Black Lace: Book 4 of the Black Butterfly Series

by Nika Michelle

  So, for once I did something spontaneous. I took a deep breath and dialed his cell phone number. After four rings I was about to hang up, and just as I moved my finger to press the end button, I heard him say something.

  “Hello?” It sounded like a question and his voice was very sexy over the phone.

  “Hi Brock, this is Renell,” I said shyly, Damn, what the hell was I doing?

  “Oh, Miss Beauvois. It’s a pleasure to hear from you,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Please, call me Nell. You don’t work for me anymore.”

  “Okay Nell. I’m really surprised that you called me.”

  I let out a nervous laugh. “So am I. I mean, you did save my life, so I figured we could be friends.”

  “That sounds good to me. I have a feeling that there’s something bothering you. I could see it in your eyes today. Do you want to talk about it? If not now, perhaps over lunch tomorrow. I could meet you somewhere…if you’d like.”

  My heart was beating fast as hell as I thought about the possibility of being seen with the young, white man. Would it cause a media frenzy? Something told me that it would, so it was probably better for us to just talk over the phone.

  “That sounds good and all Brock, but I don’t think that would be a good idea. I mean, as much as I would like not to be, I am a public figure who just got out of a really public relationship. The rumors would be flying and right now I have a lot going on. I think talking on the phone will do for now,” I explained.

  “And I do understand that. Okay. The phone it is then…for now.”

  Something about the way he said that made me smile.

  * * *

  I woke up that morning with some pep in my step. After feeding my baby boy, I made myself a nice breakfast and then noticed that I had a text message from Brock.

  Good morning beautiful. I woke up thinking about you and our conversation. All I have to say is, I like you even more now. Call me when you get a chance. I can’t get enough.

  Damn, I had been smiling since the night before. I don’t think I’d smiled that much in a long time. To be honest, it felt kind of good. My relationship with Ricky had become so redundant and to be frank about it, I was bored out of my mind. I was a mother now, so boredom seemed to be okay. After chopping it up with Brock, it felt like some spice had been added to my life. I was just about to text him back when I heard the doorbell ring. There had been no phone call prior, so I wasn’t expecting anybody. Suddenly I felt my stomach drop. It had to be Ricky.

  I got up and slowly walked toward the door. The doorbell rang three more times in a row and then there was the sound of impatient knocking. As I looked through the peep hole, I felt enraged. Ricky was standing there with a scowl on his face like he was ready to go to war. When I swung the door open I tore into him quickly.

  “Don’t be ringing my doorbell and knocking like that. I heard you ass the first time!” I snapped.

  He stared me down like he was challenging me or something. “I’m here to see my son.”

  I decided to be cordial and stepped aside for him to come inside. As much as I wanted to tell his criminal ass to leave, I didn’t have the heart to. No matter what he did, I wanted him in our son’s life. He didn’t say anything else to me, but he headed up the stairs to the nursery. Without a second thought about it, I walked back into the living room and plopped down in front of the television.

  “Dean Monross’s second trial has come to an end. The defense and the prosecution have completed their closing arguments and the case has now gone to the jury. Deliberations have just started and so now the clock will remain in the corner of the screen until they reach a verdict. On to other news, a fourth victim has been found and now Miami Dade police are releasing more information about the alleged serial killer who is plaguing the city. They are dubbing him the “Black Lace Killer,” because the victims have all been found with a black lace veil over their faces and a thin wire around their necks. There are no clues or witnesses to these murders and we are relying on the public to help find this cold blooded killer. If you have any information, please call…”

  At that moment I tuned the reporter out. They had dubbed him the Black Lace Killer and that was the name of Seantay’s lingerie line. That was most certainly an omen and not at all a good sign. Damn, her show was coming up soon and with the negative connotation behind the words black and lace, I thought maybe she’d want to rethink things.

  “I’m taking him with me,” Ricky said walking into the room with Resean asleep in his carrier and a diaper bag over his shoulder.

  “Oh no the hell you’re not! Put my son back in his crib now! He isn’t going anywhere. We didn’t discuss him leaving with you before your ass got here.” I tried to calm down the yelling to no wake my sleeping child.

  “He’s my son too and I will take him wherever the fuck I want to,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I jumped up from my seat and quickly walked behind him as he attempted to make it to the door. When I grabbed his arm, he turned around.

  “I will sue your ass for custody!” He spat with his finger in my face.

  “Oh really?” I asked with my hands on my hips. “Do you hear yourself right now? I can’t believe I ever thought I loved you. You’re a fucking fraud. If you try to take custody of my child, you will pay for that shit. I will tell the cops to check your computer. Then what? Are you sure you want to go there.”

  He gave me a intimidating look and then shook his head before placing the carrier and bag on the floor. “Nell, woman…I fucking swear. I wish I had never met your bourgeois, judgmental ass! Any other woman would stand by her man, especially when there are millions of dollars involved.”

  I had to burst his damn bubble. “You think millions of dollars impress me! If so, you’re a fool and I should have never met your ass! The only good thing to come out of this was my son. I was born with millions and that shit doesn’t matter to a woman like me! Go out there and find you some gold digger who is going to hold you down and be your ride or die bitch, because that is not me! I have a child to think of and I don’t need your ass to raise him. I got that! However, if you want to be in your child’s life, you call me in advance and let me know that you want to take him. If I feel that your extracurricular activities are negatively affecting him, I will not hesitate to have your stupid, greedy, lying ass arrested. I don’t give a fuck who knows, or what the media leaks. My son is more important than you, or any of that. Get the fuck out of my house! Now!”

  He wanted to say something. I could tell by the way his jaw muscle twitched. Instead of trying to defend himself, he turned on his heels, opened the door and left. I was so glad he had decided to just walk away. A feeling of relief washed over me and I could only hope we could co- parent without fighting.

  I dialed Seantay’s number to see if she had seen the news about the Black Lace Killer, but she didn’t answer. The coincidence of it all felt eerie as hell and something told me that the drama had just begun. As much as I wanted to be able to have a social life, I knew that I couldn’t publically. After putting my sleeping baby boy back in his crib, I called Brock. Telling him about my latest drama seemed to make me feel better. I knew that I was playing with fire, but it was something very intriguing about it.

  Chapter 19

  Seantay

  Me and Rah had escaped off to the Florida Keys and got a luxurious suite at a five star resort hotel. It wasn’t my father’s because my baby wanted to spend his money on me. The Ritz Carlton was nice as hell of course, so I was fine with it. We didn’t want to go too far because we knew that Dean’s case would be going to the jury on Monday.

  “Baby, I’m tired,” I whined with my head on his muscular chest.

  “C’mon sexy, it’s our last night here. We’ve done everything but that.”

  I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. All I wanted to do was climb between the sheets of the pillow top bed and sleep in the nude. We had plenty of sex, ate l
ots of good, greasy food, got massages at the spa, went shopping, hit up a few hot night spots, scuba dived, sky dived, visited the aquarium, and went skinny dipping in the ocean. When I was a little girl, I thought I was a mermaid, so it was only natural that water was my element.

  “Okay, damn babe,” I sighed although I was feeling loved.

  We got up and I stripped naked when we got in the bathroom. All my baby wanted to do was take a shower together. It was our ritual and we hadn’t done it the entire time we’d been there. The thing was; it wasn’t even about sex. Me and Rah would usually just wash each other down and fall asleep after a shower at home, but of course that night it was on. I had a feeling that the whole point of the shower was to wake my tired ass up.

  “I want you to relax babe,” he whispered as he lathered the loofah and started to wash my back.

  I closed my eyes and yawned. “I’m so relaxed right now. You just don’t know.”

  He laughed. “I think you’re too relaxed.”

  I smiled and kissed him passionately. “I love you babe and this little get away gave me life, but for some reason I am so damn exhausted.”

  “You’ve just been working too hard and stressing too much. You can’t control everything around you as much as you would like to. Whatever happens is going to happen. I want you to stop worrying and let me take care of you.”

  It was tempting to give him all of my issues to handle, but I knew that he couldn’t take it all away. I was a realistic woman and I knew that it wasn’t that easy. Deep down inside I was still worried about what Dean was capable of if he found out we had framed him. I wasn’t so worried about Nafis anymore.

  Of course we made love after that shower, which took my mind off everything for a little while. No matter what happened, I hoped that we could maintain our love. There were all types of things that could happen and we knew that the odds were against us. My man’s arms were wrapped securely around me and I fell asleep basking in the warmth of love’s aftermath.

  * * *

  We were on the way back to Miami when we heard the news about Dean’s fate finally being put in the hands of the jury.

  “No matter what happens babe, just know that I ain’t going nowhere. Don’t worry about what happened with your sisters and their exes. We’re not them okay? What we have is special and it’s real. Nothing is going to come between us. We’re always good. You hear me?” He asked staring into my eyes when he should’ve been concentrating on the road.

  “I hear you loud and clear babe.”

  There was silence for a little while and then Rah’s phone rang. He looked down at his cell and then over at me.

  “It’s your girl Reb.”

  “Hmm,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe she tried to call me first. My phone’s been on silent for days.”

  He answered the phone. “What up Reba?”

  My heart started racing when I noticed the look on his face. His mouth was open like he was at a loss for words. Suddenly he pulled over on the shoulder of the road and then I was really anxious to know what was going on.

  “What is it babe?” I asked yanking at his arm. “Put her on speaker.”

  “When did this happen?” There was a pause and then he closed his eyes. “Try to calm down okay. We’re on our way back now.”

  I was losing my patience. “What the fuck is going on! Let me speak to her!”

  Rah passed me the phone and hit the steering wheel hard as hell with his open hand. “Fuck!”

  I had no idea what could’ve made him react like that, but I knew that it was something. When I put the phone to my ear, I could hear Reba’s sobs.

  “Reba, what is it? Why are you crying?” I could feel my eyes start to burn. We were besties. When she cried, I cried. It was automatic.

  “Ch…Ch…Chang, Chang…he got shot…and I’m at the hospital now. Oh my God…what if…what if…I can’t do this!” She screamed causing me to break down in tears.

  “We’ll be there soon Reb…I’m so sorry.” My body suddenly started to shake like my voice and Rah reached over to hold me.

  “Calm down baby,” he whispered. “You gotta be strong for your girl.”

  I nodded and took a deep breath. Reba was still crying uncontrollably and all I wanted was to be able to console her. Being that I couldn’t do that in person, I decided to talk to her as long as it took for her to calm down.

  “I’m not going to get off the phone. I’m going to stay on with you as long as you need me to okay.” My voice was steadier and I hoped it would help her get herself together.

  She sniffed. “Okay. Thank you.”

  Raheem steered the car back on the road with a look on his face like he wanted to kill somebody. Something deep inside my being told me that shit was about to get real.

  * * *

  I stayed on the phone with Reba for over an hour and then she checked in with updates. Chang wasn’t doing good at all. He had taken a shot in his neck and face and he was unconscious when he first got to the hospital. At that point his condition was listed as critical.

  By the time we pulled up to the hospital about four hours later, Chang was gone. Reba was a mess and I felt bad as hell that she had lost the only man that she ever loved.

  “Nooooo!!!!!!!” She screamed as I held on to her. The news had just come to her about ten minutes before we got there.

  “I am so sorry Reba,” I whispered consolingly in her ear.

  As her body slid down to the floor, I tried to hold her up.

  “C’mon, let’s sit down,” I said as Raheem and I led her to a chair. She sat down, but slumped over with her face in her hands as she sobbed loudly.

  I rubbed her back as tears fell from my own eyes. There had to be a reason for Chang getting killed. He did a lot of snooping and digging for us, but I didn’t know what he did in his spare time. Hacking and cracking codes on the computer was what he did best. Maybe he had pissed the wrong person off. What if it was DA Monroe? If he had found out that Chang was the one setting him up, it was possible that he had him killed. Still, from what Rah told me, they had been extra careful about keeping their identities a secret from him. Even when they met with Chris they were disguised.

  “The police are still here from earlier,” Reba finally said as she wiped her eyes. As she did so, the tears just kept coming. “I’m sure they’re going to have more questions now that this is a homicide investigation.”

  “You were with him when it happened right?” I asked. Over the phone she was so distraught that I didn’t really comprehend the details.

  She nodded. “Yes. We were on our way out for breakfast and as we left his house a car pulled up beside us at the light. It was not even a block from his crib. We were just laughing and talking when I noticed that the person next to us had rolled the window down. At first I thought nothing of it. I was driving and the light had just turned green. As I was about to pull off I saw the barrel of the gun and I screamed for Chang to get down. It was too late though. They let off two rounds and sped off. Of course I was in panic mode and the cars behind me were blowing and shit.” She broke down in tears again.

  “Did you get a good look at the car?” Rah asked. He had been quiet as hell the whole time. I could tell that shit was fucking with him hard,

  “Uh huh. Black box Chevy Caprice. The guy was dark skinned and he had long locks. Honestly, he reminded me of somebody, but I ain’t never seen him before. It was crazy how fast it happened. One minute I’m talking to him and he’s gone the next.”

  She shook her head and the two police officers who were standing to the side walked toward us.

  “Okay Miss Martin, this has now turned into a homicide investigation. We’re sorry for the loss of your friend, but we have to make sure that we have all of the evidence we need to find who did this. Can you remember anything else?” The young, chestnut brown skinned officer asked. He was slim and tall with low cut, wavy hair.

  “I told you everything,” she said wiping her nose with a tissue.<
br />
  “Okay,” the older white officer said. His gray eyes looked compassionate, but he had a hard demeanor. With his broad chest and huge arms, it was obvious that he worked out often. “We’ll be getting back to the station now. If you need to give us a call you have our card.”

  She nodded and then started crying uncontrollably again.

  “I can’t believe this shit. I want to think that I am going to wake up from this nightmare any second, but I know better.”

  I held on to my friend and closed my eyes praying for her heart to heal eventually. She didn’t deserve to go through that and I felt so awful. As I glanced over at Raheem he gave me an understanding nod. His face was tight, like he wanted to explode, but was holding it all in. We both had the same thought, but we couldn’t express it. It wasn’t the time nor the place.

  As I looked around the hospital’s waiting room, I spotted a television mounted on the wall. It was on CNN and I saw the words Black Lace Killer flash across the screen. I read the subtitles and comprehended that some serial killer was killing women and dumping their bodies in the same ditch near a landfill outside of the city. Why the hell were they calling him the Black Lace Killer? Then the answer came next. Apparently he was covering the women’s faces with a black veil made of lace.

  “Wow,” I said as I rubbing Reba’s back.

  “What?” She asked looking up at me.

  “Just something I saw on the TV just now. It’s a serial killer out there murdering women and they’re calling him the Black Lace Killer. What a fucked up coincidence,” I said trying to keep my explanation short.

  I had no clue what was going on, but when I glanced over at Rah he had a look on his face that I couldn’t read. He suddenly jumped up.