“I know. It’s just… Look, I’ve never really been any good in relationships. And I’ve made a few bad choices in the past and…I don’t know what I’m doing. But I don’t want us to be just employer and employee. That’ll be too hard.”
“So you’re saying…?”
Cheryl cracked a smile. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”
A smile returned to his lips. “Nope.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right. I’m saying that…I want…you to be my boyfriend.”
Xavier shifted the SUV into Park and then rolled the window the rest of the way down. “Now. Was that so hard?”
“It was like eating glass,” she admitted while her lips spread wider.
“You better get used to the taste.” He winked. “Now lean over here and give your boyfriend a kiss.”
Cheryl stepped closer to the vehicle and then leaned in through the window where Xavier held a finger under her chin. “You certainly know how to keep a man on his toes.” His gaze lowered to her lips before tenderly brushing his mouth across hers. But that was just a teaser. He delved deeper for another kiss. And then another. Each one was deeper and sweeter than the last until at last their lips were locked and their tongues caressed each other.
By the time he released her, she was breathless and damn near tempted to launch herself inside the SUV and really give her neighbors something to talk about. At that moment she stopped herself and just rested her forehead against his.
“I think it’s time we actually go out on a date.”
“Nothing like putting the cart before the horse,” she joked.
“All that matters is that we have a cart and a horse. Who gives a damn what order we put them?”
“Hmm. I kind of like the way you think, X-Man.” She stole another quick kiss.
“Really?” He stole one for himself. “I have it on special authority that my thinking isn’t the only thing you like about me.”
She grinned wickedly. “Is that right?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Another kiss. “But that’s all right. I have a little list of my own on the things I like about you. Why don’t we get together, say, Friday night and you can review it?”
“That sounds like fun. But I’ll have to see if I can get that night off. It’s one of our busiest nights and I work for this really…this—” she reached down and squeezed his cock through his jeans “—really hard-ass boss who might not let me have the night off.”
Xavier laughed as he nibbled on the bottom of her lip. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Something tells me that you have your boss in the palm of your hand.”
They laughed at the corny exchange, and then shared one last, deep kiss.
When Cheryl pulled back, something caught her attention to the left. She turned just as a man pulled his head back into a silver SUV and rolled up the window.
Hodges?
“Is something wrong?” Xavier turned his head just as the silver SUV pulled away from the curb and drove off.
Cheryl quickly scanned the license plate and committed it to memory. “Well…you better get going,” she said, all business again. “I shouldn’t keep Johnnie waiting all day.”
Xavier nodded.
When his gaze tried to read her again, she flashed a smile and tried to distract him with another quick kiss. “See you later.” She tapped his door and then stepped back from the vehicle.
Xavier tossed her a wink and then shifted his SUV in Reverse again.
Cheryl kept smiling as he rolled back, and when he pulled out onto the street, she stood there and waved goodbye to him. But the minute he was out of view, she turned and raced back into the house. As soon as she was back inside, everyone was still scurrying back to the kitchen table.
She let that go. “Quick. I need a pen.”
Johnnie took one look at her partner’s face and knew something was wrong. “What is it?” She reached in her breast pocket and produced a pen.
Cheryl grabbed the pen and jotted down the license-plate number. When she looked up to blurt out who she’d just seen, her gaze cut away to her sister and nephew. The last thing she wanted was to get them all worked up about seeing a dangerous criminal lurking outside the house. “Give me a minute, I need to change clothes. Mind driving me down to the station with you?”
“Of course not. What happened to your car?”
“Dead at The Dollhouse,” she said, grabbing clothes out of her dresser.
“What in the hell happened in here?” Johnnie asked, looking around.
“Give you one guess,” Larissa said, pulling up the rear and shutting the door behind her.
“Now really isn’t a good time,” Cheryl said.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Johnnie shot back, folding her arms. “I think now is the perfect time for you to tell me why you’re sleeping with the man who we’re supposed to be investigating.”
“What?” Larissa’s gaze swung back to her older sister. “Is that true? Is he some kind of criminal?”
“No. He’s not a criminal,” Cheryl said.
Johnnie shifted her weight from one leg to another. “Really? You know that for a fact?”
“Yes, I know.” At Johnnie’s glare, she had to backtrack a bit. “At least, I don’t believe that he’s a criminal—and so far, we haven’t been able to prove otherwise.”
“You don’t think that your BS detector is a little off because you’re still sleeping with the guy?”
“No! If anything, it’s more in tune. There’s not a criminal bone in that man’s body. He’s too honest…and trusting.”
“And handsome and fine,” Larissa tossed in.
Johnnie shook her head. “Look. I’m not going to disagree with any of that. But I thought that you slept with him one time and it was over with? You’re not going to be able to hide a full-blown relationship from Mackey. He’s already convinced that something is going on with you two, after Royo and Gilliam’s report indicated you disappeared with him after Mad Monez’s bachelor party.”
“Mackey is working my nerves—and he’s the last person to preach about morality or behavior unbefitting an officer.”
“True. But he still is our boss and as much as I’m jealous of you right now, you need to put all this on pause, at least until the investigation is over with.”
“What is it that he has supposedly done?” Larissa asked. “Thaddeus is already crazy about him and I don’t want him getting attached to someone who—”
“He’s innocent,” Cheryl insisted.
But Larissa gave her a look that said she needed more than just Cheryl’s gut feeling on this one.
“We’re just investigating whether drugs are being trafficked through his club, and if so, who is involved.”
Johnnie jumped in. “So far we haven’t been able to substantiate any of the allegations. The teams working the other clubs in the area have waaay more to go on. The Dollhouse looks pretty clean, but Cheryl’s credibility will come into question if she’s sleeping with the boss.”
“Well, it may not be completely clean,” Cheryl admitted. She went over to a pile of clothes and searched her jeans pockets. When she stood, she handed Johnnie the small Ziploc bag of drugs.
“Jackpot!”
“Did you run the nickname Dog Pound through the system?”
“I did,” Johnnie said, unfolding her arms but settling her hands on her hips. “You’d be amazed how many perps are nicknamed Dog Pound in the Atlanta area. I’m giving the brother a minus ten points for originality.”
“So that puts us back at square one?”
“Not exactly.” Johnnie now smiled and puffed out her chest. “I did a little hocus-pocus and cross-referencing on the computer and guess who happens to have a cousin named Dog Pound?”
There was only one name that leaped to the front of Cheryl’s mind. “Kendrick Hodges?”
Johnnie frowned. “How did you know that?”
The Devil You Don’t Know
Chapter 19
“Do you want to take a break?” the doctor asked, looking up from her notepad. “You’ve been talking for a while now. I understand if you want to take a break.”
Q ignored the question and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window, and stared out at the skyline. He allowed a few minutes of silence to pass between them.
“You don’t want to tell me about what’s on your mind?” she asked. “Something is clearly bothering you.”
He allowed the needle to pinch him for a little while longer before confessing. “Have you ever heard the saying, ‘The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know’?”
“Yes. It’s a fairly common adage.”
He turned and looked at her. “It’s basically about fear, don’t you think?”
“In my opinion, yes. I’ve always thought it meant that it’s easier to settle for what you know than to risk the unknown. Why do you ask?”
“It was something you said earlier.” He leveled his gaze on her. “You said that I was a creature of habit—always seeking the familiar.”
Dr. Turner nodded. “What made you think of that now?”
“I’m wondering what made Eamon and Xavier take a leap of faith—decide to step out on that ledge all of a sudden. I mean, I wasn’t all that close to Eamon until I spent time with him in Las Vegas. But I sure knew Xavier very well. He wasn’t a man who was attracted to a lot of drama. Sure, he’s a man of strength and character, I’ll give him that. When the chips are down, you couldn’t have a better ally than Xavier. So I’m just wondering, when things started falling apart and weren’t what they seemed to be, why didn’t he just walk away?”
“Is that what you would have done?”
“Never saw anything wrong with taking the path of least resistance.”
“I think you just answered your own question,” Dr. Turner said, smiling.
Q frowned as if he’d missed the point.
“By your own admission, Xavier loved a challenge, which was probably what attracted him to boxing. He could have been a contender, as Brando would say. I imagine that he loved getting into the ring, and duking it out in a title fight. Why would he be any different when it came to love?”
He fell silent.
“Did you ever fight for her?” Dr. Turner asked softly.
Quentin glanced around the room, relieved that his mirage of Alyssa was nowhere to be found. “I wouldn’t have won,” he said with tears burning the backs of his eyes.
“That’s the problem with never getting into the ring. You never know.”
Before a tear could fall, Quentin turned away from her. “You know what? I think I’d like to take a break for a minute.” He didn’t wait for her to agree or give him permission. He was out the door and out of her office in less than a minute. However, the elevator was taking its sweet time no matter how many jabs he gave the button. Finally, he gave up and raced to find the staircase. Once he was in the spacious echo chamber, he tackled the stairs three at a time. He didn’t know what was happening to him, but if he had to guess he would say that he was experiencing something close to a panic attack.
Even racing down the stairs as fast as he could, it was going to take some time to run down thirty-three flights. He managed about fifteen before he stopped and plopped down on one of the stairs. As he inhaled deep gulps of air, his head filled with thoughts of what if.
To his surprise, they weren’t all about Alyssa. Mostly, they were about his life in general. What if he’d been a hard worker like his brothers and Eamon? What if he had been more serious? What if he had been more of a fighter? More humble? More honest?
“What if I was just a better man?”
His question echoed up and down the stairwell. He only wished that an answer would follow.
“How was your break?” Dr. Turner asked when Quentin strolled back into her office twenty minutes later.
Quentin took a deep breath and smiled. “Good. I, uh, just needed to stretch, I guess.”
She nodded, but her eyes carefully studied him. “Do you want to continue or call it a day?”
“I’m probably eating up a lot of your time. I’m sure that you have other clients.”
“I’ve learned to block out my schedule on the afternoons that I see you. But don’t worry about me. I’m billing you by the hour.”
Quentin laughed and then returned to the chaise. “Soooo…where were we?”
Chapter 20
For the next week, Xavier and Cheryl tried to keep their relationship on the down low. But with all the smiles, laughs and lingering looks, they weren’t fooling anyone. They even thought they were being slick when Xavier kept coming up with various excuses to see Cheryl in his office. Of course, the minute Xavier closed the door, he would pin her up against it and literally devour her whole. One reason everyone knew what was going on was the way the door bumped and bounced when Xavier really got going hammering his hips.
Cheryl also got quite a few withering looks from dancers and waitresses. The only person who was openly giving her props for pulling off the impossible was Lexus.
“I ain’t mad at you,” Lexus said, leaning against the bar while she waited for Cheryl to make her four Long Island Iced Teas for her customers. “You do you, girl. That’s my motto.”
“I’m sure that I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh.” Lexus tossed her a wink as she set her drinks on her tray. “Keep playing crazy if you want to. But on your next break, make sure that you wipe your lipstick off Xavier’s mouth. Q is just letting him walk around looking like he’s in drag.”
Cheryl laughed and then moved down to the end of the bar to a customer hollering for a beer. “Here you go, sir.” She set the bottle down without looking up. But the dude wrapped his hand around hers before she was able to release the bottle. “How much do I owe you, Officer?”
Cheryl’s gaze jumped up to see Kendrick Hodges’s humorless smile. “I told you before that you have the wrong girl.” She tried to snatch her hand away, but Kendrick refused to let her go.
“Are we really still playing that game, Detective Grier?”
Cheryl clamped her jaw tight and glared at him. “Let go of my hand.”
“Why? I just want to talk to you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “What? You too good to have a conversation with me, Officer? Or am I keeping you from doing your job or something?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.” She jerked her hand as hard as she could. “I have drinks to make.”
Someone yelled out for a few White Russians and she quickly turned away to make them.
Kendrick’s sinister laugh followed her. If she was hoping for him to take a hint and leave the bar, she was sadly mistaken. For the next hour, Kendrick remained rooted on the bar stool, watching her every move. When he finally ordered another beer, she approached him with more caution.
“It’s okay, Officer. I’m not going to bite.”
“Is there a problem here?” Xavier asked, materializing behind Kendrick suddenly.
“No problem,” Kendrick said, angling his lips to the side.
Oh, God. He’s about to blow my cover.
“I was just talking to…your lovely bartender here,” Kendrick said. “I wanted to apologize for my rude behavior at that bachelor party a while back. Ain’t that right… Cheryl?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Right.”
He smiled. They both knew that her simple answer was all the confirmation he needed. Then again, he didn’t need it, since he’d been stalking her outside her home. The license-plate number that she ran at the station was actually registered to a Cadillac owned by a little old lady in Albany, Georgia, so clearly the one Hodges was riding around in wasn’t legit.
“Still,” Xavier said with a low, simmering anger in his voice. “I don’t like you hanging around here. So I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Kendr
ick turned to Xavier, his face registering incredulous disbelief. “You kicking me out?”
“Good. You understand English.”
Kendrick laughed. “Damn. This bitch got you sprung like—”
Xavier’s punch was lightning fast and so powerful that the cracking sound that reached Cheryl’s ear actually made her own jaw hurt.
As for Kendrick, his entire body was lifted off the stool, airborne for about three seconds before he crashed into a few bystanders and onto the floor. But the fight was over with that one punch. Kendrick was knocked out cold.
To add insult to injury, Xavier ordered Dog Pound, Kendrick’s own cousin, to toss him out back.
Cheryl stood there with her mouth open, mainly because she wasn’t sure that what just happened was reality or fantasy since she had wanted to throw a punch herself. When she realized that the whole scene was real, she rushed around the bar—to check on Xavier’s hand. “Oh, my God. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. What about you?” He moved his hand so that she couldn’t look at it.
“Let me see,” she insisted.
“It’s fine.” He laughed, letting her take his hand.
He was right. There wasn’t a scratch or a bruise to be seen. “That was…impressive,” she said in awe.
“All right! Nothing to see here!” Quentin shouted, threading his way through the crowd. “Let’s keep the party rollin’!”
Immediately, the Dolls went back to shaking their moneymakers and their devoted fans went back to appreciating their services and raining money on them.
“Are you finished playing Rocky in this joint?” Q asked Xavier.
“Since when have you had an issue with a little bar fight?”
“Since the last time I got stuck with the tab for remodeling,” Q shot back. “Now, what was all of that about?”
“Nothing,” Xavier said, shaking his head.
“Nothing?” Q asked incredulously. “You better come up with a better answer than that. If that dude comes to he’s likely to sue for that broken jaw a few hundred people just witnessed you giving him.”
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