by J. L Rose
“I’ll be in in a few hours,” Monica told him, but then asked, “What about Angela? You still have a tail on her?”
Quiet a moment, Agent Murphy replied, “I figured since you were ending the case on Blackwell . . .”
“You pulled the tail on Angela, didn’t you, Victor?”
“You want me to put them back on her?”
“I’ll let you know. I’ll call you later, Victor,” Monica told Agent Murphy, hanging up the phone.
14
A linna and James sat out front of the Miami-Dade County Jail inside the metallic black and chrome-edged new model Bentley Continental GT Speed that Alinna had bought for Dante. Behind the dark-tinted windows, she ignored the crowd that was growing around the car, with cameras taking pictures and cameramen and news reporters yelling over each other, trying to be heard.
“Alinna! There we go now!” James said, nodding to the front doors of the jail.
Alinna broke out in a huge smile seeing Dante with his team of lawyers. He was dressed in a pearl-white Kenneth Cole suit with a sky-blue button-up Kenneth Cole shirt. She controlled herself until James finally opened her door for her. She climbed out just as Dante approached the Bentley.
“What’s up, shorty?” Dante said, smirking as he stopped in front of her. “You miss your man or what?”
Laughing as she wrapped her arms up and around his neck, Alinna laid in against Dante hugging him. Sighing after his arms wrapped around her waist, she said, “I missed you so much, boy! Let’s get out of here.”
Allowing Alinna to lead him into the Bentley by the hand, Dante touched fists with a smiling James and said, “What’s up, playboy?”
“What’s up, bruh. Good to have you back,” James said as he was closing the car door behind Dante and Alinna.
“You look good!” Dante told Alinna, leaning over and kissing her on the lips.
Alinna pulled out of the kiss after only a few moments. Feeling the dam between her legs open up and her wetness pouring out of her womanhood, she breathlessly said, “Wait, Dante. Let’s not start right now, because if we start, believe me when I tell you that I won’t be able to stop what I want to do to you.”
Laughing lightly, Dante said, “Alright, shorty! Tell me what’s going on. Where we at?”
First she told Dante about Monica and what was going on with her sister and brother-in-law, and that soon she’d be expecting a call from Monica that he had been released. Alinna then began to explain about losing track of Angela once everyone went to the hospital after Harmony had an emergency, finding out she was two months pregnant with Tony T’s baby.
“Harmony alright?” Dante asked while staring out the car window.
“She’s fine,” Alinna answered, staring at Dante and expecting him to be upset about the loss of Angela. She was surprised when he looked over at her and his expression was calm.
“Anything else?” Dante asked her before calling up front to James and asking, “Pull over so I can get something to smoke, playboy.”
“James . . . hand me that tote bag,” Alinna said as James reached over to the passenger seat, picked up the black leather tote bag, and handed it back to her. She, in turn, handed it over to Dante and said, “This is for you.”
Alinna watched as Dante opened the tote bag and saw the two boxes of Black & Milds, one vanilla and the other regular; a black and chrome flick lighter; and two twin Glock 45s facing each other in the bottom of the bag. Alinna then spoke up: “I’ve got some more news for you.”
“I’m listening,” Dante said after lighting up one of the Blacks and then taking out the two Glocks and checking them.
“I’ve found Rob,” she told Dante. “You remember Rob, right?”
“Ain’t he the clown that used to cop from you some time back?”
“Yeah, that’s him. But guess who else I found as well?” Alinna asked. Before Dante could even reply, she said, “Fish Man ass back in town too.”
Cutting his eyes over at Alinna and meeting her eyes a moment, Dante shook his head and focused back on his two new bangers before saying, “Call Vanessa and tell her I said to bring that over to your old spot at the apartments.”
Doing as she was asked, Alinna pulled out her cell phone and dialed Vanessa’s number.
“Hello!”
“Vaness . . . this is Alinna. Dante wants you . . . ,” she began, before pulling her ear away from a screaming Vanessa on the other end. Alinna smiled and shook her head. She then handed the phone over to Dante and said, “She wants to talk to you.”
Smiling as he took the phone from Alinna, and still hearing Vanessa screaming on the other end, Dante hung up the phone. He then texted her and told her that he was calling back and for her to stop screaming so they could talk.
He then called her back a few minutes later. Vanessa answered on the first ring: “Dante, you on the phone?”
“Yeah, Vanessa. What’s up, sis?”
“Oh my God, boy! I missed you so much!”
“I missed you too, Nessa. Listen though, I need you to meet me at you and Alinna’s old spot at the apartment, but bring what I had you hold for me, alright?”
“Alright, big bruh. I’m happy you’re back too.”
“I’m happy I’m back, Nessa,” Dante replied, hanging up the phone and smiling. He handed the phone back to Alinna and said, “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Alinna answered, shaking her head but still smiling. “So what are you planning to do about Fish Man and Rob?”
“I’ll let you deal with Rob, but I got something for Fish Man,” Dante told Alinna. “Where Natalie at though?”
“She flew back to Phoenix to pick up Carmen,” Alinna answered just as her cell phone started to ring. She looked down at the screen and saw that it was Dre calling. She then answered, “What’s up, Dre?”
“I’ve got Monica on a three-way,” Dre told Alinna as he then called out to Monica.
“I’m here,” Monica answered. “You got what you wanted, Alinna. Now where can I pick up my sister and brother-in-law?”
“I’ll let you know,” Alinna started. “But there are a few things I want to do before I tell you where they are at, just in case you’re planning some—”
“Hang up the phone, Alinna,” Dante ordered, cutting off Alinna from what she was saying.
Alinna hung up the phone as soon as Dante told her. She looked back to Dante as he said, “You said what you said. Don’t spend too much time talking to her on the phone. You could be recorded and don’t know it.”
“She’s not with the DEA anymore, Dante,” Alinna told him.
“You really sure about that?” Dante asked, staring into Alinna’s eyes, wanting her to think for herself.
***
Making it to Alinna’s old spot where she and the girls used to stash their work, Dante noticed Vanessa’s Benz truck as James was parking the Bentley.
Climbing from the car and holding the door open for Alinna, Dante closed the car door behind her and then followed alongside Alinna, with James on her right. He noticed how James looked around the parking area, using only his eyes.
Once they were upstairs and walked up to the apartment door, Alinna unlocked and opened it just as Vanessa came rushing out, almost knocking Alinna over to get to Dante.
“God damn, Nessa!” Alinna said, staring hard at Vanessa as she pulled away from James, who caught her from falling over. “You just gonna knock me down, bitch?”
“You was in the way!” Vanessa replied, smiling as she was hanging from around Dante’s neck.
“Whatever!” Alinna said, rolling her eyes just as she heard, “Daddy!”
Hearing his daughter’s voice, he looked inside the apartment to see Mya rushing at him with a huge smile on her face. Dante quickly released Vanessa and squatted down just as Mya slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Daddy, when you get home?” Mya asked, smiling as she pulled back a little to look up at him.
“Today, baby girl!” Dante answered, p
icking up his daughter before he entered the apartment.
Alinna smiled at the sight of Dante with his daughter and then followed them inside. She then walked into the front room and saw a 38-inch flat screen television playing the movie Ice Age.
Dante sat with his daughter a few minutes on the brown sofa, and then he looked over at Vanessa once Mya focused on the movie, and asked, “Nessa, where he at?”
“He in the bedroom,” Vanessa answered, nodding toward the back bedroom.
Dante looked back down at Mya as she lay against his side, watching TV and smiling. Dante bent down and kissed the top of his daughter’s head and said, “Baby girl, I’ma be right back. Stay with Auntie Nessa, alright?”
Standing up from the sofa beside Mya, Dante started toward the back bedroom, with Alinna and James right behind him.
Dante saw two females who looked alike as soon as he entered the bedroom. But he then shifted his eyes over to the guy standing in front of the bedroom window looking out, who turned and faced him at the sound of the bedroom door opening. Dante slowly smirked at the guy and said, “We meet again, Geno. Where’s Angela at?”
“Man, I do . . . I don’t know!”
“Be careful!” Dante said, interrupting Geno as the guy was trying to talk. He pulled off his suit jacket and handed it over to Alinna behind him. As he began unbuttoning his shirt, he continued, “You’ve got only one choice . . . and that’s to tell me what I want to know, and then deal with what’s about to happen to you, since you like lying to me and touching my daughter.”
Alinna smiled a bit as she took Dante’s shirt. She noticed that he looked bigger and even better built as she took note of the muscles on his naked back. She looked over at both Keisha and Maxine, who were staring hard at Dante. Even though she noticed their stares at him, she just shook her head and smiled. She then quickly turned her attention back to Dante and Angela’s husband, as she heard Geno scream out in pain. She then saw Geno flying backward, slamming into the bedroom window and causing it to break with a loud exploding sound, knocking him out.
***
“No disrespect, Alinna, but Dante is too fine,” Keisha told her as she, Maxine, Alinna, and James sat in the front room with Vanessa and Dante’s daughter. Dante was in the bathroom, cleaning up the blood he got on himself after beating up Angela’s husband, Geno.
“He is sexy as hell, Alinna!” Maxine said, adding on to what her sister said, before cutting her eyes over toward James and catching the look he shot her.
“Believe me, ladies . . . I’m used to the attention that Dante receives from women,” Alinna began. She was still smiling when she turned around and saw Dante entering the room, drying off his hands on a towel.
“I’m ready to eat now,” Dante said as he stood beside Alinna at the end of the sofa. But quickly he turned to the twins and asked, “Who are you two?”
“Dante, those two are the twins I told you about that Vanessa brought to the family along with their brother, Kyree,” Alinna informed Dante. She then introduced Keisha first and then Maxine, who was seated next to and leaning into James.
Looking from Keisha over to Maxine and then back to Keisha, Dante said, “So you two are the ones that got the information out of the two detectives, huh? I’ve heard some good stuff about the two of you. I’ll remember that.”
“So what now?” Alinna asked, staring up at Dante beside her. “Geno gave us two places where Angela could be. Which do we check first?”
Dante remained quiet for a few moments, staring at his daughter asleep on Vanessa’s lap. He then stood up and after a few minutes said, “We about to take a trip to Puerto Rico.”
“So that’s where you think she went?” Alinna asked, seeing Dante slowly nodding his head.
“Why stay in the States when you can leave and go back home where you think nobody can find you at?” Dante said, staring at nothing, deep in thought.
“So we’re waiting until Geno wakes up to find out exactly where in Puerto Rico she went?” Alinna asked Dante just as her cell phone went off.
Pulling out her phone, she saw that it was Natalie calling. She then looked up to see that Dante was gone. She shook her head and smiled as she answered the phone, “Yeah, Natalie.”
“Alinna, I’m back in Miami. Where’s Dante?”
“Working . . . but go ahead and head over to the house. We’ll be there in a little while. Carmen with you, right?”
“She’s with me, but she wants to talk to Dante.”
“He’s in the middle of something, but I’ll have him call you as soon as he’s finished.”
After talking with Natalie a few more minutes, Alinna hung up the phone with her. She then looked over at Keisha and called out, “What’s up, Keisha?”
“I just hung up with Rob, and he wants to see me tonight,” Keisha told Alinna, smiling a devilish grin. “What you want me to do?”
Looking at Dante as he reentered the room, Alinna met his eyes and held them for a moment. She then looked back at Keisha and said, “Go out with him, but I’ve got a plan that I want you to follow through with.”
***
Hanging up with Keisha after she called him back and agreed to hook up and go out that night, Rob quickly called Fish Man’s phone.
“Who this is?” Fish Man sounded pissed off when answering the phone.
“My nigga, what’s up?” Rob asked, hearing the tone of his boy’s voice. “Everything good? We got problems or something?”
“Nigga, you ain’t been paying attention or something?”
“Fuck is you talking about?”
“Fool . . . instead of chasing these hoes, you should be paying attention to what’s going on in the streets and on the news.”
“Again, nigga. What the fuck is you talking about?”
Sighing loudly into the phone, Fish Man said, “Dude, if you wasn’t my nigga, I wouldn’t waste my muthafucking time. This bitch ass nigga Dante found some muthafucking way to get those crackers to let him out of jail . . . and even got all his charges dropped. And guess who was right there to pick his punk ass up . . . ? Alinna’s bitch ass!”
Unable to respond and surprised at what Fish Man just told him, Rob said, “Let me hit you back.” He then quickly hung up the phone.
“I gotta get the fuck outta here,” Rob said as he jumped from his bed and then went through his apartment to quickly pack a bag.
15
D ante realized that Alinna really went all the way out with the buying of the new house that was, in fact, a huge mansion. He then cut his eyes over at a smiling Alinna as she slid across the seat and leaned against him. He turned his attention back out the window, watching as James drove up the long drive after passing through the tall front security gates. He then noticed security walking the grounds of the mansion.
Dante stared at the amount of space and the size of the mansion as James made his way around to the back end of the property. Dante slowly smiled at seeing his family already crowded out in front of the five-car garage.
As soon as James parked the Bentley, Dante climbed out. Just as Vanessa was parking beside him, she saw Dre’s Land Rover and Tony T’s Aston Martin also parked on the side of the garage. Dante held open the car door as Alinna climbed out, and he heard his son’s voice shout: “Daddy.”
Dante stepped around Alinna just as his son came rushing around the back end of the Bentley. He scooped up D.J., which caused his son to burst into a fit of laughter, as he asked, “What’s up, little man?”
“Hi, Daddy!” D.J. said, hugging Dante’s neck tightly.
“D.J.!” Mya cried at the sight of her brother. She broke away from Vanessa and rushed toward both her brother and father.
Picking up Mya in his left arm while still holding D.J. in his right, Dante smiled and said, “What happened to you two? Ya’ll done got big as hell while I was gone.”
“Excuse me, Dante,” Rose began, standing over with the others and staring at him with a disapproving look on her face. “You will
not speak that type of language around these babies. Are we clear?”
Cutting his eyes over to Alinna, who looked away smiling, Dante looked back to the older woman and heard, “Did you not understand me, Mr. Dante Blackwell?”
“Ummm . . . yes ma’am, Ms. Rose,” Dante answered as Rose left the group and walked over to him, first taking the kids and then going up on her toes and kissing him on the cheek. “It’s good to have you back home, sweetie.”
“Come on, Dante!” Alinna told him, smiling and taking his arm. She led him over to the others and continued, “That’s the new Ms. Rose. She’s now in charge of the whole house and the entire staff that take care of everything.”
Dante embraced his boys and hugged the girls until he reached Natalie, who stood smiling up at him with tears running down her face. Dante gently pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her while she wrapped her arms up around his neck and hugged him tight as she cried into his neck.
Dante saw Natalie wasn’t about to release him anytime soon, so he held her in his left arm. He then turned his focus on her mother, seeing Carmen standing to his right, smiling while also allowing tears to run down her face.
“Hey, Carmen,” Dante spoke first, only for her to rush at him, throwing herself into him. She hugged him as tightly as she could. In turn, he wrapped his right arm around the older woman, holding both her and her daughter, unaware of the way that Alinna was watching him.
***
Dante walked with Natalie and Carmen while Alinna showed him through the huge mansion. When they came upon the guest quarters, he accepted a kiss on his cheek from Carmen, who said goodbye for then. Natalie remained at his side as they continued on the tour of the mansion.
Finally ending up the mansion tour in the master bedroom, Dante caught the cut of Alinna’s eyes as she shot Natalie a look, as she continued holding onto him. He saw a few more stares from Alinna at both Natalie and at him as well.
Dante released Natalie and slowly walked through the nice-sized bedroom. He then checked out the master bathroom with the his-and-hers baths, morning kitchen, dramatic shower overlooking the private gardens, and the designer closets that were already packed with his and Alinna’s clothing. Dante looked behind him and heard Alinna ask, “So what do you think?”