The Bryson Blood Wars (20 page)

              “No Clover, you’re dead wrong. There will be a wedding!” Wallace yelled.

              “Not if I have anything to do with it!” Clover yelled back.

              “There’s nothing you can do about it and you better slow your fucking roll if your pretty ass knows what’s good for you,” Wallace said through clenched teeth.

              “That sounds like a threat,” Clover replied calmly.

              “It’s a warning,” Wallace corrected.

              “I’m not intimidated and you’re never going to marry my sister,” Clover said.

              “I’m going to marry your sister, so why don’t you stay the fuck out of it?” Wallace asked.

              “No,” Clover simply answered.

              “I’m not playing with you, bitch, don’t you understand me?” Wallace asked threateningly. “You better back the fuck off or you’re going to regret it. That’s a fucking promise!”

              “What the hell is going on here?” Calista demanded as she entered the living room wanting to know what all the commotion was all about. Wallace and Clover were at a standstill glaring at each other with hate and disgust.

              “Nothing sweetheart, Wallace was just leaving,” Clover replied not taking her eyes off Wallace.

              “Are you sure?” Calista asked with slight worry.

              “I’m sure. Thank you very much Calista and go back to the sunroom and wait for me. I’ll be there in a moment,” Clover instructed Calista and she went on her way.

              Wallace walked out of the door to leave and Clover slammed and locked the door behind him. She brushed off the confrontation and went back to enjoy her sunroom with Calista. They were having a great time unaware that Wallace only drove a block over, hid in the bushes with his binoculars to peek inside to lustfully stare at Calista, the center of his twisted forbidden desires.

“The next time you have the slightest inkling that you’re not safe give a nigga some notice,” Bray said to Calista as they were looking through security system packets.

              “Are you still mad at me?” Calista asked with sad puppy dog eyes. Bray was highly pissed when Calista told him what was going on. He wasn’t too happy with Calista for keeping it from him.

              “A little, but I’m calming down,” Bray said with a sigh.

              “That didn’t stop you from getting the pussy last night,” Calista shot back.

              “I love the pussy. It was you I had the issue with?” Bray replied with sarcasm.

              Calista gave Bray a playful punch in the arm. “Keep playing nigga! Keep playing!” She said and the two shared a laugh.

              “All kidding aside, you are my wife and this is our home. It’ll kill me if anything happened to you and I wasn’t able to do anything about it,” Bray said and pulled her into a long kiss. “I love you girl.”

              “I love you too,” Calista said back. “Thanks for keeping me safe.”

              Bray and Calista went back to looking through the security system packets and decided to check out the one that was a client of Skyla’s. The doorbell rang and Bray yelled out, “Who is it?”

              “Solomon and Richard,” Solomon answered.

              Bray walked over to the door to let them in. “Hey, what’s up?” Bray asked as he let Solomon and Richard in.

              “This is so fucked up!” Solomon said with frustration.

              “What’s wrong?” Calista asked.

              “Somebody knows,” Richard answered.

              “You mean somebody knows about you two?” Bray asked and Richard nodded his head for yes. “Who?”

              “I don’t know but they know,” Solomon replied.

              “This motherfucker is blackmailing us!” Richard yelled as he was waving a large envelope in his hand. “He even took pictures of us. Look....”

              “That’s okay Richard, I’ll take your word for it,” Bray interrupted as Richard was about to pull the pictures out of the envelope. Bray never wanted to see anything like what he walked in on in Charlotte ever again.

              “When did this start?” Calista asked.

              “About three weeks,” Richard answered. “Actually, he’s really blackmailing me. I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Carter, because knowing him, he’ll probably burn down the whole city of Atlanta if it meant finding this nigga. I just told Solomon about this today. If I don’t pay him off he’ll expose us.”

              “How much is he asking for?” Bray asked.

              “First week, it was five hundred thousand dollars. Second week, it was a million dollars and now, he’s asking for five million dollars. Here’s the note.” Richard explained and gave the note to Bray and he read it aloud:

If your faggot ass lovebirds want to stay on the down low bring the bags containing five million dollars at Centennial Olympic Park by the dumpsters where X marks the spot at 8PM tomorrow.

              “What you going to do?” Calista asked with concern.

              “I don’t know,” Richard said, “I guess all we can do right now is pay.”

              “We need to figure out something because this bastard is not cleaning us out!” Solomon said with anger.

              “Look, we got you. I can transfer some money from my trust fund to you.” Bray offered.

              “You don’t have to do that Bray,” Richard said.

              “Look, you guys are our people. We got you.” Bray insisted.

              “Thanks Bray,” Solomon said with gratitude.

              “Let me get my laptop,” Bray said. He went into the bedroom to get his laptop. He came back to the living room and plugged it up. Solomon gave Bray his banking information in order to complete the transfer. “There we go.”

              “Thanks man,” Solomon said.

              “No problem,” Bray said. He was about to close his laptop when something came to him. That part in Richard’s note about X marks the spot had him thinking. It was all coming back to him. He was starting to remember where he saw the X heart-shaped tattoo. Bray saw that tattoo on Xizzy when he and Sharp broke up the fight between her and Calista. He had to be sure. “Solomon what was the name of that girl from the news report you told me about?”

              “Harissa Strawn,” Solomon answered. “The reason I remember her name was because Harissa is my cousin’s name and Mrs. Strawn was my favorite teacher from high school. Why do you ask?”

              “If what I’m thinking is right,” Bray said as he did a Google search on his laptop and the news report came up with Xizzy’s picture and the tattoo that helped confirm her identity. “There, I knew I’ve seen that tattoo before!”

              “What?” Calista asked.

              “That was Xizzy,” Bray said and started skimming through the news report. “She was found at the bottom of the lake. She was last seen at her job at Burger King. According to the date, it was the week after Aunt Clover and Uncle Sharp’s anniversary party at the park three years ago.”

              “How did you guys know her?” Richard asked.

              “Long story,” Calista said with an aggravated sigh. “The short version was Xizzy threw herself at Bray. She tried me and I had to beat that ass,” She recapped. “Afterwards she got a ride home from Wallace and....uh oh!” Calista stopped in mid-sentence because she had a disturbing theory about how Xizzy ended up murdered.

              “Doc, you don’t think?” Bray read her mind.

              Calista shook her head because she wasn’t exactly sure, but had a strong hunch, “I don’t know, but we might have stumbled onto something huge.”

Clover and Sharp invited Laliyka and Ray over for dinner. The occasion was to celebrate Lil’Sharp and Ray taking home third place in the debate competition.

              “Thanks for having us over for dinner Aunt Clover and Uncle Sharp,” Ray said as everyone enjoyed their meal at the dinner table.

              “Of course sweetheart, this is a special occasion. A congratulations to you and Lil’Sharp,” Sharp said.

              “We came in third place,” Lil’ Sharp said with little disappointment.

              “It doesn’t matter. You came back with something, right?” Sharp said.

              “He’s right. Cheer up Lil’Sharp,” Ray said.

              “Yay!” Myk cheered.

              “Way to go!” Sami joined in.

              “Thanks you guys,” Lil’Sharp said with a smile. He always wants to do his best. Sharp admired his oldest son’s determination.

              “Laliyka, I meant to tell you in the feature for the upcoming hair show you was looking good in those pictures,” Sharp complimented. He was referring to the hair show where Laliyka was going to be a judge.

              “Thanks, Sharp.” Laliyka said with a smile. “You know how I do.”

              “My momma’s a boss!” Ray cheered.

              “You tell them baby!” Laliyka said and gave Ray a high five.

              “I picked her outfit and suggested her hairstyle,” Ray volunteered. The outfit Ray picked out was a beige halter jumpsuit with matching stilettos and hat with her hair in free flowing curls.

              “My baby has great taste,” Laliyka said with a smile.

              “What can I say? I learned from the best,” Ray said.

              “And you know this,” Laliyka said. She looked over at Clover and noticed she was very quiet through the entire meal. “Clover, girl you’re pretty quiet over there.”

              “Huh!” Clover said shaking her head trying to get out of her daze. “Oh was I?”

              “You did your thing with this lasagna,” Laliyka complimented hoping it’ll lighten up Clover’s mood.

              “Thanks,” Clover responded dryly.

             
I’m getting to the bottom of this!
“Kids wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen and dining room. Laliyka can you help them out?” Sharp requested.

              “Sure,” Laliyka agreed because she knew Sharp and Clover needed to talk.

              Clover walked out of the dining room and Sharp caught up with her. “Clover!” Sharp called out.

              “Yes Sharp,” Clover said as she turned around to face him.

              “What’s wrong baby? You were pretty quiet at dinner,” Sharp pointed out sharing his concern.

              “I was?” Clover asked as she gave off a shaken vibe.

              “Baby, what’s going on? You’re shaken up. What happened?” Sharp asked with more concern added with worry.

              Clover didn’t want to tell Sharp about Wallace’s pop up visit but now it was time to take her own advice that she had given to Calista. “Okay I’ll tell you. Let’s go in the sunroom.” Sharp followed Clover into the sunroom and closed the door behind him. He turned on the lights and he and Clover took a seat on the couch. Clover took a deep breath before spilling her guts. “Calista’s last day here before Bray came back from New Orleans, Wallace dropped by.”

              “What?” Sharp asked with disdain. “Why the fuck did he come here?”

              “He was very upset?” Clover asked.

              “Why?”

              “He was upset about the family’s objections to the marriage. He was pissed with me in particular because in his eyes I was the ringleader. He was downright furious with me,” Clover explained.