by Ashley
“I put it in his pants pocket,” Honor said.
“Maybe he moved it. Either way, it’s his. He was there. He did this shit to her,” Sutton said, already browsing August’s social media. “It’s his,” she confirmed.
“It’s not their fault, Sutty,” Luna said. “I can just hack into their security system to get the footage.”
Sutton turned to walk away but she couldn’t hold her judgement a moment longer. “I left her with you two! We don’t leave a man behind.”
“Fall back, Sutty, you’re going way too hard,” Luna said. They all knew Sutton’s way of masking fear was by piling anger on top of it. She didn’t mean to take things out on them, but she had nowhere else to redirect this feeling. The pit in her stomach was bottomless and she was free-falling.
The doctor entered the waiting room, interrupting the quarrel.
“How is she?” Luna asked.
“She’s conscious but under heavy sedation, so she’s a bit out of it,” the doctor revealed. “She has three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen; lacerations to the face, neck, and groin. There was also evidence of rape, which resulted in miscarriage of the fetus.”
Honor gasped. “She was pregnant?”
It was against their rules, but Ashton had always been a rule breaker. She was the sister who went against the grain, the youngest, yet somehow the most rebellious. Babies made them vulnerable. They complicated things, making it hard to move around, making it impossible to evade trouble if it came their way. Babies planted roots and they had always been taught to be the leaves on the trees, not the root in the ground; that way whenever the winds of life came along, they could blow along with them.
“He beat a baby out of her?” Sutton asked, lips trembling and eyes prickling.
“The police will have some questions for your sister when she’s feeling up to it. They’ll want to conduct a physical examination and rape kit,” the doctor said. “We haven’t washed her for this very reason. We could get rid of important evidence.”
“Can we see her?” Honor couldn’t contain her urgency and Sutton felt a streak of guilt because she knew Honor would never purposefully leave Ashton in a dangerous situation. She grabbed Honor’s hand, brought it to her lips, and then patted it for reassurance.
“Yes, this way.”
Sutton’s phone buzzed and she stopped walking. “I’ll be in. Give me a minute.” As soon as her sisters were out of sight, Sutton broke down. She covered her mouth, crying so hard a nurse stopped to assist.
“Are you okay, miss?”
Sutton quickly sniffed away her emotion, wiping her tears as she nodded. “I’m fine, thank you.”
August Sinclair had hurt her baby sister and Sutton felt responsible for the offense and the resolution.
I was sleeping with some nigga I don’t even know while my sister was in trouble.
“Oh, I’m going to ruin this motherfucka!” Sutton hissed, nostrils flaring as her temper blazed. She was so angry she couldn’t steady her heart as she stepped inside Ashton’s room.
“Sutty, I’m so sorry,” Ashton cried. Her eyes were barely open and the first thing she did was apologize. It only made Sutton feel worse. “I didn’t know I was pregnant. I didn’t know…”
“Shhh.” Sutton didn’t even have it in her to be the disciplinarian. She was just happy her sister was alive, grateful to hear her voice.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m just glad you’re okay. You scared the shit out of me. Don’t do that to me, Ash. Who’s going to get on my nerves if something happens to you? Huh?” Sutton flicked a tear off her nose and then caressed her sister’s forehead. They shared a laugh only for Ashton to grimace in pain.
“Don’t worry about anything. I’m going to take care of it. I’m going to make everything better.”
“You sound like Mommy, Sutty,” Ashton whispered. She was groggy and Sutton’s back straightened in discomfort. They didn’t mention their mother. She had died so long ago, it barely hurt anymore. They almost forgot she’d existed, but moments like these reminded them that she had.
“Get some rest. You’re tired,” Sutton said, smoothing Ashton’s messy hair before turning to walk out of the room.
“Sutty, you okay?” Luna asked.
“I’m fine. Stay with her, Gadget,” Sutton answered, voice trembling as she walked out of the room.
* * *
Sutton bumped right into the police as she exited. She tensed when she saw them, a byproduct of growing up in Little Haiti where Miami PD were more foe than friend.
“We’re sorry to intrude, but we really need to speak with Ashton LaCroix.”
Sutton turned on her heels, deciding to stay and support her sister through their questioning process instead.
“We need to perform a rape kit, Ashton. Is that okay?” a female detective asked.
“Yeah, let’s get it over with,” Ashton said. “I don’t need anyone else in the room.”
“Ash, we just want to support you,” Honor said.
“I just need a minute,” Ashton said, lip trembling as she snapped her eyes shut.
The girls turned to leave but Ashton’s voice stopped them. “Sutty, can you stay?” Ashton asked.
Sutton nodded and the others waited in the hall. She held Ashton’s hand as the detective and doctor swabbed every inch of Ashton’s body. Ashton shook violently; even her teeth chattered.
“Are you cold?” Sutton asked.
“I’m scared,” Ashton admitted.
Sutton was devastated. She hated that her sister had to experience this. “Just look at me, okay?” Sutton instructed. “So you want to tell me about the guy?” Sutton was reaching for a distraction. A conversation to take Ashton’s mind off the intrusive exam taking place.
“There’s no guy,” Ashton whispered.
“Of course, there’s a guy,” Sutton responded. “There was a baby so there has to be a guy. A really special guy because we don’t do babies. So if you slept with a nigga without protection, you must love him.”
Ashton’s eyes filled with tears and one slid down her face. Sutton wiped it away, sniffing away her own as Ashton grimaced from the swab the doctor was using between her thighs.
“Is he fine? I know he’s fine, Ash,” Sutton said, snickering as she kissed her sister’s fingers. Ashton was holding her hand so tightly. Her baby sister was afraid, and Sutton’s heart ached because Ashton was one of the toughest women she knew; she didn’t fear anything. Ashton smiled but didn’t open her eyes. More tears. A tighter grip. Sutton squeezed back.
Ashton nodded. “He was perfect, Sutty.”
“Well, where is this man?” Sutton asked. She wanted to keep Ashton talking, keep distracting her.
“He’s in Miami,” Ashton said. Her face broke and her tears worsened. “I lied to him, Sutty. I took everything from him. Ruined his career, took his money, and I came home.”
“Why would you do that, Ash?” Sutton asked.
“He’s Carter Jones’s son,” Ashton revealed.
Sutton didn’t even realize she had released her sister’s hand until Ashton opened her eyes.
She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from reacting. She felt fury fill her body, turning her rigid. Of all the men in the world, why Ashton would choose to fall in love with one who was a direct relation to the Diamonds was beyond Sutton.
“I messed up, Sutty. So bad,” Ashton admitted.
“Just let them do their jobs, Ash,” Sutton said. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ashton whispered.
Sutton didn’t respond.
This conversation wasn’t to be had with witnesses. Carter Jones and the Miami Cartel had a sordid history with their family. They had been to war with her uncle Matee. Her cousins and uncles had died on the streets of Little Haiti at the hands of the Diamond family. Ashton knew the history. How had she fallen in love with the enemy?
Once all the samples were taken, Ashton sat up and gripped the hospital gown.
“We know who did this to her. It was August Sinclair,” Sutton said.
“August Sinclair of Sinclair Enterprises?” one of the detectives asked.
“Does his title matter?” Sutton asked. “That son of a bitch did this to my sister. I want him arrested. I want the perp walk and the whole nine,” Sutton said passionately, stabbing her finger in the direction of the officers.
The pause that followed was filled with skepticism.
“Does that change anything? Look at my sister! He did this to her! Do your jobs and arrest him!”
The detective sucked in a deep breath and glanced at his partner before looking at Ashton. “Is that who did this to you? Would you be able to identify him in a lineup and point him out on a witness stand in a court of law?”
Ashton tried to jog her memory. She had sustained so much trauma, endured so much pain, that she couldn’t even recall. The last thing she remembered was being snatched out the back entrance of the nightclub. Everything after that moment was a blur. All she remembered was pain. She was so foggy.
“I don’t know. I can’t really remember. I don’t know,” Ashton said. “He was there, but…”
The doctor who had been standing aside silently interjected. “It isn’t uncommon for rape victims who experience this type of trauma to have memory lapses. She’s been sedated and given heavy medication. Now isn’t the best time to ask her this.”
The detective handed Sutton his card. “There are steps to an investigation. We’ll be in touch with what those next steps will be,” the man said.
Sutton took the card, but she knew when she was being brushed off. “Steps?” she said. “He committed a crime!”
“If that’s true, we’ll get him,” the detective responded.
“If it’s true!” Sutton shouted.
“Sutty,” Ashton interrupted. “Just let them leave. Black girl accusing a rich white boy of rape. They don’t see a victim in sight. They’re all on the same team.”
“Ma’am, that’s not—”
“Get out my room,” Ashton said.
The detective retreated with empty promises in tow and Sutton wrapped Ashton in her arms, letting her little sister cry on her shoulder.
“I’m going to take care of it, Ash. That’s my word.”
* * *
Sutton sat in the shadows of her office. She was grateful for the darkness. The migraine that plagued her retreated a little in the blackness of the room. She shouldn’t even be here this late, but her mind wouldn’t rest.
The knock at the door was followed by a low creak as Luna pushed into the room.
“Burning the midnight oil?” she asked.
“I couldn’t sleep so here I am. What are you doing here?” Sutton replied.
“Same.”
Luna took a seat and Sutton sighed. “Ashton could have died. All I can think about is ruining that smug, entitled son of a bitch.”
“He’s a trust-fund brat with generational money, Sutty. Getting back at a man like that…”
“Means we take it all. Strip him of everything. His last name, his money, his power. This one is personal.”
“You know we don’t move like that. It’s never personal. It’s always business. When you start letting emotion steer you, you make mistakes. This isn’t what we’re about,” Luna said.
“It is now,” Sutton insisted. “We just got her back. I wasn’t even sure that I was happy about her being back, but seeing her in that tub, all beat up…” Sutton shook her head and picked up her wineglass, tilting it to her lips. She scoffed. “I called the police to see if there had been any updates, any arrests, and they haven’t even questioned him. It’s personal, Gadget.”
“What’s our way in?” Luna asked.
Sutton pulled out her phone, typed onto the screen, and then slid it across the desk.
“An oil rig?” Luna frowned. “How does this factor in?”
“You remember the BP oil spill in 2010?” Sutton asked.
“Yeah, it was all over the news,” Luna responded. “I’m not following you though, Sutty. That was an accident.”
Sutton sat back in her chair and gripped the armrests. “This one won’t be. We’re going to blow their rig. The stock market will plummet, their stock will suffer, and then I’m going to make them pay us to fix it. Only I won’t fix it. Once they hire our firm, we’ll have enough access to destroy their entire company from the inside out.”
“How the hell are we supposed to pull off an explosion on an oil rig that sits in the middle of the ocean?” Luna hissed, voice low because they were crossing lines of morality, lines of legality. Even the conversation could land them under the jail.
“Let me handle that part,” Sutton responded.
Luna stood and headed toward the door. “You need to get some sleep, Sutty. We all do. This is not us. This is criminal. Felonies. Maybe after you rest, you’ll be thinking straight. I’ll call you in the morning.”
Sutton waited until her office door closed before clicking the keys to her open laptop. She pulled up the article she had been reading.
Navy SEAL Dishonorably Discharged
Sutton sipped her wine as she stared at the man on her screen. Her mental wheels turned and she considered stopping herself before she took things too far. Sutton was a bull, however, and once she settled on an idea, she had to follow through. She was like a dog with a bone.
She ran his name through the state database. She wasn’t a computer whiz like Gadget, but she knew how to look a nigga up. Black women became more inquisitive than the FBI when they needed to be. Sutton looked up the address of the naval officer, writing it down on a piece of paper before closing her laptop in haste. She snatched her jacket off the back of her chair and rushed out of the office.
* * *
Ashton grimaced as she rolled out of bed. Her entire body ached. Her soul hurt more. She hadn’t even known she was pregnant. By him. Carter Jones II, world-famous boxer, son of the Cartel. The love of her life. Running from him seemed impossible. Just when she had thought she could evade his memory, the discovery of a baby they had made reminded her of how much she loved him. She couldn’t even call him to tell him what they had created because he would undoubtedly have her killed. Even if he could somehow get over her treachery, his mother, Miamor, surely would not.
She stood to her feet and slowly made her way to the closet. The box in the bottom contained a burner phone, a hundred thousand dollars cash, and a gun. Her emergency stash. She powered on the phone and dialed CJ’s number. She had erased his contact from her normal iPhone, but the numbers were etched on her heart. Her finger lingered over the call button, and before she lost her nerve, she pressed it.
“Hello?”
The baritone of his voice snatched the bottom out of her stomach, and she closed her eyes.
“Yo, who is this?” CJ asked. There was commotion around him, but Ashton blocked it all out, concentrating on his breathing. This call was already too long. There was an awkward silence, then recognition as she heard him move away from the crowd. “Yo, you got a lot of fucking balls to call me right now,” he said. “You know how much money I got on your head? And you dial my line like it’s nothing, like you ain’t a snake out here?”
The overwhelming urge to defend herself brewed inside her, but she didn’t say one word. She would neither confirm nor deny she was on the phone. It would be stupid to speak; it was already reckless to call in the first place, but she had just lost his baby. She just wanted to hear his voice.
“I fucked with you. I don’t trust nobody, but I trusted you and you drug a nigga soul through the mud. For what? Some paper? I had that for you all day. You would have been better off asking. Instead, you was on some foul shit. A nigga treated you good and you were out here like a bird, moving wrong for some fucking money?”
Ashton’s lip trembled. She couldn’t even defend herself. She was too afraid to let him know it was her. Although, she knew that he knew exactly who he was s
peaking to. “I ain’t got to tell you to stay out of Miami. You’re a smart girl. You know what’s waiting for you here. I can’t save you, Ash. It’s beyond me now. The order already been called in. You should have stayed down. It could have been a hell of a life, baby. You take care of yourself,” he said. He paused and her breath caught in her throat. Her heart thundered and she felt sick. She had messed up a lot of things in her life, but this had to be the worst. A part of her wished his baby still grew inside her because then he would have to forgive. He would have to let her explain. Without that connection, she was nothing to him. She could hear the contempt through the phone.
She had known the moment she decided to burn that bridge that no one would send a lifeboat. A failed pregnancy didn’t change that. She would have to nurse these wounds alone.
“You fucked me up,” he said, his tone relenting slightly as he allowed himself to feel something other than disgust for her. “If it’s you, just hit a button.”
Ashton felt the tear slide down her face as she pressed the number 1.
She heard him scoff. “You be good out there in the world, Ash.”
The disconnection tore her heart in half, but she knew she had to let go. She wouldn’t call him again. She couldn’t. He wouldn’t let many more attempts slide without finding her location. She removed the SIM card from the burner phone and went to the bathroom. She tossed it in the toilet along with her dreams of love and happiness. She had made her bed, now she had to lie in it.
* * *
Sutton sat in front of the one-story house, listening to the barking of the German Shepherd that guarded the perimeter of the fence. She had been there for some time. She hoped the longer she stayed inside her car, the more she would come to her senses, but she hadn’t. Trespassing against her was one thing, but doing harm to any of her sisters was out of bounds.
She exited her car and approached the house, ignoring the barking dog as she fearlessly opened the gate. It lunged and barked wildly, but Sutton simply bent and lowered her hand, summoning the dog to her. Dogs were pack animals. They always acknowledged a leader and Sutton exuded leadership in every way.
