Hope Is Love

by Hubbard, Sylvia

  King looked down the alley. “They aren’t, but Lethal’s dog is getting closer.” He looked intently at Jona one last time. “This isn’t over. You’ll tell me what I want to know.”

  “You stay away from her,” Sheriff ordered.

  “You don’t talk to me traitor,” King sneered. “What fucking kind of brother chooses that son of bitch over his own intermediate family?”

  “You refuse to take responsibility over all the shit that happened to our entire family. It was because your selfishness you forgot whose blood runs through your veins,” Onyx said.

  “I forgot?” King asked incredulously. “How the hell could I ever forget what blood runs through my veins when every day I have to wake and know I want to fucking kill someone just because it’ll make me feel good?” He looked down the alley again. “Fuck the both of you!” He started to walk away toward the back of the Escalade.

  Onyx flicked a small dagger at the back of him and the blade nicked his arm.

  “You bitch!” He said gripping his arm and turning to her

  “That’s for my little brother, you son of bitch.”

  He shot his gun off in Onyx’s direction and Jona felt James pull her behind him and down, using his body to protect her, but no other shots rang out and when she could look around, King Heart was gone and Onyx was gripping her arm.

  Sheriff went over to his cousin to look at her wound, but Onyx snatched angrily away.

  “It’s just a fucking flesh wound,” she snipped more embarrassed than hurt.

  “Just a flesh wound?” James asked incredulously. “Your family is straight up crazy on a whole ‘nother plan than reasonable insanity.”

  Jona had to agree and just wanted to get as far away from these Hearts as fast as possible.

  “She’s still going into police custody,” Sheriff said. “Just not tonight.”

  Looking in relief, she sighed and was glad James was holding her so tightly.

  “Get in the car,” Onyx said. “We’ll take you out to your place, James, where we can better watch you.”

  James helped Jona back in the Escalade as Sheriff and Onyx returned to the front and started on the way out to James’ home. Onyx dug in the glove compartment for a First Aid kit.

  “Where’d you learn to fight like that?” James questioned Jona.

  “It’s called Capoeira,” Onyx sneered as if what Jona had done should have been obviously. “It’s a Brazilian mix of martial arts and dance.”

  James looked to Jona for confirmation and she nodded. “So where’d you learn to fight like that?”

  “Yeah, Jona, where’d you learn that?” Onyx asked.

  Onyx really didn’t like anyone to know her past much, but she answered towards James. “Shadow taught me.”

  “The same Shadow who owns all that property and likes to live like a bum?” Sheriff questioned. “Who the hell is this chick? According to her record, she can’t be more than seventeen.”

  “She’s declared independence since she was fourteen,” Jona said proudly. “She can take care of herself.”

  “And others as well, we noticed,” Onyx said. “Who the hell is she?”

  “No one,” Jona said feeling she said too much already trying to protect a good friend.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find out.”

  Jona didn’t want to speak anymore to this woman and looked at James. “I’m tired,” she said exhaustively.

  He held her close. “It’s fine,” he assured her. “We’ll get some rest once we get home.”

  She liked that word from his mouth. The word home hadn’t been in her vocabulary in a very long time.

  Chapter 36

  Sheriff and Onyx surveyed the whole place before they allowed James and Jona go in. Once they were alone, James took her to his room and showed her the bathroom. Nicole had sent over her clothes per James order that morning since Nicole and Ethan were leaving to go on vacation and wouldn’t be back in the Detroit house for a while.

  James insisted coming into the bathroom with her to be assured she had not been bruised from her altercation with Blaque. There was some bruising on her chest and arms, but other than that, she was fine. Jona relished in his gentle kisses and touches to her body as they washed up together in the shower. She could feel his need to be in her proximity and it reminded her so much of her father and how much he loved her mother. Jona glorified in James’ attention to every inch of her body, mind and soul and she reciprocated without inhibitions.

  “You’re going to be the death of me, woman,” he growled in a teased as she playfully dried him off, but even that transpired into more lovemaking where he lifted her up on the counter top and dipped himself into her. Their culmination was simultaneous as she whispered her joy to be his in his ear holding him tight.

  He left her alone to shower again after he washed himself up.

  Jona missed being clean on a regular basis. Her past brain told her she shouldn’t enjoy this, but she ignored her mother’s voice and relished in every second of having the water all over her body and hoped she could stay with this life.

  When she came out the bathroom, James and Sheriff were in the bedroom patiently waiting for her. Pulling the guest robe tightly around her James had left for her in the bathroom, she tried to hide her nervousness knowing this was most likely an inquiry.

  “I thought they had left,” she said to James.

  “I can’t leave until I’m assured you won’t leave without a sworn testimony, Jona,” Sheriff said pulling out a digital recorder. “It’s my ass if something happens to you again.”

  “Jona, Sheriff and I have been speaking about everything and the only way to convince Sheriff not to take you into custody is if you agree right now to tell him all you know about who tried to kill me and then testify if they go to court,” James said.

  Her gut lurched and she wrapped her arms around her stomach to stop the emotional pangs deep inside of her.

  Sheriff pointed to a seat. “I asked Onyx to stay downstairs to make you feel more comfortable, but I can’t go to my commander empty handed, Jona. I need something and to make you safe, James needs this. I swear on everything, I will do all I can to make sure you and James are never harmed.”

  Jona sunk into the seat and looked over at James who gave her an assuring nod in support.

  Onyx, who obviously didn't listen to instructions came to the doorway of the bedroom and leaned against the frame with her arms crossed.

  Taking a deep breath, Jona said, “It’s Monica. She and her husband tried to kill you, James. I remembered their voices when they spoke after they shot you and I certainly remember his limp. At first you were in the alley with Monica fussing to her about being there. After a few minutes of waiting, a van pulled behind you. I remember her husband’s limp when he walked up to the driver’s side window. You must have recognized him because when he tapped on the glass you opened the window. The next thing I hear is a shot ringing out. I wanted to run, but I knew they’d see me if I made a move.”

  Sheriff looked over at James, who explained, “My former aid is Monica who married our former business lawyer.”

  “How do you know it’s them Jona?” Sheriff asked.

  “They came over to the house,” Jona explained, purposely not looking at James terrified of what he was thinking. “Monica said if I left, she wouldn’t tell about the ring and she held my case hostage.”

  “How is that case so valuable to you?” James asked.

  Bravely, she met his eyes. “On the street, your identity is all you have, James and all you have in your head is enough room to know how to survive, yet you have to carry tiny things to keep the memories or you’ll go insane.” He still looked a little confused and she explained moving to him and taking his hands in hers. “The case has my identity and my parent’s stuff. It’s all I have that’s valuable to me and Monica was going to destroy everything if I didn’t leave. She was going to destroy me.”

  “Are you sure it was Lawton Berg and h
is wife Monica in the alley?” Sheriff questioned.

  “Very sure,” Jona said. “I saw Monica just a little when she came around the car, plus the vine tattoo on her ankle as well and Lawton's voice is unmistakable, along with the heaving wet breathing and the limp in his walk.”

  James moved to his knees and hugged her tightly pressing his face into her stomach. “I’m not mad at you, Hope,” He said tenderly caressing her cheek.

  Jona bit her lip to hide the warm inner shudder that wanted to make her lean down and kiss him deeply.

  “I can get the address from Onyx and we’ll lock up,” Sheriff said to James and then looked at Jona. “I’ll speak with you in the morning with an update. You will still be here Jona, in the morning?”

  "I hope to hell she'll be here," Onyx said with a wicked smirk.

  "Why would you want her here so bad," James asked warily.

  Jona was thinking the same thing.

  Onyx walked in the room with that evil smirk growing on her face. "Well two reasons. First, you’ve got to realize it’s a small world isn't it Jona, because you know that lawyer don't you?"

  James looked at Jona with a frown.

  Jona wanted to smack Onyx. "How much do you know?"

  "Oh I knew everything. I even have the gun that shot James."

  "What do you mean you have the gun?" Sheriff exclaimed.

  Onxy rolled her eyes. “You really didn’t think I was just going to let you try to put away that scum of a lawyer, Lawton Berg away on just her word alone.”

  “With the forensics we pulled off that scene-“

  Onyx cut her cousin off, “He’ll be walking by the end of the month with no murder weapon and no proof he was at the scene of the crime.”

  “Where’d you find the gun?” James questioned.

  “In her purse,” Onyx answered in a sing-song voice. “When I found the case, your ex-assistant hadn’t gotten rid of the evidence like her husband ordered her too.”

  “But if she had the gun-“ Jona started saying before Onyx cut her off.

  “That son of a bitch was going to make sure his wife took the fall for the attempted murder. It would have been easy. James stopped paying her attention.”

  “How would we even establish James had relations with her?” Sheriff questioned. “He can’t remember having relations with her.”

  Onyx pulled out her cell phone and showed a picture of a tattoo, which clearly read, “Chelsea,” with vines intricately wrapped around the letters.

  James snatched the phone and looked closely at the picture. “That’s Monica’s thigh!” A sharp pain hit him on the side of his head. “She… She got that tattoo to prove she loved me more than her husband and she’d leave him, but I told her no.” A flash of white clicked in his eyes and he held his head. “And.. and then she said someone had been following her…” He gasped as the pain became sharper. “They said if she didn’t give them the money they’d… give pictures of us to her husband.” He sat down again feeling slightly dizzy.

  Jona came over to comfort him in concern.

  Getting her phone back, Onyx snorted. “Your car is crushed at some junk yard on the eastside of town into a small ball of metal. Of course the money was missing and it was wiped clean.”

  “But how does anything place Lawton Berg at the scene? That van was rented with Monica’s maiden name,” Sheriff said.

  “I know that,” Onyx sneered. “That’s why I followed that son of bitch. He was way too smart to get rid of the clothes he was wearing the day of the shooting. He tried to get rid of them at the office, but a search in his garbage helped me recover the blood soaked clothes he was wearing.” That sing-song tone came. “I love sending people to jail, Sheriff, and I don’t work to get people behind bars to get back out. What fun would that be?”

  “So if you had all this evidence and knew who tried to kill, why did you make me suffer all this time?” Jona asked angrily forgetting her fear of Onyx. “Why didn’t you just give Sheriff the evidence and leave me alone?”

  Onyx snorted and asked obviously, “What fun would that be?”

  Jona growled angrily and again James said what was on her mind, “I oughta kick your ass, Onyx.”

  “You can try, but not only will you not succeed, but you’ll be standing in a very long line.” The minx winked with humor making her black pearl eyes dance. “All the evidence is in your car James, but before you think you're getting off free, don't you need to remember why they're really trying to kill you.” She held up a hood piece from an old car. "Once they found the car, I searched it and found a secret compartment you had put behind the gas tank that was fire and water proofed. There were files inside along with this."

  A flash of pain shoot through James head and he sat down in a chair away from Jona. His forehead burst forth with sweat as his brain seemed to heat up. He suddenly remembered being at the Berg's house, with Monica a week before the payoff. They were making love right in the fat lawyer's bed, while Lawton was out of town. Monica wanted to prove just how much she would dare to risk to be with James.

  James started vocally relaying this information out loud to everyone. "When she fell asleep, I went down to Lawton's office." He put a hand on his right temple where the pain hurt the most. "Ethan and I had been arguing for several months - day and night." He paused a moment to hold off the flash of pain that shot through his head. Closing his eyes to deal with the pain as he tried to remember everything he gripped both his temples because the pain was piercing him now all over. "Ethan was convinced Lawton was not for the good of the company and I was convinced Ethan was still bitter against our father and I for the past deeds we'd done to him." A flash of light pierced his eyes and the pain in his head intensified bringing him to his knees.

  Jona kneel to hold him, but even the comfort of her arms stopped the pain. Blood seemed to leave his brain and James felt his subconscious spinning hard.

  Onyx came over, knelt down and gripped the back of his nape hard and dug the fingers of her other hand into his temple. In a calm voice, she said, "James, open your eyes and look at me."

  He worried the flash of light would come again and he definitely shook his head."

  Onyx pressed so hard against his nape and temple at the same. He thought for one moment his head was going to explode.

  James' nose started to bleed and Jona wanted to panic.

  "You're killing him!" Jona cried.

  Hearing her worry, James opened his eyes to find Jona, but all he could really do was focus on Onyx's cold black eyes.

  In a firm tone, Onyx said, "Focus on my face and take a deep breath, James. In, Out, In Out."

  Following her instructions, he suddenly felt the pain subside and his mind opened up as memories made their way back in the correct order in his brain.

  "I was convinced there was nothing wrong with Lawton, so I'd been to his home a lot of times behind his back with Monica and once she was asleep, I'd go down to Lawton's private office to look through his things." He slowly stood and looked at Sheriff. "There were payoffs in a private ledger to a Lieutenant Rayfield Booker."

  Sheriff frowned hard after wincing in response as if someone had stabbed him in the side.

  Onyx asked her cousin, "Do you know him?"

  "Yeah," Sheriff growled. "He's the fucker who assigned me to this unit as punishment for being to damn nosey on an open case that landed on my desk mysteriously while I was in homicide. He's now head of IA for Detroit Police, but in the past he was Commander at a precinct. During his stint there was a hit and run case where the evidence that would have identified the driver came up missing from the precinct."

  "Isn't that often for Detroit?" Onyx snorted.

  "Small stuff from the evidence room, here and there, yes," Sheriff agreed sarcastically.

  "But what made this so damaging is that it was a whole car, wasn't it, Sheriff?" James said his voice slightly trembling. His head still hurt, but a feeling of dread filled him. "It was a diamond blue 1968 Lincoln with
suicide doors; Very rare with only three owners in the Metro Detroit area."

  Sheriff looked shocked as he nodded. "It was one of the factors that made the Department of Justice come into investigate the City of Detroit's police department. No one could understand how a rare car could just come up missing twenty four hours after it had been impounded at the precinct and the paperwork completely disappear. What kind of payoffs was Lawton making?"

  "Every month in a ledge since the time of the incident for almost thirty years until recent, but they had started to balloon," James said with a worried frown. "That's why he needed to steal from our company. I found all the evidence. He couldn't justify the payments anymore on his books. And then..." He turned to Jona.

  Guilt was all over his face, but she didn't know why. Jona wasn't mad about James sleeping with Monica. She was partially aware of his indiscretion, but all of that was before he met her and she couldn't really be upset with him about things.

  James continued, "Lawton came to me three years ago. Said he couldn't hide something anymore and needed help hiding it. Same time as the payment started to balloon on his ledgers." He looked completely ashamed. "He said, I had to go get something for him and hide it where no one could ever find it."

  Sheriff interrupted, "Three years ago is when I started putting my nose where it didn't belong in Lieutenant Rayfield Booker's files and personal life."

  James sighed uncomfortably. "We were breaking ground on the new transit center for the City of Detroit near downtown." His look of guilt was overwhelming. "That's where I hid the car for him, but I wouldn't tell him because that was the deal. If he ever got under a lie detector he'd be telling the truth about the whereabouts of the car."

  Onyx sighed. "Now I see why you forgave her so quickly." She looked very disappointed in him. "Aren't you going to tell her why she should be angry at you, James? I'm sure by now you've realized why Lawton wanted you dead." She put the hood piece in his hand.

  Jona didn't understand. "They wanted him dead because he found out about the money Lawton stole from James' family company to pay off the cop, right?"