Rapture 2: a BWWM, Alpha Male Romance (18 page)

My interest was piqued the further she got into the story. None of what she was telling me, was anything that I’d known before tonight. “With everything that he had done, or that he was doing, how did it turn against you?” I asked.

“He had me followed. Your father’s money was and still is long, Hunter…very long. And before long he had gotten my lover’s apartment manager to allow cameras to be installed in his home. Lance had a detail on me from the time I left in the morning until I returned in the evening. I always knew how the rich lived, being married to your father, but I had no idea just how much money talked until I was on the other end of humiliation. Without going into too many of the graphic details, I’ll just tell you that your father had footage of Carl and me. That was his name…Carl.”

“Let me take a wild guess and say that he was a black guy, right?”

She looked at me stunned, and her eyes grew in surprise, her heart rising then falling in the process. “Yes,” she responded, with a slight nod to confirm. “Carl was a black man.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Alika

Tracie had rung my phone early that morning. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have even considered it early, but I’d waited so long for Rush to come to bed that I hadn’t fallen asleep until somewhere near two in the morning. It was now only a few minutes before eight. But taking her call was good because we got a chance to do a little bit of catching up, and I was able to fill her in about the dinner I was planning, which she was onboard with. Rush and I would fly her out for the event. I was excited that she was going to be able to meet the new people in my life.

After hanging up with Tracie, I stayed in place looking around our bedroom, while processing just how far I’d come and how it also wasn’t with its share of drama. I mean, who knew that white people had so much drama in their lives? Surely, not I! I’m living some real life Reality TV stuff, man. I meet my man running from another man and then end up falling in love and living this large life. Then the man that I love finds out after nine years that he has a child that with a woman whose brother used to be his best friend, but who later tried to destroy his life. Okay, and get this part…the mother of the daughter that he didn’t know he had was paid a huge sum of money to keep the baby a secret and out of his family because, get this…she’s black! Then!
Then
…somebody finds a way to kill his father, and that’s an ongoing investigation. Then on the heels of that, the mother my man
thought
might have been dead turns up on his doorstep days after his father’s funeral! Yeah, there wasn’t a man alive who could tell me that I wasn’t living in a lengthy episode of,
Love, Lies & Deceit
Volume I
!

I laughed out loud. It was funny as hell, but it was now a life I’d happily signed on for.

I glanced over at the clock and realized that another half hour had passed by, so I decided to roll out of bed to go in search of Rush. I should’ve seen him by now and as I felt his side of the bed, I wasn’t even sure that he’d come to bed. I was beginning to worry.
Maybe I should’ve been more diligent about checking in on him last night as he talked with his mother
. He did seem really taken aback by the news that she was at his door, and then even more at the sight of her. And there was definitely anger present when I brought tissue in for her to use for her tears.

Where are you, baby
?

I scaled the entire second floor and found that he wasn’t there. I made my way to the top of the banister and looked down into the living room, I didn’t see him. I made my way downstairs and looked at the enclosed lounge area near the pool, and
nope
. In fact, it was pretty quiet in the house for damn near nine in the morning.

At the bottom of the stairs, I called out, “Rush! You here, baby?”

I went in the direction of the aroma, deducing that since he hadn’t answered my call that Rush must’ve gone out for a run or something. But as soon as I rounded the corner, preparing to do breakfast by myself, I ran into Rush and his mother sitting down eating a meal together. Siobhan was stunning in the daylight. Her hair had been pulled around to the side of her face and braided in a thick plait. As her smile formed, her cheekbones made a bold appearance, and her dark eyes lit up. Something had changed. She was happy. I could tell.

“Hey, good morning, babe,” Rush greeted. He stood from his chair and made his way over to me near the kitchen’s rectangular island, to pull me into a hug.

“Hey…” I dragged, with a thin smile, wrapping my arms around his back, and burying my face into his chest.

When we broke from our hug Rush took my hand and proceeded to walk me to where they were dining so we could continue our meal together.

“Good morning, Alika,” she greeted.

“Good morning.”

“Since the two of you haven’t officially met, Mom, this is Alika, the love of my life. Alika, this is my mother, Siobhan Cavanaugh.”

The moment the word
mother
left Rush’s mouth, I saw instant pride in his mother’s face. I had feelings rushing through my body and I didn’t know what they were. All I knew in that moment was that something felt weird. It was more than just the fact that Rush had all these monumental episodes falling out of his closet, and they were falling with heavy ass thuds to the ground. Like 4.0 tremors and shit. But then again, we were in California. What else did I expect?

“You’re a beautiful, girl, Alika. It’s very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for the box of tissue last night. It came in handy.”

“You’re very welcome, Ms. Cavanaugh—”

“Oh please, call me Siobhan,” she interrupted. And maybe someday even Mom,” she said, smiling at both me and Rush.

I blushed slightly. Okay,
Siobhan,
it is.”

I sat in part awe and part observation, and I was so taken aback by the scene that I’d forgotten to fix myself a plate to eat. I didn’t even know if I was still hungry. I felt slightly out of place. But then the more I watched them, the more it dawned on me that my slight tinge of jealousy was gravely out of line and I felt guilty for even feeling it. Rush had years of catching up to do with his mother, and it was only right that I allow them that time to do so.

“So, babe…” Rush said, breaking into my thoughts. “I was thinking that since you wanted to host a dinner party we could do that this weekend since my mother is here.”

“Oh…okay. So, not next weekend, but this one coming?”

“Yeah, we could hang out with a few friends, and they could meet my mother since she’s here for another week…
maybe
.”

“Oh…another week? Okay,” I replied, slowly.

“Son…no. It’s okay. Please don’t fuss.”

“It’s not fussing, Mom. We’ll be entertaining a few friends who didn’t even know I had a mother. This is a big deal. They’ll love you. Don’t worry.”

When I saw the exchange between the two, I tried softening. The moment looked tender, and it had to have meant a lot for Rush to be reunited with the mother who had abandoned him so many years ago. There was just so much. First, he met a daughter he never knew he had, and now a mother that he thought was dead.

I must have zoned out because the next thing I heard was Rush calling out, “Alika…”

“Yes, I heard you. I think it’s a great idea.”

“Okay, so it’s done.”

“Absolutely,” I concurred.

TWENTY-NINE

Winters’ Mocha Lovin’ Latte

Friday evening

For the past week, Detective Silas Winters had been meeting at his family’s café. There were long chocolate vinyl booths and fancy dark wood tables that were filled with yuppies from around the city during the day. But in the evening, it wasn’t uncommon for Silas to go there to think or to jot down notes on the mystery novel he was developing. The setting provided the solace that he needed when dealing with the madness in his line of work. Ever since Silas was a young boy, his family had invested in commercial real estate. As a result, the name Winters, was well-known around the real estate and land development circuits. Silas, however, had deviated from the family’s enterprise, and had always felt a strong pull toward law enforcement. So against the better judgment of his family, he had gone on to serve and protect. But it wasn’t without bumps in the road. Because of Silas’ socioeconomic status, most of his colleagues had never taken him seriously. But he had deduced early on that he wasn’t on the force to make friends, nor gain approval, so it ceased to bother him.

Tonight Silas was seated in a booth opposite his reluctant partner, Rick Morgan. The two had been brainstorming motives of opportunity in the death of a local millionaire, Lance Cambridge, all the while butting heads on where their individual theories lay. Rick, the older of the two men was leaning in the direction of the killing being a cold case because in his opinion, every stone had been turned. He was ready to hand over the file and move onto something else. His nonchalant attitude about the case was starting to bug Silas, and more than a few times they had become involved in extremely heated exchanges with one another.

Their department was getting nudged by the mayor’s office to solve the homicide. People were being sued left and right, including the hospital, members of its staff, and even hospital security was under fire. Someone had been stationed outside Cambridge’s room when his prognosis was critical, but when his condition was upgraded, keeping him safe suddenly became lax.

“We’re missing something,” Silas stated, emerging from silence. He was looking back and forth between surveillance photos and his notes.

“Yeah, scholar, ya think?” Morgan retorted, sarcastically. “Somebody is always missing something. Let’s be real about this. More than half of crimes are solved with the help of witnesses. We have none.” He pulled his cup of coffee to his lips and took a long sip.

“You would think that with as many folks that came out to see him being laid to rest, he wouldn’t have an enemy in the world, but shit!”

“Nah, best believe that when that many people love and adore you, there’re just as many who despise the very air you breathe—including some of the ones acting as though they love and adore you.”

“For sure,” Silas agreed.

Morgan huffed and puffed a bit, with exaggerated sighs. “Okay, so let’s go over some of this stuff. I need to get to a cigarette like yesterday.”


       
We have a possible motive with Janae Lawson, the mother of the child who Lance paid to keep away from the son.


       
We have the brother of Janae, Jacob Lawson, who we know was recently put behind bars, but who has enormous reach. Not a huge motive, but there might be something there.


       
We have the son, Hunter, who apparently didn’t know he even had a child until recently.


       
We have the journalist guy, Titan McKinney, who was fired because of the piece he did. Although the article did come down, thanks to the internet and screenshots, etc, several thousands of people still saw it.


       
There’s a bevy of women, but they were probably just happy to be included in an entourage of side pieces.


       
We have that one business partner—”

“Okay, let’s stop for a second. I say we focus on these two photos right here,” Silas proposed, pushing two glossy 11x14’s forward. There’s some significance here. I’m sure of it.”

The images that they were looking at were from Premier Full Nude Gentlemen’s Club, and from the hallway outside of Lance Cambridge’s hospital room at UCSF.

“I’ve scanned these two photos for the past week, and I’m convinced that this woman
right here
,” he said, firmly pressing his forefinger onto the picture, “…might just be
this figure
in scrubs on this image as well. I’m absolutely convinced of it.”

“You’re reaching just a little bit, don’t you think? Yes, that’s a woman right there,” Morgan said, lifting the nightclub picture at eye level. “Even from a distance, you can see she’s a very beautiful woman. But we have no idea what the sex of this individual is, right here. No idea. And for all we know, it could actually be a doctor. Ever thought of that, scholar?”

“You’d think that seeing as you’ve been on the force far longer than I have, Rick, that you’d be more open to seeing things through a lens that’s not your own. This woman right here had left the scene by the time police arrived and were ordering everyone to stay to provide witness accounts.”

“Are you kidding me? So had a lot of other people!” Morgan laughed.

“Absolutely, but most of them were men that were there and weren’t supposed to be! You know, trying to hide from those people called wives! But
this
woman, had she been a part of the entertainment, would have still been there. Don’t you think?”

“You do know this is 2014, right? There’s such thing as girl on girl action. It predates both our years on earth. What if this woman that you’re so focused on was just in the vicinity trying to get a piece of the action? What if she was there to spy on her girlfriend or some freaky shit like that and wanted to get outta there as quickly as possible?”

“The fuck are you on some reality TV bullshit? Put on your cop shoes.
This woman
is a person of interest. I’m willing to bet it’s her. Look at her form on this picture in this dress—”

“
Please
don’t tell me that you’re gonna say you can see a figure through those damn scrubs! Because I’ll be leaving from this café the minute you say you do.”

“No, smart guy, I’m saying that if you look at this closely, you will see that this person was in disguise. Look down at the shoes.”

It was enough to quiet Morgan momentarily while he allowed what Winters had said to digest. “Okay. I’ll entertain your theory. What about the shoes?” he said, looking away to investigate the image further.

“That’s just it.
There are shoes
,” Silas smiled. “Look at some of these other pictures of staff. They’re wearing covers over their shoes that match the scrubs. And even the ones who aren’t, have on a particular style of shoe that appears rounded in the front. Even when we were there for questioning, I paid attention to that.
These
shoes in
this
picture, with
this
…
woman
, are regular tennis shoes.” He smiled big, then commented, “She slipped up.”

Morgan leaned back into the booth seat and looked up at his partner. “Well, I’ll be goddamn.”