His eyes were now wide open, his expression a mix of anger and fear.
“A month ago, four masked men stole a shipment of pure black tar heroin from a car carrier in South Carolina. That shipment surfaced in Detroit last week. The entire crew who brought it is dead. Sasha killed them too.” Paris grinned, tilting her head. “Oh, from the look she’s giving you right now, I’m pretty sure she wants to kill you too.”
Gone was the anger from his face. Dude could no longer hide his fear. I smiled at him then shouted, “Boo!” and he let out the stinkiest fart I’d ever witnessed. It was so nasty you could almost taste it.
“Oh my God, Sasha. What the hell you do that for?” Rio snapped, covering his lower face with a handkerchief and waving his hand. “This fool’s been eating onions and hot dogs all day.”
“Well, I’m about to take him out of his misery.” I cocked the hammer on my gun.
“I’m sorry,” he said in this whiny, pathetic voice. “Please don’t kill me.”
“You want to live?” Paris asked. LaSalle nodded. “Okay, then you got one chance, and if you as much as think about lying to me, she’s gonna blow your brains all over these nice silk sheets.”
“I’m not going to lie. I swear. Anything, anything you want. I’ll tell you,” LaSalle stuttered.
“I just wanna know who told you about the shipment.”
Without hesitation, LaSalle gave up the information. “Niles. His name was Niles Monroe.”
Paris’s face became an angry, contorted mess and she flew into a rage. “You lying piece of shit! Niles Monroe is dead!” She pulled the trigger and then stormed out of the room.
I glanced over at Rio, who had closed the briefcase and was about to follow Paris out the door. I grabbed his arm. “What the fuck was that all about? Who the hell is Niles Monroe?”
Rio’s face went soft and sad. “Niles Monroe is the only man Paris ever truly loved. And the first person she ever had to kill for the family.”
Sonya
3
“So I guess you got my message?” My husband’s voice sounded overly calm considering the message that had been delivered.
As he stared at me from across the table, I was wishing I was anywhere but there with him. I could feel his eyes undressing me, slowly and intentionally removing all the layers I was wearing. Guess it didn’t matter how hard I had tried to cover myself up; he knew every single contour of my body too well to be thrown off by baggy clothes and no makeup. There was a time when that look he was giving me would have made my clothes melt away so I could jump his bones right there, but those days were long gone.
“Oh, I got your message loud and clear,” I replied sharply, looking up at his smug face for the first time. It had been three days since his men entered the Bull and Bear restaurant, threatening Junior and me like modern day Stormtroopers. I’m sure Junior thought it was about him, but I knew that confrontation had been my husband’s way of reminding me that I was his wife and that playtime was over, regardless of the fact that he was behind bars. “Why else would I be here?”
He turned the chair around and sat in it backward, his eyes narrowed in anger. I had no doubt that if the guards weren’t watching our every move, he would have slapped me for using that tone of voice with him. A part of me wanted to jump up and run. I could write him a letter when I got home instead of doing this face to face, I thought. Deep down, though, I knew that would never work. Not if I truly wanted to be with Junior. Besides, I hadn’t taken a five-hour bus ride just to turn tail the moment things got uncomfortable. I needed to confront him. It was the only way he would respect me enough to give me my freedom and leave Junior alone.
“I’m not sure. I’m hoping you’ve come to your senses,” he finally said.