Between Friends (24 page)

Read Between Friends Online

Authors: D. L. Sparks

Tags: #Fiction, #Suspense, #General, #African American Police, #Urban Life, #Thrillers, #African American

BOOK: Between Friends
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Chapter Thirty
Idalis
Lincoln paced the living-room floor, stopping every once in a while to look toward the door. His phone was beeping and vibrating on his hip, but he moved like a man who was focused on nothing other than what was going on right now.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
He stopped in his tracks. “You happened to me.”
A flash of tension shot up my neck and into my head. I reached up and rubbed my temple. “I'm sorry, Lincoln. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“So let me get this straight. Are you sayin' you didn't mean to fuck Trip and lie to me about it? Or are you sayin', you didn't mean to lay up with me the last few years, like shit was all good, when you knew
damn
well shit wasn't right!”
“Okay. Yes, I slept with Trip! But that is
not
a reason for you to do the shit you're doing!”
He glared at me, his body projecting anger and disgust. In a flash he picked up a picture off the mantel and pitched it at me. I managed to roll out of the way, just in time for it to hit the wall behind me, raining down glass all over my head and shoulders.
I heard his gun cock.
“Do you honestly think I won't kill you just because you fucked Trip into a hero complex and he's outside trying to rescue you?”
I sat there and stared at the man whom I had agreed to marry, and had promised my happily-ever-after to. I listened as he painted a picture of a woman full of deceit and lacking a heart. A woman who had realized a moment in time had swollen into something much more, but she had done absolutely nothing to address it.
A small bubble of compassion rose in my chest as I looked up at him.
He was a man at the end of an emotional ledge—one that I had obviously pushed him out onto. And now Trip was outside, ready to risk life and limb to ride in here on a white horse and save me. And for what? Hell, I didn't even know at this point. I'd gotten pretty good at barricading myself in my nice, cushy fantasy world. And now that world had turned on me in the worst way.
“Lincoln, please. Just let me explain.”
Suddenly there were three sharp hits on the door and his head whipped in that direction. “Hold that thought.” He looked back to me. “We got company.”
My pulse raced, causing blood to pound against the confines of my veins. I half expected to blow a vessel in my brain at any moment. And honestly, I would've welcomed a stroke at that point.
Lincoln moved to the entranceway to the hallway and pointed his gun at the door. My mouth went dry and my hands began to shake uncontrollably.
This can't be happening,
I thought.
This is
not
happening.
My heart skipped a beat when I heard the chime of my alarm system signaling the door had been opened, and Trip had stepped into this nightmare.
The sound of his footsteps coming down the marble hall echoed through the house. I ran my tongue across the cut on my bottom lip. The bleeding had stopped, and now it was throbbing, and my lip was starting to swell.
Trip's broad frame came into my line of sight.
He wore the anger on his face like a Halloween mask.
He and Lincoln stood there for a second staring each other down. Lincoln was an inch or two shorter, but both of them were full of rage. The fire coming from them threatening to send this house and everything around it up in flames.
“Go 'head and toss me that gun Supercop,” Linc instructed.
Never taking his eyes off Linc, Trip pulled his gun out of his holster and popped the clip out. He cocked it, causing the lone bullet in the chamber to fly out. It hit the carpet with a thud before he dropped the gun next to it.
Linc walked over and bent down like he was going to pick up Trip's gun but instead he stood back up, hauled off and punched Trip in jaw causing Trip to stumble into the wall.
My hand covered my mouth stifling the scream that tried to escape.
“I owed your punk ass that one.”
Trip straightened up, touched his lip and looked down at his hand for any evidence of blood.
“Did that make your bitch-ass feel better?” he asked.
The house phone rang out, catching all our attention. I swallowed a mouthful of nothing and attempted to speak.
“That's India. I know it. Would you please let me answer it?” I begged.
Trip kept his eyes on Lincoln during my plea. The way his jaw was flexing, I knew he wanted to pounce on him.
Lincoln's eyes met mine and he kept them there, waiting for the phone to stop ringing. I fought my tears, which were trying to force their way out. I didn't want my sister here; I knew that she wasn't going to allow too many more phone calls to go unanswered.
He walked over and sat down on the arm of our over-sized chair. With his gun still in his hand, he crossed his arms against his chest. “So, Trip, how does it feel knowing you fucked another man's woman right out from under him?”
He clenched his fists. “Lincoln, I'm not about to have a showdown with you like two kids in a fucking cafeteria. You trying to tell me you shot my partner over some bullshit?”
My hand shot up, covering my mouth and silencing the scream lodged in my throat. My body shook as waves of sobs fought to get out.
“W—what is he talking about, Lincoln? Y—you shot Phil?”
Trip took a step closer to both of us causing Linc to stand to his feet. I took solace in the fact that he was tucked safely into his Kevlar vest.
Suddenly I wished I had one.
“Lincoln, this is between us. Let Idalis go. You got what you wanted. Leave her out of this.”
“Can't do that. 'Cause without her this little reunion wouldn't be possible.” He positioned himself in the middle of the living-room, blocking my line of sight to the hallway, standing between Trip and me.
“Look, you and I both know that it's not gonna be long before they kick that door in and put a bullet in your head. Is that what you want? You want your son to know his father went out like a punk,” Trip asked.
Lincoln started laughing. “You worried about what
my
son thinks?”
He aimed his Glock at Trip.
I jumped to my feet. “No, Linc, don't!” I screamed.
The phone rang again.
Its intermittent ringing was starting to mimic the ticking of a time bomb—a constant reminder of how out of control this situation was about to become.
“What, Idalis? Huh? You don't want Trip to know that you ain't what you claim to be?”
Trip looked at me. “What is he talking about, Idalis? What the fuck is going on?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I stood there for a second. Jaw gaping. Eyes fixed on Trip. I closed my mouth and looked down to the floor.
“Somebody better answer me,” Trip demanded.
Again ... the phone rang.
I looked up just in time to see Lincoln pull an envelope out of his back pocket. Trip never took his eyes off me. I looked at the folded wad of paper. My mind raced at what my heart already knew was inside.
In one swift motion Lincoln pitched the paper in my direction, never taking his eyes off Trip. I felt sweat bead up and run down the center of my back.
“Read it!” Lincoln yelled out. His voice echoed through the living-room, making me jump.
Trip's eyes bounced back and forth between the two of us.
Confusion was etched all over his face.
My hands fumbled with the envelope and its contents.
Again.
The phone rang.
Chapter Thirty-one
Trip
Idalis looked at me, a look of regret and despair washed over her face as she started to read:
“The alleged father, Lincoln N. Briscoe, is excluded as being the father of the child, Cameron Allen Briscoe. For eight different genetic systems analyzed with the polymerase chain reaction, the alleged father, Lincoln N. Briscoe, failed to match the obligate paternal allele present in the child, Cameron A. Briscoe.”
I listened as she read the words, but I didn't hear them. They rolled around in my head until they hit on something and finally registered. Bells and whistles started going off like I'd just gotten the high score in a pinball game. But I knew immediately from the tear-filled expression on Idalis's face, this wasn't a game.
Rage rode my body like a freight train and I felt myself losing control.
“Still think she's perfect?” Linc asked.
His attitude was more than I wanted to deal with. I swear I wanted to shoot him, just to shut him up. I broke the stare I was holding with Idalis and looked at him.
“How long have you known this?”
“Known what? That you fucked my girl the weekend of your father's funeral? Or that she had been trying to pass your seed off as mine?”
“That's not true!” Idalis screamed out.
He turned to her. “Oh, it's not? Then explain what you're holding in your hand.
As he fussed with Idalis, I took a slight step to my right, watched as she fidgeted where she was standing.
I forced myself to see past her swollen lip and red, tear-filled eyes.
I fought the urge to run to her and wrap my arms around her.
Instead, I tried to give her an out.
“Baby girl, look at me.”
She looked up and our eyes met as tears streamed down her face.
“Tell me
something
. 'Cause right there's a lot of fucking talking going on but I'm not hearing shit.”
“I had an idea,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“An idea? Why didn't you say something?” I asked.
She averted her eyes. “I didn't know how.”
That answer pissed me the fuck off. I wanted to walk out of that house and leave her there with his crazy ass and never look back.
I wanted to forget that I ever knew her.
But I couldn't. Our fate was sealed almost four years ago.
For the first time in our lives we'd allowed our friendship to turn into something more the night of my father's funeral when Idalis came to sit with me at the hotel. She knew I refused to go to the funeral and shed tears for a man who'd gotten enough from me already and she stayed with me and never denied me anything, even, a night of lovemaking we neither regretted but agreed never to mention again.
The next morning, I cleared out of my room and was back in New Orleans before my father's body was cold in the ground and she went home to Linc. That was almost four years ago.
Cameron was just over three.
I turned my attention back to Lincoln. “So you been holding on to this all this time? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You're what's wrong with me.”
“Don't blame your shit on me!” I growled through clenched teeth. “This ain't a fucking game, Briscoe! You fucking with people's lives.”
He smirked. “Fuck outta here with that shit man, you don't give a damn about her! If you did you wouldn't have fucked her and rolled up outta here like you did.
“You would've manned the fuck up and stayed and fought for her ass, but instead you
got
the ass you been wanting since grade school and left.”
“When did you get this test done?” I asked.
“About a month after he was born.” He smirked at Idalis. “One of those afternoons when I told Idalis she could have some “mommy” time. Me and little man took a trip downtown to visit my friend in the forensic lab.”
Idalis was sobbing so hard she could barely speak, “W—Why didn't you just s-say something?”
Linc rushed toward her and pulled her up by her neck. I fought the urge to pounce on him, at least not yet; not while he had that gun on her.
“That was all you needed to go runnin' off to be with his ass.” He tossed her back on the couch. “You think I don't know how you feel about him? I've known that shit since college.”
I dropped my head. Emotions rushed at me so fast... . I didn't know which one to address first.
A son.
I had a son.
The house phone rang. A few moments later the phone on my hip vibrated. I'd been dealing with that dance since I'd been in the house. I figured it was either Idalis's sister or Lenny.
This shit needed to end, now.
I gave Lincoln a quick once-over. Just like me, his Kevlar was secured around his chest. Other than the Glock, he kept intermittently pointing at me; I spied another gun tucked in the waistband behind his back. When he wasn't paying attention, I'd already moved to my right, getting out of his direct line of fire and clearing the entryway to the hall.
Fire rose in my chest.
I taunted him, made him focus his anger on me instead of her. “So because I laid pipe to your girl you decide to start shaking down dealers and knocking off people to make yourself feel like a man?”
He looked up and gave me a sly grin. “Hey, I ain't kill nobody pot'na. That dude Geech was outta control and all you got on me is a bunch of hearsay from some shady pushers lookin' to catch a deal.”
“What's your defense for shooting my partner, other than stupidity?”
“Aye man, I was just a cop trying to maintain his position in a bust gone wrong.”
He cracked a smile.
That was too much for me at that point.
The phone rang again and Idalis looked toward the kitchen.
Wide-eyed and frantic she looked up at me.
In that moment we were two scared kids.
And it was time for me to sneak her out of the house safely.
I took a breath.
And gave her a wink.
She made a break for the door, catching Lincoln off guard. When he spun around to reach for her, I snatched the gun from behind my back and popped a bullet in his leg, causing both of them to tumble to the carpet, and making him drop his gun.
I kicked the gun out of the way as Idalis scrambled to her feet and headed toward the front door. I saw him about to go for the gun behind his back and pointed my Glock at his head.
“
Please
give me a reason!”
The gunfire caused the house to flood with agents and officers. All of them with guns drawn.
“Spencer!” Lenny called out.
“In here!”
Lincoln lay there for a moment, glaring at me, before he slowly pulled his hand from behind his back and tossed the gun in my direction. It landed on the carpet, near one of the agents, with a soft thud, setting off something inside me. I tucked my gun behind my back and hit his jaw so hard—I'm surprised my hand didn't break.
I got in two more blows before being pulled off him for the second time in as many weeks.
Lenny pushed me toward the front door. “That's enough, Spencer!”
They pounced on him and started cuffing him. I heard his rights being read just as I approached the front door.
“This shit ain't over, Supercop! You'll see me again! Believe that!” he called out to me.
Without looking back I answered, “Looking forward to it, Lieutenant Briscoe.”
I stepped out into the moist night air and took a deep breath. It was that time of night when yesterday passes off the baton to tomorrow. Usually, we're all asleep when the hand-off happens, and are lucky enough to wake to a new day of sun and possibilities.
Not this night.
The lights from the ambulance lit up the night sky.
Neighbors were gathering outside; some snapping pictures on cell phones while others positioned themselves trying to get a glimpse of what had disturbed their peace. News vans were coming from all directions trying to be the first to break the story. My phone vibrated and I pulled it out.
It was Trinity.
“Trip, what is going on?” She was frantic. “Dionne has been calling me and India texted me twice and I've been blowing up your phone. Are you okay?”
“I'm good. Where's Mama?”
“Asleep.”
“Good.”
“What's going on Trip? Is Idalis okay?”
At that moment I looked up and saw Idalis sitting on the back of the ambulance. An EMT was tending to her, and Dionne was huddled next to her. I moved toward them, keeping my eyes on Idalis. She looked up when she saw me coming.
“She's fine. Trin, I'll be by there in the morning, a'ight?”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Just as I stepped onto the street, India pulled up. I stopped dead in my tracks as she hustled to get out of the car. I watched her open the back door and unbuckle Cameron from his car seat.
She pulled his tiny, sleeping body out and headed toward her sister, causing me to change direction and head back to my truck. This was too much for me to deal with right now. It was something that didn't need to be done in front of Cameron.
I opened the door to the truck and glanced at Idalis. The EMT was securing a bandage to her head, but her eyes were still on me, pleading for understanding and sympathy.
Two things that I couldn't summon for her right now.
As bad as I wanted to go to her, I couldn't.
Instead, I jumped in my truck and sped off into the night.

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