NO SECRETS NO LIES (SIN CITY HEAT SERIES Book 3) (24 page)

    
"Yeah, and the only reason I was there was because one of the other
doctors on staff got sick at the last minute. Then, to not see you for three
years after that but run into you at the nightclub here in Vegas? I have to
agree with you baby. This here? This was meant to be. No doubt."

    
Aleesha sighed and rubbed her hand over Marcus' chest. "Hopefully, we'll
be able to add to our family soon. I so want to have your baby, Marcus."

    
A smile played at Marcus' lips as he thought about Aleesha pregnant with his
child. "I have a feeling that's definitely going to happen soon."

  
"Me too," Aleesha grinned. "Alexis and Amir's baby will only be
a couple of months older than its cousin if I conceive on this trip. Won't that
be something?"

    
They were both silent for a few moments before Marcus spoke. "I still
can't believe how crazy life can be sometimes. I swear to God, I never bought
into that seven degrees of separation bull, but this is beyond explanation. To
think that when I first came in contact with Amir, he'd actually met the sister
I'd been looking for all that time, had a
son
with her." Marcus
shook his head in amazement. "Yeah, life takes great pleasure in making us
the butt of its many jokes."

    
Aleesha nodded as she peered up at him. "Marcus?"

    
"Yeah baby."

    
"You
are
okay with Amir and Alexis being together, aren't you?"

    
"Yeah. I'm good with it. I think he's changed and that he really loves
Alexis and her son. I never told you this, but I actually admired the guy
before I found out you used to be engaged to him. He was a hell of a football player.
I just want him to treat my sister right because if he doesn't, I have an ass
whippin’ that I've put on reserve just for him, and it ain't never gonna
expire."

    
They laughed and went on to talk about how much they'd enjoyed their time in
Aruba and mentioned that maybe their friends could join them next time. After
about thirty minutes, they got up and made their way back to the hotel to
shower and change. Since the majority of the stores closed around 6 p.m., the
plan was to spend the rest of the day shopping, and then have one last romantic
dinner before they turned in for the night. Their flight was scheduled to leave
at 10:45 in the morning.

    
Aleesha's destination to get some last minute power shopping in was going to
take them to downtown Oranjestad where the stores and malls were considered top
notch. Marcus was under no illusion as to what his role would be for the next
few hours - carry the bags and keep up with the packages.

    
Three hours later, he slid an inconspicuous glance down at his watch. They'd
agreed to leave in about another hour to give themselves time to shower and
rest up a bit before going to dinner. As Marcus followed Aleesha out of the
store headed to the next one, he shook his head. She showed no signs of slowing
down. He just didn’t understand it. When she almost caught him observing her
with a petulant frown, he quickly pasted a smile on his face which Aleesha
enthusiastically returned.

    
"I can't believe the deals we found. Wait until Keisha and Jerra see the things
I bought! They're going to be green with envy! Isn’t this great?"

    
"Uh, yeah, sweetie. Great."

    
Aleesha glanced at him sharply then laughed. "Okay, I'll give you a
reprieve. Do you want to wait by the atrium while I go into the next couple of
stores?"

    
Relief flooding Marcus face as he sent her genuine smile. "Yeah. Just come
and get me when you're done."

    
Chuckling at his eagerness, Aleesha raised her lips to his for a kiss.
"Poor baby. Thank you for indulging me. I promise to show you how grateful
I am tonight," she whispered.

    
After giving him a seductive wink and wiggling her fingers as she left, she
giggled as Marcus pulled sunglasses off and stood watching her walk away, no
doubt going through a list of ways he planned on making her do just that.

   
"Mmph," Marcus said to himself as he watched the rear view of his
wife's retreat. "Yes indeed."

    
Still smiling, he slipped his sunglasses back on and decided to get a cool drink
while he waited. As he stood in line, he glanced around, taking note of how
crowded it was. The shopping area wasn’t far from the sea port, and a lot of
people were from the cruise ships that docked a little distance away.

    
As he moved up in the line, he took out his cell phone to check his emails. A
lady trying to grab her little girl with one hand while balancing two drinks in
the other jostled into him. Marcus waved aside her profuse apologies and smiled
to let her know it was okay. Just as he was getting ready to look back down at
his phone, a woman in the distance suddenly caught his attention. He could only
see part of her profile because her face was turned away from him as she talked
and held hands with her male companion, but something about the way she walked
made him pause. She seemed...familiar. Marcus was very good with faces, but he
doubted very seriously if he would run into anyone he knew. Still, his eyes
followed her as she made her way towards the exit to leave. There was an elegance
and grace about her carriage that was usually associated with models
gliding…down… the runway...

     
The direction of his thought pattern slowed to a rolling halt as he remembered
a classy woman from a long time ago who had been a model in her younger days
and had a walk that modern day models still tried to copy. Unaware of doing so,
he slowly shook his head. Nah. Couldn't be. Marcus reached up and snatched his
shades off to get a better look. Of course it was someone who just favored her
because there was no way...

    
But then she threw her head back and laughed at something the man beside her
said, giving him a better view of her face. He blinked his eyes several times,
and when he focused in on her again, his world tilted on its axis.  His
lips parted as his chest rose and fell rapidly and his heart beat quickened. It
couldn’t be her – she was dead.

    
His felt as if his feet were rooted to the spot. The man behind him politely
told him the line was moving but Marcus paid him no mind, and when the woman
began to walk towards the exit, he took a step in her direction. He’d just
taken another when she turned and looked directly at him. He saw her mutter the
words '
Oh God'. 
The words repeated themselves in his head as well.

    
It
was her.

    
"Roni...?!"
Her name came out a hoarse, strangled whisper.
Marcus saw her mouth drop open seconds before she bolted.

    
"Roni!
RONI
...!!"

    
Marcus took off running after her, but the crowd was suddenly more congested.
Several people yelled in outrage as he pushed them out of his way in his haste.
He sent half-hearted apologies over his shoulder but his eyes never left the
exit. He made it outside just in time to see her hop into the back of a luxury
car that quickly pulled into traffic amid furious honks of horns from the other
drivers.

    
"Roni!"

    
Marcus took off in a dead sprint, but the driver floored the gas, weaving in
and out of traffic. Still Marcus ran, only stopping when he lost sight of the
car. He stood in the middle of the busy sidewalk, chest heaving, looking in the
distance and replaying the events of the last few seconds. His common sense
tried to intervene and convince him he'd been mistaken. Veronica Winston had
died almost eight years ago. He, Darrell, and Bryan had been in the room when
she flat lined.

    
But he knew what he’d just seen. She hadn’t been a figment of his imagination.
Marcus’ mind went back to that day at the hospital. He frowned in remembrance
then closed his eyes and placed his laced fingers on top of his head as the
truth suddenly hit him with the force of a five ton weight dropped from the
sky. He could vividly see every detail of that morning; it was burned into his
memory. He had ushered Darrell out of the room because Darrell had come
completely undone when they heard the nurse tell the doctor they'd lost Roni.

    
He and Darrell had left the room...but Bryan had stayed.

    
"Damn," Marcus whispered. "She didn’t die. Roni's still
alive."

Chapter
31

    
Jerra glanced at the clock again as she lay in the bed flipping through a
magazine. It was now after 1:00 a.m. She'd fed DJ hours ago, bathed him, and
put him to bed. He kept asking for his daddy because it was their routine for
Darrell to read him a bedtime story almost every night. Finally, he'd fallen
asleep and hours later, Darrell still hadn’t come home. She'd called his cell
phone numerous times, but her calls were sent directly to voicemail. If Marcus
had been in town, Jerra knew that's most likely where he would be, but Marcus
and Aleesha were in Aruba and weren’t scheduled to come back until
tomorrow. 

    
Speaking of which, she thought about the phone call she’d received from Marcus
earlier. After reassuring Jerra that everything was okay, he asked her to have Darrell
call him as soon as he got in. Maybe it had been her imagination, but it
sounded as if there was an underlying urgency in his tone. Again, though,
Marcus told her everything was fine.

    
Flipping on her back, Jerra covered her face with her arm. Where was he?? This
wasn’t like him at all and now she was starting to worry. What if something had
happened to him? What if he'd gotten into an accident and was lying in a
hospital somewhere - or worse.

    
She threw the covers back and swung her legs to the floor. Maybe Dominick knew
something. She picked up the phone, but before she could dial the number, she
heard the sound of Darrell’s truck pulling into the driveway. Jerra closed her
eyes and exhaled in relief. With heart racing, she hurried out the bedroom and
down the stairs, entering the kitchen in time to see Darrell closing the door
that led to the garage. Now that she saw him physically standing in front of
her, safe and in one piece, Jerra was able to swallow the lump of fear that had
taken up residence in her throat.

   
Darrell looked up with a slight frown. He sighed heavily and shook his head as
he brushed past her. "Can we not do this right now, Jerra? I'm tired and I
don't feel like arguing."

    
Jerra's concern instantly turned to anger at his nonchalant attitude. Here
she'd been worried sick, thinking something had happened to him and he strolled
in as if it were nothing out of the ordinary for him to have been gone for
hours upon hours without calling her.

    
She followed behind him trying to stay calm, but the moment she opened her
mouth, that plan was shot to hell. "Why didn’t you call me? And why did
you send my calls to voicemail?"

    
Darrell remained silent as he climbed the stairs. Still ignoring Jerra, he went
straight to DJ's room and gave his son a tender kiss on the forehead before
pulling the covers up and tucking them under his chin.  Jerra threw a
furious glare at him and continued on to their room. She stood by the bed, arms
folded and tapping her foot as she stared at the doorway until Darrell walked
in.

    
He paused mid-step and released an impatient breath when he saw her waiting for
him. "I told you not now, a'ight. We'll talk tomorrow."

    
"It
is
tomorrow in case you haven’t noticed," Jerra snapped.

    
Darrell stood with his back to her and started unbuttoning his shirt. Every
single one of her instincts told Jerra to let it go, but she dismissed them and
forged ahead. "So is this what we do now when we have a disagreement? Run
off, don’t call or answer calls?" Jerra ignored the way he silently cut
his eyes towards her in warning. "How do you know something wasn’t wrong
with DJ?"

    
"Was it?" His flippant tone was meant to provoke and piss her off
even more, and it did just that.

    
"No, but that's not the point!"

    
Darrell pulled his shirt off and tossed it into the chair a few feet away
before looking at her. "If something was wrong with DJ, I'm sure you
would’ve said so in the messages you left or sent me a text. And I didn’t 'run
off' as you put it. I left because I needed time to process some things and
wanted to be alone."

    
He ignored the hurt in her eyes. He'd already told her to let it be for tonight
but she kept pushing until he responded. "This shit was more than just a
'disagreement'. A disagreement is when we have a squabble or difference of
opinion. What happened today was more like a breakdown in our relationship.”

   
Jerra slowly unfolded her arms. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

    
Darrell stopped on his way to the bathroom to take a shower and stared at
Jerra. "Tell me somethin’. How do I trust you again? Huh?"

    
Jerra stared at him through watery eyes. "Darrell..."

    
He hesitated as if choosing his words carefully. "Look, I don't wanna ruin
what should be a happy time for you and your daughter. But don't ask me
questions you don't want to know the answers to. Right now, I can't tell you
what you need to hear." Darrell's voice softened a bit. "We'll get
over this but don't push me. I just need a li'l time. Alright?"