View Park, page 25
He turned around to face her with an impatient sigh. “I know that, but I can’t do it if you’re gonna keep this up.”
“I just want to try to make things up to you.” She reached out to him, placing her hand on his chest. This man had been open to her like no other man in her life and now he wouldn’t even show her the most basic of feelings.
He backed away. “Actions speak louder than words, Leigh, and I don’t want to hear another word from you.”
Kimberly waved Avery over to her table at the country club. Today she got serious. Their first dinner, Kimberly made sure not to mention anything about Carter or the family in general and she sensed that Avery was more relaxed by the end of the conversation. She liked Avery and thought she might make a good friend, which was saying a lot from Kimberly who barely had any real friends. It was her honest opinion that women talked too much and she had too many secrets.
Kimberly also knew if Carter and Avery hooked up, which she knew they would, now was her chance to make Avery her ally before Janet got her claws into her.
“Sit down, honey.” Kimberly gestured. “You look nervous. Trust me, Carter isn’t hiding in the bushes or anything.”
“I’m not nervous,” she lied.
They paused to give the waiter their order and Avery had a feeling that today’s lunch was going to be much different than their dinner last week.
“Any new news on Craig?” Kimberly remembered everything Michael told her. She was going to do even better than she promised. She lived to please her king. “He’s still going to jail, right?”
“Yes, but he’s bankrupt so I won’t get any money back.” Avery didn’t want to talk about Craig at all.
“Carter more than made up for that with the offer,” Kimberly said. “Michael said that Steven wanted to hit the roof when he found out what he gave you.”
Avery thought about the tension between the two men and wished she wasn’t any part of that.
“He hasn’t been bothering you, has he?” Kimberly asked, waiting for Avery to speak. She simply shook her head and Kimberly knew she was trying to keep her cards close to her. “Is that okay with you?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I don’t want him to bother me.” It was enough she was thinking about him every day. “Alex and I are committed to making this work. We’ve set a date.”
Kimberly rolled her eyes. “You guys have had some problems, huh?”
“We’re fine now. We’ve set a—”
“You already told me that.” Kimberly paused while the waiter placed her oysters on the table. “You’ve been engaged for over a year, haven’t you?”
Avery wished she had ordered something stiffer than lemonade. How did these people know so much about her? “We’re getting married in June.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Kimberly leaned in. “I mean, you guys are having all of these problems, not to mention Carter, and—”
“Every relationship has problems, Kimberly.”
“Aint that the truth.” Kimberly laughed. “But if it’s like this now, what do you have to look forward to?”
“Can we talk about something else?” Avery slid an oyster down her throat and the horseradish made her eyes burn.
“Just tell me one more thing,” Kimberly stated. “If it weren’t for Alex, would you be with Carter?”
Avery sighed, knowing she should have known better. “Everything I tell you, you tell Michael and he tells Carter.”
“That means yes, then.”
“Kimberly, please.”
“Actually, hon, my husband can’t stand you. If you were interested in Carter, he would probably do everything to keep him from knowing.”
Avery didn’t know what to think of that. “Carter is a very compelling man, but I love Alex and that’s all there is to it.”
“That Chase thing.” Kimberly smacked her lips. “Those men just have something. All of them just drag you to them. It’s a curse, really.”
“They seem to be dealing well with it.”
“Not a curse for them,” she said. “For the women who love them. Don’t get me wrong, I know Michael loves me. He would never hurt me, but you have no idea how many women make a career out of trying to snag him away.”
“That must be hard on you.” Avery was certain she was hearing more than she should.
“What are you gonna do?” Kimberly asked. “I mean, men are men and I think hell, he’s gonna cheat on me one of these days.”
“How can you say that?” Avery didn’t understand why so many women, especially black women, accepted cheating as if there was no other choice. People will treat you how you let them.
“They all do it.” Kimberly was laying it on thick and lying her butt off. If she ever caught Michael cheating she would cut his head off. Both of his heads.
“They don’t and if you expect it, you’re only asking for it to happen to you.”
“So you’re trying to tell me that if Alex cheated on you, you would give up all the work you’ve put into him?”
“Yes, I would!” She was indignant. “Even if I found some way to forgive him, I would never trust him again and if you don’t have trust, what’s the point? I mean, if we can’t trust each other, what is it all for?”
Kimberly shrugged, downing the last of her martini. This woman was way too open and trusting. Kimberly would have figured she’d learned her lesson after everything that had happened, but you could never tell with some people.
“Just be ready,” she warned.
“Ready for what?”
“Marrying into black royalty ain’t all it’s cut out to be.”
Avery wouldn’t justify that statement with a response. She was marrying Alex Conner and that was all there was to it.
Sean was taken back by the look on Davis’s face. He knew what it was: disgust. Davis had been sitting there listening to him threaten Eva with things he knew they would never do, could never do. Sean studied the law carefully. He knew he wasn’t breaking any rules even though he was bending them beyond recognition and repair. Davis wasn’t enjoying the show, but Sean ignored him, turning back to Eva whose crocodile tears had no effect on him. He reminded himself who this woman was, what she knew was going on and felt justified in hiding it. She was no victim. Haley was the victim and he was willing to break Eva down to save her.
“Your mother is going to jail, Eva.” He looked down at her menacingly. “She’s going to jail and your boy is going into the system.”
“You’re lying! You didn’t find no drugs at her house. My mother would never, ever—”
“We found it,” he said. “Pills and cocaine, Eva. I don’t know how it got there, but it was there and it’s her house.”
“You planted it!” Eva pointed her finger at his face. “You set her up.”
“Good chance with that,” Sean said. “The mother of an ex-prostitute now video ho who happens to also be a drug dealer’s girlfriend having drugs at her house. It’s not a stretch. Two View Park detectives with spotless records planting drugs in an old lady’s house in Santa Barbara? That might be a bit to prove.”
“You have to let me out of here,” she pleaded. “I have to get my son.”
“He’s with the state!” Sean slammed his fist on the table. “You won’t get him back. As soon as you’re convicted of accessory to murder, you’ll never see him again.”
“You can’t do this!”
“What you can’t do is get away with murder. Someone is going down and you’re the only one that can be ID’d.”
“He’ll kill me!”
“Either way, you’re on his hit list.”
“Not if I don’t tell.”
Sean swallowed a bit, an acid taste filling his mouth. “But you did, Eva. That’s what the word is, at least. You’re talking and we’re going to let you go free. No charges. He won’t believe you just walked out for nothing.”
“Just tell us,” Davis advised. “Let’s get this over with and we’ll help you.”
“How?”
Davis explained the witness protection program to her, sending Sean a few dirty looks when he promised to drop charges that didn’t exist against her mother and get her son out of state custody, where he wasn’t. Sean wasn’t concerned with his opinion. Davis hadn’t been able to do anything on his own and he didn’t give a damn about Haley.
Eva’s face fell into her hands as she agreed to tell them everything through choked sobs. Sean slid a pad and pen across the table to her, letting her rip out a litany of swear words in Spanish at him. He deserved it. After he left the interrogation room, he leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. Nausea swept over him and he couldn’t make eye contact with Davis even though he knew the man was staring him down.
“You can’t go back from this,” Davis said. “You gave up something today, man.”
“I caught a killer!”
“Hopefully that will keep you warm at night.” With that, Davis turned and walked away.
He wouldn’t understand, so Sean didn’t bother to tell him. Haley was going to keep him warm at night and that was going to be enough to make him forget anything else.
When he walked into his father’s home office, Carter recognized a lower level of anxiety than usual. Steven was making an effort with him, which meant he only yelled at him half as much as usual. He wasn’t going to rock the boat, thinking of what Avery told him. His father loved him and that would have to be enough.
“Think fast!”
Carter leaned to the left, letting the football Michael threw fly past and hit a bookshelf, knocking down a pile of magazines. “Very smooth, kid. Where is he?”
Michael circled around in his father’s chair. “Had to go back to the castle room for something.”
The castle room was their name for their parents’ bedroom. The room was massive, taking up a quarter of the entire second floor.
“What about what I told you?” Michael asked. He had relayed everything Kimberly told him from her lunch and Carter merely thanked him and hung up.
Carter sat in his usual chair. “I’m not going to sit around and wait for him to cheat on her. And I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no.”
“You can set him up.” Michael didn’t even like Avery, but salivated at the chance to bring this guy down for his brother. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Michael, don’t do anything.” Carter could just imagine him hiring a call girl and having it all blow up in his face.
“It’s all in the woman you choose,” Michael said. “Some trick isn’t gonna make it work. A man who has a woman like Avery isn’t going to be interested in anyone for hire; at least not anyone who looks like they’re for hire. It has to be someone you can trust and you pay her well.”
“I wouldn’t trust anyone who would do something like this.” It was childish for him to even engage in the conversation.
“I left something out.” Michael wanted to see his face when he relayed the good news. “They set a wedding date. June.”
Carter sneered at his brother’s sly grin. “It’ll never happen. Trust me, I’ll have her by then.”
“Why are you willing to wait? That’s a weakness, man. Dad says—”
“Don’t give me one of Dad’s psychotic business philosophies. She as much as told Kimberly she wanted me. I know what I’m doing.”
“What about Lisette?” Michael was all surprises today and Carter didn’t have a response. “Didn’t know I knew about her, did you?”
“There’s nothing to know.”
“She needs a hundred grand.”
“I already turned her down and she told me she found another sponsor.”
“That fell through.”
No wonder she was leaving so many messages for him these past few weeks. “Since when are you her close confidant?”
“Not that I relish being second choice, but since she really doesn’t matter, I—”
“Please do not tell me she propositioned you, too.”
Michael nodded. “Can you believe it? The amazing thing is she was staking me out and trapped me in the garage of the damn health club. That just tells you she’s perfect.”
“She can stake him out,” Carter said. “Still, she wouldn’t do it.”
“She was willing to do it with me.” Michael didn’t really care to remember the moment. There was something inherently wicked about Lisette McDaniel that did appeal to him, but he hadn’t considered it for a second.
“Not gonna happen.”
“You offer her two hundred and she’ll do it. I’ll put in fifty for the hell of it.”
“Shut up.” Carter wanted him to stop talking about it because the more he did, the more it became an option and he didn’t want to think of himself like that. “I can’t do something like that.”
“You’re feeling a little hesitant, I understand. You’ve been through a lot, but that’s all the more reason.”
“Reason for what? To hurt someone I care about so I can take advantage of their pain?”
“You won’t be hurting her,” Michael said. “Alex will and you’ll be her savior. You can’t look me in the eye and tell me that you’ve come this far just to wait. That’s the same as losing.”
“Chases never lose.”
Carter swung around as Steven walked by him. Michael jumped out of his seat, stepping a few feet away.
“Have you been listening?” Carter asked.
“I’ve got better things to do with my time than listen in on you two.” Steven exchanged glances between the boys. Michael had that look on his face; like a wolf salivating at the smell of rabbit. He loved that look. “Carter, what have you come so far to lose?”
“Nothing.” Carter’s expression threatened his brother if he spoke a word.
“You’re up to something,” Steven said. “Right now, I’d advise you to take it easy. You don’t need any more trouble.”
“I agree,” Carter said.
“Then again,” Steven added. “I’d rather get in trouble and win than play it safe and lose.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Michael said.
“Now”—Steven leaned back in his chair—“let’s talk business. We need to hire someone to manage our salon chain. I have some candidates.”
Carter watched as Michael accepted the folders from Steven and usually would have taken this time to protest the purpose for him even being here, but his mind was a million miles away right now.
Haley stuffed her mouth with strawberries dipped in white chocolate, blasting rap music on the stereo. Sean should have been there by now. If there was anything she didn’t tolerate it was a man making her wait. There were too many other men out there who would show up on time to put up with that.
She turned the radio up a little more, knowing it drove the morning security guards crazy. Haley knew she was evil, but ticking other people off was just something to pass the time. Real revenge, well, that was something to look forward to. She had been thinking of ways to get back at Carly. Jail would be too simple for her. She needed to suffer and Haley was going to make sure she did.
Then there was Rudio and all the things Haley wanted to happen to him. When Sean told her they arrested almost everyone in his crew but couldn’t find him anywhere, she should have been frightened, but not Haley. She had enough hate for the man who she was certain if he ever showed up she could kill him just by will alone. She would never be satisfied with him going to jail; he had to die and Haley didn’t understand why he wasn’t dead already. If it had been Leigh whose life he tried to snuff out, Haley was sure her father would have Rudio six feet under in no time. His precious little Leigh would be worth that, but Haley would be fine locked in a hotel room away from everyone and everything.
She blamed her father for everything and always had. If it hadn’t been for Steven’s coldness toward her, maybe she would have never gone after a man like Jack Flay. The only time she ever got her father’s attention was when she upset him and barely even then. He hadn’t even been there when she was born. He’d been traveling in New York with a wife nine months pregnant in L.A. Knowing she could give birth any day, he still hopped on a plane and went for the cash. He’d been there for every birth but hers and Haley would never let him forget it.
There were so many times when she wished she wasn’t his. She imagined some day her mother dropping the bomb and finding out her real father was someone who gave a damn. Only as she went to the bathroom and looked in the wide mirror, Haley saw her father’s face everywhere and she knew that was just a dream. Her mother would never cheat on him. After all, he was good to Janet. He was good to everyone but his little waste of time and money, Haley.
Why are you so angry, her mother always asked her, but she didn’t understand. No one understood. Haley wasn’t angry at anyone, she just didn’t give a damn and for a woman that was unacceptable. Because she was a woman she was supposed to be emotional, nurturing, sacrificing and accommodating. That was why women always got the short end of the stick and stayed ten steps behind men.
Most men were worthless. Haley didn’t need any more years under her belt to know that. All they cared about was sex and money and had the nerve to be offended when a woman proclaimed they felt the same way. They were good for what they could do for you, because in the end they would only disappoint you. Not all men of course, but Haley wasn’t willing to allow herself to fall in love with any man until she found one with balls bigger than hers.
She was pretty confident Sean wasn’t that man, but there was something about him that made her want to stick around and see. The sex was getting much better; so good now that she didn’t remember the first time anymore. He saved her life and seemed to care more about helping her than anyone else except for her mother. He worshipped her, which wasn’t unique, but he wasn’t a taker, which was good because she was. She could trust him even though he would be a fool to trust her. He was all she had right now and that scared her.
She heard noises outside her bedroom and she knew it was him.
“Haley?”
She heard his keys drop to the floor and the snap as he undid his shoulder holster. By the time he reached the bathroom door, Haley felt her entire body tingling. Sean was a really good man and that might be boring, but when it came to what really mattered, he got the job done.
