What Goes Around (2 page)

“Go figure,” snorted Aunt Lorraine with a nasty smirk on her face. Shame and anger rushed through Sydney's body. She couldn't believe she, too, had sold out her father so easily.

“Well, let's start with the easiest thing—shut your mouth,” Altimus answered without missing a beat. “Stop asking questions about Rodney's murder, insinuating guilt on this family, and all the rest of that rabble-rousing you've
been doing. The two of you need to learn to be seen and not heard—ever. If it isn't about school, your friends, or an after-school activity, I better not hear your opinion on the matter.”

“Yes, sir,” Sydney and Lauren intoned meekly in unison.

“At the end of six months, your mother and I will reevaluate your behavior. If everything goes well, then perhaps something might be done to help Dice figure out his situation.”

“What do you mean by 'help' Dice?” Sydney questioned suspiciously. She knew that the last thing in the world her father wanted was anything to do with Altimus.

“Let's just say that Dice wouldn't be sitting in a cell to begin with if he understood how to play politics,” Altimus replied cryptically. “I'm hoping that since you have such a good relationship with him, you'll set the example and show him the way. You'd be surprised how quickly things can turn around when you're on a winning team.”

Lauren shoved aside the stuffed animals, purses, shoes, and a huge pile of outfits she'd tried on and rejected before school, and plopped down onto her bed. Mouth agape, eyes wide, she was still dumbfounded by Altimus and Keisha's big kumbaya moment with Aunt Lorraine. She looked over at her sister to seek some kind of reassurance that they were, indeed, still breathing, with all limbs intact after what they were sure was going to be some kind of murderous, bloody showdown with the 'rents. But Sydney was in another world, twirling her earring and staring at the tip of her Tory Burch flats. “Um, seriously?” Lauren finally whispered. “Our parents are psychopaths.”

“Tell me about it,” Sydney said in an equally hushed tone, her eyes still focused on her shoes. “I don't know if I
should stay here and be good, or pack a bag and assume an alias.”

“Yeah, well, if you choose the latter, just let a sistah know—you're not going to leave me here alone with Bonnie and Clyde.”

Sydney chuckled a little and clasped her sister's hands. “Don't think I have much of a choice in that one, huh,” she said, finally looking up and into Lauren's eyes. “We're most definitely in this one together.”

The two sisters stared at each other for a moment, contemplating what, exactly, that meant. All that other mess—their disagreements about Dice; the hookup between Lauren's best friend, Dara, and Sydney's ex, Marcus, and its unintended pregnancy; Sydney's outing of Donald's homosexuality in front of the family and his subsequent stint at a military school—none of it mattered right now. The twins were in survival mode, and they instinctively knew that they were much better playing nice together than each fighting this battle on her own.

“Well, at least one good thing came out of this,” Sydney said, forcing a smile.

“Oh, yeah? And what, exactly, is that? Unrestricted access to Aunt Lorraine? Okay, if you consider that a good thing, but, er, um, I was cool with her being a really distant relative.”

“What, you got something against sloppy, chain-smoking, ghetto-queen aunties?” Sydney giggled. “No, seriously, I was talking about what Altimus said about Dice. Maybe he's serious about helping out—you think?”

Lauren rolled her eyes. Sydney knew exactly where her sister was about to head with her standard “I couldn't care less about Dice” comments, but this time Sydney shut them down with a quickness. “And if he's willing to help Dice out, maybe he's willing to help Jermaine out, too.”

Now you've got my attention,
Lauren thought to herself. “Go on,” she said, sitting up.

“Well, since Altimus is in such a benevolent mood, maybe he'd be willing to give peace a chance with Jermaine. I mean, if he's willing to work with Dice, then there's no reason he wouldn't consider you exploring a relationship with your crush, right?”

“You think so?” Lauren said, her eyes widening with each of her sister's words.

“I don't think—I know,” Sydney said. “I mean, not once did they say anything to you about the phone. Maybe they're letting that go.”

“Yeah, but how do I even begin to ask for that—particularly after what just went down?” Lauren quizzed. “And not for nothing, what do you care about Jermaine anyway?”

“I don't know Jermaine enough to care anything about him,” Sydney said simply. “But I do know that I've never seen you happier than when you were kicking it with him or more upset about something unrelated to yourself than when you thought your boy was in trouble. Plus, how likely is it that Altimus will do something directly to your man? Seems to me like the best way to protect Jermaine is to keep him close. Plus, he might know something more about Altimus and his involvement with the murder. Next to Dice and us, he's the only other person who knows what's up and can identify with the craziness.”

“True,” Lauren said, contemplating her sister's words. “But how do I even begin to get Jermaine into the family circle of trust?”

“Come on, you know how to work Altimus and Keisha,” Sydney insisted. “Pour on some of that Georgia-peach charm of yours. It's undeniable.”

“With Altimus, maybe, but Keisha? I don't know…” Lauren began.

“Then just set it up so both you and Jermaine can win Altimus over. Take Jermaine to the dealership. It's a neutral location and public, so there's no way Altimus can do anything to him, and Keisha won't be there to make things hot,” she reasoned. “If you bring him here, they might try to bury him under the crape myrtles out back,” she smirked.

Lauren gave herself an hour and a half to work up enough nerve to go to Altimus's office.

“Daddy?” she said sweetly, sitting on the wingback chair positioned in front of Altimus's desk. “Can I ask you something about Jermaine?”

Altimus gently placed his pen on his oversized mahogany desk and folded his hands. “I have to say I honestly don't get your preoccupation with thugs, Lauren, particularly since Brookhaven is full of fine young men with great potential,” Altimus said, pausing to rub his teeth together. Lauren could hear them clanking; she tried, albeit unsuccessfully, not to furrow her brow when she peeped her stepfather's temple about to burst through the side of his forehead. She knew that when Altimus ground his teeth hard enough to make his temples jump, he was either pissed or lying or both, and it was clear from the way he was working his jaw that he really wasn't feeling the idea of his daughter dating a boy from the West End. “The Donald fiasco aside, you're usually pretty good about picking 'em. What's this Jermaine got over all the other boys who are about something and doing big things?”

“Jermaine
is
doing things,” Lauren said simply, trying her best not to incite any arguments with her stepfather. She didn't want him to say “no” outright without giving her a chance to state her case.

“Really? What exactly
is
he doing?” Keisha asked, chiming in as she walked into Altimus's office with a Diet Coke in one hand, a bag of popcorn in the other—just in time for the show, no doubt.

“I—I don't know just yet,” Lauren stammered, mentally kicking herself for sounding weak. She couldn't help it, though; she was still shaken from the afternoon family powwow. This much she did know, though: Altimus and Keisha thrived on intimidation, and now they could smell the faint scent of fear; if she didn't get it together, any second now they were going to deny all her requests to get with Jermaine.
Stop being a punk,
she warned herself.
You got this.
Lauren put a little more bass in her voice: “But no one knows if someone is right for them until they get to know them, right? That's all I want to do. Get to know Jermaine.”

“And I guess it hasn't occurred to you that we might have a bit more info about this little boy than you do, huh?” Keisha said, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

“Look, I'm not trying to marry Jermaine and have his babies,” Lauren snapped, squaring her shoulders. “He's just a friend I'm interested in getting to know better. That's all.”

Altimus glanced at his watch and worked his jaw. He slowly rose from his seat, signaling he'd grown tired of the
topic. “Look, I got to get to the office. But I want to meet this Jermaine. Soon,” he said.

“Not a problem,” Lauren said. “How about tomorrow? I can bring him over for dinner. Maybe we could watch a movie together—you know, kick it for a minute?”

Keisha almost choked on her soda mid-swallow; Altimus reeled back like Lauren had just slapped his face.

“Just kidding,” Lauren said, raising her hands in surrender. “Laugh? Ha, ha?”

“Okay, Chris-Rock-Not, don't get your little feelings hurt,” Keisha said. “Ain't nothing for him to change his mind up in here.”

“Just jokes, Mom—just jokes. I'll talk to Jermaine and we'll figure out when is a good time to meet, okay?” Lauren insisted as she rose from her chair. “Love you, Daddy,” she practically sang, laying a smooch on Altimus's cheek. “You're the one.”

“Fine,” Altimus said and headed out the door. Keisha watched Lauren run up the stairs and straight to Sydney's room, confident her daughters were going to sit and powwow over everything that had unfolded.

“Explain to me why you would want that boy around when he's been running all over the West End telling people you killed his brother,” Keisha demanded, following Altimus. She popped another piece of popcorn into her mouth and washed it down with a swig of soda.

“You know the old saying, 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'?” Altimus asked. “Well, let's just say that it'll be better for all of us if the brother of the man I'm accused of killing is an official friend of the Duke family. I'm thinking maybe it'll help the hood quiet down about the bastard that went and got his block knocked off.”

Bringing Jermaine to the car dealearship had seemed like a good idea. But when Jermaine walked through the doors of Altimus's Buckhead BMW dealership, pants sagging a little too low, polo a little too long, cap a little too twisted, swagger a little too hard, Lauren did a small sign of the cross and silently asked Jesus to make a way.

“Hey, L,” Jermaine said over the ringing doorbells that clanged loudly as he stepped into the showroom.

Lauren put her magazine in the chair next to her and popped up from her perch. “Hey,” she said, reaching out to embrace Jermaine. His hug was inviting; he smelled totally delicious. But she pushed him away almost as quickly as she fell into his arms, with one eye on Drew Grier, Altimus's top salesman, and Lisa Cypress, the snobby receptionist who, when potential customers entered the swank dealership, weeded out the wannabes from the ballers before they could get onto the showroom floor.

“Man, it's good to see you,” Jermaine said, taking her hands into his. “It's been a while, huh?”

“Too long,” Lauren said, a little less nervous as she looked into Jermaine's eyes. “I'm really glad you came.”

“I'm glad I could come,” Jermaine said. “I thought I'd never see you again, what with everything that's been going on.”

“You don't know the half. But let's not talk about that now,” Lauren countered as she nervously eyed Drew again. “You know, in front of mixed company and all.”

“Oh, yeah, okay,” Jermaine said. “Does that mean I can't kiss you, though?”

Lauren giggled. “Boy, if you want to leave here with both your lips attached to that face, you might want to hold off on that.”

“Damn,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Well, since a brother can't give you a proper greeting, how about you show me around.” Her hand still in his, Jermaine made his way over to the black Z4 M coupe standing sentry on the stage of the main showroom. He whistled as he ran his fingers down the sides of the car, circling it like a lion about to partake in a fresh kill. “Dang, a brother would look hot to death in one of these,” he smiled, peering into the driver's side window. “What does something like this set you back?”

“I don't know, like fifty Gs, I think?” she said.

“So can I get a hookup since I'm officially dating the owner's daughter?” he asked, smiling and turning his
attention back to Lauren. He leaned against the car and grabbed Lauren's hands to pull her closer to him. Lauren, keenly aware that both her father's employees were focusing on her and Jermaine, made a point of keeping a reasonable distance between the two of them.

“Yeah, about the random acts of hookupdom? They don't really do that here in BMW Buckhead,” she smirked. “And, um, unless you're planning on taking that baby home with you, you probably shouldn't lean on it—I'm just saying.”

“Oh, my bad,” Jermaine said, hopping off the car. “This is a hot ride, though,” he said, folding his arms and eyeing the rims. “I might have to cop me one of these.”

Lauren reeled back and giggled. “Oh, really now? And you just got fifty Gs sitting around for a BMW, huh? That would be quite the upgrade from what you're rolling around in now.”

This time, Jermaine furrowed his brow and smirked. “Hey, my ride gets me from Point A to Point B, so there's no need for the upgrade right now,” he said. “But that doesn't mean I can't have one eventually. In case you didn't know this about your man, I got big things planned.”

“Really? Big things, huh?” Lauren smiled, trying hard now to conceal her nervousness.

“Well, yeah,” he said simply. “I'm not going to be in
the SWATS forever. I'm trying to go places, do something with my life.”

“And how, exactly, are you planning to do that,” Altimus boomed, startling the couple. He walked up from behind; neither of them saw him coming.

“Um, uh, Daddy? This is, um, the guy I was telling you about—Jermaine,” Lauren said, laughing nervously. “Jermaine? Say hi to my stepdad, Altimus Duke.”

Jermaine snatched his hat off his head and quickly said, “Hello, Mr. Duke.” He held out his hand; Altimus let it hang there for a moment, long enough for Jermaine and Lauren to wonder if he was going to reciprocate Jermaine's greeting. After what seemed like forever, Altimus took Jermaine's hand in his, squeezing it so tight Jermaine grimaced. After a few seconds, Altimus loosened his grip and sucked his teeth. Lauren felt faint. It was this mess right here that was going to make the sky part so the Lord could call her home.

“So don't stop talking on my account, Jermaine. Tell me what you're going to do to get in here and make a deal for this beautiful machine of mine. You know, this is a mighty fine vehicle—got a great handle to it. It's a high-performance race car—the ultimate driving machine. Only the most skilled, fearless drivers feel truly comfortable pushing it to its limits.”

Lauren wiped her brow but knew not to say a word. Jermaine cleared his throat but was surprisingly unbowed. “Oh, I got skills,” he boasted.