Don't Say No

by Linda Verji

  “And break your precious protocol?” Nic scoffed sarcastically. “Not yet.”

  “That precious protocol is for your own good.” Park’s voice rose. “And what do you mean ‘not yet’? You tell her, she might end up telling someone else and the next thing we know your cover is broken.”

  “Melanie would never tell anyone,” Nic defended. “And don’t act like you care about anything other than making sure Cabrera keeps luring criminals into your net.”

  “You’re doing this for your country,” Park said quietly.

  “Frankly, I stopped giving a fuck about my country when it started blackmailing me,” Nic said casually. “The only reason I haven’t told Melanie who I really am is because I need to first know if there’ll be repercussions to her. Will you go after her?”

  “If you out yourself, you’ll be subject to disciplinary action and dishonorable discharge when-”

  “I didn’t ask about the consequences for me,” Nic cut him off. “Will your people go after her if I tell her who I am?”

  “She hasn’t signed any contracts with us,” Park bit out. His tone was as hard as granite as he added, “The rules don’t apply to her unless she willfully releases your name to the public.”

  “That’s all I needed to know.” Nic’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Thanks.”

  “Well, if you’re done informing me about how you’re about to fuck up your life…” Park looked at his watch and then stood. “…I think I’ll head out.”

  “One more thing.” Nic stopped him. He sat forward and set his elbows on his knees as he steepled his fingers. “We’ve rustled up a tactical team of our own-”

  “I know.” Park interrupted with a chilly glare Nic’s way. “I got an earful from General Lowe about your little army last night. You’re lucky you’re using Brett and his boys because I’m not sure I could’ve kept you from being court-martialed after that stunt.”

  Unfazed, Nic continued, “I might need some help from the locals, so a list of clean cops we can use would be much appreciated.”

  “I can swing that.” Park turned towards the door as if to leave.

  “I’m not done,” Nic stopped him. “Remember how you made Melanie’s arrest magically disappear from the great state of California’s records? I’ll need you to do that little magic trick again.” He smiled as he added, “You’ll also help me break a prisoner out of San Quentin.”

  Park blinked. “You don’t ask for much, do you?”

  Sunday mid-morning found Melanie at San Quentin prison.

  “I’m telling you, Mel, you should’a seen those other niggas,” her brother bragged. “Banged them up real good.”

  “I don’t like you getting into fights.” Melanie knew she sounded like a Mama Bear, but she couldn’t help herself. This was her little brother. She reached across the table to touch the blackened area beneath his right eye.

  “Ey.” Marcus hissed in pain and pulled back his head. “I wasn’t even looking for it. They jumped me in my cell. What was I supposed to do?”

  “They jumped you in your cell?” Her heart lurched with immediate panic. “Do you think it was…” Her words trailed off into frightened silence.

  “Yeah, it was Amber.” Her brother confirmed her worst fears with a dismissive shrug. He chuckled. “But I got a new cellmate and he ain’t the one. He sent two of them to the sick wing, and I took care of the other one.”

  He grinned as if being attacked in his cell by three other inmates was all a big joke to him. How could he sound so blasé with his life under threat? And what had happened to Nic’s promise to make sure he didn’t get hurt?

  The new cellmate?

  Was he a plant by Nic? Melanie wasn’t sure, but if it wasn’t for this mysterious cellmate, her brother might not be grinning so hard or even alive right now.

  She reached across the table and grabbed Marcus’s hand. “Promise me you won’t get into any more trouble.”

  “Not unless it comes looking for me.” Marcus fixed his eyes on her. “I told you, Mel, I got this. I can handle my own in here. Just take Sly and-”

  “We’re not leaving without you,” she interrupted curtly.

  “I don’t want you waiting on me for three months.” Frustration dripped from his expression and his voice. “It’s too damn long.”

  She wished she could tell him about Nic’s involvement and that he’d probably be out sooner than that. But judging from the attack, it was even more obvious Vance had his people in here, maybe even a few wardens. Anyone could be listening to their conversation. The last thing she wanted was to unwittingly clue Vance on to their plan.

  So she shrugged. “Yeah, well. We’re just gon’ have to make do until you get out.”

  “I’m a grown ass man, Mel, not some kid,” Marcus slammed his fist on the metallic table so hard that it rattled. The loud noise attracted the attention of the other visitors and prisoners around them as well as a guard. The guard stepped forward towards them.

  Melanie sent the guard a reassuring smile as she warned her brother, “Chill out, Marcus.”

  “I’ll chill when you let me handle my shit my own damn self,” Marcus announced but then took a deep breath. When he spoke, his voice was lower and his anger visibly restrained, but it still pulsed in his words. “I’m trying to protect you and Sly and you’re too hard-headed to listen.”

  “I know you’re worried about us, Marcus, but you don’t have to be. As long as I don’t rock the boat and make Amber angry, we’re safe.” Melanie closed her fingers over his tight fist as she urged, “Just focus on staying alive and out of trouble until the three months are up. Then we’ll figure it out.”

  This time it was harder to convince Marcus to let the whole Vance thing rest. He was still pissed at her by the time she left the prison. But Melanie didn’t know any way to allay his fears without busting their plans wide open for anyone with ears to hear. He’d thank her when he was finally out, she convinced herself.

  She stopped by the store to grab a few things before setting off to Cece’s house to pick up Sly. As she drove, her mind inevitably wandered to Nic. He hadn’t turned up last night. She’d reminded herself that that was a good thing as she lay all alone in her bed. But the room seemed emptier without him, colder even, and to her dismay she’d been plagued by dreams of him.

  If she was already experiencing withdrawal symptoms from just one night without him, how bad would it be when he finally left again? Bad. Real bad. Forgetting him would be impossible.

  Melanie sighed. But what other option did she have? Ask him to stay? Not when she didn’t even know who or what he was. A drug dealer? A criminal? Who knew? She couldn’t expose her family to someone in that lifestyle again.

  Even when she tried to give Nic the benefit of doubt, it still didn’t work. Let’s say he’d come by his wealth legally, there was still the little fact that he’d never expressed an interest in staying. His new lifestyle seemed comfortable enough without her. Maybe he didn’t want to complicate it by bringing her into it again.

  The questions and suppositions rolled around in her mind like heavy boulders wreaking havoc on her thoughts. By the time she parked in front of the green bungalow that housed Cece and her various relatives, it was past seven and she could feel the start of a migraine. Judging from the boisterous chatter of voice coming from inside the house, it would be a full migraine by the time she left. Nevertheless, she tightened her grip on the grocery bag, pasted a smile on her face, and pushed the screen door.

  As soon as she walked into the crowded living room, warm air spiked with the delicious aroma of cooking food hit her. Cece’s relatives and neighbors were spread around the tiny space in various states of relaxation engrossed in the football game playing on the TV. None of them noticed Melanie’s entrance; not until Cece’s three year old cousin, Allegra screamed out, “Tati Melanie,” and hurtled towards Melanie.

  Melanie caught the little girl easily with her free hand and lifted her to her hip. She pla
stered the child’s face with kisses, earning herself loud giggles. Soon everyone else in the room noticed Melanie, and the chatter grew louder as they greeted her.

  “Melanie, is that you?” a heavyset woman in her late sixties or early seventies emerged from the direction where the delicious smells were coming from. “Baby, I ain’t seen you since last week.”

  “You know how it is, Aunt Honey,” Melanie said as she walked towards the older woman and gave her a hug. “Work. Work.”

  “Ain’t you ever heard of Jack?” Aunt Honey propped her fists on her broad hips. “I hear that boy’s now down at the crazy house ‘cause his brain shut down from too much work. You don’t wanna be him.”

  Melanie laughed. “Don’t worry, Aunt Honey, I’m not checking into the crazy house any time soon.”

  Though Aunt Honey was the neighborhood’s ‘fashion lady’, owning the only tailoring shop, there was nothing designer or couture about her. Claiming that her good clothes were for Jesus, she spent her days in a muumuu and rollers in her hair. It was a wonder so many of the neighborhood’s women came to her for fashion advice and to make their clothes.

  It wasn’t surprising. The neighborhood was repaying her with good karma.

  Aunt Honey was incapable of turning away someone in need, as evidenced by her constantly packed house. She’d give you the clothes on her back and stay naked so you wouldn’t be cold. Having been one of her rescued puppies, Melanie knew all too well how compassionate the woman was.

  When Melanie had moved here with Sly, jobs hadn’t been too easy to come by. Despite not needing another hand at Honey’s Tailoring, Aunt Honey had given her a job as seam-mistress and her start into the world of fashion. Even when Melanie had left to start Darlene’s, Aunt Honey hadn’t begrudged her success and in fact regularly sent clients with more eclectic tastes her way.

  Melanie wrinkled her nose. “Smells like heaven in here.”

  “You’re just in time for dinner.” Aunt Honey led the way into the kitchen. “Brisket in the oven and rice in the pot.” Before Melanie could say anything, she added, “And don’t even tell me you can’t stay. You ain’t going nowhere until I’ve fed your skinny little ass. Looking like a damn toothpick and embarrassing me out there.”

  Melanie chuckled as she handed the older woman the shopping bag she was carrying. “I brought you some things.”

  “You brought me all these?” Aunt Honey asked as she rifled through the rolls of toilet paper, soap, foodstuffs among other things. She reached for Melanie and gave her another hug. “Thank you, baby. You’re a good girl.”

  Cece chose that moment to walk in. “You still trying to steal my nana, big head,” she said to Melanie.

  “Oh, hush.” Aunt Honey berated. “I got space enough space to love you all.” Her eyes narrowed. “Speaking of, when are you two going to give me great grandchildren.”

  Both Cece and Melanie started whistling then burst into laughter at their identical reactions. Aunt Honey pursed her lips at them before putting them to work helping with dinner.

  “Cece, where’s Sly,” Melanie asked as she chopped up some spinach. “I didn’t see him in the living room.”

  “Upstairs with Jamal and Keisha.”

  They were transferring the ready food into serving bowls when someone thrust the kitchen door inwards with so much force it banged against a bucket behind it. A slender but tall cocoa-toned man sauntered in. “Aunt Honey, we need ten dollars…”

  The moment he spotted Melanie, his words drifted into silence and he stopped walking. “Mel.”

  Melanie was just as surprised to see her ex-husband as he was to see her and stuttered a low, “Oh. Oh. Heeeeey, Lewis.”

  “Boy, why you bursting down my door for like you the damn police?” Aunt Honey shattered the awkward reunion.

  “Sorry, Nana.”

  “What you want?”

  “Nothing, nothing.” Lewis backed away from the kitchen so fast you’d have thought they’d threatened to throw him in the oven with the brisket.

  Melanie waited until she and Cece were out of the kitchen and in the dining room, before she stuck her elbow into her friend’s waist. “You didn’t tell me your cousin was here when I dropped off Sly.”

  “Ow.” Cece glared at her as she rubbed her waist. “That’s because I didn’t know he would be here. He popped out of nowhere at lunchtime.”

  “And you couldn’t call me?”

  Cece twisted her lips. “Bitch, check your voicemail.”

  Pursing her lips in patented skepticism, Melanie extracted her phone from the pocket of her jeans, only to discover that it was off. When she turned it on, a voicemail message from Cece popped right up. She offered her friend a sheepish, “Sorry.”

  “I’ll take a free lunch with that sorry,” Cece retorted as she set off back to the kitchen for more food.

  “What’s he doing here anyway?” Melanie asked when they came back to the dining room. “I thought he was doing that personal training thing in Baton Rouge.”

  “What personal training?” Cece scoffed. “Aunt Flora says he was living off of some white woman with more money than common sense.”

  Melanie’s eyes widened. “Nooo.”

  “Girl, yes,” her friend said. “Apparently, she got tired of his mooching ass and packed his shit up.”

  Melanie would’ve liked to say she was very surprised, but she wasn’t. Lewis wasn’t the most hardworking man out there. She’d married him because she was young, dealing with a rebellious Marcus, still mourning Nic, and needed someone who could help her stop feeling so overwhelmed.

  Despite his laziness, Lewis could be very loving, tender and supportive. When he wasn’t stealing twenty dollar bills from her purse, he’d provided the warm body she needed to hold her in the dead of the night. He’s been there to tell her everything would be all right even when her world looked bleak. In the end that hadn’t been enough to hold their marriage. But she still held fond memories of him.

  “Go get the kids,” Aunt Honey ordered Melanie on their last trip to the dining room.

  Melanie made her way to the kids’ room. Sure enough she found Jamal and Keisha lying on the carpet playing a game of tic-tac-toe. But there was no sign of her nephew.

  “Where’s Sly?” she asked.

  “Dunno.” Jamal shrugged.

  Keisha was more informative. “He went to the toilet.”

  “Okay, dinner’s on the table.” After making sure they were out of the bedroom, Melanie went in search of Sly.

  Bathroom? Cece’s aunt, Flora, was the one who emerged from there. The other kids’ bedroom? Just Cece’s sister Wanda making out with some pimply teenager. Her search through the other two bedrooms yielded similar results; no signs of Sly. In the dining room, there was a line of people around the table serving food; none of them was her nephew. By the time Melanie rushed to the living room and found it empty, she was in full panic mode.

  Where was Sly? Had Vance taken him?

  Please God, No.

  CHAPTER 15

  “He’s out here somewhere,” Cece reassured as they stood outside yet another neighbor’s door.

  Melanie didn’t respond. She couldn’t – not with the lump of fear clogging her throat. She rapped twice on the screen door then lowered her trembling hand. A second later the door opened and a slender, frail elderly woman hobbled out to the porch.

  “Hi, Mrs. Kendrick,” Melanie greeted. “Have you seen Sly?”

  “Sly?” Mrs. Kendrick’s brow furrowed as if she was in deep thought. Her tone was pensive as she said, “I saw him through the window when you dropped him off but I ain’t seen him since then.”

  The next house they went to had the same story. No one had seen Sly. By the time they got to the fifth house, Melanie was shaking so badly she’d tucked her hands underneath her armpits to control her trembling. Despite her common sense’s insistence that if Vance had taken Sly someone would’ve noticed, the fear still danced in her thoughts. What if Sly was tied up
somewhere? Her little boy had to be so scared wherever he was. What if they’d…

  Melanie was so engrossed in her panicked thoughts she didn’t even realize that her phone was ringing until Cece pointed out, “You’re vibrating.”

  With shaky fingers, she extracted the phone from her pocket. The number on the screen was unknown. Melanie’s first thought was that it was Vance. In a tremulous voice, she answered, “Hello?”

  Nic’s deep voice met her. “Sly’s in the third house to the left.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Melanie sagged against a telephone pole.

  “He’s safe,” Nic reassured her.

  “Thank you,” Melanie said already turning on her heels. Miming ‘Johnny Boy’s house’ to Cece, she started towards the other side of the street. Her friend fell into step right beside her.

  “You’re welcome.” Nic said. “And Lanie…?”

  “Yeah,” Melanie answered distractedly.

  “You left the phone I gave you in the house. You can’t do that again.”

  “Okay,!” Right now she would’ve done anything he asked her to do. She ended the call on another, “Thank you.”

  “Who was that?” Cece asked as soon as Melanie ended the call.

  “Just a friend,” Melanie dismissed as she fast-walked to Johnny Boy’s house.

  Cece let the matter go, but only for a few hours. As soon as Melanie picked her nephew from Johnny Boy’s house where he’d gone to play video games, berated him, and had dinner, Cece dragged her to one of the bedrooms. It was time for a heart-to-heart.

  “What is going on?” Cece asked once they were seated on the bottom bunker of one of the two double-decker beds occupying the room.

  Melanie shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Cece offered her a raised eyebrow. “That whole Sly thing.”

  “What whole Sly thing?” Melanie forced nonchalance into her voice as she asked, “Am I not supposed to be worried when my nephew goes missing?”

  “Girl, please. Don’t try that with me.” Cece rolled her eyes. “Sly’s disappeared several times before and you didn’t even blink. This time…” She narrowed her eyes. “This has something to do with that slinging nonsense you’re involved in, don’t it?”