Nia could not obtain an apartment the conventional way; she was a wanted criminal. She couldn’t risk any background investigations or credit checks. What Nia needed was someone she could trust, someone who would need her as much as she needed a place to stay.
But her search led nowhere that day. She was tired and needed to relax. She happened upon the Jazz Hall. Acting on impulse, she stopped her bike and walked inside.
Dozens of tables filled the hall, yet less than half of the seats were occupied. It was unusually quiet for a nightclub. The few patrons in attendance sat quietly, sipping their drinks, muttering amongst themselves as barely noticeable instrumental jazz tunes filled the air.
Nia looked toward the far end of the hall and saw a gorgeous man playing a saxophone on stage.
His music was generic and uninspired. The look upon his face said he didn’t want to be there.
She sighed, took a seat, and ordered a drink.
Then the musician glanced at Nia, and his face lit up.
Nia watched his eyes flow across her body like a scanner. His cheeks expanded and his grip tightened on the saxophone’s keys. It was as if an all-new music track was suddenly downloaded into his brain. The monotone atmosphere livened up. Customers began to rock their heads to the increased fervor of the music, some even rising from their seats to sway their hips in rhythm. People who overheard the music from outside came in to investigate. Within two hours, the Jazz Hall was packed. The bartender couldn’t keep up with the drink orders. The calm atmosphere became merry; a veritable celebration.
Closing time fast approached, and Nia got ready to leave. However, she figured she’d at least introduce herself to the suddenly gifted musician.
The two met after the club closed, and they talked for an hour, became fast friends.
He told her his name was Robert Styles, but everyone called him ‘Bobby’. Jazz music was all he knew; he opened the Jazz Hall as a way to express himself to the people. But the club wasn’t cost-effective enough—especially lately—to win the battle against the expenses he took on when he and his girlfriend moved into her parents’ old house.
He couldn’t believe what happened when he laid eyes on Nia. At least that’s what he told her. He said there was something about her that just made him want to play; ignoring all the sheet music he studied, expressing himself from the heart.
Nia thought he was simply blowing smoke, trying to get in her pants.
Bobby suddenly mentioned that he and Charlene, his girlfriend and the woman who legally owned their house, were planning to rent out a room. Bobby’s focus was on the club; his girlfriend was a nurse who did as much overtime as she could, and they still needed help. It was their last resort to get some extra cash.
Nia smiled an inviting grin. It wasn’t long before she was following Bobby’s black jeep on her bike, flying through the back streets of until they pulled up to a modest home deep in the inner city.
The next thing Nia knew she was shaking hands with Charlene Wright; tall, and slender, with round, worrying eyes and a sharp tongue. She was a tough, mature woman who’d seen a lot in her lifetime; Nia could tell. She wondered how she must have looked to Charlene, Nia’s skin-tight half-top and hip-hugging jeans barely able to contain her curves.
And there was Bobby, presenting Nia like an adorable stray cat he just couldn’t bear to leave outside.
Charlene was ready to send Nia packing on first sight. Nia could see it in her eyes.
Nia imagined what Charlene must have been thinking: some short, stocky young thing parading around the house in T-shirts and panties around her man while she was at the nursing home cleaning up after the elderly; that was the last thing she needed to be worrying about.
So Nia reacted. She dug deep in her pocket and drew enough cash to cover three months of the rent Charlene asked for.
The silence seemed to last for an eternity after that. Then Charlene smiled. And Nia moved in.
She stayed out of their business and went about her own. In fact, Nia was rarely ever there at all, except early in the morning when she slept. But lately, Nia noticed that whenever she was home, she heard Charlene’s paranoid assertions and accusations more and more often, along with Bobby’s extremely patient attempts to calm her down. Charlene accused Bobby of staying out late, spending time with ‘groupies’, sometimes even hinting that Nia herself was one of them.
Nia found the whole scenario hilarious. She found Charlene hilarious. In Nia’s opinion, Charlene was the average pain-in-the-neck, over-attached girlfriend who would end up ending her own relationship with her own bad attitude before any outsider had a chance to come between them.
Nia entered her room, a den of thick plaster walls containing naught but a dresser, a television, a twin bed, a small washroom, and a lamp. She overheard voices from above.
“Bobby, we are having this conversation! Don’t you dare ignore me! I’m talking to you!”
That’s the kind of stuff that makes people call us bitches, Nia thought with a sigh. She was able to hear the explosive exchange above her quite clearly; due in no small part to Charlene’s loud, grating voice. Nia was impressed because Bobby managed to stay relaxed under fire from Charlene’s ranting even after the violence outside the club. If that was me, Nia thought, Charlene would have caught an open-handed slap in the mouth.
“Charlene, I’m sick of this. I just got home from a gig; there was shooting all over the joint…you ain’t even asked me if I’m all right or nothing. Soon as I walk in the house, nag, nag, nag…”
“She was there, wasn’t she? Answer me!”
“Why? What difference does it make?”
“Why do you have lipstick on you? Why is she always at your gigs when I have to work?”
“Look, she does her own thing. I ain’t tell her to come! It’s not like I decide what nights I’m going to perform! That’s Marc’s call now, you know that!”
“Is she even paying the rent? You act like you don’t know where she works, but she always got the rent, right? Or are you just saying that because she’s paying you some other kind of way?”
“Charlene, kill that noise,” Bobby muttered softly with added bass. “You’re the only one I—”
“Don’t try that smooth shit with me…you spend more time talking to her than you do me! You see her every night while I’m waiting for your behind to come home. I think she’s the one blowing your saxophone!”
“‘Lene, I’m going to bed. You done lost your mind. Ain’t you got to go to work or something?”
Silence for a moment.
“Yeah, whatever. You lucky I need this overtime.”
Nia shook her head, listening to heavy footsteps thumping around above her. She sighed again and slid out of her skirt, pantyhose, and top, changing into an oversized T-shirt. Nia dimmed her lamp until its white light became a soft tan glow. She lit two sticks of incense, inhaling the soothing essence and relaxed with a deep breath. Sliding open a drawer near her mattress, she fished out a small box and emptied its contents in her palm. One round at a time, she reloaded her pistols, placing them under her mattress before resting her head on a pillow. She switched off her lamp and lay on her bed, eyes wide as Charlene’s hollering continued.
An hour passed. Nia curled up inside her comforter, her eyes wide open. She stared out the window at the starry night sky and listened to the creaking of the house settling and crickets flitting about outside. Silence had since fallen over the room above. Nia let out a deep exhale.
About time Charlene went to work!
The floorboards creaked just outside her door, followed by a subtle knock. Nia quickly threw aside her blanket and opened the door without turning on the light, allowing her visitor to enter.
“Finally. I was getting sick of waiting.”
“I had to make sure she was out,” he muttered back. “You know how hard it is to play when you sit in the club looking all good like that? I was thinking about you all day.”
“How hard do
I make it, baby?” Nia whispered, stroking Bobby between his legs. “Ooh, I see…”
“Nice shirt,” he whispered.
“You should like it,” Nia whispered back. “It’s one of yours. You left it in here the other night. I almost put it in with my laundry. Charlene would’ve had a fit.”
“Let me help you with that,” he muttered seductively, lifting the T-shirt off her, her breasts tumbling down from under the shirt and bounding against his chest. He reached behind Nia’s neck, moving aside her hair and fumbling for the lock that secured her pendant.
Nia grasped his wrists and pulled his hands away. Bobby groaned.
“You know I never take off my mom’s pendant,” Nia said. “It’s the only thing I have of hers. It’s what keeps me going…”
“I’m just sick of the damn thing scratching me up and getting tangled in your hair. But if you gotta keep it on, keep it on, I guess.”
“I’m just not trying to lose it. But, let’s not get off the subject,” Nia said softly, wrapping her arms around Bobby while kissing him on his face and neck.
Their lips came together; their tongues dancing as their hands slowly stroked every inch of the other’s skin. Nia slid her fingers across his steely muscles, stroking his bulging pectorals, his shoulders, his biceps and triceps. She wrapped her hands around Bobby’s wrists and slowly guided his palms down from the sides of her face, across the curvature of her breasts and around her taut nipples, down past her abdomen as they reached their destination in front of her thong. Bobby tunneled his fingers within her panties and between her legs. He pressed against her with his left hand and took hold of Nia’s butt with his right. Nia placed her hand on Bobby’s head and gently pressed down, easing him into a crouching position, his hands sliding down across her legs with her panties in tow.
Nia crossed her fingers against the back of Bobby’s neck as his hand pressed against her back. Lifting her and laying her upon the bed, Bobby smiled at Nia as he looked upon the curvaceous plane of her body from the bottom up. Nia returned his smile, glaring as the moonlight glinted of every curve of his muscle mass as she watched his mouth approach her, his hands slowly parting her legs. Bobby’s soft, hot breath caressed her warmth, which was now wet with anticipation. He moved gently through her perfectly trimmed hair with his tongue to expose her for his pleasure.
She hissed. A rush of excitement and pleasure shot from between her legs throughout her body as Bobby’s tongue massaged her. Nia’s eyes rolled back and she writhed in glee as Bobby’s head swerved back and forth between her legs, his tongue moving slowly, then quickly, with long strokes and short darts. Every movement brought her more pleasure than the last. Even the subtlest of motion from Bobby shot through her body like a tidal wave of ecstasy, a rush of euphoria stimulating every nerve as she thrashed about like a snake, moaning and groaning.
Nia sat up and rubbed her fingers against Bobby’s strapping back muscles, sliding her fingers across the undulations of his body, her breathing a rapid squeal as Bobby pressed his tongue deeper between her legs.
Heaving and practically gasping for air, she threw her head back again. Bobby climbed on the bed with her as she gently parted her thighs. Nia reached across to touch and stroke Bobby’s rigid manhood as it trembled in full erection. With her other hand, Nia drew a condom from between her mattress and bed frame. Grinning in excitement, Nia rolled the condom along until it was in place, rubbed her fingers up and down from the head down and smoothly guided Bobby inside of her.
Nia tightly shut her eyes and inhaled sharply as Bobby thrust forward. He wrapped his arms around Nia’s back, rolling over until she straddled him. Bobby stared in joy at Nia’s beauty, clawing her hips and butt as she rocked her hips back and forth, her breasts swinging around as she bounced up and down upon him using the bed as a spring as he slid in and out of her. She shut her eyes and her mouth opened gently, one hand feverishly flying through her hair as the other pressed on Bobby’s torso, her soft breaths escalating into full-on screams of ecstasy as she contorted about. Minutes later he too climaxed, groaning with pleasure, satisfied he had pleased her.
The two collapsed into a passionate embrace, their limbs intertwining as their breaths slowed to a satiated pace.
Nia’s eyelids slowly slid apart, her room fading into a blurry view around her. She stroked Bobby’s forearm, which was tightly wrapped around her, his hand clawing her breast as he pulled her deeply into his embrace. She could feel every up and down of his gentle, heavy breathing as he slept soundly.
She was still trembling from the pleasure. Nia climbed out of Bobby’s grip and forced herself to sit up, peering at her alarm clock.
5:02…damn, this boy better get out of here.
Nia prepared to do what she did every time they got together, what she hated to do. She had to wake Bobby up and shoo him out. But waking such a sound sleeper out of a state of total comfort wasn’t what bothered her most about it.
Nothing felt better to Nia than having Bobby’s muscular, chocolate body clutching hers all night long. Nia was more than capable of taking care of herself, but something about Bobby’s arms coiling around her in the night gave her a sense of security that she hadn’t known in a long time; like no matter what happened, she would be all right. It agonized Nia to accept that Bobby would leave her alone to give that warmth, that strength—that love—to someone else, someone who she felt didn’t appreciate him and certainly didn’t deserve him.
“Bobby,” she gently shook Bobby’s shoulder. “Bobby, wake up. You need to get back in your bed.”
He grumbled incoherently. His body trembled slightly; he let out a pleasant moan. Then he started to snore.
“Bobby, wake up!” Nia shook him harder. “Baby, it’s five o’clock.”
Bobby finally stirred and twisted until he could see behind himself, glaring at the piercing red digital display of Nia’s electronic alarm clock through his blurred, lethargic vision. With an irritated grunt, he lifted himself out of bed and searched for his clothes. He didn’t want to leave the warm spot he nestled into bed any more than Nia wanted him to get up.
“You know, she’s not stupid. Sooner or later she’s going to catch you. What you gonna do if she comes home early?”
“That woman sleeps like the dead when she gets in. You could crash your bike into the front door and she wouldn’t even notice.”
Nia smiled, sprawling herself across his back and wrapping her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. “By the way, what’s up with the deal you got going with Marc? How long has he been running the club now?”
“You know how Marc came through and helped me keep the club open with that loan, right? For a while I’ve been trying to buy my share of the club back from him, you know what I mean, saving up my money and what not. I mean, Marc’s cool and all, but he’s the one in control of my club. We have an argument one day and he could—legally—toss me out.”
“Bobby, if you need some help with money…”
“Nah, girl,” Bobby raised his hands. “I know you got it like that, but if I take it from you, I’ll never feel like the club is mine, know what I mean? But check this—I’ve got some producers coming through the club in a couple of days. They’re looking to hook me up with a record deal for my jazz music. If everything goes the way I hope, I’ll have way more than what I need to pay Marc off and get my club back!”
“Damn, Bobby! You’re about to blow up!” Nia cheered. “You’re going to be making as much money as I do in a minute!”
“Oh, damn!” Bobby suddenly flinched as if he’d just been hit. “Speaking of money…Marc told me to give you a message earlier. You got a call from somebody called ‘Double-D’.”
Nia tore herself away from him. “You telling me this now?! It could have been important! …All right, I gotta call him.”
“Sorry; I didn’t get a chance to tell you before! You were out there having target practice or something.”
Nia sat up in her bed, picked up th
e landline phone and rapidly dialed a number. After three rings, a lady’s voice answered the phone.
“Darien Drakonis’ office. It’s after business hours. Who’s calling?”
Nia rolled her eyes. “Who else calls at this time in the morning, Xara? It’s me. Didn’t Double-D want me for something?”
A pause. “Yes, of course. We thought you were unavailable. We were going to contact one of your competitors.”
“Well I am available. I’m always available for pretty boy, you know that. Not like the way you’re available though.”
“We need you to do something for us. Will you meet with us on the waterfront?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Immediately?”
“‘Immediately?’” Nia repeated. “Like, right now?”
“That is what ‘immediately’ means, yes.”
“It’s like five o’clock in the morning. You know I don’t like coming outside in the morning.”
“Mr. Drakonis will make it worth your while. He’s been wanting to meet you for some time now.”
“Oh, for real? He’s coming out himself?” Nia’s face lit up. “I’ve always wanted to meet him face-to-face too. I like knowing exactly where my money comes from.”
“Meet who?” Bobby grunted. Nia shushed him with her hand.
“Then you’ll get your wish. He has something he wishes to impart to you personally. See you soon, Miss Black.”
The line clicked.
“Damn! It’s all early and shit…” She hung up the receiver and laid back on Bobby’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her again, exploiting another opportunity to touch her body. Nia folded her arms atop Bobby’s hands, taking comfort in his embrace.
“Yo, who is that guy? You got a thing for him or something?” Bobby inquired.
Nia sighed. “It ain’t like that. Darien Drakonis is the vice president of this company called Drakonis, Inc. They’re kind of like Corp Hudson, but they’re not psychos turning people into machines. They deal with computers and stuff. Of course, they got all sorts of dirty deals on the side just like everybody else. They’re just another bunch of clients to me.”
Beloved Weapon Page 4
