by Riley Moreno
There was a knock on her apartment door.
Regina turned to ice, then fire. She picked up the baseball bat she’d deposited next to her front door after her ex had tried to break in four years ago. She readied herself, gripped the handle firmly, and opened the door.
Leo Belitrov stood at her door with chocolates in his hand and concern in his eyes.
“Am I in trouble?” he asked eyeing the baseball bat.
“No,” Regina said putting the baseball bat back down, “Just being cautious.”
“I called your office but they said you’d gone home,” he said coming in, “I brought you chocolates.”
“Thank you,” she said and took them from him. They stood like that for a minute; him dressed impeccably, her in her shirt and socks and there was a hint of distrust in the air. “I’ll make us some tea.”
“Yes, please,” he said eyeing her glass of wine, “don’t want to be intoxicated when we leave in a few hours.”
“About that,” Regina said, “Did you know that Zoya had filed for divorce?”
He looked stunned. Regina watched his face carefully and was convinced that he hadn’t known.
“Why would she do that?” he asked.
“She thought it cruel to expect you to raise someone else’s child,” she said putting a kettle on.
“It would still have been a Belitrov baby,” Leo shrugged and Regina couldn’t help but admire him. “I wouldn’t have minded. I would mind not having my own family though.”
“She felt that way as well,” Regina said sitting next to him on the sofa. “I was attacked today, Leo.”
His face changed from a wistful smile to horror and then a red blazing rage.
“Who?” was all he managed to say because his teeth were clenched.
“I don’t know,” Regina said, “they wore a hood. They attacked me in the basement of an office building downtown where I’d parked my car. They shot at me.”
“Have you gone to the police?” Leo asked.
“Yes,” Regina said. “But I have a feeling this is connected to you.”
“How so?” Leo asked.
“I think the answer to that is in the real reason why Zoya was killed,” Regina said, “and I think it’s related to your investigation. Someone wants to make sure we never find out.”
~*~
There was a cutting wind that tore through her sweater to the heart of her. LA seldom got so cold but Regina felt it in her bones tonight. The docks weren’t well lit and Regina felt the crippling fear from earlier in the day come back. She held Leo’s hand and he squeezed it gently.
The area was peppered with police in plain clothes, most pretending to be homeless, dockyard workers or the crew of other ships.
“Would he come?” Regina asked suddenly.
“What do you mean?” Leo asked staring intently at the ship. They were standing on the top of one of the containers on a ship two ships down from the Belitrov one.
“The man giving the orders,” Regina said. “What if he sends someone else like he did the last time.”
“Even if he doesn’t show,” Leo said, “if we catch his right hand man we’ll soon find the head of the operation.”
There was movement; a large black van crawled towards the ship and two men stepped out. They waved to the captain on the ship who gave orders to his workers to empty the hold.
“Wait for it,” Leo murmured, leaning forward in his excitement.
The crew led a group of twelve young girls as young as ten from the hold of the ship. In various degrees of undress, the girls were shivering and clutching at their rags to keep warm. They were trundled down the gangway and brought down to the van.
“Now,” Leo whispered and it was as if they’d read his mind. A swarm of police officers in plain clothes rushed forward and shouted warnings, shooting at the concrete near the feet of those who tried to run. They were rounded up within minutes.
Leo helped Regina down and kissed her on the lips.
“We did it!” he said. “Now let’s go find out who’s the bastard behind this.”
~*~
The trial ended late in the afternoon and Dimitri was given two counts of life imprisonment with no chance of parole. The intensive investigation found that Dimitri had not only been using the company’s ships to traffic young girls and boys for prostitution from China but other ports across the world. He had also been shipping a small amount of narcotics through the railway network Leo had cultivated over the past five years as CEO of the Belitrov Shipping Conglomerate. Dimitri had also hired the hitman to get rid of Regina.
Dimitri’s duplicity revealed, Leo finally used his alibi to remove all charges of murder against him. The mystery of Zoya’s murder haunted their budding relationship because Regina couldn’t get the feeling out of her mind that she owed it to Zoya to find out.
Leo’s housekeeper finally found Zoya’s diaries in the crawl space hidden behind a panel in Zoya’s closet. It revealed information which made it easy to find out her murderer: Dimitri Belitrov. He had persuaded Zoya not to ask for a divorce hoping that at Leo’s eventual demise she would inherit his 26% share of the company, and he would gain them through her. When he had found out of her filing for divorce because she was pregnant he had murdered her cruelly by stabbing at the unborn child in her womb.
Regina sighed as she stretched on the deckchair, sunlight dappling her skin. She felt a deep sadness for Zoya, the girl who had loved the wrong man, but she also felt a deep connection with Leo. Their relationship had gone from strength to strength in the months that had followed their first meeting and they were quoted as LA’s most formidable power couple.
Regina hadn’t made partner but Jeffry had exposed Donald Quick’s emails to Brian Ludgate, giving vital information of her defense strategy in the Belitrov case. Donald Quick had been disbarred, and removed from the company.
“He was afraid I’d win,” Regina had said triumphantly to Leo, sipping on her mimosa “he didn’t want a black woman as partner in his firm!”
“Racist bastard,” Leo growled and nudged her foot with his, a tantalizing smile playing on his lips. “You’re too talented to be working under old humbugs anyway. Why don’t you leave and start your own firm?”
“That’s my ultimate goal,” Regina said with a determined glint in her eye.
“Then do it,” Leo said leaning closer, “I’ll invest in you.”
Regina tilted her head up and kissed Leo; he was perfect, a man who understood and supported her dreams.
“You really know how to make me happy,” Regina murmured against his lips.
“Give me the chance and that’s all I’ll ever do,” he said and sealed that promise with a kiss.
Pregnant by the mysterious billionaire
BWWM ROMANCE
By: Riley Moreno
Chapter One
Monster
The house is a lavish single story glass, it sits on top of a hill, a wrought iron staircase leading down in to the basement garden. On this particular California day sunshine sparkles on the periwinkle blue pool; coffee is brewing in the state of the art kitchen and Regina James is lounging at the breakfast table sipping on her freshly squeezed orange juice.
An Asian woman in her late fifties toddled over with Regina’s breakfast.
“Yum,” Regina said, “Thanks Anita; now can I have my phone back?”
“No!” Anita said. “Finish your breakfast!”
Leo Belitrov dressed in a navy blue Tom Ford suit walks in, kisses Regina on the cheek and promptly hands his phone to Anita who then hands him his breakfast. Anita, their house keeper, has set rules for breakfast. In their busy lives breakfast is the only meal Regina and Leo manage to take together; it is a sacred place where nothing else is allowed to intervene. Regina used to grumble about the no-electronic-devices rule at first but this is the only time they actually get to talk.
“The society pages are ripping in to me again,” she said laughing at the article on he
r recent wardrobe choices, pitting her against skinny celebrities with headlines asking ‘Who Wore It Better.’ Regina wasn’t your conventional success story; unapologetically black she didn’t conform to the body standards her peers had set.
“I’d like to rip in to you,” Leo growled in to her ear and she felt herself flush. Anita eyed them suspiciously then got back to peeling carrots. Regina kicked him under the table.
“The Hudson’s have invited us to their son’s birthday party tomorrow afternoon,” Regina said, she flipped the card so Leo could see. “Look,” she grimaced, “clowns!”
“Bradley’s turned six, eh?” Leo asked taking the card from her.
“How do you even remember their names?” Regina asked. “There are so many of them.”
“The Hudson’s like kids,” Leo shrugged. “We’ll go.”
“Do we have to?” Regina made a face.
“He’s your business partner!” Leo laughed. “Plus I’m hoping some of Mia’s fertility will rub off on you.”
“That is not going to happen,” Regina rolled her eyes.
She laughed it off every day but Leo’s hints about children were really getting on her nerves now. They had been together for three years now and she understood his need to cement the relationship but she had come too far to give it all up just because her boyfriend wanted to be a dad.
Regina polished off her eggs and got up. “Anita,” she said extending the palm of her hand.
Anita handed over her phone begrudgingly.
“Twelve emails!” Regina exclaimed. “I better rush, babe,” she kissed Leo on the cheek, grabbed her briefcase from the kitchen counter and headed out the door. She drove out of their property in Beverly Hills and rushed downtown.
The offices of James, Hudson and Colt were situated in the Eastern Columbia building; the firm was Regina’s crowning achievement. Having worked for people her whole life Regina was finally calling the shots. Leo had given her the head start, investing in her firm heavily but Regina had tripled his money in three years.
“You’ve got a surprise nine o’clock,” Jeffry Newman said handing her a fresh cup of coffee. “The Babcock’s cancelled their eleven o’clock so I’ve penciled in a pedicure.”
“You’re a saint,” Regina said. “Who’s the surprise nine o’clock?”
“Dakota. Simpson,” Jeffry said his eyes popping behind his black rimmed glasses. The shock of black curls on his head flopped forward.
“The child killer?” Regina asked surprised. “Wasn’t she with Clayton and Price?”
“She was,” Jeffry nodded handing her the case file, “but the sister doesn’t want to work with them; says they were treating her as guilty when she wasn’t.”
“So no guilty plea,” Regina said rolling her eyes.
“Nope,” Jeffry said. “You’ll like them, very intense.”
“Send them in when they come over,” Regina said opening the case file and going through the police report.
The Simpson children; Caleb 7, Daphne 5, Brie 3 and Jason 1 were found strangled in their home in Cheviot Hills. Caleb on the kitchen floor amidst a shower of cereal, Daphne on the living room sofa her iPad still playing the YouTube video she’d been watching, Brie in her bedroom dragged from under her bed and Jason in his crib the wire used to strangle his siblings almost beheading him.
The pictures were too graphic for so early in the morning.
The husband, a Frank Simpson, had come home to find his children dead and his wife sitting by the pool, her feet dangling in the water, an ice tea in her hands.
Regina made a few notes till the clock struck nine and two women who could have been twins walked in. They were dressed immaculately, both had blue eyes and a shock of blonde hair they cut kept in a pixie cut.
“Hello,” the one in the blue dress said, “I’m Diana, Dakota’s sister.”
Regina shook hands with them and motioned them to take a seat. Dakota had a prettier face than Diana’s, her eyes slightly wider and her lips bigger. Dakota also had the thin scar running down her temple. A tribute from her husband who had struck her on the head with a baseball bat after he’d found his dead children.
“You must have read the case file,” Diana said.
“I have and I’m very curious about your insistence to plead not guilty,” Regina said.
“Well she didn’t do it,” Diana said matter-of-factly.
“Did you Ms. Simpson?” Regina asked Dakota.
“I’m not sure its Simpson anymore,” her smile was watery, diluted, as if viewed from the bottom of a pond. “Frank wants a divorce.”
“Naturally,” Diana said.
Regina didn’t say anything. She found if she stayed quiet long enough the client would spill their deepest darkest secrets. That’s what they came to her for, to reveal their worst so she could make it all go away.
“It’s true,” Dakota said finally, sighing deeply, “I didn’t do it.”
The door opened and Jeffry brought in coffee for Dakota and Diana.
“Did you tell the police that?” Regina asked.
“I did,” Dakota nodded.
“But they took no notice of that,” Diana interrupted. Regina found her screechy and unnecessary.
“Why is that Ms. Murray?” Regina asked.
“They needed a scape goat didn’t they?” Diana said throwing her hands in the air, “You can’t have an unsolved crime like this. Four children murdered in their home with no evidence of a break in. It’s just convenient to pin it on the mother than do any police investigation.”
It was clear to Regina that Diana had been watching far too many cop shows on TV.
“Ms. Murray,” Regina said in as calm a voice as she could. “They found no strange finger prints, no sign of a forced entry. The children were in various rooms doing ordinary things when they were murdered. Brie is the only one who showed any sign of struggle meaning Caleb and Daphne didn’t think the murderer was a threat; it was obviously someone they trusted with their safety.”
“She likes crayons,” Dakota chimed in and Regina found her bleak smile and her blue eyes disconcerting as if Dakota wasn’t really there at all.
“Indeed,” Regina said. “And you will not plead guilty?”
“That is out of the question!” Diana said.
“And how do you feel about that Mrs. Simpson?” Regina asked. Dakota looked at Regina as if she had just seen her for the first time.
“I didn’t kill them,” Dakota whimpered emphatically. “I didn’t want them either, but once they were there I didn’t kill them.”
Regina found the woman appalling but they came from a decent background and had enough money to spare to stretch this case for as long as they wanted to. James, Hudson and Colt would make a fine profit over the proceedings but Regina’s morality found it revolting. Regina sighed. She tapped the legal pad she was working on then got up.
“We’ll be honored to represent you Mrs. Simpson,” Regina said. Her hand felt physically repulsed when Dakota took her hand; cold and clammy, Dakota’s hand felt like dead flesh in Regina’s.
Chapter Two
Offspring
The leering red mouths looked bloated with blood. The whites of their eyes were pale yellow like rotten eggs left too long on the kitchen counter. Regina never saw the appeal of clowns. They were terrifying nightmare fuel and no one could convince her otherwise.
Bradley Hudson, the brat of the hour, was jumping with his fellow creatures in the giant bouncing castle. Regina didn’t mind children as long as they remained in their habitats and didn’t intrude in her personal space.
She clung to the adults table and watched Leo dive in to the ball pit with Alisson, Mia and Rick Hudson’s youngest daughter. It surprised her no end how much the man loved children. She wondered, if Zoya was still alive, would Leo have loved her child just as much?
Regina had first met Leo in police custody when she had gone to defend him against charges of murdering his pregnant wife. There had bee
n no forced entry, no distress call from the home and somebody had carved her up with a carving knife.
Her investigation had later revealed that Zoya and Leo had in fact been separated for quite some time and that the baby was Dimitri, Leo’s brother, who had hoped to inherit Leo’s share of the business once Leo was in jail sentenced for a murder Dimitri had committed.
She knew they made an odd couple. Her curves, the natural state of her hair, the blatant blackness of her was offensive to some and unpalatable to most but when she had walked arm in arm with Leo Belitrov to the Mayweather v. Cotto fight back in 2012 there had been uproar.
Leo Belitrov, CEO of Belitrov Shipping Conglomerate, was tall, handsome and the center of every woman’s wet dream. That he would choose someone like Regina, big and buxom over the many tall, ethereal models that hung around him was a mystery everyone was still trying to solve three years later.
“He looks so adorable with Alisson!” Mia squealed. Mia was a petite woman with corkscrew curls. She had skin the color of wheat and eyes that were a cornflower blue. “I’m so glad you two decided to have children.”
“What?” Regina was so shocked she dropped the bacon wrapped shrimp she was about to bite in to. “Who told you that?”
“This,” Mia rubbed Regina’s belly then stopped when she saw the murderous look in Regina’s eyes. “I’m not trying to make fun,” Mia said suddenly serious, “but I can tell when someone is pregnant. I’d say you’re about a month or so.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Regina scoffed. “Leo and I have no plans for children.”
“Well,” Mia said, “plans or no plans this one is coming.”
“I’m. Not. Pregnant,” Regina felt her face suffuse with anger.
“Whatever you say,” Mia said annoying Regina further.
Regina wanted to stab Mia in the eye with the bamboo skewer she held in her fingers. She scowled at the children who ran past her, at their mothers if they even dared suggest that she hold their bundle of joy because it somehow transmitted the parent disease and the sudden desire to acquire one.