“Oh excuse me.” She said as she walked into the first sparring room and saw the man hitting the small bag swinging above his head.
“No problem sweetness.” The husky voice replied turning and looking back at her.
The eye patch caught her eye immediately and she backed out of the room. The hair on the back of her arms stood up.
He quickly made his way to her, “Where are you going sweetness?” he said as he pulled her forward and around the corner where the small lockers were located.
“Look, I don’t know who you are…” She tried squirming out of his reach, but his fingers dug into her arms harder.
“Matthew is on his way.”
He let out a laugh, “aw, poor thing. You actually think that Matthew left that note.” He laughed harder this time letting her go. “You really are stupid.”
“Cheryl…Cheryl?”
She heard Matthews’s voice and so did he.
“Say a word and I will slice him up in front of you.” He said as he pulled a knife from out of his glove and opened it with a click. “Now, just walk on out there and don’t mention me. Do you understand? Our reunion will be soon enough.” He said as he walked around the corner and she heard the other door open and close.
She stood still, her eyes closed trying not to let the tears fall and heard his voice again. She answered him and he came into the room.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“I came to meet you.” She said with a half-smile on her face.
“Why?”
“Because I know that you normally workout after a particularly stressful day.” She said as she wrapped her arms around him.
He held her close and her body settled into his. He rubbed her back and smoothed her hair. He also noticed the swinging bag in the corner and the unraveled tape and set of boxing gloves on the bench that she stood beside.
He laughed so hard he nearly knocked the pretty young woman down because he didn’t notice her. He watched her move away from him and he decided he needed to take the edge off.
As she pushed open the woman’s locker room door, he looked around and slipped in behind her before the door closed. He locked the door behind him.
She pulled her sweaty shirt over her head and her long blond hair fell from the clip holding it up. She used her left foot to kick off her right shoe and then kicked off the other. She tugged her shorts down over her slim hips and walked towards the shower.
He moved close to where she was standing and picked up her clothes sniffed them and a smile spread across his face. He heard the shower come on and he moved quickly to the entrance. Her eyes were closed as her fingers raked through her soapy head. Her breasts were tight as her arms were raised. He licked his lips as the water mixed with the suds slid down the crease of her back. He rubbed the front of his pants as he watched her rinse the remaining soap from her hair. He drew in a loud breath and she turned, opening her eyes. He put his finger to his mouth and moved close to her. Her eyes watched as he reached behind her and turned the water off. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pushed the knife under her neck. He led her to the locker room and made her lay across the bench. He kept the knife in her view as he began unbuttoning his pants.
Matthew led Cheryl upstairs and she fell asleep before he could bring back her water. Her cell phone rang and he found it in her pocket.
“Hello.”
“Why did you leave so soon?” said the husky voice.
“Who is this?”
The man continued, “Because you ran out, you made poor Melissa suffer.”
“What…who is Melissa?” Matthew asked the caller.
“Shut up! I’m not answering any questions from you. You better keep your eye on her because Kevin is the least of your worries.”
The phone went dead.
Chapter 20
Kevin’s younger years
“What the fuck are you crying about now?” Henry asked Kevin. “Shut the fuck up! You get on my fucking nerves with all that whining and shit! Get the fuck out of my way. Where is your fucking tramp of a mother?”
“I don’t know. She said she would be back and she been gone all day. I didn’t have anything to eat after school.”
“So what, it’ll make a man outta you. Go in that kitchen and fix me a drink. Cognac, straight up and don’t make a fucking mess!”
Kevin went into the kitchen and got the bottle down from the cabinet. He poured the drink in Henry’s favorite glass and just as he was about to put the bottle back, he heard his mom come through the door.
“Where the fuck have you been!” Henry asked her just before he slapped her across the face.
“Henry, I told you I had to work late at the restaurant. I pulled a double to make extra tips, see.” She said holding out the crumpled up money. He snatched it from her and counted it.
“You worked a double and you only made a hundred and fifty dollars. Then you come up in here smelling like another nigga.” He started hitting her while she tried ducking. “I’ll teach you, you bitch!”
He dragged her into the bedroom and Kevin heard him hitting his mother and her begging him not to hit her anymore. Twenty minutes slipped by and he came out sweating and with just his boxer shorts on.
“Where the fuck is my drink?” He yelled into the kitchen.
Kevin took another swig and poured a little more in the glass and took it to him. He snatched it from the ten year old hands, causing it to spill.
“Shit!” He slapped Kevin upside his head. “Go get me another one, and hurry the fuck up!”
Kevin went back into the kitchen when he heard the bedroom door open. He turned and saw his mom walking towards the bathroom. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her and when he turned around, he knocked the glass from the counter.
Henry came storming into the kitchen.
“You clumsy bastard, get the hell out of the way.” He said while pushing Kevin to the side. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the water. He handed his mom the wet cloth while he held the towel to her bleeding nose. She smiled at him and he smiled back at her.
“Did you eat yet?” She asked him. “I will fix you some macaroni and cheese for dinner and you can go in your room, Ok?” Here take this and don’t tell Henry ok?” She whispered as she pulled a couple of twenty’s from her bra.
“Why do you let him do that to you?” He whispered as he brushed her hair.
“You’re too young to understand. Just don’t make him angry, ok?”
Kevin sat the brush down and headed for his room. He put the money in his closet underneath the laundry basket. Henry was sitting in the living room, telling her to hurry up with dinner, while he watched an episode of Leave It to Beaver.
His mother made dinner and Henry didn’t like it so he threw it on the floor and she had to clean up the mess.
“See Kevin, this is how you run a house. Let the bitch do all the dirty work.”
He started laughing so hard, he blew snot out of his nose. Kevin got out of his chair and started helping his mother clean up the mess.
“Get the fuck up! You aint supposed to be helping her.” He said as he snatched the boy up and threw him back into his chair.
“Now hurry up and clean this shit up!” He said as he turned towards Kevin’s mother.
After dinner Kevin went to his room. Henry told her that he was going out and she asked when he would be back. The only answer came from the slamming of the door.
The house was quiet when Kevin heard voices in the living room.
“Shh, that bitch might still be up.”
“I thought you said you run this house.” The voice said.
“I do nigga, I just don’t feel like the bull shit tonight.”
Kevin left his room and slid along the wall. He looked into the living room and saw the man kneel down in front of Henry. Henry grabbed the back of the guy’s head as he moaned.
On his way back to his room he saw his mother, standing in her doorway. Sh
e looked at Kevin and closed her door.
Kevin looked down at Rebecca’s sleeping form and tried to shake the memory from his head. He ran his hand down her naked body and felt her react. He kissed the back of her neck and she moved over towards him. He needed to release his tension the only way he knew how. He kept stroking her until she woke up and as her eyes opened, he smiled down on her and kissed her neck. He fell back on the pillows after he released himself inside of her and pulled her over onto him. He ran his hands through her tousled hair and kissed her forehead.
“Are you ok?” Kevin asked her.
“Are you serious? I am terrific.” Rebecca purred.
“Question…when do you want to start trying to have kids?”
“Are you serious? I am not having any kids.” She said as she rose up on her elbows.
“Well we’ll see about that.” He said as he climbed back on top of her.
“Kevin, I’m serious. I don’t want to have any kids.” She said as she pushed him off of her. “Besides, I’m already 41 and you are in your 50’s, you can’t be serious about starting all over, can you?”
“Well yeah. We haven’t been using any protection lately. I just assumed it was because you were trying to get pregnant.”
“Are you crazy? I take my pills every day.” She said as she hopped out of bed and sat on the chair in front of her dresser. “I just got the Atlanta office open and there is no way in hell I am giving that up to start being somebody’s momma.”
“Well, maybe I need to move up my plans to get someone down there so you can be closer to home. Then maybe you will change your mind.”
“Someone down where?” she said as she spun around on the seat.
“In Atlanta, you didn’t believe you were going to be there all the time did you?”
“I thought you gave me…”
“Gave you what?” He said starting to laugh.
“The Atlanta office.” Rebecca said seriously.
“As in, it’s yours. Are you fucking kidding me?” he continued to laugh as he stood up.
“Yes. I’m serious. I thought you said that the Atlanta office is mine.” She said as she stood up and followed him in the bathroom.
“No, what I said was, you will be running the Atlanta office. I meant for you to oversee the construction, the decorating, hiring the staff and most of all, doing the shit I didn’t want to be bothered with.”
She folded her arms in front of her.
He was laughing so hard he missed the toilet. “I can’t believe you actually thought I was giving that office to you. I guess you have your moments. Look, let’s get some sleep. We will talk about it more tomorrow at the office.”
He shook, flushed and turned on the water and washed his hands as Rebecca stood in the doorway. He pushed her aside and continued back into the room.
Chapter 21
Cheryl woke up from her nap with Matthew sitting next to her. She smiled up at him and sat up as he stood and sat on the bed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I need to ask you something.” He said as he rubbed down the left side of his face.
“Ok.”
“Was Kevin at the gym today?”
“No, why?”
“Well, I know you went there to meet someone…”
“Correction, I went there to meet you.”
“Well, obviously you got the mistaken impression…”
“I wasn’t mistaken, there was a note on the door”
“If you say so.” He said as he stood his full six foot five frame up and moved across her bedroom.”
“Not if I say so…wait…what are you implying? That I lied about meeting you?”
“Well you have lied…”
“Not about this” she shouted.
He held his hands in a defense mode.
She snatched his hands down, “don’t give me that. You think I went there to see Kevin?”
“What I know is that you lied about seeing him earlier, you lied about what happened and now you expect me to believe that he wasn’t the person at the gym.”
“Really Matthew…seriously….I’m not lying about this…it wasn’t Kevin.” She screamed before storming out of the room.
Matthew followed her down the steps and into the living room where she flopped down on the couch..
“Oh, so you’re mad! You’re mad? You got some nerve. You are the one who has been lying to me all day and you are mad.” His sarcastic tone echoed on the walls of her townhouse.
“I think you better go.” She said as she turned on the television.
He yanked the remote from her hands and stood in front of her.
“I need to go? Oh I don’t think so. I will not let you get away with that. You might have done that with Kevin, you will not do it with me.”
“Do what?”
“Lie.”
She blew out a hard breath and rolled her eyes. She folded her arms in front of her and blew out another breath.”
“Now, you say it wasn’t Kevin, yet you won’t tell me who it was. What am I supposed to do? Huh? You tell me…Why can’t you understand that I love you more than I love myself? The love I have for you is nothing like I have ever felt in my entire life. You make my day go faster when I know I am going to see you. Shit. I aint a man of many emotions, but you bring them out of me. Cheryl, do you understand I will kill anyone who hurts you. Do you know that? Don’t get it twisted, I’m not apologizing for jacking up Kevin, I’m sure it won’t be the last time. I said before, I will do anything to protect you and I mean it. Now tell me, what happened after you left the courthouse.”
“After you left, I had to go to the juvenile court. Kevin brought me back in for Kayla’s custody. They granted him joint custody and she has to spend every other weekend and break with him, starting tomorrow. I got home and there was a note on the door.”
“From who?”
“I thought it was from you. You said to meet you at the gym, so I changed…”
“Where is the note?”
She stood and walked into the kitchen and got her purse from the counter, pulled out the crumpled piece of paper and handed it to Matthew.
Chapter 22
Matthew made the decision that they would stay with him for the night until he could figure out what was going on. They walked into his house and Lynette met them at the door
“Would you all like something to eat?” She said as she reached for the overnight bags of Kayla and Cheryl.
“No thank you. Kayla do you want something?” Cheryl asked her daughter.
“No.” She answered with attitude. “Can I go to bed now?”
“I’ll show her to the guest room.” Lynette said.
As she started following Lynette, she turned to Cheryl.
“So I guess just like when Rebecca comes over, you won’t have time for me, huh?” she said as she followed behind the older woman.
“Problem?” Matthew asked when Kayla was out of sight.
“She is mad because she and Denise had made plans to go to some teen club in Waldorf, not that she had asked me before making her plans. I honestly don’t know what is getting into her lately. Then I told her that she had to go to her dad’s house and that didn’t go over too well because you know…her friends are over here.”
“It’s just for the night she should be fine in the morning.” He said as he wrapped his arms around Cheryl and her arms circled his waist as she looked up at him. He kissed her lightly at first and then with more hunger. He wanted her but he knew that she might not be as agreeable with her daughter in the house with them.
Cheryl climbed the stairs and found the light in the room Kayla was in, still on. She pushed the door open and saw Kayla sitting on the bed with her phone in her hand.
“Kayla, I think that was very rude. What is the problem with you now?” Cheryl asked while folding her arms.
“Nothing, can you leave, so I can go to bed?” she said as she tossed her phone on the ottoman at the end of the
chair, next to the bed. She stood and pulled her sweater over her head.
Cheryl blew out a breath before speaking, “Listen to me young lady, you better get yourself together. You will not talk to me any kind of way, after I am the one giving you everything. Letting you go to your friends’ house and have sleepovers with your friends.”
“Just so you don’t feel guilty about sleeping…”
“You watch your mouth!”
“Get out so I can go to bed!” She screamed as she walked in the bathroom, slamming the door.
Matthew pressed the three switches on the wall and bathed the small room in soft light. He turned the IPod on low and let the smooth jazz fill the air. He sat in the deep brown leather chair closest to the door and smiled at the painting on the wall. Tonight he needed The Special R Cigar by Davidoff. He pulled the cigar from the metal casing and unwrapped it from its clear wrapper. He trimmed the edge and lit it with his engraved lighter. He took a long, satisfying puff from it and let the medium body and the taste of vanilla and butter pull the stress from his body. A knock on the glass door made him open his eyes long enough to see Bo standing there.
“Nigga, don’t you ever keep normal business hours?” He asked while walking into the comfortable space.
“Not when it comes to somebody threatening my family.”
Matthew pushed the humidor in Bo’s direction and he took out one, lit it and put his massive frame into the chair he had designated as his own.
“Still enjoying the R’s, I see.” Bo said as he pulled on his cigar.
“Best gift I ever got.” Matthew smiled.
“Tell me what you got,” He said as his fat hands held firmly onto his cigar. He rolled it until the edges were slightly blackened.
Matthew passed the paper to Bo and they both looked at each other.
“Are you thinking…” Bo started.
“Yes and if this is who I think it is, he just sealed his fate.”
“You can’t be sure, though.” Bo said while holding the cigar in his mouth.
Let Me Say This, Again Page 9