The Genesis Group

by Mike Dagons

  “We don’t like the servants mingling with the guests.”

  “Shirley said I should make myself at home.”

  “She doesn’t decide what you can and cannot do while you’re here. I do.”

  He was crowding me, so I tried to take a step back, but he yanked me to him. “Let me go,” I stared up at him.

  “My brother said that you were better at sucking cock than any white whore he ever fucked. It was an outstanding endorsement since he’d fucked so many of you.”

  “I am no whore, and I don’t give a fuck about you calling me one. You can’t hurt me with childish taunts, so you may as well save the energy.”

  “All white women are whores, and you ain’t no different, bitch. My little brother should have known that he couldn’t turn a hoe into a housewife by buying her an expensive ass ring. He could have saved that money.”

  I was too sick of his shit. “Is your mama included in that assessment, Mark? Is she the reason you think all white women are whores because she was one? You hate your mama for leaving you, Mark? Is that bitch the reason you don’t like white women?”

  The extensive dossier I’d read on him said his mother was white. It was rumored that she ran away and left him with Basin when he was a baby. However, Mr. Sherman told me that Tyler caught her with the gardener, and killed both of them. I wondered if Mark knew where she was buried.

  He didn’t respond in a rage like I thought he might. He showed me his teeth in a spiteful smile. “I appreciate your frankness, white girl. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one of you bitches speak the truth before. Damn, if it ain’t arousing,” he cupped his package while he ran a knuckle down the side of my face.

  I pushed his hand away, and he shoved me back on the bed. “All that dirty talk makes me want to fuck,” he rolled me over onto my stomach and got down on my back.

  I could feel his erection pressing into my butt, and I started to struggle. “Get off me,” I shouted.

  “Maybe you are different from other white girls.” He slipped his hands around me and started unbuckling my belt.

  “Please, stop! Don’t do this! Please, you’re hurting me,” I screamed.

  “I don’t think I’m hurting you as much as I’m pleasing you,” he pushed his hand inside my pants and cupped my sex. “Your pussy is hot, baby. You want me,” he panted in my ear.

  “You are disgusting,” I pulled at his wrist. “Let me go before you make me puke.”

  He removed his hand and got up off me just enough to yank my pants down over my hips. “Stop it!” I screamed.

  The bedroom door flew open, and Ceylon walked in. “Get off her,” he ordered in a calm voice.

  Mark stopped trying to remove my pants, but he didn’t get up off my back. We both looked up at Ceylon standing there staring down at us.

  “Man, can’t you see that I’m busy? Get the fuck out!” he shouted.

  Ceylon dropped the garment bag he was holding, and pulled his gun. “I said, get off her, NOW!”

  Mark pushed up off my back, and took a few stalking steps in Ceylon’s direction. “You pulling a gun on me for this white bitch?” he barked. “Did you forget who you work for, nigga?”

  “I work for Viper, and I didn’t contract to watch women being raped,” he answered coolly.

  “This bitch probably killed my brother! She’s a whore that ain’t worth shit!”

  “Then maybe you should rethink risking your life to fuck her.” He stepped aside to allow Mark to leave.

  “You’re going to wish you had stayed out my business, muthafucka!”

  “Yah!” he took another step back, and Mark stormed out the room. “Are you alright?” he asked me after Mark was gone.

  “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have said things to provoke him. Especially since I know that he hates me.” I pulled my pants up, and refastened them.

  “His stepmother invited you to stay. I think she feels a connection to you. She’s hoping that you’re pregnant.”

  “I didn’t tell her that I was pregnant. I told her that we talked about trying. I’m glad it didn’t happen.”

  “Don’t tell her that,” he smiled. “If you had told Basin that you might be pregnant, he never would have put you through that kind of questioning.”

  “You mean he would have spared me the waterboarding, and just electrocuted my ass?”

  “Yeah,” he grinned.

  “It all took me by surprise, and I didn’t think about lying.”

  He nodded to indicate that he understood. “I came up to tell you that Shirley wants you downstairs at seven tonight, and to give you the dress and this.” He held my ring out to me. “She wants you to wear it. I think she plans to introduce you as Steven’s fiancée.”

  “You think I should wear it? He never really asked me, and truthfully, I’m not sure I would have said yes. Steven would have had to fight his family to marry me. It would have put a strain on our relationship that I don’t think we could have survived.”

  “He was going to ask you to marry him in spite of what they thought. That sounds like a man with enough love to make it survive.”

  “What you don’t know is he wanted me to move here secretly. He wanted us to get a place of our own so he could keep me hid. We had a fight about it. I wasn’t answering his calls, and it’s why I wasn’t there the night he was killed. He died thinking I was angry with him. What if he only bought the ring to pacify me?”

  “He would have bought a cheaper ring if it was just a pacifier. The fight probably made him realize how important you were to him. I believe he wanted to marry you, but it’s not really important now. Wear the ring for his mother. It’ll make her happy.”

  “It’s nice having somebody to talk to that I can be honest about my feelings with. Will you be at the party?” I took the ring out the box and put it on my finger.

  “Yes, but I’ll be working.”

  “Do you think that you’ll get a free moment…to talk to me I mean?”

  He actually blushed. “Probably not, but I can find you after the party, if you want.”

  “I want,” I giggled.

  “It’s a date. I saw you staring out the window at the buffet tables. You want me to bring you something up?”

  “Yes, I am dying for some of those giant strawberries,” I lied.

  So he didn’t just pop in to bring me the dress and the ring. If he saw me gazing out the window, then he must have been in the security room watching me. Do not underestimate this man, I reminded myself.

  “I’ll get you some. Lock your door, and I’ll be right back.”

  I smiled, and then followed him over to the door and obediently locked it behind him. I walked back over to the window, and watched Ceylon piling food on a tray for me.

  I had no idea what Janie was doing here, but I was sure she was up to no good. I had reported it to Bender. There was nothing else for me to do until I heard back from him, so I sat down and waited for Ceylon to come back with my lunch.

  Chapter 23

  Melvin was deep in thought when Bender and Chavez came back into the war room. “How’s the kid adjusting to your family?” he asked.

  “Mel? It’s what she wants to be called, tells me that she loves having her own room, grandparents, and a brother. And she adores her aunt Monique because she does her hair and nails. Sam already filed the paperwork to adopt, and change her last name to Ryan. The women love having a girl to dress up. Kendall loves having Mel there because it’s taken some of the focus off him. Now he can spend more time alone with dad, which is what he loves. Everybody is happy and getting along great, except for me and Sam. She is still pissed with me, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s ever going to change.”

  “Learning that your man has a child with the woman he went out of his way to get to relocate to Chicago is not something a woman like Samantha Jawlins can accept without questioning,” Bender rolled his eyes at him.

  “Man, did you roll your damn eyes at me, really?”

 
; “Hell yeah, you broke my friend’s heart with this bullshit.”

  “I didn’t even know Janie had a kid when I recruited her. I went after her because I wanted the best in the business. Next to you, she’s the best. It was strictly a business decision.”

  “Prove it!” he finger snapped him. “Can you, Ryan? I didn’t think so, chief,” he said when Melvin looked stupefied. “Put yourself in Sam’s position, and give her more than a week or two to come to terms with it.”

  “She talked to you about it, didn’t she?” Melvin asked. “Why can’t she talk to me…tell me what she’s feeling instead of shutting me out?”

  “It’s easy to talk to me. I’m her best friend, and I’m an objective listener. I didn’t even suggest she make you sleep on the couch. She loves you, Ryan, but she’s wrestling with a worrisome case of the, what if’s. She can not help it, so you’re going to have to be patient.”

  “Say what?” Chavez chuckled. “What the fuck is the, what if’s?”

  “She can’t help wondering, what if Ryan got Janie to come here because he’s still attracted to her. What if Melvina creates a special bond between them that makes him regret marrying her? What if knowing he has a child with Janie makes him realize he’s still in love with her? What if he thinks Janie is more beautiful and exciting? Is she better in bed? Does he prefer white skin? What if he has more babies? What if he’s only staying with me out of a sense of obligation to Kendall? What if he decides to leave me for Janie? What if? What if? And what the fuck if?” He exhaled in mock exasperation.

  “What the fuck…she can’t possibly believe any of that shit man,” Ryan snorted a chuckled. “It’s fucking ridiculous.”

  “You did make a baby with the woman. You must have been attracted to her,” he shot back.

  “Not on purpose. I didn’t have that kind of connection with Janie. I liked her a lot, but it was never love. Not like it is with Sam,” he protested.

  Bender cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh, I believe you, but can you prove it? Your wife needs proof. All women do, or at least that’s what I was told, over, and over, and over again.”

  Chavez cracked up. “You got to work on proving it, Ryan.”

  “Alright, I’ll give her time, since I don’t have any other choice. But I miss my wife,” he grumbled. “Tell her that the next time she talks to you.”

  His cell rang, and since he didn’t recognize the number, he answered on speaker.

  “How are Odell and the new girl?”

  They were all surprised to hear Janie’s voice. Severe had reported that she was at the plantation with Yeltsin, but they did not expect to hear from her.

  “They’re recovering, but you had to know that since it was never your intention to kill them.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t want to kill either one of them, but you never know when Murphy is going to invite himself to the party. You taught me that, remember?”

  “You call me to reminisce about the way we were, or do you have something significant to tell me?”

  “I know that you’re still angry with me, Ryan, but please believe I never meant to hurt the team or the operation. I just knew it would never work the way you were planning to do it…using Severe in my place. She’s way too inexperienced for a job this big. I thought Steven’s death might make you realize that, and stop you from sending her to Big Foot.”

  “Really, so you called to let me know that I misunderstood your intent. You weren’t trying to sell us out. You were only trying to help,” he answered sarcastically.

  “I called to tell you that I know I didn’t stop you from going through with that ludicrous plan. I’m in Kentucky at the Basin plantation, Ryan. I know Severe is here, and I know she saw me, so there is no point in us playing games.”

  “So is that why you’re calling? You afraid I’m going to be waiting for you when you leave?”

  “I’m hoping that you won’t, especially since I’m prepared to help you get what you want if you agree to let me go free.”

  Melvin looked over at Bender for confirmation that he was recording their conversation. “And if I say no, then what? You blow Severe’s cover to teach me a lesson?”

  “Never would I jeopardize Severe’s safety by telling Basin about her. I’m not threatening you Ryan. I’m asking you to give me the chance to make up for what I did. I can help you.”

  Melvin suspected her reason for not exposing Severe was directly tied to her reason for being there. She planned to steal the card for herself, and she was going to use Yeltsin to help her do it. The only reason she wasn’t going to tell Basin about Severe was because it would hurt her own plans.

  “I was told that all of the guest rooms are bugged, so you may have jeopardized yourself if you’re making this call from inside the plantation.”

  “I’m not a rookie. I’d never assume it was safe to speak freely inside a room Basin prepared especially for me. It’s why I’m calling you from inside my car on a satphone.”

  “Are you proposing she works with you?”

  “No, I’m proposing you let me take over, and work it instead of her. You know I’m more prepared to deliver, and I will, if we can make a deal. Does Severe have the duplicate card Bender was working on? Did he finish it?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? You really think I’m going to share information with you? How do I know you don’t have somebody lined up to buy the damn thing?”

  “I need you to believe that it was never my intent to betray you. I warned you about approaching this job with Severe as the lead, but you were too stubborn to listen then. I need you to listen to me now. If we work together, we can get this done. Please, you need to trust me. I have a foolproof plan, but I need Bender’s card to make it work.”

  “So, you just want to help us? You don’t have a price attached?”

  “My price is your promise not to come after me when this is over. The thing with our daughter; I was wrong, and I’m sorry. I’ll let you raise her to make amends. Sam was kind enough to let me speak to her on the phone, so I know that she’s happy with your family.”

  Melvin was shocked into silence by that news, and he could tell from the look on Bender’s face that he already knew about it. It vexed him that neither he nor Sam thought it might be important to mention it to him.

  “I told Mel that I had to take a job out of town, and that she would be living with you now. I’ve never heard her sound happier about anything,” she chuckled. “Please, Melvin, find it in your heart to forgive me. If not for me, then do it for our child’s sake. Once this is over, I promise to disappear and never interfere in your lives again.”

  “How can I believe anything that you tell me?”

  “I’m going to prove that I can be trusted. Just tell Severe to give me the duplicate card, and I’ll get you the real one.”

  “How you propose to do that, Janie?”

  “I have a plan…a good one. Just trust me one more time, please.”

  “If you try to fuck me on this, you’ll pay the ultimate price for it,” he answered coldly.

  “You won’t regret this, Ryan. Please, tell the guys that I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry,” she ended the call.

  “Did I miss something, or did she just suggest we hand our card over to her?” Bender asked.

  “She knew we weren’t going to back off this job. I think she went there counting on Severe being there alone with the duplicate. We need to find out why,” Chavez said.

  “No, we don’t,” Melvin disagreed. “What we need to do is start using her like she’s been using us. Whatever her plan is, she needs our card to make it work. She didn’t mention Choc, so she doesn’t know Severe has backup. Contact Choc and tell him what’s going on, and tell Severe to let him handle Janie.” He looked at Bender accusingly. “And you. You knew she had talked to Sam, and you didn’t tell me.”

  “Sam made me swear not to tell you, and since you were already on the edge, I agreed that it was best if you didn’t know.”


  “What the fuck is the matter with you?! You should have told me, man!”

  “No, Sam should have told you, and she shouldn’t have asked me not to tell you, but she did. So out of respect for our friendship, I kept her confidence. I will always do that with both of you,” he responded coolly.

  “You withheld information concerning a very important operation—”

  “No I didn’t! Your personal life has become so intertwined with this job that it’s getting hard for me to differentiate between the two, but I’m pretty sure that what I withheld was personal information!” he barked impatiently. “Now, why don’t you get your ass up and go call your wife. Y’all need to straighten this shit out before you run everybody crazy!”

  “He’s right, chief,” Chavez laughed.

  Melvin only had to think about it a second before he realized they both were right. It’s something he should take up with his wife.

  “So you think giving Janie full access is the best way to handle this? We should trust her?” Chavez changed the subject.

  “No, I think we should let her believe we’re going to do it, and then trust that she’ll try to double cross us,” Melvin said.

  “What if she already talked to Basin, and he only allowed Choc to pass the checkpoints because he wants them inside to interrogate them?” Chavez asked.

  “They’re already inside now, so ours is going to have to be a game of wait and see,” Melvin said. “Bender, give everybody a situation update. They all need to be on alert. Janie is in a position to do major damage, so I’m agreeing to work with her. She is not to be trusted. I don’t know what her real agenda is, but you can bet your ass she has one. I need a minute,” he said, and then got up and left the room.

  I should have killed her instead of putting her in lockup, Melvin thought as he headed up to the sleeping quarters on three. There was also a locker room, where he kept a change of clothes, and a community bath and shower on the floor.

  Melvin walked into the room of twin size cots, and sat down on one. He had been sleeping there for the last few days, and it wasn’t just because it was more convenient. His wife had kicked him out of their bed. She had consented to adopting his daughter, but he was worried he was losing her love.