Authors: Faith Price
“Most of his clients need to be anonymous, therefore so does he.”
“Isn’t this kind of lifestyle harder to maintain than a normal one?”
“Explain normal to me, Serene.”
She stood from the couch and straightened some magazines she had left on the coffee table. “Oh I don’t know, one that doesn’t require
anonymity.
”
Lawson chose to not acknowledge the comment. What could he say?
“Look, I have some extra things to take care of for a few days. I may not be back until Saturday.”
Serene wasn’t going to grace him with a response. She simply nodded and picked up the book she had been reading. Lawson watched her and, at the same time, watched the gulf continue to grow between them.
* * * *
The week seemed to drag for Serene, but for Lawson it was moving entirely too fast. He had a plan that would be executed over the weekend, and he was in no hurry for it to get here.
Mike looked at him for a long time. He remained leaned back in his expensive leather chair with a forefinger draped over his thin black mustache, and a thumb supporting his chin. His eyes bored into Lawson but he knew there would be no dissuading him. Mike finally lifted his eyebrows and straightened in his chair.
“I just don’t understand.”
“You don’t understand which part, Mike?”
“Honestly, all of it.” He spread his hands out on the desk and shook his head. “Look, buddy, you’re an incredibly wealthy man, and you don’t live like one. Do you know what that means?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” Lawson lit a cigarette and exhaled the blue gray smoke slowly.
“It means you’re under the radar; virtually undetectable by the authorities. You don’t live extravagantly, you pay your taxes,
and
you’re hardly ever seen anywhere.”
Lawson smiled and took another drag from his cigarette. “So, I’m a money hoarder.”
Mike shook his head, clearly irritated. “
No
, it means no one would give you a cursory glance. You aren’t considered a big dog, when in reality you are. It reminds me of what Frank Lucas did when he first started his trade.”
Lawson rolled his eyes and crushed the cigarette butt out in Mike’s expensive cut glass ashtray. “I’m no Frank Lucas. I’m a small time dealer. You know this. Small time dealers have their trade absorbed easily. I bet you have someone in mind already.”
Mike leaned forward in his chair slapping his hands on the desk. “You cannot liquidate this much stuff so quickly! There will be questions!”
“Which you will have answers for.” Lawson stood and smiled at his friend. “Goodnight, Mike. You’re a literal genius; I know you’ll handle it.”
Mike leaned back in his chair again and harrumphed, but Lawson knew his head grew an extra inch from the compliment. Mike liked to be stroked. As if to remind him of that fact, a busty red head with a painted on dress strolled off the elevator. Lawson ignored her quick glance and the frown forming on her heavily painted mouth.
After she passed him, he glanced over his shoulder and watched her hips wiggle into Mike’s closed office. Lawson pressed the first floor button and grinned. He wondered what Mike’s ex-wives and current mistress would think about his call girl. Lawson couldn’t help but let the laughter loose that bubbled up his throat as the shiny doors slid shut.
* * * *
Serene strolled up and down the aisles carefully picking out items for that night’s dinner. She wanted it to be extra special. Lawson had been gone all week. She wanted to prove to him that she did in fact love him, and could be a useful asset to him. Asset seemed too sterile a word, but the situation was precarious and she wasn’t sure what to call it.
Serene Mitchell would be unrecognizable to her former acquaintances if they could see her now. She even surprised herself sometimes when she looked in the mirror. Her skin was still fair, but it wasn’t sickly pale. She no longer had bags under her eyes and her hair was always done and healthy. She had also shed her scrawny figure. With the magic of regular meals, daily walking, and some light weight training; she was toned and curvy.
When she did go out it earned her a second glance from many men. She just didn’t care. Everything she did was for Lawson. It was always Lawson. If she put curlers in her hair, painted her nails, shaved her legs, whatever; it was done for Lawson.
He had picked her up one evening right before she had gotten sick and driven her to a car dealership. He told her to ask for a man named Randall and that he would give her keys to a car. Serene had felt a moment of irritation, thinking to herself why couldn’t she pick out her own car? That thought evaporated the moment she saw the car. It was a beautiful black Mercedes.
The man named Randall was spewing out the details like a pro. It was in the something C class. It was a real power house. She was going to love it. Don’t worry about it being used, because it only had 40,000 miles on it. He droned on and on, and all Serene wanted to do was get in a drive. When she finally was in the car, she ran her hand over the smooth leather and couldn’t believe she was going to drive a car that impressive. 40,000 miles or not, it still smelled and looked brand new.
Serene looked at a box of chocolate pastries on display by the bakery. She remembered the morning she had unknowingly seduced Lawson at breakfast with a cream cheese one.
Couldn’t hurt.
She thought, placing the box in the basket.
Serene drove home with her mind in a tangle of thoughts. Things were strained between her and Lawson. She wanted to make it right. She didn’t care anymore that he was a criminal like everyone else she had ever known. She didn’t care about his mask, either. He had been good to her, what did it matter?
Serene pulled into the driveway and slammed on the brakes halfway up the drive. The front door was sitting wide open.
* * * *
“Have you called the police?”
“No, I haven’t. With your type of work, I was sure you wouldn’t want them around.” Serene kept her voice steady. Irritating Lawson was not going to help what she was trying to accomplish. She heard him sigh on the other end. “I’m not taking a free dig at you. It’s just a fact.”
“You’re right. Listen, I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Don’t go in until I get there.”
“Lawson, I have food in the car.”
He was glad Serene couldn’t see him roll his eyes. “In the trunk?”
“Yes.”
“Serene, it’s thirty-four degrees outside.”
“Ok. I’ll just back out and park on the side of the road.
“Good girl.”
Night was falling fast and Serene was relieved to see Lawson’s truck in the rear view mirror. She watched the turn signal come on, and started her car. She knew the house would be chilly since the front door had been sitting open, but at least she didn’t have to go in alone. She parked behind Lawson and saw him exit the truck with a gun in his hand. His expression was given away by the firm set of his jaw and the hard line of his mouth. He would kill anyone he found in there; Serene was sure of this.
He motioned for her to stay back and mounted the stairs quietly with sideways steps. The way he held the gun with both hands pointed down to the ground and leaned against the house to peek in with as much cover as possible, reminded her of the way policemen moved when they were entering a home. She wondered how he knew what to do. He moved quickly to the other side of the door so he could look in from the opposite direction. Serene sucked in her breath when he entered the house. She closed her eyes and waited for the gunshot, but after several minutes there wasn’t one.
Lawson came to the doorway and motioned for her to come in. He still had the gun in his hand. She didn’t like the scowl that was on his face. It took her a moment to recognize the odor, and once she did, she dropped her bags and covered her nose and mouth. Someone had smeared human feces all over the living room walls and furniture. She looked at Lawson with wide frantic eyes.
“Who….” She began, but was silenced by Lawson holding up a finger. He had his cell phone to his ear with the other hand.
“Luis? Hey, it’s Lawson. Can you get your crew to my suburb house?” There was a pause as he listened. “No, no nothing like that. All right, I’ll see you in a couple of hours. Bring hazmat suits.”
Lawson looked at Serene with hard eyes. “Very few people know I own this house.”
“Then why is there shit strewn across your walls?” Serene ran to her room and looked inside. Miraculously there was nothing amiss. Her camera was right where she left it, sitting on top of her closed laptop. She came back up the hall and saw that Lawson was back on the phone.
“I think three nights will be sufficient.”
Serene listened as he finished making the hotel reservation. When he finished, she retrieved the grocery bags from the floor and took them into the kitchen. She didn’t hear Lawson walk silently behind her, and screamed when he took one of the bags from her arms.
Lawson started putting things in the refrigerator and hesitated when he saw the box of Danishes. A small smile wafted across his lips. He glanced at Serene and decided the Danishes should come to the hotel, too. The gesture didn’t escape her as he slid the pastries across the counter.
Lawson being Lawson of course, picked a four-star hotel in the city. Serene didn’t care, she was going to enjoy every minute of it. It was more than a hotel room; it basically was a whole apartment. Located on the tenth floor, the balcony offered a stunning view of the city. Serene saw a boutique on their way in and was looking forward to shopping there the next day. This was the high end part of the city. To some it was called the East End. People like Ted and his miserable friends never make it out of South End.
Serene wandered the suite admiring the décor of blue and cream. The living room had a kitchenette and there were two separate bedrooms that shared a bathroom. She wasn’t sure why they needed two bedrooms, unless Lawson was planning on staying there with her. He never slept in the same room with her.
She chose the bedroom that held a connecting balcony with the living room. The room was stunning with colors in three different shades of blue, accentuated with black. Serene turned on the T.V. and kicked her shoes off. The relationship with Lawson was so strained now, that she would just wait and see if he came to her. A few minutes later he stuck his head through the door.
“I have to take care of some stuff. Order room service if you get hungry.”
Serene let her eyes slide towards him in mock boredom. “Ok.”
Lawson pulled his head from the doorway but paused in the tiny hallway. He could hear the intermittent change in voices and sounds as she flipped through the channels. Rashly Lawson turned back around and boldly strode into the room. In one fluid movement he was on the bed and hovering over her. She fought the desire to shield her head and face. Deep down she knew she had no reason to fear physical harm from Lawson. The decimation of her heart was another matter. Lawson looked at her for just a moment before lowering his body onto hers while opening her mouth with a kiss. His tongue marked ownership within her mouth, and she couldn’t do anything except return the kiss and run her hand along the back of his bald head.
When the kiss was finally over, Serene looked breathlessly up at Lawson. Her eyes were bright and her skin flushed. Lawson wanted to stay right where he was, but now was not the time. There were scores to settle. He kissed her on the forehead and backed off the bed. She reached a hand towards him which he just touched with his fingertips.
“I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Just go ahead and order me a cold sandwich when you order dinner.”
Serene watched him leave before turning her eyes back to the T.V. screen. She could taste him and her skin still held his heat, but it was cooling quickly.
I still have a chance.
She thought to herself.
I won’t give up without a fight.
* * * *
Lawson listened to Ted Roberts’ raspy laugh.
Let him laugh now. He won’t laugh later.
“So do we have a deal or not?”
“Well, I’m not saying me or any of my crew did it, but we can meet.” Lawson could hear several snickers and knew he was on speaker.
“Tell you what, Ted; let your buddies stick around, too. Maybe there will be some action they would be interested in.”
He could hear Ted’s muffled voice. Lawson wasn’t dumb; Ted had his thumb over the speaker and was planning something with his moron friends.
Let them plan; it will be the blind leading the blind.
“Yeah, ok Lawson; come on over.” Ted hung up and Lawson grinned at the two dark-skinned men sitting in front of him.
“How long will clean up take?”
The long spidery form of Abidemi rose from the porch swing. He was over 6’5” and the best member of the cleanup crew that there was. He was proficient with seven different weapons not even mentioning what he could do with a gun, and was lethal in three different forms of martial arts. Having lived the first nine years of his life in Rwanda, he often laughed how his adult occupation was cake compared to the survival occupation of his youth.
Aside from being a killer for hire, he also owned a lucrative, and legit, cleaning business that specialized in crime scene and environmental damage cleanup. The ironic part was the crime scene cleanup. More times than not the blood being scrubbed off the walls was put there by Abidemi himself or his partner, Luis.
Luis was a first generation American whose parental roots lay in Cuba. The two were partners, and Lawson hoped would always be on his side. Neither man had any qualms about killing. They’d kill their own parents for the right price.
“We’ll have your home back to normal within two days.” Abidemi said in his thick accent. His ultra-bright smile broke free of his dark skin and he stuck his hand out to Lawson. Lawson shook it and looked at Luis. Luis was odd looking standing next to Abidemi since he was only just over 5’3”, but Lawson knew exactly what he was capable of, and he was every bit as lethal as his friend. Luis followed suit and stuck his hand out as well.
“All right, gentlemen,” Lawson said handing each man an envelope full of money, “let’s go have a little fun.”
* * * *
Lawson sat in the back seat and watched the city grow seedier the closer they got to Southside. He wondered where Serene had grown up. Was it here in this bar-riddled place where hope in itself was only a dream? After that night at least one of the people responsible for her abuse would have paid. The thought didn’t make him smile. He hated the fact that there had been men with the greatest honor of tending to her heart, and they had abused that privilege. In some ways it was something worse than abuse; it was a perversion.
The three men pulled up to same curb that Lawson had seven months earlier. The scene looked similar. There was the burn barrel with a couple of guys standing around it, but Ted was not there. The windows of the Town car were tinted, and Lawson didn’t feel a need to get out quite yet. The idiots were probably confused. Last time he had arrived in his truck. Lawson made a mental note to purchase a new vehicle the next day.
“It’s your call.” Luis said from the passenger seat.
“I’m just letting them squirm for a minute.”
Both men in the front seat chuckled. “Look at them. This will be too easy.” Abidemi laughed. Lawson didn’t doubt his words.
“All right, let’s go.” Lawson knew they were going to make an impression when they got out of the car. They had it planned perfectly. Luis would open Lawson’s door like he was royalty, and both men would flank him as they walked up the packed dirt back yard. All three men were dressed in expensive suits. Ted and his friends would either suspect their own deaths, or think they had just hit pay dirt.
One of the guys from the burn barrel eyed them carefully and ran into the house. They stopped halfway as an intoxicated Ted threw the screen door open. He looked at each man in turn that stood on either side of Lawson.
“Needed back up?”
“The gentlemen are business associates.”
“Right, right…” he waved a hand and pushed the door open with his body. “Well, come on in. Let’s talk
business
then.” Ted sneered and took a long pull off the whiskey bottle dangling from his hand. Lawson was amazed as he walked forward. He had just talked to the man less than an hour ago, and he didn’t seem smashed then. It could be an act he realized. Something to throw them off in case the situation didn’t go the way Ted wanted.
It will definitely not go the way you want it.
Lawson grinned as he walked up the steps.
He had only been inside Ted’s house once and that was before he knew Serene existed. He doubted Ted even knew she existed then. The house looked exactly the same, only dirtier, a lot dirtier. Serene’s absence would explain why. Lawson was positive that she would have done the very best she could to keep the hovel orderly and free of as much dirt as possible.
Ted led them into the tiny living room that faced the front of the house. A woman with greasy red hair received the bottom of Ted’s boot in her hip as she was kicked out of the chair she was sitting in. She narrowed her eyes at Ted and began skulking away. Lawson grimaced slightly at the bruising around her neck. It was identical to the ones Serene had the night he picked her up.
Another woman with blonde hair was sitting on the end of the couch and Ted removed her the same way. The women were of indeterminate age. Maybe from a distance they could, if cleaned up, appear in their twenties; but up close they were tired and hard women. The kind of tired and hard that permanently lines a person’s face, and stretches the skin too thin.
“You just have women everywhere, Ted.” Lawson said and sat in the chair the red head had exited. He made another mental note to himself to have his suit dry cleaned, or burned. He was absolutely sure there was blood and some kind of whitish substance dried on the arm of the chair. He didn’t want to know what it was for sure.
Ted’s friends brought two kitchen chairs in and sat them facing the couch. Ted and his little cronies lined up on the couch like little kids. It was perfect actually. Any piece of furniture that was soft and low to the ground cut the whole jumping to your feet response time by at least a full second. Sometimes one second was all a person needed.
“I have another one in the back. I had to do something! You took Serene and my trade.”
Lawson crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands in his lap. “I paid well for Serene.”
“Yeah, well that money’s been long gone. How in the hell do you expect me to live?”
Lawson gave him a patient smile. “I’m not your father, Ted. You have to decide how you’re going to live.”
“Hey! Let me show you the other girl. You liked Serene, so you might like this one.” Ted stood and began to hurry from the room.
Lawson held up a hand. “No, that’s not necessary…” he stopped mid-sentence when he realized it was futile. Lawson looked at the two men on the couch. He was sure they had been here the night he picked up Serene. They had done nothing when Ted punched her.
Ted’s yelling voice burst into the room as he dragged a skinny girl behind him. He threw her into the middle of the room and she landed at the feet of Luis and Abidemi. The girl couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old. She was dirty and bone thin. She looked around the room with large brown eyes that were widened with terror. She was Hispanic for sure, and the way her hair curled, she was possibly black as well.
Ted and his friends laughed. Ted took his seat and pointed at her. “Go on, sweetheart, dance for them.” Ted looked at Lawson and grinned evilly. “She can dance better than any bitch I’ve had here. You should see what she can do in bed! She can take those big lips and suck the…”