Loving a Bad Boy (25 page)

They brought a different type of experience
to the table and after the private investigators had met dead ends,
she thought a security company might do the trick. He and Julio had
both explained that their firm worked a variety of high security
consulting jobs, and that sometimes things got outta hand.

Case in point, the client Tex was protecting
the night he was shot was a high profile client who had to remain
anonymous. Since Tex had been seen with the person, they kept the
situation out of the press. All hospitals were required to report
gunshot wounds, and that would have messed things up. That was the
reason a doctor was kept on retainer for them and their clients.
Once Tex secured the client, he came to her place, knowing she’d
help him. The explanation seemed a tad off, but each time she asked
a question, they repeated the same story.

The pilot announced they
were landing. She tightened her seat belt and closed her
eyes.
There’s no place like home. There’s
no place like home.
She continued that
mantra until the plane stopped moving. When she opened her eyes,
Tex was staring at her with a smirk.

“
We’re here.” He tipped
his head toward the door.

Pam swallowed around the
large lump that had lodged in her throat. Sweat popped on her brow
as she took her time gathering her purse and placing it on her
shoulder.
Problem, What happened to mama?
Is she dead?
Her heart plummeted at the
last question
. She inhaled. Solution: Find
out what happened and if she’s dead…I will know she’ll never be
here for me. At least I will know.

Standing, she squared her frame, flipped on
her sunglasses, and moved toward the opened doorway. A cool breeze
caressed her face as the noon-day sun warmed her skin. Tangy odors
from the nearby wharf drifted beneath her nose.

Thinking of Julio, she
turned to check on Tex. He stood resolutely behind her. Some larger
guy stood behind him, and at the bottom of the stairs, three men
fanned out. All with dark sunglasses, black tee-shirts, and black
pants. Another man, similarly dressed, stood near a dark sedan, and
there was a large van parked near the plane. She opened her mouth
to make a smart remark about
the men in
black
, but refrained when she noticed the
tight lines bracketing Tex’s mouth. A gentle push against the small
of her back got her moving. Inhaling, she pulled all of her
self-confident energy to the forefront, and took a step.

When they entered customs, an agent took a
look at her passport. Frowning, he looked at her and then at her
passport again. “You were born in Miami, Florida?”

She nodded.

He stared at her for a moment or so and
walked off. She watched as he made a phone call.

“
Everything okay?” Tex
asked from behind her.

She shrugged. “I guess so, that agent took
my passport and is making a call.”

“
Yeah?”

“
He asked where I was
born.”

“
Where were you born?” Tex
whispered as he replaced his passport in his pocket. The others had
walked off to retrieve the cargo.

“
I was told
Miami.”

“
I thought you were from
here.”

“
I was raised here. But my
aunt said I was born in the states. Something about dual
citizenship.”

Tex nodded and stepped back as the agent
walked back. The man stamped her passport and handed it back to her
without saying a word. As Pam and Tex walked out to their car, she
looked back and noticed the agent watched her.

“
That man is creepy,” she
said out the side of her mouth to Tex.

He didn’t look at her. “Why?’

She waited until Tex opened the door and she
slid in. “He’s watching us.”

“
Good. That’ll get the
word out that Pamela Burrows is on the island. Anyone who’s hiding
something or who knows something will be on alert. Usually this is
a good thing.” He squeezed her arm.

It didn’t take long for them to be on their
way. The van was going ahead to the house reserved for Tex and the
men.

“
Why’d he send so many
guys with you?” she asked, thinking there had been at least five
men that she saw anyway, at the plane.

Tex shrugged. “I dunno. Security?”

“
Can we say overkill?” She
mocked.

“
You can. Won’t change
nothin.” He looked out the window.

A strong sense of foreboding flooded her.
She shook her head to dispel the disquieting feeling of gloom, but
it latched on with a ferociousness that scared her. Things would
never be the same, and she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Chapter 16

The house Julio rented sat on a high peak
overlooking the ocean. Pam had no idea how he’d been able to secure
such a large home so fast. The security gate had been left open for
them. Tex quickly created a passcode and shut the wrought iron gate
behind the van as it lumbered down to the carport beneath the
house. Tex and Pam went up the driveway so they could enter through
the front door. Stephen, a giant at six-five with massive shoulders
and an equally large head, opened the door for them.

“
Thanks,” Pam said as she
got her first look of the house. Large windows graced the wall
facing the water allowing lots of sunlight to fill the living
areas. The kitchen and dining area was to the left, the living room
with bamboo furniture, a large flat screened TV and a hallway to
the right.

Pam walked left. Her breath hitched as she
took in the sight. Stainless steel appliances, mahogany cabinets
with granite countertops, pots and pans hung from a rack suspended
from the ceiling and a separate double door freezer left her
breathless. “It’s perfect,” she said opening drawers and
cabinets.

Tex laughed from the entrance. “You haven’t
seen anything else.”

“
It’ll still be perfect,”
she said grinning as she followed him to the hallway.

“
There are four bedrooms,
three and a half baths. An office and a small den. You have first
pick of the bedrooms.” He bowed and allowed her to pass.

She giggled and moved ahead. The first two
bedrooms she inspected were decent sizes, with nice bathrooms, but
it was the third one that grabbed her attention. It was reminiscent
of her bedroom in her parents’ home. Beige walls with mint green
stripes, color coordinated linen and furniture. A king sized bed
and the bathroom had a combination tub and shower. None of the
other bathrooms had that particular amenity. She held off on
claiming the room until she saw the fourth bedroom, but it was
similar to the first two.

“
I want this one.” She
returned to the third bedroom and was surprised to see her luggage
already in the room. “You guessed?”

Tex walked over to the sliding glass doors.
“Your face lit up like Christmas. There was no reason to guess.” He
walked outside on the veranda, looked over the high railing and
then at the ocean.

Pam put her purse in a drawer and followed
him. The sound of the water crashing against the surf soothed and
awakened dormant memories. “That’s awesome,” she whispered
remembering the times she and her parents had played in the surf. A
feeling of longing rose, as the tide slammed into her. She sat on
the chair and breathed in the moisture laden air.

Tex sat next to her. “How does it feel to be
home?”

The pressure in her chest intensified. Her
throat ached to get the words out. Fear, excitement, dread or a
combination of all three. She leaned back in the chair and looked
up at the glorious blue sky. Swallowing around the golf ball sized
lump in her throat, she uttered one word. “Good.”

She felt his stare as she continued her
inspection of the clouds. His rough hand took hers and
squeezed.

“
We’ll get the answers you
need, I promise. No matter what, you’ll get closure.”

Her eyes snapped shut.

He squeezed her hand again and left. Alone,
she allowed the first tear to trickle. Then another, and another.
Within moments an avalanche of tears wet her face, cleansing her
and providing a veil of water to protect her. “I’m here. And
somebody’s going to tell me what the fuck happened to Lenora
Burrows,” she whispered.

****

Three days ago, Pam had discovered the keys
to her childhood home were beneath the bear statue on the porch,
the same place they had been sixteen years ago. Since then she’d
been coming over daily searching for clues.

Today, she sat in the small room off the
kitchen. Funny, in her memories, the sunny den had always seemed
much larger. Now, sitting here, she realized the place of so many
fond memories was no bigger than her two bedroom condo.

Yesterday, she had gone through some boxes
in her old bedroom and discovered a picture of her as a baby in her
mom’s arms. Stunned, she could do little more than stare as her
eyes feasted on the face of the woman from her dreams. Last night,
she'd had trouble sleeping as so many memories of her mom and the
times they spent together, rushed forward, overlapping one another
until she’d run to the bathroom and emptied her stomach.

What happened to
mama
? This morning she woke with a
stronger determination to get to the bottom of the matter. Now she
sat in the den, no closer to learning anything about the woman
who'd birthed her. Perhaps she should have accepted Tex’s offer to
help go through the boxes. But at the time that seemed so…so
invasive. This was something she needed to do on her
own.

After rebooting her laptop she slid in a
soft jazz CD and returned to her childhood bedroom to open another
box. Various items had been packed with little regard to their
fragility. Many of the picture frames were cracked or broken.
Saddened, she sat and began the arduous task of restructuring bits
and pieces of her past.

An hour later, she came across a faded pink
and black book. The dirty quilted material on the outside concealed
a zippered journal, or maybe it was a diary. Frowning, she couldn’t
remember having one as a young girl. She unzipped it. Her heart
leapt as she read the one name she hadn’t seen on anything yet.

Lenora Anne
Rolle-Burrows
.

For a moment she stared without breathing as
reality settled. Finally, something personal that had belonged to
her mama. Grasping the small book like a lifeline, she stood
shakily, and walked over to the bed. Excitement and trepidation
thrummed inside her. What had her mama written? Was there anything
about her as a baby? Their life together? So many questions
competed for answers in her mind, she shut them down.

Not wanting to wait, she read the first page
while standing. The handwriting was large and loopy, filling the
entire page.

“
He’s wonderful. Full a’
life and sexy too. Pa was wrong, he said my Zach is a bad boy. This
man is good and he wants me for me. Glad I run away and am here
now. If he’s bad, he’s my bad boy now.”

Pam dropped to the mattress, too surprised
to move. What? She re-read the passage. “Mama ran away? To be with
daddy?” she whispered, turning the page.

“
I heard you was here.”
Her head jerked up as her hand flew to her chest. The low raspy
tone sent waves of fear crashing through her. Her heart thumped
ferociously in her chest.

“
You scared me.” As a
greeting it wasn’t bad. Not when so many uncomplimentary things
filled her mind. She frowned as the next thought crept
in.

The men outside hadn’t sounded an alarm.
Yet, there he stood in the doorway, big as life, tall and dark,
with his face partially covered by the hood of his jacket.

Feeling at a disadvantage, she stood to face
him. “Somebody told you I was on the island? You came to say hi?”
She asked sarcastically and waved her hand. “Hi.”

He shrugged off her comment, but didn’t
move. “Who you bring with you?” The change in direction threw her
off for a moment. She frowned, wondering what he was talking
about.

“
Tall black guy, who is
he?” he prompted when she didn’t respond.

The island was small but how’d he know about
Tex so soon? “A friend,” she answered dismissively. He didn’t have
any right to ask her questions.

“
A friend with bodyguards?
What kinda friend is that?” He remained in the doorway, but his
mocking stare brought heat to her face.

There was something off-putting about the
direct look he sent her, as though he could read her mind. Pity
that he couldn’t, then she wouldn’t need to tell him that he was a
piss-ass excuse of a father. “Why? What difference does it make?”
It didn’t escape her attention that he hadn’t asked how she was
doing. How long she planned to stay, or anything personal. Yet he
wanted answers about her friend. She turned toward him, the more
she thought of his treatment over the years, the tighter her jaw
clenched.