‘She’s a junkie. She knew what she was doing.’
Jo was silent again. Angie’s ears hurt from straining so hard. All she could hear was her own heartbeat. Fast. Scared. This was too dangerous. The girl on the tape had to be Keisha Miscavage. This was Will’s case that Angie had made go away. She’d paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. If there was a video, then Jo was sitting on a gold mine.
If she made it out alive.
Marcus said, ‘I can give you money.’
‘I don’t want money.’
‘Then what the hell do you want?’
‘My son.’ Jo’s voice wavered. ‘I want my mother to be safe. I want to get a job somewhere and make an honest living.’
‘How are you gonna do that without money?’
Jo started crying. Angie couldn’t tell if the sobs were for real.
‘Come on,’ Marcus said.
‘You can talk to Reuben. Tell him he’ll be off the team if he doesn’t let me go.’ Jo’s voice had cracked on the last word. ‘Please, Marcus. We have a history together. We have love between us. I know that. I’m not trying to exploit you or take advantage of you. I’m asking as a friend. I need you as a friend.’
Silence.
‘Marcus—’
‘You know that isn’t my decision.’
Angie waited for the girl from Starbucks to show up, to tell him that he was full of shit, that he was Marcus Fucking Rippy, that he could do whatever the hell he wanted to do.
Jo said nothing.
‘Come on now,’ Marcus said. ‘Sit down, girl. Let’s talk about this.’
Angie heard the springs in the bed flex.
Shit. He could rape her. The security footage showed Jo willingly going into the motel. Marcus could call it cheating. He could threaten to tell Reuben Figaroa, and Jo would be even more trapped than she already was.
Marcus said, ‘All that video shows is me having a little fun.’
‘I saw the end. She was begging for her mama.’
Marcus didn’t respond.
Jo said, ‘I heard her say it, Marcus. “Mother.” ’
‘That’s not what you think it is.’ His voice had an edge to it that Angie prayed her daughter noticed.
‘Marcus—’
‘I couldn’t even finish, okay? I had too much to drink. There was a lot going on that night. I just left. Whatever happened next, that ain’t on me.’
Jo didn’t respond.
He asked, ‘Is this the only copy?’
Angie tensed. She silently willed words into Jo’s mouth: I made copies. I sent them to a friend. If anything happens to me, the police will get it.
Jo said, ‘The only other copy is on the laptop at home.’
Fuck.
Jo said, ‘Reuben’s laptop. He leaves it in the kitchen. He wanted me to find it.’
Marcus muttered something she couldn’t make out. Or maybe Angie was distracted. She had the rabbit-eared iPad in her car that contained a copy of every single file from the kitchen laptop. Why hadn’t she looked at it before?
Jo said, ‘Reuben doesn’t care what I see, because he knows I’m too scared to do anything about it.’ She gave a sad laugh. ‘I am too scared. I was terrified to come here. Those two times we were together, I couldn’t think about anything but him coming into the room and shooting us both in the head.’
Marcus kept silent.
‘I can’t get a cup of coffee without showing him on my phone where I am. I can’t drink water at night because I’m not allowed to leave the bed to go to the bathroom. I can’t leave the house without his permission. I can’t eat food that he doesn’t approve of. He checks the logs on the treadmill to make sure I run my three miles every day. He’s got cameras inside the house, the bedrooms, the bathrooms. I cut myself shaving my legs the other day and he knew about it before I even got out of the shower.’ Her voice sounded raw, desperate. ‘I’m kept like a damn animal in a cage, Marcus.’
‘Come on. It can’t be that bad, Jo-jo. He loves you.’
‘He’s going to love me to death.’
‘Don’t talk that way.’
‘I’m halfway dead already.’ Jo’s tone of voice indicated that she meant what she was saying. ‘This video is my only chance to get away with Anthony. If I don’t leave soon, then I’ll end up dead by Reuben’s hand or by my own.’
‘Aw, girl, don’t say that. Suicide is a sin.’
Angie bit her tongue so she wouldn’t scream.
Marcus asked, ‘I guess you told your mama about all this?’
Jo didn’t answer. Was she shaking her head?
‘How long have you been carrying all this on your shoulders?’
‘Too long.’
‘Jo—’
She started to cry in earnest. Angie pressed her hand to the door. She could feel Jo’s sadness pressing back.
She said, ‘It started back in college. I had to drop out because he beat me so bad. Did you know that?’
Nothing from Marcus.
‘My dorm mate reported it, and the cops were called. The only way to keep Reuben out of jail was to marry him. The minute that ring went on my finger, it was over.’ She gave that same dry laugh from before. ‘Eight years I’ve been walking toward my grave. The only thing I can control is how fast I jump in.’
Marcus said, ‘Jo-jo, let’s talk about this. We can figure it out.’
‘I need to pick up Anthony from school. Reuben makes me call as soon as he’s in the car.’
‘Don’t leave. Not like this.’
‘If I’m late—’
‘You’ll be on time,’ Marcus told her. ‘Let’s talk about what you’re going to do.’
‘I don’t know.’ Jo sounded torn. ‘I can’t show anybody that video without implicating you, and I won’t do that, no matter how bad you were.’
‘On my life, Jo, on my kids’ lives, it’s not what you think it is.’
Jo didn’t answer at first. She was obviously conflicted. Whatever tied her to Marcus Rippy ran deeper than LaDonna realized.
Jo said, ‘I want to care about that girl. I want to want justice for her, but all I see is a way out.’ She gave a sharp laugh. ‘What does that say about me? What kind of person am I that I’m willing to trade one woman’s life for my own?’
Marcus said, ‘You know me, Josephine. You know me better than anybody else. We got a history, going back to when I was a boy and you were my girl. I ain’t never been rough like that. Not with you. Not with nobody. You know me.’
‘That’s not what I thought when I saw the video.’
‘I was never like that with you.’ He added, ‘Not back then, not last month. Not right now, if you’ll have me.’
‘Marcus.’
They were kissing. Angie recognized the sounds. She felt herself shaking her head. What the hell kind of Russian roulette was her daughter playing?
‘No.’ Jo had obviously pulled away. ‘I can’t do this.’
‘Play the video again,’ he challenged. ‘Show me where I hurt that girl.’
Angie waited for her daughter to remind him that even doped up, the junkie in the video had kept saying no.
Instead, Jo told him, ‘Take my phone. Destroy it. I can’t hurt you. Not like this.’
Angie tasted blood in her mouth from biting her tongue.
He said, ‘What happens if Fig calls and you don’t pick up?’
Jo didn’t answer. Angie prayed her daughter was seeing through this. Marcus knew that Fig kept track of her through the phone. He also knew that there was a copy of the video on Fig’s laptop. Telling Jo to keep her phone built trust, and there was only one reason that Marcus needed Jo to trust him: he was going to fuck her over.
Marcus asked, ‘What are you going to do, Jo? I want to help.’
‘Nobody can help. I was just venting.’ Angie heard footsteps as Jo walked across the carpet. ‘I need to pick up Anthony.’
‘Put this problem on my shoulders,’ Marcus said. ‘I’ve always taken care of you. Stood up to that teacher who was trying to get free with you. Made sure your mama knew you were a good girl.’ He paused, and Angie hoped to God Jo wasn’t nodding.
Marcus said, ‘Let me figure out how to take care of Fig in a way that gets you what you need.’
‘There’s no way, Marcus. Not without hurting you, and I won’t do that.’
‘I appreciate that, but you deserve better.’ He paused again. ‘La D has this party on Sunday. Fig already said y’all would be there.’
‘God, I can’t take a party.’
‘You gotta show face, girl. Make him think everything is okay.’