The Law of Desire (4 page)

“Same ol’, same ol’. It’s pretty quiet.” Lawrence cut his eyes at the empty doughnut boxes and spilled coffee on the desk Johnson was using.

Cops like Johnson gave the police a bad name. The pudgy, sloppy man was a walking, talking stereotype right down to his barely concealed racism.

“You still keeping an eye on the McKnights?” Johnson brushed his hand across his beard and doughnut crumbs came tumbling off.

“Yep. Them and every other known drug dealer.”

“You find out any more information about that little hottie who’s been staying with them? I sure would like to break off a piece of that.” The leer in Johnson’s voice caused the hair to stand up on the back of Lawrence’s neck.

The blood in his veins ran hot. He never really liked Johnson anyway, and he liked him a whole lot less at that moment. He could feel the area around his neck heating to a slow boil as he tried to talk himself out of giving Johnson a piece of his mind.

The fact of the matter was he had no business caring what anyone said about Minnie Samuels. The only thing he needed to be concerned with was if she was indeed involved in any illegal activities. Barring that, he shouldn’t have had any thoughts about her one way or the other. However, her voice suggesting someone needed to send a memo to the rest of his body came to his mind, and his heart thumped rapidly just thinking about her.

Pushing it to the back of his mind, he shrugged. “Something tells me you’re not her type, Johnson. And I don’t think it would bode well for you to try anything. Now, if you’ll excuse me, some of us have work to do.”

He walked to the back room of the trailer and sat down. Eventually, something would have to give as far as Minnie Samuels was concerned.

After putting away her clothes and making up the beds with the fresh linens, Minerva walked into the small, sparsely furnished living room where Timmy and Tommy were busy playing Grand Theft Auto IV. She reasoned they could have probably purchased a decent living room set with the money they had spent on electronic games, stereos and televisions. But clearly that wasn’t a priority for them. And she didn’t have the right to complain. They had opened up their small apartment to her when they hadn’t seen her in years.

“So what was up with you and Hightower? You have to be careful with him, baby girl. He’s like a pit bull. And he can sniff out crime like McGruff the damn crime dog, you hear me?” Timmy barely glanced at her as he maneuvered the control in his hands, trying to beat his brother at the video game.

“You don’t want to be spending too much time around him, especially if you’re trying to lay low.” Tommy turned and gave her a serious stare before getting right back into the game too late to keep Timmy from scoring.

“I know that. Believe me I know. He just keeps showing up. If I weren’t trying to hide out, I would file a complaint. I’m surprised you guys haven’t filed a complaint yet. He really seems to have it in for you.”

“He’s been on us since we moved here a few years back. He’s like a one-man crusade to clean up the streets of Paterson and get rid of all the dealers. Sucker needs a hobby.” Timmy shouted when he scored.

Tommy scowled at his twin before adding, “The man needs a hug.” He then laughed at his own joke.

“Maybe that’s why he’s sniffing behind you like that, baby girl. For real, if your brother were here, he’d bust a cap in that ass on general principle. Calvin didn’t like
nobody
tryin’ to holla at his baby sister.” Timmy shook his head at the memory.

“Word. I remember he stepped to David like
whoa
a couple of times for trying to push up on her.” Tommy let out a shout of glee when he scored.

Timmy gave Tommy a weird look and Tommy started stuttering and backtracking.

“I’m s-s-ay-ing…I mean…well everybody knows David had a thing for her…But Calvin didn’t want his sister—” Tommy cut himself off.

“Man, it wasn’t even all like that. You always running your mouth and not thinking.” Timmy rolled his eyes in disgust.

“I think Timmy is right on this one, Tommy. I don’t think David liked me like that. At least not as far as I could tell…He was always like a second older brother.”

“Yeah. And now you’ve got us. And we aren’t about to let anyone take advantage of you, especially not some sucker cop like Hightower. We have to handle this the way we know our boy Calvin would have wanted it,” Timmy said with a chuckle.

“Y’all are so crazy. I’m gonna go read a book. I’ll fix dinner later. Any requests for the chicken?”

“Baby girl, however you prepare it is fine with me. You can cook your behind off. If I didn’t view you as a little sister, I’d be trying to get you to marry a brother!” Tommy gave one of his smiles that made her think he was as sweet and innocent as he often seemed. It was easy to see he was the tenderhearted twin.

Timmy rolled his eyes at his brother. “Whatever you do is cool. We appreciate all you’ve been doing around here.”

“It’s the least I can do since you’ve let me hide out here. I know it’s an inconvenience. And I—”

“Don’t even say it. Like we said before. We’ve got your back,” Timmy admonished and assured her with a stern words and an earnest look.

Tommy nodded in agreement as he scored the winning point and then stood up to do his own version of a victory dance.

Minerva smiled and went to the back of the apartment where the small room she was sleeping in was located. She really did want to find a way to pay them back for all the help they’d given her. She hoped to be able to do so soon. She picked up the paperback copy of Octavia Butler’s
Wild Seed
that she’d gotten from the library and started reading. About halfway through she started to doze off with thoughts of the sexy detective in her head.

“I was totally wrong about you and I apologize.” His hand brushed her cheek and his normally suspicious eyes held her in a seductive gaze.

Minerva leaned forward and parted her lips slightly. Lawrence looked so handsome standing there in her immaculate dream bedroom with his shirt off. The ripples of muscles she could only imagine so far reminded her of everything hard and firm and masculine.

She licked her lips and smiled. “It’s okay. You didn’t know any better.”

“But I should have. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about you. You’re an amazing, sweet and seductive woman and…”

She swallowed. “And…”

“And…” He covered her mouth with his, scorching her to her soul.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer before letting her fingers trail his skin. The taut and tempting muscles of his chest caused her heart to beat out of control. The teasing pull of his kiss made her nipples tighten and her sex weep. She moaned and tossed and turned trying to feel more of him.

“I should have known you would taste this sweet. You are the most amazing woman in the world and I want you.”

The next moan that escaped her lips was so loud it jolted her from her sleep.

Minerva sat up in the bed shaking her head. Detective Lawrence Hightower admitting he was wrong about her
had
to be a dream. Him kissing her breath away was truly a fantasy. But she couldn’t help the smile that stole across her face as she thought about becoming one of those people who believed dreams and fantasies could come true.

“N
othing is going to happen. Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen. I’ll probably be able to go back to California soon.” Minerva mumbled the mantra to herself as she walked back from the corner bodega that was three blocks away from their tenement with some seasonings and spices she had picked up to use with dinner.

I love fall. I’ll miss it when I get back to California. Which will be soon, because nothing has happened and nothing will…

After another week in New Jersey, over two months in all, she was starting to feel like a native. The fall came in with a bang and soon all the leaves on the trees in the neighborhood started turning these vibrant colors. She’d never seen anything like it growing up in Los Angeles. She’d seen pictures of fall foliage, but nothing could take the place of the yellows, oranges, rusts, browns and smatterings of green that transformed the trees. And it wasn’t as if there were a whole lot of trees in the neighborhood where she was hiding out, but what few there were looked magnificent.

She was shocked out of her leaf gazing when a large white van screeched up, driving halfway onto the sidewalk. Two men in masks jumped out and ran toward her.

One grabbed her and, as if she were on automatic pilot, she kicked back with her stiletto-heeled boots getting him first in the shin and then a little further up his leg. She assumed she must have hit her mark by the way he threw her forward and cursed.
You can take the girl out of the ’hood but not the ’hood out of the girl.

Dropping her bag, she screamed and turned to run in the other direction, cursing the stupid snug Apple Bottom dress she was wearing and the shoe booties. She got a good sprint on. But she knew in her heart there was no way she was going to be able to escape these men.

Her heart raced and she felt fear setting in. Fear like the kind she felt the night her brother was murdered. Was it her turn now?

I don’t wanna die yet. I can’t die yet.

Minerva turned to look behind her and found the other man that she hadn’t injured with her heel was almost within grabbing distance.

He reached out his hand to get her and she screamed. Her pulse seemed to be running nonstop. The air was starting to disappear and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to outrun them.

Thinking there was no way she could allow herself to go out like this, she picked up the pace, only to run smack-dab into what felt like a wall of steel. A strong arm held her in place and she looked up expecting to see another masked man.

She had never been happier to see Detective Lawrence Hightower in all her life. He held her with one hand and his gun with the other.

The men didn’t hesitate to take off, running back to their van. They jumped in and Lawrence ran after them, but he didn’t catch them.

Her breath came out in sharp pants and no matter how much she wanted to sob, she willed herself not to cry. She stared unblinkingly at the moving van until it turned into a blur.

They must have found her. She had to leave. But where could she go?

Lawrence walked back toward her, putting his gun in his holster.

“What was that about and why were those men after you?”

Minerva’s chest constricted and she tried to remember that she didn’t have asthma, so she couldn’t possibly be having an asthma attack. She also reminded herself there was no way she could tell the detective why the men were after her. She may not know whom she could trust, but history pretty much dictated that she couldn’t trust cops.

“I don’t know. That was so weird. They just came out of nowhere. Oh, my God!”

He frowned as he eyed her suspiciously. “You don’t know? You have no idea? Do I look stupid to you?”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eye.

The man
did
just save her life. She figured she should probably hold off on outright insults for at least a day or two. But he didn’t have to make it so easy and tempting. She was only human, so she could
barely
keep a flip comment from falling out of her mouth.

Her expression must have given away everything she wanted to say, because he really frowned then and took her arm, leading her to his navy-blue Ford Taurus.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“We’re going to go and file a report at the trailer and you’re going to tell me the truth.”

“I told you I don’t know. Why is it you never believe a word I say? You don’t know me. You have no reason to be so distrustful of me.” She tried to pull away, but he easily guided her into the backseat of the car and shut the door. She didn’t even bother to try to open it because she’d seen enough movies and heard enough stories from her brother and his boys to know that back doors of police cars didn’t open from the inside.

She sat and listened while he called in the details and requested officers to remain on the lookout for the white van. The entire time she listened to him speaking on the radio she tried to figure out what she was going to say. She couldn’t tell him the truth and she wasn’t sure she could just look him in the face and tell an outright lie.

Minerva nibbled her lips. The truth was, although she had some idea that her brother’s killers were after her, she didn’t know who they were. And even though she could assume they wanted her because they thought she knew something about the murder, she had no way of knowing anything with certainty.

“I think you’re wasting your time,” she said. “I saw the same thing you saw—men in masks. I didn’t even have time to try to get the plates.” She swallowed to calm herself. “As soon as they pulled up all crazy, I took off running.”

“They didn’t have any plates on the van. And I don’t think I’m wasting my time by trying to get you to tell me the truth. Something’s up with you. And I plan on finding out what it is. Folks don’t roll up trying to snatch someone in broad daylight in the ’hood for no reason.”

“And you know this because you have a handbook of 101 reasons to attempt a kidnapping in the ’hood or would that be the 101 reasons why people don’t snatch folks in the middle of the day in the ’hood? Or could it be because you are king of all the reasons why people would do
anything
at all?”

“That smart-ass mouth is really going to get you in trouble one day. I suggest you think about that long and hard before we get to the trailer.”

It didn’t take them long to get to the trailer in the heart of the ’hood. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

The Paterson Police Department seemed to be walking a thin line between
policing
and
police state,
in her opinion. Sure, it wasn’t the equivalent of the constantly flying helicopters, or ghetto birds, as they affectionately called them in South Central. But mini-police huts in the ’hood seemed just a bit over the top. Whatever happened to just driving through and heading on back downtown? It wasn’t like their presence really inhibited crime. All it did was ensure that she could never get away from the annoying detective.

She followed him into the trailer, happy that she wasn’t in handcuffs or anything. She had had that experience once in her life and she
never
wanted to go through that again.

“Hey, Hightower. What ya got for me?” A fat man with a mustache full of food eyed her up and down as he spoke. He had a stringy and greasy flap of hair pulled from one side of his big head to the other, trying to cover up a rather large bald spot.

“Not a thing, Johnson. I’m just going to question Ms. Samuels here about an attempted kidnapping.”

“There was an attempted kidnapping? Who almost got snatched?”

“Ms. Samuels.”

“Really.” The fat man looked her up and down.

She frowned because his survey clearly had a leering quality to it. The man gave her the creeps.

“We can talk back here, Ms. Samuels.”

Minerva followed Lawrence to the back of the trailer to a relatively small room with a large desk. There were two chairs in the room, one comfortable cushioned chair behind the desk and one hard wooden one. As she took the wooden seat in front of the desk she prepared herself to lie. There was no way she could tell him the truth. That wasn’t even an option, especially if someone had sent people after her when she hadn’t even spoken to the cops yet.

He took his seat behind the desk and eyed her warily. “So who were those people and why were they trying to snatch you up?”

“I don’t know and I don’t know.”

Not exactly a lie, per se.

She folded her arms across her chest and bit the inside of her cheek.

Please let that be enough for Officer Work-My-Nerves.

Lawrence shook his head. Why did he even bother? The woman was lying. A blind man could see that. Here he was trying to help the little idiot and she was content to just sit there and tell a bald-faced lie.

He gritted his teeth and pulled the collar on his knit shirt so it stretched slightly away from his suddenly heated neck.

“I’m trying to help you.” He bit his words out through clenched teeth and noticed her back straighten.

“Did I ask for your help?”

“Well, considering you would have been on your way to God knows where to be raped, tortured, murdered or God knows what if I hadn’t showed up—”

“You mean if you hadn’t been stalking me to make sure I didn’t commit some crime—”

“Watch it, Ms. Samuels. You’re treading on thin ice.”

Her lips twisted to the side and she shook her head.

“Were they enemies of the McKnight twins? Are they dealing again? Was the attempted kidnapping drug-related?” He fired off his questions one after the other, all the while keeping his eyes pinned on her.

She let her eyes roll toward the ceiling before cutting them at him.

“Or were they enemies of yours? You never did tell me what brings you to these parts, Ms. Samuels. Are you planning on making the Garden State your home now?”

She blinked. Her eyes shifted from side to side and she tried not to squirm in her seat.

Yep. Lying.
“I have all day. Ms. Samuels.” He leaned back in his chair and waited.

Her eyes snapped open. “Well, I don’t.”

“Then I suggest you start spilling. Who were those people and why were they after you?”

“Am I under arrest or something? Because I swear it feels like I’m the criminal here when you know full well I was almost the victim. I told you, I don’t
know
.”

“And I told
you
, I don’t believe you.”

She squirmed again, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes she looked him dead in his.

The depth in those huge dark brown pools almost took his breath away. Those eyes. That cute button nose. Those soft sensuous lips. Those dimples. Her face. He felt like he was drowning in a sea of beauty. He had to move his gaze to that two-toned hair and expensive hip-hop brand clothing to remind himself who she really was. No matter how sweet, sexy and innocent she appeared, she consorted with known drug dealers. More than likely, she was one of them.

She let out a hiss of breath. “I don’t know what to tell you, Detective Hightower. I can’t make something up. I really don’t know who those people were.”

He noticed that even though she looked him in the eyes and seemed sincere, she didn’t answer the rest of his questions.

Why are they after you, Minnie Samuels?

He leaned back in his chair. It was going to be a long day.

“I can’t believe you kept me in that funky little trailer for over two hours trying to get information I don’t have. If I had known exactly who tried to grab me, I would have told you.” Minerva hissed out her words in irritation as she and the grating-but-sexy Detective Hightower made their way up the stairs.

The only thing she knew now was that she had to leave Paterson, New Jersey, because the people who had murdered her brother had found her.

“The ride home was fine. You don’t have to walk me to my door, too. I know my way home.”

“Just use this quiet time to try and see if all of the information you claim you don’t know suddenly comes back to you.” His calm, cool and collected voice would have been sexy if it weren’t so damn irritating.

Jerk!
His stubbornness meant she would have to explain to Timmy and Tommy yet again why she was with the detective from hell. Not to mention that she had to figure out where she was going to run to next.

When they reached the door to the apartment, it was slightly ajar. A chill slid down her spine.

No. No. No.

The silent scream echoed in her head as déjà vu took over and she braced herself.

Her blood ran cold as the sight of Timmy and Tommy’s bodies, each with bullets in the center of their heads, met her gaze. She wrapped her arms around herself and took deep breaths.

Detective Hightower pulled out his gun and started racing through the apartment.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she whispered knowing the twins couldn’t hear her but needing to say something.

When Lawrence came back, Minerva was still standing in the same spot willing herself not to cry. She had shed so many tears on the cross-country bus ride from California that she felt all cried out. The only people who knew her and her brother, who cared about them besides David, were dead.

They’re dead because they tried to help me. I can’t let anyone else be hurt because of me. What am I going to do?

The detective called in the murders and paced the room as they waited for the coroner and more police backup.

She watched him pace and tried to keep herself from fleeing from the apartment. With more police on the way, Minerva didn’t know what to do.

I can barely handle one detective. How am I going be able to dodge questions from more of them?