Cheaper to Keep Her Part 3 (8 page)

Aside from all the drama Keisha caused, I was able to hear Bishop’s voice in the background. But the downside to this was that I wasn’t able to speak to him and find out about Bria. I really hoped he either had a chance to get her back or find a way to make things right with the other guys. Maybe they would let her go peacefully. In my book, money solved a lot of problems. In the world Bishop navigated, money was power and spoke volumes. So maybe he’d be able to make a reasonable exchange with a feasible amount of ransom.

Over three hours had passed and I still hadn’t heard from Bishop. I tried to contact him once more, but with no success. I figured he’d answer my call since he knew Keisha and I had gotten into a heated argument. But once again, his phone went directly to voicemail. Irritated. That was me and that was putting it lightly. I had no control over everything that was going on around me. It was fucking with me. Not knowing, not being able to find anything out was disturbing. And the unknown was if they could grab Bria, it only made sense that they could grab me as well.

I decided to leave the apartment and go out to Starbucks’ to get me a caffeine fix. Plus, I needed to calm the fuck down and get some perspective.

Before I left the apartment, I was curious to know if Bishop moved the dope package from underneath my bottom drawer. And to my surprise, it hadn’t been moved at all. So I put the drawer back in place, ensuring it was closed shut.

I slipped into another one of my favorite white tees and a pair of sweat pants and then I made my exit.

I felt it was best that I clear my mind and think of how I could help Bria without putting myself in harm’s way. Quiet as it was kept, Bishop needed some help. If he hadn’t found the location of his sister by now, then he could forget about finding her alive. The way niggas were nowadays; they killed anyone who got in their way. And I was definitely not trying to be one of them.

While I was out making my Starbucks’ run, I had to stop at the nearest gas station to fill up or else I would be walking back to the house. There was a BP service station two and a half miles from the apartment, so I pulled up to the first pump. I didn’t have a debit card to pay for the gas at the pump, so I went inside and paid the male attendant behind the fiberglass window. After I gave him forty bucks he handed me a gas receipt and then I left the store.

While I pumped the gas, a familiar SUV pulled into the service station and parked their vehicle directly next to mine. My heart started beating a little faster than normal. I had to admit, Sean had something to do with it.

I had reached my price limit for my gas, shook the hose a couple of times to get every drop of gasoline in my tank and when I was done I pulled down the lever and placed the hose back on the hook. I then twisted the cap back on the gas tank and closed the cover.

I looked at Sean. The man was very handsome and well manicured. It was something about his smile that sent chills through me. The initial interactions I have with men are always stimulating. They always put on their best smile and charm just to woo me and then after they get the pussy, they start to show their true colors. I wondered if I gave Sean the time of day, would he play me like Duke did or treat me the way Bishop was treating me? It was a tough call but time would tell.

“Why don’t you call your girlfriend and ask her to meet you for breakfast?” I finally said. I couldn’t hold my tongue back. I had to let him know I saw him making a call while I drove away from the restaurant last night.

I let out a chuckle to let him know I didn’t believe a word he said. But I wasn’t through with him. I had to press the issue but I figured if I used reverse psychology he’d feel comfortable enough to spill the beans and tell me the truth about his love life.

“Look, you and I just met so you don’t have to lie to me,” I told him. “If you have a woman, than that’s cool. I mean, it would be nice to warn me just in case she saw us together.”

I stood near the driver side of the car and waited for him to come clean with me. But unfortunately, he didn’t budge. “Trust me, if I had a girl in my life I would tell you. But I don’t,” he said.

I was utterly turned off by Sean. I would’ve hung out with him in a heartbeat. But I couldn’t be around a nigga I couldn’t trust. I know Bishop hadn’t been trustworthy lately, but at least he was paying the fucking bills. Sean, on the other hand, had just come on the scene and he was messing up already. It was time to give his ass the finger. I opened my car door and said, “With all the shit I got going on in my life, I ain’t got time for you and your lies. So, please kick rocks!”

Immediately after I got back into the car, I revved up the engine and tried to pull off, but Sean pulled his truck in front of me, preventing me from leaving. So I put the car in reverse and tried to back up, but a black Suburban with smoke tinted windows pulled up behind me and blocked me in. I was about to jump out of my fucking skin from mere fright. All I could think about was I was about to be the next kidnapped victim and Sean was behind it.

My heart was literally doing somersaults underneath my chest cavity as it pumped with fear. When I saw Sean hop out the driver seat of his vehicle and reach for the handle of the passenger side door, I panicked and locked it before he could open it. I wasn’t about to let him or the other guys in the truck behind me take me away without a fight. Since I had nothing in my possession to help me fight these guys off, I grabbed my cell phone from my purse so I could call Bishop and tell him where I was and what was going on so he could help me.

Immediately after Sean saw me with my phone in my hand, he jumped across the hood of the car and begged me not to make that call. Then he pulled out a two-sided ID holder with a badge on one side and an ID card on the other side, and pressed it against the driver side window.

“Lynise, I am an FBI agent. Your life is in danger, so please do not make that call,” he begged me.

What the fuck? Shocked, more or less, I didn’t know what to say or how to react after he flashed his badge in front of me. At first sight, I didn’t know if it was fake, and if this was one of his tactics to keep me from calling Bishop and to get me out of the car. But when the other two men stepped out of the SUV behind me, I saw they were white. They too flashed their FBI badges.

Something told me they weren’t the cats that had a beef with Bishop and kidnapped Bria. Somewhat convinced that Sean and his cohorts were the real thing, I finally stepped out of the car. For the first time, I could honestly say that when I stood before him, I was completely at a loss for words. After he showed me his badge, I didn’t know whether to address him as Sean or agent. But I knew that things would be different between us from this day forward. Something else I had to deal with.

I waited for him to tell me that he and the other two agents were there to escort me back to Virginia. I knew this was about those murders involving Diamond, Duke and Katrina. But when he told me he was there to talk about Bishop’s sister, Bria, my mouth fell wide open.

“Well, since you know I’m a federal agent now, I guess it’s safe to tell you that I’m Agent Sean Foster and these two guys are Agents Morris and Paxton,” Sean formally introduced himself and his fellow agents. “We were assigned to work the Ronsdale case with Bishop as the ring leader. When his sister, Bria, was busted on drug charges and money laundering, we made her a deal that if she helped bring down her brother and his lieutenants by wearing a wire and secretly record their conversations, then she wouldn’t do one day in jail.

“But the night before she was supposed to appear in front of a grand jury with the information to help us secure federal indictments for Bishop and the other men in his organization, she vanished. And we believe Bishop had something to do with it.”

Trying to make sense of this whole thing, I stood there in disbelief. The thought of Bishop having his sister kidnapped just didn’t sit right with me. He wasn’t that type of person. He was down for his family and from what I’ve seen, he loved them. Hell, the whole reason he came down to Virginia was to avenge his brother’s death. That had to be some bullshit.

“Look, I don’t know where you’re getting your information from but Bishop would never do anything to hurt his family, including his sister,” I replied to Sean’s accusations. “He’s not that kind of guy. And now that I think about it, when he told me that Bria had gotten kidnapped a couple nights ago by some niggas that had a beef with him, he was really upset about it and I could tell by his actions that he was going to make them pay for it.”

But Sean wasn’t feeling my opinion or me. He made it painfully obvious that I needed to take a closer look at Bishop and his dealings. “Bishop is throwing the wool over your eyes,” he stated. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he thought I was a fool or some lovesick bitch who didn’t know head from tail. Evidently he didn’t know I knew my way around the block.

“Well, since he’s throwing the wool over my eyes, explain to me why he got mad when I told him that Bria might’ve tried to call me,” I began. “Remember when we were eating last night and somebody called with a blocked number and I thought I heard a lady’s voice tell me to help them?”

“I remember that all too well,” he answered immediately. “But again, he’s playing you like a deck of cards. He wants you to believe that he’s upset and plans to settle the score with these imaginary thugs, so when the shit hits the fan he could use you as his alibi.”

Still trying to wrap my mind around everything Sean was telling me, I began to get sick internally. My stomach was churning just thinking about the type of man I have gotten myself involved with this time. Will I ever find a guy that’s not a killer and will love and respect me?

While I pondered on how my life had turned upside down, Sean unveiled the plan he had for me. “Lynise, we came at you today because we need you to help us find out where Bria is before something really bad happens to her,” he said.

I placed my face in the palm of my hands. I figured if everything Sean was saying was true, then Bishop is more of a fucking psychopath than Duke. “I don’t know Sean,” I said while I pondered the pros and cons of their mission for me. I figured if Bishop was involved with his sister’s kidnapping, then getting rid of me wouldn’t be hard at all. I wasn’t his blood relative nor was I his only girl. And needless to say, we didn’t have kids together nor did I have anything to hold over his head. Needless to say, it would be really easy to put a bullet in my head and Bishop wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over it. The thought of being around him after finding out he was capable of causing his own sister’s demise wasn’t exactly what I wanted to put on my to-do list.

“What exactly do you need me to do?” I wondered out loud.

Agent Morris stepped forward. “All we need you to do is wear a wire and try to gather as much intel on the whereabouts of Bria and Bishop’s drug operation so we can bring the case to a close.”

“What if he finds out that I’m helping y’all?” I asked.

“Don’t worry too much about that. We have our surveillance set up inside of Sean’s apartment and we’ll be right there if anything goes wrong,” Agent Morris tried assuring me.

“Can I speak to you in private for a second?” I asked Sean in front of the other agents.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied and then looked at the other agents and instructed them to give us a minute to talk in private.

The agents got back inside of their black SUV. That gave me the green light to discuss my concerns with Sean in private. “What’s really going on Sean?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a federal agent in the beginning? Do you realize the position you put me in?” I expressed. I felt like a damn fool thinking he and I could’ve got together and started a fling with this FBI agent. Stuff never worked out the way we planned them.

Sean started shaking his head as if he was apologetic. “I know. Believe me I wanted to tell you I was working undercover while we were eating breakfast yesterday. But I would’ve gotten my head ripped off by my supervisor if I had.”

Frustrated by my situation I turned around to see if the other agents where still inside of the truck. They were. I also looked around the area. This was crazy. We were in plain sight at a gas station two miles from my apartment. I was sure those around wondered what was up. I looked back at Sean and asked him if I really had to wear the wire, knowing how dangerous that could be for me? Bishop was no ordinary guy. I watched him murder my ex-best friend, Diamond, and slaughter Duke, so killing would be next to nothing for him to do.

Sean looked like I was putting him under a lot of pressure to answer my question. But I wasn’t going to let him get off that easy. I had to know if I had other options. “Sean, please don’t make me wear that wire. I won’t be able to act normal around Bishop with that thing taped to my body. Additionally, he and I are still romantic . . . sexual. So I know he’ll start acting suspicious and find it.”