by A. C. Arthur
#
LaChic Salon was an upscale beauty palace, as Rhia had described it. She’d talked for days about all the girls she knew that went there to have their hair colored. It had been a place she just “had” to go to, as she’d told her father during the twenty minute performance earlier in the week. Ronnel was very indulgent when it came to his daughters. Hailey suspected that was because he was a single parent and at that moment wondered once again what had happened to his wife. The girls never spoke of their mother and Hailey hadn’t wanted to ask.
So on Ronnel’s orders Hailey had made an appointment for the girls and she was now accompanying them, not sure what to expect when she walked through the glass doors. There was glass everywhere, was her immediate thought. All of the front windows and mirrors throughout what she realized was only the first floor of the salon. There was a black and white theme going with black leather salon chairs at stations with black lacquer stands. In the center of the room was a round black and white zebra striped couch and pop music blared from speakers she couldn’t see.
“I’ve already checked us in,” a very excited Rhia said and Hailey realized she hadn’t even seen the girl walk away from her.
She really needed to pay more attention. These last couple of days her mind had been on so many other things that she’d been missing stuff like the fact that Rhia had apparently snuck out late last night. Malaya had, of course, told on her sister this morning while Hailey sat in the kitchen having a cup of coffee. At that time she’d been thinking of how much it would cost to enroll for her classes and at the same time how good it would feel knowing that they were the last classes before she graduated.
“Ok, well we can just sit over here and wait to be called,” she told them and was just about to take a step towards that crazy looking couch when she heard someone call her name.
The three of them turned at the same time but only Hailey recognized the man standing in the doorway. It was almost surreal the way the glare of the sun served as a backdrop to what could have easily been a million dollar photo. Perhaps it would be titled “The Sexy Side of Business”.
Jerald stood dressed in a suit, his right hand in his pant pocket, holding that half of his jacket back so that the slim fit of the shirt he wore and the intricate paisley design on his tie was also visible. He looked like a movie star about to deliver his most epic line in a flick.
“What are you doing here?” she asked walking up to him immediately. “I’m working and I told you last night—”
He lifted two fingers, putting them very close to her lips but not touching her. She clapped her mouth closed anyway.
“I just need to talk to you for a few minutes. I think I know how to help you out of this situation,” he told her.
“What situation?” Rhia asked from beside her.
“He smells good,” Malaya added with a smile as she came to stand at Hailey’s other side.
“Nothing,” Hailey replied quickly, looking at both girls. “You two go on over and have a seat. I’ll just be a minute.”
Rhia looked at her with a knowing grin. “He asked for a few minutes, to be exact.” She leaned in closer to whisper, “He’s hot so you should give him whatever he wants!”
Hailey sighed inwardly as the young girl’s words echoed true to some extent in her mind. Hadn’t she been giving Jerald sex when he wanted it because he was, as Rhia had said, “hot” and her body just could not resist his?
“Go. Now,” she reiterated then waited impatiently while they both walked away.
Malaya had turned back, covering her mouth and unsuccessfully disguising the giggles that erupted as she looked from Jerald to Hailey once more.
“Are you crazy?” she asked the moment she was alone with Jerald.
He took her by the arm then, walking so they were further away from the receptionist’s desk where two ladies were staring at them with as much interest as Rhia and Malaya had just shown. For that reason alone she did not argue with him pulling her to the side. Still, the moment they were a safe hearing distance away from the desk—thanks in part to the loud music blaring throughout the place—Hailey pulled her arm away.
“Are you stalking me now? How did you know I was here?” she asked, trying to keep her voice lowered.
“You told my mother you were going to finish college in the next year. And then you mentioned something about your grandmother as you were trying to defend working for Mendoza,” he began, not really trying to lower his voice at all.
He wasn’t a loud talker, so she supposed nobody else could hear him anyway. Still, the way he was standing so casually in front of her as if him walking in here and demanding to speak with her was actually normal on some level, irritated her.
Shaking her head she continued pressing him, not at all pleased by his arrival or what he had to say to her. “I asked you a question first. Are you stalking me? Is that what millionaires do here in L.A.? Stalk women they’ve had sex with but have been told to leave alone?”
Her heart was beating rampantly, but not with any shred of fear. If Jerald was a stalker, he was doing a piss-poor job of frightening her. Yet, that muscle that twitched on the left side of his jaw never failed to arouse her.
“I’m not a stalker. I’m simply trying to help you,” was his steady reply. “I know that your grandfather passed away several years ago and I presume you’ve been trying to help your grandmother since that time. Is that why it’s taken you so long to finish college?”
She must have been looking at him like he’d lost his mind, she was certainly thinking that at this very moment.
“Hailey, listen to me, Mendoza is not who you think he is. He’s into some pretty bad things and I’m just trying to protect you from getting caught up in them.”
“What?” Hailey couldn’t get out anymore words. Her temples throbbed as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
Was Jerald really standing here warning her about the guy she’d begun to think of as some sort of savior?
“Look, I know you have business with him. So I guess that’s why you figure you can look into my background the same way you did his. But I can assure you that I have no sway with him at all. I just go to the meetings to translate anything he cannot understand. I don’t advise him on his business in any way,” she told him.
“I don’t care about that. I know how to work my deal with Mendoza,” he said and for the first time began to look as irritated and confused as Hailey was feeling.
He lifted a hand to rub along his chin, smoothing down the neatly shaved goatee as he continued to watch her.
“I want to help you. If you need money I’ll give it to you. Just quit this job with Mendoza and do it now,” he insisted.
“You can’t tell me to quit my job,” she replied vehemently. “That’s not your place, nor is it any of your concern.”
“He’s going to be arrested, Hailey,” Jerald said quickly. Then he cursed and sighed heavily. “The Feds found some pretty damning information on him and they’re going to be closing in on him just as soon as all the warrants are in place. My guess is that’ll be in the next two or three days. So as much as I do enjoy having sex with you, what I’m offering has nothing to do with that. I want to keep you safe.”
Two seconds after he’d said those words Hailey saw a car come screeching to a halt just outside of the salon. The window rolled down and the next thing she saw was the glass to the front window of the salon shattering. Jerald’s arms went around her instantly as he was propelled forward. She lost her footing and they both fell to the floor, glass raining down over them.
#
His back screamed in agony, chest lifting and falling as he struggled to take a good breath. She was in his arms, Jerald knew that for a fact because the warmth of her body melded with his own. But she was still as a statue so he had no idea if grabbing her and falling on top of her had protected her the way he’d intended to.
Jerald looked down only to be startled to see Hailey was
looking up at him. Her eyes were wide with shock, her hair a mass of confusion surrounding her face. And there was blood. On her forehead and her cheek and Jerald frowned.
“Are you alright? Can you move?” he asked her.
She blinked and nodded. “I think so. I mean, if you move I can probably get up too.”
Right.
He was just starting to move when the two girls who had flocked to her side when he’d come in appeared once more.
“What happened? Get off of her,” the younger one yelled. “Get off her so she can breathe!”
The little girl was yelling and so was someone else close by. One of those receptionists with the multiple piercings he suspected.
“Call an ambulance!” he heard someone else cry as he moved off of Hailey.
Bracing his hands on the floor he stayed on his knees for a couple moments longer than he wanted. Pain radiated down his back and he wasn’t positive he’d be able to stand without falling to the ground once more, this time without the excuse of protecting Hailey.
He looked up just in time to see the two girls helping Hailey from the floor, bits of glass cracking beneath their feet as they moved. What the hell had just happened?
“Jerald, you’re hurt,” Hailey said coming to stand beside him, her hands gripping his arms as she tried to help him up.
“No. I’m fine,” he said using every bit of strength he had to stand and sending up a silent prayer that he wouldn’t topple over when he did.
“What happened?” one of the receptionists, the taller one he surmised as he finally stood up straight, had come over to them by now.
“Somebody threw that brick through the window,” the younger girl said pointing to the brick lying on the floor right next to where he and Hailey had fallen.
“It smacked you right in the back,” the older girl that had been with Hailey said.
She’d come to stand at his other side, touching a hand to his arm as if she wanted to help him, but was afraid of what he might say. Jerald managed a smile down at her before he looked over to Hailey.
“I’m fine, really. But you’re bleeding,” he replied lifting a hand to her forehead.
There were small specks of blood where the shards of flying glass most likely hit her. He frowned again as his efforts to wipe them away only ended up smearing the blood across the light tone of her skin.
“The ambulance is on the way and so are the police,” the other receptionist said. “You two should sit down until they get here.”
When Jerald moved so did the pain in his back and for a moment he thought…he remembered…and he feared. Gritting his teeth he continued moving until he sat on the zebra print sofa, Hailey sitting down right beside him. She had a hand on his shoulder and one on his thigh.
“That brick hit you in the back. Let me take off your jacket and see how bad it is,” she said as she began to push at the lapel of his suit jacket.
“No,” Jerald said adamantly, shaking his head to make sure she heard him just in case the pain had actually taken his voice. “It’s good. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not good. You’re wincing every time you move,” she told him.
Jerald managed a smile, or at least he thought it was an upward tilt of his lips. “Then I won’t move anymore.”
“It says something,” the younger girl was yelling from where she still stood near the door. “Something’s written on this brick.”
“Don’t touch it!” the older girl yelled at her, smacking her hand so that the brick fell to the floor again.
Hailey got up and went to the girls. “You two come back over here,” she told them. “Go and sit with Mr. Carrington.”
Jerald saw her look down to the brick and frown.
“What does it say?” he asked the second the two girls sat beside him.
Hailey didn’t reply but gave him a weird look instead.
“It says CHEATER,” the younger girl announced.
“Are you by chance cheating on someone, Mr. Carrington?” the older one asked.
The pain in his neck Jerald incurred from looking back and forth between the two girls only aggravated the pain still searing up and down his back.
“No. I am not cheating on anyone,” he answered them, then looked over to Hailey with a raised brow.
She shook her head as if she had to tell him not to mention Mendoza and the warning he’d been trying to give her earlier. Jerald didn’t need her to tell him that. He’d figured these two little girls were Mendoza’s daughters and had no intention of saying anything that they might take back to their father.
The paramedics came through the door first, two police cars pulling up right behind the ambulance, officers from the LAPD immediately stepping out onto the street. Two officers stayed outside and immediately began pushing the growing crowd back away from the salon, while the other two came inside, following behind the paramedics.
“He’s hurt,” Hailey had told them and rushed back over to where he sat with the paramedics in tow. “The brick hit him in the back.”
“It’s not a problem,” Jerald began when one of the paramedics had already put down their bag and knelt in front of him.
“Let’s just have a look,” he said and Jerald tensed.
“No,” he replied immediately.
“Can you tell us what happened?” a police officer asked.
“We were just standing there talking and I saw a car pull up. The next thing I know the windows are breaking and we fell to the floor. That’s all I know,” Hailey volunteered.
“And what’s your name?” the officer that had been scribbling on his notepad asked.
“I’m Hailey Jefferson.”
“And this is Mr. Carrington. His back is hurting but he’s trying to act like it’s not. Boys are so silly. They never want anyone to know when they’re hurt. But I can tell. Just like when Abnez Cortez fell off his bike back in day camp when I was a little girl,” the younger Mendoza girl said with a shake of her head.
“We can go back to the truck and take a look, if you’d like Mr. Carrington?” the paramedic told him.
The other paramedic had gone over to Hailey and was now shinning a light in her eyes and asking her questions. She was answering him and the cop without flinching while Jerald sat on this couch acting like…well, as this little girl had just said, a silly boy.
Clearing his throat he stood. “Sure. Let’s go,” Jerald told the paramedic.
“There’s something written on that brick so there may be some fingerprints,” he told the officer that was talking to Hailey. I’m going to need your written report by the end of business today.”
When the officer looked at him in question, Jerald simply reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out his business card. “Send it directly to me by email and tell Commissioner Francois I said hello.”
He gave the officer his card and watched as he read his name, just seconds before he mentioned the police commissioner who had, coincidentally, been at the Renquist party on Friday night.
“He’s going to the hospital, Hailey. We should go with him,” the little girl who was once again at his side said.
Jerald never wanted children, had never even thought about them except from the distance of someone’s pictures or as part of an overheard office conversation. But here he was, standing in the middle of a beauty shop that had just been vandalized in what he thought might be a personal attack on Hailey, with this little girl twining her fingers in his.
“I don’t think—” Hailey began.
“It’s a good idea,” he interrupted. “You can get checked out too.
“I’m fine. I can just drive the girls home and get cleaned up there,” she continued.
“You should get checked out ma’am, just to make sure everything is alright,” one of the paramedics added.
“Why don’t we all head down to the hospital and I can get statements from all of you,” an officer finally stated with irritation.
CHAPTER 6
Where are you?
What’s going on?
On the television it says there’s been some sort of incident? What is happening?
One text message after another and another. Hailey’s head throbbed and her hands were still shaking on the steering wheel as she followed the ambulance to the hospital. Ronnel had been texting her since they’d climbed into the SUV. And she hadn’t answered him. When the phone rang she’d ignored that too. He would yell and order her to get to the house as soon as possible and Hailey just did not feel like hearing it at the moment. She was fine and so were the girls. Jerald wasn’t.
Hailey was certain of that fact and it was making her extremely irritable.
“Call your father and let him know you’re alright,” she told Rhia who was sitting across from her.
Malaya was in the backseat still pouting because she’d wanted to ride in the ambulance with Jerald. Since she wasn’t the injured party and was not over twenty-one, that hadn’t been allowed, but Jerald had promised to drive her home. That had seemed to make her happy until she’d climbed into the truck with Hailey and Rhia.
Rhia didn’t respond to Hailey’s request.
“Did you hear what I said?” Hailey asked, looking at her quickly, then back to the road.
Traffic was horrible, even if she was tailing the ambulance.
“She doesn’t hear anything you’re saying because she’s texting that guy she snuck out of the house to see last night,” Malaya offered.
Rhia grumbled something and turned back momentarily to give Malaya a snarl. With a huff she settled back in her seat and her fingers moved quickly over her phone once more.
“If you’re texting anyway, it’ll only take you a second to let him know we’re fine,” she told Rhia.
“I’ll do it in a minute,” the girl snapped. “He wants to know that I’m alright too, so I’m telling him what happened.”
“He?” Hailey asked. “The guy you snuck out to see last night? The guy that called the house and you fell in love with his voice?”
“You make it sound like I’m making him up,” Rhia replied.