Gutta Mamis (16 page)

“I can't,” she said softly.

Harvey wrapped his arms around her slim waist. “He will never find out. For once, do what you want.”

Bobbi's heart skipped a beat. In the past five years, she never did what she wanted. Whatever her partner told her to do, she did without question. He ruled with fear and the last thing she wanted to do was be on the receiving end of his anger. Fear was the reason
she allowed him to take her soul and outer appearance away. It was hard telling the king of the West no to anything he wanted, so now she stood, a shell of her former self, a figment of her own imagination. But to hear someone encourage her to do something for herself was enticing, and to do the unthinkable with Harvey would be spellbinding. Twenty years her senior and of Caucasian descent made them opposites, but she wanted him and he wanted her from the first day he laid eyes on her. They were both odd, both weird and unexplainable, but together they worked. Together they not only made magic, but sense. All she had to do was crossover and step back into a world where a hint of normalcy was present. However, that was always easier said than done.

“He'll find out,” she whispered.

“It'll be pretty hard for him to suspect a fifty-year-old white man of sleeping with his wife while he's on the West Coast, don't you think?”

Bobbi grabbed his hand and held it in hers. “That's the reason why he did this to me.” Harvey's eyebrows rose in confusion. “He needed someone he could control and trust to run the East while he took care of things on the West, but he didn't think he could do that without first devaluing me.” Her left hand touched her face. “It's hard for a woman to cheat when she looks like this. He calls it his form of insurance.”

Uncontrollable tears raced down her cheeks; every day she asked herself how could she allow him to wash away who she was, but every time that question dashed through her mind, she gave the same answer.
It's hard to say no to someone who murdered for less than fifty dollars.

“Take a leap of faith. We've always wanted this, but now we need this. I know you want me as much as I want you.” Harvey's
hands found their way back on her breasts. “I like every fake thing about you, down to the little bit of veracity you have left.”

Terror found its way back into Bobbi's heart. The thought of Ruben finding out about her infidelity caused her body to shut down. But the sound of her stepping out of the norm, breaking the rules and doing something that she wanted for once, was alluring. She was tired of being lonely and running an empire while her king degraded and broke each and every one of their vows while away for months at a time. Life was hard, but she was ready to make it easier.

Turning around, she looked at Harvey, and for one minute said nothing. She needed him to understand that what she was about to commit to was not to be taken lightly.

“We do this my way, but promise me when you love me, you'll love me hard.” She batted her eyelashes, her need for affection shining through.

“I'll do you one better. I'll love you like a pair of silicone implants, always and forever.”

Bobbi smiled.

“But first something must be done.”

Bobbi's head fell forward, afraid of what may slip out from his mouth.

“I need you to do a few more surgeries.”

Bobbi pulled from his hold and faced him. Her eyes were filled with pain and outlined with fury.

“This is what this is all about; I'm nothing but a project to you? You want to see if you can fix my face!”

Bobbi stormed past him and headed straight for the door; her destination was the office bathroom. She thought she was going to be sick. She actually believed that he might have loved her.

Harvey raced after her and grabbed her arm. “What this is, is me trying to make you happy! If it were up to me, I would have you any way, but you deserve to be happy in your skin.”

Like a flowing river, tears raced down Bobbi's face. In her world this was anything but normal. This was nonexistent. They were two weirdos sharing normal love, a love they both tried to avoid since day one, but now that he was putting all his cards out on the table, hiding was no longer an option. She took a deep breath, realizing that the only way out of her skin was to take the journey through.

“What will we have to do?”

“We fix what he's done to you, but first,” his hand landed on her neck, “we get rid of this.”

Bobbi nodded her head in total agreement. “Then there is where we start.”

Standing in the hospital's hallway, Bobbi peered inside the nursery. On the other side of the large glass window was a room full of newborns. Innocence enveloped the room and for a brief moment sent her back in time to when her life wasn't riddled with hate and resentment. Standing beside her were strangers from seemingly all walks of life, admiring the new additions to their families. Ronald McDonald smiles adorned their faces and forced Bobbi's frown to stand out. Her husband's newborn was gorgeous. Her chocolate skin glowed and big brown eyes resembled her own. Even she found it hard to believe that it hadn't been her legs stationed on those stirrups.

Her dark shades concealed her face while her black leather jacket and combat boots made her resemble a biker. Like always, her curly locks were unruly and stood high around her head. The baby must have felt the negative vibes radiating off of Bobbi because after only sleeping for fifteen minutes, she woke up screaming. Her cries were high-pitched and filled with distress. Witnessing the child struggle for comfort and a nurse rush to her aid, put a smile on Bobbi's face. The moment was priceless.

“You shouldn't be here.”

Bobbi's smile dissolved and an emotionless stare took its place.

“We have to go. If Ruben found out you were here, he'd…”

“He'd what?” Bobbi spat, her attention still on the baby. “He'll come from L.A. and kill me? Or would he have you do it instead?” After making the last comment, she looked directly at Levi who stood to her right. His eyes met hers but never did he reveal during their stare-down that the only thing in life he regretted doing was killing Harvey. Like everything else, it was nothing but a job to him. However, when he saw the look in Bobbi's eyes while she hovered over Harvey's blood-drenched body, he knew the bullet he put through Harvey's chest hit Bobbi in the heart and killed her too. That night he demolished a love in desperate need of blossoming and in its place created a dead zone by the name of Bobbi. Killing Harvey and babysitting Bobbi was supposed to be easy. Instead, it turned into the hardest thing Levi ever had to do.

“Let's go, there's nothing here for you,” he whispered.

“Nothing here for me? I beg to differ.” Her head turned toward the newborn.

“Listen,” he whispered. He looked around, assuring no one was listening. “I'll speak to Ruben and see about having them moved out of New York. Sort of like an ‘out of sight, out of mind' kinda thing.”

Bobbi laughed, her shoulders moving up and down. “That's exactly what I had in mind: out of sight, out of mind.”

Levi's neck tightened. He didn't like hearing Bobbi threaten his cousin's family. He grabbed her by the elbow pulling her away from the nursery, but the second he made contact, she looked down at his grip.

“You don't want to do that,” she snarled.

Through her blackout shades, he identified a heartless killer. An animal in the form of a human who was ready to attack at any
minute. He released his hold of her and fought to calm himself down. It was things like this that confirmed Ruben had no idea who his wife had turned into after the death of Harvey.

•  •  •

“Rue, you told me this would be an easy way to wipe out my brother's debt. Yet you got me babysitting the fuckin' Bonnie to your Clyde over here.”

Levi stood in front of his car parked in front of Bobbi's house. She wouldn't let him in, but when he finally used the key supplied by her husband, she welcomed him with a gun to the face. This was week two of him being on the job and if things like this continued, he didn't know what he would do.

“I consider killing my wife's boyfriend and making sure she doesn't fuck another one of her surgeons easy. Especially when in return, you're receiving fifty-thousand dollars. And what the fuck are you talking about—Bonnie? She runs shit over there for me, but she's no killer.”

“Let me ask you something, Rue. When was the last time you seen her?”

“It's been a minute, why?”

“Because I'm beginning to think the woman you knew no longer exists. She's cold and if you ask me…lost.” Levi looked back at the house. All the lights were off and the darkness of the night masked him from prying eyes. Looking up at Bobbi's window, he sensed her watching him, regardless that her curtains were shut tight.

“What are you trying to say, that I don't know my wife?”

“I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that maybe she's not who you thought she was. Maybe killing dude really fucked her up.”

Ruben sat up straight on his couch and leaned over, his free hand
forcefully pushing the female who was napping on his lap off of him. He adjusted the phone firmly to his ear, confident that Levi would hear everything he had to say.

“I'ma act like I didn't just hear you accuse me of not knowing my wife and her being emotional over another motherfucker, only because you're family. So whatever mood you
think
Bobbi is in, brush it off as her being on her period or some shit, and do your fuckin' job.”

The line went dead. Levi's huge hand squeezed the phone until his skin turned red. He jammed it into his pocket. He couldn't stand the way Ruben spoke to him. If it wasn't for his brother's debt, he wouldn't be Ruben's errand boy.

He jumped in his car and didn't hesitate putting the key in the ignition, but the moment he prepared to pull from the curb, something told him to look at the house once more. Again, his eyes landed on Bobbi's window. Her silhouette materialized. Without warning, the tables had turned and Levi was no longer the one watching Bobbi, but the one being watched.

•  •  •

Levi snapped back to reality right in time to witness Bobbi leave. He watched as she slowly walked past him and in the direction of Ruben's mistress' room. He knew he should have stopped her. Controlling Bobbi and assuring her puppet strings remained tight was part of his job description, but he owed it to her to look the other way. Stuck in his thoughts, he never noticed Bobbi had turned around and now stood behind him.

“You work for me…tell me everything you know about Ruben. I want to know about his women and the business he's hidden from me. He took from me; now it's time I take from him. You do so and I will pay off your brother's debt within a matter of days.”

Levi didn't look her way; instead his eyes focused on the many people tapping on the glass and admiring their new additions. His silence indicated that she had his full attention.

“But if you don't, your brother dies while all you do is watch.”

Levi's eyes jumped around the crowded nursery. No one heard the death threat he was receiving, and no one gave the woman dressed in solid black a second look. The guard nearby socialized with a doctor, never sensing Levi's discomfort. Bobbi calmly walked away, the powerful echo of her boots reinforcing her last words to him.

Thoughts of betrayal bounced around Levi's mind. He should have spat in her face and been confident that if he told his cousin her proposal, he would have been pulled out of this compromising position, but he wasn't so self-assured after all. Telling Ruben would have done nothing but make it look like he needed Ruben once more. When Levi's older brother's gambling got out of hand, he found himself owing a total of fifty-thousand dollars to various people he couldn't pay off. Time was of the essence and with each day that passed, his life was closer to ending. Levi did everything he could to try and scrape up the money, but it was a lost cause that wound up pushing him and his brother to do the one thing they dreaded: go to their cousin for help.

Being Ruben's cousin was never easy. It required patience and a lot of tongue holding. Growing up, the shoe was on the other foot, and Levi and his family were the wealthy ones. Several times Ruben's mother was forced to ask for her sister's help financially, and although the family never minded lending a helping hand, Ruben did. The jester made him feel belittled and needy; however, each time his mother asked for help, his hunger for money grew without boundaries and his determination to outdo his cousins flourished. At the age of twenty-five, the tables had turned, and Levi's family
wealth unexpectedly went down the drain. It must have resurfaced in Ruben's pockets because the moment they lost it all, he gained the world. Numerous times the brothers were in need, but after seeing how Ruben behaved once he finally made a buck, the siblings stayed away from acquiring his help.

Ruben waited for the day his cousins would need him, and although it didn't happen right away, he knew one day it would. That one day came one month ago. Standing on his doorstep, Ruben listened to everything his cousins had to say and when they were done speaking, he told them he would help them but under one condition.

“I'll give you the money but not for free.”

Levi and McDaniel didn't expect to receive a handout, but they did expect for their cousin to remember all of the money their mother had given him without asking for it back. Each generation that came along was nothing like the one before and Levi was witnessing it firsthand.

“What do you want?” Levi inquired.

“I want you to work for me. It looks like my wife is having an affair, so I want you to take care of that problem, and then watch her for two months. Make sure her head is back in the game. Then, and only then, will I give you the money.”