by Edwina Fort
Pablo Consuela, an Argentinian drug lord had thought to blackmail the senator with some compromising photos to try and get him to vote to pass some legislation that would make it easier for him to move his product in The Gulf. I didn’t know all the details, it wasn’t my job to. My job was to retrieve the photos and erase them from any hard drive they may be on, and then put old Pablo out of his misery.
A job I had done flawlessly until I got too messy making my escape and ended up with a bullet wound in my side. I shook my head, this was just another sign signaling that it was time for me to walk away from this life. Jo didn’t believe me, but I was going to show him, this was my last mission. When it was over and I was paid, I was ghost. I was disappearing in a way that even he couldn’t find me.
I was going back home.
Nobody knew where my home was because I barely knew where it was. The only thing or shall I say the only person holding me there was my mom. I put her in the nursing home ten years ago under an alias. And the only way for the nursing home to contact me was through a message service that I checked from time to time, waiting for the call saying she’s dead.
But I have yet to get it, so I guess she’s still alive.
Maybe she was just waiting on me. Waiting to look me in the eye one more time and blame me for being the reason daddy left. Waiting to hit me one more time for not being the boy my father wanted more than he wanted either of us. Waiting to let me know just how much she hated me before she took her last breath.
After this job, she’ll get her chance if she wasn’t dead. Exhaling I pushed those thoughts from my mind. Those are the kinds of thoughts that can get you killed on a mission. Those were the thoughts I was thinking when the bullet penetrated my flesh the day before yesterday.
I reached in my suitcase for a pair of eyeglasses that would complete the look I was going for and slid them on my face. Then I popped two pain pills in my mouth because my side was killing me. I hadn’t even had time to get it looked at. I had to stitch it up myself, lather it with a tube of Neosporin, and slap a damn bandage over it.
Perks of the job…
When I was prepared, I stepped out the rental car and after locking it, headed toward the building.
“Daaaammmnnn!” Several of the men said as I approached, looking at me as if they had never seen a pretty woman in a two-piece fitted skirt suit carrying a briefcase.
Men…
Jo was right. For as long as I could remember, men have fallen over themselves for my face that did look very innocent, only to end up with their noses broken for thinking I could be taken advantage of. My face was one of the reasons the agency had hired me in the first place. They knew with my innocent looks, I would be able to slip under most people’s radar.
“She look like a sexy school teacher.” One of the men that was holding a red cup in his hand said. Judging by the redness of his eyes he wasn’t drinking juice. I lifted my eyebrow at him checking my watch. Damn, it wasn’t even ten o’clock. The smell of marijuana was also very strong in the air.
“Man, if she was my teacher, I would have stayed in school.” One of the younger guys who looked to be fifteen or sixteen responded. I kept walking as if I didn’t hear them. Blocking the door with both of his hands on the frame was another young man who could be no more that twenty-one or twenty- two.
He wasn’t a bad looking guy. As I approached him, he passed the blunt he was smoking to another man that was much older than him sitting on the stoop. He slowly blew out the smoke as he took me in. When it was clear he wasn’t going to move I stopped, but I bit down on my teeth to hold on to my temper.
Okay, so let me tell you guys why I got fired from the agency. Yes, I have an innocent face that most men consider beautiful. I look soft and approachable. Jo once described me as the girl next door. That being said…I don’t have the constitution to match my looks.
I’m not friendly or soft and I could give a damn about beauty. I have a short fuse and I’m easily irritated. I may have used lethal force a time or two when pushed the wrong way. And I may have used excessive force when one of my directors thought it was alright to grab me and try to force me to kiss him one night while we were all at a bar celebrating the promotion of one of our colleagues. I was aware he was drunk, but it did little to assuage my irritation at his action.
I smashed his face into the bar, breaking it. Anyway, the agency said their hands were tied; I had too many complaints on my record to continue.
I told you guys that story to try and get you to understand what I was going through standing here in front of this civilian, allowing him to get away with his actions.
“How can I help you, sweetheart?” He asked.
“Is your name Romeo Reevers?” For a moment a look of surprise crossed his face before he shared glances with a few of the other men. Now that I had mentioned that name, none of them were smiling anymore. The air got really tense. Even the men farther down on the block had come to attention.
Jo had been right. Whoever this Romeo was, they were very loyal to him.
“Who’s asking?”
“Brenda Bonita,” the lie slid easily from my lips. I had studied Romeo’s file on the plane ride home. What this situation called for was a case worker.
“That’s all I’m at liberty to discuss with you unless your name is Romeo Reevers.” I continued.
He chuckled. “You the law?”
I reached up and pushed the curly strands of hair that hung by my ear behind it, an act that made me appear soft.
“Excuse me?”
“Police.” He said losing patience with me. “Are you the police?” I softened my eyes.
“Oh no! Nothing like that.” He looked at me for a minute to determine if I was telling the truth. I blinked slowly, allowing my long lashes to sweep across my doe shaped eyes.
“Aight, follow me.”
“Yo Rob, what you doing man?” The older guy that still held the blunt in his hand asked.
“Relax, G. She cool.” I looked back at the other men and they all wore a look of astonishment that he was taking me inside the building. As I followed him through the halls that were surprisingly very clean, he kept stealing glances at me.
“You look like some kind a case worker.” He said, still fishing for my identity. I smiled at him. I liked the kid.
“Something like that.” I told him.
He nodded. “Jo sent you, didn’t he? To keep an eye on Rome?” I chuckled surprised by how astute he was.
“Something like that.”
There were several children playing in the hall outside one of the apartments on the first floor. It looked as if the building had four levels. I could hear loud rap music playing from another apartment. We walked through a door that led to some stairs.
“I hope you don’t mind taking the stairs. The elevator is broken and Rome’s place is all the way up on the top floor.” I smiled at him, yeah, I liked this kid.
“I don’t mind.”
When we got to the fourth level, there was a keypad on this door that wasn’t on the others. Standing directly in front of it he keyed in a four-number code.
7,9,5,6…Got it.
I noted the fact that the fourth level was not open to the rest of the building. There seemed to be very little activity on this level. In fact, once we walked out of the stairwell, the door locked automatically when it closed behind us; there seemed to be only one other door that I could see. On this door was another keypad, he quickly keyed in the code.
3,2,9,7…Got it.
My eyes widen behind my glasses as we walked through the door. It was a loft, a very spacious loft, a nice very spacious loft. For the third time in a matter of minutes, I was pleasantly surprised. The tall floor-to-ceiling windows ran along the east side of the loft, they looked to be at least twenty feet tall. They were also covered by beautiful golden drapes.
The loft itself had to run along the entire length of the building because like I said, it was roomy. One could play
a game of football in its open space or what you American’s call soccer. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, it didn’t look as if Rome invested in that.
However, I now understood why I had been assigned this mission. Along the entire length of the north wall was a state of the art computer system. Secured to the lovely rust colored brick wall had to be at least twenty flat screened monitors. Although they were turned off, one couldn’t help but wonder what appeared on them when they were turned on. In front of the elaborate system was a single plush leather chair on wheels.
It was a chair for a king.
A king whose throne was in front of several very impressive computer screens.
One thing was for certain, this beauty was something you wouldn’t ever expect to find in the heart of the ghetto. My fingers twitched in anticipation of finding out what was stored on that massive hard drive. He spared no expense for it. There were million-dollar corporations that could not afford one such as it.
My guess was the owner of that beautiful system was lying in the bed that wasn’t too far from it. Rob walked to a wall and hit a button, opening the curtains that were closer to the bed just a little. However, it was enough to shine a burst of sunlight into the loft. I came to a stop in front of the bed looking down at the occupants.
The man that I would assume was Rome lay sleeping on his stomach, my eyes traveled over his muscled back to the equally muscled arm that hung out the bed. He had on a pair of black jeans and expensive gym shoes. Asleep next to him completely naked was a very voluptuous young lady. Only the lower half of her body was covered with the sheet.
Rob wore a goofy smile on his face as he too stood looking down at the two. I could tell right off this kid was a rascal. His aim was to shock me with this. I looked at him and lifted an eyebrow, poor baby, it would take more than this to shock me.
“Yo Rome, you got a guest.” He said hitting the man’s shoe.
“Beat it, chump.” The sleeping giant grumbled turning over in the bed without opening his eyes. Rob chuckled hitting his shoe again.
“Get up, nigga.”
“What I tell you about using that word?” Rome mumbled without opening his eyes. He had a very deep voice. The younger man didn’t respond, instead he looked up at me with that devious grin still on his face. He nodded in a way to tell me to watch this.
Rome opened his eyes and turned to look at him, sitting up slightly. “You deaf, punk?! What I tell—” his words stalled as his light brown gaze came to rest on me.
Although I didn’t show it, for the fourth time since coming to this place, I was completely taken off guard.
Rome was gorgeous.
He looked at me through a pair of amber eyes that missed nothing. He’d just woke up from a deep sleep and judging by the empty Hennessy bottles and cups, it had been a drunken sleep, yet his eyes were sharp. They took me in making me feel as if he was reading me like an open book. I shifted on my feet feeling uncomfortable with that. No one has ever looked at me that closely.
He ran his hand over his head.
“What the f*** Rob.” He growled. The grin on Rob’s face grew wider as he blinked his eyes innocently.
“Bruh, you got a guest.” He said gesturing towards me. Now that he mentioned it, I could see the resemblances between the two. Only difference being Rome was clearly older and his eyes were a lighter shade of brown than Rob’s. He pointed at his little brother in a way that told him he will deal with him later.
“Hey,” he said tapping the shoulder of the sleeping girl. She came awake with a smile on her face.
“Hey, daddy,” she purred. I rolled my eyes, Rob chuckled.
“Get up, you gotta bounce.” He told her. And for the first time she looked and saw us. With a squeak she snatched the sheet up to cover her breasts.
“Can you give us a minute?” Rome asked me, gesturing toward the other end of the loft where a living room area was. I lifted an eyebrow at his rude tone.
“Sure,” I told him before turning to walk towards the sitting area.
As I did, I casually lifted my hand and slipped the bug from my watch, positioning it just right between my fingers. I used the same hand to ease down in the brown leather chair, securing the bug at the same time.
To the left of the chair I sat in was a huge brown leather couch, or what looked like a couch, but was really a modern rendition of a couch. It screamed contemporary bachelor pad. As if to confirm that, a ridiculously big flat screen TV was mounted to the brick wall to my right. In front of it on the floor were several gaming systems. There were quite a few game controllers sprawled on the floor around them.
When I looked back towards the sleeping area, it was to see Rome’s amber gaze still on me. He was now sitting at the foot of the bed with his elbows resting against his knees. If I was the blushing type, I would be doing it right now seeing that he had watched me walk this whole distance. Finally, he turned to look up at his brother.
“Why you didn’t take her downstairs to ma’s place? Why the hell you bring her up here?” Rob, who had watched the whole exchange with that goofy grin on his face now wore a look of fake shock.
“Ma not home.”
“So?!” Rome growled up at him, his face transformed in his anger.
Rob chuckled, not fazed a bit in only a way that a little brother could. “My bad, man. I just didn’t think about it.”
“You play too much.” His brother responded standing up grabbing his t-shirt at the same time. When he brought it over his head, his muscled arms and chest flexed impressively. He was very tall as well.
“That’s your damn problem.” He continued admonishing his kid brother before he turned and noticed that the girl had not moved from the bed, she was in fact playing like she had just drifted back to sleep.
“Ay… Ay, shawty, you got to bounce. Get your sh*t.” He called down to her. Amazingly she woke up and stretched, letting the cover fall from her ample breasts once again. Rob grinned shaking his head.
“Rome, you gon’ call me?” She asked as she unashamedly slid out the bed reaching down to retrieve her dress from the floor.
I shook my head, women like her gave our whole species a bad name. If a man had talked to me the way he’d just talked to her, the only call I would be worried about is the anonymous one to the city morgue, telling them where to find his body.
“Rob, make sure Kiesha get to her car safe—”
“Tonya!” She interrupted him, finally insulted. Rome chuckled as he scratched his head walking towards the bathroom.
“Who the f*** cares.” Was his only response as he went into his bathroom shutting the door behind him.
“Okay, you can call me Kiesha, just call me…Please!”
“Come on, shawty. I’ll walk you downstairs.” Rob told her as she angrily slid her feet in her heels.
“It was nice meeting you, Brenda.” He called to me as they headed toward the door.
“Nice meeting you too, Rob.” It really was. I don’t know why he chose to make my job easier, but he had. Had he not brought me up here, there was no way I would have gotten through that group at the door.
And had I by some miracle gotten through them, I would have never made it past the locked door on the steps.
Well… Not this easily anyway.
Rome took his time in the bathroom, I heard the shower start. I was not delusional to think it wasn’t a test when it really was. Jo was right. This man was smart. He was trying to feel me out before talking to me. I was careful where I let my gaze roam. Although I couldn’t see them, I was quite certain this whole building was wired with cameras.
Slowly, I got up and walked to the nearest window. The drapes were opened slightly, allowing a perfect view of the ghetto below. My eyes narrowed at the roof of the building across the street, there was a man standing on it leaning against the door smoking a cigarette. When he caught me looking at him, he winked.
My gaze went to the corner store at the end of the block, several men stood ou
tside talking, but when one of them noticed me looking, he winked.
What the hell?
I looked towards the opposite corner, there was a man sitting on the porch of a building there, it looked as if he was smoking a blunt. When he noticed that I saw him, he winked.
“What are you looking for?” Rome’s deep voice came from behind me causing me to nearly jump out of my heels as I whipped around, stopping myself from reaching for the piece strapped to the inside of my thigh. I looked up at him half startled and half surprised. How in the world did he walk up on me without me hearing him? He chuckled as he flopped down on his couch facing me.
He smelled good. Now dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, he even looked good. I was surprised to see that I was capable of being attracted to the thug type. Who knew?
“Did I surprise you?” He asked. For a minute my mouth just hung open. Damn, can he hear my thoughts?
“Yes.” I told him truthfully. He was continuing to do that.
“Sorry about that. How can I help you Ms…”
“Brenda Bonita,” I said walking toward him to shake his hand. He didn’t reach for my hand, instead he studied me with that unnerving gaze of his. I had to force myself not to look away.
Get a grip Nak. You are not getting ready to let this young thug unravel you. Get it together!
I took a deep breath withdrawing my hand as I eased back down in my chair.
“It’s common decency to shake your guest’s hand in greeting.” I admonished as I lifted my briefcase laying it gently on the granite table in front of me.
“It’s common decency not to lie when your host asks you your name.” My eyes rose to his.
“I told you my name. Why would I lie?”
He grinned then still studying me with that sharp gaze of his. “I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll find out.”
I removed several papers from my briefcase. One of them being a copy of the contract he signed with Jo.
“I’ve been sent here from Senator Warren’s office. As you know, your sister a…” I looked at the name on the paper although I knew it by heart. “Journey Reevers is romantically involved with Joseph Warren, Senator Warren’s son. I’ve been hired to make sure the senator and his son’s reputation remain on the up and up.” I smiled warmly. He did not return my smile. In fact, the more I talked, the angrier he became. The little muscle in his jaw was working overtime.