No One in the World (32 page)

Blac had upped the price. He needed more, considering all the shit he had gone through and what he expected he would need to give him and Theresa a clean start. There was no way he would feel comfortable leaving her where she was after the comments Cutty said Bones made about her. He thought about maybe still going to Wisconsin and taking Theresa with him. Whether he did or not, the $150,000 he would keep for himself would make things a hell of a lot easier.

This morning, after Blac had finally gotten the senator to roll down the window, he told the man his demands.

The senator sat there quietly, obediently nodding his head as if Blac had a gun on him. He was much easier to handle than Blac thought he would've been.

“And where do you want me to bring the money?” the senator asked.

“There's a J & J Fish on Cottage Grove.”

“I don't know where that is.”

“Find it, and bring the money there at eight o'clock, or you're gonna see these pictures on tomorrow morning's news.”

E
ric was too troubled to go to work today. Instead he sat in a McDonald's, watching the news on a wall-mounted flat-screen TV while sipping a Coke.

He was exhausted.

He had slept in his car last night after Cobi put him out.

He and Austen weren't supposed to have gotten caught. They weren't even supposed to have had sex last night. But Eric was so happy to have seen his daughter, to know that he would be able to continue seeing her, that he wanted to share that with Austen.

Eric stood there in her bedroom after telling her the good news.

She hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, then said, “I'm so glad for you. You deserve another chance with her.”

Austen stared in his eyes, and Eric could feel the sincerity in what she had just said. The way she looked at him made him feel like she really cared what happened to him, and he couldn't remember the last time someone made him feel that way.

“I want you,” he said.

“Then what's stopping you? Your brother's not here.”

“This can't ever happen again,” Eric said. “He's done too much for me. This is wrong, and he would be so hurt if he ever found out. I don't want to do that to him.”

“He won't find out,” Austen said, pulling Eric into her, and kissing him deeply.

Eric took another sip of the watered-down Coke and stared down at his cell phone. It sat beside a crumpled double cheeseburger wrapper.

It was the phone that Cobi had been charitable enough to buy him, just like the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. In return, Eric slept with his fiancée.

He banged his fist angrily against the table for being so stupid.

He had thought about calling Cobi several times today, but remembering how angry his brother was last night, he knew Cobi wouldn't want to hear from him.

The guilt was really starting to eat at him, so Eric picked up the phone. He'd call anyway. At the very least, he could apologize and ask Cobi if he wanted him to bring his car back, or just leave it somewhere with the keys in the glove box.

Eric had punched in the first three digits of Cobi's number when his phone lit with an incoming call.

“Hello,” Eric said, quickly pressing the phone to his ear.

“Eric, it's Austen. Your brother doesn't want to call you, but he's gotten himself into a very bad situation. Can you come now? He needs you.”

I
t's already six-thirty. That leaves me just an hour and a half to decide what needs to be done,” Tyler said, pacing anxiously back and forth across my father's study floor. He had been here for the last hour, trying to decide what to do. He turned to me. “Goddammit, Cobi!” he said, striking his palm with his fist. “How did you let this happen? You slept with that man?”

“He told you that?”

“What do you think? Why did you do it?”

“You weren't around!”

“I see. Now both our lives are about to be ruined because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants.”

That stung, as I'm sure Tyler intended, but I was no longer in the mood for being blamed. “I'm sorry, Tyler, but what's done is done.”

“What's done is done!” Tyler said, suddenly rushing across the room at me. Before I knew it, he had me by the collar, pushing me backward, until I slammed into the wall behind me. He was in my face, his fists still wrapped around my shirt, his knuckles digging into my neck. “This is my life! Do you know what will happen if my wife finds out about this? She'll leave me, and I'll never see my daughters again. Do you understand that?” Tyler yelled, spit flying from his lips onto my face.

“Tyler—” I said, grabbing his hands and struggling to breathe. “Let me go.”

“I said, do you understand that!”

“My brother said let him go!” I heard Eric's firm voice say from behind us.

Tyler looked over his shoulder. He was still holding me, but his grip had loosened some.

“He's about to ruin my life,” Tyler said to Eric.

“If you don't let him go, I'm gonna ruin it,” Eric said. I looked over Tyler's shoulder, saw Eric there, his eyes narrowed, his fists balled at his sides, as if ready to attack.

Tyler let me go.

I grabbed my throat and massaged it as air filled my lungs.

“Do you know what he did?” Tyler said, pointing, as he stepped disgustedly away from me. “What he did with his boyfriend, Blac?”

Eric looked at me, questioning, surprise on his face.

“I'll tell you, Eric,” I said, my hand still around my neck.

I finished my story fifteen minutes later. Eric told me Blac had been the one who had gotten the photos from Ballard and how he must've kept some of them.

Eric and I sat on the sofa, Tyler still pacing back and forth, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I know what I did was stupid,” I said, “but—”

“I should've never sent him when I told you I was going to be the one to get the pictures,” Eric said.

“But if I was going to sleep with Blac, I should've told you.”

“I ain't judging you. I did wrong, too.”

“That's wonderful that there's no judging going on,” Tyler said sarcastically. “But I'm not giving that thug three hundred thousand dollars of my money. What do we do?”

“I don't know,” I said, standing. “If I had just paid off the first guy, Blac would've never gotten ahold of those photos and—”

“We need to do something,” Tyler said. “I'll call the police before I hand over one dime, and they'll be waiting for him when he shows up.”

“No,” Eric said, standing with me and Tyler. “Don't do it like that. Keep the police out of it.”

“Why?” Tyler said. “They'll put him away, and I'll never have to worry about him again.”

“I know Blac,” Eric said. “You cross him, yeah, he goes back to jail, but what's to say he doesn't keep a few of those photos just in case? Call one of his boys on the outside, and make sure the pictures get to the right people, and then your secret is out anyway?”

“Then maybe he needs to be taken out,” Tyler said.

Eric looked at me oddly, then said to Tyler, “What do you mean ‘taken out'?”

“You know, taken care of. You're a criminal. Isn't that what you do? Don't you have a gun hidden around here, somewhere?”

“I think you been watchin' too much TV,” Eric said.

“If he can do what you say he might, and he's not taken care of, how do I know I'll ever be safe?” said Tyler. “How does your brother know? Even if I were to give him the money, what happens when he blows through it? What's to stop him from coming back to us, insisting on more? Cobi and I will forever be indebted to this man, unless something happens to him, and you know it.”

I stared at Eric. I saw his eyes glaze over, as though he were seriously considering the nonsense Tyler was saying.

“Stop it!” I said. “That is ridiculous. Eric, you were about to suggest something before Tyler started talking that madness.”

Eric blinked a number of times, seeming to snap out of the place he had gone. “I'll go over there and talk to him. Like I said, I've known him for a while. If there's anyone he'll listen to, it's me.”

B
lac stuffed more of Theresa's clothes into a large duffel bag that sat on her bedroom dresser.

When he had gotten her home from the hospital, he sat her down in the living room, stared at her bruised and bandaged face, and told her as much as he dared about why she had been beaten.

“Those were Cutty's drugs I got caught with, and he wants the money back now. But don't worry. I know someone who's gonna give me what I owe, plus some more. Enough so we can leave, go somewhere better.”

“Leave?” Theresa said. “And go where? I can't go anywhere. My job is—”

“Theresa,” Blac said, kneeling down in front of her. “I know I ain't always been what I was supposed to be, and I know I ain't always put you first like I should've. But I been through enough to tell you I'm done treatin' you like that. I want a better life, and I want you to be part of it.” He took both her hands in his and said, “Come with me, trust me, and marry me, and I promise, everything gonna be just fine.”

It looked like it caused her some pain, but Theresa smiled as wide as she could, leaned forward, and snatched Blac into the tightest hug he had ever received from her.

*   *   *

Inside the bedroom, Blac finished packing the duffel and pulled the draw ties on it.

His deadline had been extended till tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., but Blac didn't trust Cutty and his men, so he told Theresa it would be best if they stayed in a motel tonight.

He reached under the mattress and pulled out the gun he had taken off Steven Ballard. He ejected the magazine to see that it was still fully loaded. He raised the back of his T-shirt, slipped the weapon in the waist of his jeans while telling himself that one way or another, the senator was going to give him that money.

E
ric saw that just the screen door to Theresa's house was closed. The big door stood open. He heard the TV going, then peered inside and saw the back of Theresa's head at the sofa.

He knocked softly on the wood frame of the door. “Hello? Blac home?” Eric called. He stepped away from the screen and waited till the door was answered.

When Theresa appeared, Eric was startled by how bad her face looked. She said, “It looks worse than it is.” She managed a smile as she pushed open the door. “C'mon in.”

Eric wanted to ask what happened, but something told him it had to do with the money Blac was trying to swindle from Senator Stevens, so he decided he didn't want to know.

“Blac is in the bedroom. First door on the left.”

Eric walked down the hall and saw that the bedroom door was halfway open. He stepped into the room without touching the door.

Blac looked to have been doing something with the back of his T-shirt then jumped at the sight of Eric.

“What the fuck you doing here?” Blac said, seeming to calm a little when he recognized it was his friend. He stepped toward Eric, his hand out, and gave Eric a soft shake and a half hug.

“What's goin' on with my brother and the senator?”

“Oh, so you know,” Blac said with a sad smile. “I ain't no fag. I just—”

“I don't care about that. But you know you can't be doing this.”

“I can't?” Blac said. “I'm assumin' my girl let you in. You see her face? I never told you this, but I owe some drug dealing fool 150K. I missed my first deadline and he did that to her. I miss the next, they gonna rape her, then go after my sister and nephew. That's why I can be doin' this and ain't nobody gonna stop me.”

“I'm sorry about all that, but it don't have to go down like this, Blac. We can go to the police.”

Blac laughed. “Look at your ass. Been living in the big house a little over a week and already forgot who you are. Nigga, how would that look? Me going to the police? That's not how I do things, and that ain't how you used to do 'em.” Blac walked over toward the duffel and grabbed it off the dresser. “I think I'm good handlin' my business exactly the way I am.”

“And what about us being boys?” Eric said. “Whatever happened to that?”

“Ain't shit happened to it. All the shit I did for you in the past, stepping up like I just did. If you in trouble, I would do anything for you, Eric. You know that,” Blac said, staring directly in Eric's eyes. “I proved that. Now it's your turn. I need a hundred and fifty thousand dollars right now. You gonna give that to me? You gonna convince your brother to give it to me?”

“I don't know if he will, but I can try, Blac. I'll do that for you, 'cause I got your back, too.”

“That's okay. Save that shit, Eric. I got it under control. Now I'm gonna need for you to leave, 'cause I have a very important meeting I have to make.”

Eric stepped over toward the door, pushed it closed with his elbow, then said, “I'm sorry, Blac. But I can't let you do that.”

T
heresa sat in front of the TV, still smiling.

She pulled off the ring she always wore on her right hand and slid it onto the ring finger of her left. She held her hand out and imagined that ring to be the beautiful diamond engagement ring Blac would buy her.

She knew he wasn't perfect, but she also knew all he needed was a good woman to guide him, and she had always known she was that person. Blac needed someone or something to bring that to his attention, and that's why she pulled that stunt with Franklin.

Franklin had never been her boyfriend, but her best gay male friend, and it was actually he who thought up the scene they performed the other night.