Ineffable (28 page)

“After I annulled my marriage to George, I had an abortion.”

He stopped stroking her. But he didn’t let go. She took that as a good sign.

“I didn’t want to, but after I talked it over with my family, I realized it was the best thing to do. I was very young, and to be honest, the idea of being attached to him in any way, let alone for the rest of my life, made me sick.

“He beat me so bad physically, it took weeks for all the marks to fade. And I was worried the baby wouldn’t come out right. It was many months before I could sleep a night through. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and shaking, my heart thumping half out my chest fearful I was back in that hotel room with him.

“I just couldn’t do it. In my mind I knew the baby wasn’t responsible for what he’d done, but in my heart, I just couldn’t separate the pain he inflicted from that child,” her voice broke, and then she waited.

She expected him to move away, to stop touching her, to stiffen, but Nori’s touch became gentle, more gentle than he’d ever touched her before.

“Silly, girl,” he chided. “Did you think I would love you less for that decision?”

She hesitated, then nodded. Now was a time for the truth.

“You did what you thought was right,” he said firmly. “I’m a little shocked you thought I would hold it against you. You were a child. You made the right decision, you and your family.”

“You’re Catholic.”

“Yes, I was raised Catholic. But I don’t actively practice. I believe in God, but I also believe in kindness and forgiveness, and you want my baby, right?”

She nodded emphatically. “Yes.”

“Well, then. No more worry over the past, hmmm? I have too much in the present for you to concern yourself with.”

She laughed softly at the deliberately arrogant statement, but sobered. “I wasn’t gonna tell you. Not today, I mean. I would have eventually, but,” she shook her head.

“Why did you?”

“George.”

He stiffened, protectively pulling her closer. “What about him?”

“He called, threatening to tell you.”

He cursed luridly in French. “He’s gone too far,” he said quietly. “I warned him.”

“What? You warned him about what? When?” She pulled away to look at him, evading his arms when he tried to hold her close. She needed to see his face. “You talked to George?”

Nori sighed. “Yes. After he attacked you the first time, I had Lado track him down.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“No,” he said, tossing his head. “Of course not. Why the hell would I bring him into our lives any more than he already was? He was a fucking nuisance, a problem I took care of.”

“I know you didn’t pay him.”

“No! And when that bastard tried to get money from me, I had Lado present him with a fait accompli.”

“What?”

Nori gave her a very dismissive and Gallic shrug. “Let’s just say, I laid out very quickly what would happen if he didn’t leave you alone.”

“Hmm.” That meant he’d come at it legal-like. Effective, unless you were dealing with a low-life ass nigga from the ghetto whose criminal record was already fucked.

He and Lado obviously thought they’d cooked up some real shit, but they’d underestimated George. That piece of shit was as thick as fresh tree sap. He couldn’t be told anything. He had to be shown. And now that she knew just how far her bitch ass ex-husband had gone, she was determined to deliver just the lesson he’d need to finally get the message.

“What are you thinking of?”

“Nothing,” Margot answered, smiling gently. Just how I’m gonna scare that mother fuckin’ asshole until he pisses himself, that’s all.

This ass whoopin’ was a long time coming. She’d turned the other cheek time and time again, taken the high road so many times she had nose bleeds. Now it was time for ghetto law: the dog with the biggest bite, wins.

“Nothing? Why don’t I believe you?”

She shifted in his arms, opened her limbs, invited him in with wide eyes and parted lips. “I’on know.”

“If it’s about George – ”

“Enough about that bitch,” she ordered. “I don’t want him in our bed.”

Nori laughed softly, delighted with her. “Yes, Mrs. James. Whatever you say.”

They snuggled down, lazily touching. Nothing sexual yet, just petting, stroking, loving without so much heat.

“There will come a night,” he whispered, rolling over until she was trapped beneath him. “When I don’t want to make love.”

He nuzzled her as he made himself comfortable between her thighs.

“I take it tonight’s not that night?”

He’d already slipped in, just the head, but their bodies knew this dance so well, the rest was a slow sure glide right to the heart of her.

He shuddered when she squeezed. “No.”

She just laughed, throwing her arms above her head and arching her back.

“So, I guess that means you still like your old ball and chain.” She reached down and tugged firmly on his balls.

He groaned into her flesh. “Yes! God, yes.”

“No, just me, Goti.”

Nori reacted swiftly, rolling onto his back until she was astride him and he had unfettered access to her naked, spankable butt.

She laughed at the first strike. The ones that followed were met with moans and gasps. When the hits came quicker, and he moved her up and down faster and harder, when she was so wet she thought she might just burst, the little imp inside her told her to change things up.

So, butt stinging, hips still rolling, Margot grabbed Nori by the throat and squeezed. What did she do that for.

“Oh, oh, no,” he whispered, and came.

Body still throbbing with excitement, Margot leaned down and put her chin on folded hands on his chest. When his eyes slowly opened and he pinned her with an irate glare, she winked.

“Gotcha.”

The next day Steele came by while Nori was at work.

“How’s married life?”

“Good. ‘Bout the same as unmarried life, for real.”

Steele laughed, accepting the covered plate that had been waiting for her on the coffee table.

“Thanks, pimp. I ain’t ate since, shit.”

“You already skinny, fool.”

Forking spaghetti and turkey meat balls into her mouth, Steele just shrugged. “It’s hard to cook in my car.”

“Stop runnin’ the streets then,” Margot teased. Telling Steele to stay at home was like telling the sun not to be bright and hot.

“Soon.”

“You almost there, pimp?”

“Yup. Few mo’ dollars and we’ll have our franchise. Now. About this Indiana rube. You ready to make that point?”

“Been fuckin’ ready. For real. Do you know Nori and Lado sat down and had a come to Jesus with that fool before that last incident?”

“And he still jumped crazy? Yeah, we gotta put him down. George is real strong. You got a plan?”

“Yup.”

That night she called Nori at the office to tell him she had to go out and get a few materials. She got lucky and his EA answered the phone. He was on another call, so she didn’t have to lie. She just said she had to go out, and she and Steele were off to Indiana.

When her girl pulled up Reiko was in the car.

“Lawd have mercy. This shit’s really gon’ be live now,” she quipped, climbing into the back.

Reiko just grinned. “Yippie ki yay, motherfucka.”

Chapter nineteen

“Do you know what the hell you doin’?” Margot hissed, eyes on the empty street around them.

Conveniently most of the houses in the rundown area where George had a rental were either boarded up or dark. The one that did have lights also had loud ass gangster rap shaking its thin frame walls.

“Bitch, yeah.” There was a click, Steele shot them a triumphant look over her shoulder, and they were in. “No lights,” she reminded, lest one of them forget and reach for a switch.

She passed out the small, but powerful flashlights she kept in her trunk. She was prepared for most eventualities having undertaken more than one mission like this. “Keep these low.”

“What are we looking for?” Reiko asked.

“Anything we can use to blackmail this piece of shit. Margot, just be lookout. Don’t touch shit; you not wearin’ gloves.”

“Got it.”

There wasn’t much. Some weed, an almost empty coke vial, but then, “Eureka,” Reiko whispered.

“What?”

She showed Steele the small trunk she’d found at the bottom of a closet.

Steele whistled. “George, you have been a bad boy.”

“Should we take it?”

“Nah. Selling guns is the quickest way to get serious heat. Besides, automatic weapons are dangerous on the streets. Silly niggas be tryna spray shit up like they see in the movies, cut down a whole block.”

“Well, we should at least take one.” She picked up a .38 with a beautifully carved handle. “In case we need to attach old George to something interesting.”

Steele laughed softly. “Now you’re talking. Put everything back the way found it. We’re gonna wait for the shithead, and we don’t wanna tip our hand.”

They rolled up George’s excellent weed while they waited.

“Bunkie said he on his way,” Steele said, looking at her phone.

A friend who lived close had agreed to peep out his window and watch the street.

“Excellent,” said Reiko, rubbing her hands together gleefully. “Let’s get this party started.”

Ten minutes later, George pulled up.

Steele held a finger to her lips. Margot she motioned into a far corner of the room. She and Reiko took up positions on either side of the front door. He came in and turned on the light.

“Hi, George,” Margot smiled. “Surprised to see me?”

“And me,” said Steele, gun arm extended, pistol in hand.

“And me,” said Reiko, her stance, and gun, identical.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Pretty much,” said Reiko.

“Sit down,” Steele said quietly.

George sat.

“You’re probably wondering what I’m planning, huh? Not why I’m here,” said Margot, conversationally. “I know you know that. But what’s my play? I know you’re assuming the worst, what with these two very dangerous friends of mine standing at the ready with guns pointed at your fat fuckin’ head.”

He offered the lopsided grin that had fooled her so long ago. “Well, it don’t look good, sweetheart. Maybe you could enlighten me.”

“I’m tired of you, George. I want you out of my life for good. I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve tried to take the high road, all that shit. But you refuse to leave me alone. You won’t move on, and I have had enough.”

For a second he just stared at her. Then he began to laugh. He laughed long and hard too. “Bitch, you must think you Olivia Pope pontificatin’ like this. Don’t nobody care what yo’ skinny, black ass want. You got one use, and one use only, and talkin’ ain’t it. Or does that honkey you conned like the sound of that scratchy ass voice of yours?”

Margot stared at him, then she too began to grin. Her grin grew as his morphed into a scowl. She walked toward him. He stood, and her girls shifted but allowed it. For a moment it appeared as though he would back up, but then, as she knew he would, he stood his ground. When she was right in front of him, she slapped him with all her might. He staggered, and would have returned the blow but the distinctive click of a hammer going back stopped him.

“Ah, ah, Georgie,” said a cold eyed Steele.

“Yes, lover,” said an even colder eyed Reiko, both their guns comfortable, cocked and waiting. “We just talkin’. No need for all that.”

George raised his hands and cocked his head. His body suggested peace, but his eyes told a different story.

Margot just shook her head and pointed at his seat. He sat.

Once she’d thought that perpetual sparkle in his eyes was happiness, good humor. Now she knew it to be the twinkle of malice, and it was always there because George liked to hurt people. Correction, George liked to hurt women.

“You’re a piece of shit,” she said quietly. “Only a child would have been fooled by the bullshit lies you told me to get me to marry you. A child or a fool. But that’s water under the bridge, right? And I don’t like talking about the past. Which, my dear George, is all the more reason for me to cut ties with you.

“I gotta lot of shit going, George. Life changing shit. Shit I couldn’t even explain to someone like you because you’re too simple minded and greedy to even understand. I know that because past behavior, they say, is a wonderful indicator of future behavior.

“In the past, you’ve always been after my money. You took what little I had when we were together, and you’ve never stopped trying to get more from me since. I’ve never given you a dime, never even suggested that I might give you money, but you won’t give up. I suppose those tabloids that paid you to lie about me fucked your mind up, made you think of me as a cash cow when in reality, I’m more of a bull. A charging bull, and you too stupid to get out the way.”

The next blow drew blood.

He touched his split lip, looked at the red on his hand. “You gon’ pay for that.”

“No,” she whispered, moving even closer. She stopped when they were a hair’s breadth apart. “I’m not. But if you don’t get the message, you will, George. Because I’ll kill you.” She enjoyed the flash of emotion in his eyes, the impotence in every line of his body as he clenched useless fists and scowled so deep his thin lips disappeared completely.

“I’ll kill you, and me and my girls will bury your body in the forest preserve. Squirrels and rats and dogs will shit and piss on your corpse. And later, after you’ve been there for a while, they’ll dig up your bones. They’ll pull apart what’s left of you and run around with the pieces like chew toys until some hiker trips over your muddy hole in the ground, and gives that drunk mother of yours something to bury.”

Reiko laughed softly. “Let’s just do it, Goti. Why wait?”

“Yeah,” said Steele. “This dumb nigga ain’t gon’ do right. And I hate Indiana. The whole place is full of freaks and losers and inbreds. Why not just finish this? I don’t wanna come back here.”

Margot tilted her head back to look at her ex. “Well, George? Should I let my girls have their way? They’ll do it, you know,” she whispered, a gentle smile on her face as she began to walk around the room. “They’re killers,” she said softly, pausing to pick up an overdue bill for the lights. “Stone cold killers of men just like you.”

George swallowed audibly, sweat starting to bead on his brow and over his upper lip. “Ain’t no need for all this, Margot. You’re being dramatic, just like when we were married.”

Her head snapped up. She looked like a killer now. Glacial, stony, immovable.

“Steele.”

George turned sharply, looked as though he might scream, but Steele dropped him before he could make a sound.

Steele hopped, flicking her hand a hand a few times. “Damn! That hurt so good.”

Reiko clapped, laughing. “Nice shot, Sugar Ray. You knocked this nigga out with one blow.”

Steele shrugged modestly. “I worked on that shot for years. Haven’t used it in a while. Good to know I still got it.”

“Oh, you got it alright,” Margot laughed. “Now let’s tie this bitch up and take this conversation somewhere a little more private.”

They shoved his inert body in the trunk and drove back toward the Illinois state line. There was a forest preserve near Lansing that Steele knew would be quiet. It was one of those places that produced a body or two every year, dug up by some unsuspecting hiker’s dog, just as Margot described for George earlier.

Steele and Reiko probably knew where a few of the bodies were buried. But that was none of her business.

“Pull in here,” Reiko said.

Steele turned off the lights but kept the car running as they looked around. Seeing no one, they pulled George from the trunk, dragged him into the woods and dropped him in the dirt. Steele quickly hog tied him, and Reiko stuffed a rag into his mouth and handed her a flash light turned on dim.

Margot kicked him hard in the ribs to wake him. When he stirred she knelt beside him. “We’re here,” she whispered. “Your new home.”

She enjoyed the fear in his eyes, she could smell it coming from his pores with the sweat.

“Do you like it?” She could have been asking him if he liked new drapes or wallpaper. “It’s quiet. You won’t be disturbed. Best thing? You won’t need any money. So no more stalking, begging, or bullying. No more anything. Just peace and quiet and nature. Sound good?”

He shook his head frantically.

“No? You don’t like it?” she sounded disappointed. “That’s too bad, George. And we took so much time picking out this exact location just for you. This, my boy, is where all the niggas who wouldn’t go away come to rest. Doesn’t that sound perfect?”

More frantic head shaking.

“He doesn’t like it, girls.”

“Shame,” said Reiko, her tone bored.

“Oh, George. I know what you must be thinking. You probably think this is extreme. What have I done to deserve this, right? I’m sure if I hadn’t stuffed your lying mouth with that filthy rag in between cursing me to hell and back you’d be saying I was crazy. And I think you may be right.” She looked at Reiko and Steele who stood by, wide eyed and listening intently.

“Do sit down, girls. I’m feelin’ rather soap boxish. Or, as this fucker said, Olivia Pope-ish.”

She waited for them to settle on the hood of the car. Steele rested her feet on George’s hip, slender legs crossed at the ankle as though he was a foot stool. After a moment Reiko copied with one foot. The other, swinging rhythmically, hit him over and over in the butt.

“Please, continue, Goti.”

“Thank you, Steele. George, I am a bit crazed, I think. And it’s your fault. First, you mistreat me as a child. Then, once I was an adult, full functioning and happily livin’ life without you, you popped back onto the scene and shit all over everything, expecting to cash in on all my hard work just because you once had the privilege – a privilege you squandered – of calling me wife.

“You’ve continued to harass me for years. Years! Stalking, lying, embarrassing me, or trying to, and let’s not forget the physical abuse. My God! If I had a c-note for every scratch and bruise and cut and gauge you’ve left in my flesh I think I might have enough money to pay you off for good.”

She looked down at him, saw the hate in his blood shot black eyes and resumed her contemplative look out over the forest preserve. “Then again, you’ve always been a greedy, vain, ridiculous bitch, so probably not. But it doesn’t matter.”

She crouched down, slapped his cheek a shade too hard. “I’ve decided to be happy, George. Ridiculously, utterly, completely and imperfectly happy. And that means no more you. So, you got two choices. One, you can go gently into the good night as the old classic reads, or two, I can fucking kill you, and bury your body underneath one of these crooked ass trees.”

The hate in his eyes dimmed considerably in the face of her own. She watched closely as he swallowed behind his gag.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I think you’re finally getting the idea.” She rose, stood with her back to him, hands on hips, shoulders thrown back. “For your sake, I hope you understand this is your last chance, George. Your very last chance. Because I can promise you, the next time I hear your voice or see your face, your days will be numbered.”

She held out a hand. Steele passed over her .38. Margot crouched again, pressing the muzzle of the gun to the rag. He whimpered, and she nodded as though she approved of his fear, and she did. She wanted to encourage it, so she gently rubbed the gun back and forth a few times.

“You should get comfortable having guns in your mouth, George. Just in case you forget today’s little lesson.”

“Man, just cap his ass. I got shovels,” said Reiko.

George began to shake his head again, crying now and grunting like an animal as he strained to get away.

“Yeah. You know this bitch ain’t gon be able to walk away from you. All these years he been after your money, he ain’t gon’ stop. Niggas gon’ be niggas, Goti. That’s why they niggas,” Steele finished.

Margot laughed softly, the sound drowned out by George’s whimpers and muffled cries.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

It sounded like George was trying to say no. But it was just wishful thinking on her part to assume his high pitched, sobs were assurance that he would do as she asked.

She knelt again. “My friends don’t think you’re very smart, George. You know Steele in particular never liked you. She warned me from the beginning. There was something off about you, she said. And boy have I paid for not listening. Do you know since then I have never once not taken her advice?”