Two Sides to Every Story (Love Spectrum Romance) (23 page)

“What happened?” Angela asked.

“They all pooled their money, bought this shit and sold it, passed it off as the real deal. The guy got cute. He was pissed that Teresa’s brother didn’t want him screwing his sister. So he doubled-crossed Manuel and gave the money to Teresa, who was supposed to bring it back when he told her to.”

“Why did she go to Mexico?”

“She got pissed at her boyfriend, found out he was screwing around with someone else, so she took the money and ran, figured he deserved to get his ass kicked by her brother.”

“But the big gang fight, what happened with that? I thought it was about drugs.”

“There were some drugs involved, nothing major, a bag or two of weeds, a few pills, some lollypops, no big deal.”

Angela grimaced but didn’t say anything. To her any drug use was a big deal, but she wasn’t there to pass judgment; she was there to get the truth.

“Then what landed them all in prison?”

“They shot a cop! Someone got crazy, must have been licking his own candy and hallucinated. When the cops rolled up in there it got wild. No one knew what the hell was happening. Everybody started swinging, cops, bangers. Hell, a few people that just happened to be in the area got popped a couple of times. The city is lucky nothing more happened.”

“Did the cops beat up on the bangers?”

“That’s pretty hard to say. Everyone was hitting everyone.”

Angela stopped questioning Jose and looked at Rafe. She stared at him until he turned his green gaze on her and stared back, unflinching.

“Go ahead, we both know what you’re thinking. Ask your next question.”

“How do you know?” Angela turned back to Jose. “How do you know any of this?”

She watched as the man touched his shirt. “I was there. I work in the market right where everything went down. You came in once, remember? Raphael came in and took you out.”

Angela stared at the man. She had not recognized him. Her eyes swung to Rafe’s face. It was impassive as he stared back at her with green fire. “If you were inside the store working, you could have gotten things wrong,” she said, looking back at Jose.

She watched as he rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth in possible annoyance. Then he lifted his shirt and pointed to the keloid scar on his belly.

“I know because I was right there in the thick of the action when it all went down. I should have kept my ass in the store instead of going outside to see what all the commotion was about.”

“Who shot you, the cops?” she asked, looking pointedly at Rafe, angered that he was treating her so coldly.

“I don’t know, could be, and could have also been a banger. I didn’t ask. I was just glad to be breathing when it was all over.”

“Do you know Adrian Reed?”

“Reed? Yeah, he was the Black guy Teresa was doing, why?”

“Do you have any idea why he’s looking so desperately for her? I mean, if what you say is true and they broke up, why would he be looking for her?”

The man laughed. “Are you the one Teresa caught him cheating with? This interview sounds a little personal to me. I don’t see how you can use anything I’ve told you to bring down the police department. You only seem to be interested in Teresa.” Jose smiled. “At least that’s what everyone in Pilsen says. Quite a few people know you’ve been looking for her. Like I said, she’s my cousin. Do you have a grudge against her? Was some of that money supposed to go to you?”

Raphael touched Jose’s arm. “Calm down. She’s not out to hurt Teresa. She just really needs this information. You would be doing me a big favor if you told her everything that you know.”

For an uncomfortable span of ten seconds they all glared at each other before Jose nodded at Angela to continue with her questions.

“Do you know why Adrian wants to find her so badly? He has to know she’s been spending the money.”

Jose didn’t say anything for a moment but he relaxed and smiled at Angela. “Yeah, I know why he wants to find her. Teresa’s brother is going to kick the crap out of him. Up till now Adrian’s had some of the control in Statesville. Word is Manuel is going to be joining him there soon. Adrian doesn’t want to become someone’s bitch in there, and that’s what Manuel has threatened to make him, someone’s bitch.

“The brothers aren’t offering him much protection because they figured he shouldn’t have been playing it like that. He was doing it to both gangs. His own gang wants to kick his ass because he screwed them out of their cut. Matter of fact, he’s already got his ass kicked in there a few times, but he’s been promising both sides he’s going to get money. He’s been paying some guys to watch out for him. From what I hear his money is getting tight and he’s running scared.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“I have my ways.”

“If all of this is true, why doesn’t he just tell Teresa’s brother that she has the money?”

The others laughed then and Angela felt stupid for a moment. “Of course Adrian couldn’t tell Manuel that Teresa had the money. He’d take it all and Adrian would still be in trouble with his own gang.”

“Bingo,” Jose said.

All of this
, she thought silently, feeling the sadness invading her body. Angela shook her head. She thought of Rafe being shot, her brother’s threats against him and his family. All of this because of money, because he was trying to save himself.

“Is Teresa coming back?” she couldn’t help asking.

“Probably when Adrian gets out of prison. She has a little boy. My mother said she heard her tell the boy that his
poppi
was away and she was going to take him to see him when he came home. So my mom asked her when he would be home and she said another two years. That’s prison, man; everybody knows that. She just didn’t want to tell the kid.”

Angela felt as if the air had been knocked out of her. Adrian had a son. She wondered if he knew. Rafe poked her gently with his finger and there was compassion in his eyes when she looked at him. “Are you done with Jose?” he asked.

“If you know all of this about Manuel’s sister, why doesn’t he? How come you know that Teresa has the money and he doesn’t?”

Jose grinned. “Like I said, I have my ways. Teresa has friends, loyal friends who’ve been helping her. She’s been moving around. If her brother had really wanted to find her he would have. He thinks Adrian’s sister has the money.”

“Who told him that?” Rafe interrupted and Angela could sense the tension in his voice.

“Adrian told him, told him his sister ran off with the money. He told him his family hired a private investigator to look for her.”

Now she just felt sick. What had Adrian gotten her into? He’d woven such a web of lies that Angela wondered if it would ever get straightened out.

“How much money are we talking about?”

“I think it’s pretty close to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

Angela blinked. “Is that how much he owes or is that what he needs to satisfy both gangs?”

“I’m not sure. That’s the figure I got for what Teresa took, so maybe it’s both.” Jose hunched his shoulders up as if to say, “I don’t care.”

“The word is that Adrian is expecting a big payday soon. Both gangs have backed off. They’re giving him a couple more months to come up with the money.”

Our parents’ home
, she thought. Their parents’ home was going to be used to pay off Adrian’s debt. She cringed, thinking of all her parents’ money being used to chase dead ends when all the time Adrian had known they weren’t going to find anything.

He must have gotten desperate when he sent her to live in the Pilsen neighborhood. What had he thought she was going to do if she found the woman? It sounded pretty much like she’d been using the money to remain on the run, that and to take care of her son
. Adrian’s son
, Angela thought and trembled. “Thank you,” she mumbled to Jose and stuck her hand out.

As Jose took it he said, “Hey, that night in the store we weren’t going to hurt you. We had a few beers and we were just being silly. Raphael told us to knock it off. He came in the next day and got pretty angry about it. We knew there was something going on with the two of you. We’ve been watching out for you, making sure you stayed safe, just like he told us to do.”

“Thank you,” Angela mumbled, surprised that she hadn’t known. At least this explained those funny feelings she’d gotten at times that she was being watched.

“Jose, is Manuel looking for Adrian’s sister?”

“He was for the first year he was locked up. But since they transferred him to Menard he’s had his own problems trying to not become somebody’s bitch.”

“When does he get out?”

“He got the same time as Adrian, only he got another year added for misbehaving.” Jose laughed. “Adrian won’t have to worry until Manuel gets shipped back to Statesville. If he coughs up the money maybe it will square it. Maybe, you never can tell.”

“You don’t think there’s any chance that Teresa will come back and just bring back the money she has left?”

“Naw, she’s still pissed at Adrian. From what I understand he has this pretty woman that’s been coming to see him two three times a week since he’s been there. I think that’s why Teresa hasn’t come back. She heard about his new girlfriend, someone called Cassie Williams.”

Angela closed her eyes in horror. She didn’t doubt anything that Jose had said. No one, not even Simone, knew she’d being using the name Cassie Williams to get into the prison for the last two years to see her brother. He’d told her that he didn’t want the convicts being able to find her, that he was trying to protect her. She had to leave before she started to cry.

“Are you really trying to bring down Raphael and the police department?” Jose called after her.

Angela looked at Rafe. “No, I’m not trying to hurt Raphael.” She followed him to the car and waited. When he didn’t open the door she did it herself, and got in.

“Rafe, I’m sorry, she said.

“Save it, we’re not done yet. Everyone who’s not a cop thinks it’s such an easy job. I want to show you all of it. There is more to being a cop than just putting on a badge and bullying people.”

There was nothing for Angela to do but sit there beside the stone-faced Rafe and wait.

* * *

“Latanya, how’s it going?” Raphael said and kissed the woman’s cheeks. “This is Angela, a friend of mine. She’s a freelance reporter writing a story about the department. Would you mind talking with her for a few minutes?”

Angela watched as the pretty Black woman sized her up, trying to decipher if she was there to rip into the department. Angela decided to put the woman at ease. She was tired of people looking at her as if she were the enemy. She cringed inwardly as she caught Rafe’s glare. She’d done the exact same thing to him and she knew he was thinking of it.

This was a different world, Rafe’s world, where the citizens were the ones on trial and not the police department. For over two years she’d assumed everyone felt as she did. Now she was finding out that they didn’t.

“I just want to put a human face on the police department, find out how the average person feels about them,” Angela began.

“I’m not the average person,” Latanya answered. “My husband was killed three years ago. Just a routine traffic stop and someone pulled a gun and shot my husband in the head. I was six months pregnant at the time. My daughter will never know her father. So if average is what you want, then Officer Remeris brought you to the wrong place.”

Angela talked with the woman for over an hour, looked at her pictures and heard how the police department had helped her since her husband’s death. She shook hands with the woman and told her how sorry she was for her loss, then headed back to the car with Rafe.

“There’s no need for any more of this, Rafe. I get the picture; I know what you’re trying to say.”

“I want you to know it all,” he answered. “I want you to know why I can’t be thinking about you when I’m working. I want you to know why it’s important to me to have you out of my life.”

He was aware of her, more aware of her than he’d ever been. He knew it had to do with the fact that he wasn’t planning on ever seeing her again, that after he made sure she was safe and out of the neighborhood, she would be out of his life. Regardless of his reasons, it hurt like hell to have her that close to him and not be able to touch her. He watched as the tears fell on her soft satin cheeks and he watched as she wiped them away, but he refused to acknowledge them.

“Rafe, we need to talk,” Angela said between sobs. She could feel him moving away from her, closing his heart, shutting her out. She didn’t want that. She loved him. It was killing her that he wouldn’t even look at her unless he glared at her.

Sure, she’d been wrong in the way she’d treated him, but she’d planned for over a week to rectify her mistakes. She just hadn’t gotten the chance.

“You haven’t given me a chance to say what I want. You’re making this so damn hard. Can’t you just look at me?” she asked quietly.

“I’m driving. I have to keep my eyes on the road.”

“I was wrong not to listen to you. I should have told you what was going on. I didn’t know about Adrian dating Teresa, I didn’t know about the money. Now I do. I was wrong, Rafe.”

“It took you until today to come to that conclusion? I think that’s wonderful. You listen to the words that a couple of strangers have to say and you trust them but not me. Is that your definition of love?” The muscle in his jaw twitched. “Leave me alone, Angel.”

In less than a minute he stopped the car, got out without a word to her, went into a bakery and got back in. She eyed him but he still refused to look at her.

After another few minutes of silence, he stopped again in front of a nice brick ranch and got out, taking the pastries. “You coming?” He peered in at her, glaring, daring her with his look to call him
sagana
again.

She took the dare. “
Sagana,
” she whispered. And got out of the car and walked away from it.

Raphael knew he was being a jerk and a jackass. He didn’t blame his angel for calling him on it. He was the all-time biggest jerk in the world. He was being mean and petty but he had to push Angela away from his heart. She had too much control over him and he couldn’t afford to allow her back in.