Casting Down Imaginations (39 page)

sixty

Anaya

Derrick stood on the other side of the door, looking as good
as he wanted to look. He had a fresh haircut, a tapered fade, just the way I
liked, and was dressed in a nice shirt with a tie. I told him to dress up
because tonight I wanted to take him some place special. That special place was
my bedroom. Tonight I wanted us to be intimate.

I hid behind the door before I opened it, only letting my
head hang out.

“Hey pretty lady.”

I smiled at him. “How you doing?”

“Great, now that I see your pretty face.”

“Aren’t you going to come in?”

“Oh. I thought we were going out?”

“We can. Later. If you still want to. Tonight I got something
else on my mind.”

“Oh really?”

I nodded.

“Like what?”

“Why don’t you come in here and find out.”

Once he was inside I closed the door and locked it behind
him. His demeanor changed instantaneously when he took in the ambiance. There
was a long trail of lit tea light candles and chocolate kisses leading to the
bedroom, and then there was me, dressed in a red lace teddy and a pair of
matching red pumps. I knew I looked good, and I smelled good, too. There was no
way in the world he was going to be able to resist me.

“Oh,” he chuckled, surprised.

“Is there are problem?” I teased.

“Nawh,” he laughed. “Nawh, I mean...”

“Good,” I said, and wrapped my arms around him and gave him a
long kiss. He pulled me into him and squeezed. He felt good.

“Wait,” I stopped him. “Let’s go to the bedroom.”

He hesitated. “You sure?”

I kissed him again, then took him by the hand and slowly blew
out the candles in the living room one by one, making sure I bent over as much
as possible. Then I led him to the bedroom, where another surprise was waiting
on him. I’d pulled my bed out to the center of the floor and surrounded it with
candles, which were already lit. It was covered with red rose pedals, and
Jodeci was playing softly in the background.

“What’s all this?” he asked.

I climbed on top of the bed and motioned for him to join me.

Once he did I climbed on top of him and we started to kiss.

“Whoa, whoa,” he said, and sat up.

“What’s the matter?”

“You sure you wanna do this? We haven’t even talked about it.
Once we cross this bridge, we can’t go back.”

“I’m down if you are. Are you?”

“Yeah. I mean…”

“Come on. I want this. And I know you do, too.”

“I do,” he confessed. “I mean, I really do. But this could
make things really complicated.”

I kissed him, then said “Only if you make it that way.”

Derrick pulled me close and we gave each other what we wanted.
He didn’t disappoint me, either. He was soft, tender. He took his time. He
didn’t rush, but was attentive. He ran his fingers through my hair and
appreciated every inch of me. We reached our satisfaction at the same time, and
as we lay on the rose petals he held me. I fell asleep in his arms, and I felt
secure. I really cared about him, and I knew that he cared for me, too.

sixty one

Anaya

I pranced around the dressing room with a smile on my face
that no one could take away. My mind was on Derrick and the love we made last
night. I was just remembering the way he made me breakfast in bed this morning
when he burst into the dressing room.

“You really need to learn how to knock,” one of the girls
fussed at him.

He ignored her and walked over to me quickly. “We need to
talk.”

“What’s the matter?” I asked him as I finished lacing up my
thigh boots. His face was intense. I’d never seen him so serious before.

“Get your stuff,” he directed me.

“What?”

He kicked my locker.
“Hurry!”

“Alright,” I said, disturbed by his lack of patience. I
didn’t know what his problem was, but whatever it was, I was sure I had nothing
to do with it.

“Now! Grab your purse! Come on, we gotta go outside!!!”

“Can you calm down a minute? What’s your prob—”

SLAM!

I jumped at the sound coming from the other side of the
dressing room door. Several loud screams followed, along with more thuds and
the sound of glass breaking.

Derrick grabbed me just as I snatched my purse and pulled me
out of the dressing room. I screamed as gunshots rang out around us. We turned
down the hallway that led to the employee parking lot. I couldn’t keep up and
fell. Derrick tried to help me to my feet, but as more shots fired, he ended up
dragging me. When we made it to the door he picked me up and hoisted me over
his shoulder.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?” I screamed at him.

Everything was happening so fast. Men with guns rushed past
us with the word SWAT printed on their backs. Derrick was running as fast as he
could, making me dizzy while people around us screamed.

He stopped, and suddenly I was thrown in the back seat of a
car. He got in with me, and then screamed “GO!” at the driver.

We peeled off. I reeled backward, not prepared for the speed
at which we were traveling. My legs went up in the air as I grabbed the back of
the driver’s seat in front of me. I realized then that the car was my own, and
Amber was behind the wheel.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, out of breath.

“Sit back and stay low,” she told me. “Everything will be
explained.”

I didn’t understand, but I did as she said. Through the dark
I peered at Derrick, who was ducking down with me. He knew I was scared, but he
remained calm for me and held my hand. The light from headlights of cars
passing by allowed me to catch quick glances at his face. His eyes were affixed
on me, but they were different, and I knew something serious was happening.

We’d been in the car for about twenty minutes when Amber finally
pulled the car over. We were somewhere on the highway, parked behind Derrick’s
car.

“Five minutes,” Amber told him, and got out of the car. I
watched, confused, as she walked over to Derrick’s car and got in the
passenger’s seat.

“What’s going on?” I asked Derrick. Grief already sat in my
stomach.

“I gotta make this fast,” he told me, and pulled something
from under the seat in front of him.

“Make what fast? What are you talking about?”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Anaya, I really want you to know
I’m sorry.”

I was already pissed off. “Don’t apologize. Just tell me what
the hell is going on. Why the hell was Amber driving my car, and what the hell
was going on at Prestige?”

“I’m gonna explain everything. Just give me a chance.”

“You better start explaining right now. What the hell is
this? Some type of kidnapping? Derrick, you better start talking.”

“First off, my name is not Derrick. It’s Trevor,” he said,
and turned on the car light above us.

My mouth gaped open.

What in the hell is going on here?

“Anaya, I’m not who you think I am.”

You think?

“I’m Trevor Farland, and I’m an undercover agent with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

My mouth grew wider and so did my eyes as I stared at the
badge and ID that he showed me. They looked authentic.

“I have to do this fast because I don’t have much time.”

He placed a folder in my lap. I opened it. Inside were
various pictures of Jeff and other people who worked at Prestige, including me.

“Jeff Williams is a convicted felon. In 1999 he was arrested
and served five years in jail for attempted murder. At that time, he was also
suspected of drug trafficking, but there was no evidence. After his release, he
dropped from the Chicago scene and appeared here in Texas a few years ago, when
he assumed ownership of Prestige. Williams is smart, so we knew we had to be
careful. We’ve been watching him for months. This time when he goes to prison,
he’s not ever getting out. We made sure of it. He’s going down for dealing
drugs and a whole bunch of other charges.”

I flipped through the pictures in disbelief. “What does this
have to do with me?”

He placed his hand on my knee. “My director wanted you
arrested as well.”

My heart dropped and my stomach flip flopped. “Huh?” I asked
him. I couldn’t have heard that correctly.

He took the pictures from me and flipped through them until
he found pictures of me in my car. I was confused at first, until I realized
when they were taken. They were from the day I got hired at Prestige. When Jeff
had me drop off that bag…

“But he likes me,” Trevor continued. “I convinced him that
you were just an innocent person who was at the wrong place at the wrong time,
and he told me that if I got you away from the scene of the bust, he would make
your file go away, despite the evidence we have against you.”

My head was swirling with confusion. “Evidence?”

“Yes, evidence. You dropped off crack cocaine that day. Did
you know that?”

A pitiful whimper came out of me. “Oh, God.”

“Yeah. That alone can send you to prison. But I quickly
learned that you had no idea what you were getting yourself into. Just a young
girl caught up.”

A young girl caught up… Caught up?

“So you were just using me?” I asked him, thinking of last
night.

“No. It’s really complicated, Anaya, but I want you to know
that I honestly didn’t use you. I really do care about you.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, right.” I could have kicked myself. Once
again, I allowed myself to be played.

“If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t have went out of my
way to protect you. You have no idea of the things that were going on around
you. Jeff ran a prostitution ring. He was pimping those girls. All of them,
except you. I made sure of it.”

“What are you talking about? There was no sex going on at
Prestige.”

“I know. Not at Prestige, but Jeff held private parties, and
at those parties the girls traded sex for money. We got evidence that he
orchestrated several of those parties, and took a percentage of the so-called
profits. I made sure all of that stuff stayed away from you, because I didn’t
want you going down behind a thug like Jeff. Because I care about you.”

Private parties? That’s what the bank teller was talking
about!

All I could do was shake my head. All of this was happening
so fast. Last night he was my new man. Tonight he was some cop from out of town
who was working undercover.

What the hell did I get myself involved in?

“I gotta be totally honest with you,” he said, and pulled
something out of his coat pocket. It was a gold ring, and he placed it on the
ring finger of his left hand.

“Oh, hell no,” I managed to say. “You are not married!” I
fussed at him, my hands shaking.

He didn’t respond.

“Tell me you are not married! I know you are not married!”

“That’s why I was trying so hard not to get physical with
you,” he confessed, and put his hand on my knee to try to console me.

I pushed it away, disgusted by his audacity. “Getting some
before the big bust must have been nice, huh?”

He held his head down. “I promise you, baby girl, what we got
is something serious, now.”

“Don’t call me that.
Your wife
wouldn’t appreciate
it.”

He stared in surprise. “Alright. Look, I ain’t got time. I
just wanted to be honest with you to the fullest.”

“Who’s your wife? Amber? Y’all got kids, too? What else are
you gonna tell me?”

“Stop clownin’, alright? Amber is just my partner. And you
lucky she likes you too, or she wouldn’t have helped me get you outta there.
Now look, I ain’t got time to go through no dramatics right now. I gotta hurry
up and get back, and you gotta get outta here.”

“Where am I supposed to be going?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. But when you get there, call me,”
he told me, and gave me a card with a number on it. His real name, Trevor
Farland, was printed on it. I could have screamed.

“I need to know that you’re okay,” he insisted. “But whatever
you do, don’t go back to Daytown. If you do, you’re on your own, and there
won’t be anything else that I can do to help you.”

He leaned over and tried to give me a kiss, but I pulled
away, the hurt I was feeling seeping from my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, and kissed my hand instead. I
pulled it away as well and turned away from him. He opened the car door and got
out, and I watched through blurry tears as he hustled into the car with Amber
and they sped off through the night.

Angry, I took his card and ripped it into shreds, then threw
the tiny pieces out of the car window. They fluttered in the wind until they
eventually fell to the ground, and I felt just as lost and hopeless as they
looked. I cried. Hard, upset that once again everything around me had fallen
apart. I sprawled across the back seat and cried until I couldn’t cry anymore,
then got in the driver’s seat and took off, asking myself how could I have been
so stupid to fall in love with a married man.