Love and Hate (22 page)

Chapter

15

“Truth Be Told”

Donovan

“So, what are you gonna say?”
Emile asks me as I throw a shirt on.

“I’m going to say I love you and…
shit I don’t know.”

I have a plan. I’m going straight
to Claudia’s house. I know it’s crazy, but I’m not giving up. I don’t care if
her father is there and will possibly have my ass thrown in jail. I’m not
giving up. Emile asked Jade for her address and she gave it. She told him
Claudia never told her why things ended, but made her promise not to help me
get through to her. Jade could see how sad she was so she said screw it. I
always knew I liked her.

“Make sure you smell good man.
Chicks love a guy that smells good, they can’t say no.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Emile.”
I laugh. Emile always says the most random stuff.

“Donovan.” I turn around to see
my sister entering my room.

“What’s up?” I notice her nerves
as she is holding sheets of paper in her hand.

“I need to tell you something.”

                                    ***************

Fueled with anger I head to the
living room. I see my mother and father lying on the couch. I slam the sheets
of paper on the coffee table.

“So you threatened her.”

He sits up with my mother and
looks at the sheet of papers.

“Who gave you this?”

“I did.” Ella says coming next to
me. “Dad it’s time for you to tell the truth. You’re sacrificing too much.”

“What are they talking about
Roman?” My mother asks confused.

“Dad threatened Claudia. He told
her he would kill her family and friends.” I answer for him.

“Roman you didn’t.”

“I did.” He looks up to see me.
“I did it to protect you.”

“I know, but dad that wasn’t your
decision to make on your own.”

“I’m your father! I have to do
what is necessary.”

“Dad, he’s a fraud! You’re really
going to let him get away with all the scams, bribery, and framing?! All because
he has a few things on you?!”

“Someone tell me what is going
on?” My mother steps between me and my father.

“Stonem found out information
that links me to the man who killed my mother.” My father confesses.

My mother grabs the papers and
skims through them.

“Well he can’t bring you to trial
on just one witness.” My mother says as she reads the document. “Who by the way
is a drug addict.”

“But he can tell his brother.”

“Whose brother? Dad, who was the
guy?” Ella asks.

“Eddie Valentine.”

We all pause at the name.

“Eddie Valentine? As in the
Valentine family?” Ella asks hoping it’s another family.

“Yes.” My father answers.

“You said he was a nobody.” I
say.

“He was, but to his brother
probably not.”

“Mom you knew?” Ella asks.

“Of course, but we thought no one
would ever find out.”

“Well, they did.” I say.

“Stonem came to me the night you
and the girl ran away. He told me that if I didn’t do as he said, he would tell
Mickey Valentine, that I was the one who shot his brother.”

Mickey Valentine is one of the
most notorious gangsters. He’s the one not to mess with. He’s insane. Literally
insane. I’ve heard stories about how he loves to torture people. He isn’t like
my father, he shows no mercy and anyone that gets in his way is expendable. If
you rub him the wrong way, he not only kills you, but your whole family.

“If Mickey found out, he would
come kill all of you and make me watch. I couldn’t let that happen, Donovan.”

“I know that, but dad you could
have told me. We could have found a way.”

“She is just a girl, Donovan.”

“Dad, she is everything to me!
Along with this family she is everything to me. You mean to tell me that if mom
was her, and you were me, you wouldn’t do what it takes? I know you dad. You
don’t give up. I know that ever since Chris died you second guess yourself but
dad you have to let it go. You can’t let Stonem get away with any of this.”

Claudia

I burst through my father’s
office as he is on the phone. I slam the documents on to his desk. As he looks
at them his eyes go blank.

“Dan, I have to call you back.”
He hangs up. “Who gave you these?

“It doesn’t matter. What matters
is that you are a liar and a thief.”

“Claudia” He stands up. “I had to
do these things to bring these men to justice.

“By committing injustice?! Dad
you have framed people, bribed judges, and embezzled money from the city!”

“Claudia, if you were in my
position you would understand!”

“No! Dad you tell me all the time
to suck it up life is pain, well guess what you suck it up! Roman Pierce
threatened me because you threatened him and his whole family.”

I grab the sheet of paper mixed
with documents. It has pros and cons. Roman must have written it when he tried
to figure out what he was going to do. I read it out loud.

“If Stonem tells Valentine what I
did, he will kill my whole family. I googled Valentine, dad. He is this
sadistic mob boss whose brother so happened to have died when Roman Pierce was
sixteen. I remember you told me the story of Roman Pierce’s first kill when he
was sixteen, but you never knew who he killed. Soon I learned it was because
that man killed his mother.”

“These people are animals.” He
taps his finger on the documents.

“No you are dad, and frankly I
could never be more disappointed and disgusted with you as I am now. You said
you went after organized crime because they were untouchable and you wanted to
prove them wrong, well I guess it was pretty damn hard, seeing you stooped so
low that you became a criminal you’re damn self!”

“You watch yourself young lady, I
am still your father!”

“Well dad for the first time in
my life, I am ashamed to be your daughter.”

I turn my back on my father and
head out his office. “Claudia!” I keep walking fighting the tears in me. My
father was a fraud. A criminal himself.

 As I head towards the elevator I
bump into someone. I almost lose my balance until he grabs me holding me
steady.

“I’m so sorry.” I look up to see
Anderson Raines. This guy is such a creep. He’s a detective and has been
working with my father for years. Once I turned sixteen, he started looking at
me in a way that made me very uncomfortable. I move away from him a little. His
touch is weird. “Hi, Detective Raines.”

“Hello, Claudia. You look very
pretty today.” He sounds like a pedophile. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I answer.

“I was just going to see your
father.”

“Well, he’s free.”

I start to walk off.

“Claudia.” I turn around to see
him bending over picking up my purse. Great, I'm so creeped out by him I almost
forgot my purse.

“You dropped this.”

I grab my purse from his hand and
that’s when I see it.

The ring.

It’s silver, with a red ruby in
it, like a championship ring and the more he opens his hand the more I see
them. Three scars on the palm of his hand. They look like scars from bullet
wounds.

“You like my ring?” He says.

“Yeah, State Champs.”

“What about the scars?”

“Oh, I was shot in the hand on
the job.” I watch him as he looks at his hand. He looks back up at me and the
look on his face. I can tell. His gray eyes say everything. I immediately flash
to the things Donovan said. How they didn’t think it was the mob that killed
his brother. “Are you okay?”

I feel myself shaking. Get a grip
Claudia! Come on!

“Yeah. You have a good day.” I
walk off slowly. I feel his eyes piercing on my back. Once I turn the corner I
start running to the elevator.

I reach the elevator and
frantically press the down button waiting for it to arrive. The elevator doors
slide open and I get in. As the doors close they are stopped by an arm reaching
through the opening. A very tall and built man with dark brown hair steps in.
Thank God I got my phone back. I get it so I can text Donovan. I have to text
him. I type in I think I know who killed your brother.  I mean, what else is
there to say? I can’t believe this shit.

I’m about to hit send when my
phone is yanked from me. It’s the man in the elevator. I look at his belt and
see he has a badge. He’s a cop too.

 He slams my phone down and steps
on it. He looks back at me.

“I think you should probably come
back up with me.” He says calmly.

I look past him as he corners me
in the elevator. I see the number 1 on the elevator highlighted. At the sound
of the ding, I kick him in the nuts.

He falls down to his knees. I
pull a Donovan move and punch him in the nose. I hit him with the hand that is
bandaged from breaking the mirror, so it hurts like hell. As the doors open I
jump over him grabbing my phone and running for my car.

Once I speed off in my car I look
at my IPhone to see it completely cracked. The only apps I can touch are my phone
and Twitter. I touch the phone app and I go to my recent calls and call Jade.

“Hey.”

“Jade!”

“Hey, I can barely hear you.”

“Jade, tell Donovan that the
police killed his brother!!”

“What?!

“Can you hear me?!”

“Yeah, a little.”

“Tell Donovan that I’m being
chased by the people who killed his brother!”

“Claudia I can’t understand!”

“I’m in trouble!”

 
Chapter

16

        “A Killer and A Lover”

Donovan

After talking to my father he decided
to figure out other alternatives and let me deal with my situation with Claudia
without his interference. I’m about to go find Claudia. Ella told me she knows
now. As much as I hate her father, I’m sorry for her.

“Okay, I’m about to go.” I say to
my sister and Emile.

Emile’s phone rings.

“Donovan, this is Jade.” He
answers the phone. “Hey.” I watch him as his face turns into confusion. “What? Slow
down. Hold on.”

He hands me the phone.

“Jade, what’s wrong?” I ask.

“Okay, Claudia is in trouble. She
called me and her phone was going in and out and I could barely hear anything.”

“Jade, what happened?”

“I don’t know for sure but, I
think she said she knows who killed your brother Donovan.”

What? She knows? How?

Either way the number one thing
is that she is in trouble.

I drop Emile’s phone and run out
of the house to my car. I hear Ella scream for mom and dad, but I don’t look
back. I just need to get to Claudia.

She needs me.

Claudia

I need Donovan.

I can’t even go to the freaking
cops.

 I just came straight home and
grabbed a kitchen knife like an idiot. I don’t know what to do? Who to trust?
The cops are the bad guys.

 I’ve been home for about ten
minutes and I’m going out of my mind. I should have just gone to Jade’s, but I
freaked out. I don’t know what to do?

My pacing back and forth is
interrupted by a door bell. I slowly walk out the kitchen and peek out the living
room window.

It’s them.

It’s Raines and the other guy
from the elevator.

“Claudia!” Raines sings out my
name smiling. “Open up!” I watch them as the elevator guy slips on black
leather gloves.

 Oh My God there going to kill
me. They’re going to kill me!

            I run upstairs with
the kitchen knife in hand. I lock my bedroom door and lean against the wall. I
hear gun shots. I hear footsteps as they walk in. I slowly look out the window
to see Raines going around back. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I
clench my knife against my chest while shaking.

 I’m so scared right now. I feel
the tears starting, but I have to hold them in. I have to stay strong if I’m
going to get out of here alive. I see the door jerk open in an instant. The
tall man from the elevator looks around. I’m standing right behind him. It’s
now or never Claudia.

I push the knife deep into his
shoulder. He lets out a huge scream as I move away from him falling to the
floor. I get up and race towards the exit. Suddenly he grabs my leg bringing me
down.  He moves on top of me. His face is completely red. He is panting and
grunting hard. His face is full of agony and pain from the knife in his back
I’m guessing. I’m trying to push him off, but he’s freaking heavy. He grabs my
wild arms with one hand and slaps me with the other.

God that hurt.

He wraps his hands around my neck
gripping it tighter and tighter. I smell the leather from his gloves as he
grips harder. I start hitting his face and scratching him, but he doesn’t
budge. He has nothing but determination in his dark brown eyes as he chokes me.
He’s determined to kill me. I feel myself turning red as I can’t breathe
anymore.

Please stop it! Stop! Stop! This
can’t be it. It can’t!

 I feel my eyes go rolling in the
back of my head when suddenly his grip loosens. I start coughing and open my
eyes to see him. It’s Donovan.

 He has his arms around the man’s
neck tying to choke him. The man pushes him back into the wall. The man comes
charging back at me, but Donovan immediately gets back up and takes the knife
in the man’s back pushing it deeper. He screams, but I swear he must be the
Hulk or something because he is still strong enough to elbow Donovan in the
face.  He towers over him and starts kicking him. I get up and push the knife
harder into his back. He screams again moving ferociously slamming me against
my night stand. I look back to see Donovan grab the man and slam his back into
the wall. Donovan keeps slamming him and slamming him with pure hatred in his
eyes while the detective’s eyes are lifeless.

He’s dead. I think he was dead
after the first impact.

Donovan finally stops and drops
him on the floor. Donovan continues standing there breathing excessively
looking at the dead body.

“Donovan.” I say.

He saved my life.

He turns to me and kneels down
and grabs my face checking my face and lip that has a cut on it.

“You okay?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry. I’m so
sorry.” That’s all I can tell him.

 He embraces me in a hug as I
grip onto his shirt. I never want to let him go.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I know
everything. You’re going be okay.” He releases his grip and wipes the hair from
my face. “We’re going to be okay.”

I suddenly remember Raines.

He’s still here.

“Donovan there’s another guy
here.”

“Okay come on.”

He helps me up and holds my hand
tightly leading me out of my room.

“Not so fast.” We are stopped in
the hallway by Raines. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Donovan moves me behind him.

“I’ve been waiting for this.”
Raines says.

“The ring.” Donovan realizes what
I saw. The ring on Raines finger. “You’re the cop from the police station…..
You’re the one that killed my brother.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” He says with
a smile. “You shouldn’t have told your girlfriend kid.”

I start to close my eyes, before
I see Emile behind Raines with a baseball bat in his hand.

Raines must have felt it because
he immediately turns around and shoots Emile. Emile screams and goes down
holding onto his arm. Donovan releases me and charges Raines once he turns back
around. They fall back over Emile who is still holding his arm. Donovan starts
punching Raines in rage over and over again.

“You son of a bitch!”  He screams
with anger. “I’m gona kill you!”

Raines grabs his gun on the side
of him. He hits Donovan in the head with it. Emile tries to get up. Raines
drops his gun and grabs the bat. He swings at Emile’s head knocking him out
cold.

“Little shit.” He throws the bat
on the floor.

 I quickly reach and grab the bat.
I step back getting into swinging position. He tilts his head to the side and
grins. He thinks it’s funny that asshole. I swing with all my might. He jumps
back after every swing laughing at me. He is really pissing me off. Next thing
I know he blocks a swing with his hand grabbing the bat with his right hand and
punching me in the face with his left.

Well, I see I’m no help.

I’m a little light headed from
the hit. I slide down the wall, reveling in the pain in my head from his fist.

 Raines grabs me by the hair and
bangs my head twice against the wall. He lifts my head up.

“You know Claudia. We could have
had so much fun together.” I’m so dizzy and light headed. I feel myself
fainting away.

 Everything is slowly blurring
out and going black.

Donovan

I wake up.

I finally shake my head, getting
the ringing sound from the blow. I look up to see Raines over Claudia.

Raines is the guy that bumped
into me at the police station. I remember when I told him sorry; he said I bet
you are. Well I am sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t kill him that night. That son of a
bitch killed my brother. Took everything from me and my family and now he is
trying hurt her. I will never let that happen. I will never let anyone take
anything from me again.

I stand up and charge with all my
might at Raines. He looks to me and stands up as I tackle him against the
balcony wooden rails. We flip over the second story balcony.

Shit.

                                    ************                       

I feel nothing but pain as I gain
conscience. My side feels like there sharp blades trying to cut into me. Fuck!
I think I might have sprained my ribs or something.  I really hope there not
broken. I slowly turn over a little and next thing I know Raines kicks me in
the face. Then he kicks me in the stomach. I can’t help but let out a small cry
because of the pressure on my side. I must of landed first on the floor because
Raines is walking around me grinning like he’s a new man. Motherfucker.

“You know Donovan. It all would
have been okay if your brother hadn’t ease dropped that night.” He ends it with
a kick in the back. The pain is excruciating.

 “I mean here I am, having a
meeting with Judge Winthrop at his daughter’s party and your brother just so
happens to be there.” He ends it with another kick to the leg.

 “I mean yeah we were talking about
how we were going to frame your father and all these other things like murder, money
laundering, you know the usual. But your brother, I guess, he accidently came
to the wrong room and heard it all. I guess we shouldn’t have had the meeting
in the study where anyone could hear huh? So yeah, I just couldn’t let him live
and risk him telling daddy. So I took care of him. I would have taken care of
you too, but you, you little shit.”

He punches me in the face.

“You fucking shot me! You know I
had to go through physical therapy. I mean Christ; you almost ruined my career
man.” Obviously this guy is a huge psychopath.

He walks over to the living room
and grabs a Greek statue that looks like it weighs a ton. He takes it in both
of his hands and walks back towards me grinning.

“Sorry but you’ll probably have
to have a closed casket kid.” He raises the statue over his head as I look up.
I figure I should kick him in the leg to stop him, but my plan is interrupted
by a gun shot.

I look back up and see Raines standing
over me with his gray eyes widened. He lets go of the statue and falls to the
ground next to me. He holds on to his chest that starts to bleed from the
inside soaking up his white shirt. He breathes heavily still with his eyes wide
open. I look up to see her, Claudia with the gun in her hand shaking on the
stairway.

I carefully sit up glancing back
at Raines as his breathing slows. His chest goes up and down as he pants. He
makes a raspy sound as he exhales.

 I want him to die. I want him to
suffer. I want him to feel everything my brother felt.

So he does.

 I know he does because his eyes
are the same as Christians, except Raines looks scared to die.  That is just
the icing on the cake for me.

He finally stops breathing with
his lifeless eyes still open. Claudia finally lowers the gun.

“Claudia?!” I hear her father. He
runs towards her from the front door passing me. “Are you alright?!”

She is still in shock as her
father grabs her arms. She finally snaps out of it.

“It was Raines. He killed Donovan’s
brother”

He looks at Raines, while Claudia
runs toward me.

“You okay?” She kneels down next
me.

“Yeah.” No. But I will be. “You
okay?”

She nods her head. She is still
shaking a little probably from the shock that she just killed someone.

“Ahh!” As she helps me up I feel
the bones in me pop. I wince at the pain, but fully stand holding on to my
side. I don’t think anything is broken which is good.

“Henry, what’s going on?” We look
to see a man who is heavy set in a blue suit and gray tie standing in the door
way.

“Nothing.” Stonem says.

The heavy set guy looks at Raines
than back at me.

I know him. He’s Naomi’s Stepdad.

Judge Winthrop.

Claudia

What is Judge Winthrop doing
here?

“Henry.” He says to my father
giving him a stern look.

“It’s nothing Dan.”

“No, I think it’s something.”
Winthrop reaches in his back and pulls out a gun and points it towards Donovan.