Guarding Secrets

by Pat Tucker

  I almost skipped into the closet. I nearly forgot that I had serious issues to discuss with DaQuan. Two of DaQuan’s workers were at their usual posts, which allowed me to slip right into the closet with no worries about getting caught.

  Once inside, DaQuan was naked and ready for me. I wanted to talk, but his mind was on nonverbal communication.

  “Hey, ma.”

  “Hey. You haven’t been waiting long, have you?”

  DaQuan stroked himself and beckoned me closer. He pulled my hand and eased it down to his crotch as he kissed my neck. I rubbed him rough and hard, the way I knew he liked it.

  “Take off ya clothes.”

  I pulled back and took off my top, then my pants. DaQuan lay on his back and swiped his hand between my thighs.

  “Ya good and wet; come ride me.”

  I straddled him and eased onto his stiffness. He felt so good as my body opened wide to accept him. DaQuan grabbed my hips and pulled me down.

  “Do ya thang, ma. Do that shit!”

  If I thought I was going to lay on top to make our chests meet each other, I was wrong. DaQuan pushed me upright and grabbed my nipples. He squeezed them so hard, I nearly released a yelp. Sex with him was everything. He was rock-hard and I couldn’t help but move in sync with his thrusts.

  “Oh Jesus, DaQuan.”

  “You like that?”

  “Em-hmm.”

  “Tell me. Tell daddy what ya like.”

  He clutched my hips and rolled his midsection up into mine. In the darkness, I couldn’t make out his expression, but everything felt so intense.

  DaQuan smacked my ass and pulled me closer. Our breathing was fast, hot and hard.

  Suddenly, he grabbed me, then swung his body to an upright sitting position. I clung to him and wrapped my legs around him as tight as I could.

  “I’ma ’bout to get this nut!”

  “Take it, daddy! Take it!”

  When he moaned hard and loud, I felt so incredibly good. In the aftermath of another intense lovemaking session, I just wanted to cuddle and have him hold me for as long as possible.

  “Ya good?”

  “Yes, daddy; I’m always good with you.”

  “Okay, bet that.”

  He eased away from me, got up and started to get dressed.

  “Hey, you gotta go already?”

  “Yeah, ma. Gotta meet with the workers. Things ain’t been right since Sanchez. Gotta go make it do what it do.”

  I hoped my face didn’t reveal how disappointed I was because I didn’t want DaQuan to think I was being too emotional.

  “But I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Okay, ma; what’s up?”

  Dressed now, with his chin lowered and one eyebrow raised, DaQuan looked at me, like he really needed to go. I felt so cheated. How could I say, I’m thinking about putting in a transfer request, and oh, by the way is KenyaTaye pregnant with your child?

  “You know what, never mind.”

  “Ya sure?”

  “Yeah, babe. I’m good. We can talk about it later. It’s no biggie.”

  “See, that’s why ya cool with me. Ya know how to handle yours and then some. No time for all that bullshit.”

  The weak smile on my face must’ve told him I agreed with his assessment because I didn’t have anything else to say. I felt like such a punk. The issues I needed to discuss with him were piling up and I didn’t want to bother him.

  Before I could say anything else, he was out the door and I was naked and alone. My body felt good, but everything else was jacked up.

  When I opened the door to the closet and looked down in each direction before stepping out, I thought the coast was clear. A few steps down the hall and KenyaTaye appeared out of nowhere.

  “We’ve been looking for you.”

  I didn’t respond. What the hell was she looking for me for? I walked and turned the corner to get to the guards’ booth. I purposely sped up my steps to try and shake her.

  C.O. Scott rounded the corner and looked back toward Dunbar.

  “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing, just finished my rounds; headed back to the booth.”

  “I was just heading there to look something up,” Scott said.

  As I walked with Scott, all I could think was, when had Dunbar ever personally come and look for someone, especially me? What she meant to say was, she was looking for DaQuan and knew what was up since I was near the closet.

  The booth was crowded and that sent my heartbeat into overdrive. What was really going on? Scott stepped in first.

  From behind, KenyaTaye spoke up as she stepped inside after me.

  “Jones, there was an error on your paperwork and I need to understand if you need additional training.”

  All eyes were glued on me. I couldn’t believe she had called me out in front of everyone the way she did. I frowned, but told myself to check it.

  “What kind of error?”

  C.O. Franklin spoke up next.

  “Actually, Jones, I caught it; it wasn’t Dunbar.” I looked at him like, who told you to chime in?

  “I didn’t ask who found it; I asked what the error was,” I repeated with lots of attitude.

  “You approved an inmate for meds and we don’t have a prescription on file for him. That’s a dangerous rookie move, but you need to fix it.”

  I rolled my eyes. She had just called me out in front of just about every C.O. on staff for something like that? I pulled my arms up and crossed them at my chest.

  “If you can’t handle the job, maybe this isn’t the career for you,” Dunbar said.

  When I realized she was serious about that last comment, I wanted to tell her this wasn’t a damn career, but I wasn’t about to ruin her moment.

  “Now, in the future if you’re unsure about something, I want you to ask instead of guessing and putting us all at risk.”

  The nerve of her; she loved to show off in front of a crowd and it made me sick. I chuckled. Once our eyes connected, I said, “Well, I want all your confidence gone by the morning shift.”

  Eyes grew wide.

  Dunbar’s mouth dropped and the room went still.

  “Can we go now?” another C.O. asked.

  The question seemed to shock her back to the present. She shook her head and stammered a bit before she said, “Um, yeah. I just wanted to use this as a teaching moment. We gotta stay on our toes around here or these inmates will take advantage.”

  The more she talked, the more I prayed she had seen me as I walked out of the closet. She hated me because I had taken her man and there was nothing she could do about it. Since KenyaTaye was powerless regarding DaQuan, I knew she’d try to make the job miserable for me.

  As the other C.O.s filed out of the guards’ booth, I could feel some of their frustration. Everyone knew she was being petty.

  Left alone with her and her two flunkies, I turned and said, “You know, KenyaTaye, maybe if you begged DaQuan to meet you in the closet, he might. Although I can’t imagine why he would need to, considering just how good I am at fucking him.”

  Edwards’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. Bishop stepped to block Dunbar’s path to me, but I didn’t flinch. She needed to know I could be petty too.

  As I walked out of the booth, I heard Edwards ask, “Is that true?”

  There was no need to hear Dunbar’s response. Every woman in that booth was aware that the only way I knew about the closet, was because I was fucking DaQuan. The only people privy to knowledge about that closet, were DaQuan, his top workers, and the female C.O.s they were fucking.

  I didn’t get far before Scott caught up with me.

  She glanced around in both directions. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on around here, but you need to watch yourself around Dunbar and her little crew. I have a feeling she’s out to get you. I don’t trust her.”

  Scott had no idea just how right she was.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  KENYATAYE

&nb
sp; Tuesday afternoon, I talked to R.J., but I kept my eyes on the halls and scanned all of the inmates who passed us. We were in a spot where we had a little privacy, but could see everyone who passed.

  “I’m warning you, R.J., I need to holla’ at DaQuan and I need to talk to his ass inside the closet.”

  It wasn’t that I wanted to sex DaQuan, but there was still that tiny part of me that felt like maybe if we could be alone, and really got the chance to talk, things would be different.

  “Yo. I can’t make bossman do anything he don’t wanna do. ’Sides, you putting me in a bind.”

  “Nah. That’s not what’s happening here at all. Things are getting out of hand real fast and I need to look into his eyes and talk to him.”

  “KenyaTaye, I don’t wanna get in the middle of what’s going on with y’all.”

  I used my hand to count down the infractions. “Okay, okay. Well, listen to what I’m telling you. First, he doesn’t secure a delivery truck, and we almost got our shit checked; second, Sheppard’s crazy ass is trying to unload contraband all out in the open, even after Sanchez was busted; three, he fucking Jones and she bragging about being in the closet in front of others. Now, this stuff may not be a big deal to you, but I ain’t tryna go down because the bossman got his head so far up Charisma’s fat ass that he can’t see how he’s putting us all in jeopardy.”

  “Damn! Like that?” R.J. asked.

  His features twisted as I presented my evidence. R.J. wasn’t a fool and he knew and understood all that was at stake.

  “Listen, I get it. He don’t want me no more, and it is what it is. I’m having his fucking baby, but he still kicks me to the curb. Okay, whatever. But should we all be okay with his sloppy mistakes?”

  R.J.’s silence told me he thought about what I told him.

  “Yo, so, what happened with the delivery truck?”

  “It was crazy! As soon as the K-9 unit came through, the officer wanted to know why I had gone to the back of the truck before them.”

  “Word?” R.J.’s eyes got big.

  “Yeah. The question threw me so off guard, I didn’t know what to say.”

  “Daaayum, so what happened?”

  I felt like I had finally reached R.J.

  “Thank God, Franklin is fast on his feet. He quickly said I needed to go organize the trustees in the back.”

  “Aw, damn! Good looking out!”

  “Look, you need to convince DaQuan that he needs to talk to me. I ain’t going down with the ship and I mean that!”

  “Yo, what that mean?”

  Instead of answering, I walked away and left R.J. there to figure it out. I knew for sure that message would get back to DaQuan if nothing else did.

  For weeks, I’d thought about how to make them pay. When I decided to get the gun, I knew it would be easy to sneak it into to the jail, but the opportunity to go get it, then get next to DaQuan would take some time.

  My goal was to get him and Charisma, and I couldn’t wait to fix their asses. I gave the message I sent through R.J. two days for results. If I didn’t hear back from DaQuan; I was gonna do what I needed to do.

  By Thursday, when Jones slipped me an envelope, she acted like she barely wanted to look at me. That was just fine by me because I had to struggle to avoid spitting in her damn dog-like face.

  But the insults kept rolling in. When I ripped the envelope open and five measly twenty-dollar bills fell out, I wanted to toss that shit back at her. I didn’t risk my freedom for one-hundred damn dollars! They both had me messed up.

  DaQuan must’ve thought he was being funny by paying me one-hundred dollars. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever made such little money. He really had lost it. Dumb ass. How could he think he could repo my beamer, give it to his new trick, stop paying my bills, and cut my money and I’d just sit back and take it? Every little thing made me want to go get the gun.

  Edwards walked by and glanced at me.

  “What we gon’ do about that bitch?”

  She motioned in Jones’s direction.

  Her question pulled me away from my traitorous thoughts. I wanted to kill them both, but I knew that would take some time.

  “I’ma try to talk some sense into DaQuan. If he won’t budge, I might put in for a transfer.”

  Edwards whipped her head in my direction.

  “A transfer? You gonna let that bitch take what’s yours, and chase you away?”

  I stopped and turned to her. She looked at me like I had gone and lost it all.

  “Nobody is chasing me away, and if she took DaQuan, that means the punk-bitch was never mine. I ain’t got time to be stressing over his simple, careless mistakes.”

  “Well, everybody is talking about how they never took you for no punk. You the damn sergeant around here and you letting them do all this shit to you and all you doing is taking it! I don’t know what happen to you, but the KenyaTaye I know wouldn’t take this shit!”

  Edwards did something she had never done before. She said what she wanted, then turned and left. The look she tossed over her shoulder and back at me was worse than disgust.

  It was all too damn much. No one respected me anymore. Before Charisma’s trampy ass, the other females and some of the male C.O.s looked up to me. But now, DaQuan had made me the running joke of the Jester unit, and Edwards was right. There was no way I was about to take that shit.

  After that exchange with Edwards, I was ready to spit fire when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was R.J.

  “Yo. Bossman will be in the closet in ten.”

  I was so nervous, I wasn’t sure what to do. I needed to let go of all the anger and pull myself together. I never expected him to agree to meet. I figured his stubbornness wouldn’t let him give in to common sense. My mind was set that I’d have to go through and do what I needed to do.

  “Okay, in ten.”

  R.J. walked away and I wanted to find a bathroom. I had ten minutes to pull myself together. I needed to make sure my hair was on point, and I even considered borrowing some lipstick from Edwards.

  That thought didn’t last long after I remembered her last words to me. So, I didn’t have any makeup, but I’d do the best with what I had. My reflection looked average at best. In the mirror, I adjusted my breasts in my bra and unbuttoned several buttons.

  I turned my hips and looked at my ass in my work pants. I wished my stomach wasn’t protruding, but there was nothing I could do about that. I took a deep breath and left the bathroom.

  As I made my way down the hall, I couldn’t calm the butterflies that had come to life in the pit of my belly. I might have hated him for all the things he had done recently, but the thought of getting some private alone time with DaQuan still brought me joy.

  So much was possible. If I could get him to see how crazy and sloppy things had become, he’d understand how important I was to the business and maybe we could go back to the way things used to be.

  When I approached the closet, one of his guys nodded, letting me know it was good to enter.

  It had been so long since I was inside the small space, it took my eyes some time to adjust.

  “Yo, ma, whassup?”

  Being in his presence did something to me. I felt so at ease. For the first time in a very long while, happiness started to creep through my entire nervous system.

  “DaQuan, I’m so glad we could have this time together. Baby, we needed to do this a long time ago.”

  What happened next made me throw up a little in my mouth.

  “See, I told you this was just some bull for her to try and get next to you again,” a female voice said.

  My heart threatened to stop.

  Suddenly, my eyes adjusted to that bitch, standing in the corner. She looked like she was fixing her clothes and that was when the stench hit me.

  The scent of musty sex filled the air, and I felt like I was gonna upchuck. Had that heartless bastard brought me in there after he’d finished screwing his tramp?

&n
bsp; I kicked myself because that would’ve been the perfect moment. I could’ve clipped both of them, easy peasy.

  “Charisma, I told ya, ma. Lemme handle this,” DaQuan said.

  I frowned. Deep down, I knew, I might have missed the only real opportunity I had to put a bullet into both of them within seconds of pulling the trigger.

  Damn!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHARISMA

  “You seen Dunbar?” Edwards asked as I rounded the corner and stepped into the guards’ booth. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to her or anyone else.

  I wanted to say, “yeah, inside the sex closet, throwing herself at a man who doesn’t want her.” But instead, I shook my head and said, “No.” I didn’t get why she had even asked me, but then it made sense. They must’ve known about her plan to try and get her man back.

  On the inside, I couldn’t stop laughing at Dunbar and her thirsty behind. The sheer desperation was so obvious I felt embarrassed for her. She had sashayed into the closet with her titties all but hanging out, and tried to talk all sweet and sensual.

  All of that was until she realized DaQuan wasn’t alone. The way her face melted when she realized I was in there must’ve been priceless. I couldn’t really make it out, because it was kind of dark in there, but I could well imagine.

  “What the fuck is she doing here?” she had asked.

  Her sweet voice vanished so fast, it was hard to believe she could ever muster it up again. I had to stop myself from laughing at her cheap and desperate move.

  “She just leaving; we just finishing up a meeting,” DaQuan had said.

  I had stepped out of the dark corner, still adjusting my clothes. Then I’d planted a wet kiss on DaQuan’s lips and strutted out the door.

  The look on her face was a mixture of tears and rage. She should’ve known her plan wasn’t gonna work and she didn’t have a plan-B, dumb bitch.

  I should’ve stayed in the shadows until she made her move. She would’ve slithered up close to my man and smelled me all over him. But knowing her thirsty behind, she would’ve probably overlooked the strong scent of sex all over him if she thought she’d be able to get him back.