Up to No Good (32 page)

“Motherfucker, you know why I’m acting this way! You kept pushing me and pushing me, wouldn’t let up. Well, you done put my business out there so bad, there’s nothing left that could embarrass me.”

“I was only trying to get you to understand how bad you were making yourself look by acting that way. I just wanted the old Keisha back.”

She actually laughed out loud at that one. “Yeah, well, I sure as hell don’t want you back. Matter of fact, check this out.” She turned around and screamed for the whole neighborhood to hear, “This motherfucker
right here’s got a little-ass, two-inch dick! And he can’t fuck worth a shit! I’m thinking he’s probably on the down low!” With that, she spun on her heel and stomped away, giving me the finger as she left.

I headed straight for my car, trying to hide my embarrassment, thinking,
What the hell was that all about?
I never expected things to go that way. I needed a drink.

An hour and a half later, I was sitting at the bar at T.G.I. Friday’s when my cell phone rang. It was Keisha.

“Since you like pictures, check your e-mail.” She hung up before I could respond, and when I tried to call her back, she didn’t answer. I checked my e-mail on my phone, but what she sent was an attachment, and I couldn’t open it. I had to get to a computer. I threw down some cash and hustled to my car.

On the drive home, Keisha called my phone again.

“Did you like that?” she asked.

“I’m not at my computer yet.”

“Oh, wait ’til you see this.”

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Darnel, how come we never had this much fun?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Keisha? We had a great time.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t like this.”

“Like what?”

“You’ll see. Check your e-mail.”

“Keisha, I love you.”

“You know what they say, Darnel. Sometimes love just ain’t enough.”

“Did you take something?”

“What, now I’m a drug addict?”

“Your voice just sounds like you’re fucked up.”

“I guess you can say I’m getting fucked up.” She laughed, and I heard some male voices joining her in the background.

“What the hell is going on? Who’s over there with you?”

“Just get to a computer and you’ll find out.” She hung up on me.

By this time, I was doing thirty miles over the speed limit to get home to my computer. I parked my car, not sure if I remembered to lock it, and jetted up to my front door.

I turned on my computer, which took a lifetime to boot up. Any other time, the shit would load in a few seconds, but as I paced back and forth frantically waiting to see what Keisha had sent me, my laptop was taking its own sweet time. Finally, I got online and hit my mailbox. There was an e-mail from Keisha with a link to a site where users could upload their own live video.

I was afraid to click on the link, because as crazy as Keisha was acting, I had a bad feeling about what I would see. Instead of going to the site, I picked up the phone and dialed Keisha’s number.

“Are you watching?” she sounded excited.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“With me? You got me fired, my parents don’t speak to me anymore, I lost my friends, and mostly everyone thinks I’m a whore because of you. Well, guess what, Darnel? I don’t care anymore. I don’t give a fuck what you, your family, my family, or anyone else thinks about me. So I’m just gonna live my life and do whatever the fuck I want. And right now, I want some dick.”

Shit. The way she was acting, it looked like my whole plan had backfired.

“Keisha, you don’t have to do this, you know. It
doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of you. I love you. Come back to me and I’ll make things right.”

“Save it, Darnel. I don’t have time to talk to you about this anyway. I got some partying to do. Just click on the link, you punk.”

She disconnected the call. With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I went to the site and nearly lost my mind when I saw the video. It was a live feed from Keisha’s bedroom. She was naked in bed with three—yes, three!—dudes surrounding her. I felt like throwing up. Where the hell did she find three guys willing to do something like this so quickly? What, did she have these freaks on speed dial or something?

I was disgusted but couldn’t turn my head away. It was horrifying and fascinating at the same time. How could the woman I loved have sunk so far? All three guys were on their knees on her bed, and Keisha was squatting in front of them, giving head to each of them, going from one dick to the next and back again.

Then, on the screen, I saw Keisha do the strangest thing. She stopped sucking and picked up her phone. I watched her dial, and the next thing I knew, my phone was ringing.

“Well, are you enjoying it?”

“Keisha, stop,” I pleaded.

“I sent it to your daddy too. He’s a pimp. He might want to join in.” This time, she didn’t hang up. I watched her put the phone down on the bed, the call still connected. She got back to work on all three guys. One motherfucker had the nerve to look right into the camera and smile at me.

“Keisha!” I screamed her name desperately. “Keisha!” I had to stop this shit now.

She looked down at her phone, so I know she heard
me, but she didn’t pick it up. She waved to me in the camera, then flipped over on her stomach so one of the dudes could take her from behind.

I couldn’t stand it any longer. What the hell was wrong with her? Had she gone completely nuts?

I shut down my computer, then sat at my desk and cried.

I sat there long enough to fall asleep in a puddle of my own tears, and I didn’t wake up again until my phone rang. I picked my head up off the desk and answered the call.

“Okay, my friends are gone now, so I can talk to you.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” I said, my voice cracking from all the crying and wailing I ’d been doing.

“Why not? I figured it’s my turn. You wanna ruin my life, call me a whore, and stalk me all over the damn place? Well, I decided I’m not gonna take it anymore. You are not gonna have power over my life, Darnel. If anyone’s gonna fuck up my life from this point on, it will only be me.

“And this is just the beginning. You think this shit hurt? Just wait until I start stalking you like you been doing me.”

The phone went dead, and I threw it across the room.

Keisha done lost her damn mind!
What the hell was I supposed to do now?

I rolled over and looked out the window at the lights of New York City, which were twinkling across the river. Louis was in the bed next to me, in the New Jersey hotel room where Agent Ford had brought me to see him.

Once she told me that my phone call to Detroit might have put him in danger, I flipped out. She had all kinds of questions for me, but I told her I didn’t want to talk until I saw Louis. She brought me to him and left us alone so he could explain. I hadn’t left his side since.

When I first walked into the hotel room and saw Louis, no words were necessary between us. I fell into his arms and sobbed, and he held me until I calmed down. All it took was one look in his eyes before we were making love on the couch with more passion than I ’d ever felt. Afterward, as I lay in his arms, he told me the whole story.

Louis was not an orphan. He was born Rashid Jensen, and he actually came from a large, close-knit black Muslim family in Detroit. He’d been forced to leave behind his parents and five siblings, as well as the
successful used-car dealership he owned, when he entered witness protection. My heart broke when he told me that, because I knew how much I loved my father and brother, and I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been to leave them like he did.

But then he explained that two of his siblings were the cause of all this. His sister Khalifa and his brother Kareem had become deeply involved in a Muslim extremist group, and they had begun to cooperate with a domestic terrorist cell. The group planned on putting toxic chemicals into various water supplies around the country to kill as many Americans as possible.

Louis might never have known about his siblings’ activities except that they came to him, asking him to provide the trucks and cars they would need to transport the toxins. It seems they misjudged his feelings about his country. They thought he would be loyal to his family first. Even if he said no to providing the trucks, they never expected that he would go to the authorities.

But that’s exactly what Louis did. He reported what he knew to the FBI, and they convinced him to go undercover to help break up the cell. With Louis’s help, the plot was thwarted, and most of the members of the cell were taken into custody.

His brother was arrested and awaiting trial, but his sister was still at large with a few other members of the group. Unfortunately, they knew that Louis had cooperated with the FBI, and now they had a contract out on his life to stop him from testifying. Louis’s reward for his patriotism was leaving behind the life he knew and starting all over again with a whole new identity.

“Still, you did the right thing,” I told Louis after he told me his story.

“I only did my duty. If I hadn’t reported them, too
many lives would have been lost, and I would have had to carry that with me forever.”

“Do you ever think about contacting your family?”

He looked at me sadly. “I can never talk to them again. It would put them in too much danger.”

“And the phone call I made?” I asked, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Louis reached out and squeezed my hand. “They don’t know for sure who you talked to. That was my parents’ number you dialed, so it could have been one of my sisters or my aunt. The problem is that we don’t know who that person might have told about the call.”

“So they’re not sure it put you in any more danger?”

“They’re still looking into things. But there’s been enough Internet chatter to make them think my identity has been compromised.”

I knew what that meant. “You’re never going back to that house again, are you?”

He shook his head.

“I’m so sorry, Louis,” I told him, tears running down my face.

“Shhh,” he comforted me. “They told me to destroy all evidence of my old identity. That license never should have been around for you to find in the first place. I just needed to be reminded of the old me sometimes.”

It was almost too much for me to comprehend. Not only was Louis not cheating on me, but he was also a hero. After our conversation, I ’d spent four straight days trying to apologize to him. We’d made love several times a day, as if every time might be our last.

In truth, I wasn’t sure if these might be our last days together. I knew that Agent Ford couldn’t let us stay in this hotel room forever. Sooner or later, they would create another identity for Louis and probably move
him out of New York. But I hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ask what would happen to him. And, of course, that meant I had no idea what would happen to us.

When he rolled over and opened his eyes, I leaned down to give him a kiss.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, taking me into his arms.

“What’s going to happen, Louis?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well … you’re not safe here. Are you going to—”

He lifted my chin and kissed me deeply. “Yes, I’m going to have to move.”

Tears filled my eyes instantly.

“Once this trial is over, I’ve got to move to another city, to another life.”

I wanted to say I would miss him, but that would mean acknowledging that I might never see him again. I couldn’t even bear to think it.

“I want you to be part of that life.”

I looked into his eyes as if it would help me process what he’d just said. What I saw there was love. “What are you saying, Louis?”

“When I move, I want you to come with me.”

“But … does that mean I have to leave behind Daddy and Darnel?”

“Jamie, people move away from their families every day.”

I was silent for a long time, thinking about the reality of what he’d just said. Louis left behind his whole family, but that was a sacrifice he made to save thousands of lives. Could I really sacrifice my family just to be with Louis? What if I did and then it didn’t work out between us? Where did that leave me?

“This is a lot to think about, Louis. I really don’t
know if I’m strong enough to do it. How could I just leave Daddy like that? I mean, he’s my father, and you’re … you’re—”

“I want to be your husband,” he said. He got out of the bed and knelt beside it. “Jamie, I want you to come with me and marry me.”

“Oh, Louis,” I cried, climbing out of bed and into his arms. “I love you so much. If the circumstances were any different, I ’d be saying yes right now. But you understand how difficult this decision is for me, don’t you?”

He stroked my hair and spoke softly. “I know it’s hard. And I know you love your father and Darnel, but they’re both grown men with their own lives. Darnel is young. He’s going to move on and find a new woman to love, and your father will have Sandra to help him through it if you leave.”

I was too numb to even get mad that he mentioned Sandra.

“You and I can start our own life together. I promise you, I can give you a good life.”

I believed he would give me the best life he could, but what kind of life would it be if it came with a whole new identity?

“I need you,” he said.

“Louis, please, you have to give me some time. This is not an easy decision.”

“Time is not something we have. They can only let me stay here so long before it becomes too risky. I’m only here now because I’ll be testifying in the next few days, so they don’t have time to settle me in to my new life yet.”

“If I go with you, will I ever be able to see my family?”

He shook his head. “I can talk to Agent Ford, but I don’t think she’d go for it. Not at first. Not until my sister and the others are captured.”

He didn’t say never; he only said I couldn’t see them at first. It was a small glimmer of hope. It was the only reason I didn’t immediately say no.

“I love you so much,” I said. “I’m just scared that love won’t be enough to get us through the hard times.”