Chapter 31
The Past
The sound of Earth, Wind & Fire filled the white room as Caesar and Amira danced along to the beat of “Serpentine Fire.” He spun her around before pulling her close to him. When she was staring up at him with her bright eyes, he kissed her on her soft lips. She giggled and pulled away. It was her smile that always did it for him, and he was glad that it was back on her face. It took a little bit of wooing, but eventually a smooth-talking Caesar was able to get back into her good graces.
They continued to dance, and it was the first time since the death of his father that Caesar could say that he felt true happiness. Amira’s light and energy was healing to him, and it was all that he needed to keep going. She had his full attention, so much so that he didn’t even hear the music playing from the vinyl anymore.
“Your mother would turn over in her grave if she knew we were doing all this here in her precious white room!” Amira exclaimed, giggling again.
“No, I don’t believe that at all. She would be happy for me that I found a woman as great as you to spend my life with.”
“Life?” Amira stopped moving altogether and looked up into Caesar’s face.
“You heard me. You’re going to be my wife one day. Amira King has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, but you don’t feel like that’s moving a little too fast?”
“I’m not talking about jumping the broom tomorrow. I’m just letting you know that I don’t plan on letting you go anywhere. What we have is once-in-a-lifetime magic.”
“I think so too. I’ve never loved someone like this before, Caesar. So if you hurt me—”
“I’m not going to hurt you, girl.”
“Mm-hmm. Caesar, you’re only eighteen. You’re handsome and rich. I want this, I really do, but you have so much life ahead of you. And there are so many girls in the world.”
“But the girl standing right here is just enough for me.”
“And what about this?” She grabbed his hand and put it under her skirt. “Is this enough for you, too?”
“Hell yes.”
She wasn’t wearing any panties, and Caesar’s hand fondled her love box. Parting her lips, he slid his middle finger up to her juicy clitoris and rubbed it in a gentle circular motion. He felt his manhood grow in his pants, and what he was planning to do to Amira on the couch might have been the thing to make his mother turn over in the grave. But just when he was about to pull his pants down, he heard the sound of someone clearing her throat. Caesar removed his hand and saw Martina standing in the doorway.
“You have a phone call. A Detective Easley,” she told him.
“Thank you, Martina. I’ll take it in here.”
The phone in the white room was in the far right corner on a glass table. He picked up the receiver and waited for a second. When he heard a small click, he knew Martina had hung up in the kitchen.
“Detective?”
“Caesar, I—”
“I meant to call you and thank you for handling that for me,” Caesar interrupted him, speaking about Damián. “Everything has been going smoothly since.”
“Caesar, I need you to listen to me. They’re coming.” Easley’s voice had a sense of urgency that made Caesar’s blood run cold.
“Who’s coming?”
“The Feds, Caesar.”
“Okay, they aren’t going to find shit.”
“Are you sure? They got an anonymous tip about Cassius’s death. The person knows for a fact that the gun that was used to kill Cassius is in your house! If they search and find it, you’re going to prison for murder, Caesar. Do you understand me? Prison!”
“That’s impossible! There isn’t a gun here. The only way that could be is if somebody planted it, and nobody has been here to . . .” Caesar stopped talking when he realized Nasir was there two days prior. “Fuck.”
He didn’t know why Nasir would plant a gun in his house. He didn’t even know if it was true, but Caesar refused to go to prison. He had to try to look. “How much time do I have?”
“They just left, so I’d say a good thirty minutes, give or take.”
“Shit! Okay.”
He hung up the phone and spun around the room. Where had Nasir gone while he was in the house? He couldn’t have gone very far. It was just the white room. Amira was staring at him with a scared look on her face. He didn’t have time to explain.
“I need you to help me look for something without making it look like we were in here looking for something.”
“Caesar, I don’t understand.”
“Amira, please. Listen to me.” He went over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’s important.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “Okay. What am I looking for?”
“A gun. And we need to find it fast.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t ask any more questions. She rushed to a couch and started looking in the cushions. Caesar went and did the same with the other. Nothing. They searched every nook and cranny in the white room and came up with nothing. By the time they finished, a good fifteen minutes had passed.
“Where the fuck could it be?” Caesar put his hands to his head and tried to think. Then he remembered Donald was the one who let him in. “Donald!”
“Yes, sir?” The butler appeared in the white room quickly when he heard how urgently Caesar called his name.
“When you let Nasir in the other day, did he do anything suspicious?” Caesar asked and watched Donald rack his mind.
“Actually . . . yes. He did. When I went back to get him and bring him to the white room, he wasn’t by the front door where I left him. He was standing by your father’s fish tank in the main living room. How he ended up there and why, I don’t know. I, for one, always thought that thing was a waste of money. He didn’t even like fish . . . Wait, where are you going?”
Caesar ignored Donald’s question as he rushed past the old man and to the living room. The fish tank he spoke of was huge and against the wall. The fact was the King mansion was so big that most of the rooms didn’t get used often, and that living room was one of them. However, it was the room closest to the front door, and if Nasir was trying to hurry up and plant something, it would make sense that he put it there. The tank was heavy to move, and Nasir probably didn’t have time to move it to hide anything behind it, but he could have tossed it.
Getting on the ground, Caesar looked under the fish tank and could make out something behind it. He forced his arm under the tank and reached as far as he could, feeling around with his hand. Finally, the tips of his fingers touched something, and he was able to get just enough grip on it to pull it back. When his arm was free and he was able to look down at his find, his jaw got tight. It was a gun, one he’d never seen before and one that didn’t belong there. And by him grabbing it, it now had his fingerprints on it.
“You found it!” Amira’s voice sounded behind him.
Caesar grabbed the gun and stood up. There wasn’t much time left, and he didn’t want to chance hiding the gun somewhere else in the house. Knowing how badly the Feds probably wanted to take him down, there was no telling how extensive a search they would do.
“Baby, the Feds are coming here to look for this. I need you to take it to Niles. He’ll get rid of it.”
He half expected Amira to tell him no and that she didn’t want any part of what he had going on. But she surprised him by taking the gun from him and nodding her head.
“I’ll take one of the cars and leave out the back gate,” she told him. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
As she ran to the back of the house holding the gun in her hands like a fragile baby, Caesar knew. That was when he knew for certain that she was going to be his wife.
Retribution