Lawless

by K'wan

  He opened his mouth to answer but was hesitant. Not because he didn’t want to answer, but because he wasn’t so sure that he even knew anymore. For years he had tried to convince himself that Keith “Killer” Savage was dead and buried, but in his heart, he knew it wasn’t true. His mother’s son still lived somewhere inside him, and it would only be a matter of time before he came out. He’d always planned to tell Bernie the truth about his past, but it would be on his terms. Asher had robbed him of the choice, and now he was left to pick up the pieces of the heart he had just broken.

  “Bernie, if you give me a minute, I’ll try to explain—” he began, but she interrupted him.

  “You’ve had three years to explain. What I need from you at this point is the truth!” Bernie demanded.

  Keith’s mind raced for a lie, something . . . anything to soften the blow she was asking him to deliver, but he couldn’t find one. Once again, he thought about what Nate had told him. How long do you think you can keep that closet door closed before a bone comes falling out? And Nate was right. If he had any hope of salvaging his relationship, he had to use the only weapon he had left at his disposal, the truth. For the next hour, Keith talked while Bernie listened. He told her about his childhood in New Orleans, about the exploits of his family, and the events that had led up to him eventually fleeing New Orleans. He was as truthful as he dared be, omitting only the things for which there was no statute of limitations. Those were secrets he would carry with him to the grave.

  When Keith was done with his story, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. He had been carrying the secret around for so long that he hadn’t realized how heavy it was until he unloaded it. For a long while after he stopped talking, Bernie just sat there and stared at him. No doubt she was trying to process everything. He wasn’t sure how he would take it if the roles were reversed and Bernie were the one to have her mask ripped off.

  “It was never a secret that you had a sketchy past,” Bernie said, finally breaking the silence. “I’m not naive enough to think you’ve been completely honest with me about whatever you went through that drove you away from your family, but I didn’t see this coming.” She shook her head in disgust. “I can’t believe you lied to me all this time.”

  “I’ve never lied to you, Bernie. I only omitted certain things about my past,” Keith said.

  Bernie stormed over to the bookshelf and grabbed a lead paperweight that was shaped like a pony. “Keith, I swear to God, if you try to hit me with some bullshit lawyer spiel, I’m going to crack your skull,” she snapped, threatening him.

  Keith got quiet.

  Bernie began to pace the living-room floor, still holding the paperweight. “I thought you loved me.”

  “I do!” he declared.

  “If you truly loved me, then why not tell me the truth?”

  “Because I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “And you figured me finding out from someone other than you that you were a part of a family of serial killers would be less hurtful?” she asked sarcastically.

  “They’re not serial killers, for the most part. And the way you’re reacting now is the exact reason I kept it from you. Meeting you was the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me. We’re building a beautiful life together, and I didn’t want to taint it with this curse that I’m carrying. You see how your family reacted when Brick mentioned my brother Mad Dog, so imagine how they would’ve looked at me if they knew who I really was.”

  “In all the time we’ve known each other, you’ve never given a damn about how my family or anyone else felt about you, and now that’s the excuse you’re going to stand on?” she questioned. “Don’t you see? This isn’t about your family or mine. It’s about us. We were the ones who promised to always be true to each other. We were supposed to be building a life together, but how can I build a life with someone I don’t even know?”

  “Bernie, I’m still the man you fell in love with. The only thing different about me is my last name,” Keith insisted.

  “You act like that’s a small thing. If you lied about that, it makes me wonder what else you’ve been lying to me about. Did you ever really love me?” Her voice was heavy with emotion.

  “I can’t believe you’re asking me that.” Keith was hurt.

  “I can’t believe you’ve been living a double life,” she fired back. “Jesus, and what am I supposed to tell people about our engagement?”

  “Why do you have to tell them anything? I still love you and still want to marry you,” Keith told her.

  “Marriage?” she said, as if the word tasted foul in her mouth. “Keith, right now I can’t even stand to look at you, let alone think about marrying you. I need to get out of here.” She began gathering her things.

  “Bernie, let’s just talk.” Keith reached for her arm, but Bernie snatched it away, as if he were holding a snake. When he looked into her eyes, there were no signs of love, only hurt. “What can I do to make it right?”

  “The only thing I want from you right now is space.” And with that, she was gone.

  As he stood at the window, watching Bernie as she jumped into an Uber, with tears in her eyes, Keith couldn’t help but feel that it was the last time he would ever see her.

  The old woman occupying the window seat next to Keith gave him a slight nudge, and he snapped out of his daydreaming. He hadn’t even realized the plane had taxied to a stop. He grabbed his bag from the overhead compartment and hustled toward the plane’s exit. On the way, he was stopped by one of the flight attendants. She was a thick brown-skinned beauty with eyes that sparkled every time she smiled. Keith had spent most of the flight admiring her every time she walked up or down the aisle. She’d known he was checking her out, and she’d made sure to put a little something extra in her walk whenever she passed him.

  “How was your flight?” she asked.

  “Good,” he said politely.

  “Could’ve been better,” she replied, giving him a sultry stare. She looked around to make sure no one was paying attention before pressing a business card into his hand. “I’m off for the next two days. If you find yourself in need of someone to show you around the city, give me a call.”

  Keith smiled, as he knew what that phone call would lead to. “I’ve been here a few times, so I’m familiar with the city.”

  “It’s not the city you need to get familiar with. Give it some thought. If you change your mind, I’ll be staying at the Hilton.”

  Keith blushed like a schoolgirl and departed the plane.

  As soon as Keith powered his phone on, he was bombarded with notifications. Most were work-related emails, which he would deal with when he got back to Atlanta the following week. He had told his secretary he had to go out of town on a family emergency, and he had instructed her to reschedule whatever cases she could and to pass the ones she couldn’t to an associate named John Green. John wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was competent enough to handle some of the less demanding cases in Keith’s workload. Some of the partners weren’t going to take too kindly to Keith leaving so abruptly, but he had earned the time off, so there was nothing they could do other than talk about him behind his back, which was nothing new.

  There was a text from Nate, checking to see if Keith had landed safely. Besides Bernie, Nate was the only one who knew where Keith was going and why. Keith had had a long talk with his old army buddy and had told him about everything that had gone down. He’d expected Nate to say “I told you so,” but he’d been surprisingly understanding about the situation. Nate had let Keith bend his ear about his problems for the better part of an hour. He’d even offered to fly down to Louisiana with Keith to give him moral support and to watch his back, just in case, but Keith had declined. He would’ve liked nothing more than to have his old army buddy at his side, but he had to face what was to come alone. He texted Nate back to let him know he was good, and promised to call once he got settled.

  Keith continued scrolling
through his text messages, hoping that one would be from Bernie, but he was disappointed. He hadn’t seen or heard from her since the night of their argument. He had reached out, leaving voicemails and texts, but she’d never responded. He’d even tried calling her office, only to be told that Bernie had taken a leave of absence, and no one could say for sure when she would return. His little secret coming out must’ve done more of a number on her than he had first thought. Once his business was done with his family, he was going to turn his attention to fixing things with Bernie, if that was even possible.

  One Hunt was avoiding him, but there was another who seemed eager to talk to him. He did a double take when he saw the text from Theodore Hunt. Theodore never reached out to Keith unless it was work related, and even then, it was by email, never by phone or text. Keith hadn’t even realized the man knew his number. We need to talk ASAP, was all the message said. No doubt Bernie had told him about their breakup, and Daddy was eager to defend his daughter’s honor. Well, if he wanted to get on Keith’s case about how terrible a person he was, he would have to take a number and get in line.

  Keith had just grabbed his luggage and was headed to catch a cab to his hotel when he spotted a slender white man with a tapered red fade that blended into a scruffy beard of the same color. He was wearing a black suit, and in his hand, he held a sign that read SAVAGE. He hadn’t told anyone in his family, including Asher, what day he was coming in, so it was a bit of a shock to see that someone had been dispatched to fetch him. He really shouldn’t be surprised, though. There wasn’t much that went on in the Big Easy that the Savages didn’t know about.

  “Welcome home, Killer,” the man in the suit greeted in a heavy Southern drawl, which didn’t match his clean-cut appearance.

  “The name is Keith,” he said, correcting him. “And you are?”

  “The name is Ulysses.” He extended his hand, but Keith didn’t shake it. “Right then. I was sent by the family to pick you up and bring you to the house.”

  “Appreciate it, but I’m afraid you’ve wasted a trip. I’m gonna grab a taxi to the hotel and freshen up. You can tell my mother I’ll be by soon.”

  “I don’t work for your mother.” Ulysses took Keith’s bags and started for the door, leaving Keith with no choice but to follow.

  The first thing Keith noticed when he got outside was the heat. He’d been gone so long that he’d forgotten how oppressive the weather could be. Atlanta weather was always warm, but New Orleans heat was on another level. It was like being wrapped in a blanket of hot mist.

  “How’d you know I was here? Did my mother figure out a way to hack my credit card?” Keith called after Ulysses.

  “I’ve been coming here three times per day every day since Asher let us know you were coming,” Ulysses said over his shoulder. “And I told you, I don’t work for your mother.”

  “Then who do you work for?” Keith asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  Ulysses led Keith outside, to where a white Maybach idled at the curb. Its windows were tinted so heavily that it was impossible to see who was inside. Ulysses loaded the bags into the trunk, while Keith watched the car suspiciously. One thing he had learned in his days of running the streets was not to approach cars without first identifying the occupants. A friend of his had lost his life that way. Keith hadn’t been involved in the life in years, but he knew that his family had no shortage of enemies in New Orleans. Killing one of Machine-Gun Ma’s kids would be quite a boon for some young shooter looking to earn his stripes. Keith tensed when Ulysses went to open one of the back doors, not quite sure what to expect. He found himself pleasantly surprised when he saw who was inside.

  She oozed from the backseat with the fluidity of a shadow. Dark sunglasses covered her eyes. She was a tall woman, standing nearly six feet in her stiletto heels. She was a big woman. A tight white dress clung to her wide hips like a second skin, dipping low in the front, showing off her full bosom. Her neck, wrists, and ears were adorned with clear diamonds. When she smiled, the sun seemed to shine a little bit brighter. It had been a long time since Keith had seen that smile, and until then Keith hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it.

  “You gonna stand there looking like a star-stuck schoolboy, or you gonna come give your big sister some sugar?” Maxine greeted in her husky voice.

  Keith nearly fell into her arms and wrapped his only sister in a tight bear hug. She smelled of jasmine and whiskey. “There’s my favorite girl!”

  “Ha, flattery will get you everywhere. I thought Bernie was your favorite girl? And what happened between y’all? You need to stop doing dumb shit, before you push that girl away,” Maxine warned.

  “Why do you naturally assume it’s my fault?”

  “Because I know you, Killer. Your solutions to all your problems are to put them off or run from them,” Maxine said, sounding every bit the psychology major she had been during her college years.

  “You analyzing me now, Doctor?”

  “I used to change your shitty papers, so I know you better than anyone else. Besides that, I spoke to Bernie. She’s not real pleased with you right now,” Maxine said, pointing out the obvious.

  This came as a surprise to Keith. He had no idea his sister and his fiancée had kept in contact after their brief meeting. “You keeping tabs on me?”

  “No, just vetting the young lady my little brother planned on giving his last name to . . . well, a last name, at least. We don’t talk all the time, but I check in with her every so often. I called when I found out you were coming home, because I wanted to plan some girl stuff for me and Bernie, so imagine my surprise when I got word that she was sitting the trip out and when I learned the reason why.”

  “So, you two girls been swapping secrets?”

  “Relax, Killer. You ain’t been honest with her about the family, so it wasn’t my place to tell her, but I can’t say that I’m not a little disappointed with you for the way you’ve chosen to go about it. Are you that ashamed of where you come from?”

  “I’m not ashamed,” Keith insisted.

  “Then why keep up the lie? Let me tell you something, little brother. Relationships built on lies never last. Before you put that ring on her finger, you should’ve put some truth in her ear.”

  “I planned on it, but—”

  “See, there you go, making excuses again,” Maxine said, cutting him off. “I’m your big sister, but I’m also a woman, so I feel her pain. You weren’t honest with that girl about what she was getting herself into, so she has every right to be mad at you. You should have laid your cards on the table and allowed her to make an informed decision. Had it been me and I realized you’d been spoon-feeding me lies all this time, I’d have cut your ass before I walked out on you. I don’t know her like that, but near as I can tell, Bernie is a good girl, probably the best your sorry ass will ever have. If you leave things the way they are and let her slip away, you’ll regret it for the rest of your days.”

  “So what do you suggest I do at this point?”

  “Whatever it takes to make it right,” Maxine replied.

  Keith was in his feelings over the things Maxine had said to him, mostly because she had spoken the truth. He should’ve just been honest with Bernie, and either she would’ve accepted him, flaws and all, or she wouldn’t have. He had just been so afraid of losing her that he had done what he built his career on and had bent the truth to suit himself. Now he had to figure out a way to undo the damage.

  “Mind if I ask a question?” Ulysses broke the silence.

  Keith didn’t feel much like talking, but he didn’t want to be rude. “Sure.”

  “How did such a clean-cut dude earn the name Killer?”

  “Max gave it to me,” Keith revealed.

  “Sure did,” Maxine said proudly. “I gave him the name the day I got this.” She pulled up her dress and revealed the scar on her thigh.

  Keith couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve at the time she got the wound that c
aused that scar. He and Maxine had been walking home from school, and she’d decided that they would take a shortcut through the back of an abandoned house. Keith had been against it, but Maxine had insisted, and of course, he did whatever his big sister said. What they hadn’t counted on was a mangy German shepherd that had claimed the backyard of the house as its own. From the foam gathering at the corners of its mouth, they knew something was off about the dog. The two kids took off running, but Maxine twisted her ankle and fell. The dog was on her in an instant. Propelled more by instinct than anything else, Keith picked up a rock and threw it at the dog as hard as he could. The rock hit the dog square in the tip of its snout and broke a bone, which somehow pierced the dog’s brain. Over the years stories had been told about Keith’s deadeye marksmanship when killing the hound, but in truth, it had just been dumb luck.

  “Well, we ain’t cutting through yards no more. We flying these days, baby!” Maxine boasted, running her hand across the top of the Maybach.

  “I see,” Keith said, admiring the car. “I take it the game has been good to you these days.”

  “Let’s just say that the demand for female companionship is at an all-time high.” Maxine gave him a cunning smile.

  “You can’t park here.” Their attention was drawn to a cop, who had just pulled alongside the Maybach. He was looking at the car enviously.

  “We’ll be pushing off in a minute, sugar. We just picking somebody up,” Maxine told him.

  “Then the next time I suggest you park in the designated area. I don’t think the place you rented this car from will take too kindly to you getting it towed,” the cop said.

  Maxine removed her sunglasses and gave the cop a piercing stare. “Honey, you got me fucked up. I don’t ride in or on nothing I don’t own. So you can take that ticket and that slick talk and—”

  “We were just leaving, Officer,” Ulysses said, cutting her off. He knew how reckless Maxine’s mouth could be, and he didn’t want a situation. The cop let his glare linger on Maxine for a few beats longer before he moved along.