Strangers

by Crystal V. Rhodes

  James Starr had been the war lord of the rival gang to which Sin belonged. The members of each gang earned their mantel as a man not only through fearless service to their brothers, but by their number of sexual conquests. Women were like chattel and the boys changed female companionship regularly, except for James Starr. He had been going with a beauty named Regina Jason since they were both in grade school.

  The relationship between the couple had been envied for its longevity. Other than Regina, there wasn’t a woman in Harlem who could say they had slept with Starr. Among his peers, he was a rare breed, a young man who was completely faithful to his lady.

  “What happened?” Shocked, Sin didn’t know what else to say. Like the two of them, Regina would have been in her forties and James, Jr., whose nickname was Pookie, would be in his twenties. “Were they in an accident or something?”

  James leaped to his feet. Sin reached for his weapon. James reached for his. They stood frozen with their eyes locked; each waiting for the other to make a move that could prove deadly.

  “You ought to know what happened!” James’ voice trembled with rage. “It was you who had them killed!”

  Sin was blindsided. He stared at him in astonishment.

  “Are you crazy? What are you talking about?” Still poised to defend himself, Sin took a step back.

  James’ face was contorted with rage. He didn’t need a gun to take this man’s life. He could strangle him with his bare hands and watch with glee as the life seep from his body.

  “After that hit from our gang took your guys down, we knew that you’d get your revenge, but never, in a million years did I think that my girlfriend and my son would have to pay the price. The woman I loved and my baby boy were shot down like animals right in front of my face!” A strangled sob caught in his throat.

  That had been decades ago. His body had healed from the bullet wound that had ripped through his shoulder, but the pain in his heart was just as searing as it had been on the day that he lost his family.

  “Why man? “ James thumped his chest with his fist in anguish. “Why my family?”

  Sin sensed the danger in James’ unbridled fury, but his own anger proved to be just as great. Undaunted, a defiant Sin moved from behind the chair to face the much larger man.

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! I didn’t have a thing to do with harming your family. Who said I did?” He didn’t like liars or lies, especially when they were directed at him. “Hell! After I survived the ambush, I went straight to the bus station and headed out of New York!”

  James shook his head in denial. “You’re lying!” He had to be. “Bo Jack gave you up when we forced him to tell us who had planned the hit on me and took out my family instead.”

  “Bo Jack told you a lie.”

  Sin’s voice was steel. His eyes held James’ fiery gray ones so that he could see the truth in what he was saying. For a moment there was a flicker of uncertainty in James’ demeanor. He looked bewildered.

  “But…” James’ head was spinning. “But Bo Jack, said...”

  “There are no buts,” Sin snapped, reeling at the absurdity of the accusation. “I can prove where I was. I quit the gang the day that my friends were slaughtered. I haven’t looked back since. I mean, I did a lot of bad things when I was a kid, but kill a woman and child?” Sin held up his hands as if to ward off the very thought. “No! No way!”

  “He didn’t say you pulled the trigger...”

  “I bet he didn’t…”

  “He said that you planned it.” The conviction that had been in James’ voice began to waver.

  “How could I do that on a bus headed west?” Sin rubbed his hands across his face in frustration as he tried to gather himself. Did the man not understand what he was saying? “I haven’t seen or talked to Bo Jack since the day before the guys and I got ambushed.” He whirled on James. “The ambush you planned!”

  “What?” The disbelief in James’ voice was as adamant as Sin’s had been a few minutes ago.

  “You were your gang’s warlord!” He jabbed a forefinger toward James. “Who else would plan it?” Sin’s bitterness was pronounced. “That gang was my family, man. The only one I’d ever known. Every one of those boys who died in that ambush was like a brother to me!”

  Starr had been responsible for their deaths. That had put him on Sin’s hate list up to this very day.

  “Man, you are so far off base.” James shook his head as he backed away from Sin. “I didn’t have a thing to do with that. I didn’t even know about it until it was over.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” Sin spat. “You were at the top of your gang’s pyramid. It would have been impossible for you not to have been in on the planning.”

  James understood his skepticism. “My son came down with some kind of intestinal infection. I was with Regina in the hospital with him for three days straight. That hit was planned without me. I never found out who it was, but word was there was a traitor in your gang who told one of our foot soldiers when and where to find all of you together.”

  The two men looked at each other steadily. Both knew that whoever it was would have had something to gain by the deception. The answer came to both of them at once.

  “Bo Jack.” James whispered aloud the name that was on also on Sin’s mind.

  Robert Jackson—known as Bo Jack—had been the most likely member of Sin’s gang to lead if all of his rivals were dead. The six boys who had been ambushed that fateful night would have been the ones who might have challenged Bo’s rise to the top. One telephone call had eliminated that possibility, but Sin had survived. Yet he still carried the memory of the carnage that he had witnessed that night.

  “Bo Jack didn’t know that I had left town, but he knew that there should have been six bodies.” Sin’s bitterness became redirected. “Since I hadn’t contacted the gang, he probably thought that I was hiding out somewhere in the city.”

  “It was that bastard who butchered my family.” James was beginning to see the light.

  So was Sin. “What better way to get rid of me but to say I was responsible. Plus getting revenge on you after the ambush would have elevated his status in the gang.”

  “It was me that he was after. I was with them.” James had to close his eyes to ward off the guilt and anguish that he had been carrying around with him for so long.

  Sin watched James in silence, giving Starr the moment to feel the pain. He moved back to where he had been standing.

  James took a shaky breath. “When we snatched Bo Jack...”

  “You got him?”

  “We snatched him butt naked, right out of bed at what he thought was a safe house. And with a little persuasion, he was more than willing to exchange your life for his. That’s when he fingered you.”

  Sin raised an interested brow. “What happened to him?”

  “Bo Jack’s luck kicked in. My partner, Nathan Webb, saved his life. He saved mine too.”

  “How so?”

  “Nate was part of the gang task force that burst in on us just before we put Bo out of his misery. They had expected us to retaliate for my family and had us under surveillance. We were hauled in and they threw all kinds of charges at us. Nate felt sorry for me because of what happened to Regina and Pookie, and he took an interest in me. He kept in contact while I was serving time and when my mother died of cancer, he intervened for me so that I could attend her funeral.”

  “A cop with a heart.” Sin leaned against the back of the chair. “I used to think that there was no such animal.”

  “The same here, but he did more than that. It was his vouching for me that got me released. Then he talked me into signing up for the Marine Corp.”

  That piqued Sin’s interest. “You were in the service?”

  “Yes.”

  “So was I, in the Army.”

  James settled back on the arm of the sofa. “After I got out I joined the police force.”

  “Yeah, I heard about that.” Sin s
at down in the chair opposite him. “Did you ever find out what happened to Bo Jack?” He felt no guilt about what he hoped his answer would be. He wasn’t disappointed.

  “He was shanked in juvie,” James reported. “Stabbed in the back.”

  “Good.”

  The culprit responsible for the death of both their families no longer walked the earth. Maybe now each man could find peace with the past.

  With the tension lessened, the two men began talking and discovered they had a lot in common. By the time Sin left the house a new respect for one another was evolving.

  CHAPTER 13

  “You’re looking good, Mr. Starr,” Dana complimented as he slid into the passenger seat of the car she was driving. He was wearing dark slacks and a knit shirt. On his feet he sported a pair of well shined shoes in place of his sneakers, and he smelled good. “I see you went all out for our night on the town.”

  “Of course I did,” James smiled at her as he fastened his seat belt. “You wouldn’t expect me to show up looking like a slob would you?” His eyes swept her slim torso. “Especially when my date is looking so beautiful tonight.”

  The casual, floor length dress that she wore was strapless and revealed her cocoa colored shoulders. Her short hair was slicked back into a wavy sculpture, complemented by dangling gold ear rings. Her makeup was perfectly applied, and the scent that she wore was a serious threat to his equilibrium.

  “Well, thank you for the compliment.” Dana had taken special care to dress for this evening. She was glad that it hadn’t been in vain.

  Exiting onto the highway, out of the corner of her eye she could see James’ face. He appeared mesmerized by the picturesque scenery.

  “You’ve never been to this area before?”

  James shook his head. “No, I haven’t. Like I told you, the plan was to open an office in San Francisco and that’s where I had planned to live, but after being over here I’m not too sure.”

  As they took the exit to Sausalito, he told her about Ray’s offer to rent the house.

  “So you think that you’ll take it?” Dana asked, maneuvering the car along the crowded streets of the quaint little town.

  “Yes, I think I might. Ray told me that his wife moved her business and her staff out here from Chicago. Her office is in San Francisco and she commutes.”

  “Did he tell you how he flies down to L.A. several times a week to his office? Now that’s a commute.” Dana laughed and James joined her.

  “I guess if he can do that, I could take a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge.”

  Dana found the restaurant in which they would be dining and turned into the parking lot. Inside they were escorted to a table by the window. In the distance was a spectacular view of San Francisco.

  “I like this,” James looked around with approval at the charming ambiance of the dimly lit interior. A jazz trio provided background music. “I haven’t seen a live band in a restaurant since I don’t know when.” He returned his attention to Dana. “You have exquisite taste, Mrs. Mansfield.”

  She was glad that he was pleased. “Actually, I can’t take credit for this. Bev and Ray introduced me to this place and I fell in love with it.”

  They both ordered the crab cake special, with all of the trimmings and then settled back to await its arrival. Dana looked at James across the candle lit table, appreciating what a ruggedly handsome man he was. His golden skin glowed with health, and she had always liked the bald look. She wasn’t crazy about the pierced ear on men, but after getting used to the one in Sin’s ear, it had started to grow on her. She sure did like those bulging muscles though, but it was those eyes that were especially appealing. Gray eyes on a black man. How unusual.

  “Are you bi-racial, James?”

  He gave a hearty laugh, knowing what had prompted the question. “No, these old eye balls come from a long way back, on my father’s side of the family. I’ve been told that they come from my great, great, great, grandmother who was her master’s child. My father had them too and he was walnut brown.”

  “Is your father living?”

  “No, I lost him when I was thirteen.”

  “The two of you were close?”

  James nodded. “As far as I was concerned, he walked on water. When he died from a heart attack my life spun out of control.”

  “Is that when you joined the gang?”

  “Yep, and my mother was frantic. She tried everything to get me to quit. My parents were hard working people and I was their only child. They hadn’t raised me to be a thug, but the gang was an outlet for all of the hurt and pain that I was feeling. Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see me quit. She died when I was in jail.”

  “Is that her name that you have tattooed on your arm?” Dana nodded toward the artwork covered by his shirt sleeve. She looked at him expectantly.

  “No.” That was all that James would offer on that subject.

  He turned to look out of the window making it obvious that the subject was closed. Dana didn’t press.

  “How did your talk with Sinclair go?”

  James’ head snapped around in surprise. “How did you know about that?” Sin had left before she arrived.

  “He’s staying on the boat with Ray and me. When he came in I asked if he planned on talking to you while he was here, because Lord knows you needed to talk. That’s when he told me that he had stopped by the house.”

  Since it was clear that James would be involved with their family for awhile, she had hoped that whatever the matter was between the men would be settled. His next words reassured her that might have happened.

  “Surprisingly, it went well. Too bad we didn’t have the opportunity to talk a long time ago, a lot of things would have been settled.”

  Without going into detail about the encounter, he told her how they had parted with a handshake. What he didn’t tell her was how his talk with Sin had set him free of a seething anger that had crippled him emotionally for much too long. Something else that he didn’t mention to Dana was that Sinclair wanted to be an active participant in the effort to track the kidnappers.

  “That’s my daughter and my niece they took and I want in,” he had told James.

  Sin had indicated that he had contacts that could provide them with a decided advantage which James might need. Dismissing that possibility, James had rejected the request because of the potential danger, but Sin would not be deterred. In the end, James had made no commitment to his request, but he did promise to keep him fully informed. Sin hadn’t responded to that concession.

  Dinner was delicious. After they finished Dana pushed her empty plate aside and leaned across the table toward James. He could see that she had something on her mind.

  “I’m glad that you and Sin soothed the waters between you because I need to tell you about something that’s going to happen tomorrow.” She gave him a small smile before continuing. “It seems that Sin came with me on a clandestine mission on behalf of Darnell and Thad—but, probably more Darnell, if you ask me. You see, earlier today he met with Carla and gave her a list that my niece and her husband had compiled. It contained the names of twenty-five minority children from all over the country, who were abducted during the same period of time in which Nia and Gillian were taken, and these kids are still missing.”

  James didn’t need to hear anymore. “Let me guess. As their spokesperson, Carla is going to hold a press conference and read those names.”

  “You’ve got it, and they’re offering a substantial reward for each child that is found. They want to bring awareness to the fact that minority children are ignored in the media when it comes to missing children.”

  He knew that this was true. As a cop he had been an eyewitness to the media’s disinterest. Blonde hair and blue eyes sold newspapers and drew TV ratings. If Darnell Cameron and Thad Stewart hadn’t been major celebrities there was no doubt that public interest in the abduction of their loved ones would have waned by now.

  “Sin volunteered to bring
the list and the statement to Carla.” Dana raised an eyebrow. “And I suspect that he had other motives to come with me as well.”

  “You’re saying that it was his talk with me. Other than that he could have sent the list by e-mail or fax, just like you could have done with the contract.” James raised an eyebrow of his own.

  Dana gave a guilty chuckle. “Okay, I’m busted, but I don’t think they wanted the rest of the family to know what was going to happen. There are some members who feel the first statement issued brought unnecessary publicity. Lord knows they don’t want to generate any more, and this definitely will. But Darnell is a stubborn one.”

  “There’s no doubt about that. Has your niece always been a rebel?”

  “She sure has.”

  James grinned as he recalled the exploits that he had read about the superstar over the years. She lived life on her own terms. Notoriously private, she shunned Hollywood and had stated publicly that walking the red carpet at award ceremonies was a waste of exercise. She gave very few interviews, and when she did grant them, she let it be known that she expected intelligent questions.

  Thad Stewart was the polar opposite. As a celebrity he had always been outgoing, both with the public and the media. Known as a notorious playboy, every actress, model and heiress in the country had tried to tame him, but it was the contentious diva that had won his heart. When Thad and she got married the entire entertainment community had been shocked.

  “Darnell Cameron is my kind of woman,” said James.

  Dana leaned forward and folded her hands under her chin. “Oh, is she?”

  James leaned forward and mimicked Dana’s stance. “Yes, she is.” He flashed a dazzling smile. “And so is her aunt.”

  Dana’s throaty laugh shot straight to James’ groin. It was as sexy as hell. This woman could prove to be a major distraction for any man.

  “What are you thinking, Mr. Starr?”

  “About you of course,” James answered honestly. He was enjoying their flirtatious banter. “And about why I didn’t know more about you.”

  “Why would you?”