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Danielle
By the time Ron put his key in the lock, Danielle had all his shit in garbage bags right inside the door. He stepped in, looked down at the bags, then over to Danielle, who was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed and arms folded, waiting. “Danny, whassup, boo?”
“You’re moving out, that’s what!”
Eyebrows knitted close together, he stepped forward. “Yo, you always trippin’! What I do now?”
“Portia described your dick,” she stated firmly. “How would my daughter know you’re not circumcised?”
Ron’s face fell. Obviously, he never expected to hear those words coming from her mouth. “Okay, I-I can explain that,” he stuttered nervously. “She walked in on me one time I was in the shower. I never mentioned it ’cause I didn’t wanna start nothin’.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. She wanted so badly to believe him, but Ron had had every opportunity to come clean. Maybe then she might have believed him. Now it was too late. “I don’t believe you.”
“Come on. What I gotta lie fo?”
“’Cause you’re a man and that’s what men do—lie.”
“Yo, this is crazy. Boo, I thought everything was cool wit’ us?”
“That was before you decided to take advantage of my daughter!”
“I ain’t touched that girl.” He raked a frustrated hand across his face. “Okay, I’m fin to be totally honest.” At her continued silence, he relaxed his stance, then continued. “Me and Portia were cool as shit, then one day she came running out her room half-naked and tried to kiss me.”
Her eyes grew large and round. “And you slept with her?”
“Hell, naw! I ain’t never touched that girl. I swear. I told her that shit wasn’t cool and if she tried it again, I was tellin’ you.”
“You’re lying!” Danielle screamed and hurled a paperweight at his head. He ducked and it hit the wall.
“Why you buggin’? All I’m tryin’ to—”
She cut him off. “Get out! Otherwise I’m callin’ the police, and if you ever bother me again, I’m goin’ to charge you with rape.”
He stood there for the longest time with an expression of disbelief before finally saying, “You’re gonna regret this.”
“And don’t take my car!”
He tsked. “You got life twisted if you think I’m walkin’ wit’ all these bags.”
“Then you better go call Tyrone, because you ain’t takin’ my car!”
Ron grabbed the two bags and headed out the door.
Danielle came out behind him. “You heard what I said!” she repeated. Completely ignoring her, he pulled his keys out of his pocket and opened the trunk. “You heard what the fuck I said!”
He glared over at her, then gave her a bitter laugh. “What you gon’ do, call the cops? You forget. My name’s on this car, too.” While she stood there, he loaded the trunk and slammed it shut Danielle dashed over and blocked the driver’s door so he couldn’t get in. “Move the fuck outta the way!”
Folding her arms, she refused to budge. “Make me.”
“Listen—I’m not fin to put my hands on you.”
“You are a sick bastard—you know that!” she screamed, pointing her fingers in his face.
Shaking his head, he laughed. “Yeah, all right. Whateva you say. Now move, ’cause I’m outta here.”
“You ain’t going nowhere because I’m callin’ the cops and pressing rape charges against you!”
He gave her a smug look, then held up his hands in surrender. “Yo, lock my black ass up! And I’ll have my lawyer bring in a dozen nuccas who’ll testify they slept wit’ Portia’s slutty ass.”
Danielle swung and got him right under the jaw, then threw another punch that he caught. “Get off me!” she screamed as he pressed her arms to her side. “Get off me!”
“You need to calm the fuck down,” he mumbled close to her ear. “Look at you, actin’ like a damn fool. Got the neighbors watchin’ and shit.”
For the first time she noticed the couple across the street standing in the door staring. “Let me go!” She jerked away from him and dropped her hands to her knees while she tried to catch her breath. “I can’t stand you. You make me sick!”
Ron just stood there looking down at her, shaking his head with this amused look on his face. “You know what? You and yo’ daughter are two crazy-ass bitches.” Turning, he opened the door and she watched as he climbed in and flipped her off.
This time she did nothing to stop him.
Chapter 41
Renee
“Hurry up with the drinks!” I yelled.
“Just hold your horses.”
Nadine was in Danielle’s kitchen making our third round of margaritas. She was slow as hell. I could have hopped in my car, driven five blocks to a little hole-in-the-wall, ordered a drink, and been back, at the rate she was going. Tonight, was girls’ night out, and the mood wasn’t right without a drink in our hands. At least that was the case for me. Our job tonight was to cheer Kayla up.
We were all laid out in the living room. Me on the couch, Kayla in the chair, and Danielle on the love seat. Everyone, including Kayla’s nondrinking ass, was tipsy as hell. And we couldn’t have a girls’ night out without Lisa. My eyes traveled over to the five-by-seven photo Danielle had placed on her coffee table. See, sis, we haven’t forgotten about you. Lisa had always been the levelheaded one of the bunch. We definitely need her wisdom to vibrate through the room tonight.
The music streaming from Nadine’s iPad changed to old skool. “Ooh! That’s my song!” Danielle cried.
“Ho, every song is your song.” Danielle’s been saying that same shit for the last half hour, although I’ll have to admit that was my song as well. Oh, yeah! The room filled with the sultry sounds of Luther Vandross. I hummed along with him, and Danielle and Kayla both started singing off key. By the end of the song, Nadine finally moved into the living room carrying a blender filled with heaven.
“About damn time,” I said without malice as I held out my glass. She went around and filled each of our glasses before returning to her seat at the other end of the couch.
Danielle rose and held up her glass. “Okay, let’s make a toast.”
“A toast to what?” Kayla asked.
“A toast to our fucked-up lives!” she cried, then fell back onto the loveseat, cracking up.
“I second that,” Kayla replied, waving her glass in the air.
“Hell, I’ve got to toast to that as well.”
I snorted rudely. “Nadine, puhleeze. What’s fucked-up with your life?”
“Jordan wants to have a baby,” she admitted between sips.
Danielle gave a hard laugh. “That ain’t nothing. My man was screwing my daughter.”
“What?” Nadine cried.
Kayla gasped. “Say it ain’t so.”
“It’s so,” she answered with a gloomy look. “And I really thought Ron and I had a chance.”
So, it was true after all. Damn, I wouldn’t put that shit on anyone. “Did you do what I told you to do?”
She took a sip, then nodded. “Yep, and she described it in full detail, foreskin and all.”
“Foreskin!” Nadine cried. “Eeew! You were messing with some brotha who wasn’t circumcised?”
“Like you never have?” Danielle challenged.
Nadine calmed down. “Okay, once, but that was by accident.”
Kayla wasn’t letting it go that easily. “What do you mean, by accident?”
“That football player I met while we were in Jamaica,” she confessed.
I started laughing loud. “RD? What? So, I guess that means you really did screw him?”
Nadine shrugged, faking nonchalance. I could see through her ass. I always could. “If you want to call it that. I was just trying to figure out my sexuality.”
“What she means is, she was trying to fight the fact she was craving pussy by trying one last dick.”
Nadine gave me a disapproving look. “Why you always got to make things sound so damn nasty?”
I spread my legs and rubbed my crotch suggestively. “’Cause I am nasty.”
Kayla reached for the photograph. “Lisa, you hear this mess? Your sister ain’t changed a lick.”
“Oh, I’ve changed quite a bit. Y’all just haven’t noticed. This is my second trip down here in a month, and I still ain’t had no Columbia dick.”
Nadine’s jaw dropped. “Now I know you’re lying.”
“Since when do I lie?”
“She’s right,” Danielle chimed in. “If she got some, we would be the first to know.”
Kayla wagged a finger in the air. “Uh-uh, that ain’t even true. Not no more. To this day, Renee refuses to admit she slept with Everton.”
Danielle’s brow rose. “Who’s Everton?”
“The front-desk clerk at that hotel we stayed at in Jamaica.”
I gave Kayla a serious look. “I admitted I slept with that crazy mothafucka.”
Nadine was quick to agree, “Yeah, he was definitely psycho.”
Danielle pouted. “I hate that I didn’t get to go.”
“There’ll be other trips,” Nadine assured her.
“So, tell me, what are you planning to do about Ron?” I asked between sips.
“Last night my brother and his crew beat his ass.”
I tossed my head with laughter. “I ain’t mad.”
“Yep, he’s lucky he didn’t kill his ass for fuckin’ with his niece. Kee’s pretty certain Ron’s arm is broke. He made him sign over my title and got my car back.”
Nadine shook her head. “Oh my God. Lucky you.”
Kayla rose. “Okay, so are we going to toast to our messed-up lives, or what?”
“No, we’re going to toast to our fucked-up lives,” I amended while trying to scramble to my feet. Nadine and Danielle also stood and held their glasses high. “Here’s to making our lives better.”
“Hear, hear,” we each said, then took a sip from our glasses and lowered back into our seats.
“So, Jordan wants to have a baby?” Danielle asked.
While nodding, Nadine pressed her lips together. “She says her biological clock is ticking.”
“So, what y’all going to do?”
Her shoulders deflated. “I guess we’ll find a sperm donor.”
“Hey,” I interrupted. “That reminds me of the Spike Lee joint, She Hate Me. Anybody seen that?”
‘Yes,” Nadine replied, “and no, she’s not planning on sleeping with a man. Jordan wants to be artificially inseminated.”
“Girl, that shit’s expensive. You’re better off letting some negro bang her for a six-pack and a bucket of chicken.”
Nadine tossed her shoe at me and got me square in the chest. I guess I deserved that one.
Nadine’s wounded look was quickly replaced with a smirk. “Okay, smart-ass. Your turn to tell us what’s so fucked-up about your life.”
I took another sip from my straw before dropping the bomb. “Hell, y’all think your lives are bad—well, guess what? My husband and I have been swinging.”
“What!” Nadine fell off the couch.
Kayla’s eye shifted from one of us to the other. “Swinging? What’s swinging?”
Danielle decided to explain. “It’s when couples have sex with other couples.”
She gasped, then shook her head. “Why am I not the least bit surprised?”
I nodded and took another sip. “Oh, yeah. I’ve had quite a few Mandingoes.”
“So, what’s the problem?” Nadine asked as she returned to her seat at the other end of the couch. You’ve been complaining about John in bed for years.”
“But now it’s too much.” I sat up straighter on the couch. “This may sound crazy, but now I’m actually fucking around on my husband with my husband. And it’s no longer any fun. I like spontaneous sex, not that kinky shit my husband schedules for me. It takes the fun out of it.”
Kayla shook her head. “You are too much.”
“Does he get his groove on, too?” Nadine asked.
“Yes. And he seems to be getting off on that shit.
He ain’t never been able to fuck me doggy-style, but he managed to fuck some big-titty bitch that way with no problem. Oops—sorry, Nadine.” As sensitive as she is about her breasts, I knew she would kick my leg.
“Forget you. That’s why John’s pimping your ass.”
“And that’s why you like pussy,” I retorted.
“Don’t knock it ’til you try it.”
I snorted rudely “Whatever. I am strictly dickly—ain’t that right, Danielle? Oh shit, I forgot. I guess you can’t say the same.”
“Yousa damn liar!” she cried defensively.
I rolled off the couch, cracking up. “Girl, you know you were rubbing pussies with Trish!”
Kayla gasped. “What? Tell me it ain’t so.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “It ain’t so.”
Nadine gave her a skeptical look. “I don’t know. Y’all were pretty close.”
“Close?” I gasped. “I walked in just as she was strapping on.”
Kayla held up her hand. “Wait a minute. You need to start at the beginning because neither of you bothered to tell me this story.”
Danielle looked over at me and rolled her eyes. “That’s because I swore them to secrecy.”
“Well, the secret’s out now.” Kayla’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as she reclined the chair. “All right. I’m listening.”
I shifted on the couch. “Okay, Da—”
“Uh-uh, heffa,” Danielle interrupted. “The only one telling this story, is me.”
“Okay... we’re all ears.” I jumped up and grabbed the pitcher. “But first let me whip up another round.” I dashed into the kitchen, tossed in a whole lot of tequila and triple sec, then grabbed the ice and margarita mix. I was having a ball hanging with my girls. Tonight, was long overdue. I added a couple more cubes of ice to the blender and listened to Kayla in the living room talking about Jermaine. I was so happy he had come into her life. Now the only thing standing in the way of her future was Leroy’s murder, and I wasn’t leaving Columbia until her name had been cleared.
I skipped into the living room. “Okay, I’m back!” Everyone held out their glasses at the same time. I quickly filled them to the rim, and even spilled a little on the floor that Danielle will have to shampoo later. Right now, everyone was dying to hear Danny’s story. “All right.” I ran over, picked up Lisa’s picture, kissed it, then plopped down onto the couch. “Tell us the story.”
Nodding, Danielle took a sip. “Okay. I met Trish while attending that nine-month LPN program. She was cool as shit and we became study partners.”
“Uh-huh. Y’all were studying, all right,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Shut up.” Danielle tossed a pillow at me before continuing. “She would come over and we would lie across my bed and study, and sometimes we fell asleep. I didn’t think nothing of it—then one evening I woke up and found her standing over me wearing a strap- on. Rubber dick flapping in the air!”
All four of us drunk bitches were laughing so hard we were crying.
“What a minute!” Kayla cried while still laughing. “She was actually naked, wearing a strap-on?”
Nodding, Danielle wiped tears from her eyes.
“What did you do?” Nadine asked between chuckles.
She looked over at me as she continued. “I didn’t get a chance to do anything because Nae-Nae used her key and walked in.”
“’Cause I knew something wasn’t right with that girl. Her hair was too damn short, and she always wore these oversized shirts so you couldn’t tell how big her titties were.”
Nadine intervened. “I thought she was cute.”
“You would!” Danielle and I screamed in unison.
Blushing, Nadine tried to explain. “Well she had the longest lashes and the sexiest lips.”
“Shut up! I’m about to be sick,” Danny groaned.
I reached for the pitcher and topped off my glass again. “She walked like a man,” I sang. “Talked liked a man. Hell, she even dressed like a damn man.”
“She did not,” Danielle defended. “She wore jeans like everyone else.”
“Yeah, but we ain’t wearing a strap-on underneath.”
Nadine spit her drink across the couch and the laughter was nonstop.
My eyes traveled from one to the other. “That girl was getting ready to work Danny with that big chocolate thunder. She was standing there, stroking it up and down like that shit was real. I cupped my hand and demonstrated what I meant.
Danielle groaned. “I told her to get the hell up out of there. She put on her pants with that thing hangin’ on the side of her leg, then bounced. As soon as she was gone, me and Nae-Nae burned the sheets.”
“Did she ever talk to you again?” Kayla asked, clearly intrigued.
After taking a sip, Danielle shook her head. “Nope, she played my ass. Found herself some chick she was hugging and lip-locking with.”
I couldn’t resist my next question. “So, tell us, Nadine. Do you or Jordan use a strap-on? Because inquiring minds wanna know.”
The question caught her off guard. “Hell, no. That’s a butch. Jordan and I are both females. We find other ways to make each other feel good.”
“What? Licking pussies?” I asked and grinned at her mortified expression.
Kayla frowned. “You are so damn nosy.”
Nadine stirred her drink with her straw before saying, “I saw Trish a couple of weeks ago at The Red-Hot Chili Pepper.”
‘What’s that?” Kayla asked.
“It’s this new alternative club.”
I was intrigued. “Men dancing with men and women be dancing together?”
Nadine nodded.
I couldn’t resist saying out loud what had come to mind. “Let’s go.”
“You’re kidding.” Nadine looked surprised.
“Nope,” I replied, then rose to my feet. “I’m serious. Sounds fun. Let’s go.” I was tipsy and down for anything.
We all hopped into the Durango. System thumping. I hung out the window and flashed my boobs at a blue Caprice Classic filled with some young thunder cats trying to get our attention. They followed us, but as soon as they saw us stop in front of the gay club, they shouted, “Dykes!” and peeled around the corner. We were laughing so hard, it was ridiculous.
Danielle parked on the corner and the four of us staggered to the door, holding on to each other. I paid everyone’s cover charge, then we moved inside the dark, smoky interior and started leaning and rocking with the crowd. The floor was packed, the music hot. I was pleased to see the LGBT community knew how to party. I was surprised at how many fine-ass gay men there were in Columbia. No wonder a good black woman couldn’t find a man, because they were all in this mothafucka. While the three of them moved out onto the dance floor, my lush ass pushed through the crush of bodies toward the bar.
“Let me get a tequila and pineapple,” I said to a sweetie pie behind the counter. He was a handsome specimen, wearing a wifebeater, with muscles bulging.
“Coming right up.” He reached beneath the bar and removed a glass. I couldn’t stop staring and shaking my head. It was a doggone shame for anyone to look that good. Shiny bald head. Goatee. Milk chocolate. He definitely looked like he would melt in my mouth.
“Here you go, sexy.” He slid the drink in my direction.
I licked my lips. “Please tell me you like women.”
A lopsided grin curled his thick lips. “I like women.”
“Shit! Then how—"
He pressed two fingers to my lips. “I also like men.”
Damn! I pushed his hand away ’cause ain’t no telling where them fingers been. “That’s a damn shame,” I muttered as I tossed a five on the counter. He moved to the other end of the counter and I took one final look, groaned, then turned around and rested my hip against the bar. Every seat was taken, even around the bar. I stared off onto the dance floor, watching people bumping and grinding. Women were rubbing on other women. Men were groping other men. I’ll have to admit, seeing it up close and personal wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Hell, the shit was entertaining. Especially Kayla, Nadine, and Danielle, who were all to the far right, making a sandwich with Nadine in the middle. Bodies rubbing, hands holding each other’s hips. Hell, nah! I started laughing, then quickly downed my drink.
There was no way I wasn’t capturing this moment. I removed my cell phone from my hip and pushed through the crowd toward the three of them. As soon as I was in close range, I aimed and clicked my camera phone.
“What are you doing?” Danielle screamed.
“Taking a picture of y’all nasty asses!” I yelled back over the bass blaring from a nearby speaker.
“Give me that phone!” Danielle came at me. Laughing, I pushed through the crowd, while trying to upload the photo to my online photo album. The transfer was at eighty-five percent by the time she grabbed my arm. “Hey!”
“Delete that photo. Now!”
I put the phone behind my back, out of her reach. “Oh, hell no. I’m going to make a copy for everyone, even Trish.”
We were wrestling and laughing at the same time when Danielle stopped abruptly and said, “Isn’t that Peaches over there?”
I followed the direction of her gaze and sure enough, Peaches’ skinny ass was a few feet away, grinding against some little white dude on the dance floor. The song ended and I turned and moved in their direction just as Peaches stuck her tongue in the dude’s ear and pivoted on her heels. Pushing through sweaty bodies, my speed was hindered when a tall dude stepped in my line of vision. By the time I made it to a clearing, Peaches was nowhere to be found.
“Where’d she go?” Danielle asked as she joined me.
My eyes traveled quickly to my right and left. “I don’t know, but she’s in here somewhere. Let’s see if we can find her.” We spent the next few minutes trying to cover every corner of the club, but it was hard to do with so many folks in the way. As little as Peaches was, her ass could have been anywhere. “Damn!” My head was throbbing, a combination of too much to drink and the loud bass.
“She must have left already.” Danielle looked equally pissed off.
“Let’s not mention to Kayla that we saw Peaches. She’s having a good time and I don’t want to ruin it for her.”
“I agree. But now what?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but right now I need to pee.”
“I’ll come with you.”
We followed the neon sign at the back of the club to the bathrooms. Men on the right. Women on the left. We were just getting ready to step through the door when Peaches came out of the men’s room, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Peaches! Where the hell you been hiding?” I demanded to know as I walked up to her.
She looked stunned, then relaxed and rolled her eyes at me. “I shouldn’t be speaking with y’all heffas after getting me mixed up in that shit. Leroy’s bitch ass tried to beat me like a stepchild.”
I ignored the dramatics. “So, you had reason to kill him?”
Appalled, she pressed a palm to her chest “Uh-uh, Ms. Peaches ain’t killed nobody. I was on vacation.”
“Vacation where?” Danielle asked.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” she began while rolling her neck. “I was so upset after seeing my name all over the news that one of my sugar daddies bought me a trip to Jamaica. Shit, they got some Mandingoes over there.”
Been there, done that. “Have you heard about Kayla being arrested for Leroy’s murder?”
She nodded. “And I don’t blame her for killing him.”
Danielle intervened. “Kayla ain’t killed his trifling ass, but we’re trying to find out who else might have wanted that man dead.”
“Shit, maybe someone who doesn’t want the whole town to know his ass liked a good licking every now and again,” Peaches said with a dramatic pose.
My brow rose. “Someone like who?”
Peaches’ thick lips curled in a slow, sinister smile. She signaled for us to move in closer, then glanced over her shoulder before she whispered, “Didn’t I tell you ... Leroy ain’t the only member of that church I’m messing with.” She wiped her mouth, winked, then pointed to the men’s room. “Catch y’all chicas later.” After tossing a purse over her shoulder, she sashayed back toward the dance floor.
I glanced at Danielle, nodded, then moved to the men’s bathroom and pushed the door open. We stepped in just in time to see Deacon Williams coming out of the far stall, zipping his pants. Shocked, we all gasped, then froze.
He was the first to relax. Then he moved over to the sink and turned on the faucet. “What are you ladies doing in the men’s room?” he asked while he calmly washed his hands.
“We should be asking you that, especially since every man in here is gay,” Danielle replied as she stood by my side, her arms folded across her chest.
I started laughing. “You gay mothafucka. When you were supposed to be fishing, y’all were doing that Brokeback Mountain shit.”
His face snapped to me. “I ain’t gay! Reverend Brown was gay,” he barked. A muscle flexed nervously at his jaw.
Talk about calling the kettle black. “You just finished letting Peaches suck your dingdong. What do you call that?”
He simply shrugged. “A mouth is a mouth.”
“And a dick is a dick, right?” I countered coolly.
“That doesn’t make me gay,” he retorted defensively.
“All y’all down-low brothas are in denial.” I shook my head and propped a hand to my hip. “Now I know why you killed your boy Leroy. You were afraid if he went down, it was just a matter of time before you did, too.”
He gave a nervous laugh and the skin around his mouth grew tight. “You can’t prove I had anything to do with his death. The only suspect the police have is Sister Sparks. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I need to get home.” He moved toward the door.
“How would Lula feel if she found out her husband was getting his balls lickity-licked?” I yelled, halting his departure.
He swung around so fast, me and Danielle both jumped back and fell against the stall door. With his fist balled, he looked like he was about to hit me before his stance relaxed and he started laughing again. “Like I said before, you can’t prove it. You ladies have a good night.” He huffed past us, then pushed through the door.
“I knew something was up with him!” I shouted the moment the door shut.
“Yeah, but can we prove it?” Danielle asked wearily.
I scrubbed my hand over my face, then shifted restlessly around the bathroom. “There has to be something.”
“We already know he was there because he was the one who found Leroy’s body and called the police.”
I took a few seconds to ponder a possibility. “I bet you he’s also the same sugar daddy who bought Peaches a ticket to Jamaica. Deacon Williams didn’t want him around while everything went down.”
Danielle’s hazel eyes regarded me for a moment before she nodded and signaled for me to follow her. We moved through the club, looking for Peaches to confirm what we already knew, and couldn’t find her anywhere. I then sent David Lovell a text message to call me so I could tell him there was another suspect in Leroy Brown’s murder.
