The Desert Lion's True Colours (2 page)

W
ith half a smile on his face and with his head slightly cocked to the right, Leon took Kerry’s left hand in his, raised it to his mouth and skilfully licked whipped cream from off the tip of her index finger. Smiling back at her lover, Kerry said ‘What you trying to do to me Mr Brown? Is this your way of seducing me?’

Leon was about to answer her question but was interrupted by the vibration of his cell phone on top of the kitchen counter. For reasons only known to him Leon’s whole body froze. If someone had taken a picture of him at that very moment, his face would have been the snap shot next to the phrase “
Scared
Shitless
”. For a split second, he thought Kerry had actually seen his reaction but happily waived it off when he noticed she was not paying him any attention but was using her finger to scoop whipped cream from around the side of the bowl.

Turning the phone over, Leon eyed the name on the screen and the tightness in his shoulders instantly relaxed. It was Jay
-
Leon’s oldest and closest friend in the world however at that very moment, friend or no friend Leon had other things on his mind. He hit the button on the side of the phone and the vibrations and its flashing lights suddenly stopped. Kerry looked up from the bowl of strawberries she was holding and asked ‘So who was that?’

Leon saw her lips move but what he heard was
-
that better not be a girl; and you are not going anywhere
.

‘She
must
have
seen
my
reaction
after
all.
’ he thought.

‘Well, who was it?’ She repeated casually.

‘It was just Jay.’ Leon replied with a smile. (Thankful it actually was Jay) ‘We were supposed to be going to this show later.’

As the words left his mouth he could see the glint in Kerry’s eyes flicker. Knowing what could be coming, he quickly added ‘But see… I didn’t answer. I’m all yours tonight.’

While those words were true, right then his thoughts were far removed from where they were standing. Kerry sighed in disappointment. She was not stupid. She knew Leon well enough to know something or someone was messing with her night’s plans. So she decided to take things into her own hands and steer Leon’s mind back onto its previous track.

‘So, Mr Brown.’ she said. ‘. . . Can I seduce you?’

Her words were spoken with enough seduction and intrigue to draw Leon in. He smiled as his mind went back to the conversation before the phone rang and said, ‘Yes of course. You can seduce me anytime you want.’

‘Oh really?’ she replied with a smile.

Taking a strawberry from the bowl, she slowly rubbed it over her lips, moved the pointed end of the strawberry into her mouth and gently bit down into its soft skin.

‘These are nice; here have one.’ She said, holding the fruit out in front of Leon’s mouth. It was so close the sweet, juicy aroma instinctively caused him to lick his lips. He opened his mouth slightly and while still looking into her eyes he took a bite. Smiling he said ‘Wow
-
that is good.’

‘I told you…’ replied Kerry with a chuckle.

Raising an eyebrow Leon said ‘What? What’s so funny?’

Kerry shook her head at first, almost as if she was too embarrassed to say but after her giggles calmed down; Kerry gave Leon a broad smile and then started singing:

‘Do
you
ever
think
about
Pussy
and
Crème/
Hmm,
Hmm,
Hmm,
Do
you
know
what
I
mean/’

Recognizing the nineties ‘112’ melody and seeing that unmistakeably mischievous grin on Kerry’s face, Leon could not help but laugh. He was about to give his version of the song but once again, the mood was broken by the flashing lights and the annoying sound of his phone vibrating on the counter top. This time Leon could not hide what Jay would call the
Shook-Look
register across his face.

‘Go! You better answer it.’ She said coldly.

Each word spoken was like a jab from Mike Tyson’s fist. He could feel her hurt deep within his own chest. So trying to avoid a probable issue, Leon quickly moved to disarm the time bomb impersonating as his cell phone. As he went to hit the power button he noticed the name on the screen. It was a call he had to answer but surprisingly one he was not expecting to get for another day or so. Without looking back at Kerry he picked up the phone and moved away from the kitchen counter to the dining island. Trying to compose himself for the ensuing conversation, he took in a deep breath, let it out slowly and then put on a broad smile,
-
hoping
it
would be transferred down the line.

‘Yo Black. What’s the deal dawg?’ He said calmly.

‘I’m at the SPOT…’ The voice came down the phone quick, straight and cold. ‘. . . What time you gonna get here?’

‘Yo Black…’ Leon replied hesitantly. ‘. . . I didn’t think.’

The voice on the other end of the phone cut him off mid-sentence. ‘That’s the problem Leon.’ He said. ‘. . . I think you have our roles confused. This is
MY
business, so
you
don’t get to
think
. I pay you to do what I tell you. You do know time is money right?’

Leon did not answer.

‘Well if you didn’t know, right now you’re fucking up my business! So HURRY UP NIGGAH, or you’re gonna be outta time and money!’

Leon ended the call without saying a word. While he hated being shouted at, he knew in this situation the less spoken the better. He rubbed his head and looked up to see what Kerry was doing and to his surprise she was looking directly at him. Leon caught the feeling she was actually trying to look into him, into his thoughts and then thought about how much he really hated that. He never liked people trying to read him and now Kerry had started doing it, he knew it was time for him to leave.

‘I gotta go babe, I’m so sorry.’ He said. ‘. . . Black needs me to go over the months takings at the club.’

It was only after Leon had spoken he realised his words not only broke the silence but possibly the bridges that were trying to be built that evening. Kerry bowed her head and looked down at the bowl of strawberries. Wanting to bring a smile to her face Leon walked over to Kerry and gently kissed her on the neck. He slowly raised her head, anxiously awaiting the hurt he would see in her eyes and as if on cue there it was; beautiful dark brown spheres drowning under the weight of tears that couldn’t be held back any longer.

‘I’m sorry shorty…’ He said. ‘. . . I’ll make it up to you. I promise. When I get back, we’ll pick things up where we left off aight.’

Wiping her true feelings from the corner of her eye, Kerry decided to give the night one more chance. She smiled, dipped a strawberry into a little cream and placed it into her mouth whole. Though this gesture was erotic in itself, Leon couldn’t help but notice the look in her eyes didn’t go with the motion. They both saw the gigantic white elephant in the room stampeding towards them and not wanting to be hit by its trunk of embarrassment, Kerry decided to speak first. ‘Make sure you take care of yourself.’ She said. Despite wanting to say a whole lot more, that was all she could come up with. It pained her to feel like she was being put to the side
-
again
. Kerry loved Leon dearly, but she was no fool. Something was not right. She wished she could say he was cheating. It would make everything so much easier. She would have no problem leaving him if he was sleeping around behind her back. When she was growing up, she had to watch her mother be mistreated and abused, cheated on and cast away like old clothes and so she swore she was never going to let that happen to her. Granted, she never really thought Leon was cheating however after three years and two months she could not shake the feeling he was into something she would hate. Her only saving grace was that she believed Leon would never hurt her and with that she did what all of Leon’s true friends did; she gave him space.

Leon picked up the jacket Kerry had given him as a present earlier that evening and walked towards the door. He heard Kerry mumble something along the lines of
‘what
a
birthday
this
turned
out
to
be’
which caused him to pause for only a second before picking up his keys and walking out the door to his Mercedes CL-65 parked in the driveway.

Once inside, he hit the start button on the dash and the 32-speaker, ‘BOSE’ sound system kicked in and the bass of ‘Out-Kast’ shook the cream interior of his car. Turning up the volume the treble accentuated Big-Boi’s words as they flew out of the speakers:

“She
was
my
Spottie
ottie
dopalicious
angel
 . . .”

Leon mouthed the words and started rhyming the lyrics before he put the car in reverse to back-out the driveway before heading towards his given destination.

CHAPTER 2
 

T
wenty minutes later, Leon pulled up in front of the ‘SPOT’
-
a small club located a block away from Las-Olla’s Boulevard. It was the new trendy hang out for young rich twenty-something’s, sports personalities and ballers. The music was always on point and the interior of the club was very plush. When describing the place the phrase
‘Urban
Chic’
would be thrown around quite a bit. Leon remembered the owner of the club tell him he got the same designers responsible for decorating Club Movida in London, Crush in Japan and Sway in Paris to pimp out the ‘SPOT’. Every time Leon walked into the Club he would imagine how cool it would be to have his own place. It was a Thursday night and the SPOT was packed. As Leon walked past the line and up to the entrance he could hear the low din of the bass trying to tear its way outside the club doors. The doorman’
–
who was called King spotted him approaching and raised his fist. Leon tapped the doorman’s fist with his and spoke first.

‘Yo, what’s good King?’

‘Nothing man,’ he replied in his distinctive southern drawl. ‘. . . just trying to keep the riff-raff and kids outer your boss’ spot.’

Unwittingly, King’s word’s touched a nerve and Leon’s smile instantly vanished. ‘My boss… ?’ Leon questioned. ‘. . . yo check it. That boy Leon, don’t have no boss
-
got it?’

Leon could tell King was a little thrown by his third person reference, so he took the pause as his cue to exit the conversation. Leon walked passed King’s 6ft 8, 270lbs frame without saying another word. Not paying any attention to the who or what was going on in the SPOT, Leon entered through the oversized double doors and took an immediate left, through another door that led to a flight of descending stairs. As he made his way down he could hear the melody of a different type of music playing from what was in the main part of the club. Halfway down Leon recognised the tune to be Buju-Bantons “
Boom
Bye-Bye
”. When he got to the bottom of the stairs a tall muscle bound man in a pair of Converse, navy blue Dickeys and a white tank-top came out of the shadows and stood in between Leon and another door. Leon quickly noticed two things: one, this guy was new to Black’s security, which meant something was definitely wrong and two, the guy’s physique was
-
for lack of a better word
-
strange. He was well over 7'ft. His legs made up at least three quarters of his height but they were thin as stilts. His upper body however was abnormally large. Leon could see what could only be described as muscles, climbing on top of muscles to make room for more muscles. ‘
One
word
 . . .’ Leon thought ‘. . .
steroids’.
He felt sorry for the guy but at the same time strangely envious. The guy looked comical; he could easily have been a character from the Dragon-Ball Z cartoon.

‘Dang… ! I didn’t know the hulk had a black brother!’ Leon said smiling.

The guy did not reply, just motioned Leon to assume the star position so he could pat him down. As his huge arms started their vigorous search Leon backed away.

‘Hey, hey, I don’t know you like that dawg.’ He said.

The guy stepped back with an expression Leon took to mean
‘you
interrupt
me
again
and
I’ll
kill
you’
.

Leon let out an uneasy chuckle. ‘I’m only joking.’ He said.

Without taking his eyes off the guy Leon retrieved his gun from its home,
-
tucked away in the crease of his back
-
and handed it over, handle first. The guy snatched the pistol out of Leon’s hands.