So I'm back with another chapter and yes this will be longer than IBTH. Thanks for the feedback. I urge you all to make up your own minds about what's going on and keep reading over the chapters to get a well-rounded feel for what they're all about. My cultured tongue craves baklava as I post this but it's more important that you enjoy this chapter and sink your teeth in. Peace.
The cornflakes rustled as she made Angela's breakfast. That lone sound reverberated since he wasn't speaking to her, or at least saying anything she wanted to hear. His entrance was followed without a greeting or a kiss; he was still reeling from the night before.
"I said I was sorry." Her statement fell on deaf ears. "I don't know what else to say." He looked at her then walked past her to make coffee. "You've got to understand me, sometimes things happen that we don't expect. I needed to see him so I could understand what we were up against."
"We? We weren't at risk, you were; on purpose."
"Landon Warfield is like a cancer; if you don't cut him out completely he'll keep coming back."
"Is that an invitation?" He asked coarsely before regretting it. "Are coming to the conference tonight?"
"Of course; it's your thing."
"With this trial coming up I need to know that you won't compromise your safety any more than you already have, especially since Harris is fit to take the stand." He handed her the newspaper and left with his coffee, in a fairly milder mood.
Landon Warfield was dead. That's what the news broadcasts told her in varied registers employing different rhetoric. The urgent email on her Blackberry said the same. That morning, waking after her husband's successful conference, a cold wind was breathed into her body and travelled down every road inside her. The body was found half a mile away from the Conference Hall where she sipped Champagne and rubbed noses the previous night. It was a night of strange happenings that could be said to have started when she spotted Desmond Walls on the veranda.
She tapped his shoulder. "Desmond."
"Agent Williams, forgive my formality. Nicole." He shook her hand.
"What brings you here?"
"It's my job to stay on top of all things current. As I can see your husband is loved in our community. A modern-day hero."
"He does what he can."
"I could say the same of you. The man or the myth; in which do you believe?"
"The truth is what I believe in." She retorted before joining everyone in the Main Hall. It was all a blur, she could see through the lights of the chandelier and her senses were numbed by the champagne.
The word of his death only served to make her anxious and she couldn't explain why. On further reflection she realised this situation pitted her and Marlon Harris against each other and it was her turn to decide whether she would risk her life, as he put it, to bring him down. It was time to evaluate how idle his threat was if at all.
Rashad put his arm around her for the first time that day and it felt good although it was just to pose for pictures. She endured the awkward situation, all the while thinking it was quite callous to have to portray something that wasn't real.
"You look beautiful." He said for the third or fourth time that evening, making her pull away. He followed her down a narrow corridor, calling her name in vain.
"You never said you knew Gail. Gail Prescott?" The accusation in her tone was instinctive.
"I met her at M.I.T., sophomore year." He explained. "Can you come downstairs?" Her facial expression read; no chance. "If you're made about last night, I'm not going to apologise. Whatever the motive, you were still wrong. You can't fear someone's imposition in our lives then actively pursue them. Did you want him to kill you?"
"Unbelievable." She walked further, though her heels weren't made for walking.
"Wait a minute. Can't we talk about this later? You said you wanted to come, to support me."
"My toes are bleeding. That's support."
"Alright so come downstairs and,"
"I'm not a doll. What is she doing here?"
"I don't know."
"You do know, and how much? That scares me."
"I can't do this right now. Can you please come downstairs?"
"I can." He exhaled. "When I'm good and ready." He returned to the Main Hall alone.
Her cell phone rang while she was pacing. The balls of her feet pulsated as she made small steps on the wood to relieve the discomfort.
"Hello?"
"Nic, it's me. I'm sorry."
"For?"
"Getting involved, I should have left you to deal with it. You were right, you didn't need me."
"Antonio,"
"I'm content, I have the life I've always wanted but I never had you."
"Sure you did; for a time."
"No not like that. I wanted to protect you, I tried at least, but you have to do this on your own."
"Do what?"
"Don't make me answer. Don't draw me in."
"Draw you in? I couldn't keep you out if I tried."
"At this point we have nothing to say to each other. Nothing good anyway."
"The love was real." She blurted out; knowing he was ready to go and for once that dial tone didn't hurt.
"If he's smart he won't believe that." A familiar voice spoke over her shoulder. The cold steel found its way through her hair to the skin that barely covered her skull.
Rashad imposed on her mid-afternoon thoughts by checking in on her and narrating the local news excerpt on him.
"I saw it. I'm glad it worked out for you."
"For us."
"Your career flourishes while my case falls apart. So enjoy that good press because when they start speculating,"
"I did not kill that man."
"So who were you shooting at? You followed me. Are you crazy?"
"I had your back that's all."
"When it comes to people like him the last thing I want is you playing the superhero; even if your intentions are good." He pretended to concede but she knew better. "Do you believe how dangerous he is now?"
"Was." He corrected. "Isn't that one less problem for you?"
"No!" She exclaimed. "Do you think because Landon's dead everything just goes away? This case will drag on for years and eventually when it's thrown out of court all the work would have been in vain."
"Nikki, you were there. He wasn't dead when we left."
"I know. This is just the beginning of my problems."
"I thought your mind was made up; you wanted to proceed with the trial."
"Marlon Harris is probably sipping a Yoo Hoo through a straw right now, getting a sponge bath from his jailbait girlfriend and laughing his wrinkly ass off. On another note you look good on TV."
He took her hand. "I'm sorry Nicole."
"Ironically it's not you I'm mad at. I have some important calls to make."
"Are you kicking me out?"
"No. I'll be home for dinner but there's a lot to tie up before then."
Nina attacked the chopping board with what she privately called the 'husband killer'. The spring onions, fresh herbs and asparagus weren't safe. Nicole stood back and mixed her a drink.
"How did you learn all this food? Nigerian, Ethiopian, Italian, Cambodian, Lebanese…"
"Don't forget Guyanese, Creole and Irish."
"So what's the secret?"
"I've dated a lot of men."
"Oh." Nicole filled the kitchen with the rattling sound of the blender.
"I'm not like you Nikki; I've got to have something new. For me, commitment is airtight and once I was free I never went back there again." She snapped the head off the lobster with ease. "It's all in the wrist, take note."
"I am."
"See, you have a husband and a child and you'll be content with that in ten, twenty, forty years time because it's what you want. I was over it within weeks and you know that had nothing to do with you; I wasn't invested. You are and that scares me."
"He'll never be Antonio Mom. After all these years you should have stopped judging him by now."
"What I think has nothing to do with Antonio."
"Yes it does because he's the anti-Ray and that makes him safe. It makes you safe. Didn't it ever occur to you that the arrogance, charm, bravado and fearlessness are things I love in a man even if you didn't?"
"Those are dangerous attributes in the wrong situation. Fearlessness and arrogance become a lack of control and remorse. Charm gets him back in the door and bravado keeps him in."
"In your mind it makes him a threat but for me it makes him an equal, and I'll never turn my back on him. Unlike your precious Antonio did to me."
Nina rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Boil that linguini." She expended all her restraint in not asking Nicole whether her desperation to hold her family together was so strong that she denied what was in front of her face.