Black 01 - Black Rain Page 14

  How is that for having your back?” Mo-Mo asks as he goes to the refrigerator.

  “Man, all y’all got is soda and juice? Damn, man, I’m hungry. Can we eat these sandwiches?”

  “Vernon and that damn juice. Didn’t we talk about that, old man?” Pretty Kevin asks.

  Vernon gets up and walks over to Pretty Kevin.

  “Haven’t you got your ass whipped enough to last you a lifetime for calling me old?” They both laugh and hug. Pretty Kevin gives Vernon the address of the house they’d cased.

  “What you wanna do, Joe?” Vernon asks, when we’re all sitting around the table.

  I rub my eyebrow, bite my bottom lip and look at all my friends. “Well, we can’t just bust up in there and rush the place. I think we should chill. He’ll call and then we can determine what needs to be done to get the information. We need to bust his ass and get Agent Chase out.”

  Sweet St. Louis Slim rubs his stomach, “Yo, I’m hungry! Can we eat these sandwiches or what?”

  “Man, I’m not in the mood for no pimp-steak sandwiches, Sweets. I didn’t drive all this way to eat barbecued bologna,” Pretty Kevin complains.

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  “Joe, we got the suite next door to you guys, and we charged it to the FBI,” St. Louis Slim says.

  “How in the hell did y’all do that?” Vernon asks.

  “Sweet St. Louis told the front clerk that we were working on a case with you guys. You know no woman can resist Sweet St. Louis Slim,” Mo-Mo says in adoration. Vernon, Pretty Kevin and I just roll our eyes.

  “Whatever, Mo-Mo. Where are your pompoms and bobby socks? You might as well do a cheer for your boy,” I tease.

  “Damn, Joe, Agent James owes me anyway for locking a brother up for nothing,” Pretty Kevin says as he snaps his fingers. “Fuck that, Elliot Ness mothafucka.

  We gonna order room service courtesy of the FBI. You can put them sandwiches back, dawg. We’re living high on the hog tonight courtesy of the federal government,”

  Pretty Kevin says with a sly smile.

  Vernon shakes his head, “Kevin, you were the lead suspect in the case we were working on, and remember it was your hookers that were coming up dead. We had no choice but to arrest you.”

  Commissioner Wayne didn’t cut Pretty Kevin any slack, and he’d had Vernon and I pick him up and arrest him. I’d felt bad for him, but Kevin got really angry about the incident.

  Pretty Kevin snaps his fingers again, “Fuck all that.

  I’m not eating nobody’s bologna, man. Not tonight. So y’all can put them pimp-steak sandwiches back in the refrigerator where they belong. We’re ordering room service courtesy of the fucking FBI.”

  I finally give in, grab the phone, toss Mo-Mo the menu and dial room service.

  Chapter 10

  Dread and Chase are eating dinner in the dining room at Dread’s home. They haven’t said two words to each other when Brutus, Ronnell, Weasel, Adam and Christopher walk in through the kitchen with their plates and sit at the table.

  “What’s going on? Do we have news of the detective?” Dread asks, wiping his mouth with his napkin. He searches the men’s faces while pushing away from the table. They all look at each other; clearly something has gone terribly wrong.

  “We had a problem, boss,” Brutus fidgets with his hands.

  Weasel puts his head down and adds, “He had another guy with him. I think he was a bellman. He had to be around three hundred pounds. We lost our guns and badges.”

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  Brutus shuffles and says. “We just fucked up. We’ll make it right.”

  Dread laughs, sits back in his chair and tosses his napkin on the table. “So you mean to tell me one cop and a fuckin’ bellman took out my men? Pleaz don’t tell me dat. Wat kind of fuckin’ cops are you, anyway?

  “Brutus, I hold you responsible. You have to make dis right. You get those badges and guns back or I’ll have to deal with you.” Dread pulls out his knife and snarls as he tosses the switchblade at Brutus’s head. It barely misses, grazing his ear and sticking in the high-back oak chair where Brutus is sitting. Brutus wipes the blood from his ear and swallows hard, but says nothing. He never takes his eyes off Dread.

  “I won’t miss next time,” Dread promises. “I will call dis detective and you guys will be waiting down the ridge.

  There you will drive him off da road. That should shake his ass up. I do like his persistence. You fuckers don’t eat from my table! Leave my sight, you pieces of shit!”

  The men rush from the dining area. Brutus is the last to leave, and Dread grabs his arm as he walks by.

  “I am very disappointed. You do understand my position, yes?”

  Brutus looks at him, then at Chase. “I understand,”

  he replies as he exits.

  Dread walks to Brutus’s chair and pulls the knife out of it. He takes out his cell phone and makes a call. “He’s here. My men failed, but will deal with him tomorrow.

  I am looking very forward to meeting him, if he isn’t killed first.” Dread laughs into the phone and hangs up.

  Chase tries to figure out who might be on the other end of the line.

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  Then Dread walks up to her and strokes her hair.

  “I’m taking one of my cars out for a drive to calm my nerves. Have on something sexy when I return. I will need to work off some stress, and I don’t want to have happen wat happened da other night. Be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you, yes?”

  Her skin crawls, but she nods. Dread kisses her on the cheek and leaves. She goes to the window to watch him drive off in the brown Ferrari. She passes through the kitchen where the five scorned officers are watching TV and eating. They’re all too defeated even to look up at her. Chase realizes that this is the perfect time to sneak into the study to get the information she needs from the safe. She’ll only have to get past one guard inside the house.

  She walks through the game room and past the library, without seeing Byron Moore, who has been assigned to guard the inside of the house. Dread has cut down the number of men used to guard the inside and placed them around the perimeter of the property. She thinks he’s getting paranoid after what happened in Sioux City, Iowa.

  Hearing a toilet flush nearby she quickly enters the study and carefully closes and locks the door behind her.

  She takes out the penlight that she had stuck into her piled-up hair and turns it on, shining it on the Charles Bib painting that hides the safe.

  As Chase starts to enter the combination she figured from closely watching as Dread opened the safe, she hears someone inserting a key in the door. She quickly spins the combination on the safe, closes the picture, turns off the penlight and tries to think of a reason for her presence in the study.

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  When Byron comes through the door with his gun drawn and turns on the light, Chase is lying on the leather-covered couch with nothing on but her thong.

  Her arms cover her breasts.

  “What are you doing in here, Ms. Chase?” he asks as his face turns red with embarrassment.

  “I’m waiting on Dread if you must know, and if you know what’s good for you, you better get out of here before he catches you. God knows what will happen.

  You know how jealous he is, Byron.”

  Byron drops his gaze, trying not to look at her as he apologizes and closes the door. Chase relocks the door and runs back to the safe, grabbing her belt buckle with its built-in camera on the way past.

  She sighs gratefully as the safe door swings open on her first try. Right in front is Dread’s address book. She photographs all his contact names and bank account information. When she finishes, she places the papers back in the safe exactly as they were and smiles.

  She dresses and steps into the hallway where Byron is waiting.

  “I thought you were waiting on Dread?”
<
br />   “I was, but you spoiled the moment, asshole. I’ll be in my room.”

  Byron wipes his sweaty hands on his pants and nervously fidgets. “Hey, I’m really sorry, and, uh, you don’t have to mention this to Dread, do you?” he asks, playing with his shirt collar.

  “Not this time, but don’t let that happen again. And I saw you peeking at my breasts, Byron. Did you get a good look, pervert?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I mean, no ma’am. I really wasn’t try-168

  Black Rain

  ing to look. I swear,” Byron answers stuttering and perspiring.

  Chase just stares at him and then climbs the staircase to her bedroom. Her hands are trembling. She goes into the bathroom and splashes water on her face. Her nerves are shot and she still has Dread to deal with.

  She starts to feel like a whore for the FBI. She looks at herself in the mirror and doesn’t like what she sees.

  But she does have the information that she was sent in to get. Now, if she can just get out alive. She wants to escape before Dread’s return, but knows that because of the situation and the guards, that’s impossible.

  She puts on a crotchless, sheer black body suit, goes to the window and looks out for Dread’s return as she dials Agent James’s cell-phone number.

  “Chase? Good. Have we got any more information?”

  “Yes, I have all the information that we need. I’m ready to come in,” she answers.

  “Great job! I knew you could do it, Chase. Did any names in the book stick out?”

  “Shit, I don’t know. I was too busy trying to get the information without getting caught. I couldn’t mem-orize all the fucking names.”

  “Agent, get hold of yourself. I’m your superior, and you will answer me accordingly, understand?”

  “You said all you needed was his list of names and contacts to close the case. You’re not sacrificing your body for the Bureau, sir. I didn’t join to become a prostitute,” she replies, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Agent Chase, I’m going to say this one time and one time only. You will do whatever it takes to get this case solved. Period! You joined the Bureau to get scum like Vincent Alexandria

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  Dread off the street. We all have to make sacrifices, Chase.

  I know it’s hard sometimes, but that’s what we do, get next to people to expose them and take them down. We can’t let the case get personal. It’s all part of the game.”

  “Well, it’s a fucked-up game.”

  “Get me that information and we’ll get you out. I promise. You’re a great agent, Chase. There’ll be a promotion after this is over. The magnitude of this case warrants that.”

  “Yeah, a promotion.”

  She hangs up feeling worse than she did before. As she sits in the window staring hopelessly at the stars, she see a lightning bug caught in a spider’s web. The spider is descending upon its prey and she relates to the bug and its torment as the spider approaches.

  Dread drives up the road and pulls into the garage.

  Agent James words circle in her head, “We all have to make sacrifices.”

  She turns off the lights, hides her cell phone, lights a couple of candles, turns on the CD player and lets Billie Holiday sing her blues. What would Joe think of her, if he knew what was about to happen? She lies in bed and lets the tears flow as she waits for Dread to come and violate her. All for the good of the FBI.

  Chapter 11

  At about 6:00 a.m. I watch the water fill the bathtub.

  Vernon’s snoring has kept me up most of the night, so I decide to spoil myself with a hot bath and relax before a busy day. I have a pretty good feeling that Dread will call some time this morning and want us to meet with him. My mind is also racing because that will probably be his trap to kill us. We’ll have to survive the surprises he has in store. We need to win his trust with our resourcefulness, then take him down when he least expects it.

  I enter the steamy hot bath and my mind and body is instantly soothed. How is Dad’s health holding up?

  Guilt stabs my gut. I should be there, but at this point, I can’t turn back. Still, I can’t shake the shame of me being here in a hotel in Nebraska while my father is home dying and in pain.

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  I submerge myself in the steaming water and let it cover my face. My jaw pulsates under the water. It is strange how sound intensifies under water, and if you listen, you can hear your heart beat as it pumps blood through your body.

  I surface, take a deep breath, let the heat enter the pores of my skin and relax my mind. Sierra will be getting the kids ready for school, making breakfast, answering the twins’ questions as they brush their teeth, and my little angel, Nia, will be being Mommy’s assistant by helping the twins get dressed and putting on their shoes. I smile as loneliness traces across my heart.

  There is nothing more sensual than seeing my beautiful wife getting dressed in one of her business suits.

  I picture Sierra pulling her pants up over her silk-stocking-covered legs. I see myself fastening her neck-lace, having the privilege of zipping up her pants. That always gives me a chance to embrace her hips and rub her firm, full ass. I always place a gentle kiss on her neck and hold her close to me from behind.

  Sometimes I undress her and we make love. She loves it when I serve it to her from the back. We look at ourselves in the mirror in the act of loving and it turns us both on. After, we get in the shower together and I wash her and she washes me. We rinse off and dry and lotion each other and I help her get dressed all over again. Other times I raise her dress and explore her secret garden with my tongue until she shivers from excite-ment, grasping my bald head and my shoulders as she is about to climax. The way she looks me in the eyes as I taste her is riveting. I love the way she smells and the way she holds my arms when I embrace her like that.

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  My thoughts are broken by a presence in the room.

  It’s not my usual inner alarm that has alerted me, the one that gets my reflexes on edge. I don’t reach for my gun that I put between the towels on the floor by the tub’s base just in case something jumped off unexpected. I am calm, even though I’m lying in the tub with my eyes closed, reminiscing. When I do open them, I find a full-bodied woman with beautiful dark eyes, dark-skinned, dressed in a navy-blue pant suit and with a short afro that accentuates her oval face. Her nails are perfectly manicured and her full lips are painted red. With her hands on hips she has a look of delight on her face—

  like a sugar-junkie child about to reach into a cookie jar.

  “FBI Agent Epiphany Duvall, I presume?” I ask with no embarrassment.

  “Yes, and you must be Detective On-Loan-with-the-FBI Johnson. You look almost as good as I thought you would.” She shifts her weight and places her finger by her red mouth. “Is the flag pole raised to salute me or are you just excited to see a lady?” She asks, checking out my erection.

  “Thanks, but if you don’t mind…” I start to say as I get out of the bathtub.

  “Oh, no, don’t mind me, sugar. You go right ahead and just act like I’m not even here. I like to watch.” She leans back against the bathroom doorframe.

  I hear Vernon moving around, and when he looks up and sees the woman in the doorway, he eyes me.

  “What the hell is going on?” Vernon exclaims.

  Before he can get the words fully out of his mouth, Agent Duvall, with confident agility, pulls two silver-plated Smith and Wesson .45 automatic pistols from Vincent Alexandria

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  the back of her waistband. With arms crossed, she has one pointed at Vernon and the other at me. Vernon and I look at each other wide-eyed, impressed.

  “Damn!” we say in unison.

  “So, are you gonna shoot us, or are you gonna let me get dressed so I can explain this case to you?” I ask her.

  Agent Epiphany Duvall puts her guns away and throws me a hotel towel from the rack.
<
br />   “Now, you take your time getting out that tub, sugar, and we’ll talk about a lap dance later, okay?” she says, winking. Then she turns to Vernon. “And look at you, Detective Brown! All this chocolate up in here! I like a man who wears Tasmanian Devil boxer shorts. You go, boy!” She slaps him on the rear. He retreats back to the bedroom in total embarrassment.

  I can’t help but laugh as I wrap the soft white towel around my waist and pull the lever to release the water from the tub. I grab another towel and dry myself. I shake her hand and say, “So, Agent Duvall, I see you are very resourceful. We could have used you last night when Cattanno’s men tried to rough us up.”

  She smirks at my remark. “Baby, Epiphany Duvall always gets here on time. Y’all must have took care of things, ’cause I see you’re here standing in front of me.

  A little bruised, but still looking fine. Here I am ready for duty. You need some help lotionin’ up there, brotha?

  One thing I can’t stand is an ashy man. Ohhh, that gets on my nerve!”

  I grab the shea butter off the counter. “No, I think I can handle that by myself, and my wife gives me all the help I need, when I do have problems. But thank you for asking.”

  Agent Duvall licks her lips and sucks her teeth.

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  “Don’t start acting all uppity in here. I was just trying to help. Don’t let me have to get ugly.”

  We walk into the living area where Vernon, now robed, joins us.

  “You’re pretty good to be sneaking up on us like that,” he says. “I like your style, and I’m glad we have someone professional on our side.”

  I look Agent Duvall up and down. Wow! I’m amazed at how she made it in the FBI with her weight being what it is.