Page 49

I held the door open for her and she left slowly, as I closed the door behind her. Turning, I looked at Lucia and she looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. The bags under her eyes were as big as my work bag without the laptop in it.

Her tanned skin was dull, and her hair was pulled up in a ponytail on top of her head. She was in sweatpants that had stains and a white shirt with the same amount of stains on it.

The house smelled stale, and everything was dull in here. Like there was no life in this home. Pictures of her and Parker were on the living room entertainment center.

The leather sectional screamed bachelor, and the coffee table filled with empty food containers and scattered mail, told me this was where she ate, slept, and probably shitted.

The TV was on the news, as I watched the outside of the house that I was currently in. Lucia laughed to herself and then messed with a loose strand of hair that was in front of her head.

Even before all of this happened, life hadn’t been kind to her. Lucia had made her entire life into being a detective. Always on the scene, never taking a day off, and putting this career before having a family.

“I loved him, you know.” She noticed me looking at a picture of them, and Rich looked miserable. “He never loved me, but whatever.”

She pulled a cigarette out the carton that was next to her. I watched her light the cigarette and take a nice long pull. “That’s sad.”

“Yeah. Not everyone is going to love you. I can’t be one of you bitches… tight pants, makeup and heels.” She looked at my heels in disgust.

Lucia was jealous of any woman that she felt was prettier than her. Her entire career, she had been known as one of the guys. They didn’t see her as one of the women they drooled over.

A sexy court clerk, a new, younger and beautiful detective, or a lawyer that breezed into the station. “Why do you assume everyone loves me?”

She scoffed. “Do you see how the men stare at you in court? How they would give anything to just smell your panties?”

“I’m there to work, not look at who wants to fuck me.” I replied.

She gestured to the chair that was sitting outside of the kitchen. More than likely, that was where she had Irie sitting. “Hmph. I was there to work and had plenty of entanglements with colleagues.”

I watched as she took another pull and snorted to herself. “Yeah…well.”

What the fuck did she want me to say? She fucked her way through her squad, that wasn’t my story. I already let a nigga that wasn’t worthy not only sniff around me but marry me and played me like I was stupid.

My confidence these days was higher, and that was because I knew I was pressure. “You know I know that you are an Inferno.”

“Kind of guessed that already, Lucia.”

“Could use you as my way out.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Your way out of what? What has the Infernos done to be even implicated in any of this? Your name is being dropped, and you’re scared… serves you right.”

“I did what the fuck I had to do.”

“Tricking them women into being live cattle? Robbing them of their decency and rights? As a woman, you were alright collecting the money as long as it wasn’t you.

See, Detective Parker, you are the kind of woman we call a pick me .

As long as you’re great with the men, fuck the rest of us… then allowing Mercer to abuse a child.”

Tears slid down her face as she continued to pull on the cigarette. “Do you think I had an option? I had the choice to say no?”

She laughed while tears continued to slide down her face. “Thea Armstrong? You tricked her to come here, then had her having a baby with your husband.”

“That bitch owes me… I allowed her to live when they wanted to kill her. Did she think it was a free ride? She didn’t get to pick up and just go on with her life.”

“Why not?”

“Cause she knew too much.”

I leaned back and crossed my legs. “What did she know?”

“She just knew too much. You judging me like I allowed Mercer into that room with that boy… he was a bastard anyway.”

My heart broke with the way she spoke about my nephew. As if his life and feelings didn’t matter to her. Of course, it wouldn’t matter to her because she felt he was disposable. His life didn’t matter, just like all those women that were found at that clinic.

My foot shook as I stared at her. Disgusting was too nice of a word to use on her. She was the bottom of the bottom and deserved everything that came to her.

“He was a fucking child! You both failed him for your own selfish gain.”

“Mercer did those things, not me. I played my part because that was all I could do. Blame his precious mother… she failed him the minute she got pregnant with him by my husband.”

“Oh, so you mad because Rich fucked another woman? Make the child pay because you’re too weak to leave? Too weak to choose yourself?”

The tears were pouring down her face as she stared at me.

“You don’t know what the fuck I went through with that man.

He would never leave her alone. He was always going to pick her as long as she was alive.

Cherie deserved to die because she was so fucking nice.

Always being nice to turn him down and he would never fucking leave her alone! ” She screamed out, and I paused.

Did this bitch just admit to killing Cherie because of Rich? The way I had been told, the story has always been that Rich called the hit on Cherie.

“So, you killed her. Took a mother from her child because your nigga didn’t want you?

Let me tell you something, Lucia. Had I sat on Rich’s desk, opened my legs, and told him to eat my pussy while on a conference call, he would have done it.

Your husband was a fucking munch, a nigga looking for something better than you, and instead of collecting whatever self-worth you had and leaving, you decided to kill a woman and traumatize a fucking child. Worthless.”

She stared at me, not even surprised by my disgust. Mostly because she was used to it. Lucia had sat with the decisions she had made within her life. She loved a man, continued to build him up while he broke her down. She never loved herself enough to walk away.

To choose her.

I could relate with her loosely when it came to loving a man so much that you changed who you were, broke your own heart to make things right for him.

My sympathies stopped when I saw what she did. What her weakness and low confidence had caused. It was one thing to self-destruct, but that wasn’t what Lucia did.

She destroyed countless women’s lives, and a little boy.

Elijah was the only one we knew about. According to files, there had been countless child porn images on his personal computer hidden in a false corrupted file.

It took Corleon breaking into it to uncover everything and forward it to the FBI from an untraceable email.

I wished I could sit here and pretend that Lucia’s only crime was wanting to be loved. She sat back and watched these men wreak havoc on these women and said nothing. Covered it up because they greased her palms, and it put her husband into a higher position.

“It’s easy to sit here and judge me when you haven’t walked a mile in my shoes.”

“Love, I don’t even want to take a step. What do you need me for? Mercer is telling everything, and he has already named you. If you thought calling me in here was going to be some woman’s circle where I convince you to put the gun down and walk out with me, you’re wrong.”

“Are you a mother?”

“I am.”

“Didn’t take you as being a mother.” She snorted.

I leaned back again. “Yeah, well, instead of eating lunch or planning my baby’s first birthday, I am here with you. I am here listening to your regrets and things you wished you had done… you a mother?”

“Rich didn’t want children.”

“But got a junkie pregnant.”

“She wasn’t always that way.” she defended Thea.

I shrugged. “What do you want from me, Lucia? Do you want me to cut a deal that helps you out of this? This is federal, Beloved… I can’t help you. Not that I would.”

“Mercer lies.”

“And you do, too. I’m here to dare you to put that gun to your head and pull the trigger.

Do you think they’re going to give you a pat on the back?

Elijah has papers, legal papers, since Thea abandoned him.

Do you really want to put him on a stand in front of the jury as he tells you everything that happened to him?

How his mother forced alcohol down his throat whenever you lined up meetings with Mercer?

His mother would hold his hand through the entire thing, knowing we would put you away. ”

“Thea is selfish, she would never?—”

“His real mother. Elijah Inferno has a real mother, and not one that sold him up the river because she was just as weak as you. By the way, she’s about to sell you up the river, too. I heard she’s been handing over evidence and wanting to speak… she came out of hiding to put you under the jail.”

Her jaw dropped.

“No.”

“Got wind of it outside.” I leaned forward and rested my arms on my legs.

“You can walk out of here with me where they will take you downtown Brooklyn to the federal holding, and you’ll sit and wait to be denied bail.

Mercer is the surgeon general, and they kept his ass in there. What you think will happen to you?”

“My other option?”

“Put that gun to your head and pull the trigger. Go be with your husband in hell, Lucia… it’s clear that you’re not happy here and won’t ever be happy. This won’t end the way you want it to. I can promise you that.”

“That little boy isn’t your family. You don’t even know him… why is he so important?”

“Delgatos and Infernos stick together, always. Elijah came to us broken and unprotected, and we’re all going to make sure he never feels that way again.

He’ll always be protected as the future King Inferno.

You tried to break him, and didn’t succeed.

You hated a baby, a child, someone that didn’t ask to be here.

Like I said, you can walk out here with me, District Attorney Fern, but I can promise, Capri Inferno is who will revisit you…

The reach I have is beyond yours, Lucia. ”

The phone rang in her hand, and she looked at me, her eyes red and hands shaking as she answered the house phone. “Ye..yeah?”

I watched as she pressed the button to put the call on speaker. “Detective Parker, you’re making me nervous. You have a district attorney in there… let us know something. DA Fern, are you alright?”

“Splendid, Rick.”

He took a deep breath. “How is it looking for me, Rick? Don’t give me the bullshit spiel to get me out there… from officer to officer, tell me how this looks.”

The line grew quiet as he heaved a sigh. “Lucia, none of this looks good. A murder, child pornography, and an illegal egg farming ring. None of this looks good for you or Mercer right now.”

“How many hostage situations have we been in together, Rick?”

“Too many, Lucia.”

She chuckled. “Never thought you would be negotiating with me, huh?”

“Doesn’t have to end like that. Face the music and tell them your side. I hear the US attorney is lenient and will give some grace if you get ahead of this before Mercer starts trying to cut a deal.”

“Mercer has the money for good fucking lawyers… I don’t have that. Money comes and goes, and it has been going. They won’t believe their precious surgeon general is responsible for this.”

He took another sigh. “I’ll help however I can. Lucia, face the music. Don’t allow this to drag your name down.”

I made the gun motion and put it to my head while swinging my foot. She stared at me as she looked down at the phone and gun in her lap. It was like she was trying to decide which path to take.

The path with Rick promising her that she could cut a deal, which he knew wasn’t the truth. Or the other path, that would grant her eternity with her husband.

The man that could never choose her.

Tears streamed down her face as she used her index finger to outline the phone in her lap. Leaning her head back on the cabinets, she continued to allow the tears to flow.

“Rick, it’s been great, you know?” She sniffled.

“Wh…what do you mean, Lucia?”

I watched as she wrapped her finger around the trigger of the gun, lifted it to her head, and looked at me. “It was easy being a pick me because no one ever picked m?—”

POW!

I was frozen in place, sitting in the chair, staring at her after she had blown her brains out. My heart was beating out of control, but I couldn’t bring myself to move from the chair.

Not even seconds later, I saw my brothers rush into the house with their guns drawn. Capone came over toward me and grabbed me from the chair.

Lucia’s head poured with blood as she leaned against the cabinet, and her eyes were open as they stared at me. Capone held my hand as he walked me out the house.

As much as I told her what to do, my body was in shock. Soon as I exited the house, everyone swarmed me and rushed me over to an ambulance. “Back the fuck up, I got her.” Capone barked, as they tried to grab me to get me there quicker. “Pri, give me the word and I’ll take you out of here.”

“I…I need Meer. Capone, I need him,” I stammered.

As the last word made it from my lips, Meer came limping over toward me with his hoodie pulled over his head and his head down and I rushed into his arms, not caring.

He kissed my head and looked me in the eyes. “Couldn’t fucking breathe while you were in there.”

“You came for me.”

“I’m always here, Sug. Never letting you get away from me and never too far from you.”

They were still trying to usher me to the ambulance, and I didn’t want to go. Meer held my hand as he fought through the crowd until we got to an SUV.

“Yo my man, get us off this block,” he told the driver, and he quickly rushed around to get into the truck, while Meer helped me and got in behind me.

“I need to hold the girls.”

He nodded his head, and I knew he was going to make sure we made it home so I could hold both Peach and Cherry. His lips never left my forehead as I rested my head on his chest. I could feel his heart beating out of his chest.

Knowing I was inside, and he couldn’t do anything was probably the scariest thing he had been through. I reached up and kissed his burns as he looked at me. “Never again, Sug.”

“Never again.”