RECKLESS — Bad Boy Criminal Romance (29 page)

“You don’t need to.  Stay here and let me undress you.”  I took off her jumper.  I kissed her and started to unbutton her blouse.

“When are you and Terrell doing the next house?” she asked.

“I don’t know.  He’s busy lately.”

“So what?”  She took a step back from me.

“So give it time.”

“He’s not the only one who’s a part of this.  Why does everything depend on him?  You could rob a house alone, couldn’t you?”

“No.  I wouldn’t be comfortable even trying it alone.”

“I could help.”

“Please.  What if something went wrong and we got arrested?  Your parents might ground you a few extra weeks if you wound up in jail, don’t you think?”

“This sucks.”  Cassie stood, wearing only her partially unbuttoned blouse and underwear.  “So we have to sit around waiting on Terrell?”

“I’m sure it won’t be long.  Besides, what’s your rush?”

“Terrell should accommodate us, instead of all of us accommodating him.  I’m just saying we’re all taking a risk and expect to make money from it on a regular basis.  Why do you let him control everything?”

“This whole scheme was my idea.”

“Exactly.  That’s my point: You’re smarter than him.  You should say what’s what.  Everything shouldn’t hinge on him.”

“He has a lot of stuff going on in his life – work and family issues among other things.”

“You’re letting him order you around like you’re his dog or something.”

“You have no fucking clue.”

“Tell me how I’m wrong.”

“Your entire premise is wrong.  Terrell and I work and make decisions together. Besides that, we’re friends and we do what’s best for me, him, Ariel, and you, even if you don’t realize it.  He and I take the majority of the risk.  All you do is hand me a key and you’ve made thousands of dollars from it.  That’s extra cash on top of all the shit your parents already buy you.  You’re a spoiled rich white suburban bitch.  You know nothing.”

“So that’s what you really think about me?”

“Tell me how I’m wrong.”

“You’re such a fucking asshole.”  She shook her head.  “Why are you even with me since you obviously don’t give a shit about me?”

“I never said that.”  I looked at her but she made no eye contact.  “I do care about you, but maybe I should leave.  I get the feeling you probably don’t want me here.”

“I never said that.”

I stopped and turned back to her.

“My parents still won’t be back a while.  Can’t we, like, agree to play nice?”

“I really don’t understand you.”

Late in the week I drive to the University of Arkansas campus to have lunch with Britney.  In the living room I find Angela on the couch watching a daytime talk show on TV and drinking a glass of Jack and Coke.

“What time is it?” I ask, glancing at the clock.  “You’re already drinking at eleven forty-five in the afternoon?”

She looks at me and says, “I had a guy who I didn’t even like dump me.  I think I deserve something to dull the pain.  Besides, I’m bored.  What else is there for me to do here?”

I look at her, then watch the television for a minute.

“Hey, I was thinking,” Angela says.  “Now that you’re sleeping with Britney and she’s all in love with you, what do you think would happen if you went to her said you don’t believe a word of her whole religion?”  She giggles.  “I’d love to see her face.  Her head would explode.”

“To stay with me, she would use her bibles and crucifixes to warm the fire.”

“Then once you get her to renounce all her beliefs, you dump her.”

“You’re an evil genius,” I say.  “That’s why I like you.”

After driving to campus I join Britney in the Student Union, the same place we met, in the cafeteria on the second floor.  I buy a spicy chicken sandwich and she buys a chicken salad sandwich from the Chick-Fil-A and we find a small, two-seat table along the wall.

“What class did you just come from?” she asks me.

“Geology,” I make up.

“I was just in Biological Anthropology.  It made me so mad,” she says.  “We had to read this article that said that humans are animals.  Can you believe that?”

“Well, it is biology, right?  Isn’t ‘homo sapiens’ an animal classification?”

“Maybe.  But it’s just so ridiculous.  We’re not animals.  We have souls and we don’t behave like animals.  We have the ability to separate right from wrong.  I can’t believe they can teach something so wrong as truth at a college university.”

“Did you do anything about it?”

“I really wanted to raise my hand and say something during class when we were talking about it.  I actually thought a lot of people would be angry and say something.  But everyone just accepted it and discussed the article like it was no big deal.  And then I didn’t want to be the annoying Christian girl disrupting the class.  I don’t know … Maybe I should have said something though.  Standing up for Christianity may have inspired other people in the class to stand up too.  I think I was just scared.  Do you think that was cowardly of me not to say anything?”

“No, not necessarily.”

“Then I was going to talk to the professor about it after class, but I didn’t want to be late meeting you here.  I’m definitely going to write my professor an e-mail though.  I think I’m going to invite him to church.”  She bites into her chicken salad sandwich.

“Speaking of church,” I say.  “I’ve really enjoyed being involved, taking up the collections on Sunday and everything.  I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with it and I think I could do more.”

She smiles.  “That’s so great.  Do you have any idea what you want to do?”

“Not really.  I like what I’m doing now.  Maybe something similar.  I think I could handle more responsibility though.”

“You know the head collector George who takes all the money you and everyone else collects?  Like, in a month or two, he’s having hip surgery and will be gone for a while.  I think my dad already has someone lined up to take the job.  You don’t have any seniority, so I don’t know if I can get it for you.  But I can at least talk to my dad about it.”

“Sure, that’d be great.  I’d love the job if you can get it.”

She pauses a moment, then says, “I was actually kind of surprised.  My dad mentioned your name the other day.”

Stunned I ask, “Yeah?  Why?”

“I guess you talked to him at the Harvest Party.  I don’t know what you said but you must’ve really impressed him whatever it was.  Anyway, remember the Faith Outreach program we were running?  The one where we met?  My dad wants to expand that program and is interested in you as a consultant.  Since you were recruited to the church, he thought maybe you’d be good at recruiting others.”

“What would he want me to do?”

“I have no idea.  I was kind of taken back when he said your name.  I didn’t ask any questions.  I just told him I’d talk to you.”

“Yeah, I’m interested.  How about I talk to him next Sunday?”

Chapter Eighteen

A young man transplanted from Newark, New Jersey, to Memphis.  He began peddling drugs, competing against Curtis.  His operation wasn’t nearly as complex.  He sold all the drugs himself, but his charisma and work ethic drew hordes of customers.  Many of these customers he stole from Curtis’s street-level dealers.  In an attempt to avoid violence, Curtis sent a messenger to offer him a job.

The young man, however, rejected the offer and continued stealing clientele.  He even frequented Platinum Pleasures, a stronghold of Curtis’s customer base, and sold to strippers and club regulars.

To solve this problem, Curtis turned to Terrell. 

The young dealer showed up on a Saturday, the club’s busiest night.  Neither Curtis nor his crew was in the club.  But in the back parking lot was an unmarked white van manned by a few of Curtis’s associates.  Terrell’s job was to get the young man into the back of the van, at which point they would take over.

That night Terrell admitted me into the club to help him.  Curtis was livid and wanted the matter dealt with immediately.  Consequently, Terrell stood to gain both great appreciation and compensation.  He wanted me there as a safeguard if anything went wrong.

I sat down the bar from the young man from Newark.  Surprisingly, he looked only a few years older than me.  He was light-skinned and handsome, sporting a short afro and a thin beard.  He had sharp features, skinny, wearing a corduroy jacket.  He flirted with an off-duty stripper.

Terrell stepped up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.  “He might be even prettier than you,” he whispered jokingly.  “Keep an eye on him.”  Terrell walked away and did his job managing the club.

I eavesdropped on the young dealer’s conversation with the stripper.  Eventually she wanted to buy something from him.  He suggested they step out back.  I made eye contact with Terrell from across the room.  Without a word, we communicated everything we needed.

Terrell followed them out the back door into the parking lot.  I exited out the front door and walked along the side of the building toward the back.  I stopped at the back corner of the building where I could hear them.

“You think you can do this shit here?”  Terrell grabbed the dealer by the collar of his shirt. 

“It’s nothing,” the stripper tried to explain.  We’re just—”             

“Are you fucking stupid?” Terrell asked her.  “Do you want to get your ass fired?  Get the fuck back inside.”

The stripper obeyed without another word.

“C’mon, easy man,” the young man said, pulling a money clip from his pocket.  “I’ll cut you in.”  He held up a hundred-dollar bill.

Terrell took the bill and tossed it to the wind.  But before he could make another move, the young dealer in one incredibly swift, deft motion pulled a knife from his pocket and sliced Terrell across the abdomen, cutting through his shirt and ripping through his flesh.

Terrell doubled over, releasing his grip on the kid.

The dealer cackled and dashed away.  As he rushed around the corner, I timed it perfectly.  A right-handed punch landed squarely on his mouth, knocking out his top front row of teeth, sprawling his body onto the gravel parking lot, and breaking a pair of my knuckles.

He spewed up blood, rasping guttural moans.  Dazed, barely conscious, he swung his knife at me wildly from the ground, which I easily avoided.  I kicked the knife out of his hand and kneeled on his torso.  With my left hand, I held him by the throat and drilled him with another right hand, knocking him out cold.

Terrell walked toward us, holding his stomach, and observed.  “He’s not pretty anymore.”

“Not at all.”

“Let me take it from here.”

Terrell threw the scrawny kid over his shoulder and carried him to the white van and tossed him into the back.  The second he closed the doors, the van sped out of the lot and out of sight.  Terrell took off early from work, went home, and poured hydrogen peroxide on his abdominal wound before washing it out with soap and water. 

I drove to the hospital for my broken knuckles, lied to the doctor that I had defended myself after being jumped, and paid for the visit in cash.

The young dealer’s dismembered body was found the next morning at the front door of the Post Office, sealed inside a cardboard box postmarked for Newark, New Jersey.

Sunday morning Angela and I dress ourselves and drive to church, only exchanging a few words, as my mind is on speaking to Reverend Boyd after the service.  Out of the church parking lot, Angela and I walk to the front doors.  She stumbles, almost falling to the pavement.  I grab her by the arm and steady her.  Now near her, I realize she smells of alcohol.  Not needing the distraction, I look at her and say, “Are you going to be able to hold yourself together or do you need to stay in the car?”

She looks at me contemptuously.  “I’m fine.  And don’t talk to me like that.  I’m not a child.”

We enter the church and sit in our usual spot in the back.

“Do we really have to sit through another one of these things?” Angela whines.  “This is the most boring shit ever.  Couldn’t you have figured something else out by now?”

“Just be normal and do like always,” I whisper to her.  “We’ll make some money.  I’ll talk to the reverend afterward and then I’ll drive you home and you can sleep off whatever drunken bitchy mood you’re in right now.”

“Fuck you,” she whispers back.  “You’re not so goddamn great, you know.  You need me just as much as I need you.”

I chuckle.

“You think you’re so great just because you can get girls to spread their legs for you?”

I don’t say anything.

“I’m prettier than any girl you get.  And I didn’t sleep with you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure you fantasize about it before you fall asleep every night.”

“Whatever.  You’re such a cocky asshole.”

“Yeah, and you’re little miss humility.”

“You’re not
that
good-looking.  You’re not
that
goddamn smart.”

I notice the service is about to begin.  “It’s starting.  Shut up and let’s get through this.”