Say It Ain't So Read online

  God, help us, she prayed silently. Then her eyes opened, and she saw they were now facing the vehicle as it turned to speed away.

  “What the hell is going on?” Nick spoke slowly.

  Paisley could hear approaching sirens, and in the distance she saw the flashing blue lights Nick was just asking for.

  “Ma’am, ma’am!” the operator was yelling from Paisley’s phone. “Are you all right?”

  Paisley put the phone to her ear. “Yeah, we’re fine. The police are coming.”

  It was as if she was having an out-of-body experience and watching everything happening in slow motion. Nick opened his door and got out, waving at the police cars that were now pulling up to them. Paisley unhooked her seatbelt and opened her door, but she couldn’t move. She sat in the truck, stunned beyond belief.

  “Paisley.” She looked up and saw Nick reaching for her, a state trooper right behind him. “Can you walk?”

  Paisley shrugged, not sure if she was stable enough mentally or physically to get out of the truck.

  “Just stay right there, ma’am. The medics are on their way.” The state trooper nodded reassuringly.

  “No, I’m fine,” Paisley finally said.

  “Are you sure? Maybe we need to get you checked out,” Nick suggested.

  “I’m sure,” she told him. She looked down and saw that her Slurpee was now a melted glob of brown ice, much like how she felt at that moment.

  Nick

  Now, I have to admit, I have fantasized about being alone with Paisley Lawrence. What African American male between the ages of fifteen and forty-five hasn’t? But never in a million years would I have dreamt that we would be alone in my ride, and my fantasies never included us being in a high-speed car chase. That had to be the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I don’t think any of my boys would believe me if I told them, so I’m not even gonna bother. Hell, they hardly believe me when I tell them she comes into the coffee shop almost every day, and they think I’m lying when I try to tell them how cool and down-to-earth she truly is.

  I ain’t gonna front. I was kinda psyched when she ran up on me at Street Dreams and asked me for a ride. I ain’t know what the hell was going on. Then, when she had me take her to the hotel and park around back, a brother was kinda hoping she was gonna turn and say that she had been secretly wanting me from the moment we met, and had been planning this night for weeks. Then, she would invite me upstairs where she would slowly undress me and ravish my body. Needless to say, that shit didn’t happen. The only thing she turned to me and said (after removing her fronts which, for some reason, made her even sexier to me) was, “Stay here, and don’t move. I will be back in a few.” She was so adamant that in the back of my mind, I had to wonder if she was going to kill or rob someone and I would be charged as her accomplice. But I waited, and low and behold, she returns twenty minutes later, tears falling, and telling me to drive. So, I drive. For the life of me, I am trying to recall if maybe I saw someone waiting or lingering in the parking lot while I was sitting there.

  I really didn’t say much to Paisley during the ride after she got into my truck. I could tell she had a lot on her mind and I could relate. Sometimes, all you need is a nice long drive to process everything going on in your life. Hell, I have a lot going on myself. And there are times when you just need someone on the ride with you to keep you company. I’m glad I was able to be that person for Paisley Lawrence. It had to be one of the greatest rides of my life.

  Chapter 18

  “Where the hell are you now?” Fallon screamed through the phone. “I’m on my way home.” Paisley tried to ignore the frustration in her friend’s voice. “Are you at the police station?”

  “No, we filed a report and we left already.”

  “Who the hell is ‘we’? You know what, never mind. We’ll meet you there!” Fallon hung up before Paisley had a chance to say anything else.

  “Turn here,” Paisley said to Nick as he approached her street.

  “Wow.” Nick whistled. “Wellington Estates. I’m impressed. All the houses out here are hella big. I figured you would have a pimped-out condo or a spot in one of the high-rises. You live in a mansion. You got servants, too? A maid, a butler?”

  “You’re not funny.” She gave him a sarcastic look, directing him to her home.

  “Seriously, what made you buy a crib out here?” he asked.

  Paisley looked at the humongous homes that lined the streets as they drove by. Even in the darkness, you could still make out the perfectly manicured lawns. She smiled, and for the first time in her life, she confessed the reason she had bought the huge house. “Because I wanted to make my mother look stupid.”

  “Huh?” He looked at her strangely.

  “My teenage years were kinda crazy,” she sighed.

  “Whose weren’t?”

  “No, I mean, my mother was really strict. She was an assistant principal at the high school I attended. I was an honor roll student, active in sports, dance, and church. But she didn’t allow me any freedom whatsoever. I couldn’t talk on the phone, have people come over to the house, no guy friends at all. And I was sixteen.”

  “Damn, Moms was strict.” Nick nodded.

  “My house was like a prison and she was the warden.”

  “Where was your dad?”

  “He was there, and he constantly told my mother she was being ridiculous, but she wasn’t trying to hear that. She reminded him that she was an educator who dealt with teenagers and their issues on a daily basis, whereas he was a steel worker with a high school diploma. Needless to say, he got tired of arguing with her and so did I. I dipped out during my junior year of high school.” Paisley recalled packing up her clothes and things she thought she would need, including her bedroom furniture, one afternoon when no one was home and moving into the home of one of her basketball teammates. Her mother quickly came looking for her and threatened to have the girl’s mother arrested for not only allowing Paisley to stay there, but because Paisley had moved her bedroom set into the woman’s home, she threatened to file a theft report as well.

  “Damn, I bet your mother was even harder on you when you came back home.” Nick laughed. “She probably ain’t even let you sleep back in your own bed for a minute.”

  “I never went back home.”

  “Huh?”

  “I took the furniture back, but I didn’t go. I dropped out of school and kept moving. There was no way I could live there again.”

  “Where did you live?”

  “With boyfriends, mostly. I was young and cute,” she laughed. “I lied about my age and I learned how to tend bar. Got a job at a strip club, Diesel came in one night and decided I was the next big music video star, and the rest is history,” she told him, purposely leaving out the part where she met and fell in love with Warren Cobb along the way.

  “So, how does buying the house make your mother look stupid?”

  “When I ran away from home and dropped out of school, my mother said that I would never be anything; that I would never achieve anything. She expected me to come crawling back, begging her for a handout. It pushed me to be the best, to work harder, and to make it. I only did the video vixen thing to put myself through school; it isn’t exactly what I strived to be in life. But I did get a little satisfaction knowing that every time my mother saw me on that TV screen, scantily dressed in a bikini, grinding on a guy, she would cringe. And this is the house she said I would never be able to afford. When I saw it, I knew that I was going to decorate it perfectly, and I was going to have a fabulous housewarming and invite her, so that when she pulled into my driveway—which is the third one on the right, by the way—she would have the stupidest look on her face and I would have, as they say, arrived.”

  Nick slowed down and pulled into the circular driveway. “Home sweet home.”

  “Yes, indeed.” Paisley nodded.

  “You need me to help you inside?” Nick asked.

  “I think I got it,” Paisley sa
id, opening her door. Her back was already stiffening and she grimaced in pain.

  Paisley’s front door quickly opened and Fallon, Landon, and Chester rushed toward her. The evil look Landon gave her did not go unnoticed.

  “Oh my God! Paisley, what the hell happened?” Fallon called out. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m a little achy, but I’m fine,” Paisley told her.

  “Let me carry you inside.” Nick went to pick Paisley up but Landon stopped him.

  “I got her.” Landon put his arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground. Nick, Chester, and Fallon followed him as he carried Paisley inside and laid her on the sofa.

  “I’m gonna call Dr. Singleton,” Fallon said. “You probably need to get checked out.”

  “I’m fine,” Paisley told her. “I just need a hot bath and to stretch my back out before it tightens.”

  “I know you from somewhere.” Chester peered at Nick.

  “Aren’t you the dude from the Java’s?” Landon frowned.

  “Yeah, Nick,” Nick answered.

  “How the hell did you end up with the guy from the Java’s?” Fallon asked.

  “He gave me a ride home from the club,” Paisley told her.

  “But you didn’t come home, Paisley. Your house is twenty minutes from the club. You left there damn near three hours ago and this high-speed chase took place on the opposite side of town, nowhere near here. You didn’t go straight home when you left.” Landon stared at her, waiting for her answer.

  “We rode around for a while, listening to jazz,” Nick offered. “It seemed to relax her after all the heat and excitement of the club.”

  “Yeah, right,” Landon said sarcastically.

  “What’s your problem?” Nick questioned.

  “He’s pissed.” Chester glared at Paisley. “And so am I. We all are, but I’ll address that issue another time.”

  “I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.” Paisley’s jaw tightened. “I’m sorry.”

  “You obviously didn’t think at all,” Landon answered. “Well, I take that back, you probably did think, but you only thought of yourself. You didn’t think about your family or friends who may have been worried. You also didn’t think about putting anyone else in danger, or you wouldn’t have involved this young man.”

  Landon’s words both stunned and stung Paisley. She knew what he was saying was right, but she didn’t appreciate his chastising her in front of everyone. She looked over to Chester for some support, but when her eyes met his, she could see that he agreed with Landon.

  “I wasn’t feeling well and I needed to leave. It was crowded and I just got overwhelmed. I ran into Nick, and he offered to give me a ride home,” Paisley lied. “Everyone was having a great time and I didn’t want to be a burden, so I left.”

  “But do you see the predicament you put us in when you disappeared? You’re not even thinking rationally, Paisley. Do you know how worried we were about you?”

  “I know.” Paisley began to feel worse and worse about her impulsive decision to leave the club to go see Warren. “I just didn’t want to interrupt anyone’s good time.”

  “Well, guess what, Paisley? You did. You messed up everybody’s good time.”

  “I’m sorry, really, Fallon,” Paisley started.

  “That’s some straight bullshit and you know it!”

  It was the first time Paisley had heard Landon curse and it took her by surprise.

  “Yeah, that’s what I said, bullshit! You’re not sorry, you’re selfish, that’s what you are. I don’t know why you pulled this little disappearing act tonight, and I really don’t care. What I do know is that you have no regard for your life or mine and I’m tired of your little games. I’m not one of your little flunkies, believe it or not. My purpose for being here is to keep you safe. If something worse had happened to you tonight, my ass would’ve been on the line. How do you think I felt when you were missing and everyone was looking at me? No one cared about the fact that I had just kept Bobby’s drunk ass from yoking Seymone up like he had lost his mind. Not to mention I did it without beating the hell out of him, which is really what I wanted to do, but I didn’t. All that was irrelevant once we realized that you were missing and no one could get in contact with you; all that mattered to everyone at that point was that you were my responsibility, and I didn’t know where you were. It was all my fault. And you know what, they were right. Your safety and well being are the only things I should’ve been concerned with. I will be the first one to admit that I looked like a total asshole, but believe me, it won’t happen again. I promise.” With that said, and everyone staring, Landon walked out of the house, slamming the front door behind him.

  “What is he talking about? Where is Seymone?”

  “She went with Bobby to the hospital,” Fallon told her.

  “Hospital? For what?” Paisley was confused.

  “Well, I guess you dipped out before the fireworks erupted. Your personal security guard knocked Bobby the hell out,” Fallon said matter-of-factly.

  “You’re lying.” Paisley’s eyes widened.

  “No, I’m not. Things got really ugly and the press was front and center. Took a minute, but things calmed down and then we realized that you were nowhere to be found. That started a whole other scene . . .”

  Paisley began to realize that running off to see Warren wasn’t worth the chaos that she’d caused. The house phone began ringing and Paisley grabbed it, thinking that it was Seymone or Diesel.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “You’re playing a dangerous game and you betta stop before someone gets hurt!”

  A chill ran down Paisley’s spine and her heart began racing. “What are you talking about? Who is this?”

  “Let’s call it a friendly warning. I hate women like you, you and your little damsel-in-distress act, putting people’s lives in danger just for kicks. Well, you better get ready,” the voice said. “Game over!”

  Kenya

  The time has come for me to finally put my foot down. It’s as simple as this: Landon has to quit. There’s no reason for him to be working for this chick and there’s no way I’m gonna allow this nonsense to continue, especially after last night. I’ve put up with it for this long and I’m not dealing with it anymore. It’s bad enough that he’s sleeping at her house, following her around looking more like a sick puppy than a bodyguard in the tabloid pictures. And I’m beginning to think that this is more of an opportunity for him to hobnob with the ghetto celebs than providing the supposed protection that she needs. Why does he need to be around her twenty, four, seven? So she can feel special? She’s a video ho for God’s sake, not Condoleeza freakin’ Rice. I can’t believe Landon’s dumb self doesn’t see that this is all part of her little stunt. Well, it’s about to stop. This whole ordeal regarding Paisley Lawrence has been nothing but a distraction from what we need to be doing. We have a wedding to plan, a house to buy, and a future to prepare for. Landon is out playing rent-a-cop for a high-class whore; he needs to be getting a real job. I mean, it’s ridiculous for a man his age to be working as someone’s “personal security” anyway. Working for Warren Cobb is one thing. I mean, after all, not only is he world-famous, but he’s a man of God. But this chick is a straight-up nobody. I’m sure they could easily hire one of the young thugs who worship the magazine covers she graces to walk beside her into a nightclub and block the one or two photographers that are trying to take her picture. Landon needs to man up and realize that he needs to get it together. Paisley Lawrence has no regard for her own safety or privacy, while he’s trying to protect her. How can you save someone who doesn’t want to be saved? He needs an eye opener and he’s about to get one. That’s for sure.

  “Kenya, what are you doing here?”

  Kenya was doubly surprised. One, she was expecting a maid or butler to answer the door, not Landon. And two, she thought he would be a little more happy to see her. He looked as if he had been up all night and his face was br
uised.

  “Well, that’s not the reaction I expected,” Kenya commented as she reached out to touch his face. “What happened to you? Did you get into a fight?”

  Landon grabbed her wrist and pushed her away. “I’m fine. What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you,” she told him.

  “Why? What was so important that you had to drive all the way over here without calling first?” Landon asked.

  “Why should I have to call, Landon? Is there some reason I can’t come by to check on you? Are you doing something that you don’t want me to see you doing?” Kenya folded her arms and stood back, waiting for Landon to answer.

  He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “Yeah, Kenya, it’s called working. I don’t come popping up at the high school checking up on you, do I?”

  “I don’t work as a live-in bodyguard for a famous whore who’s known for trying to take what isn’t hers,” Kenya snapped at him.

  “Don’t do that,” Landon warned. “Don’t start tripping. I’m not even in the mood right now.”

  “Listen, Landon,” Kenya’s voice softened, “you can’t keep doing this. It’s stressing you out and it’s affecting on our relationship. Can’t you see that? You’re staying out all night, hanging with these demonic people. That’s not you. You left that lifestyle a long time ago. You’re better than this and you know it.”

  “I can handle this, Kenya, and you know that. I’ve been doing this long enough to know what I’m doing.”

  “You’re right, you’ve been doing this long enough. Maybe it’s time . . .”

  Kenya was interrupted by a black Range Rover pulling into the driveway. The passenger door opened and a beautiful woman hopped out, dressed in a form-fitting black jumpsuit and the baddest black stiletto heels Kenya had ever seen. She was draped in diamonds, and although it wasn’t even nine in the morning, her makeup and hair were flawless. She was so stunning that Kenya had to wonder if she woke up looking that damn perfect. There’s no way, she probably has to get up at like four in the morning to get herself together. The woman was thick, but she was shapely in all the right places, and Kenya watched the long, perfect strides along the driveway as she walked toward them. She noticed that the man driving the truck was also staring at the woman, and so was Landon. Kenya was suddenly conscious of her own attire consisting of a pair of Old Navy jeans and a baby tee; she ran her fingers through her short but neat bob. Seconds later, the truck backed out the driveway and pulled off.