| |
Liar
ONE MONTH LATER...
I woke up and realized it was my first Monday off during the new year. My holidays had sucked huge. Perhaps, if I had known Thanksgiving was going to be the last holiday I would spend with Jackie and her crew, I might have made an effort to memorize it or just savor the enjoyment of it. Janie hadn’t been able to get away from Trent on Christmas or New Year’s Eve. She had to switch lawyers due to some legal bullshit. She was eager to get away from her self-absorbed husband. I could have gone to spend time with my mother in Vero Beach, but I didn’t need her third degree. It would have brought on a level of mothering I could not have tolerated.
Speaking of mothering, Mallory, Frankie, and Tennille had dropped by my office two days ago before I closed up. Jackie had given birth to a little girl early Friday morning. I was over the moon for Jackie, and I was thrilled these three women thought to drop by so I would be in the know. The only problem was, it was another blow to my heart. I knew I couldn’t go by the hospital to visit, and I wouldn’t be able to share my happiness with Jackie. Making matters worse, for my heart, Frankie and Neil pulled up pictures of themselves holding little Simone and pictures of Henry and Jackie with Simone. Tears shimmered in my eyes, but I pasted a huge smile on my face in order to pass them off as tears of happiness.
Getting out of bed, I was also reminded that today marked a month since I last saw Liar. My heart still hurt, and I tried to console myself with the clichéd notion that time would heal it, but I had little faith in that idea. Rather than wallow in a pity party, I dressed in jeans and my warmest sweater because the temperature was supposed to be in the twenties this morning. Seeing as the last year was done, I was going to do what I could to get my accounting affairs in order for Justine, my soon-to-be new CPA.
Normally, I didn’t care much for cold weather. If ever there was a time when I drove my CR-V routinely, it was during our brief cold snaps. However, given my mood, I decided a walk to my office in the damp wintry cold would be good for me.
I walked up to my office door with keys in hand. With the key in the lock, I turned it, but it was too easy, and I knew the door was already unlocked. I was fishing in my back pocket for my cell and turning on my heel to leave, when a tall, lanky man strode up to me. His eyes were dark, his jaw was scruffy and not in a fashionable way. I couldn’t tell what his hair looked like because he was wearing a black and white knit cap with a puff of yarn strings on top. The edge of the hat on his forehead read “Prank.”
In a low and mean voice, he said, “Let’s head inside. Allen’s got plans for you.”
He had a hand to my hip, when I heard footsteps approaching, and Tyler’s voice called out, “Hey, Andrea! How’s it go—”
Tyler stopped mid-stride and mid-sentence when he caught sight of Prank and me. “Who the hell are you?” Tyler asked.
What happened next was a blur. Tyler was yanked forward, slammed face-first against the outside wall, and I noticed a gun in the man’s hand. He used the gun to cold cock Tyler on the back of the head. Tyler’s body slid down the side of the building, and then I was shoved inside my office.
“Who are you? No, what do you want?” I asked.
An ugly smile split his lips. “I’m Prank. Gonna give Liar a nice present.”
I snorted. “He really won’t care. Thinks I’m tied up with Allen Leventon and I haven’t seen Liar in a month, so your plan won’t work.”
A light came into Prank’s eyes that made me ill-at-ease. “Nobody told me you’re mouthy.”
My door to the inner massage studio opened, and I saw Leventon enter my office from the corner of my eye. He wasn’t two steps into the room, and the slimy feeling hit me.
Looking at Prank, he said, “Why the hell would I? She’s a means to an end.”
My eyes skittered back to Leventon, and I saw he was wearing a hunter green Lacoste sweater with wheat colored dress pants and brown loafers.
His attention came to me. “Now, you took my daughter’s man and caused my little girl plenty of heartache. Time to return the favor to you and Vamp.”
What the hell was this guy on about? My eyes slid to Prank, and I saw he looked confused also.
“This ain’t—” he started to say, but Leventon cut him off.
“You are not in charge. I am. Furthermore, ‘ain’t’ is not a word, Geoff.”
My chest heaved as shock and laughter warred within me at hearing this man’s first name, but I knew this was not the time to give into laughter, even if it might be hysteria induced.
Prank’s eyes narrowed at Leventon. “Whatever, old man. She said she ain’t seen her man in a month. You sure about what you’re doin’?”
“Yes, and that will be the last time you question me, Geoff. She had the audacity to hit my daughter with a casted arm. It’s time all of these people pay, and the Riot MC too. I left too much in the hands of your club, and you all failed miserably. Time is of the essence. I believe I’m being followed though I haven’t seen anyone trailing me.”
Frankie’s story a couple of weeks back came to me and then I remembered when Vamp was in my home to pick up Frankie. He had mentioned us not being ‘doppelgangers,’ but apparently Allen Leventon seemed to think we were. Well, at least Frankie wasn’t tied up in this sorry mess now.
I turned to Leventon, intending to let him know how wrong he was, but he nodded to Prank, who had moved directly behind me. I heard a strange crackling sound, and then everything went blank.
Roll
Roll hefted his body off his bike and was relieved at not seeing Andrea’s old CR-V in the office parking lot. Then a vague recollection of someone saying she was so earth-loving she would walk places hit him. It was cold as fuck that morning, and he couldn’t imagine anyone smart walking in this bitter weather.
All hints of relief left him when he turned into the alcove of office doors and saw a middle-aged, but out of shape man lying on the ground near the wall. He checked the man’s pulse, found he had one, and barged through Andrea’s office door. It was open, and he prayed he found her in the middle of a client session. The inner office was empty, he threw the other door open, and the massage studio was empty also.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
He pulled his cell from his back pocket and called Yak. There was not a crazier motherfucker on the planet than Yak. He had no verbal filter, nothing fazed him, and he lived for cheap thrills and getting rises of any kind out of women.
“Yo, big man!” Yak boomed.
“Shit’s goin’ down, but I don’t know what yet. I’m at Andrea’s massage studio. Door was unlocked, but she ain’t here. There’s a businessman slumped outside. He’s got a pulse, gonna see if I can wake him up. Know most of the other brothers may not give a damn, but my gut says Leventon’s makin’ moves.”
“Be there in ten. Bringin’ Rage with me.”
Roll wanted to kick himself. He had been right behind Leventon the entire ride across I-295, but he couldn’t possibly run the light getting onto Highway 17 without giving himself away. The morning rush was headed the opposite direction, so the light for southbound traffic lasted half as long as it should have. If he’d been in a truck, he wouldn’t have had that problem. He blew out a sigh and went to check on the man outside.
Just as Yak and Rage walked up, the man came to looking at Roll. The man’s body went tight, and he tried to get his feet under him.
“Slow down, man. Slow down. I’m a friend of Andrea’s. Who did this to you?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know. He was wearing a winter hat.”
“Have a pompom on it?” Rage demanded.
When the man got an eyeful of Rage and Yak standing side-by-side his eyes bulged.
With all the patience he could muster, Roll said, “Don’t worry about them. They’re with me, but did this guy’s hat have a silly-ass pompom?”
After a beat, the man said, “Yeah. It was black and white. The bottom of his hat had a word or letters on it.”
Rage walked away muttering, “That’s Prank.”
He heard Yak call after him, “You callin’ Volt, or am I?”
Roll knew they’d get that done, so he focused on the man in front of him. “I was gonna ask you if you knew where Andrea is, but I don’t suppose you saw her at all, did you?”
“She was out here with the guy when I walked up. Then he threw me to the wall, and everything went black.” The man rubbed the back of his head and winced.
“I’m Roll, by the way. Lean forward, let me see the back of your head. My guess, he cold cocked you with a gun-butt.”
When he got a look at the man’s head, Roll found he was right. The man’s brown hair was thinning, but there seemed to be a large bump rising on the back of his head.
“Yep. You got someone you can call? I’d stick with you, but I gotta find Andrea. The men who are with her are not good people.”
“Men? There was only the one man here.”
“Followed someone else here. They must be workin’ together. Either way, neither one’s good, the two of them together are the worst thing that can happen to Andrea.”
The man looked at Roll and saw the sincerity in Roll’s eyes. He threw a hand out. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
Roll walked back to his bike where Yak and Rage were standing. Yak spoke, “Volt didn’t pick up. New daddy syndrome most likely. Called Blood. He ain’t convinced. Figures Andrea was workin’ with both of them the whole time.”
Roll ran a hand through his hair. If this woman got raped or lost her life, he was gonna kick the ass of every brother who wouldn’t fuckin’ listen to him. His patch be damned. Trying to tame the anger in his eyes, he looked to Rage. “See if you can talk Major ‘round. He’s got grown daughters. Try Turk, too. He seemed on the fence a few weeks back. I’m gonna call Cal.”
Yak gave him a sideways glance. “Cal thinks women’ll do or say anything in order to manipulate men.”
Roll looked back at him. “Yeah, except he knows that Leventon will also do whatever he has to in order to prove a point. Plus, he owes me a solid. I’m callin’ it. He refuses, I’ll beat his ass double when this shit’s over.”
