“You don’t know this man!” Fallon said through bared teeth. “Slade says he’s a mole for the mayor. Be sure before you go jumping into his bed!”
Tenley’s laugh was bitter and mirthless even to her own ears. “Says the woman with two fatherless children!”
Fallon couldn’t have looked more confounded if Tenley had kicked her with combat boots. Finally someone said the one thing that everyone feared to address. Fallon was as responsible as a cat when it came to who she made kittens with. She was lucky to have ended up with only two.
Fallon bristled and shouted, “You know good and well I’ve had serious, committed relationships—”
“And none of them worked out, did they?” Tenley shouted back. “That’s because you were the only one serious and committed!”
“You know Charles tripped me up with that last baby!” Fallon shrieked.
“You weren’t tripped; you fell!” Tenley shrieked in return.
“Now, Tenley,” Meryl interjected, coming to stand between her two daughters squaring off in the hallway. “That’s just plain cruel!”
“I’m tired, Mama!” Tenley blazed on in fury. “I’m tired of grown folks telling me how to handle my business when they don’t handle any business! I could’ve stayed in a hotel, but I came home to help you when you weren’t well! Then here come all of these…” she waved her hand in the direction of her siblings and the tribe. “I’m sorry. Let Fallon take up the torch! I’m burned out!”
Tenley jabbed a finger in Lonnie’s chest. “And you stop playing Cowboys and Indians. Grow up! If you can’t find a job, create a job!”
Lonnie’s face twisted in outrage. “Wait just a minute—”
“Did you hear me, Lonnie?” Tenley raged. “You need a J-O-B!”
“Calm yourself, young lady!” Meryl said in a stern voice. “There’s no need to forget how you were raised!”
Tenley turned to her mother. “I was raised to be independent and kind and self-motivated, but every since Daddy died, I’ve been your husband and their father!” She flung her arm out toward her siblings again.
Fallon pursed her lips to say something else, but Tenley didn’t give her a chance. “If I’m going to stay, there’s going to be some changes around here!” Her gaze landed first on Lacy and next Marcel, as they both tried to inch away. “And you two are old enough to help out more!” she chastised. “Excuse me.”
Tenley stomped a path to her bedroom door, turning to point at Lonnie, who was bearing down on her, probably determined to say his piece. “And don’t you open your mouth!” she yelled, making him flinch. She slammed the door, closing them out so that she could contemplate her future in a bit of peace.
* * *
The next day, Tenley hired a lawyer to negotiate the terms between her contractor and the developer—terms that made it clear that she would not be responsible for one cent of expense incurred from the moment she was forced to leave her home until it was safe to return. Progress. Finally.
Over the next few weeks, Tenley buried herself in her career. The CPA firm where she worked suffered a shake-up, resulting in a ten percent layoff of underperformers. The position of vice president opened up, and she was gunning for it—hard. But even days filled with work found her missing her talks with Kyle and his touch, found her pondering Kyle’s body intertwining with hers as they curved and flowed. He had honored her request and left her pretty much alone. Was it presumptuous of her to assume he’d wait for her? Would he date others while she decided? A tiny worm of doubt wriggled its way into her thoughts. The next move would have to be hers.
Tenley shoved the papers she’d been working on across the kitchen table where she’d set up workspace early that Sunday morning. Her family had been walking on eggshells around her since her meltdown. Even though Fallon wasn’t speaking to her, they were trying to step up to the plate … even Lonnie. He’d taken issue with her telling him to get a job, but soon unveiled his early plans for a run for the office of alderman of their ward, where he could really help Sowell. He presented her with reams of signatures and endorsements, showing that he’d done his research on public approval. His only concern was tackling any tricks from the mayor. Perhaps Kyle could help with that. Yes, Tenley the enabler had closed up shop, and her patrons now had to look to other resources.
Lonnie walked in the front door, slamming it behind him.
“Where’ve you been this early in the morning?” Tenley asked, taking in the cotton t-shirt that plastered his skin. “Is it raining out there?”
Lonnie must’ve left the house hours before, since she had been up for at least two hours working on a proposal for work while the house slept. Only within the last half hour had she heard evidence of others moving around, breaking the quiet as they dressed for the day.
“Yeah, it’s starting to drizzle.” Lonnie wiggled out of his thin Blackhawks hockey jacket and tossed it over a chair. “Been knocking around on Greene Street in Creighton. I swear, Ten. I’m close to snatching that thievin’ fool that jacked you!”
The conversation with Kyle came rushing back and swirled around with all the blood in her head. “How did you know to search Creighton?”
“Easy,” he said with a grin that caused a chilly frost to seep into her veins. “I hit every local contact in that cell phone you gave me.”
“Are you crazy?” Tenley shouted.
Lonnie shrugged, pulled his wet t-shirt over his head, and settled into a wooden chair across from her. “Aw, it’s nothing more than what the police would’ve done—’cept it would have taken them most of the year to do it.” His gaze met hers, leaving no uncertainty as to who and what he meant. “That’s if they bothered at all.”
“You stop this right now and hand me that cell phone!” she said, holding her palm upward. “I’m turning it over to the police like I should have that night, if I’d been thinking straight.”
In the distance, Fallon yelled for Marcel. His answer was muffled and short.
“Hell naw! I got this.” Lonnie said. “I said I’d get ‘em, and I will.”
“Get what?” their mother asked, shuffling in wearing her usual blue terrycloth housecoat and matching slippers. She moved toward the sink and stove to prepare the morning coffee.
“Mama, Lonnie’s been—”
“Really, Ten?” he snapped.
“Hey, Uncle,” Marcel said, running into the kitchen on legs that were much too long for a pre-teen. “Can I wear your Hawks jacket to the park?”
“Stop running before you fall and hurt yourself!” Meryl scolded from her place at the stove.
“Yeah,” Lonnie said, speaking in tandem with his mother. “Don’t get it dirty.”
“Give me the phone back, Lonnie,” Tenley insisted.
“You can have it,” Lonnie said, sliding it toward her and leaving the room. He looked over his shoulder and gave her a crooked grin, adding, “I got everything I need from it.”
Tenley had an awful premonition of something dreadful happening. With Lonnie doing his own vigilante investigation in an area that didn’t take too kindly to strangers poking around, and Kyle barely able to hide his concern, she knew she had to get that phone to Kyle right away.
In the span of several moments, between the time that Lonnie made that statement and Marcel let the door bang shut behind him, three things happened at once—a set of tires shrieked to a halt outside their front door; gunfire cracked the morning calm into splinters of chaos; and the room erupted in a chorus of cries with screeching tires in the backdrop, signaling an abrupt departure.
Despite having been farthest away, Fallon was first to the door, with Tenley on her heels, both charging toward the limp form in the red Blackhawk’s jacket lying on the sidewalk.
Fallon gathered her son in her arms with a howl of anguish.
Tenley expelled all the air from her lungs and couldn’t get any to go back in.
* * *
Tenley had been calling Kyle all day and was rapidly losing fait
h. She paced the living room floor, trying not to focus on the solemn faces of her family perched on the sofa, love seat, chair, and even the floor.
Finally, her cell phone rang, and the screen displayed the number she was most desperate to see. “Kyle!”
“I’m sorry. I took something to help me sleep,” he said in a raspy voice. “I just heard. How is Marcel?”
“He’s fine. He’s lucky,” she said, hurrying to her bedroom for privacy. “The bullet grazed his head. He fell wrong and knocked himself out. He’s already been treated and released.” She raked trembling fingers through her short crop of hair. “But Kyle, I think this is some kind of retaliation against Lonnie. Maybe something to do with him shaking folks down in Creighton.”
Kyle was silent for a moment. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“This definitely makes me an idiot, but the night of the robbery, the guy dropped his cell phone. I picked it up, not even thinking about it as evidence. I was so out of my head. When Lonnie asked me for it, I just … I just gave it to him.”
“Aw, Ten!!”
“I know!” she whined, imagining the disappointment on his face. “And I hadn’t thought of it since, until he brought it up.”
“We need that phone,” Kyle said. “We may have already lost the benefit of having it.”
“I made him give it to me,” she said, nearly panting with urgency. “Kyle, Marcel was wearing Lonnie’s jacket!”
“So, the shooter could have been targeting your brother.”
“That’s my thought. Marcel’s nearly as tall as Lonnie, though he’s a little thinner.”
Kyle blew out a hard sigh. “I’m working the late shift tonight, covering for a friend. Can I stop by and get that phone?”
“Sure. This is terrible! I love Sowell, but your grandfather may win this. I have to get my family out of here.”
“You don’t have to solve every problem, Ten,” he warned.
“This is not the time, Kyle.”
“If not now, when?” he asked. “I’ll keep asking until you answer. At least you don’t have to solve these problems alone.”
She slumped onto the bed, her silence speaking for her.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Kyle said and disconnected the call.
* * *
Tenley sat up alone in the dark and peered through the curtains. She had let Marcel have her bed so that Fallon could be near him. When she last checked on them, Fallon was curled up with Lacy in her arms, and Marcel was sprawled on her bed across from them.
She heard a scratchy sound and movement at the kitchen window. Tenley stepped away to investigate when a strong knock at the front door sent a knife of fear through her heart. She nearly screamed.
Tenley flew to the door, peered through the peephole, and slipped outside, gently pulling the door closed behind her.
“Hi,” Kyle said.
“Hi.” Tenley handed him the phone. His handsome face, swathed in the warm glow of the street lamps, coupled with his raw physical presence, made her woozy.
“Tonight I’m partnering with Officer Locke.”
Tenley waved at the officer, who was taller and older than Kyle, standing near the squad car. Locke nodded a response.
“You look beautiful,” he said softly.
“Don’t be silly,” she replied and smoothed out her blouse over her jeans.
“You good?”
I am now, she realized. “I am,” she said to him. “I thought I heard something in the back right before you got here, though. I’m a wreck of nerves and tics!”
“Let me take a look.”
“No, don’t bother,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “I’m sure it’s just my imagination all fired up.”
“It’ll only take a second,” he said, signaling to his partner to cover him, and removing a flashlight from his belt. “Better to be safe than— Hey!”
Already wound tight, Tenley issued a high, thin scream when a figure shot out of the dark.
Kyle was cheetah quick. He had the perpetrator on the ground, arms pulled hard behind his back in the time it took to yell, “Stop!”
“Kyle, be careful!” Tenley called out.
Officer Locke joined him. Together, they were making the arrest. Kyle’s lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear what he said.
Suddenly, the perp bellowed, “Help! Help! Police brutality! Somebody help!”
In spite of Kyle’s attempts to quiet him, lights popped on in windows, and soon spectral figures slid out of several doors.
“They’re gonna kill me! Help me!”
“Hey,” yelled a voice across the street. “What’s going on?”
“Dirty cops!” someone else yelled. “Can’t let ‘em get away with that!”
Horrified, Tenley watched as a throng of people flooded the streets. A rock sailed past Officer Locke and hit Kyle in the head. Another, whizzing past Tenley from another direction, hit him in the arm.
Both officers stood and drew guns and, in a blink, the suspect got to his feet and dashed off, his wrists still in handcuffs. Officer Locke sprinted after him. A bottle missed him by a hair and shattered at Kyle’s feet. Kyle fought against a group of angry men who broke away from the crowd and charged him.
“No!” Tenley yelled. “Stop!”
Without thinking, she flew directly into the crowd, shouldering her way towards Kyle. He had lost his footing and was now on the concrete, fending off eight people at once.
Why doesn’t he just shoot?
Kyle had every opportunity to use his weapon, but it dawned on her what was holding him back. Before she could part her lips to tell him to get off a warning shot, she saw a glint of steel wink under the streetlights.
Tenley flung her body over his and felt his arms curl protectively around her. He tried to swing her underneath him, but she wouldn’t let him. Her neighbors wouldn’t hurt her…at least she was banking on that. She struggled against the horde, spitting and hissing like a cat.
“Leave him alone!” she shouted. “You’ll have to come through me first! Leave him alone!”
The mob, one by one, began to stand down. By then, her family had spilled out of the house. Lonnie went through the crowd like a madman, pushing, shoving, and hurling folks away from Tenley.
Finally able to pull away from Kyle, Tenley looked down at him. A bloom of blood stained his shirt. A faint smile tugged at his lips on one side as he held her gaze, the light in his eyes going dim.
“Call an ambulance!” she cried, struggling to pull him to her breasts.
Chapter 9
STATESIDE HOSPITAL, ROOM 431
Tenley leaned over and kissed Kyle’s forehead, and he opened sleep-clouded eyes. Another one of his beautiful smiles took over his handsome face.
“Tenley.”
“Shhhh.” She straightened his bed covers to have something to do with her hands. “Rest.”
“Oh, I’m good.” He turned his head so that she could see his injury. “A little cut on my temple, a bruise on my arm, and…look here, on my chest. Somebody had a knife. It didn’t go deep, though. They’ve already stitched me up.” He groaned, twisting toward her. “My partner told me that Locke apprehended our robber.”
“I know,” she said, cupping his cheek. “That’s wonderful. Sowell will be a little safer.”
“If he’s not the guy that mugged you in that alley, he’ll lead us to him. He must’ve wanted that cell phone pretty badly.” His gaze locked on hers, the usual question in his eyes. “Tenley …”
“Not now, Kyle.”
“I’m asking again … I’ll keep asking … if not now, when?”
Tenley let her gaze slide away from his, but she could feel him still watching her, feel his hunger, his all-consuming desire for her. She wished he would look somewhere else.
“What you’re asking will change my whole life,” she said, focusing her gaze on the heart monitor. “I don’t know if I’m ready for all that. I have enough commitments.”
; “What about your commitment to you? To your happiness?” he queried. “To what makes you feel good? To what makes you feel loved?”
He didn’t know how much she had been considering those things. She sighed and shook her head to clear it.
“I know what you’re afraid of,” he said, stroking a thumb across her knuckles. “We’ll be there for your family, and I won’t get in the way of your career.”
She held onto his hand, squeezing her eyes shut, praying for guidance.
“I found you, and I don’t want to let go of this dream,” he said. His tender words made her heart turn over. “It’s so simple, just to reach out and grab it. I’m just so—”
“Oh, son!” A tall, white-suited woman wearing Kyle’s face hurried into the room. “I came as soon as I could!”
“I’m fine, mother,” he said. “I’ll be released today. Just some minor cuts and bruises.”
She snorted. “Why you insist on endangering your life and following in your father’s doomed footsteps is beyond me!” she scoffed. “I nearly fainted when I heard!”
“Mother,” Kyle picked up Tenley’s hand and squeezed it. “I’d like you to meet Tenley.”
“Tenley? Well …” Mrs. Stanton sniffed as though something didn’t smell quite right and offered a bejeweled hand. “Is this the young lady you spoke of? What an odd place for us to meet.”
Kyle shifted on the bed, “We haven’t had much time to—”
“Obviously your grandfather sends his love.” Kyle’s mother rolled right over his attempt to speak. “This is just another nail in the coffin for that dreadful place!” she said with obvious censure in her tone. “I want you out of Sowell Gardens. Get a transfer—anything! I lost my husband; I’ll be damned if I lose my son!”
She poured a glass of water from the pitcher beside the bed and held it to her son’s mouth. Kyle and Tenley’s gazes met over her hands.
“Well, thanks for everything, Kyle.” Tenley took her hand back and hoisted her purse onto her shoulder. “It was wonderful meeting you, Mrs. Stanton.” She hurried toward the exit.
“Tenley!”
She stopped without turning around.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered ... I'm Yours Page 16