Never Again, No More 6, page 7
He licked his lips and swallowed. “I’ma just go to my house and chill out. I’ll talk with you later, okay?” he said and kissed me on my cheek.
“Gavin, please. What’s wrong?”
He caressed my face. “I just need to clear my head. Okay?”
“Gavin—” Before I could finish, he interrupted me.
“Okay, baby? Please?”
Reluctantly, I nodded my head. His only response was to kiss my forehead and leave. After returning to the family room, I put away my bridal books and anything else concerning this wedding. There was no way I could concentrate on planning a wedding when I wasn’t even sure I was getting married. I’d been engaged for a week before there was trouble. Was that a bad omen? I didn’t know. But one thing was for sure, it was a sign for something.
Before I had a chance to digest what had just happened with Gavin, Tony popped up with the boys. I had planned for Gavin and me to sit down as adults and explain to Tony that we were getting married. Not that I owed him anything, but I always tried to be right and just. He needed to know if for no other reason than he would need to come to peaceful terms with Gavin if he wanted to continue to see his children. Kids’ father or not, he didn’t run my life, and he wasn’t going to stop me from getting married either—if there was going to be a wedding, or a marriage for that matter. But Gavin wasn’t here now, so I guess it would have to wait.
“Hi, boys!” Nothing made my heart dance more than seeing Tony Jr. and LaMichael come through the door in front of Tony.
They both hugged me tight. “Hi, Mommy.”
“Do you guys want some cookies?” They nodded. “Good. Go to the kitchen and ask Grandma to give you some,” I instructed them, and they took off toward the kitchen.
“Li’l Tony is doing so much better now. He’s really improving,” Tony said.
“He’s a smart kid. He just needed a little help. That’s all. Thanks for dropping them off for me.”
“It’s no problem. I enjoy my time with them.”
“Good.”
We stood there staring awkwardly at each other. It was odd that I’d been with him for all those years, and now, we could barely formulate two sentences to engage each other. The truth was that so much more bad blood had been spread between us that it was tough to bother with pointless conversation. However, I mistook his reason for quietness, until he spoke up.
He pointed to my hand. “I see that congratulations are in order.”
My eyes grew wide, and I glanced down at my engagement ring. Damn, I had forgotten to take it off. There was no hiding the information until the right time at this point.
Deciding to keep it simple, I offered, “Yeah. I guess.”
Tony eyed me intently. “You guess?”
“You should be going—”
“Meka, he’s not going to marry you,” Tony blurted out. He quickly put up his hands to stop me from cussing him out. “Just hear me out, please, before you kick me out,” he asked sincerely.
What could it hurt to hear him out? Fanning my hand, I motioned him into the living room. Once we settled, I addressed his comment straight on. “So, do you want to give me Tony’s take on my engagement?”
“You know at first I was very raw about you and Gavin. In a lot of ways, I still am. I admit that. But when I say that Gavin isn’t going to marry you, I’m not saying that to be mean. I’m saying it because it’s the truth. I may not give a damn about Gavin, but I do care a lot about you. Having said that, I don’t want you to get your hopes up on this. The only reason I say that is because the day that Gavin’s brother found out you were black, I overheard him in the hospital parking lot telling Gavin that he couldn’t get out of the family business. Basically, he told him that his only option was to get rid of you,” Tony advised.
Just as I suspected, he held a little cup of haterade for my situation still. Then he tried to use this as the perfect opportunity to pour it out. Not this time. I wouldn’t allow his misery to spill over onto my life.
“I hate to bust your bubble, chief, but Gavin proposed to me after that day. He gave up his portion of the business, the money, and swore off his folks, so that blows your little theory out of the water. Nice try, though. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve almost believed that you were trying to be the good guy for a change.” I rolled my eyes. He thought he was slick. Wanna come over like the concerned babies’ daddy. Please.
He shook his head, fired up. “I am the good guy for a change, Meka.” His words came out strained with emotion. “I’m not saying that Gavin is playing you, but you’re playing yourself if you believe those white folks are gonna sit by while you marry that dude and give him two black babies to raise and possibly some more little half-breed children. If you were so secure in your pending nuptials, why did you say, ‘I guess’ when I said that congratulations were in order?”
Now, I was piping hot. Not only did I not appreciate his bold assessment about my engagement, but I was fuming over his questioning the stability of my relationship, none of which was any of his concern. “That is none of your business. It has nothing to do with you.”
Tony hadn’t been a good guy in so long that I didn’t know if any goodness was left in him. So, he could miss me with all that.
He leaned forward. “Well, I’ll tell you what does,” he hissed, pointing into the kitchen. “Those two little boys in there. Now, I may not have been the father I was supposed to be, but I am still their father. As far as I’m concerned, you can keep your problems with Gavin a secret from me, but the moment—and I mean the moment—they begin to affect my children, there’s gonna be smoke in the fucking city. You can take that check to the bank and cash it for damn sure.”
Did this fool just threaten me? Seriously. Did he just threaten me?
“I would never do anything to hurt my children. You know that goes without saying.”
“I know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt them, but you’ve got your head so far in the clouds, or rather so far up Gavin’s asshole, that you can’t see what’s in plain view. You’re having issues with him because somehow, some way his family is involved. That father of his is far too influential to say he doesn’t get what he wants. Nine times outta ten I can pretty much guess that what he wants is a LaMeka-free life for his son.”
That was it! I had taken all that I was going to tolerate from him. He wasn’t gonna sit up in my house and disrespect me like that, not after all the shit he had put me through. Hell no. I furrowed my brow.
“How dare you have the audacity to say that I’m too far up Gavin’s ass to worry about the safety and welfare of my children? Are you insane? You are the one who got addicted to drugs and alcohol, abused me, then slept with that disease-infested Kwanzie, giving yourself the package and damn near infecting me with it, too. Don’t you ever talk to me about intentional or non-intentional hurts!”
Yeah, it was a low blow, and I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth, but fuck that. Tony ran around wreaking havoc on my life for years, so he was far from the savior he was trying to portray. Besides, my man had promised me that it was handled, and I believed him. No one, and especially not Tony’s grimy ass, would make me disbelieve in my Gavin.
Tony’s eyes bulged as my harsh words hit him like a sack of bricks. I saw his face contort before he inhaled a sharp breath, flicked the tip of his nose, and stood up. “On that note, it’s best that I leave. Like I said, I know my past mistakes, and I’m man enough to own up to them, but what you won’t do is keep tearing me down because of them just because you don’t want to hear the truth about your fiancé. One day you’ll realize that for once, I was trying to have your back,” he snarled, walking to the door, and I followed him.
“If you really want to have my back, then be happy for me and trust my decisions.”
He huffed as he opened the door. “I want to see you happy. I really do. But the verdict is still out on whether or not that happiness is going to be with Gavin. As for your decisions, it’s not you that I don’t trust. All I am saying is you better get to the truth first this time, because Gavin is gonna be all right. Nobody is gonna pick you or our boys up if Gavin fails you,” he warned me and left.
As much as I wanted to argue him down, this time, he had a valid point. I hated that he, of all people, had a point, especially when I knew deep down in the pit of my stomach that something was terribly wrong with Gavin. He was not himself, and my best judgment told me that Gerald and Gary Randall were behind it.
As his future wife, I deserved to know what was going on, but I’d already had my experience with taking matters into my own hands. Until Gavin decided to tell me truthfully what the hell was going on, this engagement was gonna be an extended one.
Chapter 6
Trinity
All I was trying to do was protect my family. That’s it. How’d things get so fucked up? If I had known that Terrence’s freedom would be in jeopardy, I never would’ve agreed to help Pooch. Never. Now look at the mess I was in. Terrence damn near hated me. I wished he could see that I wasn’t trying to hurt him, but rather help us. But damn that. I had to do what I had to do for my husband.
Ever since he’d found out about my agreement to help get Pooch released in the case of Aaron’s kidnapping and murder plot, he hasn’t said two words to me. Forget intimacy or anything like it, not that that wasn’t the norm these days anyway. All he did was sulk and take pain pills all day. His business was suffering, and he had become mean and impatient with the kids. I barely knew Terrence anymore. Therefore, I put some things in motion. I’d held his business together by making a few deals for him, and I’d sold some of my artwork to major bidders in local auctions. We weren’t hurting by any means, but that didn’t mean I was going to sit by and watch everything that we’d built together crumble. I was Dread’s wife, no matter how he saw me. Nobody had his back like I did, and nobody ever would.
I decided to meet up with Stein at his satellite office in Illinois while he prepared for Pooch’s case. He needed to hear my final decision face to face, so there would be no denying my position. I wasn’t going to testify for Pooch, not at the risk of losing Terrence.
“Come in,” I heard Attorney Stein say. I opened the door.
Floating inside the room like new money, I peeled my designer shades off my face and strolled deeper inside his office with the confidence and looks of a runway model. It appeared that I wasn’t the only blast from the past that had blown into Stein’s office.
“I’ll be damned. So, it’s true,” Flava said as I walked inside the room. “What the hell did Terrence do to you to make you testify on Pooch’s behalf?”
Disgust filled me as I thought about all the times she’d tried to replace me. “I should’ve figured you were behind this. You’ve always wanted to be me.”
“No, I’ve always been me. Not a scared little girl like you,” Flava shot back.
“Ladies! Ladies! We have the same goal here. Let’s not argue,” Stein intervened.
Flava and I gave each other the stare down before Flava disengaged with me. “Is that Trinity?” Some chick asked Flava.
Not waiting for Flava’s response, I chimed in. “Who wants to know?”
“My name is Adrienne, and I’m one of Pooch’s women,” she replied with an air of arrogance that she definitely should not have had.
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my mouth. She was assuredly his type. “I hope you’re not as dumb as that sounded.”
“You don’t know me like that—”
“And you don’t know Pooch. None of you do. Not like me.” I intercepted whatever unimportant tirade she was set to deliver.
Flava wagged her finger at me with her lips curled into a scowl. “What he saw in you, I’ll never know. The only person you ride for is yourself,” Flava said, shaking her head.
“And that’s all I need to ride for.”
Standing, Attorney Stein put his hands up to stop the continuous back and forth. “Trinity, what can I do for you? We have a meeting next week,” Stein asked, walking around the table to address me.
Getting to the point as he wished, I said, “Meeting’s off. Testimony is off.”
“What? You can’t be serious,” he said, folding his arms.
“As a heart attack,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “You’re going to have to find another way to get Pooch off. I’m sticking to my original story.”
Flava rolled her eyes. “I knew we couldn’t trust that flip-flopping bitch,” Flava said.
“Isn’t it enough that you kept his child from him? That’s why he got out in the first place. To find his children,” Adrienne yelled.
Had I been this naïve? Of course I had. Seemed like I was on my way to being dumb again, listening to Stein, which I was sure was powered by Pooch’s demands. Pooch had really done a number on these broads. It was amazing how he could flip a story to make it fit for each individual. I was beginning to think that Terrence was right. This had been Pooch’s plan all along, to make me think he was making a deal with me just to get out and send Terrence back to prison.
“You know what? If you believe that, then you’re about as stupid as I was to believe that Pooch would leave me and my husband alone to raise our daughter without interference from him. Pooch was in on that deal to kill me or Terrence or both of us, until he realized he was getting double crossed by Aaron. All of you can go to hell. I’m not testifying, and that’s that.” Turning on my heels, I waltzed to the same door that I’d just entered.
“You know I can still make you testify,” Stein called out to me.
Letting out a chortle, I turned to face him. “Go ahead. Tell me, Stein. Did you forget that I’m married? You can’t make a spouse implicate their spouse. Speaking of the law, what’s the going rate for bribery, conspiracy, and coercion? All of which I have you and Pooch on, if you try to make me testify on his behalf.”
“You don’t have anything,” Stein sneered.
“Try me,” I barked daringly. “I did my homework, Stein. It’s mighty strange that the day I got that phone call from Pooch—from a cell phone inside the prison yard, no less—that he’d received a visit from a woman named Adrienne, who I assume is the same one here today, especially since she’s probably the same one who tried to bribe the judge for Pooch.” When I saw their mouths drop, I knew I had them. “Oh, yes, I research and listen very well.” That tidbit was my hint that I had been given inside information. “I will have all of you so caught up in a shit storm that it will take twenty years to find out what the truth is. I’m not testifying, and that’s that. Have a great day and tell Pooch I said don’t drop the soap.”
Opening the door, I blew out the same way I blew in, fast and furious. It felt good walking out of that building and telling Stein and Pooch what I thought of their little plot. In fact, I’d already contacted the District Attorney about the coercion and bribery from Pooch and informed them of Stein’s knowledge of it. I was going to show my husband whose side I was on.
“Thomas!” I shrieked when I got in my car. “What the hell are you doing in my car?”
“Trying to find out why the hell you’re going to see Jacob Stein,” he said as more of a question as he eyed me angrily.
“I . . . uh . . . had to deliver a message to him.” I went to put my key in the ignition. Thomas swatted my hand away. “Look, it was nothing. Have you been drinking?”
He laughed. “Maybe I have a little bit, but you are one piece of work. You’re here to testify on Pooch’s behalf? After all my family and I have done for you,” he yelled, hitting the dashboard.
His outburst caused me to flinch. Gulping in air to calm my resolve, I turned to face him. “No! I told Stein I wasn’t going to do it. I promise.”
Thomas glared at me with fire in his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“I did. You can go ask him if you want. I’ll even go with you.”
Thomas searched my eyes for any sign of untruth. When he found none, his glare lost some of the steam, but only a little. “But you were.”
“Only because I thought he would leave my family alone. That’s it.” My eyes pleaded with him to understand.
Thomas grimaced and pointed his finger in my face. “I told T back when he was trying to find a way to get you back from Pooch that you were probably damaged goods. Let me be clear. Your loyalty is shaky, and I don’t trust you as far as I can see you.”
Matching his tone, I barked, “I don’t give a damn what you think about me. I love Dreads.”
“Testifying for your ex-lover despite what he’s done to your husband and my brother is how you show it?” he asked, sucking his teeth. “I honestly thought that I had been wrong about you. I began to like you even. Now you better pray you’re telling me the truth.”
Sneering, I gave him the hard side-eye. “I am, but even so, Dreads wouldn’t let you hurt me. Don’t ever think you can threaten me.”
He sat there for a minute before he let out a grunt. He opened my car door and got out. “You know my cousin, so you tell me, what’s his greatest pet peeve?”
“That no one messes with his family.” I directed that toward him.
“That’s one. No one messes with his family, not even a member of the family. And above all else, he hates to be made a fool of. You remember that, Trinity,” he said and walked away.
No lie, Thomas’s impromptu appearance shook me. He’d gone off the deep end ever since his brother’s death. It was no surprise that he gunned for any and everybody who he felt was against the family. I’d only heard of this side of him. I’d never witnessed it until now. Before I left, I took a deep breath, then called Terrence as I pulled away.
“Yeah,” he answered the phone.
“You have to talk to Thomas. He must’ve found out about my deal and followed me to Stein’s office.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asked.
“Yes! Your cousin is crazy. I don’t like the way he was talking to me as if he were threatening me.”
“What did you tell Stein?” Terrence asked dismissively.
