BOMAW 7-9

by Mercedes Keyes

Jake was shocked that she said that, he couldn't believe his ears. Vivian moved further up the stairs, "Yes ma'am."

  "Wha's yo'name girl?"

  "Vivian Cooke ma'am-..."

  "My fiancée Ms Earthaleen..." Jake stepped up beside Vivian, "... and I would really appreciate it, if you wouldn't make such comments as you just did. She's hardly black as soot."

  "Chile please, that ain't the first time she done heard that! Is it gal?"

  "No ma'am, it's not."

  "I know, now let us get something straight right now. You gone be staying down there now, I'on wanna be hearing a bunch of carryin'on. Woke me up the otha'night, damn near gimme a heart attack, all that noise you making! Don't make no sense, ain't even married ... leas'ways fo' I let a man have his way wit' me, there be a ring on my finger and-..."

  Jake lifted Vivian's hand with her ring on it to show Ms. Earthaleen, who paused, stunned by it.

  "See Ms. Earthaleen, a ring. A very expensive ring! I'll be putting in plenty of overtime and working holidays and all to pay for it. But I don't mind Ms. Earthaleen, wanna know why? She's worth it. See, we're in love - gonna get married too ma'am. Yep, we're working on the date right now. You'll get your invite too, I'm sure Mrs. Martin will bring you when the time comes. We'd love to stand here and talk some more with you, but we have to run. We're having dinner with her family." Jake stated, holding onto both of Vivian's shoulders and then directed her, "Say goodbye to Ms. Earthaleen baby."

  "Goodbye Ms. Earthaleen."

  "Emmm hm, I be here. Ya'll just mind what I say, keep it down at night, I'on wanna hear that no more!"

  "Yes ma'am!" They both called going into the apartment and closing the door.

  "I am not staying here with that woman living up stairs." Vivian whispered with her arms crossed over her breast, looking ornery.

  "Baby, it'll be fine, with me gone through the week, she won't have anything to complain about. Now, we'd better get ready - dinner at your folks, I guess its my turn hm?"

  Vivian shook her head, dreading it; no matter, there was no backing out now.

  Chapter 214

  Previously, Madison pre-dawn Saturday...

  Derrick lay in bed beside his wife trying to talk to her. She was not in a good mood. They hadn't been able to talk the previous night because of Kathy Ann. She'd come in with Sasha from grocery shopping and right away he could tell something was not right with her. What burned him up with anger was that she deliberately stuck to socializing with Kathy Ann instead of telling him what was going on. Any advances he made to her to get her upstairs into their room, in private so they could talk, was a waste. She wanted nothing to do with him and he wanted to know why.

  He ended up having to leave her alone and instead, asked Sasha had anything happened while they were out.

  "I don't think anything happened.." She returned with a shrug, "We did what we usually do. She was quiet when we were coming home though, wouldn't let me listen to the radio." She pointed out; that was it, nothing that he could go on.

  She'd deliberately stayed up as late as possible talking to Kathy Ann, when he came within hearing of them, they both grew quiet. He didn't like that. He had a feeling she was sharing something with Kathy Ann that she shouldn't. He'd gone to bed, giving up on trying to draw her out. Now it was the early hours before dawn, 4:30 and she'd just climbed into bed.

  Right away he rolled over propping himself up to hover over her, "What's going on? I want to know, I want to know now."

  "I'm sleepy, I have nothing to say."

  "I beg your pardon, you stayed up 'til the early hours to talk to Kathy Ann, obviously with plenty to say, you'll talk to me. I want to know, what's going on?" He persisted.

  "She was at the grocery store." Meribel murmured, then turned to her back to look up at her husband in their dark bedroom.

  "She? Who?"

  "Who do you think?"

  Derrick swallowed nervously, he settled down close to her still, no longer leaning over her, his hand palming his head.

  "She say something to you?"

  "Yes, I was in the freezer section, door open, so it was fogged up and I couldn't see behind it. Sasha was in another aisle getting a few things for me. Someone walked up behind me and said, "I can't imagine what he sees in you." Because my mind was somewhere else, I didn't at first know what was going on. When I turned around, she was walking away from me. If you must know, I called out to her, said, "Excuse me? Were you talking to me?" She looked over her shoulder at me like I was some kind of lowlife. If I hadn't had my daughter there with me, I'm telling you now, I would have mowed her ass down with my shopping cart. Puta! I'm telling you now, you better deal with her, because I deal with her, it's gonna be my way!"

  Derrick didn't know what to say, stunned that this was going on. Finally he asked, "You haven't told Kathy Ann about what's going on have you?"

  "Maybe I have, maybe I haven't."

  "Don't you dare! You know how she is! I don't want that kind of trouble! You know that Meribel!"

  Through clamped teeth Meribel's accent was thick and threatening, "There won't be - any trouble - if that puta - stays away from us. She calls my house again, says anything to me again, I will find her ass, and lay an ass whipping on her that is nothing short, of a good ol'fashion, Chicago style at-the-end-of-the-alley-pissed-Puerto-Rican-doing-surgery. My problem, I'm one of those surgeons, that cuts, but - I don't stitch."

  Derrick got chills, she looked so mean and evil. He knew she had a cold streak in her that could turn on you, but she'd never really exhibited it before now.

  "Meribel, I don't like what I'm hearing."

  "Then I suggest, you set her straight. Just so you know it, Kathy Ann knows, because I told her about her. You my husband, better make her aware, her fatal attraction is going to get her in a world of hurt. You have any doubts about us, tell me now, bec-..."

  "Don't be ridiculous! You are my wife! Mother of my children. There's no need for this! She is nothing to me, doesn't have a chance in hell with me."

  "That's good, papi, that's good. Now, the hard job is convincing her. I got this gut feeling, we haven't heard the last of her. This is not the movies and I am not a running screamer."

  "You are a mother first! A wife first! We don't do violence! We don't threaten! We go to the law, understand?"

  "Em hm, sure papi, anything you say." She grew quiet, but her eyes told him everything.

  Derrick blew out, frustrated and angry, whispering to her in harsh tones, "Look! You listen to me! I have lived with this sort of thing all of my life! I don't want it! I won't have it! Why the hell do you think I live here, instead of closer to my folks!? Because I don't want the spirit of it around me! I will not be, what my father turned Shawn into! That will not be my life! Fighting as if he is still in a war! As if all that surrounds us is a battle ground to strike down anyone who dares - FUCK - with a McPherson!" Madder than she had ever seen him, Meribel winced when he gripped her arm painfully, squeezing as he got right in close to her face, "I - won't - have it!" His nostrils flared, he was breathing hard, his eyes brimming with tears.

  "You haven't a clue ... you haven't ... a clue." His manner startled Meribel so, that for the first time ever, she realized, her husband had something in him she didn't know.

  "Now, you will leave it with me. You will leave Kathy Ann out of it. Understand?"

  "Let go of my arm you're hurting me." She said instead.

  He relaxed and turned her arm loose.

  "I don't want you doing anything to her. Leave it to me."

  "You can say what you wish, but I will defend what's mine. Your dad, Shawn, they have nothing to do with this. Being a McPherson, has nothing to do with this. This is about respecting another woman's right, to have her family, to have her husband, to have her home. She will not, disrespect me and spit on my right. I will not allow it. I just want you to know that." She flipped over on her side, refusing to say another word.

  Derrick leaned there a moment more
and then finally fell to his back on his side of the bed.

  With his eyes closed, he struggled with not being ... Bart McPherson's son. Believing that when in defending ones family, they were the law and no one dare break them. He loved his father, but they'd grown up under a man whose mind had been temporarily ravaged by war. Things he'd seen in Vietnam, coupled with other things in his life, made him raise his sons in a way that warped their thinking, rather, made them reason towards a type of thinking that gave them the ability, to do - whatever they felt - needed to be done.

  He'd watched him knock, beat, drill, hammer and force it into Shawn.

  No one knew, what he knew about the things his father made Shawn do; equipped Shawn with.

  Yes, and even he, Derrick had been forced to do things.

  No one knew, that their father, had taught them how to kill.

  And kill quickly, instantly. To his father, an enemy was to be killed, or - that enemy might return, return when they weren't around to deal with them. His father had said to them many times, "Nothing in a man's domain, was more valuable than his woman... nothing. The second most valuable thing, his children, his sons... his daughter's. When it comes to family, you don't threaten, you don't warn, you don't hurt... you kill... period." And he'd shown them how. There was a certain way, that you could quickly, snap a persons neck; they would be dead before they knew what hit them.

  He knew how to do it.

  Shawn knew how to do it.

  Before a small animal was slaughtered on the farm, Shawn, had to dispense of it the way that their father had taught him. Derrick had to do so as well. The one thing that disappointed his father in him, was that he got sick after doing it. But he'd watched Shawn. He'd looked into his eyes; a certain glazed over hypnotic coldness would fall into place and before he could look from Shawn's eyes, to the animal, its neck would be broken.

  Done

  Dead

  Over

  Derrick loved his father. But he'd done something to Shawn. He'd killed something in him that could never be revived; repaired - corrected.

  That whole period of his life had so traumatized Derrick that he'd needed counseling in college. No one knew. Not even his wife knew that he'd spent hours and hours at sessions to get his head straight. To remove from his soul all the ugly things that Bart poured on Shawn and some, onto him. He went into counseling because while at school, he'd almost killed someone. He lost his temper, went into a rage and stopped with his hands in the position, right then; his mind instantly told him, showed him what he was about to do. He saw himself, snapping the guys neck. As if red hot and being scolded, he snatched his hands away; he'd gone and gotten help.

  He knew that it hurt his parents that he hadn't taken their offer of building them a home on their land. Especially his father.

  He just couldn't do it.

  He didn't want to live on that land.

  It had taken a long time to cleanse his soul and be the man that he was, free of violence. Refusing to resort to it; having only a few relapses that could not be avoided. Such as in protecting his Derrick Jr. That time and another. However, each time - he'd pulled himself back, regained his calm and walked away.

  He did not want violence in his life.

  He did not want his wife, being violent.

  Monday morning, he would report Margaret Wheeler to the school board. He needed to put a stop to it before it escalated.

  * * *

  L.A...

  Deidre & Jeremiah, flanked by Deidre's assigned bodyguards spent Saturday morning looking at various properties that may be a new and secure home for her. They had it narrowed down to two choices. Needing a break from it, they stopped at Terra's restaurant to discuss which would be the better of the two while the friends caught up on events taking place.

  They'd been seated in a section of the restaurant with full view of the front door and quick access to the back, this of course due to Charlie. No sooner had they gotten in, lunch ordered when Jeremiah's ring tone started playing the old Perry Mason Park Avenue theme - and of course everyone turned their heads. Deidre and Terra both started smiling as he stood from the table fighting the grin on his own face, letting it play for the appropriate amount of time, because yes, it made him look good, smooth and cool; he was into cool.

  "Excuse me ladies." He winked walking away to finally answer it once it went into the Sax stance.

  Charlie looked at Samuel, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

  "Don't matter how Negros progress, we still got stand out some how! Mr. Armani Mason." She chuckled.

  They were sitting at the table before Deidre's between hers and a clear passage from the entrance of the restaurant.

  Her comment brought up one of Samuel's brows, before hand, he'd been silently staring at her. Having turned to say what she had, also brought it to her attention that he'd be staring. "What are you sitting there looking at me for?" She asked without preamble.

  "This how you plan to spend the rest of your life?" He returned without hesitation. "Guarding other peoples lives? What about your own?"

  "What about it? Nothing wrong with my life."

  "You're a woman Charlie, you got no man."

  "Don't need no man. When I do, I'll get one."

  "Where?" He asked, his eyes moving constantly around the room, checking out the door before smoothly flowing back to hers.

  "Where?" She parroted.

  "Yeah, where?"

  "Why you wanna know?"

  "Curious, you ever curious?"

  "No. Curious kills the cat, don't you know that."

  "Bull! You're a woman, women are always curious."

  "Not this one."

  "Liar."

  "Forget you!"

  Samuel chuckled, "You know, I'm willing to loan myself out - just so you know it."

  "Excuse me? I don't remember making any inquiries on any services you might provide, loaned or not."

  He chuckled again, staring at her once more after doing a room scan, "You've got nice legs Charlie, real nice. Had your legs on my mind all night."

  Charlie eyed him up and down, turned to make her own surveillance and then over her shoulder at him, "That was a waste of a perfectly good night for sleeping, might I suggest you not waste another? An' keep your eyes off my legs, and on that door."

  "You always trying to come off so tough Charlie, but I know you. I think I know you better than anyone. You just a woman Charlie underneath it all, soft, nice and I'm almost certain sweet."

  "You don't know what the hell you talkin' about. I'on wanna hear that shit. I am what you see, so don't fuck with me."

  He was quiet a moment, watching the door and then her. "You ever fall in love Charlie? Has there ever been anyone that got a hold of your heart and just ... squeezed it? Ever?"

  She ignored him.

  "Everything about you is a front Charlie ... just a tough front. Went through training, did everything you had to do. So you could equip yourself with everything needed to be tough. Talk more shit than anybody I've ever known. The more you're challenged, the more shit you talk. Ain't that right Charlie? You know what else, you don't like me, because you know, that I know you. You don't like me, because I can handle you. No matter how tough you are, you know it don't phase me. You can't handle me, or the fact that I can get you down, hold you down, remember?"

  She snapped around, "I'm trying to work here, guard my client - you're distracting me! You were hired to do a job, a job that does not - include me. Do your god-damn job!" She muttered feeling mean, just enough for his ears only while glaring him in the eyes, then turned away again.

  "Emmm, I see. I have struck a nerve. Funny how easily I can rile you. How I can push your buttons. Besides, its a good exercise. I'm helping you to hone your senses. Make you pay attention to all things at once. You need to learn to divide within your mind any room that you enter. Spend some time in your day, blind folded. Force your other senses to be just as sharp as your eyes."

  "You don
't push my buttons. You don't phase me at all! My senses? They are just fine thank you. They are plenty sharp enough, okay?"

  "They should not only be sharp, but sensitive." The word was murmured soaked in sex.

  She turned to look him in the eyes again, his eyes backed the word, the tone, connotation.

  "Why don't you just come on out and ask me for a piece of ass, that way I can give you an answer and we'd be through with this bullshit you laying down."

  He chuckled, laughed at her and glanced at the door.

  Irritated, she looked away from him back at the door.

  "Now Charlie you know I'm a gentlemen, to suggest that, that - might be on my mind. If so, to ask it so boldly as well, tsk tsk tsk. Your opinion of me must change." His eyes were alert and scanning as they spoke in low tones.

  "My opinion of you, is exactly what it needs to be. Gentlemen my hind side."

  He was laughing again, "I like the way that you curse like a sailor one moment and then speak so lady like the next."

  "Oh yeah, well, fuck'yah! How's that for lady like."

  "That was so predictable Charlie, I would expect nothing less from you. You know for all intents and purposes, as long as we've known each other - we should be beyond this by now. Not only that, we should have been to bed together at least once, at the very least."

  She looked at him as if he were the snake who tripped Eve up in the garden. "I thought you weren't asking me for sex?"

  "I'm not. Not yet, just priming you for it."

  "Wasted primer baby, wasted primer."

  He ignored that, "How many years has it been now Charlie? How many?"

  "Too many!"

  He sat back crossing his arms over his well formed chest, shifting the holster with the gun under his light jacket. "Too many huh? Come on Charlie give over. How many fantasies of me have you had? Surely one. I've had more than of a few of you, wanna hear one?"

  "No! You're starting to get on my nerves. Keep your fantasies to yourself."

  "Not even one huh? I don't believe you."

  "Listen here, Sammy! Listen close..." She leaned back and moved over to make sure she was close enough for him to hear her while she kept a vigil on the restaurant activities. "If I'mo give up a piece of this good ass - its gone be to a man that can work it baby. Okay white man? I'm sorry, ya'll just ain't got the groove - you know, that rolling sho'nuff special move. I ain't into frustration and all that... see what I'm saying? So uh, keep that lil'Vienna sausage tucked away safe. Okay?" She turned to look at him with a lifted brow. There faces were really close, she winked.