Page 14 of Unchained
“Deacon.”
Lips touched my right ear. “Monica.” Monica rubbed my lower back.
“Leave that man alone.” To my right, an old man was coming down his porch steps, wagging his finger. “You whores take that shit somewhere else.”
The two “girls” hurried away.
“Fucking keys have gone straight to hell.” He stuck his hand out. “Arthur Mack.” I shook his hand and introduced myself. “You staying at Veronica’s?”
“Just for tonight. Hope to be gone after Sadie blows through.”
He pointed in the opposite direction I was going. “There’s a Marriott down the street close to the water. You should stay there tonight and not go back to Veronica’s house.”
It seemed you either loved or hated the woman. There was no in-between. “You know her?”
The man shook his head, and his eyes became angry. “People follow her like ducklings follow their mother. Makes no sense. She does stuff no human should be doing.” He pointed at me. “You watch your ass around her. Don’t be alone with her. And don’t trust her people.”
“You know anything about her background?” I was less concerned about my safety and more curious about who she was before the cosmetics business.
“Fellow at the airport tells me she spends a lot of time in South America. Mostly Brazil. Her business has a strong foothold in Rio de Janerio.”
“She never mentioned South America.”
“Of course, she didn’t. Bet she didn’t mention a lot of things.”
The police officer I spoke with earlier drove by, and Arthur Mack suddenly acted nervous talking to me. “You okay?”
Mack nodded but not very confidently. “Yeah, got some work in the house I need to finish. Watch your ass, Deacon. If you make it through the night, get your ass on a plane back to Miami.” He returned to his house, and I began the slow walk to Veronica’s.
I mentally kicked myself for following the woman to the keys. I should have been back in Miami, finding Suzanne’s killer, because that’s exactly what I thought happened. Someone stopped them. Boarded the boat, and then something terrible happened.
Thinking of Suzanne brought a mixed bag of emotions. I found it hard to fight the tears, but that’s what I had to do to find out what happened. I had to separate the emotions of loss from the need to solve the crime.
It wasn’t often someone found their soulmate, but I had. Suzanne and I met fifteen years ago in the courtroom. She was a defense attorney, and I was working as the Assistant D.A. She won the case we were both working. When the case was over, I asked her to dinner. She spent the night pointing out trial mistakes I’d made, I spent the night staring into her eyes while she talked.
I stopped at the bench in front of me and waved the trolley on when it stopped. I’m not sure Suzanne told anyone else, but at the time she disappeared, she was also eight weeks pregnant. We were going to name the baby Huxley if it were a girl, Edison if it were a boy. Edison was her father’s name.
I caught myself from spiraling into despair and continued down the street to Veronica’s, the mysterious woman who had unmysteriously saved my ass in the alley. The warnings to stay away from her were clear. But sometimes a man needs to know more, and since I was a man of curiosity, I was destined to see things play out.
When I got to Veronica’s driveway, I found a car parked near the front door. The girls were right on time. So be it. The games were about to begin.
I opened the front door and found the living room empty. Voices and laughter rose from outside, where the deck overlooked an ominous sky. With dread in my soul, I crossed the room and stopped at the glass doors leading to the deck. The two girls turned to look at me, and my jaw hit the floor.
“Oh shit!” I said and shook my head.
