Man Enough For Me (18 page)

Jules pursed her lips in agreement. She knew a lot of girls who had ended up in Maxine’s situation because of just one time.

Maxine swallowed hard, and sniffled. “When I missed my period last week, I took one of those two-minute tests, and it came back positive.”

Even though she had stopped crying, Maxine still looked a bit shaky, and Jules put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

Tanya shook her head. “I warned you this would happen, Maxine. All that time you and Truuth spend locked up together at his place. Truuth may be a Christian, but he’s a man just like any other man. You turn him on, it’s gonna be real hard to turn him off. The way you all act, like you already married, it was bound to happen sooner or later….”

“Tanya.”

Tanya looked up and caught Jules’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that …” She sighed. “This never had to happen, that’s all.”

“We all know that, including Maxine.”

Jules turned toward Maxine, who was shaking quietly, her eyes never leaving the floor.

“You have to tell Truuth,” Jules said gently but firmly. Maxine nodded and Jules wrapped her arms around her once more. Moments later Tanya was hugging her too.

When they finally let go of each other, Maxine turned to look at Jules.

“I still meant what I said, Jules,” she said, looking at her friend sternly. “I’m not saying I even believe you, but if Germaine really is involved in some kind of mess, there might be more to it than you think.”

“How can you be thinking about that fool at a time like this?” Jules asked, slightly annoyed that they were back to this topic.

“Because we’re family,” she said. “All of us. Whether you like it or not. And it’s what a family does.”

Jules frowned but said nothing.

“You know I’m right, Jules,” she said. “And family don’t turn their backs on each other. What would you do if it was Davis?”

“I don’t know,” Jules said sulkily.

“Yes, you do,” Maxine said. “You would pray for him, and
then you would get all up in his business and find a way to help, like you do with everyone else.”

“She’s right,” Tanya said. “Maybe we should do that now.”

Even though Jules didn’t feel much like it, she didn’t resist as Maxine and Tanya grabbed her hands.

“Dear Lord,” Tanya began. “We want to thank You that we can come to You with anything we need. There is no situation that You can’t fix. Nothing is too hard for You. At this time we want to raise up our sister and brother to you.

“Please be with Maxine in this time, and show her what to do. She has fallen Lord, but You know she still loves You and wants to walk in Your will. Help her, we pray.

“We also raise up before you Germaine. Lord, You know what’s going on with him even if we don’t. I pray You take control of his situation. Keep him safe, and if he is involved in something shady Lord, provide a way out for him, as you have promised to do with all your children. Dear Lord, also show us how to love him as you desire us to love each other. Thank You for hearing and answering our prayers, in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

Jules mumbled her amen at the end of the prayer.

Okay, Lord, I gave it to you. You can’t say I didn’t try.

A
ll week Maxine’s words seemed to spin around in Jules’s mind. She knew that Maxine had a point, but a part of her revolted at the thought of showing any kind of compassion toward Germaine.

Jules hated drug dealers. It wasn’t because she thought they were dangerous. She had known a couple of them growing up. They would hang around the school perimeter or behind the public library in the evenings after school, trying to get kids interested in whatever they were pushing. The small-time ones were pretty harmless if you stayed away from them. They were only there to make a sale, and if you weren’t buying, they weren’t really interested. Those she could ignore. But the big-time ones—the ones who only showed up outside bars or in nightclubs, and who were always dressed to perfection—those were the ones she couldn’t tolerate.

They weren’t easy to spot, but once you’d seen one of them, you’d seen them all. It was always their excessive jewelry that gave them away, or the way their eyes followed you for a long time before they approached. Those were the dealers to the dealers. Those were the ones you kept your distance from.

Usually Jules wouldn’t care, as long as nobody she knew got
involved with them. But every time she saw a brother who looked like a dealer, she would remember Vanessa O’Connor.

Vanessa O’Connor was a girl from her high school who got mixed up with Jomo Bishop, a big-time crack dealer in the Scarborough area. She knew Jomo was a drug dealer. Everyone knew Jomo was a drug dealer, even the police. But they could never catch him with an ounce of crack, or find one of his small-time distributors stupid enough to sell him out. And so he had free reign to drive around the community in his black Jaguar, attracting young teens to his trade.

Vanessa was one of those that got attracted. It was understandable. She was poor. She lived with her unemployed mother and four other brothers and sisters—all of whom had different fathers—in a squalid two-bedroom apartment. The school system wasn’t doing much for her, so when Jomo noticed her, she jumped at the chance for something better.

But everyone knows being a drug dealer’s chick is just an orientation program to being a drug dealer’s employee. It wasn’t long before Jules heard from friends that Vanessa was selling crack on the other side of Scarborough. And as was often the case, it seemed that she had sampled the merchandise and gotten hooked herself. Now she was her own supplier and buyer.

Last time Jules saw Vanessa, she was lying on a gurney in the emergency room at Toronto Grace. Jules almost didn’t recognize her. Her skin was pale and worn, and littered with scars, probably from where Jomo beat her when she didn’t have his money. It had been hard for Jules to look at. She had wanted to talk to the broken girl, but she had been unconscious. When she came back the next day, Vanessa had already checked out. That was over a year ago.

As Jules stood contemplating the Sound Lounge from across the street, she wondered which category Germaine fell into. Was he a Jomo, or was he a Vanessa?

The other part of her—the part that didn’t revolt against him—desperately wanted Maxine to be right. She wanted it all to be just a misunderstanding. Or even a bad situation. Maybe
he got caught up with some bad friends when he first came back to Toronto. Or maybe someone was threatening him, or the store. That she could understand. If that was the case, she could deal with it. But what if it wasn’t?

Jules shook her head and brushed that train of thought out of her mind. She wouldn’t think about that now.

Checking the traffic carefully, she crossed the street and made her way to the store. She had left work and taken the subway downtown, so she had made it a little before closing time. She waved to Tina, who barely nodded at her from where she had her face buried in a novel, and slipped around to the back.

She heard the voices as soon as she stepped into the passageway. They weren’t loud, but were audible enough for Jules to figure out that there were at least two other persons in the office with Germaine. She got to the slightly ajar door and glanced in. As she had begun to suspect, Germaine’s visitors were the same ones she had encountered in the office some months before. Unwilling to risk a repeat of that encounter, she turned and began to leave, but something she heard made her stop in her tracks.

“We like how you work, keeping our business quiet around these parts. Plus, you ain’t greedy like Victor was,” a voice said from the office.

Jules couldn’t see from where she stood, but she was sure Germaine must have nodded because the voice kept talking.

“So we wanna bump this up a bit,” he continued. “Our clients have been getting a bit antsy, you know?”

“More than usual?” Germaine asked, his voice thinly veiling his sarcasm.

“Heh heh, yeah,” the voice said, laughing. “And you know it pays to keep them satisfied. So anyway, we’re gonna be bringing in a little more of our favorite music, you feel me?”

The second person had begun speaking. He sounded impatient, and didn’t seem to be having as much fun as his partner.

“Is that gonna be a problem?” Number Two asked. “If this is gonna bring more eyes around these parts, then it’s a no-go.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” Jules heard Germaine say.

“Good.”

“So you liking our little arrangement now, eh?” Number One asked.

“Ain’t nobody complainin’.”

Jules cringed at the way the words seemed to roll easily off Germaine’s lips.

“Good,” said Number One. “You keeping bringing in this powder, and we’ll keep you rolling in the paper.”

So that’s what he was doing. Shipping drugs for them.

Jules shook her head. She couldn’t believe the kind of guy she had gotten mixed up with. What was she thinking coming over here like this? She couldn’t help Germaine. This was way over her head. If those guys found out she knew what was going on, there was no telling what they might do to her.

With those thoughts pounding in her mind, Jules turned and prepared to slip out of the hallway, out of the store, and out of Germaine’s life, for good.

But as she did, she tripped on a loose floorboard. She caught her footing, but no doubt everyone in Germaine’s office had heard her. Before she could take two steps, the office door swung open, and a hand roughly grabbed her and pulled her in.

“Who’s this?”

That was Number One. He wasn’t laughing anymore, and Jules could feel his fingers gripping her arm so tightly she thought her veins would pop through. He was so close she could feel his hot angry breath on her neck.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as all the blood seemed to rush to her head.

As the three of them stared at Germaine, Jules watched a look of panic flash through his eyes. But it was gone before she knew it, and replaced with a look of supreme calm.

“Fellas, relax. This is my girl, Renee,” Germaine said calmly, the lie slipping easily off his lips. “She ain’t nobody.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Jules saw Number One turn to
look at Number Two, while keeping his grip on Jules’s arm, which was burning from where he held it in a vice. She was beginning to lose feeling in her fingers.

Number Two said nothing but kept his eyes glued to Germaine, as if trying to figure out if he was lying.

“I said you ain’t gotta worry about her,” Germaine repeated testily. His eyes had hardened, and he was looking purposefully at Number Two.

After what seemed like forever, Number Two broke into a wide smile.

“Why didn’t you just say so, man.”

He nodded at Number One, who in turn released his grip on Jules’s arm. Jules felt all sorts of relief flood through her as she stumbled over to Germaine.

“Baby, haven’t I told you to call before you come see me,” Germaine said, casually slipping an arm possessively around Jules’s waist and pulling her close to him. If someone had told her yesterday that Germaine’s side would feel like the safest place on earth, she would have laughed them to scorn. What a difference a day makes.

With his guests still watching in thinly disguised suspicion, Germaine placed a lingering kiss on her temple.

“Be easy,” he murmured against her skin, in a voice only she could hear. She nodded slightly against his shoulder and avoided looking at the others in the room.

“I’m not trying to be up in your business,” Number Two said, nodding toward Jules. “But I don’t like strangers crashing my party, you feel me?”

“I got you,” Germaine assured them, without the slightest trace of unease. “Have I ever done you wrong?”

“Nah,” Number Two said, chuckling. “You sure haven’t.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Jules glimpsed something shiny and metal sticking out of the waist of Number Two. Her body began to shake involuntarily, and she felt Germaine’s grip tighten around her waist. Her chest was so tight she could barely breathe.

“Good,” Germaine said. “We cool then?”

“Yeah,” Number Two said with a slight nod, as he slipped on his shades. “We’ll be in touch.”

Number One leered at Jules, a slow, greasy smile sliding across his face.

Jules shuddered as she watched him and his boss leave the office. As soon as the door closed, she felt Germaine’s body tense, and his arm drop from around her. Her body was still trembling, and she felt weak all over.

“You okay?” Germaine asked quietly. Jules shook her head violently.

She heard him sigh heavily, before helping her into the chair by his desk. Moments later he was on the phone talking to someone, his voice so low, Jules could barely hear bits of what he was saying. Even if she could have heard more, she was too dazed from what had just happened to focus on anything.

She heard keys jingling and the desk drawer opening, and looked up just in time to see Germaine pull a small gray handgun from a locked metal box in his bottom drawer. Jules’s eyes grew wide, and she stumbled as she tried to rise out of the chair in an effort to get away from him.

“Hey, easy,” Germaine said, shoving the gun into the back of his waistband under his shirt, and stretching out a hand as a sign for her to calm down. Jules watched him watch her carefully, as if she was a skittish animal.

With his eyes never leaving her, he moved quickly back to the phone.

“Tina, I’m gonna be out for a while. Keep an eye on things till I get back, okay?”

Seconds later he was pulling Jules out of the office, down the passageway, and to his car outside the back entrance.

“No,” Jules said, trying to resist his efforts to get her into the car. She pushed at him hard and tried to pull her arm out of his grasp. Even though he was taller and much stronger, she still struggled for freedom. She wanted to get away from this place, from him, as fast as she could.

“Jules, get in the car,” Germaine said firmly.

“No!”

“Jules,” Germaine said, grabbing both her shoulders and forcing her to look into his eyes.

She stopped struggling, and for some reason unknown to her, got into the car.