Heels of Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (27 page)

“See that’s what you don’t understand. If you ever left him, that would kill him. You’re in too deep, and the longer you keep this from him the more it’s going to hurt him.”

We both sipped our wine, and then our food arrived. “I won’t pretend like he hasn’t come back to life since he’s met you, but I can’t help but fear the storm that you’re brewing,” she said.

I ate my salmon in silence.

“Where are you from?”

“Tennessee.”

“Where are your family and friends?”

“Tennessee.”

“Why are you here?”

“My friend Chelle asked me to come to the Pacific Northwest, and I’ve never lived here before, so I came,”

“Where all have you lived?”

“All over.”

“Where?” she demanded.

I wiped my mouth with my cloth napkin and took a gulp of my wine. “Um, let’s see. New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, California, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Washington State.”

“Why so many states?”

“Work.”

“Have you always traveled?”

“Yes, I’ve always been in auditing and sales.”

“So, I take it you make a pretty good living?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“You must have had a lot of education?”

“The best money could buy.”

“So why are you with a boy from a reservation instead of some white-collar millionaire?”

“White collar men aren’t my type,” I told her.

“So, what is your type?”

“Jyme.”

“Why?”

“Because he understands me better than I understand myself.”

Those words seemed to have had magic powers in them. Mrs. JJ melted right before my eyes. She smiled at me and told me; she understood what I meant. She talked and talked and talked for the rest of the day. She told me exactly how she met Big Samson and about giving birth to his children. She told me the way he used to be with her, and then the kids came and that everything changed. She told me about her childhood. And how things used to be on the reservation. She told me about Jyme when he started fishing and how he loved it. She repeated almost everything Jyme had already told me about how he started his business, but I didn’t stop her. She seemed so laidback talking about her family and all of their adventures.

We talked about sex with the Samson men, and I gave her an inch of information. I had to share something in our bonding stage; this was crucial and Jyme wanted this.

“I know this is difficult for you to talk about, but you have to understand I encourage my children to be sexual and free. They can talk to me about any and everything. I don’t want my children to be embarrassed about sex.”

“Oh, he’s not, believe me,” I said.

“Oh, I know he’s not, but he’s reserved when it comes to you, and I don’t like that,” she told me.

And at that moment, I understood Mrs. JJ a little bit more. Jyme always went to her with all of his issues and thoughts, and now that had changed and she felt like she didn’t know him anymore. Jyme protected me, and she did not know me so that annoyed her. I had to let Mrs. JJ in some kind of way, but she was a mother and I don’t do mothers.

“He’s so gentle and patient with me. Just looking at him, you’d think he was hard and rough, and he can be at times. But the majority of what I see, he’s a tamed tiger,” I told her.

She sat there in silence, and then I went on. “Our first time was beautiful. It felt like my first time ever in more ways than one.” We both giggled. “He didn’t think we could do it at first, but we had to rearrange, and then things were perfect. I don’t know we just fit; I can’t explain it, and I don’t want to get too deep into this. Pun not intended,” I said laughing, and she joined me. “Seriously it’s just like our bodies know each other; they know each other better than our minds do,” I explained.

“Kindred spirits” she whispered. She looked over at me in the driver seat, and then she laid her hand on top of mine. “I like you now,” she said with a smile.

“I’m glad.” I checked my phone three times, and I had absolutely no messages from Jyme.

Mrs. JJ wanted to know everything current about me, and I appreciated her for not trying to pry into my past. She wanted to know how Jyme’s relationship and mine was and what we do together. After her tenth time of asking, “Is that all you guys do?” I had to tell her we were still in the honeymoon stage. She said she understood, and she backed away from that subject.

We made it to the reservation at 9:45. Mrs. JJ walked into Jyme’s house with me and turned on all the lights. She told me if I was too scared to stay there by myself that she would stay the night, and I assured her I was fine. She put her number on a piece of paper by the house phone.

I showered and dressed for bed. The house phone rang, and I answered it.

“I miss you,” he growled in my ear.

“Jyme,” I breathed. I just sat with the phone for a minute; I think he was listening to my breathing because I know I was listening to his.

“I love your mom.”

“I’m glad, Babe.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“When are you coming back?” I asked.

“The crack of dawn. I’ll be there before you wake up in the morning.”

“Well, you make sure you wake me as soon as you get here.”

“Oh, I will.”

“I can’t wait to taste your tongue on mine.”

“Cricket,” he breathed into a growl.

“I miss us, and I miss our safe house.”

“Me too.”

“I love you, Mr. Jamerson.”

“And I love you, Ms. Hooper.” I slid into his soft comfortable bed and drifted off.

When I woke that morning, I could hear Jyme in the kitchen. I jumped out the bed and went into the kitchen. “Why didn’t you wake me when you got here?” I scolded.

But I was scolding the wrong person. Jyme’s sister Patty sat at the kitchen table, and Mrs. JJ was cooking something on the stove. I turned around and looked in the front room. Jyme’s grandmother was sitting in her wheelchair staring out the window.

“Where’s Jyme?” I asked.

No one said anything. I went to the house phone and dialed his number. It went straight to voicemail.

“He said he was going to be here when I woke up,” I told them.

No one looked at me; they just acted like they couldn’t hear me. I sat at the table and put my hands on top of Patty’s. “What’s wrong? He called last night and said he’d be here by eight o’clock, but he’s not.” I looked over at the kitchen clock, and it was nine thirty.

Patty and I sat there holding hands in silence and Mrs. JJ set food in front of Patty and me.

“The flight?” I yelled out.

Patty shook her head. “They missed it. I called this morning, and none of them were on it.”

“Who all went with him?”

“Loon, Kanoke, and Sheen.”

I jumped up at once and ran to get my phone. Patty followed slowly behind me. I dialed Ayashe’s number on the house phone; it rang twice.

“Sheen?” she said frantically; my heart fell then. I knew she was waiting to hear from him if she saw this number thinking I was him calling her.

“Ayashe.”

“Cricket, have you—”

“No.”

“I told him not to go down there. I told him.”

“Ayashe, what are they doing?”

“They are so obsessed with this fucking casino; they think this is going to be the ultimate pay off for all of them. They are going to get killed trying to make this happen. No one wants them in the casino business. Jyme has paid every fucking body off from the deserts of Nevada and now the palm trees of California. Loon is their only voice of reason, and they wouldn’t even listen to him. Jyme is so determined not to have a paper trail that he delivers the cash himself. He doesn’t send anyone else to do it; he does it himself. You cannot go around paying off all these Natives like this. It pisses them off that he has so much money. I don’t know where they are, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Call Chelle, and I’ll be at your house in three hours. Get baby sitters, and look up flights,” I told her. I walked from the hallway and went to get dressed.

“Momma,” Patty called frantically from the hallway. She watched me, and then Mrs. JJ joined her.

“Cricket, what are doing?” Mrs. JJ asked.

“I’m going to find him.”

“No, the hell, you’re not,” she shouted at me.

“Mrs. JJ, I can find him, and I promise I’ll get him home.” I walked to the front door, and Jyme’s grandmother wheeled over to me. She reached for me, and I kneeled down to her. She touched both sides of my face, and then her face went slack. She let her arms drop, and she started weeping and reached her hand out for me again. I walked out the front door. Patty and Mrs. JJ ran after me. I jumped in the Lac and sped down the hill.

I made it to Ayashe’s in two hours; I drove ninety the whole way there. I walked in and both of them were packed and ready to go. Ayashe had tears in her eyes, and I knew Chelle had filled Ayashe in on my past. Ayashe watched every move I made. She was starting to piss me off.

“Listen, don’t fucking look at me like that. If you can’t handle this, you need to go.” I snapped.

“I can handle this, and I can do this. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“So what are the flights looking like?”

“We have two hours, but they’re expensive,” Ayashe said. Then she closed her eyes in disgust with herself. I handed Chelle my credit card and walked towards the door.

“I need to run a quick errand, and then I’ll meet you guys at Sea Tac.” I left Ayashe’s, heading for the safe house. On my way, I stopped at the bank right before they were closing and withdrew six thousand dollars.

I pulled in, and I sat in the garage for a minute. I looked over at Jyme’s brand new Charger, and then I slid down out of the Lac, leaving the keys in the ignition. I thought about it, and then I realized I’d never felt safe enough to leave keys in an ignition. But Jyme did it all the time at the reservation and here. He knew what it truly was to feel safe, and now I did. I went into our beautiful home and sat at the kitchen table with a pen and pad. I wrote down the thoughts that were in my head. I finished the letter and headed upstairs. I packed my essentials in three bags. The only piece of jewelry I took was my Cricket ring.

I was heading back downstairs when I remembered something. I ran back into the bedroom and went to the back of the closet. There was my red birthday dress. I folded it in a piece of plastic and shoved it into one of the bags. I heard a horn outside and ran down the stairs. I opened the door and turned to take one last look at our house. It was absolutely perfect for us. I fought back tears, locked all three locks, and got into the cab.

When we landed, Chelle had everything under control, as I knew she would. She had a rental and a hotel room already booked and paid for. We loaded up in a Chevrolet Suburban, and Chelle apologized immediately for the obvious distraction, which I didn’t need right now.

“This was the biggest vehicle they had, and I was not sure how much room we’d need,” she said. I nodded at her and kept driving.

Ayashe had a few numbers she had collected from across a few reservations, and we now had names of the Natives Jyme was meeting with, but we didn’t have a clue how to find them. That is where my expertise came in handy. I knew the hottest streets to check, and I knew where to avoid. I changed clothes in the truck, and Chelle helped me by handing me this and that. I piled the makeup on and then jumped out of the truck.

“Stay as far back as possible, I whispered to Chelle. She nodded, and I shut the door.

I walked a half a block before I stopped, and then the games began.

“Baby girl, you look new and fresh,” the man in the Infiniti SUV said.

“I am, I just got off of a plane,” I said in a slow twang voice. Country Bumpkin was on for the evening. I walked over to the Suburban, and then all hell broke loose. That is exactly what I was looking for.

“Wait a minute BITCH. Who the fuck is you’? A high-pitched voice asked.

“I’m Cricket; it’s nice to meet ya.”

“I don’t know a fucking Cricket, but you better get yo ass out of here before C.J. finds you.”

She was a skinny, tiny thing, but I could tell she could hold her own. She wore a black spaghetti strap fitted dress with black boots tall as the sky and a long jet-black wig; it reminded me of the old wig Cher used to wear when she was with Sunny.

“I thought Ralphie ran this side,” I lied.

“Hell, no girl. Where the fuck you been?”

“On the Southside.”

“Shit, no wonder why you’re confused. Come with me.”

“Hey, baby girl,” the Infiniti called out.

“Jeff, ain’t nobody touching that little pencil dick of yours.”

“Fuck you, Cinnamon,” he said as he drove off.

“That’s the problem. You can’t,” she yelled back at him, laughing. We walked into a pizza joint, and Cinnamon ordered us two slices and two sodas. I ate as if I was starving, and Cinnamon watched me.