“I ... I ... ha ... have mo ... more ...” her benefactor whispered. “J ... just ... pl ... lease ... c ... call ...”
Candy looked at the cash, inhaled the scent of it, and turned and looked at the other bag. Fifty plus fifty. One hundred thousand dollars. Right there, as promised. Now he was promising more.
She looked at him. His skin was paler than before. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the stain on his shirt had widened.
“Pl ... pleas ...” he pleaded again, his voice growing weaker.
Candy looked from him to his BlackBerry, to the money in the bag, to the keys beside his cell, and then back to him. He had more. She just had to make the call. But calling meant bringing the paramedics, and more important, the police. If there was any one group of people Candy hated dealing with, it was the boys in blue, unless they were paying, which many on her corner had. But her corner was no more because she didn’t need to deal with it anymore. Not with one hundred thousand dollars.
She stared at her benefactor, whose sad eyes had dimmed even more. Death was coming for him. More. It would have been nice to have. But staring at him, she knew that no call was going to keep the inevitable from happening.
Candy shook her head slowly as she zipped the duffel bag shut and closed her fingers around the handle. “I’m sorry,” she said as she reached toward the middle of the mattress with her free hand and grabbed the keys. “I’m sorry,” she said again, backing away.
Her benefactor coughed, spat blood, pleaded, “Pl ... plea ... se ... do ... don’t ...”
Candy frowned, shook her head, and then with barely a pause, turned, bent, and grabbed the other duffel bag. She hurried out of the room, the house, and into a Mercedes Benz sitting in the driveway.
Forty-five minutes later, after giving the keys to the Benz to a group of street-corner thugs, she sat in the last seat on the back of a Greyhound Bus heading to California. With one hundred thousand dollars, Shannon was going to find the best acting coach money could buy. Candy was no more. She’d left her behind with her benefactor.
Chapter 42
Two Months Later ...
Esias was tired. His body was tired; his eyes wanted to close and stay closed, at least for more than three hours. But, as badly as he wanted to, he just couldn’t sleep because he was too close to achieving his dream. It was just within his grasp. The opportunity of a lifetime. Two months ago, his boy had played one of the tracks he’d done for his cousin, who then played the track for Mary J. Blige, who he knew personally, who then relayed, through the cousin, who passed it on to Esias’s boy, who then told Esias that Mary was very, very interested in hearing a lot more of what he had and wanted to set up a meeting with him when she finished the short European tour she was on.
Mary J. Blige. The queen of hip-hop soul!
Esias’s body was tired, but his mind was energized. In two weeks, he would be flying to LA to meet with Mary and her manager to play for her all of the tracks that he had tirelessly been working on. His hard work was about to pay off. He could feel it. Life was going to change for him and Jess and the girls. Everything just had to be perfect. The lows, the highs, the tempo, the synchronization, the levels. Perfect. There would be no second chance; he knew that. So, as tired as he was, as much as he just wanted to go home after a hard day’s work, grab the remote, and kick his feet up, rest was not allowed.
Esias ran his hand down over his face as he rose from behind the mixing board. He’d had three cups of coffee and a Red Bull; he needed to take a piss. He ran his hand down over his face again and scratched on the stubble of hair on his cheeks, musing to himself how quickly hair grew back just after one day. He yawned, stretched up on his toes, and whispered, “Sleep is overrated.” He chuckled. His partner Daren had disagreed and had gone home when the clock struck twelve. Esias called him Cinderella. Daren simply nodded and stated that he was proud to be.
Esias shook his head and smiled thinking of their banter as he stepped out of Studio B and made his way down the very quiet and empty corridor, heading to the bathroom. Standing in front of the women’s restroom door with his supply cart was the maintenance guy, Teddy. An older gentleman with a healthy paunch in his midsection and a thick beard, peppered with specks of grey, Teddy had been doing night duty in the studio for the past two months. Esias said a soft, “What’s going on?” as he passed the stocky man. Teddy, looking down at the cleaning supplies attached to the cart, kept his head down and gave a nod. He never spoke. As Esias walked by him and stepped into the men’s room, he wondered if Teddy were mute.
Esias walked by dirty mirrors on his way to the urinal and paused momentarily to glance at himself. “Overrated,” he said staring briefly at eyes lined with dark circles. He shook his head and went to relieve himself, the urge to pee getting stronger. “Come on,” he said, as his zipper refused to go down. He fiddled with it, and as he did, the bathroom door opened and closed. Esias took a quick glance over his shoulder to see Teddy walking in with the cart behind him. No nod this time, he turned back around and put his attention back on his reluctant zipper. “Come on,” he said, the urgency increasing. “Finally,” he breathed as the zipper became unstuck and went down.
He began to reach into his boxer-briefs to fish his penis out, but before he could, a hand cradled the back of his head and shoved him forward, sending him face-first into the wall in front of him. Seconds later, as blood flooded from his nose, Esias fell backward to the floor, where the back of his head hit hard on the floor’s linoleum tiles.
He groaned as the room began to spin and fade in and out of darkness. He blinked several times, trying to clear his head, but that did nothing but produce spots before his eyes. He was falling into unconsciousness he knew. He tried to turn over in an attempt to stand, but he couldn’t get his arms to respond to his thoughts. Esias blinked and took a breath through his mouth, as he couldn’t through his nose, which he knew had been broken, along with several jagged teeth he could feel against his tongue. He blinked and coughed, the action making the pain in his head hurt worse, and moaned again.
The darkness began to overtake the light before him as he lay on his back. His eyes closed, remained that way for a few seconds, and then opened. When they did, standing above him, staring down at him ... was Teddy.
That, and the warmth of his own urine running down his leg, would be the last thing Esias would remember as he fell into blackness.
Chapter 43
Ringing.
Jess heard it, but she was far away in a cabin ablaze with light from firewood burning in the fireplace. Soft music played from speakers that couldn’t be seen. Shadows danced on the walls to the sensuous rhythm of the music that seemed to fit into no specific genre. It was just slow, erotic, rhythmic; perfect for the lovemaking taking place between Jess and her husband as they sat on the cabin floor, naked with just a blanket around their waists.
Jess moaned as she rode Esias in slow, melodic time to the tune being played. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes, smiled, and clenched her teeth as Esias drove himself deeply up into her, while she bore down on him, helping him along. She moaned. Called his name. Told him that she loved him. Him and only him. She called his name again. Begged, demanded he go deeper, harder, faster. She cursed and told him that he had reached her spot and that he shouldn’t stop.
The music swelled as Esias did. The climax was building, the tempo rising. Jess moaned louder. Felt tears of ecstasy run down her cheeks as she began to quiver deep inside.
And then the ringing started. Faint and distant at first, but growing louder with each subsequent shrill.
Jess opened her eyes. The music was gone. There was no fireplace, no flames to cast light, no shadows dancing on the walls. She wasn’t in the cabin, but her bed, fully clothed and, as she looked to Esias’s empty side, alone. She sighed, turned her head, and looked at the time displayed on the alarm clock on her night table beside her. Two o’clock in the morning. Wh
ere was he?
She reached toward the corner of the night table, grabbed the cordless phone making too much noise, hit the talk button, said, “Hello?” and waited for her husband to explain why he hadn’t come home yet.
“Hi, Jess.”
Jess’s heart beat so heavily, it stole her breath away. The voice belonged not to Esias, but instead, to someone she hadn’t heard from for a month and a half. She sat up. “J ... Jayson?”
“Jess.”
“H ... how did you get this number?”
On the other end, Jayson took a breath and let it out as a heavy sigh. “I left you a ton of messages, Jess. I sent texts, voice mails. I sent you pictures of what I know you wanted. But you never replied.”
Jess sat up. “I told you, Jayson ... what happened was a mistake.”
“I blamed Esias at first, Jess. I kept telling myself that he was responsible for you not texting or calling me back. That he must have found out about us and had gotten jealous about how real our love was and forced you to ignore me.”
Jayson’s call had her shaken, but it also had her angry. “How the hell did you get this number, Jayson?” she asked again. “I never gave you this number.”
Jayson sighed into the phone again. “How doesn’t really matter, Jess. What does matter is that I was wrong. I was pissed at Esias when I really should have been pissed at you.”
A chill ran through Jess. The tone in Jayson’s voice was becoming thicker, deeper with anger. She looked toward her bedroom door and wished for Esias to come walking into the room. Where is he? Why isn’t he home yet?
She tossed her bedsheet off of her, got out of the bed, and went to her dressing table. Her cell phone was there in a charging station she’d bought at Staples.
“You could have called me, Jess,” Jayson continued. “You could have texted me. You had time. You could have done it in the morning when Esias pulled away from your town house in his Toyota. You could have called me back while you sat in the bumper-to-bumper traffic each morning instead of yakking away on the phone to someone else.”
Jess stood frozen with her cell in one hand and the house phone gripped tightly in the other while she held it firmly against her ear for a moment. Then, she went to the bedroom window and carefully lifted one of the horizontal slats of her blinds and looked out into the parking lot of her development that was dimly lit by a solitary street lamp. She searched for any cars she didn’t recognize or anyone that may have been lingering around, but she saw nothing aside from the usual.
He’d mentioned her town house, Esias’s Toyota, the bumper-to-bumper traffic she dealt with every morning. Never once in all of their chats had she ever mentioned her house, never once had she ever told him what type of car Esias drove, and never once had she ever complained to him about the frustrating morning rush-hour traffic.
Never.
Jess let the blind close, backed away from the window, and let the house phone drop to the floor. She looked back toward the window and shook her head. Then she took a few more steps backward and stood still in the middle of her bedroom.
Esias. Where was he?
She raised her cell, found the last number dialed, and hit send and waited for her husband to reply. One ring became two. Two became three. Three turned into four and five before his voice mail answered. “Dammit,” she whispered. She left him a message telling him to get home right away, and then sent him a text message, telling him the exact same thing with a 911 at the end. She tried calling him again and still only received his voice mail. “Dammit, Esias.”
Then she suddenly heard a buzzing sound. Short, robotic buzzing with barely a pause. It was the tone letting you know when your phone was off the hook. She looked down to the ground, at the phone she’d dropped.
Jayson was gone.
She moved to it, clicked end to hang it up and was about to call her husband again when it rang, causing her to jump. She looked at the caller ID and let out a relieved sigh as Esias’s cell number was displayed. She hit the talk button and pressed it against her ear. “Esias! Oh God! Where are you?”
“That hurts, Jess.”
Jess pulled the phone away from her ear and checked the number on the ID, reconfirming that it had been Esias’s number she had seen.
Her heart already racing with the speed and strength of a jackhammer, it began to beat even harder and faster. So much so that she found it difficult to breathe.
“I sent you so many texts, Jess, and not once did you respond to me, but here you go sending him one.”
Jess shivered. He was calling from Esias’s phone. “Wh ... where’s my husband?”
“Esias is tied up right now. Literally.”
“What ... what have you done to him?”
“Nothing, Jess. Nothing at all. Not yet anyway.”
Jess shook her head. “Let me speak to him.”
“Sorry, but that’s not going to happen.”
Another wave of chills passed over her as anger began to well up inside of her. “Goddammit, Jayson, let me speak to my husband.”
“I already told you no, Jess. Now ... for Esias’s sake, don’t ask me anymore.”
Jess’s stomach twisted into knots. “What, goddammit! What is it going to take to make you stop?”
“Honesty, Jess. Your honesty. That’s what I want.”
“What ... what do you mean? What honesty?”
“I want you to admit what I know is the truth. I want you to admit to me that you want to be with me.”
“I don’t want that, Jayson.”
“Why do you insist on lying, Jess? Why do you insist on trying to deny the obvious?”
“I’m sorry you don’t believe me, Jayson, but I’m not lying.”
“Bullshit!” Jayson yelled out into the receiver. “That’s bullshit, and unless you want something to happen to Esias right now, you’ll stop with it and tell the goddamned truth!”
Jess shook her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening, didn’t want to believe it, didn’t want to accept that what was happening was possible, yet she was forced to accept the reality that she had in some way, though perhaps not to this extreme, seen this coming. The signs for his becoming obsessed had been there when he’d gone off after she had ended the game during their last chat and even more so when he had relentlessly sent her text messages and pictures. But then everything had stopped, and as each day of Jayson’s sudden disappearance passed, she began to let her guard down more and more, and allowed herself to think that her foolishness was going to be able to remain hidden behind her steel door.
And now Jayson had her husband.
“I am telling you the goddamned truth, you son-of-a-bitch!” she screamed out. “I don’t want you. I never did!”
“Why, Jess? Why do you keep lying to me? All of our chats and pictures and texts. The sex between us ... you felt the connection.”
“It was all meaningless, you asshole!” Jess had tried to keep herself together—especially for her husband’s sake—but the more Jayson spoke, the more regret and fear fueled the anger inside of her. “None of it meant anything!”
“Shut up, Jess, before I kill Esias right now! Shut up!”
Tears began to fall slowly from Jess’s eyes as she pressed her lips together. Stop. Calm down. She had to. “Please,” she said, trying to subdue the harsh tone in her voice. “Please just let him go. I ... I’m begging you,” she asked, her voice barely audible.
Silence was Jayson’s reply for several seconds before he said, “Meet me at our hotel in two hours, Jess. Same floor. Same room. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you feel nothing for me.”
“And when I do? Will you let him go? Will you leave us alone?”
“You won’t do that, Jess, because you won’t be able to. You’ll see. Now ... two hours. And Jess ... for Esias’s sake, make sure you come alone and don’t even think of calling the police.”
Jayson ended the call, leaving Jess with nothing but heavy silence.
&nb
sp; Angry tears ran, and as a shiver crept up from the base of her spine, she threw her house phone against the far wall.
Chapter 44
Jayson slid Esias’s phone closed and slammed it down on his passenger seat. His heart was hammering beneath his chest as his hands shook. He looked up into the rearview mirror of his SUV and stared at Esias, who was propped up in the backseat bound with duct tape around his wrists and ankles and pressed over his mouth. His eyes were wide with fear and confusion. Jayson had waited for him to regain consciousness before he made the call to Jess. He wanted to make sure that Esias heard the conversation. He wanted Esias to understand that Jess was going to be his, and that nothing and no one was going to keep that from happening.
“She was lying,” Jayson said, watching him. “She felt the connection. That’s why she kept chatting with me when you weren’t around. That’s why she sent pictures, and then let me slide inside of her. She and I belong together, and she knows it, and when she sees me later, she’s going to admit that. You won’t be privy to that conversation though, because you’re going to be dead by then.” He stared long and hard at Esias as Esias stared back at him.
“Jess is distracted because of you. She knows she’s supposed to be with me and she wants to be, but as long as you’re around, her mind is cluttered with confusion, and she can’t think or see clearly. I need for her to be able to because she and I have a family to raise. So . . .” Jayson paused, raised his eyebrows and shrugged as he sucked in both lips. “... you have to go. But I don’t want you to worry. I’m going to take good care of her. I’ll take care of your daughters too. I’ll raise them as my own. I’ll even let them call me Daddy.”
From the backseat, despite his bindings, Esias lashed out and mumbled harshly from behind the duct tape.
“What was that?” Jayson asked. “I can’t understand you.”
Esias mumbled again, louder, harder, his mumbled tone as angry as the look in his eyes.
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