Scandalous Heroes Box Set (71 page)

“The only thing is that you are not allowed to park it in Winton Terrace. Not even for five minutes. So if you’re going to drive it you’re going to have to stay at my place, is that cool?”

Surprised again she playfully agreed. “Sir, yes, sir!”

“And Vanessa…” he said, voice dropping in warning.

“Don’t worry I won’t wreck it.”

“No. I’m not worried about the car. You be careful.”

She smiled and promised that she would.

He made arrangements to pick her up in order to bring her back to his place. The plan was that G would be waiting and the two would then head to New York in order to take care of business.

When she greeted him outside of the apartment an hour later, she kissed him thoroughly right where they stood on the stoop until his eyes darkened.

“I’m driving.” She stated and then sauntered to the waiting car. He tossed her the car keys and then picked up her bag. As she drove them back to his place she sang along with every song that played on the radio—which she had long ago locked onto the local R&B channel. He watched her in amusement. If this is all it took to make her this happy then he was pretty damn lucky.

Later, after he made sure she was settled in his place, Scotty showed her where the gun was located. She didn’t want to touch it but he still showed her how to load the chamber and lock it. He kissed the scared look away from her face and stated that nothing would happen. He just wanted her to know that there was a loaded gun nearby and she should know how to use it. He gave her a few hundred dollars, which she wouldn’t take, so he left it with the gun telling her that it was for her to use as she wanted and if she didn’t use it then he guessed it would just get dusty in that drawer. He kissed her again and made her promise to be careful.

~***~

When Vanessa woke up after her first night in Scotty’s bed she felt surprisingly lonely. She spent the morning cleaning even though the apartment was sparse. She snooped a little bit, too, wondering if she would find evidence of an ex-girlfriend or something, but there was nothing.

Finally she called Jalissa and told her to be ready because she was coming to pick her up. The cousins had fun joyriding around in the Beamer, pretending to be a couple of rich girls.

Jalissa turned to her quickly. “Let’s drive downtown. I want to see if that fool Dante is cheating on me.”

“Wait, I thought you said that he wasn’t your boyfriend.”

“He’s not but he said he wasn’t going to be messing around with any other chicks but me.”

It sounded as if he was her boyfriend to Vanessa but she wasn’t about to debate the subject. They drove downtown and Jalissa gave her directions to an apartment unit, which was nicely maintained compared to what she’d seen in The Laurel Homes. Vanessa parked and gave her cousin a wary look.

“Maybe we should call him first…”

“Hmph.” She opened the door and when Vanessa got out to follow her, she told her to stay put and she would be right back.

After waiting ten minutes, Vanessa began to worry and was ready to go into the building—though she had no idea how to figure out which apartment baby daddy lived. But the door of the complex opened and Jalissa stood hugged up with Dante.

“Yo, Donna!” Jalissa called and Vanessa rolled her eyes at the name. “I’ll call you later. Me and Dante are going to spend some time together.”

Vanessa waved okay and started the car. The young man peered curiously at the nice black BMW before placing an arm around Jalissa’s full body and guiding her back into the apartment for more loving.

~***~

Scotty learned that making crack and freebasing were two totally different things. Crack didn’t require the use of flammable chemicals, which was already a plus for him. The other ingredients were easy to get at any corner market in the city. Making the drug was easy, it was quick--allowing for drying time, and it burned cleanly. He watched several people smoke it and noted that they seemed to grow numb very quickly.

Dawson was showing them an operation where one room of a rundown apartment was used for cooking the product. Several people stood at a worn wooden table where burners, glass jars and other items were spread.

The living room is where the dried crack rocks were being cut, weighed and prepared for distribution. A few men and women were lounging around smoking the drug from glass pipes and G, who was no regular drug user wanted to take a try at smoking it.

Scotty quickly yanked the sleeve of his shirt; alarmed that G was willing to smoke some experimental drug that neither of them had ever heard of before. While his friend smoked marijuana on a regular basis, he had never seemed interested in anything harder. It was one of the reasons that Scotty had trusted G enough to partner with him. There weren’t too many people whose hands he would place his life in, but G was just that person.

“Man, what the hell are you doing?” Scotty whispered. “You don’t know what that shit is going to do to you!”

“Chill, man. I’m just going to try it once so we know if it’s worth our time.”

Scotty looked at the few people in the room that were smoking the drug and didn’t like that they all resembled fiends. No one would look like that unless the dope was good. He was uneasy that G would even entertain the thought of trying something that would make you look like that.

But G picked up a glass pipe, which was already black with the resin of previously smoked rocks. Scotty noted Dawson’s smug expression when he saw G light up and he knew that this was the moment that would change everything.

Scotty moved to the far edge of the room, not wanting to inhale any of the vapors, but he kept a steady eye on G who fired up the small yellow rock and inhaled deeply. He averted his eyes so that he wouldn’t see the bliss cross the young man’s face. Only, now images of Tino filled his mind. He couldn’t fight back the images of used needles on his bedroom floor, or memories of his doped up mother.

A bitter certainty hit Scotty that caused his heartbeat to speed up and his eyes to dart around the room for something that would erase the thoughts. But they only settled in around him becoming the truth; one day some kid would watch his mother smoking this crack shit—the same shit that he had supplied.

Scotty Tremont closed his eyes but he could not un-see the truth; the boy that had once wanted to preserve the innocence of all the little children was now the man that was responsible for creating a life of nightmares for them.

Much later when Scotty drove them back to the hotel, G began raving about the drug and how they could probably cut back the ratio to three to one. He was certain that the fiends were going to go crazy over it and that they would find a new customer base in people that couldn’t afford coke and those too afraid to shoot-up.

Scotty listened quietly for a long time before glancing at his friend.

“G. I’m through.”

His friend looked at him in surprise. “Through? You want to quit now? Man didn’t you see how easy that operation was going?! We’re about to become richer than our wildest-“

Scotty shook his head. “Look, I know. I know what’s going to happen.” He looked at his friend. “But this is as far as I go.”

G fought for something to say. “Because of Vanessa? Dude you are about to make enough money to give her a life that she could have never dreamed of!”

Scotty concentrated on the street. “I just want to give her a life that she can be proud of.”

G scowled and they drove in silence.

Chapter 25

Vanessa did not think that she would be a nervous wreck on her birthday, after all she was the one that insisted on losing her virginity as soon as they could, and she was the one that thought it was stupid to wait until September 17 before she could see her engagement ring even though she knew full well that she was getting engaged. 

But Scotty was adamant that everything go by plan and even though it annoyed her that he was always so cool and calm about everything, she was secretly happy that it mattered so much to him.

Jalissa was lying on the bed rubbing her belly and watching Vanessa pace. “I can’t wait for this baby to come.”

Vanessa stopped long enough to smile at her. “Wouldn’t it be funny if he came on my birthday.”

Jalissa grinned. “No.”

Vanessa shook her head. “Are you still mad about my birthday being before yours?”

Jalissa sat up. “I was never mad. But look at me,” she smirked. “I should have been the oldest. I did it before you. I’m having a baby before you-“

“Lord have mercy!” Vanessa exclaimed while shaking her head in amusement. “Will you ever let it go? I will be doing something first; getting engaged.”

Jalissa shrugged good-naturedly and then laid back down. She yawned. “Have fun ‘cuz…even though it’s going to hurt like hell.”

Vanessa scowled and then decided to check her bag one more time. Scotty said he would be there to pick her up at 8 a.m. sharp and then they would drive to the mountains. It was barely 7:30 but she couldn’t keep still and kept walking to the window to look out for his car.

She silently listed off everything that needed to be done; called grandma yesterday to tell her that she was going out of town with Jalissa to celebrate her birthday, packed the two negligees that she had gotten from Fredrick’s of Hollywood, bought aspirin in case Jalissa was serious and it did hurt.

When she saw Scotty’s car pull up ten minutes early she squealed and darted down the stairs while calling out goodbye to Jalissa. She quietly let herself out of the front door so that she wouldn’t wake up aunt Callista who was sprawled out on the sofa bed snoring loudly.

Scotty looked good leaning against the car dressed in khaki pants instead of his normal jeans. He thought the same about her as she hurried out of the apartment dressed in a short summer dress that showed of her luscious legs. Instead of her usual ponytail, Vanessa’s hair flowed over her shoulders in curls and he suddenly wasn’t sure that he would be able to drive all the way to Tennessee without grabbing her up and having his way with her right there in the car.

He took her bag and then gave her a lingering kiss. “Happy birthday,” he whispered against her lips. “I have a present for you.”

She tried not to frown, hoping that he wasn’t going to propose to her in the parking lot. “Oh?”

“It’s in the glove compartment.”

Curious, she got into the car and opened the glove compartment even before closing her door. There was a leather-encased box and when she opened it she saw that it contained several never opened audio tapes. He got into the car and winked at her.

“Figured you might want to listen to more than country music while we’re driving through Tennessee.”

Vanessa laughed and thanked him. He knew her well because he had selected her favorites; Deniece Williams, Prince, Luther Vandross and others that she loved singing along with.

“You are the most thoughtful boyfriend ever.” She leaned over and kissed him.

Scotty informed her that they would arrive in Tennessee around noon where they could either stop for lunch—he gave her a quick glance—or just head to the chalet.

Vanessa glanced at the clock and swallowed thinking how close noon was approaching.

When they finally reached The Smoky Mountains National Park, Scotty gassed up the car while Vanessa grabbed them some snacks.

“Have you thought anymore about what you might want to study?” Vanessa asked as she tore open a package of licorice.

After breaking away from the drug business Scotty had told Vanessa that he thought he might want to go to college. Over the last few weeks he’d contemplated what he might want to gain from college and realized that the idea of education really appealed to him. He glanced at Vanessa unsure of how she might feel about his idea.

“Well…I think I might want to teach.”

Her expression brightened in delight. “Oh that’s a good idea. I remember how you used to try to teach me Latin.”

His expression relaxed glad that she didn’t think it was stupid for an ex-drug dealer to want to teach kids. But there was something inside of him that wanted to do something meaningful with his life and teaching someone something that they had never known before excited him.

“Will you be able to teach after…well you know…juvie?” They never talked about that time of his life but Scotty had no problems with her knowing about it.

“I should. The center I was sent to had a diversion program that allowed for drug charges to be expunged at the age of eighteen. If it’s true that no one can see the record then no one would know about it.” It was something that he would look into later once he made sure that it fit into his much more limited budget. “What about you, babe? You said your mom left you money. Are you going to use it for college?”

She gave him a sly look as she chewed on a piece of licorice. “Aren’t you even the least bit interested in how much money my mother left me?”

“A million dollars?”

She scowled. “Funny.”

“Sure baby. How much did your mom leave you?”

“Sixty thousand.”

Scotty choked and nearly had to pull the car over. He gave her a surprised look. “Did you say sixty thousand?”

Now that was the reaction she was looking for. She smiled shyly. “Yep.”

He drove silently for a while before glancing at her. “Well I think we’ll be alright.”

~***~

When they finally arrived at the chalet, Scotty carried the bags into the house and dropped them right in the entrance. He turned and pushed the door shut trapping Vanessa between it and his body.

“Oh…” she said in surprise.

He dipped his head and captured her mouth, exploring its depths as her hands slowly went around his body.

Slow. Slow. Slow.
Scotty chanted to himself mentally. Vanessa had no idea how much control it took to wait this long and he certainly didn’t want to scare her when they were finally here. He pulled her into his arms and held her, enjoying the feel of her body against his.

Vanessa’s hands lightly roamed his back, learning each dip and rise of his muscles. She looked up and he met her eyes. She marveled that his were the same cornflower blue and that although his face had matured and now held a soft morning stubble, he looked just like the boy that had picked gravel from her palms so many years ago.