Ruthless (2 page)
Authors: Shelia M. Goss
Chapter 2
David's date for the evening was a tall brunette named Majorie Logan. “I wish you would look at me like you're looking at her,” Majorie whined.
David stopped staring at Sheba, the beautiful woman who captivated him the moment he saw her in the shower, and gave Majorie his full attention. “What, Majorie? You got my attention. You want to dance, too? Come on.”
Before she could protest, David pulled Majorie onto the dance floor. She could dance, but her body didn't seem to have the smooth rhythm of Sheba's. David found himself stealing a glance in Sheba's and Uriah's direction. To his disappointment, they were no longer on the dance floor.
After finishing out the song, David grabbed Majorie's hand. “I think I'll sit this next one out.”
Majorie kept up his pace. When they became stationary, she said, “David, this has been fun, but I know when it's time for me to bounce. Good luck.” She got on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.
“Majorie, you don't have to.”
She placed her index finger over his lips. “Shh. No need to apologize. I'll have your driver drop me off at home.”
David escorted her outside. “Bye, Majorie,” David said.
“Good-bye, David,” she responded right after entering the limousine.
David waited until the limousine had driven away before returning inside. He got a glance of a silver dress going toward the restrooms. He would know that body anywhere. He looked around for Uriah. Uriah was nowhere in sight. Instead of going back to the ballroom, David went in the opposite direction and headed toward the restrooms.
He pulled out his iPhone and sent Uriah a quick text message. He wanted Uriah to keep some of his investors entertained until he returned. Once he received confirmation back from Uriah that he'd received his text, David placed his phone back in his inside jacket pocket.
A young lady who worked for the hotel walked in his direction. When it appeared she was going into the restroom, David stopped her. “Can you tell the woman that's in there that someone's waiting for her outside?”
“Sure,” the young lady responded.
David slipped her a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill.
The young lady looked at him. “Do you need me to do anything else?” she asked.
“No, that will be all,” he responded.
A few minutes later Sheba exited the restroom and looked around. She paused when she saw David. “Is everything okay? Where's Uriah?”
David responded, “Uriah's fine.”
Sheba sighed. “I thought something was wrong. Are you the one who sent the girl into the bathroom for me?”
“Guilty as charged,” David admitted. His hand flew up to his chest in a bashful manner.
“Why? Where's my husband?” Sheba's forehead wrinkled.
“He's handling some business for me right now, so he's occupied.” A mischievous grin was plastered on David's face.
“Fine. I'm about to head back and wait for him at our table.”
“Why don't you walk and talk with me for a minute?” David asked as he walked closer to her.
Her floral fragrance filled his nostrils as he inhaled her scent. He had to stop himself from reaching out to her. He placed his hands in his pockets as they walked to the opposite end of the hotel.
“Uriah's one of my best employees. Hiring him was one of the best decisions I ever made.”
“He enjoys working for you.”
“That's good to hear. He's done a great job overseeing my Shreveport affiliate.”
“I will have to let him know to keep up the good work.”
David opened the door leading to the balcony. “After you.”
“Maybe I should get back,” Sheba said as she stopped in front of the door.
“Uriah's still busy. Enjoy the view.”
Sheba stood and thought for a second and then followed David out onto the balcony. The other people on the balcony went back inside the hotel. David watched Sheba from the corner of his eye as she leaned on the rail. They both stared in silence at the beautiful view of downtown Dallas .
David eased near Sheba and said, barely above a whisper, “Sheba, I have to be honest with you. I find you to be a very attractive woman.”
Sheba turned to face him. “I'm also happily married. And I do stress the word
happily,
” she said.
happily,
” she said.
“You didn't look too happy at the dinner table earlier. I could tell you two were having some type of disagreement,” he said.
“That's what married couples do. We sometimes disagree. It doesn't mean we're unhappy, though.”
“What if I told you I could make your money problems go away?” David had overheard Uriah speaking with Sheba earlier about their finances. David knew he was crossing the line, but he had to have Sheba.
“Cool. That means I can tell Uriah that you'll be giving him a raise.” Sheba batted her long black eyelashes.
David laughed. “That's not exactly what I meant.”
“Well, what exactly did you mean, Mr. King?”
Before David could respond, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. “Hold that thought.” He glanced at the phone. “That's one of my Hong Kong buyers. I need to take this call.”
“Good-bye, Mr. King,” Sheba said as she quickly retreated from the balcony, leaving David alone.
David wanted to protest, but duty came before women. That had always been his motto, and he wasn't going to disregard it, no matter how much he wanted Sheba. David spent the next thirty minutes putting out fires at his Hong Kong office. Once he was satisfied that the vice president of operations could handle the rest, he ended the call.
When he returned to the ballroom, Sheba was nowhere to be found. “Uriah, where's your beautiful wife?” he inquired, after approaching his employee.
“She was feeling tired, so I told her I would meet her in the room.”
“Thank you for talking to those investors for me. Look for a bonus on your next check,” David said as he patted Uriah on the back.
“Thank you, Mr. King.”
David remained in the ballroom until everyone had left. He didn't feel like going home to his empty mansion, so instead he checked into one of the executive suites. He poured himself a glass of apple juice and sat back in the huge plush chair in the living room area. He leaned back and closed his eyes, not to sleep but to meditate.
“Lord, I know that your word says in Proverbs six not to âLust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.' Well, Lord, it's too late. Bathsheba Richards has gotten under my skin, and I don't know what to do about it.”
David heard a whisper. “Yield not to temptation.”
David's eyes popped open. The room was empty.
Chapter 3
“Ever since we got back from Dallas, you've been acting a little funny,” Uriah said to Sheba over dinner the Monday following their weekend trip to Dallas.
“Baby, we had a full weekend. The shopping, the partying. I'm not as young as I used to be.” Sheba wasn't tired physically, but mentally. She had been debating what to do about David. Ever since the night he led her onto the balcony, she hadn't been able to keep him off her mind. She knew he'd wanted to do more than just talk. She'd been prepared to turn him down, but he didn't seem like the type of man to take no for an answer.
Uriah stuck his chest out. “I know it's hard to keep up with big daddy and things. I gave you a full workout this weekend, so maybe we need to put you on some vitamins.”
Sheba pushed David out of her thoughts and laughed. “Big daddy, I don't need any vitamins. At thirty-one, I look better than those twenty-year-olds.”
Uriah licked his lips. “Yes, you do, baby. Well, I just wanted to make sure my baby was doing okay.”
“Baby, I'm fine. Just regretting I switched shifts with one of my coworkers.”
“I don't like you working graveyard.”
“It's only for this week, and then I'll be back on my regular schedule,” Sheba assured him.
After dinner Sheba dressed for work. She was barely through the hospital doors when one of her coworkers and longtime friends pulled her to the side. Annette Johnson said, “Yesterday we had a patient admitted, and you're not going to believe this.”
“What?” Sheba asked.
“She looks just like your mother. I looked at her chart, and you both have the same last name.”
“Did you ask her if she knew me?” Sheba asked.
“Well, not exactly. She's unconscious. Someone shot her, and she lost a lot of blood. Right now the doctor's aren't sure if she's going to make it.”
Sheba's heart rate increased. “I need to see her.”
Annette waited outside as Sheba entered the ICU room. The patient had a visitor. The teary-eyed woman never looked up. The woman said to Sheba, “Please tell me you came bearing good news.”
“I'm sorry. I just stopped by to see her,” Sheba said. Sheba picked up her chart, and there it was in black and white. The patient had her maiden name. Even with all the tubes hooked up to her body and a swollen face, Sheba knew this had to be the woman her mother had been looking for all of Sheba's life.
“You know Delilah?” The woman glanced up. She looked as if she had seen a ghost. She peered at Sheba and then down at Delilah.
“I think she might be my sister,” Sheba blurted out.
“She never told me she had a sister.” The woman stared at Sheba in disbelief.
“She didn't know. I just found out myself. I've been looking for her for two years now.” Sheba stood near the bed and couldn't take her eyes off Delilah.
“Well, apparently, you didn't look for her too hard. She's been right here in Shreveport.” The woman had stood up and was now on the opposite side of the bed.
“I'm still not sure she's my sister, but she has to be. Too many coincidences.”
“I can't believe the resemblance.”
“Are you one of her friends?” Sheba asked.
“Yes, I'm Keisha.” Keisha's face softened.
“Keisha, I'm Bathsheba, but everyone calls me Sheba.”
Just then a police officer walked in the room. The blond-haired police officer said, “We were checking to see if the patient was conscious. We're still trying to find out who did this to your friend, Mrs. Graham.”
“It's Ms. Graham, and I think I know who did it,” Keisha responded.
“Let's step out of the room and give them their privacy,” the officer stated.
“It's okay. I'm supposed to be working, but I'll stay here until you get back,” Sheba said to Keisha.
Keisha and the officer stepped out of the room and closed the door. Sheba could see them through the glass window. She walked near the bed to get a closer look at Delilah Baker.
“Even with all the bruises, you look just like Mama,” she whispered to the woman who could be her sister. “Too bad Mama died last year, before I could find you.” The noise from the machines filled the room. Sheba went on to say, “She loved you. She had to give you up because her parents wouldn't let her keep you. She tried to find you when she turned eighteen, but no one would tell her where you were.”
Sheba looked up, as if to the heavens, and said, “Mama, I found your little girl.”
Delilah's eyes fluttered open, and the alarm on one of the machines went off. Sheba did what she was trained to do as a registered nurse. The door to the room flew open as some of the other hospital staff came in to assist.
A doctor yelled, “Her pressure is dropping. Someone give me the defibrillator stat.”
One of the nurses yelled, “Bathsheba, this isn't your unit. What are you doing here?”
Sheba stuttered, “Sh-she's my sister.”
“Let us handle it from here,” the ICU nurse said.
Sheba moved to the side and said a silent prayer. She couldn't lose Delilah. She was her only link to her mother. “Please, God. Please spare her life.”
The beeping noise from the machine sounded normal again. The doctor said, “Did you say you were her sister?”
“Yes. Well, I think I am,” Sheba rambled. “Long story. But what can you tell me about her condition?”
“It's been a little touch and go for the last twenty-four hours. She needs your prayers, and we'll work on her from this end.” He patted Sheba on the back, then left the room.
The ICU nurse remained behind. “Sheba, I'm going to stay in here and monitor her. Are you still going to handle your shift, or would you like to call someone to take your place?”
Sheba opted to take her shift. She called Uriah on the elevator ride up to her floor. “Can you believe it?” Sheba exclaimed after she had explained to Uriah what had transpired.
“It's amazing, if it's her,” he responded.
“I think it's her. I think the lady in that hospital room, hanging on to her life, is my sister.”
“Baby, before you go get emotionally attached to this woman, I think you should make sure.”
“Even with a swollen face, she looks like my mama.” Sheba felt herself shaking. “Seeing her lying there brought back memories of seeing Mama those last days in the hospital bed.”
“Maybe you should take off work today,” Uriah suggested.
“No, I'm determined to finish my shift.”
It wasn't long before Sheba wished she had taken off, because she could not concentrate. Her mind was on the woman who could well be her long-lost sister.
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