Sins of a Siren (28 page)

After calling five expensive hotels and asking for Walter Secrease, and using his uncanny finesse, he was rewarded with the room number for Mr. Secrease in the Hotel Oakland.

After fucking Eli into a pussy coma, Trenda eased out of the bed to go to the bathroom. In the waning sunlight, she spotted his wallet on the floor. It had fallen out of his pants in his haste to enter her. Wallet in hand, she glanced at the sleeping man. He was knocked the fuck out. She flipped it open and examined the
contents. Two hundred and eighty dollars in cash, four credit cards—including a platinum American Express card—a Chevron gas card, and several pictures.

Ignoring the cash and cards for a moment, she flipped through his pictures.
Hmmmm, so that's Ms. Meagan…
Trenda flipped through the half dozen or so pictures of Eli and his girl.
If she ain't white, she is the next best thing,
she thought as she looked at the light-skinned, prim and proper-looking woman. Her hair bun looked so tight; it looked as though her forehead would split if she smiled. Behind her glasses was a pair of dark brown, no-nonsense eyes. Her modest and sensible clothes did nothing to accentuate her figure.
Poor baby, no wonder it's so hard for him to keep his eyes off me.
The pictures of them together showed they made a good-looking couple. In a few of the pictures, he actually looked happy—and so did she.

Normally, in a situation like this, she would dress and slip out, wallet in hand. However, this was his lucky day; he was a big enough catch to escape the Baltimore okey-doke. Besides, she had already committed practically every crime in the book—including being implicated in a murder or two. She exhaled and set his wallet on the desk. His cell phone glowed on the desktop next to his shirt. She picked it up and saw he had eleven missed calls.
I bet those calls are from Meagan.

She walked over to the window and peeked out at the horseshoe-shaped parking lot and disappearing sun. The itch of her healing wounds reminded her of all the shit she had gotten herself into since running away from home all those many years ago. For an instant, she felt hurt because no man she knew of walked around with a picture of her in his wallet.
Be cool, girl. Don't fuck up this meal ticket.

Even after her craving for penetration had been met, she still
felt an empty spot that needed filling. She tried to blame it on her oncoming menstrual cycle. But, in reality, it was the annoying replay of past events in her life that would not go away. The high concentration of drama she was currently wading through would not be ignored.

Another of her father's favorite proverbs filled her thoughts as she stared out at the first stars twinkling in the sky:

There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him; Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, The false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

—P
ROVERBS
6:16-19

“L
et's take it slow, baby,” Trenda said as she tried to say goodbye to Eli after he pulled up behind the only car left parked in front of the DMV that evening; her car. Even after fifteen minutes of goodbye kisses, he was reluctant to let her leave. “I gotta go to work in a few hours. You will see me again soon, love.”

His buzzing cell phone gave her the opening she needed. He grimaced after reading the caller ID. “Okay…I'd better let you go. Thanks for the
great
time, Mya.”

Trenda opened the door and got out. “What are you gonna tell your woman when she asks why you didn't call her back?”

“What makes you think that call was from Meagan?”

She closed the door and leaned in the window. “Please, don't try to bullshit a bullshitter…we both know that was her. No way in hell you are gonna spend all day fuckin' and not check in on her. I bet you guys check in with each other at damn near the same time every day.”

His slow response and blushing face confirmed she was right. “It's not
that
bad.” He reached over and caressed her hand. “Now if it was you calling, you had better believe I'd pick up on the first ring, no matter what I was doing.”

As he caressed her fingers, she eased her hand out of his. “Is that right? I'm gonna hold you to that. And believe me, I don't forget stuff like that.”

“Damn, Mya.” A sigh escaped him. “It's so hard to let you go.”
C'mon now, man.
“Don't worry, love. I'll give you a call tomorrow. Now get your ass home where you belong!”

Before he could reply, she blew him a kiss and walked to her car. Not until he heard her car engine start did he pull away. She smiled at his gesture. “I have had'em whooped before, but
this
one,
damn!”

“The internet is a dangerous thing,” Darius said as he read the information he found on the cremation process. The weight of the bulletproof vest under his gray, loose-fitting Nike sweatshirt and the pistol tucked behind his back made him feel more at ease while in Oakland. Even back in Baltimore they knew of Oakland's deadly reputation. He found the array of women walking around the Starbucks he sat in to his liking. It made it worth having to pay for the wireless internet service.

“That Walter has got to be one weird muthafucka to like doing this shit.” Like a true cop, he did all the research he could on his query. That research included finding out how long the cremation process took, so he would have an idea how long Walter would work into the night.

Satisfied he had all the info he needed, he took a sip of his lukewarm coffee and grinned. “By this time tomorrow night, Trenda will be no longer be a problem.”

One of Darius's weaknesses was his arrogance. He would sometimes get so caught up in his smugness he would lose focus, get sloppy. This was one of those moments. While working on his
laptop, sipping his coffee and eyeballing the women in the coffee shop, he failed to notice the gorilla of a woman looking at him through the large plate-glass window, twenty feet from his table.

Instead of finding a place to get a decent meal outside of her plush hotel, Piper, in one of her psychotic mood swings, enhanced by her lack of medication, decided to enjoy an evening walk to the local BBQ restaurant.
Ahhhh! Tomorrow I will confront Mr. Secrease and convince him to get me access to Trenda.
She reached into her purse, stroked the large knife inside and smiled.
I'm sure he'd much rather assist me than become a human filet.

With the crescent moon as her guide, she took her time strolling toward her dinner destination. For whatever reason, women's intuition or ESP, she was compelled to cross the street and check out the combination Starbucks and Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Whether it was the aroma of the coffee in the air or the lively look of the building that drew her, she would never remember. Once she saw the unmistakable face of the man in the video with Trenda, sitting on the other side of that window, her brain focused on one thing only: homicide. Even with his ball cap pulled down low on his forehead, she knew it was him.

Remarkably, even through her insane rage, she wasn't able to go inside and gut him as she so badly wanted to. The armed security guard standing just inside the coffee shop entrance proved to be a deterrent. “I'll wait out here until fucking Christmas for that motherfucker if I have to,” she said through her clenched teeth.

While Darius was being stalked, King Gee and one of his boys sat across the street from the Water's Edge Hotel. They had a clear view of the hotel and the employee parking lot. “She oughta be
pullin' up in a few,” King Gee said as he stood next to the driver's side door of the stolen forest-green Ford Explorer his boy “borrowed” from some citizen in the sleepy suburb of Walnut Creek. “I been checking this place out all week. I know when all the shift changes happen. I was even able to con that hillbilly security guard into tellin' me what shift that ho works tonight.”

The nappy-afro sporting, mulatto soldier grinned at his boss's ingenuity. “I bet she ain't even knowin' how bad she messed up when she fucked wit' the King!'”

King Gee made sure to keep his fingerprints off the stolen vehicle. The strong scent of marijuana escaped the interior of the Explorer. “Yeah, I got a wake-up call for her ass.”

Ten minutes later, just before the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift at the hotel was to begin, the two men watched a brown Honda pull into the employee parking lot next to the hotel.

The soldier pointed. “Hey! Is that her car?”

King Gee nodded and followed the car with his eyes. “Yup, that's her ass. You ready to do this?”

The soldier adjusted his black leather gloves and started the engine of the Explorer. “You ain't even gotta ask; they don't call me ‘Nuts' for nothin'.”

King Gee stepped back. “Hold on a minute. Wait about another fifteen minutes. Let's give the rest of the folks that might be startin' work with her to get here and park. We don't need any fools rollin' up as you do your thing.”

Nuts offered King a fist bump. “That's hella smart, King!”

He grinned and tapped fist with his soldier. “That's why I'm the King, fool!”