Basketball Jones (19 page)

“It’s good to hear the rich people are returning. Maybe the city is on its way back at last. Anything important looking come in the mail?” I asked.

“Nothing looked urgent. I checked your e-mail too and I printed everything out and set it on the table in the hallway.”

I looked at the narrow table right off the living room and noticed a lovely assortment of colorful flowers. “Hey, thank you for the bouquet. It’s nice to come home to fresh flowers.”

“I thought you’d like them.”

“I do. I may have to leave town more often if it means flowers will be waiting.”

“Listen, I need to start getting ready for my appointment. Do you need me to bring your key by today?”

“It can wait. Thanks for looking out, Jade. Don’t forget to send me your invoice.”

“I won’t forget that!”

“Maybe we can get together soon and grab a bite to eat,” I suggested.

“That would be nice. Maybe I’ll try to learn how to cook something.” Jade laughed.

“If you expect to marry a football player, you might want to work on that,” I teased.

“You’re probably right.”

“Is that all you want from life, Jade?” I asked, suddenly thinking about Bella and myself.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think marrying a ball player will make your life wonderful?”

There was silence for a moment and then Jade said, “I got big dreams, AJ. I want to own an exclusive dress shop, carrying
dresses I design myself. I’m pretty good at it. But most important, I want to be happy and in love. Now if that happens to be with a street sweeper, that’s who I’ll marry.”

“For real?”

“AJ, you haven’t figured it out. I’m a lot of talk, but I’m really a good girl.”

“I know that, Jade.”

I heard the beep indicating I had another call. “Oh, Jade, make sure you marry a man who brings you flowers,” I said.

“I always wanted to live in a house where flowers were waiting on me, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Bye, sweetheart,” I said, and clicked over to the other line.

“Hello?”

“So, I see you’re home.” It was the blackmailer back to haunt my ass. Anger welled up inside me and I wanted to throw the phone against the wall.

“What do you want?”

“We’ll get to that later. Have you checked your e-mail?”

“No.”

“I think you should do that and then we’ll talk about how you’re going to give up all that money that doesn’t belong to you.”

I’d listened enough and clicked off in a fury. I walked straight to my home office. My hands were shaking from a combination of nerves and anger as I punched the power button on the computer. It took a minute for the computer to boot up and then I logged on. The silence was broken by the automated voice saying, “You’ve got mail.”

Several new messages had arrived that morning, but one
e-mail captured my attention immediately. The sender’s name was BLACKMALE and the e-mail came with an attachment. The message read, “Thought you might like to see this before the rest of the world does. Mr. Wilson would be so proud of you.”

I couldn’t begin to imagine what I was about to find, and part of me wished I could shut my eyes and make the whole thing disappear.

When I opened the attachment, a pop-up appeared at the bottom of the screen.

I clicked on the PLAY button, which started a film clip showing two men in bed. I looked closely. Even though I couldn’t see the faces clearly, I realized that it was me and Dray at the hotel in Washington, D.C. There was no audio and the screen was so tiny that the movement was hard to make out. But it was clear to me that it was us, just as it would be to anyone else who knew what we looked like.

Dray and I were passionately kissing and undressing each other, something we did often when we had the chance to be alone. Someone had invaded the most intimate, cherished space of our private life and I felt sick to my stomach. I quickly shut down the e-mail and rushed to the bathroom. Standing in front of the toilet, I didn’t know whether I was going to cry or throw up.

I looked into the mirror and couldn’t help but notice the look of fear in my eyes. I had tried to keep it cool and thought I could handle the blackmailer all by myself. Suddenly I saw how wrong I had been. But I didn’t need to see my reflection to know I was scared. I turned the cold water on and splashed my face repeatedly, trying to calm myself with deep breaths.

I dried my face and headed toward my bedroom to do something
I hadn’t planned. I was going to tell Dray it was quite possible that he was about to join the elite club of celebrities who had a sex video on the Internet.

“Dray, please call me when you get this message. I need to talk with you right away. I know you have a home game tonight. Maybe you can stop by. It’s urgent.” As soon as I hung up, my landline rang. I knew exactly who it was.

“So what did you think of my little film?”

“What do you want?” I asked in a surprisingly calm voice, even though my pulse was beating so fast I could feel it in my neck.

“I’ll tell you what I want. I want you to get me a quarter of a million dollars—don’t breathe a word of this to anyone—and then I want you to get your faggot ass out of New Orleans,” he said with mounting anger.

Had I done something to this guy to offend him personally? My mind ran through all the people who might have a score to settle with me, but I came up blank. But maybe it wasn’t me but Dray they were mad at, and I was caught in the middle. Was Dray holding out on me? Did he have somebody else in his life besides Judi and me? “How soon am I supposed to do this?” I asked, not knowing what he meant by getting out of New Orleans. This was so far out of control now that I wondered if it was time for Dray and me to go to the police. This situation didn’t appear to be about the money, and what assurances did I have that this guy still wouldn’t release the video even if I followed his orders?

“Just stay by the phone,” he warned. “I want the money in
cash and I’m warning you, if you tell anybody or show up with someone you and your boyfriend are going to be the talk of cy-berworld. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I guess you’re smarter than I thought,” he said smugly.

“How do I know this still won’t end up over the Internet after I’ve paid you?”

“Guess you’ll have to trust me.”

“So when I give you the money you will get me the original copy of the video?”

“That’s the deal.”

I knew full well that even if he gave me the original it was no way of preventing him from double-crossing me. This idiot was right about one thing, I was going to have to trust him.

“When do I get the video?”

“As soon as I get the money and I know your ass is out of town for good.”

“Why do I have to leave town?” This part of his demand was worse than extorting money from me. While I didn’t much care for New Orleans, I cared for Dray deeply, and if Dray moved to Timbuktu I’d have followed. This man wasn’t intent on just taking our money: he was hell-bent on tearing us apart and destroying our lives.

“Because that’s the way sh … because I said so. Stop asking so many damn questions,” he said.

The practical details involved in moving so quickly came to mind. “I might not be able to sell my house very quickly,” I said, wondering why I was talking real estate to this total stranger.

“It’s not your house. Your faggot boyfriend bought it. Remember?”

I’d had enough of this guy and my patience ran out. “Look, let’s get this over with. Where do you want to meet?”

“Jackson Square,” he said, just as my cell phone started ringing. It was Dray, and a protective calm settled over me even though I should have been more scared than ever. Maybe together we could beat this guy.

“I’ll wait on your call, but I will need some time to get the money.”

“You better not be trying to stall. All you got to do is go to the bank.”

“I got to go,” I said.

“Expect my call soon,” he said, and hung up.

I immediately clicked on Dray’s call.

“Dray. You got my message?”

“Hey, baby boi. No, I haven’t listened to my messages yet. I just left the locker room on my way home but I thought about you and so I just called. What was your message?”

“Not so good,” I said, wondering if I should tell Dray over the phone.

“What happened?”

“I don’t think I should go into it over the phone.”

“Okay. Hey, guess what? I felt my baby kick today. I went with Judi to her doctor’s visit and I felt him kick. He’ll be here before you know it.” Dray sounded like he was beaming.

“It’s a boy?” I asked, trying not to sound as deflated as I felt.

“Yeah, that’s the other good news. I’m going to have a boy.”

I sank back into my sofa speechless, my mind reeling that not only was Dray going to be a father, but this woman was going to deliver a boy. Just what Dray had hoped for. What else could go wrong today? I asked myself as I stared at the back of the front door. I felt so alone all of a sudden. I wanted to walk out
that door and out of this whole sordid mess and into a life where I was the star, or at the very least costar.

“Aldridge? Hey, are you still there?” Dray asked.

A few more moments and I finally said, “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“Isn’t that great news? My parents are so proud. My dad is already talking about teaching him how to play basketball like he did with me.”

“Yeah, Dray, that’s wonderful news,” I said, forcing myself to sound as supportive as I could. “Can you come by tonight?”

“Naw, dude, I promised her that I was coming home right after the game. I’m going to have to play ghost for the next couple of months because she’s going to need me a lot more. But don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you soon, or maybe you can come to Phoenix next week when we play the Suns. Do you want to do that?”

“If you want me to,” I said halfheartedly. Sure, she needed him. I wanted to pour out all my news about the blackmailer and say, “See, I need you too, Dray.” But just as I done a thousand times before since he met Judi, I held it in.

“Hey, I’m pulling into my garage. I will text you before I go to bed.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling tiny tears begin to slide down my face. “Why don’t you do that, Dray?”

After several martinis all by myself I lay down to sleep, but instead only dozed on and off. Was I really about to lose everything? I could stand losing the house and I could even stand losing all Dray’s money if it came to that. But the thought of not having Dray in my life was something I couldn’t fathom. I needed him and I hoped Dray needed me too.

I woke up and found there was a text from Dray saying he was going to try to sneak off and come see me. So when I heard the doorbell a short time later, I figured he’d run off without his key.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.

“I wanted to see how you were doing. We didn’t leave on such good terms,” Cisco said.

I couldn’t believe that this asshole, who had to be behind the blackmail of Dray and me, had the nerve to show up at my home. Maybe he didn’t think I would be home and was coming to my house to plant some kind of movie camera or listening device to further his plan.

“Aren’t you going to ask me in?” Cisco wore a Puma sweat suit that was a kelly green color with yellow stripes I hadn’t seen a lot of men wearing. Funny that in the heat of anger I noticed something as dumb as that.

“Why would I want to do that?”

The expression on his face suddenly changed from all smiles to a deep frown. “So it’s like that,” he said, taking a step back and looking me up and down like I wasn’t shit.

“Yeah, that’s the way it is.” If I could have popped him upside his head, I would have.

He looked visibly alarmed.

“So, are you still working out?”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe you’d have the nerve to show your face. Did you come to pick up your money? Is that what you’re here for? You guys aren’t giving me much time. I ought to call the fucking police right now.”

“Police? What are you talking about, dude? You don’t owe me any money.”