Sex, Secrets and South Beach (33 page)

Bentley sat in thought momentarily,
then said, "So what are we going to do? Shouldn't the police have
figured this out?"

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda. The LAPD
ain't never had love for black folks. They ain't managed to find
who popped Big, Pac, or Nicole Brown Simpson. We gotta handle this
our way!" Sparks pounded his palm with his fist for
emphasis.

"Are you cool with this, Ginger?"
Bentley asked. "You're a Christian. And what we might have to do
ain't very Christianlike."

"I've got my issues. But I believe
that God will take care of this before anyone else gets hurt. I'm
praying on it. Face it. You all have so much at stake to lose.
Bentley, Sparks, you could lose your careers, the label, if you act
on your emotions and you hurt that girl. Death is too easy for her
psychotic behind. She should suffer. But part of me knows that she
needs help. Either way, she should pay for her actions, but don't
blow your lives on her."

"She doesn't deserve to live!" Bentley
yelled.

"Look. I've got an idea," Ginger said.
"It's simple really. If you can trick her into confessing, she'll
pay. She killed that journalist. Dez is on the brink of life and
death. Whether Leilani goes to the nuthouse or jail, she will
suffer."

"Yeah, but how are we gonna do that?"
Sparks asked.

"Leilani is sick. We saw that when she
pulled a knife on us at your house. All you have to do is act like
you want her back. It always works in those psycho chick movies.
Tell her how relieved you are that Dez is out of the way or
something like that. That's what she really wants. She wants you,
and she was willing to kill Dez, since she thought that Dez stood
in her way. Flip it on her. Act like Dez has caused you nothing but
trouble. Put it on real extra. You'll be able to tell by her
reaction. She'll probably tell on herself. What do we have to
lose?"

Sparks and Bentley looked at each
other.

"Fuck that! I say we smoke that
bitch!" Bentley spat.

"Right, and when Dez pulls through and
sees you're in jail, it will kill her. How you gonna marry her and
make babies from a cell?" Ginger snapped.

Bentley dropped his shoulders in
defeat. "Okay. We'll try this your way I have to admit, it sounds
like a good plan. But if that doesn't work, we're gonna do things
the Harlem way!"

"Baby, I need you," was how
Sparks greeted Leilani
over the
phone.

Leilani nearly wet
herself.
This is working better than I
planned,
she thought.

"Oh, honey! I wanted to call, but I
didn't think you wanted to hear from me," Leilani
gushed.

"Can you make a flight tonight? I need
you. I have to see you."

"You name the time and airline, and
I'm on the flight," she promised.

"Go to the airport now. I've got a
ticket waiting for you on Delta. Don't worry about packing. We'll
go shopping when you get here," Sparks forced himself to
say.

Roughly eight hours later, Sparks
picked Leilani up from LAX.

"Sparky! I'm so sorry. You must be a
wreck," she told him as she greeted him with a big hug. Leilani
made sure to rub her body against his to get him going.

"Not exactly, but we can't talk here.
I've got a suite booked for us to get some privacy at the Standard.
Let's go, baby. We've got a lot to talk about," Sparks said before
they hopped in a cab and headed to Hollywood.

Ginger’s hands shook as she
hooked up the nanny
cam in the hotel room.
She never thought she would have to put her technical skills to the
test in such a manner, but now her sister's life depended on it.
She'd already hooked up discreet long-range, high-frequency
microphones on the lampshade next to the bed, in the sitting area,
and in the bathroom just in case. It was amazing what one could
purchase at the local spy shop.

All Sparks had to do was get Leilani
to fess up without killing her. As a precautionary measure, Ginger
checked into the room next door, and would be monitoring the action
the entire time. Hopefully, Sparks would be able to get Leilani to
talk without it taking too long or having to go too far.

Ginger and Sparks had gone over the
plan what seemed like a million times. To get her warmed up, he'd
kiss Leilani a little, caress her a bit, and tell her how much he
missed her. If he just had to, he'd make love to her, but Sparks
hoped it wouldn't come to that. He'd tell her how Dez had made a
fool of him, how she'd nearly destroyed his label. He'd tell
Leilani that he wanted Dez gone but that she'd threatened to sue
him blind if he dropped her. He'd tell her that he was feeling
trapped and that whoever shot her actually deserved the reward
because they were doing him a huge favor. It had to work. Leilani
would be all buttered up, and since being a hater was her nature,
she'd more than likely fess up. Or so they hoped. Otherwise, the
LAPD and a snitch would be their only chance to get to the bottom
of the shooting. Ginger's cell phone rang twice. That was her cue
to slip next door. The games were about to begin....

"Johnny, I missed you so
much. I'm so sorry about
everything that's
happened," Leilani began.

"No need to apologize, Lani." Sparks
gritted his teeth and kissed her with feigned passion. "I was
blind. You tried to tell me about Dez, but I wouldn't listen. Can
you ever forgive me? I've been such a fool."

"Oh, baby. It's not your fault. Dez
has a way of making people lose sight of what's really important.
It's because she has no priorities herself." Leilani stroked
Sparks's face. It was all he could do not to slap her hand
away.

"She's so self-centered. It was always
me, me, me. Dez didn't care what was best for us. She was only
about self," Sparks said.

"But what are you going to do? All
that money you invested in her," Leilani said, showing her true
colors. It was always about the almighty dollar to her, no matter
how much she fronted otherwise.

"Baby girl, I'm glad you're here. I
haven't had anyone that I could talk to about this. Bentley's
heartbroken over that whore. He cared about her more than the label
or me," he continued. Leilani shook her head in disgust. "The truth
of the matter is, after the incident with you and the
knife–"

Leilani cut him off. "That was a huge
mistake."

"I'm not so sure," Sparks said,
baiting her.

"What do you mean?" Leilani couldn't
believe her ears.

"I mean, I wanted her gone. After I
thought about everything that went down, I realized that having her
around wasn't worth what it was doing to you emotionally. I knew
that wasn't the real you doing that. Her presence was causing you
so much pain. It made you irrational. And not just saying I wanted
her gone from the label, but gone from my life, from my brother's
life." Sparks paused to gauge her reaction. Leilani looked as if
she were about to burst. Sparks continued with the ruse.

"She threatened to sue me if I dropped
her. And can you believe the lawyers said she had a case? She was
going to bankrupt me," he stated, faking shock.

"She's the proverbial gold digger,"
Leilani joined in.

"With her dead, I don't have to drop
her. Plus, think of all the money her album is going to make.
People will buy out of curiosity. And she has no real family.
There's no one to split the profits with; she has no estate.
Whoever shot her practically did me a favor! I should give them the
reward. Hell, the only bad thing about this shooting is that she
isn't dead yet. That and the million dollars I'll have to give to
the snitch who rats out the shooter. I swear that bitch hasn't
stopped costing me money! I hate her! I wish she would drop dead
already." Sparks kicked a chair for drama's sake and to keep from
kicking Leilani. It was killing him to say those things about the
woman he loved so much.

"Baby, you're going to love me even
more when I tell you what I have to tell you." Leilani
grinned.

"I don't see how I could love you more
than I already do," he told her, cupping her chin in his hand and
kissing her lightly.

"Oh, I have a feeling that you can and
you will. You're not going to have to give up a copper penny for
that skank," she announced.

"Why do you say that?" Sparks looked
confused.

"I know who shot her. I can guarantee
you that the police will never catch him."

"How?"

"Don't be mad..." Leilani gave him a
sweet smile.

"I could never be mad at you. We've
wasted enough time being mad, haven't we?" he said soothingly.
Outwardly, he appeared collected, but inside he was
raging.

"I'm glad to hear you say that,
because I had her shot. The journalist was an accident," she said.
"As much as I paid for the hit man, there should have been no
mistakes. The bullet should have gone through her black heart,"
Leilani recounted angrily. "But that bitch is about to check out
any minute. It all worked out."

"But how did you find a professional
hit man?" Sparks wanted her to tell it all, so there would be no
questions from the police.

"My cousin Mike, on my mother's side,
belongs to the Dragon Triad. It's a gang here that straight up
terrorizes motherfuckers. They ain't no joke. He put me in touch
with this Chinese dude Ling Bai. It cost me fifteen thousand, and
that's with the family discount! But Ling Bai is unstoppable. He
knows how to kill anything that breathes, and he does it perfectly.
At least he usually does. He doesn't even really exist on paper.
He's like a ninja, except only Chinese, not Japanese."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, not at all. No one is going to
tell. Anyone who knows that Ling Bai is the shooter knows that they
don't want to fuck with him or the Dragon Triad. Besides, how many
people out there know one Asian from another? We all look alike,
remember?" Leilani laughed out loud at her joke.

"That was pretty smart, Leilani,"
Sparks told her.

"That's why you love me. Because I'm
smart!"

"Well, this calls for a celebration!
I'm gonna order a magnum of Cristal from room service. How does
caviar sound?"