Games Divas Play (A Diva Mystery Novel) (32 page)

CHAPTER 27

Laila

I
checked my iPhone yet again for a message. Nothing. Zippo. Zilch. No call or returned message from Miki Woods or anyone at Glam Network since I had returned to New York a few weeks ago. At first I thought maybe radio silence was a good thing because she hadn’t reached out to say they were canceling the show after the party debacle. And even I had to admit that things had gotten out of control at Marcus and Vanessa’s gala, but I was sure the cameras had caught a lot of good footage that they could edit into a grea
t episode.

The league’s commissioner had come down hard on DJ with so many witnesses swearing to the fact that he and his boys had started the brawl. The gritty cell phone footage that popped up all over YouTube and the gossip blogs also didn’t help his case. Marcus, the league’s golden boy and the one whose team had a shot at the play-offs for the first time in a decade, was let off with a slap on
the wrist.

There had, of course, been no word from Marcus this week. With his wife rushed to the hospital, I knew he couldn’t reach out, but I was sure all wasn’t lost. Now that Vanessa had lost the baby, he no longer had to stay with her and he could be with me. I just needed to get to him. I knew if we could just be in the same room, I could convince him that we were meant to be together and then I could get the reality show back on track. But I couldn’t reach him. The number I had for him had been disconnected, so I had no way to talk with him directly. Since Kareem was fired, I hadn’t wanted to reach out to him, thinking he couldn’t do anything for me, but he just might be the only one who could hoo
k this up.

Scrolling through my contacts, I pulled up h
is number.

“Hello,” he answered gruffly into the phone after the fourth ring. I knew I was going to have to use some honey to get
his help.

“Hi, Kareem,” I purred into the phone. “I missed you at the party in Vegas. Where were you?” I hadn’t seen Kareem that night at the party and was surprised that he hadn’t jumped into the fight to protect his best friend and his star client. Of course, Darryl had told me rumors were swirling that Kareem had been cut, so I knew he needed me just as much as I n
eeded him.

“Uh . . . I was there, but I was in the back. Yeah, in the back handling some details. Why, what have you heard?” His voice sounded suspicious as if something
was wrong.

“Nothing, baby. Chill. I need to see you
,” I said.

“You do?” he said, snorting into the phone and then laughing. “And why is that? Marcus not returning your calls after the shit you pulled in
Phoenix?”

“That wasn’t me. That was crazy DJ. Whatever. I need to see you. When can we
hook up?”

“Oh, so you want to see big daddy now, huh?” I heard him swallow something and clear his throat. “You know all you got to do is say the word and I
’m there.”

“Let’s cut the shit, Kareem,” I hissed into the phone. “You know we both have to get this deal back on track. And neither one of us has a lot of time to make tha
t happen.”

“I’ll be out of town the next two days, but I’ll call you to set up a meeting when I get back,” he said before h
anging up.

I put the phone back on my nightstand and reclined against the pillows. Kareem was desperate right now, and desperate men were dangerous. I dialed Darryl to fill him in on my con
versation.

“Sounds like you might need something with you when you meet with Kareem,” Darryl said, the sounds of the city in the b
ackground.

“What did you have in mind
?” I said.

“Let me know when he calls you to arrange the meeting. I’ll contact our friends and get you a gun that can’t be traced just in case he causes trouble. That wouldn’t be good for
business.”

CHAPTER 28

Nia

T
he walk to DeAnna’s office was long. I imagined this was what it would have been like for prisoners walking to the guillotine. I hadn’t seen DeAnna since we’d gotten back from Phoenix. I had heard she’d been behind closed doors much of the last two weeks, and I assumed she was busy working with HR and the legal department to g
et her ducks in a row to break my contract and follow through on her promise to fire me. And since I knew she was going to fire me anyway, I decided there was no need for me to have the website or magazine cover any of the stories about the brawl at the gala and Vanessa’s miscarriage. I was not going to add to my friend
’s misery.

The rumors were circulating heavily that Glam Network was going to cancel Laila’s show due to the fight she caused at Marcus and
Vanessa’s party and the subsequent backlash in the press and on social media. And once word got out that Vanessa had lost the baby, Laila was officially the most hated black woman in America. But in my experience,
I knew that some media execs would think that was another reason to tune in to her reality show, to see the woman you lov
e to hate.

When MJ poked his head into my office during a cover meeting to tell me DeAnna’s office had called, I was glad I had told him a week ago to pack up our essentials. I knew the call would be coming, so there was no need to suffer the added humiliation, yet again, of security standing over us as we cleaned out our desks before being escorted out of the
building.

As I approached DeAnna’s corner of the floor, I smoothed down the front of my black Prada dress with the A-line skirt and adjusted the hot pink Michael Kors belt that matched my pumps. Clearly it was fitting that I was wearing black today. I saw DeAnna’s r
egular assistant wasn’t at her desk guarding her door as usual. A petite woma
n with short natural hair typed away on a keyboard. DeAnna must have brought in a temp fo
r the day.

“Hi, I’m Nia Bullock. I’m here to see DeAnna,” I said. The young woman looked up and smiled
brightly.

“Hi, Ms. Bullock. I’m Terry. She’s expecting you.” Terry walked around her desk and led me to DeAnna’s office and then opened the door. But when I walked in, it was Miki Woods I saw sitting behind DeAnna’s desk.
Shit
, I thought to myself,
DeAnna took this all the way up to corporate, and now because I fucked over Glam Network, this chick is the one t
o fire me
.

“Hi, Nia. Come on in.” Miki smiled and walked from behind the desk to sit in one of the leather chairs. I took a seat opposite Miki and looked around for DeAnna, sure that crazy bitch was about to pop out from behind the sofa or out of the closet at any moment to gloat over getting
me fired.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you here,” Miki started, taking a sip from the cup of coffee that Terry handed to her. “I really enjoyed our conversation in Phoenix, and I wanted to f
ollow up.”

Now I’m really confused. First, no DeAnna and now Miki’s talking about following up on our conversation. I didn’t say anything and waited for her to
continue.

“I liked your expansion plans for the
Diva
brand. You’ve got good instincts, and your business
is solid.”

“OK, but what about the party?” I asked, looking at her with an eyebrow raised as I crosse
d my legs.

“Ah, yes, the party. Well, your live stream of the event was the highest-rated stream we’ve had. So your instincts were
spot-on.”

“But what about Laila and the show and the cover story on
Vanessa?”

“What are you talking about? That was great! Breaking the story at her party was huge. You know what gets people talking and tuning in. It didn’t matter to me that people hated Laila and rooted for Vanessa. That’s
great TV!”

“So you’re moving ahead with Laila’s show?” I asked, still unsure of what was going on and when DeAnna was going to pop out of t
he closet.

“No, of course not. T
hanks to you.” Miki smiled as she took another sip of her coffee. If the show
was canceled, why was she smiling? “I can’t thank you enough for having Vanessa
call me.”

“Vanessa called you?” Why would Vanessa have ca
lled Miki?

“Yes, of course. And when she said that you had suggested she pitch me on the idea of switching horses, I thought it was b
rilliant!”

“Switching horses?” I said, repeating her words. I was thoroughly confused. Now there were horses in
the show?

“This is exactly what I’m talking about, Nia. You have a sharp mind and see how things can be bigger than they already are. And telling Vanessa to call me and getting her to agree that she and Marcus would do a reality show made the idea of killing Laila’s show a no
-brainer.”

Suddenly everything made sense. In an effort to save my job and get back
at Laila, no doubt, Vanessa had called Miki and told her that I had convinced her to do her own reality show with Marcus. She hadn’t mentioned anything to me about this the last time I saw her. The only thing she seemed focused on was rebuilding her marriage with Marcus through thrice-weekly counseling sessions. But clearly, she was also fo
cused on getting revenge against Laila and making sure she didn’t make a dime off being tied to he
r husband.

“So you’re going to do a reality show with Marcus and
Vanessa?”

“Yes, all thanks to you.” Miki jumped up from her chair and began to walk around DeAnna’s office, talking about how big the show was going to be and how she was so excited to be working
with them.

“OK, but where’s DeAnna?” I asked, still needing one piece of today’s puzzle
clarified.

“Well, unfortunately DeAnna didn’t share my enthusiasm for your career, and when she tried to get you fired, I had to step in. DeAnna is no longer with the company. And now the digital division repor
ts to me.”

“So you’re my new boss?” This was officially the weirdest meeting I’d
ever had.

“Yep, and we’ve got big plans. I want you to get started on drafting your expansion plan. I want to see a full budget and revenue plan worked up by next week, and I agree that we should start immediately. Are you ready to mo
ve to DC?”

T
he rest of the meeting passed in a blur as Miki prattled on excitedly about the plans for
Diva
’s expansion and Marcus and Vanessa’s new show. I nodded my head in the right
places and jotted down what I hoped were relevant notes as my
head spun.

When I got back to my office, I told MJ what
happened.

“Hallelu-jer!”
he said in his best Madea voice as he slapped me a high five. “Now I don’t have to sell this body on the street to pay my ren
t, honey.”

“Well, that’s good, because you wouldn’t have gotten much,” I shot back as I walked into my office and closed my door so that I could call Terrence. How could I tell him about moving to DC when we had just gotten back
together?

“Hey, baby. I was just thinking about you,” he said, picking up on the third ring. “I called you a few minutes ago, but MJ said you were in with DeAnna. Is everything OK? Did you get fired like you
thought?”

“Uh . . . well, I didn’t get fired. In fact, I think I just got
promoted.”

“That’s great, Nia! We’ll have to celebrate over dinner tonight. I also have some news abou
t Diablo.”

“What is it?” My ears perked up as I pushed aside thoug
hts of DC.

“Well, I followed up on Kalinda’s Facebook account and used the location services feature to see where some of the pictures were taken that she posted right around the time that Kareem took those trips t
o Mexico.”

“And what did
you find?”

“Well, if he was with Kalinda, then he was in Tijuana and Zitácuaro, two of the main locations for Diablo Negro outposts. And you’re really going to love me for this one: we ran all of Carlo’s passports that we found in that locker at Port Authority, and it turns out he had been to those same cities at least four times in the l
ast year.”

“So you think Kareem is somehow tied to Diablo? Why would he be mixed up with those guy
s? Drugs?”

“I don’t think it’s drugs. I had one of my buddies put in some calls to UCLA where Marcus and Kareem played basketball in college and pull their college files. Marcus was clean as a whistle. But the NCAA had investigated Kareem for possibly shaving points during his jun
ior year.”

“What do you mean ‘shaving
points’?”

“Shaving points is when a player manages the score of a game by making fewer shots or throwin
g a game.”

“What does that have to do wit
h Diablo?”

“The NCAA was never able to prove anything, but typically when you’re talking about point shaving, the player is tied to a bookie or loan shark, and Diablo, in addition to many other operations, is also heavy into sports
gambling.”

“So how does Diablo end up trying to kill Vanessa, and why’d they kill Kareem’s girlfriend Kalinda and t
hen Sean?”

“I haven’t figured out that piece yet. All I know is that we can tie Kareem to the same cities in Mexico where Diablo has a stronghold, and at one time he could have been throwing games for the Dia
blo crew.”

“But what about when he got in that car
accident?”

“Well, that’s also an interesting point. The night of the accident, Kareem and Marcus had a sweet last-minute victory against Duke to go to the championship. In fact, Kareem sank the winning shot. I wonder if Diablo told Kareem to throw the game and when he didn’t, they ended hi
s career.”

“OK,” I said, warming up to Terrence’s theory. “That would make sense, because I remember after the accident Vanessa telling me how devastated Marcus was that they never caught the driver because Kareem was never able to give any identifying details about the car. Maybe he knew who ran him over a
ll along.”

“Very good. Now you see where I’
m headed.”

“OK, but if Diablo did end his career, why would Kareem still be working with them? He doesn’t have anything to offer now. He can’t throw any more games for them or anything. He doesn’t even play
anymore.”

“No, but up until a month ago he had something even more
valuable.”

“He had Marcus King,” I said as I fell back into my chair with the realization. “But wait a minute—Marcus would never throw any games. And he’s playing better than ever. The Gladiators are headed to the play-offs n
ext week.”

“Remember how you said Vanessa’s lawyers found out through the forensic accountant that Kareem was stealing about half of Marcus’s money? Well, once you’re into Diablo Negro, you can’t get out. I think Kareem was paying Diablo all these years out of Marcus’s
earnings.”

As I wrapped my mind around all that Terrence was theorizing, my mind zeroed in on something that Vanessa had said to me two weeks ago after the news broke that Marcus had taken on a
new agent.

“Wow, that would make sense because Vanessa said that when the accountants identified all his assets, all he had was a little over two hundred thousand dollars in the bank. They couldn’t find any trace of the tens of millions of dollars he’d taken from Marcus and Vanessa’s
accounts.”

“Exactly,” Terrence said. “The money had to have gone somewhere, and I’d bet anything it’s gone to Diablo all the
se years.”

“OK, but none of that explains why Diablo killed Kalinda and Sean and attacked
Vanessa.”

“Look, we’ll talk some more about it over dinner. What time can you
be ready?”

I glanced at the calendar on my computer screen and saw that MJ had rescheduled the interrupted cover meeting for later in the afternoon. I also had two other meetings with the fashion and beauty teams to review the summer trends that they wanted to shoot for the magazine. I wouldn’t be able to get out of here for a while, but fortunately Terrence’s day sounded jus
t as busy.

“I have to be in court in thirty minutes, and then I have to wrap a few things. I’ll come get you around five o’clock, and then we can go out and celebrate your p
romotion.”

“Perfect. See you then.” I hung up the phone with my mind whirling over the Diablo connection to Kareem and the fact that I hadn’t told Terrence that my new boss had just asked me to move to Washi
ngton, DC.