Deep Read online

  With a sigh of disappointment he got up from the bed so that he could explore the room further. He went through the closets and, like in most hotels, he found a blow dryer, an iron with an ironing board, and extra towels. It wasn’t until he started rummaging through the drawers that he saw something he’d never seen before.

  Every drawer was filled with men’s clothing, all brand new with the tags still attached. His eyebrow raised when he pulled a pair of Ralph Lauren boxers with the matching pajamas from the golden dresser. He looked around the room to make sure he wasn’t being punk’d before he rubbed a hand over the blond tips on his fade.

  “I’ll leave ’em here,” he told himself, wanting nothing more than to get out of the wet clothes he was wearing.

  He tucked the clothes under his arm so that he could head to the bathroom and stay there for an hour. It had been awhile since he’d been alone and it was time for him to clear out his thoughts. There was nothing special about the bathroom besides its exceptionally large size and the fact that there was no tub, just a brick shower with an overhead showerhead.

  This shit is crazy, he thought as he lathered his body up with the complimentary soap the inn offered. If anybody had told him two months ago that he would be in Nebraska in two months, not dealing drugs and in love, he would have knocked them out for lying.

  In love?

  He couldn’t be in love, could he? He didn’t think he was capable of that emotion, but the more he thought about it, the more he knew it was true. There was nothing else that would keep him in the situation he was currently in. There was nothing else that would have kept him boxed in such a small city. The only reason he stayed was because he couldn’t imagine not being by Ahli, not until he knew what could be first. And now he knew, and he would never leave.

  He smiled in the shower remembering her smile. Not the one with her sad eyes; her real smile, the one she gave him after they made love for the first time. His mind wandered off to the way her body jerked before she let go of her sea of love around his . . .

  “Down, boy.” He looked down at his erection, knowing there wouldn’t be anything that he could do about it until after the job.

  He finished his shower and wrapped a towel around his waist to go back into the bedroom area. He was almost finished getting dressed with his back to the door when he heard it open and close behind him. He smiled while he put the white T-shirt over his head, thinking that Ahli had snuck the extra key to his room.

  “You miss me alre—”

  His statement was cut short when he turned around and saw that it wasn’t Ahli standing there in her underwear. It was a white woman he’d never seen in his life. He couldn’t deny that she was beautiful, and that she had a nice body. It just wasn’t the one he wanted to see. He figured she was somebody’s girl who was staying at the inn and maybe she’d ventured into the wrong room.

  “I think you’re in the wrong room, lady,” Brayland told her and put his hands up in the air. “Ain’t nobody with a name like Tom here.”

  The woman smiled at his joke and cocked her head. She eyed him lustfully and licked her lips. “I’m not in the wrong room,” her soft, sweet voice said with her hands behind her back. “I came here for you.”

  “Nah, ma,” Brayland told her, stepping toward her.

  “You need to get the fuck out before my girl comes and beats your ass.”

  When he tried to push her away she stood on her tiptoes so that his hands would be forced to slide down to her breasts. Feeling them in his palms he hesitated.

  “You like that, don’t you?” she said, looking deeply into his face. “This is compliments of Madame. She wants me to show you a good time. So just let Diamond please you, baby. I can handle that for you.”

  On the word “that” she brought one of her hands from behind her back and stroked his erection. Her eyes brightened at his size and she dropped to her knees in hopes of deep-throating him until he released all over her face.

  “I said nah, man.” Brayland stepped back and pointed to the door. “Tell Madame or whoever, I’m straight. I don’t need no ho service, or whatever you call yourself. Now get the fuck out. I just told your simple ass I got a girl.”

  Diamond had fire in her eyes when she stood. No man had ever denied her, especially when they were about to get her special treatment. He turned his back on her and waved her away with a flick of his wrist. Her nose flared and she brought the object that she had hiding behind her back to the front of her.

  “A girl, huh? I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your girl is about to be dead. Just like you!”

  “Wha—”

  It was too late. Brayland turned back around to Diamond rushing him on the bed with a huge chef’s knife.

  “Die!”

  When he fell back helplessly on the bed she brought the knife down on his chest, splattering the carpet with his blood.

  Chapter 15

  “How come every woman who works here looks like they could be on the cover of a magazine?” Rhonnie asked Ahli as she climbed into the bed beside her. “Even the ones mopping the floor had bodies better than the ones these industry hoes buy.”

  “Shut up, NaNa.” Ahli giggled from where she sat up straight on the bed. “They weren’t even that cute.”

  “Of course you say that, especially since Brayland was gawking at them.”

  “Brayland wasn’t gawking at shit.” Ahli pushed Rhonnie away from her with her feet until she was almost hanging off of the bed. “Take it back!”

  “Stop!” Rhonnie shouted through her own fits of giggles.

  “Take it back!” Ahli repeated.

  “Okay! I take it back, I take it back! I’m about to fall off this tall-ass bed. Stop!”

  Ahli allowed her to come back on the California king without issue but gave her a look as if to say “don’t try me again.” Both girls were in the bed clean and dry with black cotton shorts and white T-shirts they’d found in one of the drawers of the cozy room. At first Ahli was certain that she wouldn’t be able to get any sleep that night, but after she took a long, hot shower and put on clothes that smelled like they’d come straight out of the dryer, she began to rethink the fact. She figured if she shut her eyes for some hours then the morning would come faster. And if it came faster that meant they could get to the money sooner, and that meant they could all try to get on with their lives.

  Rhonnie scooted as close to her sister’s warm body as she could. The bed was so comfortable that it seemed sleep was begging for her to find it. She was so soothed by the soft white pillow under her head that she didn’t know how she was going to get up in the morning. Ahli and Brayland would have to pry her away from the bed, she was sure of it. There was something so familiar about the room but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Her eyes were certain they hadn’t been laid on anything in the room prior to them staying there, and she knew for a fact that she’d never been there before.

  “It smells just like Mommy in here,” Ahli whispered, interrupting Rhonnie’s thoughts and lying back onto the bed. She placed her arms under her pillow and held it to her face so that she could breathe in the smell. “Don’t you think so?”

  That’s it, Rhonnie thought. It smells just like Mommy. “You’re right,” Rhonnie said, turning over on her stomach so that she could bury her head in the fluffy white pillow.

  It had been so long since their noses had been blessed with the earthy yet floral aroma that belonged to Rhebecca, and both girls wanted to relish the scent. It was almost as if she was in the room with them. They were both so caught up in living in the past that neither felt themselves drifting off, due to the chloroform that drenched the inside cotton of the pillows.

  * * *

  “Ahli, go help your sister get down!”

  An eight-year-old Ahli smacked her lips before looking apologetically at the friends she’d just made at the park. She then ran to where her sister was stuck, only to see that she wasn’t even stuck. She was frozen at the top of the f
ire pole with her feet still planted safely on the jungle gym while her little hands were clamped around the pole. Ahli kicked the sand with her Reeboks in a tantrum before running back to where her mother sat on a bench watching her daughters play.

  “I thought I told you to get NaNa.” Rhebecca raised her eyebrow at her oldest child. The wind blew her long, freshly straightened hair, so she tucked it behind her ears on both sides. She noticed Ahli’s jacket wasn’t zipped all the way, even though she made sure it was zipped all the way up to her neck before they’d left the house.

  “LaLa, do you want to get sick?” She pulled Ahli close to her so that she could zip her coat up once again. “What have I told you about running around in this chilly weather with an open coat?”

  “But, Mommy! None of the other kids wear their jackets zipped up like this! Only babies do, like Rhonnie.” Ahli stuck her tongue out and pointed her finger toward her throat like she wanted to barf.

  “Stop it.” Rhebecca couldn’t help but smile at the rebel burning deep inside her daughter’s heart. “I don’t care what these other kids are doing. I’m not their mama. You’ll thank me one day when they’re in the hospital dying of pneumonia. And, speaking of your sister, I thought I told you to go help her.”

  “Mommy, she’s not even stuck. She’s just scared on the fire pole again! When I was six I loved going down the fire pole! What is she so scared of? And all the kids keep laughing at her.”

  “When you were six you had your father to help you down the pole.” Rhebecca stared into the eyes that mirrored her own down to the light brown specks in them. “That little girl has you. Now, I don’t know if you’ve been acting out because your father is gone or if it’s because you need the attention of someone who thinks the world of you. If that’s the case, you have that in that little girl standing there, watching her big sister pay attention to everyone else but the person whose whole life revolves around her. Have you ever thought about why she even goes to that pole? Did you ever once think that it’s because she sees you slide down it so effortlessly?”

  Ahli turned away from her mother and looked behind her to where her sister still stood frozen in the same spot. That time, however, she paid attention to her face. She looked like she was trying to will herself to do something that she just couldn’t; and it didn’t make things better that the other kids were taunting her.

  Her mother gripped her chin and forced Ahli to look at her again. “Listen to me, baby. That’s your sister, your little sister. You only get one. There will come a day when all you two have is each other. Love your sister, honor your sister, and most of all don’t let anyone hurt your sister. That includes her feelings, too.”

  Ahli sighed and tried to hide the fact that she felt like the absolute scum of the universe, but that didn’t go unnoticed by Rhebecca. She hugged Ahli tightly to her and kissed her lovingly on her forehead.

  “Go on now. Be the good big sis I know you can be. And when we get home I’ll teach you how to play Vita.”

  “Promise?” Ahli’s entire mood brightened at the mention of her mother’s piano.

  “Promise!”

  Ahli broke away from Rhebecca and ran back toward the jungle gym. She climbed the stairs and crossed the bridge until she was standing behind Rhonnie.

  “Hurry up and go down, freak!” a cruel little boy with freckles and red hair said to her. “There are other kids who want to play on the fire pole, doo-doo head!”

  “Hey!” Ahli yelled, getting in the kid’s face. “Don’t talk to my sister like that or I’m going to bust your head to the white meat!”

  The boy’s eyes widened when the older kid yelled at him and he instantly backed off. He and his friends ran off to go down the winding slide, leaving Ahli alone with her sister. Rhonnie had a surprised look on her cute six-year-old face.

  “Thanks, Ahli,” she said and looked down at the purple Chuck Taylors on her feet. “I’m sorry I’m such a scaredy-cat freak.”

  Ahli felt bad that Rhonnie felt that way, especially knowing that she had helped make her feel that way. She couldn’t help it; she stepped forward and grabbed her little sister and hugged her tight. She didn’t know how she could ever have been so mean to someone who looked so much like her.

  “I’m sorry, NaNa,” she said. “You’re not a freak. You’re the coolest kid I know and I’m never going to be mean to you again. I promise!”

  “Even when I play with your dolls?”

  “They’re our dolls now,” Ahli told her when she let her go. “But only if you go down the fire pole.”

  “But it’s so far down! What if I let go and fall?”

  Ahli shrugged her shoulders. “Just make sure you land on your feet then.”

  Rhonnie still looked terrified at first but Ahli’s bright grin made it subside. She looked back at the blue fire pole and then back at her big sister.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” she said and went back to the pole. She wrapped her hands and one leg around it and prepared to push herself from the edge of the jungle gym. Before she launched herself in a spiral downward motion she looked back at Ahli. “Do you love me, Ahli?”

  Ahli’s brow furrowed at the fact that Rhonnie would even ask her that. Although Rhonnie could be an annoying little sister she wanted her to know she was always loved. That was something that would never change. “Always and forever, NaNa,” she said seriously and then grinned again. “Now go! Mommy said she’s going to show me how to play her piano later and you know she doesn’t let anyone touch it! I’ll make up a song for you since you haven’t been able to sleep lately.”

  “Okay, cool!” Rhonnie kicked herself from the jungle gym and squealed with glee the whole way down.

  “You did it!” Ahli yelled down at Rhonnie who was jumping up and down.

  “Mommy, I did it!” Rhonnie yelled to her mother, who was standing up and smiling with a hand over her chest. “Ahli, I love you! Always and forever!”

  “Always and forever.”

  The sound of dripping water brought Ahli out of her dream. It seemed so real. She could still feel her mother’s warm embrace and the sand slipping inside of her shoes.

  “Always and forever,” she said again. Her voice came out in a groggy tone and her body felt like she had been hit with a ton of bricks. Ahli expected to wake up in the same soft bed she’d fallen asleep in, except she didn’t remember falling asleep. Her head kept falling forward, making her chin hit her chest with each uncontrollable nod.

  “Ahli!”

  She recognized the voice, but it sounded so far away. With some difficulty she tried to open her eyes, but her vision was blurred. She tried to rub her eyes but every time she tried to move her arms, she couldn’t.

  “Ahli!”

  “Rhonnie?” Although her head felt heavy, Ahli used all the energy she could to lift it up and turn it the way she heard the voice. Blinking feverishly she was able to clear her sight, but she wasn’t able to get rid of the throbbing headache that she had. What she saw confused her and made her want to get to where her sister was sitting.

  “W . . . what’s going on?” she asked. “Why are you tied to a chair?

  She looked down at her own arms and saw that she too was bound by brown rope to a wooden chair. She didn’t understand what was happening; surely she was still dreaming. She tried to shut her eyes again but, of course, she was already truly roused. No longer was she smelling the sweet scent of her mother; instead, there was a tart odor disrespecting her nostrils.

  “She chloroformed us! The pillows, Ahli. She knocked us out.”

  The longer her eyes were open the more in tune she became with her surroundings. They were in some sort of room. The lights were dim there but she was able to make out objects around the room. Most of it was junk, things nobody wanted anymore, and boxes. To the far right she saw what looked to be five white bags, and to her far left she was able to see one window with a box under it. By the way the window was angled she knew that they were underground somewhere.

>   “Who are you talking about, Rhonnie? Who is ‘she’?”

  “Me,” a baleful voice spoke.

  Ahli whipped her head in the direction of the voice and saw the silhouette of a woman. She too was sitting in a chair, except hers was in front of the only door in the room, facing them. Her upper half was completely concealed by the shadows of the room but Ahli could make out the Lady Peep Louis Vuitton shoes on her feet. Her legs were crossed and her leg on top of the other shook, like she’d been standing by for something to happen.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up, my dear Ahli,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet the two of you. After all, you have me to thank for your existence.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ahli said and began to fight against her restraints, but it was no use. Whoever tied them up was a professional. “What kind of sick game are you playing at? Let us go!”

  “Yes, just let us go,” Rhonnie tried to beg. “We have a job tomorrow and with the kind of money we’re getting we can pay you whatever you want!”

  There was a pause before they heard an omniscient laugh coming from where she perched in the shadows. “That’s right,” the voice said. “You think you have a job, don’t you? Let me be the first to tell you that you don’t. It was all a setup, to get you here.”

  Rhonnie’s eyes grew as big as saucers and her mouth dropped open while Ahli glared at the figure.

  “Who are you?” Ahli demanded. “What the fuck do you want? Why do you have us tied down here like some fucking animals?”

  “Me? I am your worst nightmare. And I want your souls.”

  Her response sent chills down Ahli’s spine. It was then she knew she was in the presence of the grim reaper herself.

  “Are you two familiar with what happens when a loved one dies and they have balances left unpaid? It goes to the next of kin.”

  “We don’t know anybody who knows you,” Rhonnie growled. “Let us go!”

  “Are you stupid, or are you dumb?” the woman snapped so ferociously that Rhonnie almost bit her tongue. “Do you think I went through all of the trouble to get you down here just to let you go?”