I drove back to our home in Far Rockaway more uneasy than I’d ever felt. Paris had been sent off somewhere after a whispered meeting with Harris and my brothers. Rio was missing, as far as I knew, and no one wanted to give me a straight answer. Now, after a major drug shipment had turned up missing, my father was meeting with a man he’d rather see dead than breathe the same air with him. Strange times calling for strange alliances—and me being left on the sidelines. I didn’t know what to do. Not only was my husband pushing me away, but now my family might be doing the same. Again, I thought of Tony. He made me feel wanted.
I smiled at Mariah, turning up the volume on her Dora the Explorer DVD. The sounds of childhood innocence came from the backseat, while in my mind I worried, with the knowledge that life seemed to be changing for all of us.
Rio
40
“It has been three days since you arrived here, and we have treated you well. So, I must ask, when you last saw him, how was my son?” Alejandro asked from behind his desk at the auto dealership. Same M.O. as LC, except this place sold Chevys. He was a volume dealer in more ways than one, with lollipop-colored Camaros and big trucks stretching as far as the eye could see on his lot. Alejandro snagged a few cashews from the glass bowl in front of him and plopped them in his mouth as he waited for my response.
“He was good. Said for you to hurry up and get this straightened out. He wants to come home. Misses his mom’s home cooking,” I replied, making up shit off the top of my dome. What kid didn’t like his mom’s cooking?
“Hmm. That’s interesting—especially since she is a terrible cook. Sometimes I question that boy’s sense.”
“Maybe it’s some kind of code he was trying to relay to you. All I know is that’s what he said before I left,” I offered, not missing a beat after fumbling on my ad-lib.
“Perhaps,” he said as he tried to read my bullshit.
“You wanna share what it means, then?” I raised my eyebrows, continuing to perpetuate my game.
“Maybe later,” he said as he attempted to be coy. The pudgy, balding motherfucker was acting like I’d given him some valuable intel, when I’d just pulled it out of the air. Dumb ass. Then that dumb ass got right to the real point of our meeting. “Your father thinks I stole his dope. That I double-crossed him.”
“I’m not an expert on these things, but look at it from his side and you might agree. Why don’t you just give him his stuff back and call it a day? I mean, here I am on the West Coast, and I’m stuck down here in L.A., when I could be in San Fran, partying like it’s 1999.”
“You are young. You’re strange,” he said, making a whistling sound and motioning with his hand in a way I didn’t like. Another homophobe. Just like LC. I was getting sick and tired of being surrounded by people threatened by my sexuality. I was probably more of a man than half these motherfuckers. “I gave your father my word. A true man would understand that should be enough.”
“I know men lie. Gay or straight... if that’s what you’re getting at,” I said, giving back the same wagging hand gesture. “LC doesn’t like this any more than you, and the sooner the two of you can reach a resolution, the sooner I can head back to my fabulous life in New York. And your son can be back chowing down on his mom’s awful cooking.”
Alejandro let out a hearty laugh, not really appropriate for what I’d just said, and suddenly my two escorts appeared in his office. I figured it was a sign of some sort. They’d already frisked me for weapons and removed my phone, so I assumed this might be when my torture or beat down commenced. Give them a chance to get back in the wife beaters they preferred, instead of the suits they were wearing at the moment.
As I contemplated what was to come, all I could think was, Lawd, not the face. Don’t mess with the moneymaker, gurrl. Okay, maybe not the most appropriate thought for a time like this, but what can I say? I’m vain.
Alejandro said, “To show you that I don’t run things the same as LC, I want you to enjoy your stay in L.A. Go. Have fun. Wherever you like Except, my men will accompany you, never leaving your side. This is still, after all, a sticky business situation we find ourselves in.”