I couldn’t help but wonder how many people had died in this room.
Will kept the gun pointed at me as the first driver proceeded to tie Jay to one of the chairs. The younger driver pushed me down and tied me up as well.
“There,” Will said after we were both securely bound. He walked over and patted Jay’s face. “You might want to get some rest, my man, because it’s going to be a long night.”
With that, all three men laughed as they walked out the room and left Jay and me squirming in our seats.
sixteen
Every gangster movie I had ever watched flashed through my head and I knew it was just a matter of time before these thugs shot me execution-style in the middle of this dirty, pissy room.
We sat tied to the chairs. Jay hadn’t stopped squirming, as though if he moved enough he could loosen the rope. I had given up because the rope was causing burn marks on my arms.
“Would you stop it?” I finally hissed.
“What would you suggest I do? Just wait for them to walk back in here and kill us?” he snapped.
At the mention of dying, my heart sank, the knots in my stomach tightened, and my anger returned.
“What is this about, Jay?” I asked.
“I have no idea, Shannon.”
I cut my eyes at him. “I hope it was worth it. I hope it was just that good to you that it was worth both of us dying for,” I said.
Jay stopped squirming and stared at me like he wanted to say something, then decided against it and turned his attention back to trying to break free.
After a few more minutes, he fell back in his chair, frustrated. “It’s too tight,” he mumbled.
I didn’t respond as we sat in silence. I envisioned the headlines when our bodies were found. Would Vonda’s murder be pinned on us? Was that the legacy we would leave behind? Was this why God had never given us kids? So that we wouldn’t leave them parentless after being murdered in a crappy warehouse?
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the door swung open. Another guy with a headful of blond dreadlocks tied up in a ponytail walked in, followed by Will and the driver. The young-looking driver was gone. In his place was some mini Hulk who looked like his mama had named him Killer.
“Jay, my man,” the dreadlocked guy said, his arms outstretched like he was greeting an old friend.
“Do I know you?” Jay asked.
The man chuckled as he stopped in front of Jay. “No, but you know someone I know, very, very well.” He flashed a wicked grin.
“What are you talking about?” Jay asked, trying to shift in his seat.
“Your girlfriend, Vonda.”
“Man, what do you want with us?” Jay asked, not bothering to hide his agitation. “Vonda is not my girlfriend.”
“Just call me Max,” the man said, throwing his leg over a chair and plopping down in front of us. “Well, as you’ve probably deduced by now, your girlfriend was dabbling in some things she shouldn’t have been dabbling in and she has pissed some very important people off.”
“I don’t know anything about her past,” Jay protested.
“Oh, I’m not talking about Vonda’s past,” Max said, that stupid smile still on his face. “This is her present. And Vonda is presently in possession—”
“Was,” Will interrupted matter-of-factly.
Max snapped his fingers and laughed. “That’s right. Was in possession of a very important belonging that she was holding for a friend of mine. Vonda is… gone to glory now, isn’t that how you guys say it back in the States?”
“Well, I don’t know anything about anything that Vonda was into,” Jay said.
Max sighed like he didn’t believe Jay; then, out of nowhere, he stood, walked over and punched Jay in the right eye. I screamed as Jay grunted in pain.
“I don’t like being played for a fool, my man. So I’ll ask you again, where is it?” Max demanded.
Jay squinted with pain, then shook it off. “Hit me as many times as you want and the answer will still be the same,” he managed to say. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“And I don’t either,” I chimed in. “This has nothing to do with me.”
“Ah, yes,” Max said, walking over and caressing my hair. “You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, beautiful.”
“Then let me go and I promise I won’t say a thing,” I pleaded.
“You’d leave your devoted husband?” Max said, feigning shock.
I glared at my husband. Whatever was happening right now was the direct result of my husband’s philandering. “Well, obviously my husband wasn’t too devoted to me. So you guys can work this out among yourselves. I don’t need to die because my husband chose to mess around with the wrong woman.”
Jay looked at me apologetically. “My wife is right,” he said. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this. I’m begging you, please, let her go.”
Max wagged a finger. “Ah, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He began pacing back and forth across the room. “See, we happen to know that the night Miss Vonda stole from my client, you were the one who picked her up, Mr. Lovejoy. And if you know something, there’s a strong possibility that your wife here knows something as well.”
“I just found out about their affair a couple of days ago, so I wouldn’t know anything,” I protested.
“And I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jay said, exasperated.
“Mr. Lovejoy, I don’t have time for games.” Max turned to Will. “What type of car does Mr. Lovejoy drive?”
“A black Range Rover, chrome wheels, clean as a whistle,” Will said with admiration.
“Clean as a whistle,” Max repeated with a smile. “You picked Vonda up and took her back to her place. So I’m sure she told you what she was doing.”
Jay shook his head defiantly. “I promise you, she didn’t. I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“So you deny picking her up from the W Hotel about six weeks ago? I think it was actually the first of the month,” he said, stopping and leaning over Jay.
When Jay didn’t answer, Max continued. “And you want me to believe that you didn’t bother asking what she was doing at the hotel when you picked her up?”
Jay let out a defeated sigh. “She said she had a meeting and I was just picking her up and giving her a ride home because her car was in the shop.”
“Ah, but at her place, you got out and went inside. And you stayed until very late at night, roughly three a.m.”
I tried kicking him. That was the night I’d cooked dinner and waited all night for him. That dog had lied and said he’d been at the twenty-four-hour Starbucks working on our next book and lost track of time.
“Oh, my bad. The missus must not have known about that.” Max laughed. “You two can work out that little lovers’ spat later. Right now, we have business to tend to.” He resumed pacing, his hands behind his back. “Let me explain my predicament, Mr. Lovejoy. I have been hired to do a job—deliver a product to my client. My men and I have traveled from the mainland trying to track this vixen down. We have incurred tremendous expense and invested quite a bit of our time. So I assure you, I will get what I seek.” He turned and glared at us. “I need the jump drive.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jay slowly repeated, his voice cracking with fear. “I don’t know how many other ways I can say that.”
Max continued talking as if Jay hadn’t said a word. “Just before she… um, transitioned to the afterlife, Vonda informed my associate that she had given you the jump drive. And that has to be true, because it’s nowhere in her house.”
“What is on this jump drive?” Jay asked.
“That information is provided on a need-to-know basis. And you, my friend, don’t need to know.” Max eyed Jay suspiciously. “Unless, of course, you already know.”
“I don’t know anything!” Jay yelled again.
“He’s telling the truth,” I cou
ntered. Though I had no idea whether he was telling the truth or not. At this point, I would say anything to get them to let me and Jay go.
Max held up his hand to quiet me. “Ah, but it seems there’s a lot about your husband that you don’t seem to know. So I don’t think you have a clue whether he’s telling the truth or not.”
“Please, sir, let us go. You can tell your associate Vonda did all of this on her own. We’re not involved in this,” I pleaded.
Max laughed again. “You just don’t know how deeply you’re involved in it, thanks to lover boy here.”
I glared at Jay again. Right now, I hated him with every ounce of my soul.
“I sense a little hostility here,” Max said flippantly, as he pulled up the chair and sat back down. “Let someone else doctor you, Dr. Shannon. Tell Mr. Max what the problem is.”
I didn’t say anything as my chest heaved up and down out of a combination of fear and anger.
“Talking about it is the first step in getting through it.” He gave a terse grin like he really expected me to open up.
“You want to know what the problem is?” I finally said. “I’m stuck in an abandoned building with some maniacs and I have no idea what they’re going to do with me. And why? Because my husband was off chasing whores.”
“Ooooh.” Max chuckled. “Such strong language.” He turned to Jay. “Were you chasing whores?”
Jay pursed his lips. It was obvious his frustrations were mounting, but I couldn’t have cared less. “I wasn’t chasing whores.” He looked down in shame. “Vonda was the only one. I made a big mistake.” He glanced back up at me. “All we do is fight and I wanted out of that exhausting cycle.”
“No, you wanted in—in another woman, and you’re trying to use our problems to justify your actions,” I snapped at him.
“It must suck to be betrayed,” Max said pointedly.
“You don’t know the half of it.” I rolled my eyes.
Max stuck his bottom lip out sympathetically. “How could he do you like this? I don’t know much about you, but you seem like you’ve been a loving wife.” I nodded. “And despite your marital problems,” Max continued, “you stayed true to your vows, right?”
I hesitated, then slowly said, “I stayed true to myself.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” Max said, waving his index finger from side to side. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Max smiled as he motioned toward the thug who’d been standing and guarding the door. The Hulk henchman nodded, then opened the door.
“Come on in,” he said to whoever was on the other side.
My mouth dropped open at the sight of the man who walked into the room. “Ivan?”
The tall, attractive man I’d met at the bar stopped and smiled. “In the flesh, baby,” he said, his voice deep and seductive and instantly transporting me back to that night at the hotel.
I immediately looked from Ivan to Max, then back at Ivan. “What’s going on?” I said. “How do you know them? You told me you were an insurance salesman from Miami.”
Ivan shrugged. “I lied. Sorry, bae.”
“Okay, what is going on?” I asked.
Silence filled the room as Max stifled a chuckle. It was obvious he found the whole scene amusing.
“Yeah, what’s going on?” Jay repeated, his eyes darting from me to Ivan and back.
“Ahh, my love,” Ivan said, ignoring Jay, walking over to me, taking a strand of my hair and twirling it around his fingers. “I am looking forward to tasting you again.”
I heard Jay gasp but I didn’t look his way. “Did you set me up?” I asked Ivan.
“Oh, just trying to see how much you knew about Vonda. Got a little distracted by your”—his eyes roamed down to my lap—“your sexiness.” He turned to Max. “But I guess that’s one of the perks of the job.” He chuckled as Max nodded in agreement.
“Who the hell are you?” Jay yelled, squirming violently in his chair.
“How is my little butterfly?” Ivan said, fingering my thigh on the exact spot where my tattooed butterfly was, the exact spot that he’d kissed, and licked, and caressed until I begged for him to stop.
“Shannon, what the hell is going on?” Jay yelled, his chest heaving, his anger palpable.
Max busted out laughing, as did the rest of the crew. They really were getting a kick out of the show.
“Looks like you two have some discussing to do,” Max said. “Good thing we’re waiting on the call to see what our next move will be. So make yourselves at home. We’ll be back shortly. Happy chatting.”
With that, all of them left the room.
I would’ve given anything if I could’ve gotten up and left with them. The way Jay’s eyes bored into me, I knew he was about to lose it. And that made me mad. The audacity of him to be angry about the idea of me being with another man.
“I’m going to ask you again, what is going on?” Jay said, after it became obvious I wasn’t going to say anything.
Of course I felt awful about Jay finding out like that, but I decided the best route was to fight fire with fire. “Don’t you dare ask me about anything that I’ve done. You’re the cheater, remember?”
“It sounds like we both are,” he replied, his voice filled with anger.
“I… I was true to my vows… until I discovered you weren’t.”
He looked at me in disbelief. “I can’t believe you. You’ve been playing the victim, acting all holier than thou, judging me for cheating and you cheated yourself?”
“It was a one-night stand! A half a night at that, since we never had sex.”
“That’s bull.”
“We didn’t have sex,” I repeated.
“He tasted you!” Jay screamed. “That sounds like sex to me. And you met him here on the island and slept with him. What kind of woman are you?” he added with disgust.
“Are you serious?” I said, shocked at his nerve. “You cheated on me, then turned around and brought your mistress to our retreat! What do you think that did to me? I had too much to drink.”
“Oh, come on now, can’t you do better than blaming it on the alcohol?”
I wanted to scream, but I didn’t have the energy. I fell back in the seat and said, “I was hurting, so I sought comfort in the arms of another man. There, does that make you feel better?”
Jay shook his head as a mist covered his eyes. “I don’t believe this. As much as you were riding me and acting all hurt and betrayed, and you cheated on me too.”
“I was hurt and betrayed.”
“I guess that makes two of us, then.”
“Well, now you know how it feels.” I paused. “No, I take that back. You don’t know how it feels, because I’m not in love with anyone else.”
“Neither am I.”
“And I didn’t have anyone claiming they love me, following me to the Virgin Islands.”
“Obviously, your stalker was already here.”
That stopped me cold. I’d fallen for whatever game Ivan was playing. I’d been used—the very thing I vowed I’d never be.
Jay and I were quiet again, and this time, our silent pain spoke volumes.
seventeen
Why in the world was my husband’s pain bothering me? He’d started this. As I watched him sitting in the chair, his head hung low, a dark circle forming under his eye where Max had hit him, I could tell he was hurting. But I could also tell that the pain inside him was much deeper than anything physical he might be feeling.
“So you actually had sex with someone else?” he finally whispered.
“Again, I told you that I didn’t.”
“Well, you were intimate with him.”
“You saw it for yourself—they set me up.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know, but it’s obvious it has something to do with this mess here.”
“Maybe so, but they didn’t put a gun to your head and make you sleep w
ith someone. You did that all on your own,” he said, his voice ripe with pain.
I felt a flutter of shame. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen so easily for Ivan. But his attentiveness, smooth voice, sexy accent, and impeccable physique had sent my mind reeling. “I just needed someone to comfort me. I just wanted to be wanted,” I admitted. “You slept with me, then acted like it disgusted you.”
“It wasn’t that. I… I just didn’t want to make things any more complicated than they already were.”
“It just felt good to be wanted.”
The words looked like they hurt Jay almost as much as the blow to his eye. “I’m sorry,” he finally muttered.
I probably should’ve said, I am too, at that point, but I couldn’t bring the words to form in my mouth. While I took responsibility for my own actions, Jay had basically pushed me into the arms of another man.
Our conversation was interrupted as Ivan reentered the room. “Hello, princess,” he said, strolling over to me.
“Ivan, what kind of game is this?”
He pulled a chair up and sat in front of me. “It’s not a game.”
I studied him. He’d seemed so genuine. Never in a million years would I have guessed that it was an act. “Is Ivan even your real name?” I asked.
He nodded. “And in case you’re wondering, what we shared was very real too.”
“Obviously not, since you set me up.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “It was business, not personal.”
“But why me?” I asked. I knew this conversation was paining Jay, but thankfully he remained quiet.
Ivan glared back over his shoulder at the door, then turned back to me. “They just wanted to find out what you knew, if you knew anything.”
“Well, you know I don’t know anything. I talked to you about what I was going through. If I remember, you even asked me if I knew anything about the other woman and I told you I didn’t.”
A Little Bit of Karma Page 11