After I hopped in the shower and threw on a sundress to battle the muggy August weather, I headed downstairs to find both the kitchen and Lorenzo’s office empty. He had left my food in the oven and a note on the refrigerator letting me know he had to run some errands but would be back in time to go to the doctor with me. So I ate and thought about the dinner party, how Lorenzo relaxed after meeting both of my parents, and how Nicky nearly came unglued when Damon showed up. She was preoccupied for the rest of the night, staring into space and not really there with the rest of us. Angie called me later that night to discuss it, and we agreed that Damon moving back home had thrown a major monkey wrench in Nicky’s plans. We both wondered how she was going to handle things and if she would really follow through with marrying a man she didn’t love. They hadn’t even set a date. Neither had me and Lorenzo, at least not an exact date, but we did plan to marry within a year and we shared that with my family at the party. On the other hand, Nicky had been quick to say they hadn’t even discussed it, and I could tell Travis didn’t exactly like hearing her say that.
After breakfast, I decided to leave for a while, since it was just after eight and my appointment wasn’t until ten-thirty. I was surprised to see Rell washing one of Lorenzo’s cars and thought maybe he’d made it back home until I walked over to the garage to see that his Range Rover wasn’t there. I frowned slightly and just stood there. Lorenzo hated to drive. That was one of the reasons he paid Rell to do it. But then again, he also hated leaving home, and he’d done that, too.
Rell, who Lorenzo now swore could talk although I’d yet to hear him utter a word, rushed over to me and I shook my head, told him I’d drive, and decided to take the Maybach to ease Lorenzo’s mind in case he made it back home before I did. I stopped by my mom’s to pick up some of my personal photos I’d left behind in my old bedroom and was grateful her house was empty and that I didn’t walk up on another senior citizen porn scene. My next stop was Mama Higgs’ house. I’d called her while on the way to my mother’s, and she’d said it was okay to drop by.
“Hey, Renee!” she greeted me, pulling me into a hug right in the doorway. “How was the party last night?”
“It was really nice. My folks loved Zo, and he seemed to really have a good time. He even said we should do stuff like that more often,” I said, as I followed her into her living room.
“That’s so good. I’m glad you’re pulling him out of that shell.”
“Me, too. And my mom wanted me to tell you last night was just about her and my dad meeting Lorenzo and my sister’s fiancé. She’s planning another party, and she wants you and Mel to be there.”
As I sat on the sofa and she crossed the room to the bookshelf, she said, “Oh, I love a good party! Tell her I’ll help her plan it. Give her my number, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I watched her dig through some photo albums and then pull the picture of Lorenzo’s father from its frame. Handing me a pile of photos with Clarence Higgs’ picture on top, she said, “Please be careful with my Clarence’s picture. It’s the only one I have of him. That man hated taking pictures.”
“I will. My sister Angie’s going to scan them on her computer and help me make some bigger copies. I can make you one, too.”
“Yes, I would love that! Girl, I can’t believe Zo is letting you make that house look like a home.”
I smiled. “Neither can I, actually.”
“Hey, are you in a hurry? Want some tea or coffee?”
“Coffee would be great.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Sitting on her super comfortable sofa, I smiled down at the stack of photos in my lap. I already knew what frames I was going to buy from Home Goods and exactly how I was going to arrange them on the wall. Now that I had Lorenzo on board to make some changes around the house, I was going to see about brightening things up a bit, too. Everything he owned was inarguably gorgeous and expensive, but also muted and dark.
I picked up the photo of his father and noticed it was folded. Frowning, I unfolded it and stared at it for a moment. When Mama Higgs returned, I looked up at her, and asked, “Who is this in this picture with Lorenzo’s father?”
“Shit,” she muttered. “I don’t know why I never cut him off that picture. Please don’t let Zo see it. It’ll set off a trigger in him and he’ll be on the warpath to find and kill that man again.”
“Kill him?”
“Yes. I don’t care how many times I’ve tried to tell him I don’t believe Jaywalk had anything to do with Clarence’s death, he won’t believe me. Just because Jaywalk was the last person known to see him alive doesn’t mean he killed him. They were good friends, and—”
“This…this is Jaywalk?”
She nodded. “Yes, it is.”
I got to my feet so quickly that my head spun a little, and I had to catch the arm of the sofa to steady myself. The pile of pictures slid to the floor, but I couldn’t be bothered with that.
“Renee, are you all right?” Mama Higgs asked, as she set the two mugs on the coffee table and squatted next to me to pick the pictures up.
“Yes, but I’ve got to go. I’m sorry. I’ll come back for the pictures.”
I was already out the door before she could respond. Once in the car, I gripped the steering wheel and tried to calm my breathing as I stared down at the photo lying in the passenger seat—a photo of Clarence Higgs and my father.
*****
I tried to call both Lorenzo and my father several times, but neither were answering their phones, which made the dull headache that had suddenly appeared intensify. I had no idea where Lorenzo was other than probably somewhere planning to kill my father. I didn’t like my father all that much, but he was my father and I didn’t want him to die. Plus, my mother loved him, and I wouldn’t want her to lose him. And hell, I definitely didn’t want to lose both him and Lorenzo, and if my father was as ruthless as Lorenzo said he was back in the day, neither of them was safe.
My hand shook as I picked up my phone and started to call Angie, but what was I supposed to say to her? That my man was a homicidal former drug-dealing maniac who already tortured Robert and believed our father killed his father and was somewhere seeking revenge? And then I’d have to tell her that evidently, our father was a damn drug kingpin back in the day. So that was what Mama had threatened to tell on Daddy when she threw him out of the house?
Shit, shit, shit!
I had been driving for thirty minutes with no destination. I didn’t know where my father had been living since my mom kicked him out. He wasn’t at our old house. I knew that for sure, because I drove back by there again. Shit!
Then I remembered him saying something about working today, but at which lot? He owned ten across the state, three here in Romey alone.
I pulled into a grocery store parking lot and decided I’d call the one lot I had a number saved for. Maybe they’d know where he was working today.
They did. He was in Romey, thank goodness, at the very first Strickland Motors location on the west side of town.
My nerves were frayed as I made my way there, and my mind started drifting to some places I didn’t want it to go. Questions plagued me like: had Lorenzo known all along that my father was Jaywalk? Was this a game, me and him? Did he use me to get close to my father? After all, I told him early on who my father was, and surely he’d seen the TV commercials with my father’s smiling face splashed across the screen promising “luxury cars for the everyday man.”
But maybe he hadn’t recognized him. I knew the man in the picture was my father, because I knew my father. But the man in that picture wearing a huge smile and sunglasses didn’t really resemble the man who was now in his sixties. That picture was probably thirty years old, or older, and Lorenzo said that was his only reference to Jaywalk—one picture. I just had no idea that was the picture he was referring to. He’d never met him or seen him in person. His father had done them the courtesy of keeping that part of his life away
from home just as my father had. But his mother knew Jaywalk. Did she tell him?
I shook my head as I pulled onto Hickory Street and made my way down the block to Strickland Motors. His mother didn’t want him to kill my father. And if he knew all along who my father was, he would’ve killed him before now, wouldn’t he?
My stomach dropped when I pulled up close to the lot’s building and saw Lorenzo’s Range Rover. On trembling legs, I climbed out, ignoring the eager salesman’s greeting as he bolted out the shiny glass doors to meet me. I didn’t visit my father at work, never had, so the salesman had no idea who I was.
I breezed past him into the building. Walked up to the receptionist, and said, “I’m Renee Strickland, Angelo Strickland’s daughter. Is he in?”
Before she could answer, I heard a voice behind me say, “Doc, what are you doing here?”
I spun around to see my father and Lorenzo standing behind me.
“Uh, what are you doing here?” I asked. Neither looked like they’d been in a fight. No cuts or bruises. They actually looked rather chummy. I thought about the picture I’d left in the car. Was I losing my mind? Was that not my father with Clarence Higgs?
“Baby girl, Lorenzo got here bright and early this morning planning to buy you a car. Now, I told him I couldn’t have that. I mean, I insisted I’d give you one as a wedding gift, but this is one stubborn, determined man you got here.”
I nodded, looked at them both warily, and said, “I know.”
“But he’s a good man and he loves you, and he just paid cash for you a brand-new Jaguar Prestige.”
Lorenzo grinned at me as he held the keys up and jingled them.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you even gonna let me drive it?”
Lorenzo threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, Doc. I’ma let you drive it.”
He checked his watch. “Hey, your appointment is in about an hour, right? All this negotiating has me hungry. Let’s grab a snack or something and then head that way.” He offered my father his hand. “Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Strickland.”
Shaking his hand, Daddy said, “The pleasure was all mine. You take care of my baby girl.”
“Always.”
Once outside, I said, “We have three cars here. Which one are we taking to the doctor?”
“The Jaguar, of course. Me and Rell can come get the other two later. Don’t you wanna try your new car out?”
“Yes. But I didn’t need a car, Zo.”
“Doc, yes you did. And you gotta sell that damn Honda or give it to one of your scholarship folks. That car sticks out like a sore thumb in my driveway.”
“Now, who’s bougie?”
38
Four hours earlier...
I’d seen those Strickland Motors commercials a million times over the years since I moved back to Romey, but I didn’t put two and two together until I saw those pictures at Renee’s mom’s house. The younger photos of him looked just like Jaywalk, and when I saw him in person, face to face, I knew it was him. It was just a feeling I had as we shook hands, and in that moment, I knew he recognized me, too. I saw the flicker of recognition in his eyes.
A calm came over me after that. I ate, laughed and talked with the family, even made plans to play hoops with Ryan and Travis the next weekend. Went home and made love to Renee. Shit, it was like a weight had lifted off of me. All these years, twenty-eight to be exact, I had wanted to kill this man, and now I finally had the chance to do it.
It was still dark when I kissed a sleeping Renee and slid out of bed, covering her feet up because they always somehow managed to get uncovered during the night. Then I showered, dressed, and drove to all three local Strickland Motors locations, finally spotting a car I’d seen in the driveway at Renee’s mom’s house the night before at the one on Hickory Street. When we were leaving the party, Renee told me it was her father’s car.
I parked across the street on the lot of a strip mall and waited to see if there was anyone else hanging around Strickland Motors to intercept me. It was already five-thirty, and seeing his car there let me know he recognized the “five sets of thirty” reference as our meeting time and that I was correct in assuming the reference to him being in his office this morning was giving me our meeting place. But all of this further assured me he knew who I was, so I couldn’t be too cautious. Jaywalk was once a major player in the drug game, and by all accounts, merciless and deadly. I wouldn’t put it past him to have an ambush waiting for me. After all, the lot was closed. There were no workers or customers there to witness anything. I should’ve insisted we meet on neutral ground, but was too surprised to have finally found him to think to do that.
Finally, at six, I made my move, sure there was no one in sight. Holding my gun down at my side, I left my vehicle at the strip mall and strode across the street. Tried the door, found that it was unlocked, stepped inside, and kind of just stood there.
He must’ve heard me come in or maybe there was a camera in the lobby, because he yelled, “Follow the signs that lead to the finance department!”
I followed his directions, cautiously walking down a hallway to the only office with a light on, gun ready, straining my ears and glancing behind me every other second. His office door was open and he was alone, sitting behind the desk.
“I see you found me,” he said, with a smile on his face. “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it.”
I stood in the doorway, nodded, and asked, “You carrying?”
“Of course I am. I see you are, too.”
“Of course I am. You know who I am?”
“Clarence Higgs’ boy. You look just like him. You know who I am?”
“The motherfucker who killed Clarence Higgs.”
He straightened up in his chair, and I damn near shot him right then.
“No, I didn’t kill your father. I know that’s always been the assumption because I saw him that night, but it’s untrue. Clarence was like a brother to me.”
“That’s what a lot of people say right before they kill a nigga.”
“But I’m telling the truth.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Lorenzo, I respected your father, would’ve never hurt him, and cried like a baby when I heard he’d been killed. Hell, his death is what got me to leave that life behind and concentrate on my car lots, because if someone as good as Clarence could be killed, I knew I didn’t stand a chance.”
I stared at him.
“He was a good man, and I know for a fact he loved you and tried to raise you right, so I find it hard to accept that you’d use my daughter to get to me. You know that’s against every code. It took everything in me not to kill you last night right in front of everybody. Your issue is with me, no matter how deluded it is. You had no business bringing my daughter into it!”
“What? I didn’t even know you were Jaywalk until last night. I’m not using her!”
He leaned forward. “You think I’m that damn dumb?”
“You gotta be stupider than a motherfucker if you think I’d mess over her to get to you.”
“You love her?”
“Hell, yeah! She’s my life! I’ll fuck anyone up who even thinks about laying a hand on her!”
“You love her, but you’re here to kill me? Her father?”
“Some shit just gotta be done. Justice is way past due.”
He sighed. “Then go ahead.”
“What?”
“Do it. Shoot me. Then what? Marry my daughter, help her mourn me? Go to my funeral?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think she’ll take it that hard. She really doesn’t like you all that much since you dogged her mom out.”
This familiar look passed over his face, one I’d worn more than once when thinking about my kids—regret. “Yeah, I haven’t been the best father to either of my girls, or the best husband, but I love my family, and if you love Renee, you won’t be able to live with yourself after you do this. We may not be close, but I’m st
ill her daddy.”
“You got your gun on me under your desk? You saying all this sentimental shit to throw me off?”
He shook his head, reached into a drawer—which made me raise my gun—and laid a gun on his desk. “Here it is. This is the only one. You can come search me or my desk. Hell, you can search the whole damn office. I’m not shooting my friend’s son. I’m not shooting the man my daughter loves.”
I kept my gun on him.
“I didn’t kill Clarence.”
“If you cared so much about him, why didn’t you help my mother after he died?”
“I paid for his funeral, bought groceries, offered Betty Jean some money, but she wouldn’t take it. Said I’d done enough. Ask her.”
I shook my head.
“I didn’t kill your father, Lorenzo, but I do know who did.”
My eyes narrowed, but I didn’t lower the gun. “Who?”
“Someone who didn’t live to see another day after I found out what he did. I killed him. Everybody knew your father was working for me, making a lot of money. This fool robbed him, shot him, left him in the street like he was nothing. And I killed him, so you wouldn’t have to, because I knew you’d want to.”
I blinked hard and shook my head again.
“Now you can kill me, or you can sit down and we can talk. I’ll give you the man’s name and you can Google him, see if I’m telling the truth. He was a known thief. There was something in the paper about them finding his body. I know you think I’m lying, but I’m telling the truth. If I’m the man you think I am, I would’ve shot you before you got in the door good.”
I lowered the gun. “Shit.”
“You believe me?”
“Honestly, no. But I love your daughter and…and I can’t do this to her. I know her heart, and I know she loves your sorry ass. Fuck!” I grabbed my head. “Go ahead and shoot me. I know that’s what all that bullshit you were talking was leading up to. You were tryna mess with my head and confuse me. So do it. Shoot me, because I can’t shoot you.”
Believe in Me (Strickland Sisters Book 2) Page 19
