Chapter 21
Patrice raced home in a rage. She had actually been enjoying the game she was playing, pretending to be a sex addict for Kasen, until he saw the bracelet on her wrist. Then he flipped so completely that for a minute she feared for her safety.
He had recognized the bracelet right away, and although Patrice was a good liar, there was no denying it once he flipped it over and saw the engraving. For a minute she thought that she’d be able to calm him down once she hiked up her skirt. No man had ever been able to resist her pussy before. She had actually been a little turned on herself, considering Kasen was so fucking hot. Patrice thought she was going to kill two birds with one stone—calm him down and also get some real good dick—until Voncile busted into the room.
That was another thing she had to worry about now. The look in Voncile’s eyes told her there was going to be some major fallout. When it came to Kasen, Voncile was crazy jealous, and she had made it explicitly clear that Kasen was off limits. Patrice was supposed to distract Kasen with her little sex addict act, but when it came to actual physical contact, Patrice was to keep her hands to herself. Now she had crossed that boundary, and there would be hell to pay the next time she saw Voncile.
She pounded the steering wheel in frustration. This was all Raine’s fault. She had probably known all along that Kasen would recognize the bracelet; that was why she insisted that Patrice should wear it. That bitch had set her up, and now Patrice was going to make sure she paid the price for it.
* * *
Raine was asleep in the bed, dreaming that she was safe in her own home, when Patrice rushed into the room and snatched the covers off of her.
“Get up!” Patrice yelled, shaking the bed violently. “Why did you do it, bitch?”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “What did I do?”
“That stupid bracelet. Kasen saw it and almost broke my arm trying to get it off. You knew he would do something like that.”
Raine looked at her with wide, frightened eyes. She had just started to develop a bond with Patrice, and this could ruin everything. She shook her head vigorously. “No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t do that to you, Patrice.”
“I should beat your ass for putting me in a predicament like that.”
Raine’s hands flew protectively to her belly. “Please don’t. My baby—”
Patrice shoved Raine’s shoulder hard, and Raine scooted back on the bed to try to put some distance between them.
“You should have thought of your baby before you started playing games!” Patrice yelled at her. “Now I’m gonna teach you a lesson. You had it so good over here with me, but now you ain’t getting no food until I feel good and damn ready to feed you again. And who knows? It might be a week before I feel like it.”
“Patrice, I swear I didn’t set you up. Think about it. How could I have known that the bracelet would cause you any trouble? You never told me you were going to see Kasen. Remember? You just said you were going to an appointment-slash-date.”
That caused Patrice to stop ranting for a minute. She had a puzzled look on her face, like she was thinking through what Raine had just said. Raine could tell she had struck a nerve, and there was still hope that she could talk her way out of this. That hope was smashed when Voncile came rushing into the house and ran up the stairs.
“Patrice!” she screamed, swooping into the room. “What the fuck did I tell you about Kasen? He is mine, mine, mine! And then I walk in and find you grinding your pussy all over him and his hands all over your ass? Bitch, you know that was against the rules.”
Raine tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing. Not only had Kasen slept with Voncile, but now he was having sex with Patrice too. What had happened to the man she loved?
“No, it’s not what you think,” Patrice protested. “I was just trying to distract him, and words alone weren’t doing it. I hate to break it to you, Voncile, but that guy is still hung up on Raine. You should have seen the way he flipped out over seeing her bracelet on my wrist.”
Voncile narrowed her eyes as she looked down at Patrice’s wrist. “You wore her bracelet to Kasen’s office? What the fuck were you thinking?” she yelled. “I always knew you weren’t too bright, but I had no idea you were straight up stupid.”
“Don’t call me stupid,” Patrice hissed at her. “Last person who did that got her ass beat good.”
Voncile rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Your ass didn’t even finish tenth grade and now you want me to tell you you’re a fuckin’ genius or something?” She laughed in Patrice’s face. “You know what? You can forget about the rest of the money I owe you. You couldn’t follow the rules of the job, so there’s no reason for me to pay your stupid ass.”
Patrice lunged at her. “I told you not to call me stupid!”
Raine watched as Patrice’s body made impact against Voncile’s and they crashed to the ground. They rolled around on the floor, pulling hair, scratching and clawing at each other’s eyes, tearing clothes, and basically trying to cripple each other. Voncile finally got the upper hand, and she sat on top of Patrice’s chest, panting and sweating as she looked down at her.
“Don’t you ever try me like that again,” she said through gritted teeth. “’Cause I swear the next time I won’t let you live.” She raised her fist high above her head, crashing it down on Patrice’s face. Patrice was knocked out cold.
“That was for trying to fuck my man, you stupid ho.” With that, Voncile pulled herself up from the floor and stumbled out of the room. Raine didn’t dare move until she heard the front door open and then close.
“Patrice,” she called out quietly, “are you okay?”
Patrice regained consciousness and groaned in pain as she rolled over and then stood up. She walked, hunched over, to the bed and plopped down on the edge.
Raine kept her distance, but she wasn’t really scared. Patrice was much too weak to hurt her now. Even so, she still didn’t want to be on her bad side.
“I’m really sorry that just happened to you,” she said. “I don’t know what happened in Kasen’s office today, but Voncile had no right to go off on you like that. She is not your friend, and I hope you understand that by now.”
Patrice turned her bruised and bloodied face to look at Raine. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about her. I got something for her ass that’ll turn her world upside down.”
“What are you going to do?” Raine asked, hoping Patrice didn’t think she was being too bold.
“I don’t know, but that bitch is gonna be sorry she ever put her hands on me.”
Chapter 22
Kasen put the key in the door, entering the house where he grew up.
“Ma!” he called out. “You in here? It’s me, your handsome son!”
A moment later, his mother came down the stairs, her hair in pink rollers and a smile on her face. “Why are you down here yelling?” she said lightheartedly.
“Aw, Ma, you’re not happy to see me?” he joked.
She laughed and opened her arms wide, giving him a tight squeeze. “You know I’m always happy to see you, baby.”
He gave her a kiss on the top of her head, then turned to head into the kitchen. “I’m going to get a beer. You want one?” he asked.
“No, thanks,” she said as she entered the kitchen behind him.
“Where’s Pop?” Kasen asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Chile, who knows? Probably on vacation somewhere with one of his hoes. I haven’t spoken to him in a few days. All I can do is pray for him and hope that he’s okay.”
Kasen’s parents were still married, but their union was anything but healthy. Lately, they’d been talking about going their separate ways, mostly because his mother was finally tired of her husband’s cheating, which had been going on for years. Kasen didn’t agree with his father’s behavior, but he loved both of them, so he tried to stay out of it as best he could. He had, however, requested that the two of them agree to go to counseling to see if their marriage was worth saving. His parents were stubborn, though, and neither one of them had made an appointment yet. They might have been proud that their son was a therapist, but that didn’t mean they believed in therapy for themselves.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Ma,” he said as he took a seat at the kitchen table and cracked open his beer.
She waved away his concern. “Don’t you worry about us,” she told him. “Now tell me what’s going on with you. Something is wrong. I can see it all over your face.”
Kasen had always had a tight bond with his mother, so he wasn’t surprised that she sensed his mood right away. They might not talk every day like some mothers and sons, but sometimes she could read him so well it felt like she was inside his head.
“There’s a lot going on, Ma.”
“I know there is. You got lines in your forehead I ain’t never seen before. Now why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Kasen took a long swig of beer and then launched into his story, starting from the day he proposed to Raine and ending with the scene in his office yesterday with Patrice and Voncile.
“Son, you weren’t kidding when you said there’s a lot going on. Something definitely ain’t right, starting with this Voncile woman. Whatever you do, you make sure you get a paternity test the second she pushes out that baby. I never did trust that heifer from the first time I met her in your office. She always gave me the heebie-jeebies.”
Kasen was surprised. “You never told me that. Most of my patients really like her.”
“Well, I ain’t most of your patients,” she replied. “I got a sixth sense around certain people, and she just always rubbed me the wrong way. Same way your friend Omar does.”
“Him too? Ma, how come you never said anything about either of them?”
“You are a grown man—and a therapist to boot. I figured when it was the right time for you to know, you would notice it on your own.”
Kasen shook his head. He sure as hell wished he’d noticed it before his whole world fell apart the way it had. “What about Raine? Don’t tell me you had bad vibes about her too.”
“No, not Raine. She’s sweet, and you two are good together. Matter of fact, I wish that she was the one pregnant with your child right now. I’ll tell you what, though. My sense is telling me that she’s not the kind of person to just walk away from your relationship like that. Something’s not right, Kasen.”
He dropped his head into his hands. “I know, Ma, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what is really going on here.”
“Hmph. Maybe you should start with your shady friend Omar. You need to pin him down to get the truth about him and that slut Voncile. I’m gonna get down on my knees and pray that the baby she’s carrying is his and not yours.”
“Can’t say I disagree with you on that one,” Kasen said, downing the rest of his beer.
* * *
While it hadn’t solved all of his problems, Kasen’s talk with his mother had made him feel a little better. At least his head was a little clearer and he could think straight again. He had to come up with a plan to get to the bottom of this, and he would start by going to Omar’s house again. It was time for the two of them to have a showdown. He was sure Omar had information—good or bad—that would help him start putting this puzzle together.
Just like last time, he got no answer when he knocked on the door, so he picked up the spare key and let himself in again. This time, the place was not such a wreck. The dishes had been cleaned and the place smelled a hell of a lot better. Omar’s bed looked like it had been slept in, so at least Kasen knew he’d been there some time recently.
He wrote a note, short and simple:
Call me ASAP. We need to talk.
After Kasen left Omar’s place, he took the hour’s drive to Voncile’s house. Maybe by now she had calmed down enough that they could talk like rational adults. He needed her to understand that the scene she had witnessed in his office was not what she thought it was. Even if they weren’t going to be a couple, he wanted to keep the line of communication open with Voncile in case the baby did turn out to be his. He didn’t want her to think he was screwing his patients, because her jealousy was off the charts. If she became a vengeful baby momma she might try to report his conduct to the medical board unless he set her straight real soon.
Kasen knocked on her door but got no answer. He rang the bell and still got no answer.
“If you’re in there, Voncile, please open the door. We really need to talk.”
Nothing. Instead of leaving, he walked around to the back of the house. With all the strange things that had been going on lately, he was feeling desperate for answers, whether or not Voncile was there to give them. He checked the back door, which was locked, and then started trying the windows. To his surprise, he found one that was unlocked, so he slid it up as high as it would go, and climbed inside.
Before he knew it, he was standing in her kitchen. To be honest, something about the whole damn house felt creepy to Kasen, and it only became more so when he spotted the scissors on the counter and shreds of paper on the floor, leading to the trash can. Peeking inside the can, he soon realized that Voncile had cut up many photos of him. He didn’t even know why she had that many pictures, but there were enough to concern him. What the hell was going on? First he found her naked photos in Omar’s house, and now his photos were showing up in Voncile’s house.
Curious about what other unexpected things he might find, Kasen roamed around the house. Voncile was a very tidy woman, and unlike the shredded photos in the kitchen, everything else seemed to be organized and in the right place.
He climbed the stairs then entered the bedroom to his right. It was empty, but Voncile had started to paint the room a soft blue. Obviously that was going to be the baby’s room, and Kasen figured that Voncile must have wanted a boy. For a few seconds, the thought of having a son crept into his mind. He actually relished the idea of having a boy to raise, and he wondered if he would ever be able to make peace with Voncile so that he could have a relationship with his son—if the child was his.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, he closed the door and went on to the next bedroom. That room was empty too, and it was also dark and stuffy. He realized that the reason for the stifling air was that there was no window in this room. An eerie feeling came over him as he entered this room. He was drawn to the corner, where he noticed lots of scratches in the paint and dents in the wall. Kasen squatted down to get a closer look and felt the hair on the back of his neck raise up when he saw what was scratched into the wall:
HELP.
He backed out of that room in a hurry and closed the door. Heading back down the stairs, his mind raced with questions. Who had scratched that word into the wall? Why did someone need help? Desperate to find any kind of answer to this mystery that felt like it kept growing deeper, he went to the one place he hadn’t yet checked in the house: the basement.
It looked pretty dark and uninviting down there, but Kasen moved forward anyway. He pulled the string to light the single bulb and walked slowly down the stairs. There was an old freezer and refrigerator in the corner, a wooden work bench in the center, and a few clothes hanging on a rack near a washer and dryer. It looked like a pretty typical basement to him. He walked over to the cedar closet and pulled open the door. Inside, he found only a pile of rope and a tray like the kind someone would use to serve breakfast in bed. That was an odd thing to keep in a basically empty basement, he thought.
Turning around to leave, Kasen looked down and saw something metallic sticking out from under the washing machine.
Is that what I think it is?
he wondered. Bending down to pick it up, he confirmed that it was in fact an iPhone. He pressed the button, but the screen stayed black. Without hesitation, he slipped the phone into his pocket and ran back up the basement stairs. He’d been in this creepy-ass house long enough, and he wanted to get out before Voncile came home.
When he got into his car, he plugged the iPhone into his charger then drove away from the house with a cold sweat running down his back. He had a bad, bad feeling about all of this.
After a few miles, he looked down at the phone and pressed the button to see if it was charging. The screen came on, and he nearly drove off the road. It was Omar’s phone. For a second he felt great relief because he thought the phone would help him put all the pieces together. He pulled over to the side of the road thinking he would check Omar’s call history for some clues, but all he got was a screen telling him to enter the passcode. Without Omar’s code, the phone was useless to him. Kasen was so upset that he threw the phone, cracking the screen and causing it to go black again. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself, because sadly, he could feel that he was losing it.