White Lines III (39 page)

Frankie watched as Gillian searched his clothes. She went through his pockets, tore the lining out of his blazer. She took apart his cell phone, removing the battery, the SIM card, the memory card. Satisfied that there was no wire, Gillian threw everything in a corner, and stood facing Frankie with her arms folded across her chest.

“So, you want to leave town, huh?” Gillian smirked. “How convenient.” She shook her head. “You know, when everybody got arrested except me, I didn't know what to make of it at first. After all, everybody knows that I'm running everything. So, why would the feds sweep everybody but me? I couldn't figure it out.” She paced the floor a little. “From the start, Maury warned me that we were probably dealing with a snitch. I even mentioned that to you, when you came home on bail. You tried to convince me that it was Zion. Or maybe one of the Douglas brothers. But honestly, I thought all along that it was Baron.”

Frankie was nervous, and hearing Gillian mention her brother's name only made it worse.

She chuckled a little, though her countenance was sinister. “My big brother. He was a trip, but he was my blood. I hated to think that he might flip and start snitching on the very people we called family. But you were right about what you said upstairs. Baron was never like our father. He was weak, and he was unpredictable. Plus he was avoiding me, and that made me suspicious of him. Then somebody shot him point-blank, and that changed everything. Who would have the motive to do a thing like that? Who but me?”

Gillian stopped pacing and glared at Frankie. “The only problem was, it wasn't me. So then … who?”

Frankie stared at the floor, convicted.

“You killed my brother, didn't you, Frankie?”

Frankie sat silently, and bit his lip to keep it from quivering.

“Answer me,” she said through clenched teeth.

Frankie looked sheepishly at her, and slowly nodded. “I was in a fucked-up spot, Gillian. They had me, and they were gonna move in on everybody with or without me. I did what I had to do to make sure that you could walk away. You have to understand that I was trying to protect
you
, Gigi. I swear it was always about protecting you.”

Gillian nodded. She leaned against the table and shook her head sadly. She looked at Biggs. “Do you get it now?” she asked him. “Do you understand what happened?”

Biggs shook his head, his eyes still trained on Frankie. “Nah,” he answered honestly. “All I know is you told me Frankie here is a snitch. That's all I needed to hear.” Biggs looked disgusted and disappointed at the same time as he looked at Frankie. Biggs had been with the family for so long, and had been the muscle in the operation for a very long time. He was only called when the time had come for slow singing and flower bringing. He hated that it had to be his man Frankie. But snitches were a thing that could never be tolerated.

“Let me fill you in,” Gillian said. She glanced over at Frankie. “Stop me when I get it wrong, okay?”

Frankie didn't respond.

“A while back, Grant Keys let us know that Angelle and the doctors she works with couldn't be trusted. They were under investigation for pushing illegal prescription drugs. Zion and I discussed it, and decided to cut ties with them. Wasn't worth the risk. We told good 'ole Frankie here that the fam was no longer doing business with Angelle. Frankie didn't listen, and he kept moving pills with Angelle and her doctors, never knowing that they were not just under investigation; the feds already had enough evidence to put them all away for a long time. So they struck a deal and agreed to set us up as the distributors who were moving those pills on a very large scale.”

Biggs shook his head, as the picture started coming into focus.

“So my dear Frankie walked right into a trap. Every conversation he had with Angelle from then on was recorded, and Frankie was arrested. According to Maury, they offered him a deal, too. All he had to do was point the finger at the people who were at the top. Help them bring down the kingpins.”

She turned and narrowed her eyes at Frankie. “They knew you weren't the top guy because you kept saying
they
on tape.
They don't want to take the risk
.
They act like they're scared. They don't have to know.
So they wanted to know who
they
were. And you folded.” She shook her head in dismay.

Frankie cleared his throat. He spoke softly, aware that Biggs was barely blinking as he kept the gun aimed right at him. “I didn't tell them anything about you … about neither one of you.”

“You told on Zion. On Grant. Tremaine, Baron, the Douglas brothers, Reuben Cruz. You wore a wire. You killed my brother.”

“Only to protect you,” Frankie insisted. “Baron wasn't gonna keep quiet. You
know
he would have told on you. It was just a matter of time. The kind of time the feds were talking … if Baron was under that kind of pressure much longer, he was gonna tell them that you—”

“So you took it upon yourself to kill my brother to protect me from going to jail.” Gillian hoped that hearing it said aloud would help Frankie realize how crazy it was.

He nodded. “Yes,” he admitted again. “I did it to protect you, Gigi.”

She scoffed at that. “You did it to protect yourself.”

Frankie gripped his hands together, pleadingly. “Okay,” he said. “I was trying to protect
both
of us, G. We could walk away from this. We can get out of here, and never look back.”

Gillian's eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “You're crazy.”

“Crazy about you,” he said. “I swear, G … all I wanted to do was protect you so that me and you … we can go back to being like we were before. Bonnie and Clyde, you know? I love you, Gillian.”

Gillian laughed. “I loved you, too, once,” she admitted. “But I wasn't looking at the whole picture back then. Camille is softer than I am, and I used to think that made me better than her. The way she'd cry all the time, letting you know how powerless she was, begging you to give her one more try.”

“Camille's with somebody else now.” Frankie's eyes pleaded with hers. “I'm talking about me and you.”

Gillian smirked, proud of Camille for finding the guts to let Frankie go for good. She was better off without him. “I expected her to take you back after we broke up,” she said. “But she surprised me.” Gillian moved closer. “You surprised me, too.”

She walked over and took the gun out of Biggs' hand. Biggs looked at her, surprised, but didn't protest. Instead he took a step back, and let her do her thing. She gripped the gun tightly in her manicured hands and took one step closer to Frankie.

“My father knew you as a man of strength, integrity, and substance. He told me once that you were the son he should have had.”

Frankie's heart raced. He stared back at her. “Gigi, please…” His voice wavered. “Please, don't do this.”

Gillian's rage bubbled over. “So I'm supposed to just ride off into the sunset with you after you snitched on everybody in our family? After you killed my brother, you
bitch
?”

Gillian hocked back and spat in Frankie's face. When he lifted his hand to wipe it, she shot him point-blank, just as he had done to Baron. The muffled sound of the gunshot echoed in the cellar. To Gillian, it sounded like a gavel in a courtroom, signaling Frankie's final exit from her life.

Biggs walked slowly over to her, and took the gun out of her hands. Frankie's face was wide open, his blood and brains oozing out of him. Gillian didn't look away. Instead, she stared at the mess of what had once been the man she loved.

Biggs wiped down the gun. He placed it in a duffel bag along with Frankie's clothes. He placed his hand gently on Gillian's shoulder. “Let's get you out of here,” he said. “I'm gonna take care of this.”

Gillian looked at him, and nodded calmly. Slowly, she began to walk toward the exit. Biggs stopped her.

“Your father was a great man. He would be real proud of you, Gillian. You did what you had to do.”

She didn't answer for several moments. Her expression was blank when she finally did. “My father didn't raise me to be a killer,” she said softly. “He didn't want this life for me, but I chose it for myself. This was for my brother. For the work my father put in that this nigga just flushed right down the toilet.” She reached up and touched Biggs' cheek, smiling weakly at him. “Make sure his body disappears completely. Not a trace. Then take the money my mother has for you and get the fuck out of the country. Go somewhere and start over. Keep your hands clean, and live a good life. You deserve that. We all do.”

She kissed Biggs on the cheek, and thanked him. Biggs had been loyal to her and to her father for many years. She had rewarded him with a very large payoff for this final act of loyalty. As he watched her walk out, Biggs knew that this was the end of the family for good. Gillian had settled the score, and now there was no turning back.

 

22

EVER AFTER

Night had fallen and so had the temperature by the time the dinner dishes were washed and Jada's house was quiet. It was late, and she was emotionally and physically drained. Everything was peaceful for once. Sheldon and Ethan were asleep, and Born lay awake in bed, watching a late night airing of
It's a Wonderful Life
. Jada stood in the doorway of their bedroom and looked at Born in the glow of the light from the TV.

Jada smiled and crawled into bed beside him. Even with no makeup on and an old T-shirt, he thought she looked beautiful.

“Hey, baby.” He smiled at her.

“Hey.” Jada kissed him, clutching his face between her hands, longing to devour him. She pulled him toward her. She had been waiting for this all day long.

Born kissed her deeply, and gripped her body so firmly that a moan escaped her lips. He scooped her up easily, pulling her on top of him, palming her ass. Jada wrapped her legs around his waist.

“I'm a lucky man,” he said.

Jada smiled back. “I think I'm the lucky one.”

Born looked in her eyes, his expression serious.

“Everything is different now,” Born said. “I think it just hit me today. I looked around at the kids, Ava, my mother. Even with all of them here with us, there were still a bunch of people missing. I thought about the way things were, and how they are now. Dorian, Sunny, Doug Nobles, Baron, they're all dead. Sunny's brother, Reuben, Dorian's brothers, Zion, Frankie, and damn near everybody else is facing jail time. All of our kids are growing up.” He shook his head. “Everything is different. The only thing that hasn't changed is the way I love you.”

Jada kissed him. “I love you, too.”

Born pulled her even closer. “You promised me something a few months ago. I want to marry you. And I don't want to wait. Let's do it now.”

Jada frowned a little. The last time they discussed marriage, they agreed that they would wait until things settled down, and they knew what the future held for everyone around them. “What about—”

“Forget everything, and everybody else. Just me and you. Let's just do it.” Born had a mischievous grin on his face. “I was thinking about us the day we first met each other. I saw you walking down the block, sexy as hell. You tried to play hard to get.”

Jada laughed. “You thought you were all of that, driving around in your fancy car, calling out to me like I was supposed to drop everything and come running. I was like,
Who does he think he is?
You were so cocky!”

Born shook his head. “Confident, not cocky.”

“No,” Jada insisted. “You were
cocky
.” She laughed at the memory. “But I grew to love it.”

“We came a long way since then.” Born grew more serious. “We've hurt each other, over and over again.”

Jada tried not to dwell on Born's recent indiscretions with Anisa. She took responsibility for her role in isolating him, and she had forgiven him for it. But the thought of him in Anisa's arms still stung Jada greatly. She shook the thought away, and nestled deeper into Born's embrace. “That's all behind us now,” she said. “New start.”

“So come on! This week. Let's just go get married, Jada. We don't have to make it a big show. For what? All we need is me, you, the kids, and God.” He was so excited by the idea that his voice had risen without him realizing it. He searched her eyes, anxiously. “You with me?”

Jada smiled. She loved Born so much that she would do anything to guarantee that he would be in her life forever. “Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Let's do it.”

Born's kiss left no doubt that she had just made him the happiest man alive. They made love all night, anticipating the bliss of knowing their story might have a happier ending than they had allowed themselves to dream possible.

*   *   *

Born stood watching as Jada slowly made her way down the aisle of the church. Mary J Blige's “Share My World” played from the speakers that were hooked up to the Bose system in the pastor's office. Jada looked so beautiful that it took Born's breath away. She wore a gold-beaded, floor-sweeping Jenny Packham gown that hugged her curves perfectly. Jada carried a simple bouquet of purple wine Calla lilies. Her hairstylist, Ramiek, had styled her long hair into a sophisticated updo, and her makeup was minimal. To Born, she looked like an angel.

While the chords of the instrumental played at the beginning of the song, Jada stood in the doorway of the church and stared, smiling at the man who would be her husband. Born was a good man. And he looked
good
on this day.

Born wore a black Tom Ford suit, and sharp Prada shoes. Jada knew that her man didn't enjoy getting dressed up. He had even suggested that he might wear jeans to the ceremony. But he had set his comfort aside for the woman he loved. Jada adored him.