He pushed out of his chair and started in her direction. “You think he ain’t got nothing better to do than sit round here waiting on you to pay him a visit?”
“Actually”—she folded her arms over her chest since he appeared to prefer staring at her breasts—“I don’t care. Tell him I’m here.”
“Who do you think you are, bitch?” He halted two paces away. Glared down at her.
Fear tap-danced up her spine. “The bitch who has what he wants.” That her voice remained steady startled her.
He stared at her, apparently searching that fat head of his for some sort of comeback.
Rap music blasted the air. The goon reached for the cell phone clipped to his waist. “Yo.”
CJ resisted the impulse to make a go for the door. She didn’t have her pepper spray and this guy was big.
He closed the phone without further conversation and sent her another of those lethal glares. “The King says you can come in.”
Deep breath.Be calm.
She paused, one hand on the door.
No.
Not calm.
She squeezed her eyes shut, summoned the necessary attitude, then gave the doorknob a twist. She stamped inside and searched the living room for the man she’d come to see.
Where the hell was he?
“I thought we were done talking, Doc.”
She turned in time to watch him descend the stairs.
He took the final step. “Maybe you didn’t get the message the first or the second time.” He stared straight into her eyes with his bottomless dark pits. “Do I need to send it again?”
The blood on the bedroom wall ... on the sheets ... the bruises on poor Celeste’s slim body floated in front of her eyes. “I got the message, Tyrone.” She reached for all the anger, all the fury she could muster. This son of a bitch might have killed her sister and Celeste. He’d killed others ... mistreated all within his realm of power.
She hated him.
Wished that the knife she’d wielded all those years ago had hit its mark—his no-good throat instead of his face.
“I have an offer for you.” Fear tried to usurp her bravado. She tamped it back. “One I don’t think you’ll be able to refuse.”
He reared his head back and laughed. “You stupid bitch.” He shook his head. “What the hell you think you got that I’d be interested in?”
Contempt so strong that she could scarcely speak coursed through her. She thought of what Juanita and Carter had done to Shelley. They would pay too. But first Tyrone would get his. “That makes it easier, doesn’t it?”
His own contempt for her flared in those evil eyes. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You couldn’t have me then, you know damned well you can’t now. So you pretend you don’t want me. Makes it easier.”
He rushed into her personal space. “You listen to me, CJ Patterson.” He put his nose tip to tip with hers. “I will cut that sharp tongue outtayour mouth if you keep getting in my shit. They like doctors who can’t talk up there in Baltimore?”
Fear thumped against her chest walls.Don’t let him see it! Stay strong. Pissed off! This bastard abused and murdered women!“I guess you don’t want to know what I have to offer.”
He drew back just far enough to look her up and down. “Speak. Fast. You smellin’ up my house.”
Here goes. “I will gladly bury my sister and go back to Baltimore. Ononecondition.”
He snickered. “Ho, you ain’t got no leverage here. Don’t be telling me you got one condition. I don’t give one damn what you got.”
