My Addiction: Second Chances Series (19 page)

Lock still couldn’t believe that Ayana would put herself out there like that knowing the dangers. There had to be another reason why. “What about her brother?” he asked. “Were you able to help him? Word on the street is he’s hiding out.”

Martins nodded. “Yes, he’s hiding out, but we’re not doing the hiding. He’s worked out something else and trying to get his name out of Santos’ mouth.”

Lock was about to ask another question when his cell went off. He looked at the screen, ignoring the looks from his superiors and answered. “Mills.”

“Sir!” Scott Ivey yelled through the phone.

“What’s going on, Scott?”

Scott took a few deep breaths, trying to get the wind back under him. “Sir, she’s gone.”

Lock sat up. “Whoa! What do you mean she’s gone? Who’s gone, Scott?”

“Fuck!”

Lock heard Scott’s car horn blare, then screeching of tires.

“What’s happening, Mills?” Lock’s Captain asked, but he didn’t answer him. Instead, he stood and walked away from the table.

He said, “Talk to me, Ivey.”

“Ayana, sir… I’m not sure how she did it, but she’s gone. I’m chasing a car that I think she’s in now.”

Lock asked as he signaled for Martins to stand up and get ready.

“You think? What the hell happened, Ivey? Where’s Sol?”

“Sir, I’m not sure. I came to relieve him, and I walked into a huge bar fight. He told me he locked Ayana in the office, but when I got there, she wasn’t there.”

“Fuck.” Lock closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay, keep me posted on the chase. Let dispatch know where you are. I’m on my way to you.”

“Will do.”

Lock turned to the questioned faces in the room and said the obvious. “Peters is AWOL.”

“What do you mean AWOL? You said you have your best men on the job. How could she be gone?” Martins asked.

Lock sighed and shook his head. He knew that whatever the reason was, it had to be a good one and there was only one other reason, besides Brad, that would cause her to put her life in danger.

I slept most of the day away after Lock left me with Sol. Sex with Brad takes a lot out of me. I was thankful for the bed and the quiet. When I woke, it was almost time for my shift. Sol, who by the way I just love, said he and Scott would be with me at work tonight.

Lock apparently had someone pack a bag for me. I had a few pairs of jeans, underwear and a large assortment of bras. I chuckled, whoever packed my things had to get a kick out of my extensive collection of undergarments. I take pride in my assorted bra and panties sets, and I know for a fact Brad loves them, especially my front clasp bras.

I made my way down to the bar around nine, and it was already packed. There was a pay-per-view fight tonight, and with any fight night or big nighttime football game, this place can get pretty crowed.

“I’m just going to do some paperwork in the office,” I yelled to Sol.

He led me to the office, then did a walkthrough of the small space to make sure everything was cool.

“Thanks, Sol.”

Sol was short for Solomon. He had a scary face, but in my opinion, he was a teddy bear.

“I don’t have to tell you how important it is for you to follow directions, right?”

I smiled. “No, you don’t have to remind me. I won’t sneak away like I did last time.”

Between you and me, I really planned on listening, but I have the worse type of luck. I was busy doing paperwork when the office door opened and Franks walked inside.

“Hey, boss lady, the cops told me you were back here. Just wanted to bring you some water and see if you need anything else?”

I was heavy into my shift and had completely lost track of time. I smiled at Franks. Jimmy Franks was a long time worker here and had been bartending since I was young. I think Franks was pissed that Ice asked me to run the books for him. I felt Ice knew I would be better qualified for the job and Franks knew it too. I still thought it played on his manhood, not being trusted with the business he was a part of for years.

I took the water from him and opened it. “You know it seems we’re selling more than we’re actually collecting. At this rate, Ice would be filing for bankruptcy if he doesn’t see some change,” I told him.

“Well, that’s why he pays you the big bucks; to make sure he doesn’t lose his business.”

“Yeah, but I can’t perform miracles, you know. I can only advise him on a few things. What I need to figure out is where all the money is going.”

I looked back at the paperwork in front of me when suddenly we heard loud screaming, yelling and large objects thrown against the walls.

I looked at Franks. “What the hell?”

Franks started for the door when it flew open, bringing the chaos from the bar into the office.

“Stay here! Understand?!” Sol yelled to me.

“What’s going on out there?!” I screamed over the loud noise, but he simply looked at Franks.

“You need to get out here now!” Sol said to Franks right before bringing his cell to his ear. “Yeah I need…”

Sol disappeared through the door with a scared Franks looking back at me before he closed the door.

Just then, my cell rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but it was local, so I answered anyway, hoping it was Brad possibly calling from the hotel.

“Hey.”

I didn’t hear anything on the other end, so I was about to hang up until I heard a voice I didn’t expect. “Sis.”

My heart stopped. “Terrence?”

I could hear the slight smile in his voice.

“Yeah, sis, it’s me.”

“Where are you? The cops are looking for you, Terrence.” I leaned against the desk.

“Yeah, so what else is new? Listen, sis, I’m heading out of town for a while. This shit is too hot right now. I need to get the fuck out of here.”

“Yeah, and where are you going to go?” I rolled my eyes. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I wasn’t telling you anyway. I heard your white knight is back in town.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“So listen, sis; I don’t know when I’m coming back, if I’m ever coming back, so I was hoping I could see you. You know, say my goodbyes, make sure you’re okay.”

I looked up at the door and the loud chaos and ruckus that, since Sol and Franks left, got louder and crazier, and knew it was impossible. Besides, I gave my word.

“I can’t leave, Terrence. While you were hiding, I put myself smack dab in the middle of some shit.”

“Yeah, shit that I told you to stay out of. Damn it, Ayana, if you just learned to mind your damn business…”

I frowned. “Well, hell, if I learned how to do that than your good for nothing ass would be six feet under like five times over.”

My brother got quiet. This was his way of letting me ride out my anger. That’s what my brother does all the time. He knows how to push my buttons but he can’t take the wrath.

I took a few deep breaths and replied, “Look, I want to see you, to say goodbye, but there’s no way. Lock and his guys are watching me, keeping me safe. The place is crawling with cops…”

“…Yeah, but they’re a bit preoccupied at the moment,” he cut in.

“What did you do?” I asked him in a hush tone, looking around the office like Lock was going to walk right in demanding to speak to Terrence.

“Don’t worry, sis. It’s just a distraction. Look, there’s a car out back waiting for you. The coast is clear now. The car will take you to where I am. Please, sis, come quick. I don’t have a lot of time.”

My brother hung up and it took like two seconds for me to make the decision to see him. I know I shouldn’t have. I promised Lock. But this is my brother and I needed to see him, to say goodbye. If I didn’t and something happened, it would to haunt me for the rest of my life.

I grabbed my purse, quickly opened the office door and almost got caught. I couldn’t help it. If you had seen what I did, you would’ve been frozen in your tracks too. Man, the bodies that were flying, fists… it was ugly for real.

I quickly moved to the back door and found a Toyota Camry sitting there with some black dude at the wheel. He nodded at me and shifted the car. I quickly moved to the back seat and dropped to the floor of the car as he drove away quickly.

I heard someone screaming, “Stop! Police,” but my driver kept going. I didn’t want to risk looking out of the window, but I knew who it was.

Damn, I hope Lock will understand. I had to do this.

******

We pulled up to this nasty looking hotel and both the driver, who I didn’t ask his name nor did he tell me, and I went to the office and rented a room for the night.

The trifling man boob slob behind the desk looked at us snidely, then handed us a key. He didn’t even bother taking our information, that’s the kind of place it was.

I mumbled thanks and went into the room alone. The moment the door closed, and I looked around the empty room, I started to feel like this was a huge mistake. Yeah, foolish and a little too late I knew, but it’s just something about this situation that’s making me feel uneasy. I sat down at the desk in the room, placed my purse on the desk, and reached inside for my phone when a thought crossed my mind. Why did my brother pick now to reach out to me?

I mean, all this time I hadn’t heard a peep from him. All the weeks, hell months, that I’ve been fighting to stay alive, fighting to keep Noelle alive, my brother hadn’t reached out at all. Now, all of a sudden, he’s concerned about me? He wants to say goodbye and all that? Something just didn’t sit well with me. I rose from my chair and started looking for Lock’s number in my phone. He’d be pissed but, shit, he’d come and get me. Just before I reached the door, my brother, and all his 6’4” glory, walked in.

His eyes searched me first, then they roamed around the room before he smiled and moved toward me. “Damn, girl, you’ve lost weight.”

Terrence was dressed in his typical all black, despite the temperature outside, with the hair on his face and head growing out of control. He definitely looked like he’d been in hiding for a long time.

“It’s good to see you, sis,” he said, embracing me in a tight hug.

I pushed my phone in my back pocket and wrapped my arms around my brother. When he parted and stepped back nervously, it also caused me to take a few steps back up from him.

“What’s going on, Terrence?” I asked him, senses suddenly on alert.

I can read my brother like a book. When we were growing up, I could always tell when he was wrapped up in mess before he told me. It would piss him off that I was able to tell, which is sometimes why he would stay clear away from me. Like now, standing before me is a very troubled man. I knew he’d been in hiding, trying to stay alive, but right now there’s more to it than that. Again, that feeling of flight was coming over me.

“What did you do, Terrence?” I asked him, ready to bolt the moment he said something stupid.

Terrence though waved me off and sat on the bed behind him. I didn’t sit next to him on the bed. I didn’t want anything crawling from the suspect sheets on the bed to my clothes, again it was that kind of place, but secondly, I needed to be ready.

“You’ve always been stubborn and hard headed ever since you were young,” he spat, anger suddenly drenched in his dark chocolate features.

“Um, so. What does that-”

He cut me off , “It means, that, as usual, I need to step in.”

I frowned and folded my arms. “You need to step in? Since when, Terrence? When have you ever had to take care of me? Step in for me because I’m in some shit? No, no, big brother, you seem to be mistaken.”

“No!” he shouted. I moved back further. He then closed his eyes, seemingly trying to calm himself and added. “You don’t have a clue how many times your mouth has gotten you in some shit that I had to get you out of.”

“My mouth,” I said, incredulously.

“Yeah, your mouth. Shit, Ayana, why can’t you ever do things the easy way? You think you can fuck with Santos and not have repercussions?”

My eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

“Nothing yet,” he replied, and looked at the door, then pulled out his phone.

I moved closer to him. “What do you mean nothing yet?”

My brother looked up at me and sighed. “Santos is the big leagues, Ayana. This isn’t some low life gang you fucked with. When I gave you the number to the Feds, I expected you to hand over the case and let them deal with it. You weren’t supposed to get involved. Fighting? Really? And you thought what? That you were going to bring the Santos family to their knees?”

“No, of course not, but-”

“But what Ayana?” He waited for a reply from me, but I didn’t have one.

He nodded his head as if he made his point, “Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but there’s no way to bring down a family like Santos. They are like fucking weeds; no matter how many times you pull them up, they will just keep coming. In order to get rid of them for good, you have to kill them at the root.”

“Terrence…” I admonished.

Looking at how my brother was completely on edge was freaking me out. He did something bad, something horrible I knew it. I could feel my body sinking in quicksand, and no matter how hard I fought, I was only sinking faster.

I said my brother’s name again and moved closer to him, ready to get down to how I was going to help him out of some shit
again
, but he suddenly stood to his feet.

“I’ll take this shit from here.”

I shook my head. “No, Terrence it’s cool.”

I was about to tell my brother I had everything handled when the door to the room suddenly opened and in walked the devil himself, Allen.

Ho-ly shit!

I was about to piss my pants, realizing a little too late that I should have listened to my gut and left when I had the chance. But when my eyes traveled to my brother, he actually calmed slightly. It dawned on me that my brother, who gave me Martins’ number in the first place, was completely clueless of Ramone’s treachery.

Terrence casually walked toward Ramone. “You’re late.”

I backed up further from them, trying to figure out if I should just blurt out Ramone’s a traitor or wait to see what’s going to happen. My body started to shake uncontrollably, and I reached behind me to grab my phone.

“Did you talk to her?” Ramone asked my brother.

Terrence shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. “I was about to before you walked in.”

Ramone then gave me that horrible smile of his. “Good, I’ll take over from here.”

What happened next was a blur. It took me a minute for my brain to register what was happening, but once it did, I, unfortunately, reacted too late. I was about to pull out my phone and call Lock when I saw Ramone’s hand come into focus. Ramone had a black police baton in his hand that I hadn’t noticed before.

I screamed to my brother to watch out just as Ramone, face full of rage, quickly brought the baton up then down on my brother’s head. He hit my brother twice before he collapsed, then Ramone turned his crazy eyes on me, chest heaving with adrenaline and fierce rage.