She kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the bed, fully clothed. He lay down next to her and she turned to him. “What did you ask me?”
She was such an audacious woman, he had to smile. “You heard me. I want to know what game you were playing today.”
She grinned. “It was fun, wasn’t it?”
“If you call your brother almost sending Dante into cardiac arrest, then yes, it was fun.”
“What are you talking about?”
Andre lay back on his pillow and folded his hands under his head. “I’m not telling,” he said. “You’re not the only one who can keep a secret.”
Loretta put her hands on his chest, and he thought she was going to try to kiss the truth out of him. Instead, she snaked her fingers up his chest to his underarms and began to tickle him. He convulsed with laughter. “Stop!”
“Tell me!”
More laughter. “Stop and I’ll tell you.”
More tickles. “Tell me and I’ll stop.”
He tried to roll away from her but she followed him, still tickling. He gave in. “Preacher told Dante he knows about the drugs going through the dealership.”
Loretta stopped tickling him and sat up.
He sat up, too. “I figured that would get your attention. Did you tell him?”
Loretta nodded. “But why did he bring it up to Dante?”
“Apparently, he doesn’t want Dante seeing Natalie. He told him that if he didn’t break it off with her, he’d tell her what we were doing. You don’t think he will, do you?”
“What else did Preacher say?”
“I’m not sure. Dante said something about police raids, but I didn’t think much of it. I figure your brother is yanking his chain to get him away from Natalie. Your brother must have some rap. Living with one woman and threatening the boyfriend of another.”
“You sound envious of my player brother.”
Andre nipped her shoulder with his lips. “I have the woman I want. Doesn’t mean I can’t admire another brother’s game, though.”
“So what did Dante tell my brother?”
Andre moved to her cheek. “I’m not sure he told him anything.” He stopped kissing Loretta. “But this woman is important to him. I’ve told you he wants out because of her.”
“Then let him out.”
Andre pulled back so he could look into her eyes. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not at all. Tell Dante I’ll buy him out.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Tell Dante I’ll buy him out.”
“So you and I can become partners?”
“Something like that,” she said.
Andre liked the idea of being partners with Loretta. In fact, he had often dreamed of the two of them presiding together over their own business empire. That dream had seemed far-fetched when her brother occupied that place in her life, but now that he’d chosen another path, Andre was hopeful for a more permanent relationship—business and personal—with her. “Why are you really willing to buy Dante out?” Andre didn’t expect an answer. Loretta usually kept her plans to herself.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Take my offer to Dante. He can name his price, as long as it’s a reasonable one.”
“When Dante said he wanted out, I’m sure he didn’t mean this way.”
She lay back on her pillow and closed her eyes. “I don’t care what he meant. Now I want him out. He doesn’t have much choice. He either sells his share to me at his price or I take it at my price. It’s up to him.”
“I hear you,” Andre said. “I’ll tell him tomorrow.”
She opened her eyes. “Why not tell him tonight? You heard him say he was going to the office.”
He nipped at her neck again. “I have other plans for the evening.”
Loretta pushed his head away. “I’ll be here when you get back. I want his answer tonight.”
“There’s no need for me go anywhere,” Andre said, reaching for her phone on the nightstand behind the bed.
Loretta grabbed his hand. “Not over the phone,” she said. “This has to be done face-to-face.”
Dante got up from his desk and looked out his office window on the car lot that represented years of hard work on his and Andre’s parts. “I don’t want to sell,” he said, after Andre laid out the details of Loretta’s offer. “I want them out.”
“That’s not an option, Dante,” Andre said, slumping casually in the chair in front of Dante’s desk with his legs stretched out in front him. “Things have gone too far. The only way to get out is to sell.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
Dante spun around to face Andre. His friend’s apparent calmness irked him. “What do you mean?”
Andre sighed. “Loretta has decided she wants your share of the dealership. She’s not taking no for an answer.”
“Why, that’s crazy!” Dante kicked the side of his desk and began pacing in front of the window. “She can’t come here and strong-arm me into selling.”
“Yes, she can.”
Dante stopped pacing. “You can’t be serious, Andre.”
“Sit down, Dante. You’ve got to wake up to the truth. Either you want to be in the New York deal for the long haul or you sell. There’s no middle ground.”
Dante stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. “I could call the cops.” When Andre sat up a bit straighter in his chair, Dante took satisfaction in finally getting a reaction from his partner.
Andre shook his head. “You don’t want to do that.”
“I want the business we built back. I want these people out. I ought to call the cops.”
“That’s not going to get you what you want. What makes you think the cops are going to let you keep this business? What makes you think you won’t end up in prison?”
“I could turn state’s evidence.”
Andre laughed. “You’ve been watching too much television, or maybe not enough. In order to turn state’s evidence, you have to have some evidence. You don’t know enough about what’s going on to have anything to offer to the cops.”
“But you do.”
Andre slumped back in his chair. “You’d turn me in?”
“No, man, that’s not what I’m saying. We could go to the police together.”
Andre shook his head. “You’re not thinking clearly. Focus on what you want, Dante.”
“I want our business back the way it was before we got involved with these hoodlums.”
“Too late for that. What else do you want?”
“I don’t like the idea of giving up what I’ve worked so hard to build. I won’t do it.”
“Not even for Natalie?”
“Don’t bring her into this,” Dante said.
“What do you mean, man? She’s already in it. We wouldn’t be having this discussion if it weren’t for her. If what you want is a life with her free of this business, your choice is easy: sell to Loretta. If you want to hold onto the business, then you’ve got to let her go or get her so deeply involved that she has as much to lose as we do if something goes wrong.”
Dante took some time to dissect his partner’s words. He wanted his business back but at what cost? “What if none of those options work for me?”
Andre stood, checking his watch. “Life sucks sometimes. What else can I say? You have to play the hand you’re dealt. You can always use the money to start another business. Then you and Natalie can have a real fresh start.”
Though there was logic to Andre’s advice, Dante didn’t see why he had to start over because some thugs wanted what was his. Preacher and Loretta didn’t control his destiny, even if Andre thought they did. He wouldn’t give up his business without a fight.
CHAPTER 18
Natalie awakened the next morning refreshed and excited. “Thank you, Lord.” The cookout with Preacher’s family had gone very well, in her opinion. Tanya had been the perfect hostess and Natalie had detected little of
the hostility from their first meeting. There had been a moment there when she and Dante were leaving that she’d sensed a bit of impatience from Tanya, but she attributed it to the stress of acting as hostess for a new group of people.
What made her happiest was that Serena had done a good job with Preacher’s girlfriend. Natalie had seen them in conversation a couple of times during the afternoon. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about the couple. Serena and Barnard would take good care of them.
She’d miss her growing friendship with Preacher, but Serena had been right. She’d sensed some tension between him and Dante that made her wonder if Dante saw what Serena saw. Whatever. She’d done her best to make Dante feel secure. She’d been openly affectionate with him so he wouldn’t have to worry about where her interests lay.
She got out of bed, quickly showered and dressed for work at the Children’s Center. She hoped she would see her brother so she could compare notes with him about the cookout. As she was putting on her earrings, the doorbell rang.
“Who could that be at this hour?” she said aloud, heading down the hallway. She put on her second earring and opened the door. “Dante?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
Dante leaned in and brushed his lips against her cheek. “That doesn’t sound very welcoming.”
“Forgive me,” she said, stepping back and opening the door wider. “Come on in. Is something wrong?”
Dante sat on her couch and patted the space next to him. She hesitated, then sat. “You’re scaring me, Dante. What’s wrong?”
He pulled her close. “Let me hold you for a few minutes,” he said. “I just want to hold you.”
Natalie leaned into his embrace. “Talk to me, sweetie.”
“In a minute. Just let me hold you.”
Natalie’s anxiety grew but she kept quiet and let him hold her. She prayed a silent prayer that whatever he had to tell her wasn’t bad. She couldn’t help but think of Benjamin and that failed relationship. She pushed those thoughts out of her mind. This wasn’t Benjamin; this was Dante. The two men were as different as night and day.
Dante tipped her chin up. “I love you,” he said.
She batted her eyelashes, fighting tears. Her instincts told her his news wasn’t good. “I love you, too, Dante.”
“How much?”
Natalie pulled away from him. “Don’t do this,” she said. “Just tell me.” Dante didn’t say anything and her anxiety soared. “Is there another woman?”
Dante shook his head and pulled her close again. “Never that,” he said. “You’re the only woman for me. That’s why this is so hard.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “You’re scaring me, Dante. Just tell me.”
Dante sighed. Then he pulled away from her. “I should do this like a man.” He stood and sat on the coffee table so he faced her. “We can’t see each other any more.”
“What? Why?”
Dante took her hands in his. “Believe me, it’s for the best.” He brought her hands to his lips and kissed them. Then he held them against his heart. “I haven’t been honest with you about something,” he said, “something big.”
Natalie felt the pain of betrayal. She tried to pull her hands from his but he held on tight. “Hear me out,” he pleaded.
“Why should I?” Natalie asked, blinking at the tears pooling in her eyes. “I trusted you, Dante. You told me I could trust you.” She looked away from him. “I thought you were different. What a fool I was!”
Keeping her hands in one of his, he used the other to turn her face back to him. “I told you it wasn’t another woman, and it isn’t. There is no secret girlfriend, no secret child, no secret wife. You are the only woman in my life.”
The burden that had embedded itself in her chest lightened at his words. “Then what is it? Tell me.”
He dropped her hands and stood. Turning away from her, he said, “A couple of years ago, Andre and I got in a major financial bind at the dealership.” He turned back to her. “To fix it, we diversified, I guess you could say, to increase our cash flow.”
Natalie didn’t think that sounded so bad. She ran a business, so she knew about financial binds and cash-flow problems. “Is that all?”
Dante shook his head and sat on the coffee table again. “Now my business associates are trying to force me out.”
“Can they do that?”
“Not legally.”
“Well, get a lawyer and fight them.”
Dante met her eyes. “I can’t.”
“Sure you can,” Natalie said. “We’ll find an attorney. Barnard knows a lot of people. I’m sure he’ll know the perfect person. Let’s call him right now.”
When she would have gotten up to get the phone, Dante pressed her back down. “This is not something I can fight through legal means because the business relationship wasn’t a legal one.”
Natalie’s heart contracted violently. “What does that mean?”
“It means Andre and I got the money through illegal means.”
“You went to a loan shark? Oh, Dante, how could you and Andre even think about going that route? Still, I think you can fight them legally.”
“We didn’t go to a loan shark.”
Natalie’s frustration rose. “Then where did you get the money?”
“We started transporting goods for Preacher and his sister.”
Natalie rolled his words around in her head, trying to make sense of them. “Preacher and his sister?”
Dante nodded.
Natalie merely stared at him, still unable to make meaning of his words. “What kind of business do Preacher and Loretta have?”
Dante didn’t answer and he didn’t look away.
Understanding finally dawned for Natalie. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “NO!”
Dante reached for her but she eluded his grasp and stood. “You’re telling me that you’re transporting drugs for Preacher and Loretta?”
He looked up at her with the dreamy brown eyes she loved. “I’ve been trying to stop, to get out,” he said, “but Preacher and his sister are ruthless. They want me out so Preacher can have a legal business to run now that he’s out of prison.”
Natalie started shaking her head. “Preacher’s going into the mortuary business,” she said, remembering the pure joy in Preacher’s face when he told her about the opportunity God had given him. Dante had to be wrong. “He’s not interested in your dealership.”
“Listen to me, Natalie,” Dante said. “He’s interested. He told me so himself yesterday.”
Natalie folded her arms across her chest and began pacing. “This is too much,” she said. “It’s too much.” She stopped pacing and stared at this man she thought she loved and realized she didn’t even know him. “You’re a drug dealer,” she said, trying to get her mind around the truth of the situation. “You’re a drug dealer.”
Dante went to her and tried to pull her into his arms. “Natalie—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” she screamed. “Get out!”
“But—”
She strode to the door and jerked it open. “Get out,” she said. “I don’t even know you.”
Natalie knew her words hurt him by the crestfallen expression on his face, but she couldn’t think about his pain now. All she knew was that she’d trusted him and he’d let her down.
Outside the door, he called her name again. She closed the door in his face and then collapsed in tears in front of it.
Preacher sat at the counter in his apartment drinking a cup of coffee. Tanya had taken the boys to school this morning, so he took a few moments for himself before diving into the day’s tasks. He’d awakened this morning feeling as though he’d barely dodged a bullet. The cookout and the fight with Tanya that followed it only served one purpose for him. It told him it was time to come clean with Barnard, Natalie, and Tanya. He was tired of lying. He wanted to fix things and he knew he needed help to do it. The only person he considered turning to was Barnard
, but he couldn’t go to Barnard with his problems until he came clean about his past with Serena. He’d give her a final chance to tell her husband and then he’d tell him. He had to. He’d also tell Barnard about Loretta and Dante and the dealership. He was sure Barnard would know what to do. Preacher surely didn’t. Then he’d have to sit down and explain everything to Tanya. He saved her for last because he knew there’d be drama, and he didn’t want to drain all his energy dealing with her before he dealt with everybody else. He’d talk to her tonight when he hoped he’d have more answers than he did now.
He had to do one thing before he went to Serena and Barnard though. He had to give Loretta one last chance to give up the business. She could do it because there were people lined up to take her place, eager for the power and position she held. The same power and position he once held. It was ironic that it would be easier for Loretta to get out than it would be for Dante. It was unfair, but that’s the way the narcotics business worked.
Preacher finished his coffee, grabbed his keys, and left the apartment. When he was about halfway down the stairs, Natalie turned the corner, ready to come up. Seeing him, she stopped and said, “We need to talk.”
“Okay,” he said, guessing her visit had something to do with Dante. He wondered what the brother had told her.
Natalie didn’t say a word until they were both in his apartment and the door was closed behind them. He offered her a seat.
“I prefer to stand,” she said. He saw it then, the pain in her eyes and he knew Dante had told her something.
“Is it true?” she asked.
“Is what true?”
“The dealership, the drugs.”
Preacher hated the pain he saw in her usually happy eyes. “I’m sorry, Natalie.”
Natalie dropped down in the recliner as if a boulder had landed on her. Her purse fell to the floor beside the chair. “How could you?” she asked.
“I wanted to tell you,” he said, “but I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“That sentiment seems to be going around this morning,” she said, “but it doesn’t help. It doesn’t help at all. How could you do this to Dante? To me? To Barnard? Especially Barnard, after the way he put himself out there for you.”
Up Pops the Devil Page 21
