but herself to know your number, much less your address. So some conniving underhanded shit has happened behind my back, and just as I won’t tolerate that shit from Ayana, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that you going behind my back and getting in my life is acceptable.”
“Braddock!” Nora called out to him, just as he reached the front door.
Brad looked at her. “Nora, as I said to you on the phone and in the back room a while ago, I am done. We are done. Go home.”
Brad walked out of the house, and Nora moved to follow him, but Lock stopped her. When she turned to face him, he said, “I’m going to take a page from Ayana and tell you that you should let this one go for now. Let him calm down and start to think rationally, then you can talk to him. Otherwise, you will push him further and further away.”
Nora didn’t want to listen, but she also didn’t want to push him “further away,” as Lock mentioned. What she won’t admit aloud is the fear she was beginning to feel. The fear of losing to that ghetto bitch was evident and rearing its ugly head.
She did see the way Braddock was with Ayana, and she had to admit to herself that he never treated her that way in all the years they have been together. She had to do something or she would lose him, and losing wasn’t an option.
Lock watched Nora regress deep into her thoughts. This gave him the chance to see this woman for what she was.
She wasn’t going to take this lying down. What he didn’t know was how far she was willing go to keep Brad.
His brother was right. He was going to have to get to the bottom of this Ayana shit and quickly. Time was ticking and he had less than forty-eight hours to prevent something, or someone from possibly destroying his brother.
Nora suddenly headed for his front door, and without turning to him she said, “Time is ticking, Detective.”
Once the door closed, he sat back down. This shit was going to get ugly. He could feel it, but how ugly he knew would depend on him.
As he sat there, the silence and loneliness from this house started to crawl all over his body. He looked around and the urge to go upstairs and grab that bottle, which is not under his pillow as Ayana mentioned, but in his nightstand, was starting to get stronger. He needed to get out of there.
He stood quickly, grabbed his keys and phone and left. He took a calming breath once he got outside. He needed to focus. He didn’t want to admit that Ayana was right about him. He did try and swallow his sorrow in a bottle every night. He was a miserable son of a bitch and he didn’t make excuses for his behavior. In fact, he didn’t give a shit who didn’t like it. He lost a piece of him that he couldn’t get back no matter how hard he tried.
But he was still a cop, and despite his disposition, he was a good one. Once he fired up his pickup truck, he dialed a number from his contacts and waited as the ringing sounded through the cab of his truck.
On the forth ring he heard, “Ivey.”
“It’s me. Do you have eyes on her?” he asked.
“Not literally, but she’s in her apartment,” Scott Ivey replied quickly. “She just got here about twenty minutes ago.”
Lock sighed. “Okay, do you have anything else for me?”
Even though Lock told his brother he didn’t know what Ayana was up to, it didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to find out. He’d been keeping a tail on her for weeks now. He’d seen her go to a strip club and had pictures to prove it, just in case she tried to deny it. What he couldn’t get was pictures of her actually taking off her clothes or dancing. He couldn’t get a picture of her waitressing or bartending either. She would simply walk in a side entrance and disappear for hours.
The moment she emerged, she looked haggard and spent. She would quickly get into her car and drive to some Laundromat, despite her having the same services in her apartment complex. She would put a load in the wash, then after a few minutes would walk out and that’s when his team would lose her. They told him it was as if she was watching for tails and trying to lose them. At first, he thought she knew she had been tailed, until he attempted to follow her. He found where she went easily enough, but couldn’t find out who lived in the warehouse. However, he was banking on finding out what he needed tonight. She didn’t come to the warehouse every night but again, he hoped he would get lucky.
“No, sir. Sol and Derek got nowhere with the strip club, so I had them watch Ms. Peters and I went instead. I paid one of the girls for an hour and confirmed that Ms. Peters doesn’t dance in the club. She works in the basement.”
“What’s in the basement?” he asked.
“My source said she didn’t know.”
“And you believed her?” he added.
“Yes, sir. I paid five big ones for the information. She just didn’t know. She claimed the business that goes on down there is on a need-to-know basis and she isn’t in the know. I asked who would be and she told me she would find out and get back to me when she has something. That was about two days ago, and I haven’t heard back from her yet.”
Lock nodded and drove around the corner of the warehouse and parked. “Okay, listen, let me know the moment Ms. Peters leaves her apartment and make sure you give her enough space so she doesn’t see you.”
“I always do sir.”
“Uh-huh, and do me a favor; get Derek to check out someone for me and let me know everything he can.” Lock gave him the name and added, “When I say everything, I mean everything you got me. I want to know who she’s been talking to, where she’s been, everything. Understand?”
“Gotcha. Do you want eyes and ears on her too?”
Lock thought about it and decided to error on the side of caution. “Yes.”
“Okay, will do. What do I tell the brass?”
“Don’t tell the brass shit. Tell them to talk to me if you get any push back. I’ll think of something.”
“You got it.”
Scott hung up, and Lock sat and waited.
His mind drifted slowly to his brother and his so-called best friend. He never trusted the girl from
the moment he met her. He always thought there was something conniving and sneaky in her eyes, like she had some hidden agenda or something. But his brother was smitten since day one. All he talked about was Ana this and Ana that. He was completely surprised that they never dated while they were in school.
Lock thought they would just remain friend, but when Brad came home from his second year of med school and told him that he and Ayana were dating, he almost had a coronary.
Lock had been a cop for a while before Brad came home that year, and he had a few run-ins with Terrence, Ayana’s brother. Terrence was a very bright kid and had potential to make something of himself if he wanted to, but he decided the life of the streets was where he belonged.
Lock arrested him a few times and in other instances, his name came up as a suspect for a number of crimes, from drugs, to weapons possessions, assault to even murder. Anytime Lock picked up Terrence, the person who would bail him out would be his sister, Ayana.
Lock didn’t want that kind of life and drama for his brother, but telling that shit to Brad was useless. Brad was stubborn as fuck, so there was no stopping him. Fate ended up intervening, however, when Brad asked Ayana to go with him back to California. He told her he would take care of her and at first Lock really thought she would go. Seeing them two together turned his stomach, but they confessed this was the real deal, so it was inevitable.
What shocked the shit out of him was when Ayana actually said no. She told him she didn’t want to be a distraction and she didn’t want to rely on him to take care of her. Lock of course thought it was bullshit. She didn’t want to leave her brother. That woman was loyal to only one person, her brother, which is why Lock needed to do everything he could to allow his brother to find someone worthy of him.
Two hours later, he received a text message indicating that Ayana was on the move. Thirty minutes later, he saw her enter in the warehouse. Tonight was the night he’d get to the bottom of this shit.
He texted Scott, saying that he’d handle it and to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. He also told him to arrest Ayana on sight if she emerged out of the warehouse without him.
Lock pulled the necessary items he needed from his glove compartment, checked his gun and extra magazine in his holster, before he climbed out of his car. He strolled slowly to the back entrance of the warehouse, with his service weapon up and ready, checking his surroundings, making sure it was clear. He then circled the building, keeping in the shadows before he moved to the front. He studied the lock a few times, already knowing just what he could use to break in, and in a matter of seconds, he was inside.
The bottom floor looked simply, like an abandoned warehouse. He saw an old-fashioned elevator, one that you had to pull down the door before you could operate it, and a few doorways leading to other sections of the building. Lock walked quietly around the space, making sure at least the bottom floor was clear. He did come across a few pad locked doors, but he realized he didn’t have the tools with him to open them, and as long as they were locked, they posed no threat. Unfortunately, his search confirmed that there were no steps either, so he moved to the old elevator he saw close to the entrance. He knew the elevator would probably be loud, announcing his arrival, but it seemed he didn’t have a choice.
He brushed dust on the four numbers displayed, looking for prints and found smudged fingerprints on the number four. He took a few deep breaths. His gun was still in the ready position, and he situated himself on the sidewall of the elevator to give himself a small shield from anything waiting for him beyond the elevator door.
He prepared himself for anything, but didn’t expect what greeted him once the elevator stopped. When he peered around the elevator door, he didn’t see a soul. He noticed the elevator stopped at someone’s residence as he quickly noticed living room furniture and a kitchen. He listened quietly for any movement but silence greeted him.
He brought his gun forward and began to move slowly from the elevator, and that’s when he heard the pump action of a twelve gauge behind him. He froze where he was and waited for whomever had the gun to move into his vision.
The moment he saw her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“Put the gun down on the floor and move away,” the woman demanded.
Lock took a few deep breaths and looked closely at the woman. He noticed that she was beautiful, stunning actually. She wore a tank top and shorts, showing off a pair of smooth chocolate legs that he could only surmise as being the best pair of legs he’d seen in a very long time. This woman’s hair flowed down to her back, but what captured him, what made him unable to move, was the steady heated gaze coming from the most exotic looking eyes he’d ever seen.
The steadiness of her hands around the gun told him that she was used to handling it, so he had to play this cool.
“Do as I say. I’m not a stranger to using this, so please don’t think I won’t. It’ll be messy, but you know I don’t have to hit you directly, right? Put the fucking gun down.”
Locked chuckled lightly. This girl doesn’t sound right saying the word fuck.
He relaxed a little; however, he still kept his gun aimed at her.
“I’m Detective Lock Mills with the Plano Police Department. Ma’am, what I need for you to do is slowly bring down your weapon, place it on the floor in front of you and slowly take about ten large steps back.”
She shook her head. “Not going to happen. First, if you haven’t noticed ‘Detective,’ I have the bead on you. Second, I know for a fact the front door was locked when you took it upon yourself to come in. You don’t have a warrant or probable cause. And, I don’t know if you’re a cop or not, so the way I see it you’re trespassing on private property, my property, and by law, I can shoot you and tell the cops anything when they get here.” She then frowned. “Hell, by the looks of you, they’ll probably believe me if I tell them that you’ve been following me and acting crazy so I bought a gun to protect myself from any intruders.”
“That shit can’t be registered, and I know for a fact you don’t have a license.”
The woman shook her head. “Wow, that’s your come back?”
Lock, feeling his patience failing, said, “Little girl, you are so over your fucking head. Why don’t you just pull the trigger because, if you let me go, guaranteed I’m going to arrest your ass so fast you won’t know if you’re coming or going.”
“Oh, calm the hell down, Lockhart, and put the gun away.”
Lock looked directly behind the woman to find Ayana approaching.
The woman looked surprisingly at Ayana quickly, then back at Lock. “Lockhart? That’s really your name?”
“Yup, it sure is,” Ayana laughed. “Brad’s full name is Braddock.”
The woman smiled and shook her head. “Their mom must be heavily into romance novels.”
Lock felt his face growing hot. “So, is this your big secret? You’re stripping and screwing her while screwing my brother at the same time?”
Ayana and the woman smiled. Ayana came into the living area and sat down. The woman, still holding the shotgun just watched Lock, her eyes fierce and steady watching every flinch, every breath Lock took.
Ayana looked completely relaxed, which pissed Lock off even more. Lock’s eye narrowed. “And don’t think you’re getting away with this. This is kidnapping and you’re an accessory.”
“Calm down, Lockhart. Put the gun down and sit down. This was the only way I could get you to listen to me since you did a fine job of it some months ago.” Incredulously, he remained standing with his gun still at the ready.
“Suit yourself.” Ayana took a deep breath and leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. “Lock, what I have to tell you is very hard for me, considering how you feel about me, but there isn’t any other person I can trust. And as much as it pains me to admit to you, I’m in over my head. Brad wants me to involve him-”
“Leave my brother out of your threesome,” he countered.
Ayana nodd
ed. “But I won’t involve him in this at all. Look, can you please sit down? It will make me feel better.”
Lock nodded to the woman. “Tell her to put the shotgun down.”
“Not going to happen, Lockhart,” the woman responded quickly.
Seeing that Lock wasn’t going to budge, she began to tell him everything that happened from what she witnessed, to her going to the Feds for help. She told him about the things she learned about Santos and what they were into. The moment she mentioned what they did to young girls and that Noelle was one of them, she saw a shift in Lock’s demeanor. Lock, unable to hide his distain, relaxed a little bit as he watched Noelle, searching for any mistruths from what Ayana was telling him. He didn’t want to believe any of what she said, but seeing Noelle, seeing her eyes, he instantly noticed the same thing that he saw in his own everyday… tortured pain.
By the time Ayana told Lock everything, Lock was sitting on the loveseat next to her with his head down. Noelle brought the shotgun down, but she remained standing and still ready to use it if she had to. Noelle had a problem trusting any man. She didn’t care that Ayana said he could be trusted. The way he looked, she didn’t believe he could keep them safe. He didn’t seem to be able to take care of himself.
Lock was stunned at the story he was told. He couldn’t believe that Ayana was capable of what she claimed, but when she lifted her shirt to show the fresh bruising she suffered, he had to believe her.
He looked at Ayana. “Why didn’t you come to me instead of going to the Feds?” he asked.
Ayana rolled her eyes. “I did, Lock. You were the first person I went to before I went to the Feds. But you wouldn’t let me tell you anything. You just went in on me about Brad and wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise.”
Lock sighed. She was right, and he knew it. He actually remembered the day she came to see him at the station. She asked for him and the moment he saw her, he felt himself get angry and wanted her to be out of the picture for good. All he saw was his brother feeling the same kind of pain he was going through and he didn’t want that for Brad. However, looking at Ayana now, hearing what she did to save this woman, Noelle, had him thinking differently about her. He couldn’t understand why she would volunteer to fight but he didn’t ask. There had to be a reason he knew, but he also knew Ayana wasn’t going to share. If she wanted him to know, she would have told him.