Authors: J.L Rose
Chapter 17
Alex was unable to focus on anything that Alinna and Harmony were saying as he sat staring out the window thinking about the encounter with the man who had murdered his father. He snapped out of his deep thought only when he heard Alinna yell his name.
“Yeah!” Alex answered, turning and looking back over to her, meeting her concerned eyes.
“Baby, you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just thinking.”
“Don’t waste your time thinking about Dante.”
“So, that’s your son’s father, huh?”
Sighing deeply, Alinna answered, “Yeah! That’s his crazy ass!”
“Where he been at?” Alex asked. “He just popped up out of nowhere.”
“He been . . .”
“That’s just how Dante is,” Harmony spoke up, cutting off Alinna. “Dante just moves like that. You’ll get used to it.”
“I hope not!” Alex replied as his cell phone vibrated inside his pocket. Pulling out the phone, he saw that he received a text message.
“Who’s that?” Alinna asked, seeing Alex looking at his cell phone.
“Text message!” Alex answered, sliding the phone back into his pocket. “Monica asking where I was.”
Staring at Alex a moment, Alinna slowly nodded her head and focused back on the road without saying anything.
Once Alinna made it to his condo, Alex leaned over and kissed Alinna goodbye. As he was climbing out of her car, she called his name.
“Yeah!” Alex responded, ducking his head back inside the car.
“Alex, you sure you okay?”
“Yeah! I’m good, Alinna.” Alex answered with a smile. “I’ma call you later, alright?”
“Alright.”
Alex closed the car door and started walking towards his condo. When Alex got to his front door, he turned around and watched Alinna drive off.
Pulling out his cell phone, Alex pulled up Monica’s number and was just about to call her when he looked and saw a car pulling up.
“Son of a bitch!” Alex cursed, recognizing the Mercedes that pulled to a stop in front of his condo.
Sliding the cell phone back into his pocket, Alex walked back out to the edge of the walkway as Dante climbed from behind the driver’s seat of the Benz.
“What are you doing here?” Alex asked, staring at Dante, as he calmly shut the car door and walked around to the front of the Benz, leaning back onto the hood.
“So, Alex!” Dante started, fold his arms across his chest. “I think we should talk.”
“Talk about what?”
“How about we start with Alinna?”
“Dante, look! I know you two . . .”
Naw!” Dante cut in. “I’m sure you know me and Alinna was together. What I mean by talking about Alinna is how much information you have on her.”
“W-What?”
“Come on, Alex! I’m sure you know by now that I know you’re D.E.A. and who your father was. Why don’t you make this easy and tell me what you got on Alinna.”
Staring straight into the eyes of the man who murdered his father, Alex felt his anger building. “You know what, you son of a bitch? You’re right! I am D.E.A. and I’ve got enough information on Alinna’s stupid ass, as well as the rest of her little crew, to lock them up for the rest of their lives. But I’ll make a deal with you. Turn yourself in and admit to my father’s murder and I’ll leave your little girlfriend and her crew alone.”
Continuing to stare back at the D.E.A. agent, Dante slowly began to smile. His smile then turned into a light laugh, as he pushed himself off the front of the Benz.
“Freeze, mutha . . . ,” Alex started, reaching for the weapon he had inside his holster. Out of nowhere, his right arm was tightly wrapped around his neck with his other arm folded behind his back, pushed up towards his shoulder blades, which caused him to yell out in pain.
James held the guy in a tight chokehold after creeping up on him from behind, while the agent wasn’t fully paying attention. Dante said, “Seems like you won’t be sticking around long enough to turn shit in for a life sentence to be given to nobody, Agent Alex Whitehead.”
* * *
Alinna had strong feelings about moving into a penthouse that belonged to Dante. Still, she carried a bag she packed while the security detail carried four more bags behind her.
“Alinna, you alright, girl?” Harmony asked, as the two of them took the elevator together to the penthouse floor, where the others were waiting.
“I’m just not feeling this moving in here with Dante’s ass,” Alinna explained. “I would rather stay back at the house.”
“Alinna, can I be honest with you?”
“What’s up, girl?”
“You don’t know it but Dante still loves you.”
“He told you that?” Alinna asked, looking over to Harmony.
Nodding her head, Harmony answered, “Back after I got shot and before Dante left, we had a long talk about you, and he admitted that he fucked up for hurting you. He said that it was killing him more because your trust meant a lot to him. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not. I think after you ended things with him and he moved away, it now looks as if his love for you may now be something else.”
“What you mean something else?”
“I mean, it looks like Dante may hate you a little now. And with how you’re acting with him, it’s not making things between the two of you any better.”
Stepping off the elevator as it opened on the penthouse floor, four of Dante’s security guards stared directly at the two women. Alinna ignored their stares as she replayed what Harmony had just told her.
“Thank you!” Alinna and Harmony said to the guard who opened the door for them.
“Alinna, you okay?” Harmony asked, as she followed her girl inside the penthouse.
“Yeah!” Alinna lied.
Vanessa called out to her walking out from the kitchen, with Dre following right behind her.
“Girl, look at this place!” Harmony said, smiling as she looked around. Both Vanessa and Dre stopped in front of her
“Dante not with y’all?” Vanessa asked.
“Why would he be with us, Vanessa?” Alinna asked with an attitude. The she dropped her bag beside the sofa she was standing next to.
“Mrs. Blackwell, your bags, ma’am,” one of Alinna’s guards announced, as he and his partner entered the penthouse.
Sucking her teeth, Alinna turned back to a smiling Vanessa and Harmony. “Where the hell is Dante’s ass, anyway?”
“He just called,” Amber announced, as she walked into the room. “He and James say they’ll be here in a little while.”
“Where’s D.J.?” Alinna then asked, walking passed Vanessa and ignoring the way that Dre was looking at her.
“Rose has both D.J. and A.J.,” Vanessa told her. “They’re in the back watching television.”
Watching Alinna as she looked around the penthouse, Vanessa shook her head. She looked over at the way her man was looking at Alinna asking, “Andre, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing!” Dre answered, as he walked off and headed toward the sliding-glass door that led out onto the balcony.
Following Dre outside, Vanessa watched him pull out a box of Newport’s. She closed the door and turned and faced Andre asking, “What was that just now? Why was you just staring at Alinna like that?”
Cutting his eyes over to Vanessa, Dre shook his head and said, “I’m really tired of how she keeps treating my brother. My nigga just keeps going out his way for this bitch and she just keeps popping off attitude and talking shit. I’m surprised Dante ain’t snap on her ass yet.”
“Andre, that’s between Alinna and Dante. Why are you so upset?”
“Because I don’t like to see my nigga the way he is,” Dre answered. “Dante don’t show too much of his self for a reason. We not blood brothers but I’m the only family he’s got. His mother left him by his self-inside the house she was about to lose right after this father was killed. Dante used to live on the streets for a long time until my mom took him in after he helped me handle six guys that tried to jump me. He may have fucked up, but what the rest of y’all fail to understand is that my boy did what he did for Alinna’s ass and she too stupid to see it.”
“Andre, I didn’t know all that.”
“Nobody knows what I just told you.”
Hearing the sliding glass door opening behind them, both Dre and Vanessa looked back as Dante was stepping out onto the balcony with them.
“What’s up, family? Y’all hungry?” Dante asked, nodding to Dre as Vanessa walked over and gave him a hug around the waist.
“Hell, yeah. We wanna eat!” Dre said, smiling as he pushed away from the rail to face Dante and Vanessa. He tossed the butt from his cigarette over his shoulder and off the balcony rail. “What you bought to eat?”
“Do it really even matter, Andrew?” Vanessa asked, shooting him a look.
“Women, what you trying to say?” Dre asked Vanessa, seeing her slowly smiling at him.
“Go check!” Dante told Dre, as he stepped out onto the balcony with Vanessa. When he saw the look on her face, he reached up and gently brushed the back of his hand down the side of her face and asked, “Baby sis, you alright?”
“I’m good, Dante,” Vanessa answered, as she wrapped her arms around his waist, leaned in, and said, “You know I really love you, right?”
“I love you, too, Vanessa,” Dante replied, as he wrapped his arms around her.
“Am I interrupting something?”
Hearing and recognizing Alinna’s voice, Dante and Vanessa looked back at the sliding-glass door to see Alinna standing there with her arms folded across her chest. Her face was balled up as she stared at them.
Shaking his head, Dante kissed Vanessa on the forehead and then whispered into her ear, saying that he would talk to her later.
Alinna watched Dante as he walked back inside, completely ignoring her. Then she walked over to Vanessa and asked, “What the hell was just going on, Vanessa?”
“None of your business!” Vanessa answered, with just as much attitude. She went to go inside when Alinna grabbed her arm, stopping her short.
Snapping Vanessa around to face her, Alinna said, “Do not play with me. What was that between you and Dante just now?”
“Oh, so you jealous now?” Vanessa said, slowly smiling at Alinna. “Well, don’t worry. Dante isn’t my type. I love him like a brother. Just so you know, though. The woman you should be worried about is the one he left back in Arizona to come here and help us.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Vanessa?”
“Oh, that’s right! You don’t know about Dante’s new woman, do you? Well maybe if you had been paying attention, you would have noticed that Dante has a woman now. Just pay attention how he acts with you now.”
Alinna stared at Vanessa as she walked back into the penthouse. She found herself playing back in her head what Vanessa told her about Dante and some other bitch back in another state.
* * *
“What in the hell!” Agent Monica Martin said in disbelief and shock, as she and Agent Paul Young pulled up in front of the crowd that had surrounded the front of her partner’s condo.
“What the hell is all this?” Agent Young asked, climbing from the car as soon as Agent Martin stopped.
Jumping out right behind him, Agent Martin slammed the car door and headed towards the front door to the condo, ignoring the stares and pointing from the crowd and media.
After showing their identification, they were introduced to the detective in charge. Both agents then flashed their badges to the lead detective.
“What the hell is D.E.A. doing here?” Detective Howard Fuller inquired, after seeing the two agents I.D.s.
“What’s happened here?” Agent Martin asked, ignoring the detective’s questions. “Where’s my partner?”
“Whoa!” Detective Fuller said, raising up his hands for the agent to hold on. “What do you mean your partner?”
“What the fuck is going on upstairs?” Agent Martin interrupted, seeing the trail of EM techs and fire department personnel going up and down the stairs.
Not even waiting for an answer, Agent Martin took off, rushing up the stairs two at a time.
Once upstairs, she pushed her way through the crowded hallway, flashing her I.D. to two officers who tried to stop and question her. Agent Martin snapped away from them and continued on towards the bedroom where everyone was in a flurry.
Stopping right inside the bedroom doorway, Agent Martin stood staring at the body that was on top of the bed, covered with a white sheet. She was able to see the shape of the body print.
Walking over to the bedside, she reached over, grabbed the sheet, and pulled it back uncovering the body. It was then that she discovered what she knew was already true. She cried out, “Oh God, no!”
“Agent Martin,” Detective Fuller said, as he and Agent Young walked inside the bedroom. He could see the tears running down the agent’s face, as she stood staring down at the body. “Is this the partner you spoke of downstairs, Agent Martin?”
“Do the two of you know who’s behind this?” another detective asked, as he walked into the bedroom.
“Who the hell are you?” Agent Young asked, looking the new guy over.