View Park, page 9
Avery slammed the phone down as hard as she could. Her stomach was a mess and she could barely breathe. She had to get out of there.
Standing outside the shop, she felt too exposed. Rushing across the street to her car, Avery had a frightening sense of losing her grip. Her relationship with Alex was plummeting fast. She was under siege from rich ruthless men and she couldn’t trust anyone. She was seeking refuge in revenge, knowing it would only diminish her character. Was this the reward for trying to be a good person?
Just as she reached the door to her car, Avery could hear footsteps behind her. She jerked around, expected to see Craig with a gun. Instead it was Carter, who looked even angrier than Craig had.
Carter’s rising desire to bring this woman to her knees was immediately tempered at the sight of her. Her eyes were red from crying and she looked drained. He should be happy, but it made him pause.
“What are you, stalking me?”
“There you go again, flattering yourself.” He waved the newspaper in his hand. “This was dirty, Avery.”
“I took a page from the Chase guide to business.”
“Attacking my father to get back at me?”
“How is that different than going through my partner to steal from me?”
“Your partner was a full and willing participant.” Well, not exactly, but fuck her for trying to make the comparison.
“It was your idea to play this game, Carter. You shouldn’t have started what you couldn’t finish.”
“You have no idea what you’ve done, do you?”
“I stood up for myself.”
“Do you think this is still about your little shop?” He came closer, urged by the confusion on her face.
Avery felt a surge run through her. It was a mixture of excitement and fear that was completely unfamiliar to her.
“Do you know how many companies try to shove us out of the way every day? What they’ll do to put a successful black-owned business out of circulation? They eat up stuff like this. They’ll take it to our customers, our partners.”
“I did what I had to do to save my business, but I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true; so if there is any backlash, it’s all on Chase Beauty. I’m sorry if—”
“Bullshit,” Carter spat. “You’re not sorry for anything. You got what you wanted. You’re happy, right?”
Avery couldn’t remember the last time she was happy about anything. Carter tossed the newspaper at her feet and stormed away. She just stood there wondering how in the world she allowed him to make her feel guilty. Suddenly she was dealing a blow to black businesses everywhere.
In the interrogation room, Sean stared unrelenting at Jason Seitz. Jason’s defenses were down and he was ripe for a confession. He’d been left in the room alone for several hours with no water or food. Sean delayed his request for a lawyer as long as legally possible. Full of justified fury Sean tried to get the picture of him holding a gun to Haley’s head out of his mind, but he couldn’t.
“I want a lawyer!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Takes a while on Saturdays. You ready to deal?”
“You guys can’t keep me in this hole forever and it don’t take this long to get a damn lawyer.”
Sean slammed his fist on the table. “If you want a deal, I can work with you, but when the lawyers come in, all deals are off. You decide.”
“And how do I know you’ll go through with it?”
“You don’t,” he offered. “Now talk.”
“I want a smoke.”
“Fuck that. Talk.”
“I’ll talk after I have a smoke.” He turned away. “That’s it.”
Sean sneered at him, knowing he was going to get the man a cigarette. “I’ll be back, and you better talk or I’m gonna burn that cigarette into your cheek.”
As he headed for the desk area, Sean was thinking about Haley and wondered if she was okay. His attempts to get her statement were thwarted by Janet, and Steven was being uncooperative in more than a few ways. A dangerous calm came over that man that Sean had seen before. It usually meant a person had decided to take the law into their own hands and for a man as rich and powerful as Steven Chase, it would be easy to get done.
“Anybody got a smoke?” Sean asked the room of detectives.
Detective Madden held the phone up to him. “It’s for you.”
“I’m busy.” Sean accepted a cigarette from another officer. “I need a match, too.”
“He said it’s about your guy,” Madden added. “The guy you got back there. He say’s he’ll only talk to you.”
Reporters. It was out that someone had tried to kill Haley. The flashing police cars for blocks took care of that, but Sean was pretty sure nothing about the suspect was revealed.
“Detective Jackson. Who is this?”
“Detective Sean Jackson?” The woman’s voice scratched like that of a lifelong smoker.
“Yeah.” Sean listened to complete silence, quickly losing patience. “Can I help you? Hello? Hello?” Hearing a dial tone, Sean cursed as he slammed the phone down. “Who did she say she was?”
Madden shrugged. “Just said she needed to speak to you about Jason Seitz.”
Sean’s alarm went up. “She said his name?”
“Yeah. That’s his name, isn’t it? Jason Seitz.”
Sean barreled out of the desk area and down the hallway, pushing aside the officers, detectives and other people who had no business clogging up the area. Charging into the interrogation room, Sean fell to his knees at what he saw. Just a few seconds and the bullet had gone clean through Jason’s heart.
Leigh was hot and tired, but she didn’t want to stop. After five days, the repairs were done and today they were determined to paint the entire clinic before leaving. She felt a little overwhelmed after trying to be there for Haley, and keeping secrets from her parents was taking its toll on her. The only thing that saved her was the progress of the clinic and the funds that were continuing to come in. The power was on and the air-conditioning would be complete tomorrow.
“Hey, kid.”
Richard’s friendly smile was contagious. Leigh tried to focus on his face because his shirtless chest revealed a perfect six-pack that was like a magnet for a woman’s hand. The more she got to know the man, the more she considered breaking her rule of not getting involved with people she worked with. He was flirting with her shamelessly and Leigh was finding it harder and harder to resist.
“You look tired. Why don’t you take a break and get a drink?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “This is helping me, really.”
“I’ll snatch that brush out of your hand if you don’t put it down.”
Leigh stared him down, but he was serious and she did as she was told. “I appreciate your concern, but…”
“You think this is courtesy?”
The way he looked at her with those light eyes made Leigh feel like he could see right through her. She held on to the belief that men as fine as this weren’t any good; especially the doctors and lawyers. A black man with good looks, education and money was a player and a heartbreaker.
“How’s your sister?” He leaned in closer as she backed up against the only part of the wall that wasn’t painted.
“I honestly can’t tell you,” she disclosed. “There’s no way to read that girl.”
“You don’t have to be here,” he offered. “This is gonna be done in the next hour, and no one would think badly of you, Leigh. You’ve put in the most work and you’re the heart of this place.”
“I can’t believe that man was in our home, walking down our hallway. We didn’t even get to know who he was working for before he was killed.”
“Your father is a very important man,” he said. “It shouldn’t make a difference in getting justice, but it does. The police won’t let this linger.”
Leigh leaned back, studying him a bit. With a confused grin on her face, she asked. “When is the shoe going to drop?”
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“You’re being too nice to me. There has to be some reason for it.”
Richard broke into a wide-open smile. “All I can say is that you’ve made an impression on me.”
“You’re kind of a flirt.” Leigh leaned closer.
“And you’re a very smart girl.”
“Woman.”
“Forgive me; woman.”
“Don’t forget it.”
He looked her up and down. “How could I?”
A good guy wasn’t any good if he didn’t have a little naughtiness in him. As if gorgeous, smart, kind, giving and courteous wasn’t enough. Here goes nothing, Leigh thought.
“Why don’t we go for drinks later this week? You know, after things have calmed down at home.”
He leaned back with a spark in his eyes. “Sounds like a plan. Now quit your whining and get back to work.”
Haley stood at the edge of the sun room, looking out over the verandah that led to the swimming pool. The guest house had been her own personal apartment for a short time, but a wild party and some fire damage had changed all of that. Carly and the other girls would come over and they would sit by the pool, drinking and playing music as loud as they could get away with before Janet made them turn it down. It seemed like just yesterday her life was great and now all she could do was look out a window. The house had become a fortress with security everywhere. It had to stop. She had to let go of this fear. Jason was dead and the small amount of pleasure she had from that was cut short by the fact that he was their only link to whoever really wanted her dead. She felt like she was going mad. This was her life!
Then there was Sean who hadn’t called or come by. He only spoke to her father, who in turn told her mother everything. Haley was getting filtered information and it made her mad as hell. She wanted Sean to be her game, her challenge, but she was becoming…eager for him and it made her feel weak. She hated Sean for that and for not wanting to see her. It wasn’t the game she was playing with him that made her think this way. It was that particular moment in the horror of her room when Sean burst in. The way he had looked at her was a promise that she would not die.
Death was better than fear, wasn’t it? Haley felt the rage fill up inside her. She couldn’t take it anymore. Behind her, she heard the shuffling feet of her bodyguard. He sat in silence, staring at her ass, and she wanted to stab him with a spoon. She wanted her freedom back and she had been planning and scheming all week. The security shift was at six. With her balcony bolted down, she had scoured the house in search of an alternate route but had been too scared to try it. Not today. Today she was going to do what Sean couldn’t. Where and how, she had no idea, but she had to get out of the house and do something.
The security guard, reading a magazine, hadn’t noticed Sean standing in the doorway of the kitchen staring at Haley, resolving himself to his attraction for her. When it came to his personal life, practical had Sean’s face in the dictionary. To a sin, he never jumped into anything. He thought it out, weighed the pros and cons and ruled out the best path. Haley was the worst possible path in more ways than he could count, but looking at her now he imagined her being better than any fantasy he could create.
“Haley.”
Haley swung around, unable to fight the smile on her face at the sight of him. The man had saved her life, but he had also ignored her for almost a week. “Where in the hell have you been?”
“Handling the investigation,” he answered, “not that it’s any of your business.”
“It’s my investigation, so I think it is.”
“Can you be civil for five minutes? I came to check up on you.” As she seemed to glide over to him, Sean remembered how she downplayed their kiss to her mother. The tone of her voice was cold and careless and he remembered it more than he wished he would. This girl didn’t give a damn about him.
“What did you expect me to do?” she asked, only inches from him. “Get on my knees and thank you for some of your valuable time?”
“Sarcasm in the face of death. How brave.”
“Fuck you.”
“Watch your mouth.” For a second, the look in her eyes warned Sean that she was about to slap him, but she didn’t.
Haley gathered herself together. He was back and that was all that mattered. Game on. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it. It’s my mother. She’s smothering me.”
He looked into her eyes, knowing the girl couldn’t tell the truth if it meant her life and it probably meant his life to remember that. “It has to be torture here. How big is that screen in your media room? Five feet wide? How do you survive?”
“She’s making me fill out grad school applications even though I don’t want to go.”
“Then don’t go.”
“Don’t be stupid.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have a choice in the matter. To my family, a bachelor’s degree is like graduating from junior high.”
Sean heard the flap of expensive heels on the kitchen floor and took a deep breath before facing the dragon. In the few times he’d come face-to-face with Janet this past week he could see she resented the fact that she had no excuse to be rude to him anymore. He had saved her daughter’s life, and that gave him a free pass forever.
“Is there something you came to tell us, Detective?” she asked.
“He came to see me,” Haley said.
Janet ignored Haley. She was being terrible, but she would allow the girl anything at this point. “My husband is still very upset about that…incident at the station.”
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Haley said. “Sean doesn’t need him.”
“I was just on the phone with Mr. Chase,” Sean exclaimed. “We’ve been bringing in everyone Jason knows. I’m on my way to check up on a lead right now.”
“Who?” Haley felt her entire body tense and scream out to her that today was the day. “Where?”
“Excuse me, Mrs. Chase.” The bodyguard stood up. “It’s six. Time for a shift change.”
“Fine.” Janet kept her attention on Sean. “If you have a lead, what are you doing here?”
Haley watched the bodyguard leave. She would have less than five minutes.
Sean cleared his throat. “I wanted to make sure Haley was…”
“Excuse me.” Haley was halfway out of the room already. “I forgot Maya wanted to see me about something.”
As she skittered away, Sean shook his head. He would never be able to read that girl.
“Haley!” Janet called after her. She didn’t want her going anywhere in this house without a guard. “As you can see, Detective, she was elated to see you. Now you can get back to finding the person who is trying to kill her.”
So much for that free pass, Sean thought.
Alone in the kitchen, Janet opened the spice cabinet and reached far in the back. She took out the stash of Valium she kept there and took one pill before heading to the refrigerator for some water. One daughter on a drug dealer’s hit list and another just as invisible as if she were still in Africa. What was it about her family that just attracted drama?
Hoping it was Steven, she picked up the ringing phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, Janet. It’s Giovanna.”
“Hello, Giovanna.” Janet rolled her eyes, but her tone was as polite as an angel. “What can I help you with?”
“It’s about Leigh; that precious daughter of yours.”
Strip clubs were a sorry sight in the middle of the day. The few that were open always had five or six losers, most of them alcoholics, staring with their mouths open at the girls who were usually the worst-looking, dancing with zombielike expressions on their faces. Sean flashed his badge to the bouncer who looked at him like he had just killed his mother and cut her into pieces when he passed him. So much illegal activity went on at most of the clubs in Los Angeles, especially the strip clubs. Sean had been on club duty right out of the academy and was able to bring down an ecstasy ring that netted over seventeen million dollars and put thirty criminals in jail.
The back room of El Cubano resembled a corporate lobby more than a strip club, with the exception of the well-strapped enormous man in a wife-beater T-shirt that stretched the word Humongo to its limits.
“I hope you have a license for all those.” Sean pointed to his various guns.
“Every one of them,” he answered in a voice that sounded only half-human.
Sean flashed his badge. “I want Rudio.”
“He ain’t here.”
“Then you’ll do.” Sean waved him over. “Let’s go down to the station.”
“Hey, wait.” He looked behind him. “He’s back there.”
Sean entered Rudio Saldana’s office without knocking. He knew in this type of environment busting into a room could get a brother shot, but it also wielded an advantage when someone was caught off-guard. It turned out to be a waste of time either way, as television monitors in the office, showing every inch of the club, gave him away the second he stepped inside.
Rudio was a short thin man with tattoos everywhere. Sean knew he thought it made him look tougher, when in actuality it only made him look like a walking STD.
Sean flashed his badge.
“I’m a busy man, Officer Jackson,” Rudio said calmly.
“It’s detective,” Sean answered back not surprised the man already knew his name. “And I don’t plan to take up much of your time. I just came by to congratulate you. You’ve got some balls, getting someone to commit murder in a police station.”
Rudio’s face turned as hard as stone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do, but I’ll get to that.” Sean leaned back.
Since dealing with Haley, he wanted to be taken off babysitting duty and put on the case of the missing drug dealer, but after some investigation he realized they were highly likely one and the same.
Haley stepped into the club behind two burly bikers and hurried over to the corner where the pay phones led to the bathrooms. The place had bad lighting and was mostly dark, which worked in her favor. That, along with the wig, floor-length trenchcoat and oversize hat she’d stolen from Maya’s room.
