Mischief 24/7 (11 page)

She was about to ask him why he was so upset when Court did it for her, just not in the way she would have done it.

“Terrell was a bright kid, right? In school, on the basketball court. He was getting ready to leave town, wasn’t he? Go off to that big Division I school, leaving the neighborhood. Getting
out.
You know, Jermayne, I know this kid, Ernesto. He’s also pretty smart, and he’s getting out, too, just like Terrell was going to do.”

“Yeah, so?” Jermayne was looking a little more confident now. “Good for him.”

“Yes,” Court said, “good for him. But you know what? Not everyone Ernesto knows in the neighborhood is all that happy for him. In fact, they pretty much beat him up on a regular basis. Took his books, chased him down the street, called him names. You know.”

Jermayne grinned, a huge white slash in his huge face. “Ain’t nobody tried that with Terrell. He broke some heads, let me tell you that. Ain’t nobody messed with Terrell. Ain’t nobody that dumb. You shoulda seen him.”

“Big guy, huh?” Court was gaining Jermayne’s confidence, how, Jade didn’t understand. It must be some man thing. “Big as you?”

“Bigger,” Jermayne said, his smile turning wistful. “Taller, I mean. Kinda skinny, but strong, too, and smart. Kinda like Kobe, you know?”

“Kobe Bryant,” Court said, nodding. “He came from the Philly area, too, didn’t he? Hell of a basketball player, Bryant. Are you telling me Terrell was that good?”

“He coulda been,” Jermayne said defensively.

“If he hadn’t been shot,” Court said, and Jade winced again. The tough-guy angle hadn’t worked for her. Why did Court think it would work for him?

“Yeah,” Jermayne said, hanging his head. “That.”

“Teddy asked you all about Terrell, didn’t he? Did he run with any of the neighborhood gangs, did he have a problem with anybody, did he try hitting on somebody else’s girl, all that. But you were only a kid, weren’t you? What, seven years old? How would you know, right?”

Jermayne pointed at Jade. “So tell
her.
Tell her I was just a kid. All I remember is that Terrell, he tol’ me he was goin’ away, sure, but he’d be back for me and our gran, and we’d have a big house and a whole big garage full of fancy cars and… and a swimmin’ pool in the backyard. Damn, I didn’t even know what a backyard was, you know? He’d laugh, Terrell would, and he’d grab me around the neck and rub his knuckles on top of my head, and he’d tell me we was gettin’
out.”

He looked at Jade, blinked. “We was gettin’ out, like that Ernesto kid. All I had to do was behave myself, go to school and wait, you know? That’s all I had to do.”

“Jermayne, I’m so sorry,” Jade said, but she was talking to the air that rushed in to fill the spot Jermayne had just vacated, throwing his chamois rag on the ground as he took off across the parking lot, headed away from the car wash. “Oh, Court,
now look what I’ve done. They’ll fire him for leaving his job. I keep trying to make things better for him, and I’ve only made things worse.”

Court put his arm around her. He gave her a comforting hug that didn’t quite make the grade, and she was sure he knew it. “I’ll go speak to the manager, explain that Jermayne had a family emergency. I’ll talk him around, don’t worry about it.”

“And if you can’t, as you said, talk the guy around? Then what, Court? You going to buy the place so Jermayne can keep his job?”

“It’s a thought. I don’t think we own any car washes.”

“You don’t think you do? You don’t
know?”

“I
DIDN’T KNOW
I was talking to your father when I called,” Court said when Jade entered the large living and dining area of the penthouse. There was even a baby grand piano in the suite, and it looked small in the expanse. A very intimidating room for a girl who lived in a small brick house on a Philadelphia side street.

“Uh-huh,” Jade said, still looking around the large room.

After a hot shower, she was wrapped in a soft white terry robe with the Becket Hotels logo stitched on the breast pocket in navy blue and gold thread. Her hair was still damp and she wasn’t wearing a bit of makeup. Her skin was flawless, her bone structure delicate, yet only a fool would think she was fragile.

“But now I’ve had some time to think about those phone calls, and I’m wondering why he wouldn’t have passed any of my messages on to you.”

Jade padded over to the couch, strewn with bags and boxes bearing the name of the hotel’s boutique. “He gets forgetful sometimes. What are all these bags? I need something to wear, not an entire new wardrobe.”

“I just had them send up a variety, so you’d have something to choose from, that’s all. Clothes, some makeup if you want it—because you don’t need it—and some shoes. A pair of boots, too, I think. The manager threw in a few size twos with the size fours. She said designer clothing tends to run a little larger.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jade said, opening one of the boxes. “I wonder how she knew I didn’t know, though. Unless the hotel grapevine works at warp speed, and they saw us coming up here.”

“Does it matter?” Court asked as he sat back on the comfortable chair and crossed an ankle over his knee. “I called my pilot and told him I’d meet him at five. So, where do you want to go for lunch?”

“You’re hungry again already?” Jade picked up bright fuchsia silk slacks and a white sweater top embroidered all over with small fuchsia flamingos. “I’ll say this much—you wouldn’t lose me in a crowd.”

“I don’t plan on losing you, period, and you’d
look good in a paper sack. But I will say I’m not crazy about the flamingos,” Court admitted, grinning. “Try another box.”

“Gladly,” Jade said, replacing the flamingos and putting the lid firmly back on the box. “I’m guessing that outfit would be considered cruise wear or for vacationing in Florida.” She opened another box. “Oh, these are lovely. Look, Court—real suede.”

“There’s artificial suede?” he asked, admiring the chocolate-brown slacks as Jade held them against her waist. “Comes from artificial cows, I guess.”

Jade was inspecting the slacks. “They’re completely lined, too. Real silk. I love the color, and the suede is so soft.” She suddenly folded the slacks and put them back in the box. “Okay, playtime’s over.”

“Jade? What’s wrong?”

“You don’t know? I saw the price tag, Court. Before I let you send downstairs for anything, I made you promise that I would pay you back. I just didn’t think I’d have to break it to Teddy that we needed to take out a second mortgage in order for me to do that.”

She pulled open a bag and withdrew something lacy before shoving it back in the bag and holding it to her waist. “Okay, the underwear I’ll
take. That couldn’t amount to more than a month’s salary, but everything else? No way.”

Court got to his feet and put his hand on her arm before she could retreat to the bathroom. “I want you to have those slacks, Jade, and whatever goes with them. You obviously like them, and I can’t wait to see you in them. Consider them a late Christmas present. Consider all of it late Christmas presents. Anything in there that you like. Okay, not the flamingos. You want those and you’re on your own.”

“I’m not for sale, you know, Court,” Jade said quietly, her damp hair falling around her face as she dipped her head to avoid his eyes. “And I resent your thinking that I am.”

He put his bent index finger beneath her chin and gently raised her head so that she had to look at him. “And I resent that you think I’d try to buy you. We’ve got something here, Jade. I don’t think either of us knows for certain yet exactly what that is, but can you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel it, too?”

He watched as her eyelids fluttered closed for a second, but then she opened them again and looked him straight in the eye. Straight into his soul, or so it seemed.

“I…I was…unhappy when you didn’t call,”
she said quietly, so that he had to lean in closer to hear her. “I, uh, I think I missed you.”

“You think you missed me.”

She sighed and he could smell the fresh scent of mint toothpaste on her expelled breath. “Oh, all right. I
know
I missed you. Which is stupid, because I barely know you.”

Court rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. “But you know there’s something there. Here, between us. I don’t want to lose this feeling, Jade, this sense that I hadn’t really been alive until I saw you the other night. I don’t want to lose you. I’ve played my share of games, Jade, I won’t lie and say I haven’t. But I’m not playing games now.”

“I never play games,” Jade told him, slipping her hands onto his hips, the bag of lingerie sliding, unnoticed, to the floor. “I don’t know how. You could hurt me very badly, Court.”

He nuzzled the side of her throat, took in the clean, soapy scent of her. “Then I’d have to kill myself, because I couldn’t live with the knowledge that I’d ever hurt you. And,” he continued, stepping back from her, “I’m not going to rush you. Not again. Take the slacks, Jade. Please. We won’t stay here, we’ll go somewhere else for lunch, and then we’ll just see where it goes from there. Do we have a deal?”

“J
ERMAYNE’S MANAGER
and I made a little deal. He agreed to look the other way if Jermayne shows up for work tomorrow, and I agreed the manager needed new, LED-lit wheels with chrome spinners for his piece-of-crap red truck parked over there under that tree,” Court told her as they got back in the car.

“It must be nice, having all that disposable wealth lying around in case you need to bribe somebody,” Jade said, strapping on her seat belt.

“Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it,” Court joked, and then winced when he realized what he’d said. “Scratch that. You tried it, you didn’t like it. Are you ready to go to the airport? How do I get to I-95 from here?”

Jade told him and then asked him what he’d thought they might have accomplished with Jermayne, other than almost costing him his job.

“Truth? Much as I wish I didn’t have to say it,

I do think Jermayne knows more than he’s saying about what happened to his brother all those years ago. I don’t know what either of us said today that touched a nerve, but something did, that’s for sure. We’re going to have to take another run at him, and I think the next time we’re going to actually break through. Let’s just give him a couple of days. Long enough to calm down, but not too long, or he’ll have his defenses completely built back up again.”

“We? As in you and me?” Jade shook her head. “When did we become partners?”

Court eased the Mercedes onto I-95 and merged with the considerable traffic. “When did you decide to change the rules? It’s how we started this whole thing, remember? Jolie and Sam got the Vanishing Bride, Jess and Matt the Fishtown Strangler. And we got Terrell Johnson, the Scholar Athlete. The way I see it, our case is still open.”

“You’re going to have to go back to Virginia at some point,” Jade said. “Or wherever else in the world your business takes you next time. Have you thought about that?”

Court shook his head slightly. “Right now, I’m thinking about what comes next. Right now, we’re on our way to see Morgan. After that, we’re
waiting for Jessica and Matt, and then the four of us are going to confront Joshua Brainard. After that? After that, Jade, it’s you and me, with no interruptions.”

“Are you sure we still have something to talk about, Court?” Jade asked quietly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking forward to being a two-time loser.”

He reached over and touched her hand. “We’re older now, Jade. Hopefully wiser.” And minus the complication of Teddy Sunshine and his seeming death grip on Jade’s highly developed sense of family responsibility, although Court was much too intelligent to say so out loud. “We let our hormones do most of the thinking for us the first time around.”

Jade turned her hand so that their palms were touching and squeezed his fingers. “They were some pretty powerful hormones, weren’t they? They still are, not that I should tell you that. But we still don’t have very much in common outside of those hormones, do we?”

Court returned his hand to the steering wheel as he got ready to shoot across two lanes to the airport exit ramp. “So you’re saying that if I took a vow of celibacy, you’d turn and walk away without any problem? And expect me to do the same if you took a similar vow?”

Jade rolled her eyes. “That’s hypothetical, Court, not to mention idiotic. I won’t dignify that with an answer.”

“Maybe it is, but it’s no more idiotic than saying that all we have in common is that we’re good together in bed. I know where to go to get sex, Jade. I want a life partner. I want someone to have children with, grow old with, mourn me when I’m gone. I want you because I love you, and I’ve convinced myself that you love me, too. Where the hell do I park?”

He sneaked a peek at Jade, who was sitting with her mouth fallen open, staring at him. “I cannot believe you just said that.”

“Why? I’ve said variations of the same thing since the day I met you.”

“No. I can’t believe you said all of that
now.
At the airport, with us running late, so we’re probably going to have to run to meet your cousin. With no way for me to possibly answer you or argue with you or… or… you don’t play fair.”

Court pulled into a short-term parking space and cut the engine. He turned on the seat to look at Jade. “I know. I’m trying something new here, the blunt, head-on approach. Is it working?”

Jade just sighed, shook her head, gathered her purse and got out of the car.

C
OURT HELD
the driver’s-side door of the compact car for her as Jade swung her long, chocolate-suede-clad legs toward him and, with obvious reluctance, exited onto the slushy street in front of the Sunshine home.

“I could have just phoned to tell him I’d be home later,” she said, not for the first time.

She’d suggested it the first time over lunch in the hotel dining room, when Court voiced his desire to meet Teddy Sunshine. She’d tried it again as she gave him directions to the house, in case he lost her in traffic as he followed her in his own vehicle. Perhaps she thought the third time would be the charm.