More Pain, Pleasure and Lies

by Qiana London

  “Snow, I’ve gotta make a call. I’ll be right back,” I said softly.

  He held her with one arm and used his other arm to wave his hand at me in acknowledgment. I walked over to the door, opened it, and pushed the latch over to prevent me from being locked out. I stepped out into the hallway, and then pulled my phone out of my pocket. I didn’t have a signal, so I walked down the hallway until I did. Once I found the area to place the call, I leaned against the wall and called Craig back. He answered on the fifth ring.

  “What’s good?” I asked.

  “Bruh, I can’t get into it over the phone. Can we meet?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be back in the city later. You remember how to get there?”

  “I remember,” he replied quickly.“What time?”

  “I’ll hit you when I’m on my way.”

  “Bet.”

  I hung up the phone and wondered what he needed to discuss. I knew that he wouldn’t be reaching out to me unless he absolutely needed to. He never asked me for anything, and because he had really been there for me, I intended on returning the favor. Before I went back inside the room, I decided to call Dezzy and put her mind at ease. I selected her name from the call log and pressed send. The phone barely rang before she picked it up.

  “Hello?” she blurted.

  “Hey, Dez—”

  “Oh,thank God! I’ve been a nervous wreck waiting to hear from you.”

  “Well, I hope you can relax now. I received your messages and I wanted to let you know that I’m fine.”

  “I’ll relax once I lay eyes on you.”

  “Fair enough,” I replied and chuckled.

  “It’s not funny, Khalil.”

  She was right. I had to remind myself that my lifestyle wasn’t one that Dezzy was accustomed to. While I had been fortunate over the years, I wasn’t invincible. I was blessedand that wasn’t something to be taken for granted.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” Iacknowledged before changing the subject.“How’s Indya doing?”

  “About as bad as I am. She’s been trying to get Fatima on the phone, but she isn’t getting through. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is fine. We took care of it.”

  “I don’t even want to know what that means.”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you anyway.” I chuckled.

  “Well,can you at least tell me if it’s finally over?”

  “Yes. It’s over.”

  I heard a big sigh of relief through the phone. Although I never provided details, I was certain that Dezzy understood what I meant. Diandre hadn’t bothered her since she’d been involved with me, but now she no longer had to look over her shoulder.

  “KJ, I will never be able to thank you enough. I’m forever indebted to you.”

  “No,you’re not. I told you that you would be safe with me and I did what was necessary to keep my word.”

  “That means more to me than you know.”

  Indya approached Dezzy while we were on the phone. “Is that Khalil?”

  “Yes. I was finally able to get himon the phone.”

  “What’s going on? How is Fatima?”

  “Don’t try to explain anything to her. We’ll do it. For now, just let her know that everything is fine,” I spoke into Dezzy’s ear before she could respond.

  “Okay,” she replied to me before speaking to Indya. “Everything is fine. They’ll fill us in later.”

  “What’s later? How much longer is this going to take?” Indya inquired impatiently.

  I could tell that she was frantic as she spoke. “Put me on speaker, Dez.”

  I heard more background noise as she announced that I could go ahead and talk.

  “Indya, we’re here with your sister now. She’s good. We just need to wrap up a few things on this end before we head back that way. I assure you, there is no need to worry.”

  “Alright,” she said with reluctance in her voice.

  I didn’t want to reveal too much information over the phone. Sure, the information was sensitive, but I was more concerned about Indya’sresponse to everything that had transpired. I wasn’t sure how she would take it and I didn’t want Dezzy to have the burden of telling her or dealing with the aftermath.

  Because the hallway was quiet, I could hear Snow and Fatima talking inside the room. Fatima sounded more like herself again so I knew that he had successfully calmed her down. I heard the elevator doors open, and Melanie stepped off of it into the hallway. She looked in my direction. As she walked toward me, I went ahead and wrapped up the call.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be filled in on everything you need to know later. You two just sit tight,and we’ll see you later.”

  I didn’t leave any room for further questions. Instead, I hung up the phone and placed it back into my pocket. I lifted myself from the wall as Melanie slowed to a stop in front of me.

  “Is everything good?” she asked.

  I knew that she was referring to the way I quickly ended the call. “It will be.”

  “How’s she holding up?” she inquired, using her thumb to point down the hallway behind her.“I have to tell you, Khalil. I thought that she was going to freeze up. I practically had to push her out of the door. But she pulled through.”

  “I think she’s going to be alright. She had a pretty low moment and wanted to end it all, but Snow was able to talk her offthat proverbial ledge.”

  “I see. In other words, he was able to get herwith that Snow charm,” she teased.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  We headed back toward the room. I pushed open the door and stood back so that Mel could walk into the room ahead of me. Snow was sitting on the loveseat sipping from one of the mini bottles of liquor that had miraculously survived Fatima’s wrath. She was pacing back and forth, holding her phone in the air, attempting to get a signal.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” Melanie suggested and walked over to the bed to pick up Fatima’s purse.

  She turned it over and shook out all its contents.

  “What are you doing?” Fatima asked confused and slightly annoyed.

  Without answering, Melanie used her hands to spread the items on the bed. She picked up a small portable cell jammer and powered it off.

  “Now your phone should work. I slipped this into your purse back at your office before I gave it to you. I couldn’t risk anyone being able to track you down, so I put this jammer in your purse so that your phonecouldn’t communicate with any cell towers. But now that everything is squared up,we don’t need it anymore.”

  “What if I had gotteninto trouble and needed to make a phone call?”

  There was no denying the frustration in Fatima’s voice, but Melanie wasn’t affected at all.

  “As long as you did what we advised, I knew you’d be fine,” she explained.“Believe me when I tell you that I had the best of intentions. I did it for your protection.”

  Fatima took a deep breath and relaxed a bit. “You said that everything is squared up now. What exactly does that mean? Did you guys make sure my brother made it to San Quentin? Considering the disappearing act that he pulled, I’m sure no judge is going to let him see the light of day anytimesoon.”

  None of us spoke. Instead, Melanie took a seat by Snow on the loveseat, and I sat on the foot of the bed.

  Fatima looked around at all of us with a perplexed expression on her face. “Why isn’t anyone saying anything? What happened?”

  “You didn’t tell her?” I asked, but it was a rhetorical statement.

  Snow turned the small bottle up and poured the remainder of the alcohol into his mouth, swallowing it in one big gulp. “I didn’t get a chance to.”

  “Clearly,” I replied flatly and shook my head.

  “He didn’t tell me what?” Fatima was becoming impatient. “Someone needs to tell me something!”

  “Fatima, your brother isn’t in prison,” I spoke calmly in an effort to de-escalatethe response that I knew was coming.“In
order to stop your brother, we had to take permanent measures.”

  “Permanent measures? What do you—” She stopped herself mid-sentence.“Wait a minute. You don’t mean…”

  She didn’t complete the sentence. Her breathing became erratic and she placed her hand on her chest over her heart.

  Melanie stood up and made her way over to Fatima and tried to coach her how to regain control of her breathing. “You’re going to be okay. Try to take a deep breath and let it out slowly,” she instructed. She turned to me and Snowfor help.“See if you can find a paper bag in here somewhere.”

  Fatima continued to hyperventilate. Melanie put her arm around her shoulders and carefully helped her sit down on the bed while Snow and I looked around the room.

  “Take another deep breath and try to hold it while I count to ten.”

  I turned to look at the two of them. Fatima had a panicked look on her face as she tried to follow instructions. She was struggling, but with each attempt, she was able to hold her breath a bit longer.

  “You’re doing good.”

  Fatima’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. Melanie noticed this and encouraged her to look at her instead. Fatima did as she suggested. I looked over at Snow who had stopped looking around the room. His attention was focused on her too. He looked over at me and the expression of remorse on his face was the same one I felt. I didn’t regret what we had done, but I didregret not being fully forthcoming with Fatima. While she was down to help us, I knew this wasn’t what she had signed on for. I told her that she could trust me, and she had. And now I felt like shit because I knew that life as she once knew it was never going to be the same. My intentions were to help, but the truth of the matter was that in some ways, I had actually fucked thingsup and this was one thing that couldn’t be undone.

  Chapter Twelve

  I cupped my hands under the cold water running from the faucet, bent down, and splashed it on my face. I repeated this a few more times before I finally looked at myself in the mirror. I had completed assignments like this before, but this one was having more of an impact on me. I figured it was because this particular mission was personal. I let the water run as all the things leading up to this moment ran through my mind. I could still hear Indya’s screams in my head after Fatima explained what had happened to Diandre. She had tried her best to hold her composure as she told her sister a version of what happened that would satisfy her curiositybut wasn’t exactly the truth.

  “There was a terrible accident on the way to the prison. The driver of a tanker truck fell asleep behind the wheel and collided with the vehicle that was transporting Diandre. There was a huge explosionand everyone was killed.”

  That was the story I had told Fatima to tell. She had insisted on being the one to tell her sister that her brother was dead.

  “You told me that everything was fine!” Indya yelled at me.

  “It’s not his fault. I asked him not to say anything to you. I wanted to be with you when you received the news.”

  Fatima was certainly the classy woman I believed her to be when I first met her. She took the high road even when I knew that she didn’t want to. As she consoled her sister, I excused myself from the living room where everyone was and walked upstairs into the bathroom.

  I turned off the water and grabbed the hand towel off the rack near the sink. I covered my face with the towel and inhaled deeply. I held my breath as I dried my face and exhaled slowly as I heard a gentle knock on the door. I didn’t respond right away. I took my time, folded the towel, and sat it down on the edge of the sink. There were a few more taps on the door.

  “KJ, are you okay?”

  I glanced at myself in the mirror once more and quickly regained my composure. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  Dezzy twisted the knob and slowly opened the door. As she entered the bathroom, I felt a sense of calm come over me. She pushed the door closed behind her and rested against it. She seemed a bit nervous. I turned around to face her and leaned against the sink.

  “Are you sure? You’ve been up here for a while.”

  “Have I? I must have lost track of time. But I’m good,” I replied calmly and extended my hand.“Come here. Are you good?”

  I saw Dezzy’s features relax as she reached for my hand and walked toward me. Once her hand was in mine, I pulled her over to me and rested my hands on the small of her back.

  “I’m better now that you’re home and I know you’re safe.”

  “I told you I’d be fine.”

  “I know, but anything can happen.”

  “That’s true.”

  Dezzy placed her hands on my arms and moved them up slowly. She ran them across my shoulders and stopped as she laced her fingers together behind my neck. “So all of this can reallybe put behind us now?”

  “Yes. Heis no longer a concern.”

  “What about the folks affiliated with him?”

  “That’s taken care of too. Once word gets out that the untouchable Diandre is gone and his main goons too, no one is going to want to meddle in business that doesn’t concern them. Believe me. I’m confident that this can all finally be put to bed. I’m seldom wrong about these types of things.”

  “What really happened to him, KJ?I don’t buy what Fatima told her sister.”

  “Did you miss the part where I said folks shouldn’t meddle in business that doesn’t concern them?” I chuckled as I grabbed her ass, picked her up, and then turned around and sat her on the counter.

  She looked at me and smiled.“Is this your way of shutting me up?”

  “Something like that.”

  I pulled her toward the edge of the counter and used my body to spread her legs apart. I purposely pushed my dick against her as I moved closer. Her eyes grew big when she felt how hard I was. I leaned forward and began to kiss and suck her neck. She moaned as she put her hand behind my neck and held me close. I unfastened her jeans and then placed one arm around her waist to lift her while I slipped my other hand into her panties and pulled down her jeans. Once they were around her knees, I sat her back down and they fell around her ankles. I put my lips on top of hers and slipped my tongue into her mouth when I felt her lips part. She reached for my belt and unfastened my pants as we kissed. She reached around my waist and slid her hands down my lower back into my boxer briefs, pushing them down far enough to expose my ass and release my dick that was standing at attention. I stopped kissing her and put two fingers into my mouth before placing my hand between her legs. I massaged her clit with my wet fingers and her body immediately began to respond. I moved my hand further down and slipped my fingers inside of her. I moved them back and forth and watched her eyes roll to the back of her head as she moaned. She was sexy as fuck. Her juices ran down my hand as I massaged her G-spot. Her body became tense as I made her cum with my fingers and then it quivered as she relaxed. She opened her eyes and looked at me in a daze, which turned me on even more. I smirked and winked at her. I pulled my fingers out, rubbed her cum on my dick, and then entered her body in one swift stroke. She gasped and squeezed me tight. She dug her nails into my back, but I didn’t care. She felt so damn good!I held her close and didn’t move right away. I enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped in her warmth. I pushed her back gently so that the back of her shoulders touched the mirror, but I never left her body. I groaned as I started to move in and out of her slowly. She held on to my shoulders for as long as she could, but eventually let go as I picked up the pace so that she could brace herself against the counter. I held her close by the small of her back with one hand and used the other to lift her shirt and pull her titties out of her bra. I covered one of her nipples with my mouth, and her moans grew louder as she arched her back. I massaged her nipple with my tongue before giving it a slight bite. She squealed and I could feel her becoming wetter. The sounds from her juicy pussy filled the bathroom. Damn, her shit was like kryptonite! I could feel myself wanting to blow, but I didn’t allow myself to. I wanted to enjoy myself for as lon
g as I could. She returned my thrust, and I went into a zone. This was definitely what I needed after the day I’d had. I was sucking her neck when I heard footsteps walking across the landing on the hardwood floors toward my bedroom door. Dezzy gasped and stopped moving.

  “I didn’t lock the door!” she whispered in a panic.

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I dug deeper, stayed in my zone, and continued to handle my business. She bit her lip, freed one of her feet from her jeans, and opened her legs wider. I began to move faster, and her breathing became more labored as I felt her walls begin to contract around me.

  “Shit, KJ!”

  She had barely spoken my name when the knocking started. I ignored it and picked Dezzy up off the counter. I raised her up and down on my dick, and the sounds of our bodies clapping together echoed in the bathroom. She buried her face into my shoulder and tried her best not to scream. There were more knocks on the door, butI wasn’t worried. I knew no one would walk into my room, much less into the bathroom.

  “Um, Khalil, did you forget about the rest of us down here?” Melanie asked loudly through the door.“Hurry up! Your brother is here.”

  Hearing Melanie’s voice made me freeze. The night in Okinawa rushed into my head. My concentration was broken immediately, and the mood was ruined.

  Dezzy lifted her head and looked at me in confusion as I slowly put her down.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” I called out to Melanie.“Give me a minute. I’ll be right there.”

  Dezzy had a surprised look on her face. Then her expression changed from shock to annoyance. “You can’t be serious right now,” she blurted.“Really, KJ?”

  I knew this was a rhetorical question. I attempted to pull her close to me to kiss her and put her mind at ease, but she put her hands on my chest and pushed me away.

  “Don’t touch me.”