Gutta Mamis (5 page)

Detrick didn't answer. He gave her a look that told her she was still the naïve little girl that he always teased her about being.

Detrick scrambled to the coffee table and pulled out the narrow drawer. He pulled out the guns that lay in the drawer and sat them on the table amongst the stacks of paper. Then he snatched out another phone and dialed as he jumped into the jeans that lay on the chair. “I got to go. I got to check on her and she ain't answering her phone.”

Lenora's hands trembled. She remembered Breeze standing there weighing out her options at the job, recalled the turmoil in Tandra's eyes. Truth be told, Lenora didn't want any static from either Breeze or Tandra; both of them were professional to a fault and she would have to kill them or be killed if word got to them that she had run her mouth. “Detrick, listen, I wasn't supposed to tell you nothing about that spot. You can't say nothing to no one about what I just told you. If it ever got back that I said something—that I told…”

“Lenora, that shit ain't nothing to me right now—”

“No, listen. You can't ask Crown about the shit; you can't say nothing to no one!”

Detrick ignored her as he pulled on a jacket over his T-shirt.

Lenora rubbed her eyes. “What if it was…your girl? What are you going to do?”

Detrick met her question with eyes of black steel. Terror flooded Lenora's veins like a needle full of heroin.

The phone rang. “Youngun, where the fuck you at?” Detrick screamed into the phone, spit flying from his mouth. “Where the fuck are Jose and Will? Wasn't they supposed to hook up with PJ last night at the spot? I told them I ain't want her to go alone. What the hell happened?”

Lenora tucked her cape under her arm and headed for the door.

“Hold up, Nora.” He stretched out a hand at her as he spoke back into the phone. “Go over there and see where the fuck they at. I'm about to go to PJ's mom's spot. Yeah. Get back at me.”

Lenora hesitated and then kept walking.

“Was the girl alive or dead, Nora? When you got there…was she alive?”

Lenora didn't respond.

Detrick ran after her. “When you got there, was she dead or alive?”

“What does it matter, Detrick? We cleaned the scene. Like we always do.”

“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” He pounded his fist against his forehead.

Fear spread through Lenora's chest like a shot of nitrogen. He was losing his mind; this was a side of Detrick she had never seen—had never wanted to see.

“You know Jose, you seen him over here. Was he in there? What about Will?”

Lenora just stared straight across the room.

“Tell me something, Nora. Say something.”

“I don't know.” Lenora shook her head as tears ran down her face. “I honestly didn't look at all their faces. I just know the girl. I remember the girl.”

“Hold up…” Detrick ran into the kitchen. Lenora inched closer to the door. She heard drawers open and close and then he was back, moving faster than she had ever seen. He held out a photo.

Aw shit
.
Lenora's heart stopped.

“Is this her?”

Lenora knew without looking that it was the girl. Of course it was her. How else would life play this out; there was no way it wouldn't be her. Lenora's tongue had just started a damn war, one that would have been fought anyway, but that she wouldn't have been a part of if she had kept her mouth shut. Now she had placed herself, Tandra and Breeze right in the middle of some shit. Unless she could talk Detrick out of revealing his source.

One look in his deranged face verified that trying to get him to contain himself would be a waste of time.

“I don't know,” Lenora mumbled, pushing the photograph away and opening the door. “I got to go.”

“Fuck that.” Detrick slammed the door shut and grabbed Lenora by the back of her neck like a puppy.

“Ow!”

Detrick dragged her back into the house. “You ain't going no fucking where.”

“Detrick, you're hurting me!”

Detrick's eyes clicked; he seemed beyond understanding anything Lenora said. The ruthless man in him, the one that Lenora had only heard rumors about, had entered the room; the playful Detrick she had spent the last few hours sexing had vanished.

Detrick put his face so close to Lenora that her eyes crossed. He pressed his forehead against hers until the pressure became painful.
“You fucking telling me y'all killed her? What about my other peoples. You just cleaned them away like they was fucking trash?”

“Detrick, I swear, I don't know who they was and they probably wasn't even your folks. Wait and see if your people call back.”

“You hear any of my phones ringing back? Huh? My peoples gets back at me. Immediately. They don't make me wait. You know that.”

Lenora stood in pain, tears running down her face. She moved her head back from Detrick, despite the tight grip. Her fingers clawed at his large hand. He blinked and looked at her as if he realized who she was for the first time. She thought about the Glocks strapped to her legs, but that wasn't even an option. Detrick was her man. Well, kind of. And she would never pull a weapon on him or do anything to hurt him. He was just acting out right now, just caught off-guard. But the feelings she felt for him ran deep. Flashbacks of his whispered promises snapped through her mind when he was taking her from behind last night, when he touched places in her essence that even the Lord Almighty had never entered.

Detrick was, in some ways, her god.

He dragged her back into the house. His movements were jerky; Lenora tugged, trying to get away, and bumped her chin in the doorway. A few steps later, her hip painfully knocked against the coffee table.

“Detrick, please, please let me go.”

Detrick yanked her around to face him and changed his grip to the front of her neck and looked at her like a crazy man. Lenora didn't recognize him. She might have to hurt him, but she didn't want to. She didn't know if she had it in her to do it.

His cell phone rang. He released his grip and pointed at the chair across from the couch without saying a word.

Lenora rolled her eyes, her mouth turned down in a frown.
Fuck him for acting like this.
She plopped down in the chair and stared
at her hands. They were shaking. She could see Breeze's gray eyes in her mind; she could remember the cold determination in them.

“PJ was talking to Crown last night? Where? What the fuck…what was he even doing there—he don't go to Mira's spot? Who she left with? Oh no…”

Lenora was in a world of trouble; she had a better chance of running out of quicksand than escaping Detrick's house. And she didn't want him mad at her; she wanted him to understand that she had no choice, that it wasn't her fault. She wanted to be his girl, to have him this concerned about her, to love her this much.

Her own weakness turned her stomach. Lenora swallowed the bile collecting at the back of her throat. She was pathetic. Some small part in the back of her mind knew that she was simply turned out; that Detrick was nothing but another man and she needed to use the guns resting on her thighs to end the chaos before it even got started. If she simply pulled the trigger now, no one would ever know. Breeze would never know she had talked, Tandra would never know how weak she really was. No one would know she had violated the rules by sleeping with a client. Detrick's counterattack on her, Breeze and Tandra, Crown, or whoever the hell he was planning to hit, would be stopped.

It could all end now with a single bullet to his dome.

Lenora watched Detrick talking on the phone, stared at the perfect curve of his wide shoulders stretched under the T-shirt, observed his narrow hips and the jeans that fell just right across his butt. He was a thing of physical perfection. His tongue licking her inner thigh flashed in her mind, the look of ecstasy across his face when he released filled her head. Some part of him loved her; he just didn't realize it.

She couldn't kill him. She wouldn't. Detrick's world was falling apart and he needed her right now.

“I don't want no damn tortilla chips, Lele.” Breeze leaned back on the large red velvet lounge chair. “How many times we got to come to this restaurant.”

Lele breathed deeply. “Breeze, this is my favorite spot. You know it. Why are you acting so ill?”

Breeze ignored her and glanced around the restaurant. She dropped a couple hundred in here a week, because it was where Lele insisted on eating for lunch. During their couple time. When Lele demanded Breeze cut off the entire world for at least an hour and relax with her.

Breeze glanced at her diamond-encrusted watch. Lele's hour was almost over.

“You could act like you want to be here.” Lele's voice was quiet and soft, not the normal powerful energy Breeze was used to.

“It's not like that.” Breeze felt ashamed. Just a little bit. Lele held her down in ways nobody else ever had; she loved Breeze unconditionally. And Breeze was a damn mess; she couldn't help herself. When someone attracted her, she had to sample it. When she wanted something, she had to have it. If she needed to go there, she had to be there. Her needs and demands were endless, because she refused to deny herself anything. A childhood of struggling, her late teen years of hustling and having to out-gangsta the men in her crew, had taken their toll. Since she worked hard, she damn
sure played hard. Any other person would have left her alone. But not Lele, sitting here with her funky haircut with blond highlights, lip gloss sparkling and a body-fitting dress with a jean jacket and high-heeled boots. Lele held on and kept herself looking good for Breeze and demanded Breeze squeeze herself into this relationship mode, which fit Breeze like a shoe two sizes too small.

But for her effort alone, Breeze would do it for her. She would do anything for Lele.

“I'm tired, ma. That's why I'm grouchy.”

“I know.” Lele drank the rest of her margarita. “I have my own needs, too, Breeze. And it's not fair to you for me to keep binding you down.”

“Binding me down?” Breeze scooted closer to Lele and laid her head in her lap. The cool thing about the restaurant was that each table was its own intimate lounge area with a coffee table in front. She had full access to Lele's hourglass figure. “What do you mean?”

“I mean this. How I am dragging you to my favorite spot and you don't want to be here.” Lele stroked Breeze's hand with her palm as she looked into her eyes. “Don't try to front. You hate it here.”

“No, I don't.” Breeze closed her eyes and felt the rhythm of Lele's blood pulsing through her veins. “I'm here, ain't I?”

“But that's the thing, Breeze. I don't want to be in a relationship with someone who is just here.”

Breeze's eyes opened. She and Lele had done this dance before. Lele wasn't going anywhere. “Why are you starting this now?” Breeze's phone beeped. She looked at the screen and saw the code 312. It was Tandra.

“You going to take that?”

“You want the bill for this food paid?” Breeze didn't look up at Lele as she sat up and called Tandra.

No answer from Lele as she dug into her purse. Breeze ignored
her, keeping her eyes on the female bartender wearing the thin pink T-shirt while the phone rang.

Lele pulled out her lip gloss and freshened it, then she checked out her hair in her small compact.

“Hello.” Tandra's voice sounded heavy. She was wearing herself thin.

“What's up?”

“I can't find Nora.”

Breeze glanced over at Lele who was now also looking at the bartender and glancing back and forth between her and Breeze. The vibe was thick, Lele must have sensed it. Breeze pointedly kept her eyes on the bartender, anyway—Lele would have to accept it.

“Why are you looking for her?”

She heard Tandra sigh and also heard her heels clicking against the pavement. “I got to meet with Crown. I wanted Lenora there with me. Two is better than one.”

“Especially when y'all go in looking like a couple of femme fatale divas. That's always good for business.”

“Either way,” Tandra said, ignoring Breeze, “I can't find Nora. After last night, I don't want her out of pocket too long.”

Lele pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and sat it in the billfold. Breeze eyed it and glanced at Lele, questioning. She had to have some twenties in her purse instead of the hundred-dollar bill. Lele ignored her, standing up and adjusting her dress.

“What you have in mind, Tandy?” Breeze needed Tandra to get to the fucking point. Lele was up to something, Breeze could feel it. This wasn't the time to play babysitter, either; Lenora had better get it together.

“I don't want to go to Crown's spot with nobody backing me, Breeze.”

“You want me in on the meet?” That was a first. Tandra had never
asked before. Breeze didn't know it had bothered her until just now, when the question had finally been asked. She should have been asked before now. But, then again, Breeze had a clear defined role in this thing. The business belonged to Tandra and the way Tandra ran it had kept their pockets full and their jobs coming in steadily.

“No.” Tandra didn't even pause. “Breeze, what the fuck do you think? Yes, I want you there. But not in the meet with Crown. I need you to make sure I get in and out. I was going to ask you to come with us, anyway; I feel like you need to be there. But it's just gonna be me and you.”

Breeze was silent. The brief sting of disappointment at not being in the meet was drowned out by Lele, swaying her hips as she seductively moved to the bar and took a seat.

“Ain't this some shit?” Breeze said under her breath.

“What, Breeze? I can't hear you.”

“Nothing. I didn't say nothing.”

“Okay, can you meet me in thirty minutes? At the warehouse. Drive something else, not your joint and not the van. I want you to keep an eye on things while I am in there.”