Scandalous Heroes Box Set (73 page)

“Vanessa?” G squinted. “You say from the school of performing arts?”

Dante laughed. “Nah, that’s what
she
says…but she can sing, so maybe.” He shook his head not completely sure. She did manage to come up with an awful lot of surprises. Then he scowled, “One day she riding the bus to meet me, and then the next she’s getting dropped off in a BMW claiming it belonged to some dude she knew and she was going to let her cousin drive herself back home in it.” Secretly it had pissed him off that Vanessa had known some dude that drove a Beamer and he had made sure that he’d laid it on her good to mark his claim.

G stood up, his eyes blazing. “Vanessa? Where does she stay?”

Dante gave the big man a surprised look, wondering if he’d stepped on someone’s toes. “Man, I don’t rightfully know. She sketchy I told you-”

“She part white or Mexican or some shit?!”

Dante became very nervous now. His mouth became dry. “I…she’s light skinned-”

“She got long hair?!” G’s voice was now a shout. The other men in the room went on guard as they watched the curious exchange.

“Yeah, man…” but what bitch didn’t these days?

“Negro, tell me what the BMW looked like!”

Now Dante had crossed from worry to fear. This muther fucker was insane. His eyes appeared to be black orbs that pinpointed him in a murderous glare. What the--?!

Dante raised his hands as if to say that he meant no harm. “It’s a black BMW convertible-”

Donald Miller’s eyes lit up in understanding. “That’s your boy Scotty’s car.” Oh hell no! Scotty’s bitch was fucking Dante! Donald’s face turned up into a sneer. He’d never liked that stuck up bitch anyways. She walked around thinking she was better than everybody else. And the white boy, Scotty, was someone that he wouldn’t mind seeing take a fall. He knew it was Scotty that had kept him out of the crew—and out of the money that he could have made.

Dante blinked in fear. “Look man, I didn’t know anything about that!”

G wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to the sniveling boy. He wanted to find something to punch because Scotty’s dumb ass had backed out on the money, their plans…even on their friendship—all because of some treacherous female.

“You know,” Donald said slyly. “That bitch played both of them; Scotty and my boy Dante here.” Dante was nodding his head in agreement.

G’s brow furrowed. Wait a minute…the way Vanessa had always looked at Scotty—he couldn’t see her going for a fool like Dante…

Donald watched the doubt cross G’s face and spoke up. “It’s a shame how Scotty got all messed up with a chick like that.” Donald shook his head in mock sympathy. “Ain’t nothing like losing everything you work for over some silly bitch.”

G’s eyes met his. “Scotty’s trying to be something he can’t be. I can’t blame him for trying.” G’s eyes darkened in anger. “But it is a shame that he’s losing out on everything over Vanessa because she ain’t worth it.” He sat down again, to Dante’s relief.

“Yeah man, I knew she was sketchy but I didn’t know about your boy Scotty, so we both got suckered in.” He wasn’t one hundred percent sure if that baby was his but he had been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. But after this—no telling who she’d been giving it out to! He was angry…but also a little sad.

Donald rubbed his knuckles. “You could probably get your partner back if she was out of the picture.” He didn’t know if that was true or not, nor did he care. He only wanted to get the big man on his side. Because he had an idea that had been brewing in him for a very long time. Donald’s eyes narrowed even while the fake expression of sympathy stayed on his face. Girls that told him no deserved what they got. Vanessa would have gotten what she deserved years ago if his boy Anthony hadn’t always talked him out of it.

But Anthony hadn’t been around when that bitch Yolanda had told him no. Yeah…he had paid her back for rejecting him. She wouldn’t ever say yes or no to any other dude—not after what he’d done to her. He hadn’t actually tried to kill her—at least he had not planned to. It’s just that she stopped breathing while he was strangling her. But it was her fault for not shutting up when he told her to! She could have just lain there and taken it and then it would have been over, but she had to scream and cry. So yeah…he killed her and left her in the abandoned building.

Later he told some guys that he’d seen something that had looked like a dead body in a building. Like fools they went to check it out. Before too long the word had spread, but just like that game where you whispered in someone’s ear and passed it along; it was unclear what the first version had been. He had never told anyone about Yolanda and what had happened in the building but one person had probably figured it out. It’s probably why he still liked Anthony to this day even though he was off at college and they didn’t hang anymore. Anthony had been the only person who cared enough to remind him not to hurt anyone or he might get sent off somewhere. Yep he missed having a best friend that stuck by his side everywhere he went.

G frowned silently as he thought about how much better off Scotty would be if Vanessa wasn’t around. He might be messed up for a minute but he’d get back on board…

Everything is Everything

~Book 2 Preview~

Vanessa knew that it was time to face her grandmother. She and Scotty had returned from her romantic birthday celebration and she had been staying at his place every since. Now Vanessa truly understood Scotty’s fears; once they’d made love she could not imagine being anywhere but with him.

She smiled to herself as she thought of the gentle way that he touched her, teaching her how to please him. She loved waking up in the morning to find that she was curled up against Scotty’s body, his arm around her.

With a sigh, Vanessa picked up the telephone and dialed her grandmother’s house. She was eighteen and despite the argument that she was sure to face, she intended to stand her ground.

“Hello?”

“Hi grandma.”

“Hi, Vanessa. Are you back from your birthday vacation?”

“Yes, ma’am.” In fact, she’d been back for days…

“Did you and your cousin have fun? You didn’t do anything crazy like getting drunk did you?”

Vanessa’s lips twisted in amusement. “No ma’am. We just wanted to celebrate and we had a good time.”

“That’s good baby.” Her grandmother’s voice became hesitant. “I suppose that you will be wanting to collect your trust money.”

“Yes, I will soon-“

Bertha Mae sighed. “Then I think you and I better have a talk.”

Here we go.
”Sure grandma. I can come over later today.”

“Okay. Bye.” And the phone went dead, surprising her. Grandma had just hung up the phone. Now that didn’t make sense, she hadn’t even told her anything that should make her mad…yet.

Scotty was out dealing with transcript issues before registering for college. Since she didn’t have the car, she decided to splurge and take a cab, using some of the money that Scotty had left for her in the bedroom drawer.

She was sure that her grandmother would think that she was being wasteful, Vanessa thought as she sat in the back of the cab. But it would be stupid to take a bus when she could use this opportunity to pack up some of her things to take back to the apartment.

Vanessa walked up to the house that she had lived in with her grandmother, wondering how much this would hurt their relationship. Her grandmother meant the world to her but she would not live by anyone’s conditions but her own. If her grandmother didn’t want to accept her relationship then that was her decision, but one thing she could no longer do is control the trust fund.

Vanessa knocked on the door at the same time that she used her key to enter the house. “Hi, grandma. It’s me.”

“In here,” the older woman called from the kitchen.

Vanessa was surprised that she didn’t smell the aroma of something cooking. They had made plans to meet hours ago and her grandmother would have had plenty of time to whip up something to eat. Anytime Vanessa had returned home to visit, her grandmother would have something prepared for her to eat because she thought ‘those people didn’t know how to cook. Sometimes it was greens and a meatloaf with all the fixings, or pinto beans and cornbread. And when there wasn’t much time, grandma would at least throw together salmon croquettes and rice.

Vanessa walked into the kitchen a little disappointed, not that she necessarily wanted something to eat but because it was something that her grandmother always did.

Bertha Mae White watched her granddaughter, her face expressionless without even a smile of greeting. Vanessa tried to think back to what she’d done wrong—what her grandmother could have discovered that she’d done in just one week.

“Sit down Vanessa.”

“Is everything alright?” She asked while taking her seat. Oh Jesus…grandma was going to tell her that she had cancer or something. Vanessa felt as if someone had just socked her in the stomach and she looked at her grandmother with open fear.

“No. Everything is not alright.”

“Are you okay?” She asked, her voice rising high in fear.

“Vanessa, you are not going to like what I am about to tell you. But you will not be collecting your trust until you’re twenty-one.”

Vanessa was speechless. She couldn’t even respond because there were so many things that she wanted to say at once.

Her grandmother’s eyes became sympathetic. “I didn’t make this decision lightly-“

Vanessa shook her head. “What decision? You can’t stop me from collecting my money.”

“Vanessa, I want you to take a minute to listen to everything I’m going to tell you.” Vanessa fought back a hysterical response to scream and rant against any idea that she wouldn’t be collecting what her mother had meant for her to have. But she needed to hear exactly what her grandmother had to say and so she clenched her teeth and waited silently for her to explain.

“When you were still a baby, your mother took out a life insurance policy which named me the beneficiary.” Vanessa frowned in confusion at the direction the story was taking. “When she died I…couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d lost her life. To me that money was not something that I wanted possession of. So what I did was I put it in the bank…for you.”

Vanessa’s mouth parted in confusion. Was her grandmother telling her that she had a trust as well as the money from her mother’s life insurance policy?

“When you first came to me you were so lost. I wanted to give you something to focus on, something that would show you that your mother loved you very much-“

“My trust…” Vanessa whispered.

“There is no trust. Your mother had a savings account with fifty-two hundred dollars in it but that money is long gone.”

Vanessa began to tremble. Her mouth just hung open. “Gone? But…”

Bertha Mae shook her head. “That money was taken out of your mother’s bank account the same day that we found out about her death. Your mother didn’t have a will and she never talked to me about setting aside money for your college fund. It was you that told me that. When I checked her bank statements I saw that there was money in her savings account but it had been taken out; fifty-two hundred dollars. Once I produced her death certificate and showed the bank that I was the beneficiary of her life insurance I was able to get a copy of the withdrawal slip. It was signed with her name, and dated after her death.”

Vanessa lowered her head into her hands. She felt tears stinging her eyes. She looked up quickly at her grandmother. “Who took the money out of my mother’s account?”

Bertha Mae White leaned forward and stared directly into her grand daughter’s eyes. “Your guess is as good as mine,”

Vanessa blinked and then sat slowly back in her chair.

She changed the house after your mother…you know,
Jalissa had said.

The morning that she had been told about her mother’s death, aunt Callista had left with the police to identify her mother’s body. But after doing that…maybe she got possession of mama’s personal effects; her identification. And maybe Callista had gone to the bank and used that identification to make a withdrawal. She didn’t look like her mother but they had some similar qualities…

Bertha Mae continued to talk, her voice quieter but just as firm. “So there is no trust fund. There’s only the money that was left to me; the money that I’m giving to you. When I feel that you’re ready for it.”

Vanessa felt like fainting. Everything in her life had once again gone upside down, and even though her aunt had never fooled her, it destroyed something in her that the woman’s treachery could be so far reaching.

Everything is Everything book 2 is coming August 2014 to Amazon, Barnes and Noble and AllRomance e-books.

In book 2 of this gritty urban drama, Pepper Pace continues the story of Vanessa; a multiracial young woman, where the secrets of the past continues to push her into places that are beyond her control. And Scotty, the ghetto hardened white man who finds salvation in his childhood first love. In book 2 of this romance, reminiscent of the 70’s era street literature books, Pepper Pace continues this action packed story of love, betrayal and secrets…and whether Scotty and Vanessa’s love can endure through out the decades.