However, his feelings were fleeting. He had come to Mexico for business, to discover who was onto him. Thus far, he was not any closer to his quest to find answers. Tomorrow would be his last day in Mexico. He would get the answers he sought before he left.
For tonight, he wanted more Carmen.
* * *
Panee was being held hostage in Fayetteville’s notorious hair salon, Beauty Palace, off of Skibo road. The usual gossip was being spewed: who was fucking who, who was driving what, who was getting money for real, for real, etc. Panee really didn’t care to participate in the gossip, but she had no qualms with listening to it. She was really getting fed up with the life she was living, and each time she came through the doors of the salon, her feelings were exacerbated. Hanging amongst this caliber of women forced her to realize just how far she had strayed from her life’s ambition. Yet, it wasn’t over until it was over. As her mother always told her: tough times don’t last, tough people do.
Panee was dozing off in her chair when she faintly heard the door open. Suddenly the women in the salon started swooning. Panee opened her eyes and saw Justus standing near the entrance with at least two dozen roses in his arms. He was speaking with the receptionist when suddenly she pointed in Panee’s direction. Justus glided over and plopped down in the unoccupied hair dryer next to her.
“Justus, what are you doing here?” Panee gasped.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Following me?” Panee questioned.
“Nah, of course not, I just happened to be in the neighborhood,” Justus clarified calmly. “By the way, these are for you.” He placed the roses on the floor in front of her.
“Justus, this is crazy! What’s with all this?”
“Well, since you won’t go to lunch with me, I decided to bring lunch to you.”
“What are you talking about?” Panee thought Justus was really losing it since she didn’t see any food inside the roses.
Justus casually glanced at his Cartier watch and replied, “You’ll see.”
While Panee waited, the resident aesthetician slid a foot tub in front of Justus. She slid his Gucci loafers off, and placed both feet into the steamy solution. Meanwhile, Kim wrapped his hands and prepped him for a manicure. After he was prepped properly, Kim left the two of them alone (as alone as two people can be in a room full of nosy, gawking gold diggers.)
“So, why haven’t you called?” Justus asked.
“I’ve been busy, as you can see,” sniped Panee, cutting her eyes at their spectators.
Justus took offense at her tone, “Damn, you shouldn’t be so cold to old friends. I stay busy, but as you can see, I’m making time for what’s important to me.
“So, now I’m important to you?”
“Always have been,”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” Panee claimed.
“Look, don’t persecute me for my past deeds. That was then, this is now. I realized my mistakes, and I’ve come to atone for them. Can you cut a brother some slack?” Panee could see some sincerity in his eyes, but he kept checking his watch every few seconds and that frustrated her.
“Got somewhere to be?”
“Nah,” Justus responded, checking his watch again.
Panee sucked her teeth. “See, that’s why I couldn’t be with you, even if I didn’t have a man. You have commitments.” Panee said the word like it was a bad disease.
“I can handle my commitments, and I’m not concerned about your man,” Justus assured her. He had heard about her man. Some old do-gooder, jelly-back, spineless negro. In Justus’s eyes, dude was a pussy. “If he was any kind of man, your stomach wouldn’t be growling like a gotdamn lion right now!”
“Funny, I don’t see you coughing up no food.”
“Au contraire.” A Chinese deliveryman entered the salon while they were talking. Justus waved him over and paid him from a wad of cash in his pocket. The deliveryman left the salon and retuned a few minutes later with enough food to feed a housing project. Justus instructed the man to feed everyone inside the salon. He took the liberty of feeding Panee himself.
By the end of the afternoon he had achieved his goal. Panee agreed to let him take her out again the following day.
Chapter 21
Leader’s final day in Mexico began innocently enough. He awoke, showered and meditated to cleanse his soul of the past night’s transgressions. When he emerged from his room with clean energy, Carmen was nowhere to be found.
He fixed a light breakfast and ate. Still, no Carmen.
Around noon, he prepared lunch and ate. Still, no Carmen.
She returned just before sunset, fully dressed in a jogging suit and cross-trainers. Offering no explanation, she instructed Leader to get dressed in something comfortable and follow her.
They left the bungalow and hiked a trail up the mountain, deep into the woods. After hiking for about an hour, they stopped on a hilltop overlooking the many resorts. By this time, it was well past dark. Carmen took a seat on the damp ground while Leader continued to stand. Carmen produced a small set of binoculars from her pocket and peered down the hill onto the beach. The beach had to be at least eight hundred yards away. Leader saw nothing but a bunch of kids on the shore, drinking and having a good time. Carmen’s binoculars consumed the distance between them and the revelers and allowed her to see everything the kids were doing.
Leader grew impatient. “What’s up Carm? I didn’t come to Mexico to spy on teenagers. You got that info for me or what?”
“Shhh . . . patience. I gave you my word. I’ll deliver.”
He watched her as she crawled toward a cluster of bushes and retrieved a black case made of steel. The case was nearly six feet long. Carmen flipped the case open to reveal the pieces to a Barret .50 cal. Leader watched in shock as she pulled the pieces out and assembled the weapon in record time. As she performed the systems check on the firearm, things began to make sense for Leader.
Carmen tossed him the binoculars. “Keep your eyes on the beach.”
Leader kept one eye on the beach and the other eye on Carmen. She placed the long barrel inside the cradle of a tree branch shaped like a Y for stabilization. She spread her legs wide and took position behind the Barret. She attached her eye to the scope of the weapon and slowed her breathing.
Leader was impressed. The way she handled herself proved she was a professional. She handled the weapon with a sense of familiarity. She traversed the terrain as if she were used to navigating tough trails. The cool confidence. The perpetual patience. The calculated manner in which she hid the weapon. It was all becoming clear now. It wouldn’t be long before Carmen manifested her true identity.
Leader shifted his attention to the beach. He pulled the kids on the beach up into his focus and waited to see Carmen perform.
Thoom!
The Barret roared to life announcing its path to destruction. Even with the suppressor attached, the cannon managed to rock the hillside. Through the binoculars, Leader saw a Mexican teenager lose his head as the .50 caliber round ripped through his neck.
Carmen fired another round.
Thoom!
Another teenager lost his head.
Carmen fired eight of the ten rounds in the clip of the Barret, decapitating each of her targets with laser precision. She nearly had the gun broken down by time the last body dropped. Leader marveled at the display. Eight shots downhill, into the wind, at night. She was good, really good. Now he knew who had taken the shot in D.C.
The only question was, why?
* * *
“It was me who intercepted your son’s shot that day in D.C.,” Carmen revealed. They were hiking back down to the bungalow after Carmen’s performance. “It was the only way I knew to get your attention.” Questions surfaced on Leader’s face. “Allow me to explain,” Carmen requested.
“I’ve been hearing about you for years now. In fact, you’re the reason I chose this profession in the first place. I was hired to
investigate the murder of a client’s husband. The deeper I delved, the more I realized that you were so far removed from the actual killing itself that it was as if you weren’t even there. I did find out about who paid you and how much you were paid. Simply put, I was intrigued. I mean, I was obviously in the wrong profession, right? Anyway, I never discovered who you were personally, but your name rang louder than the liberty bell in certain circles.” Carmen spared Leader a look to see how he was taking everything in.
“The more I investigated the profession, the more your name surfaced, almost to mythic proportions. After a while my curiosity turned into admiration. I had never seen a man so powerful that other men shuddered at the mention of his name. I decided I wanted that type of power for myself. After all, isn’t that why we all do what we do? Power?
“I completed my first contract just two years ago. Finding the mark was easy since that’s what I already specialized in as a P.I. The elimination was a bit more difficult. In the end, I did what I had to do. After the first kill, the rest was easy, as I’m sure you know. I made cleaning women my specialty, reasoning that it would be easier for me to get closer to women than men. Plus, I was still cutting my teeth so I didn’t want to take the risk of some male target overpowering me and turning the tables . . .” Carmen smiled in hindsight. She knew male or female didn’t have a chance in hell with her now.
“The more proficient I became, the more known I became. Soon, money chased me like a greyhound on a rabbit, and my stature grew. I became revered in certain circles. But no matter how well I performed, all the big money jobs went to the notorious Leader. So I made it my personal quest to find you. I was shocked to find out you were under my nose the whole time. When I approached you at the bar, I wanted you to acknowledge me more than anything. And you did, but for my sexuality not my talents.”
Leader could hear the disappointment in her voice when she spoke. Her pace slowed as she recalled that day.
“I wasn’t so sure I had the right person, but when you took the contract everyone was scared to touch, I knew I had the right person. I saw an opportunity to gain your attention and I took it. I knew you would have to acknowledge me because no one could take that shot like I did. No one besides you, of course. So, I seized the moment. You aren’t mad at me, are you?”
Leader mulled the question for a moment. “Why not just tell me who you were?”
“Would you have believed me?”
She had a point. “Why bring me here?”
“I wanted to show you my skills firsthand.”
Leader looked at her disbelievingly. “You already did that,” he pointed out.
“True.” She smiled. “I guess the real reason is that I wanted to seduce you.”
Leader sped up his pace, and almost tripped over an object that lay in his path. Carmen grabbed him by the arm.
“Wait. Wait. Hear me out, please?” They both stopped on the trail. “My motives aren’t just physical.” She paused. “I want you to train me.”
“You seem pretty well-trained to me.” Leader jerked his thumb in the direction from which they came
“The judge’s daughter?” Carmen scoffed, dismissively. “That was easy. I knew where she was going to be. I want to learn! I want to learn how to stalk a man like a lion, from start to finish. If I learned that then—”
“I’d be out of a job.”
“No, no,” Carmen swore, desperately. “We could be partners.”
Leader had resumed walking so Carmen’s words hit his back. Even in the darkness Leader could hear the desperation in Carmen’s voice. He had already seen how far she would go to get what she wanted. Frankly, her desperation was unnerving.
“I don’t know, Carm. I work alone. My son is my successor. He is who I train. Besides, we’ve gone too far on a personal level to ever be in business together.”
Carmen waved her hand. “Please, that was just sex. Think about it, Leader. With us together, the best in the business, we could monopolize the market.”
Leader agreed Carmen did have a point. With more help—experienced help—he would have his way with the market. He could demand more money, access more places. There could definitely be advantages to having Carmen on his team. But he was not greedy. He had no aspirations of monopolizing the trade, nor was he concerned with money. Shit, he was already rich! Money was always his reward, never his motivation. Ultimately, Leader was chained to practicality. He had seen too many men crash and burn by exiting their niche. His niche was slow and steady. He had no interest in being fodder for the generations to come.
“I don’t know,” Leader finally told her. “I have to get back in the loop on some things. Then I’ll be able to give you a better answer. But I thank you for solving my mystery.”
Carmen was not thrilled with Leader’s answer, but it wasn’t a “no,” so she remained optimistic.
They returned to the bungalow. Carmen showered while Leader pondered on the events of the trip. When he was sure of his decision, he joined Carmen in the shower and gave her every ounce of passion he could muster. He ravaged Carmen like she was the last piece of ass he would ever get.
Because he never planned to see her again.
Chapter 22
“Ohh Justus, that was wonderful!” Panee exclaimed. She collapsed on top of Justus with his semi-flaccid penis still lodged inside of her vagina.
They were inside of a plush Miami hotel overlooking the sandy shores of SoBe. After a few dates back in N.C., Justus had flown them south on a whim. The whole trip had been a surprise—for Panee and Justus. He was campaigning hard for her affections and wanted to blow her mind. When most men spoke of taking their women to the beach, they drove down to Myrtle Beach. Justus was playing on a different level though. Miami was how he got down. He wanted Panee to see what she had let go. He was now a made man with more time and money than he could manage.
“I never knew I was missing out on all of this!” Panee admitted. She climbed from the bed and walked to the window naked.
Me neither, Justus thought, looking at Panee’s magnificent body. She claimed her boyfriend was the only man she had ever been with. Justus was inclined to believe her because her pussy was super tight! She had heroin inside those walls and Justus was getting hooked with each stroke.
“Don’t worry, you never have to miss out on it again,” Justus promised. He hopped from the bed and followed her to the window. He wrapped his arms around her and his hard dick rested on the small of her back. “When we get back I’m going to get you a place. I’ll put some money in your pocket so you can focus on school. But you got to quit that place. I’m the only one that get to see that pretty ass.” He smacked her ass and his hand sank inside the soft flesh.
Panee gnawed on her bottom lip. “I don’t know, Justus. Everything got a price and I’m not sure I am willing to pay yours.”
Justus nibbled on Panee’s ear and whispered, “It wasn’t a request, baby.”
This was a different Justus than Panee remembered. He had always been confident, but he was cocky now, demanding things and calling shots. He had bossed up his life and this new Justus was exciting to Panee.
“Justus, what about your family?” Panee challenged. “Like, where do they think you are right now?”
“I don’t have them kind of problems,” Justus lied. In truth, Nikki thought Justus was out of town with Pug. Pug was O.T. (out of town) with Saigon so everything worked out. “Let me worry about that?”
Panee exhaled and leaned her head back on Justus’s shoulder. “Why me?”
Justus kissed the top of her forehead. “Why not you?”
“Seriously.”
Justus shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve always had a thing for you. More importantly, I believe in you,” he stated flatly.
“Do you?”
“Yeah. The only question is, do you believe in yourself?”
“I do.”
“Well stop being stubborn and let me handle my business.�
�
Justus rubbed on Panee’s booty and palmed her soft cheeks. He pushed her against the window and hunkered down behind her. He spread her ass open and slid inside her from behind. Panee moaned and rocked back on him.
“Yeeeah,” Justus hissed. “This good pussy mine now. Hear me? Tell me it’s mine.”
Panee reluctantly agreed. Justus had caught her at a vulnerable moment in her life and what he was offering was a way out. A way out of hardship, a way out of poverty, a way out of walking around with her ass hanging out for tips. So what, she would be the other woman. At least she would be taken care of. Plus, with Justus having a family of his own, she wouldn’t have to worry about him being all crammed up under her. She could still live her life free.
Just as Justus and Panee were settling into a comfortable groove, Justus’s phone began ringing incessantly. Justus let the phone go to his voicemail. He listened to the message a few minutes later. When he heard Pug’s voice, he immediately was alarmed.
On the voicemail, Pug’s voice was loud and clear. “Cuz-o, they say when daddy’s away, baby girl will play. I heard ole’ girl was with ole’ boy again. You need to handle your business when you get back.”
Pug said some other things as well, but all Justus heard was the first part of the message. Justus couldn’t believe this shit! Nikki still thought this shit was a game. He vowed to show her otherwise. It never dawned on him that he was lying in a bed butterball naked with his mistress. All he saw was Nikki violating him by seeing Jock again.
“Get dressed,” he ordered Panee. “We’re leaving. Now!”
“What?”
“Bitch, you heard me. Let’s roll!” Justus was already out of bed, on his way to the bathroom. Panee was confused.
She wondered, what in the hell had she gotten herself into?
Chapter 23
Leader was feeling pretty good about himself. He had successfully maneuvered out of a situation with Carmen, his dignity intact, and more importantly, his jobs back on track. In fact, he and Justus had a job lined up for the following day, which was why he was spending time with his wife and daughter, shopping as a family.
Blood Ties Page 15
