Delilah cut her eyes at me and raised her hand to pat the matted mess she’d obviously not tied up last night. She mumbled something under her breath, but I didn’t hear it because my phone rang. I pulled it out of my jacket pocket and recognized Powers’s cell number. I ignored it. It began to ring again and then there was a loud knock on the door. I jumped. So did Leon and Delilah. “Who’s that?” I asked.
They both shrugged like dumb and dumber. There was another knock and then a voice on the other side of the door that was faint, but discernible. “Tamera, it’s me, Powers. Open up.”
No way. I rolled my eyes upward and let out a long sigh. No, he is not here. I bit my lip. “Don’t either one of you move, or, I swear, I’ll shoot and then you’ll know I know how to use this thing.” I slowly closed the distance between where I’d been and the door. I made sure to keep the gun trained on my captives while I turned the doorknob with my free hand, but Leon leapt across the edge of the bed. He startled me so bad, I screamed and dropped the gun. The door flew open, and Powers entered the room. Seeing a half-naked Leon running in a silk robe must have turned on his cop instincts, because with lightening speed he charged at Leon, knocking him to the ground. I noticed Delilah had inched a few feet in our direction. I caught her eye as she looked from me to the floor. That tramp was going for the gun. I was closer, so I rushed to it and aimed it in her direction. She backed up.
This was getting out of control. I kicked Leon in the lower back so hard that I felt his bone through my tennis shoe. Powers gained the upper hand and cracked Leon in the jaw. Leon whined like a puppy with a foot on his tail.
Powers got up off the floor. “Nice work.”
“Thanks. I was making progress before you arrived.”
“I can see that, but I thought you might need some help staying out of jail, so I took the first flight I could get.”
My stomach fluttered. He was rushing to my rescue. How sweet. No one had ever done that before.
“Hey,” Leon barked, getting up off the floor. He was holding his jaw. “You mind telling me who this is?” He sounded like a jealous husband.
“It’s my partner in crime. Why should you get to have all the fun?” I twisted my lips into a shy smile and winked at Powers.
Leon pulled his robe together and returned to his spot against the wall with Delilah. I heard her whisper, “I thought you said she was stupid.”
I moved closer to the bed. Trained the gun on Leon. “Stupid?”
He stepped back, shook his head, and gritted his teeth. “Dee, keep your friggin’ mouth closed.”
Delilah threw her hands up. “I’m just saying, she over there and we over here. She don’t look very stupid to me, Leon!”
“Shut up!” I yelled. “Put your hands up.” They did.
Powers took a few steps closer. “May I?” He questioned me with his eyes. I nodded and Powers took over. “Leon, you know why Tamera’s here. She wants the money. Now she had a couple hours in a shooting range, but I’m not sure she’s good enough to not accidentally fire off a round. The longer she holds that gun in her hand, the more likely she is to kill one of you. So, where is it?”
“I ain’t answering you. I still don’t even know who you are.” Leon put his hands down and Delilah followed suit. “Tamera ain’t ’bout to shoot nobody.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the silencer. I had it on the gun so fast I surprised myself. I pointed the barrel down at the mattress, near Leon, and fired. Everybody in the room jumped, including me. Leon began to pee. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing.
“She could kill both of you and nobody would even hear it,” Powers said.
Leon looked down at his wet leg and shook his head. “Lord have mercy, girl. It’s in an account. I got the paperwork right here in the safe.”
“Leon!” Delilah put her hands on her hips and shot daggers at him with her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“I ain’t dying up in here over no money.” Leon moved to the room safe and began to open it.
“Hold up.” Powers stopped him. I remembered Powers warning me that I might not be the only one who had a gun, and realized if Leon was packing, the safe would be the place to keep his weapon.
Leon stepped aside for Powers to get at the safe and, with reluctance, recited the code.
Delilah was incensed. “Wait a minute. You can’t hand it all over. It’s not just your money.”
I couldn’t believe this woman. I wanted to shoot her for having the nerve to think my money was now hers. “Shut up, trick!” I raised the gun at her. “These bullets ain’t marital property.”
Delilah rolled her eyes and let her body fall to the ground like an angry child having a temper tantrum. Within seconds the safe was emptied.
Powers tossed a wad of cash on the bed. “This is about five thousand dollars.” Then he pulled out Leon’s precious prized jersey case and some paperwork. He scanned it, and then looked at me. “Fifty thousand dollars in an account in the Cayman Islands.”
My heart sank. $50,000 of it wasn’t even in the country. I dropped into a nearby chair. It never occurred to me that he’d send it offshore. Powers seemed to know what I was thinking. He picked up the $5,000 and rushed to my side, kneeling. “This is good, Tamera. It makes things easier. We can just have him wire the money to your bank account.”
I looked up at Leon, who was rolling his eyes. Delilah had her arms crossed over her chest. She was leering up at Leon, disgusted with him.
Powers stood. “Mr. Watson, we’ve got some banking to do. Where’s your laptop?”
Leon groaned.
Chapter Sixteen
Powers and Leon hovered around the laptop for a while. I provided the number for a credit union account I had through my job and within ten minutes of them completing the transaction I called and verified the funds were there. I put the five in my duffel bag. $55,000. Things were looking up, but not quite up enough. “I want the rest.” The gun that had been at my side was now pointing at Leon again.
Leon shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “That’s it. I got a Mercedes coupe in the garage, this room, and, shoot, I done spent ’bout twenty thousand since we got here.” He took a money clip off the table and tossed it to me. “There’s two thousand dollars.” He went and pulled money out of Delilah’s handbag. She hissed like a rattlesnake. He tossed a wad of cash on the bed. “That’s about a thousand.”
Leon shrugged again. I smiled slyly. “You do think I’m stupid. I know you spent some, but there’s money in a safe deposit account at New State Bank.” Leon’s eyes bugged wide. “Now, hubby, I want you to tie that tramp up and tape her mouth with this.” I removed a roll of duct tape from my bag and tossed it on the bed. “Put your clothes on. We’re going to get the rest of my money.”
Delilah was all over him. “Leon, I know you not going to—”
“Dee, I done told you to shut up! What you want me to do, take a bullet so you can have the money?”
Delilah continued to rant. “I waited patiently while you was working this deal. If you give her—”
I was sick of the bickering back and forth. I put another bullet in the mattress.
“Tamera, stop.” I felt Powers’s strong hand on my shoulder. It traveled the length of my arm to the gun. I looked at him out of my peripheral vision. “The only way to get that money is to force him at gunpoint to the bank. You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“No, you can’t.”
“That fifty-eight thousand is not even enough to cover the corporate money I have to return. And what about the money I spent finding him, and my grandmother’s house? I have a building. I have plans. I need the rest of it. I can’t let them have the money from my grandmother’s house.”
“The key to the box isn’t here. It’s probably in the hotel safe in the lobby, but even if we had it, you can’t walk down the street holding a gun in his back.” Powers took my free hand and turned me in Leon and Delilah’s direc
tion. “Look at them. They aren’t even worth what you’d have to go through when this all went bad.”
I broke down and started crying. He was right. I wanted the money so bad, I wasn’t thinking. If Leon did one crazy thing on the street, I’d have to shoot him. I couldn’t shoot him, in public or private. I wasn’t a murderer. It would never work. I handed Powers the gun and he reached up and wiped the tears from my face with his thumb. “I’ll tell you what we can do though.” Powers careened his neck in Leon’s direction. “We’ll take the paperwork for that Mercedes.” He paused and smiled slyly. “And that Michael Jordan jersey.”
Delilah let her body fall to the floor. “Leon!” Her whine was music to my ears.
Leon threw his arms up in disgust and started shaking his head. “Who is this dude?”
I grabbed Powers around the neck with so much force that I almost toppled him over. Who is he? “Super Powers,” I whispered in his ear. I squeezed him tight and stepped back. “I would never have thought of the car.”
Powers winked and flashed me a hundred-watt smile. “I told you to wait for me.”
Chapter Seventeen
I stood with the rest of the congregation and gave my girl a hardy hand clap for her rendition of “Is Your All on the Altar.” Those voice lessons were turning her into the next Karen Clark Sheard. She brought down the house and, more importantly, she moved my spirit. I needed the message Pastor preached today and I needed that song.
I milled around and spoke to some of the members as I waited. Everyone knew my plans for The Micah Center were on hold. They also knew my husband was gone, and while there was some whispering, most were sympathetic and encouraging. “Hold on to God’s unchanging hand. He’ll make a way for that center to open.” Words like that. They did my heart good and gave me hope.
Erin and the rest of the choir poured out of a back room. They were still giving my girl high fives and pats on the back. I was proud of her. She made her way to where I was standing. “I felt like you sang that song just for me.” I gave her a tight squeeze around the neck. “I got an application for Sunday’s Best in the car.”
Erin waved a hand. “Girl, that was nothing. Just a little somethin’. I still haven’t shown y’all folks how blessedly talented a sista is.”
We laughed and walked out of the sanctuary.
“I have two-for-one coupons for brunch today. Linda—you know, the chick with the Angela Davis afro who we had to put on the last row in the choir loft so she wouldn’t block everybody with her hair?”
I nodded, amused at Erin’s colorful description. “She got engaged Friday night and I heard the ring was something else. He did some big deal proposal on some cable station that nobody watches, but she’s going to tell us the details today. Come on and celebrate with us. It’ll do you good to socialize.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t help but think about how long I’d waited to find Mr. Right and now less than a year later I was right back where I started. Alone. “You tell me all about it later. I can’t do brunch today.”
Erin sunk visibly. “Come on. It’s been forever since you joined us. I know you not still trying to hide your face. Don’t nobody care about Leon.”
I shook my head again. “There’s something I have to do. I already made arrangements with Timothy House. They’re coming to pick up the boxes in the morning.”
Erin instantly knew what I meant. Timothy was a transitional house for homeless men who were getting back on their feet.
“You want some help?”
“No, this is something I have to do by myself. It’s way overdue.”
Erin gave me a tight squeeze. “I love you, girl.”
I squeezed back. “Love you too.” I let her go and climbed into my car to pack up the last reminders of Leon Watson.
Leon’s belongings filled six large cartons. My legs were tired from going up and down the stairs. I wished I could just throw it all out the back window and light a match, but the men in the Timothy House needed these clothes. The stuff Leon left behind that was a curse to me would be a blessing to them.
Once the closet was empty, I moved everything near the front door and went back upstairs to vacuum and dust. An hour later I was finished. My bedroom looked like it had before I had gotten married, except for the unisex bedding and drapes. Maybe I would pull my lavender floral comforter set back out of storage and girly the place up again.
The doorbell rang. I bounced off the bed and jogged down the stairs. I wasn’t expecting anyone and I’d taken to making sure to check at all times just in case Leon decided to pay me a visit, so I looked out the peephole before I opened the door. My heart leapt.
“I was in the neighborhood. I thought I’d stop by and check on you.” I moved back and allowed Powers to enter. He looked at the boxes suspiciously. “Moving?”
“Moving someone out.” I smiled and we both stared at each other for a moment. My heart was racing a mile a minute. I was so glad to see him. “I have homemade lemonade. Would you like some?”
He nodded and followed me into the kitchen, where I washed my hands and poured two glasses. We took seats at the table.
“How are you?”
I nodded. “I’m good. Really, really good.”
“Have you heard from Leon?”
“Not a word. I’m sure he and Delilah have figured out some new scam. He’s moved on. He won’t bother me.”
“I agree.” Powers took a sip. “The alarm code for the house and the locks?”
“Changed.” I took a deep breath. “I also filed for an annulment.”
His eyes met mine and we held our gazes for a while. “That’s for the best. The sooner you’re free of him, the sooner you can move on with your life.”
“I haven’t given up on my dream.” I paused. “I’m still going to open the center one day. I returned the corporate funds. Thanks to you, I have almost twenty thousand dollars leftover. I’m so glad you thought about the car or I’d still owe people money. I got the matching corporate monies once. I know I can get them again.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Our eyes locked again and I realized I knew very little about this man who was making my heart thud. But I did know one very important thing. He’d helped me get my life back, helped me save my dignity, and that was worth more than any amount of money.
“I’m glad to hear you’re not giving up, because I actually have some good news.” Powers removed an envelope from his pocket.
I raised my eyebrows. “I could use good news. What is it?”
“Well, you know I was digging around in Leon’s past. It turns out he has money in an unclaimed fund that he apparently doesn’t know anything about.”
I sat up straighter. “Are you kidding?”
“He had a great aunt who died more than ten years ago in Mississippi. She owned a house. It wasn’t worth much. The value of it had been depreciating every year. The county tore it down to build a school and put the money from the settlement offer in unclaimed funds. Guess who her only living heir is?”
I shook my head and chuckled. “No way.”
Powers nodded. “It’s almost fifteen thousand dollars. Once the civil claim against Leon is filed, you can put a lien on that money. He doesn’t even know about it to fight it.” Powers slid the envelope to me. I reached for it and my fingers grazed his. The tingle was so electric it sent a shock through my entire body. Powers must have felt it too, because he reached for my hand and intertwined his fingers with mine. “So you still have a little over twenty thousand, this fifteen, and, I’ve been thinking. I’d like to invest in a dream.” His mouth broke into that incredibly sexy, crooked smile I’d come to love.
“You are such a superpower.” We met each other halfway across the table and finally kissed.
Best Served Cold
E.N. Joy
Prologue
Social Networking: The Start of the End of a Relationship
I’m sitting here at my laptop sweating like a l
ying and cheating husband whose wife just force-fed him a truth serum. It’s funny I should use that type of comparison, considering it was all of my husband’s lies, evasiveness, and lies by omission that have me in the position I’m in right now.
I never imagined that at forty years old I would be doing things with my husband that I did at twenty-five. On the count of three, all minds out the gutter, because that is not what I’m talking about. One, two, three.
Don’t get me wrong, my husband and I met around my mid-twenties. I remember quite well some of the things we used to do. He wasn’t my husband back then, though, and God knows I was nowhere near saved or else I probably wouldn’t have done half the things I did with that man. Now look who needs to get their mind out of the gutter.
Anyway, it’s not those things I’m referring to. I’m talking about this: what I’m doing now, what I’ve done for the last couple of days, and what I’m about to do.
What I’m about to do will change everyone’s perception of my husband for the worse. His brothers and sisters, his mother and father, coworkers, friends and church family will all get to see him for who he really is and not what he makes himself out to be. Everybody always puts him on this pedestal and he just eats it up. They have him thinking he’s God’s gift to the world. Maybe he’s not God’s gift to the world, but I at least thought he was God’s gift to me. But God’s gifts come without sorrow, so how could that be when my relationship with my husband has left me the epitome of sorrow?
Nobody placed my husband on a higher pedestal than I did. I promise you I would have bet my life that that man walked on water. After the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Lee Royce Hampton was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. He was a hard worker with an honest career, a provider for myself and our two children. He never put his hands on me in a violent manner and neither did he abuse drugs or alcohol. In fact, he was a man of God who was brought up in the church—strayed momentarily—but when he went back he took me with him and introduced me to Jesus. What woman wouldn’t fall head over heels in love with a man who introduced her to Jesus Christ Himself?
A Woman's Revenge Page 14