Page 31 of Love Me Carefully
“It almost smashed right into me.” Rolling her eyes, she looked up to see that her light had changed.
“Alright, I heard them say something about a club. Maybe that’s where they’re headed. The nearest clubs are…what’s up Charles Street?” he asked himself. For some reason Leah didn’t strike him as a regular club attendee.
“Unless they were talking about the clubs on Baltimore Street?” she added.
“Baltimore Street?” He frowned, looked at her.
She looked back at him and shrugged. “It’s possible.”
“I guess so.” He looked away, because staring at her had him thinking things that had nothing to do with Donald or where that black SUV had gone.
He wondered if the man she was seeing had any hold on her heart—wondered if she kissed him the way she’d kissed Terrell earlier that day—wondered if she were in love with him.
“Terrell!” Leah screeched to a halt at the corner of Gay and Baltimore Streets. The black SUV was parking in front of one of Baltimore’s many adult entertainment spots. The corner of Gay and Baltimore Streets marked the end of Baltimore’s well-known ‘Block’ where the premium prostitutes and X-rated shops were housed. For years Leah had wondered how it was that prostitution, which was illegal in Maryland, could be permitted to go on directly across the street from the city’s police headquarters. Wasn’t that a contradiction in and of itself?
“Yeah?” Quickly brought back to the matter at hand, he turned to her. Her eyes glittered in the dark interior of the car and he followed her gaze.
“Do you think that’s them?” They both stared at the vehicle parked across the street. There were two people in the front seat, but darkness and distance prevented them from being easily identified.
“Yeah, it looks like it. Let’s get a little closer. Pull over here and turn the engine off,” he directed her.
“For what? We’re not staying here,” Leah protested.
“Come on, Leah, I just want to see where he goes from here and what they do.” When she looked like she was about to refuse, Terrell reached for her hand. “We’ll just stay for a few minutes, then we can go home. I promise.”
It wasn’t the puppy dog eyes that stared at her, and it definitely wasn’t the warmth spreading throughout her arm. It was the nagging feeling that everything Terrell had told her that afternoon just might be true. There Donald was, parked in a black SUV with another man, doing Lord knows what. The fact that they were in front of the police station had no bearing on the illegal thoughts going through her mind. And when they both got out of the vehicle and headed toward one of the sleazy nude bars on the opposite side of the street, an annoying sense of dread coursed through her.
Pulling the car over, she switched off the ignition and watched the two guys go into the nightclub. Feeling Terrell’s eyes on her, she shrugged. “So they want to see some naked women. That doesn’t prove anything.”
“It sure doesn’t,” Terrell reluctantly agreed.
Minutes later the two men emerged from the building with two more men following them. The four men talked for a few minutes before Donald reached into his jacket and pulled out a medium-sized package. Thanks to their location—directly across the street—and the lights from all those sleazy little sex joints, Leah could clearly see one of the men who had followed Donald out of the club pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket and exchanging it for the package Donald held.
Leah gasped and Terrell swore, “That bastard!”
“Terrell, calm down. We don’t know what was in the package,” she rationalized.
“It wasn’t hair products I guarantee you that.” He all but spat the words at her. “I knew it! I knew it! I knew he wasn’t any good!”
The four men continued their conversation before three other men, who came out of nowhere, joined them. Now there were seven men standing in front of the Club Pussycat. One began yelling, and it looked to Leah as if an argument ensued.
“We should leave now,” she whispered, never taking her eyes off the men across the street.
“In a minute.” His eyes, too, were riveted on the events taking place.
They both gasped when the man who was with Donald pulled out a gun. While his partner motioned for the other men to move into the alley beside the club, Donald looked around to make sure no one had seen them.
Terrell grabbed Leah’s arm, pulling her down into the seat. She crouched down without question. “Terrell, I really think we should leave now,” she whispered, her heart beating frantically. She couldn’t tell if it was because of her close proximity to Terrell or the fear that was quickly consuming her. Ironically, she hoped it was the fear.
“No, I have to see what happens. I have to have proof. Stay here.” Before Leah could stop him, Terrell was opening the car door and stepping out onto the sidewalk.
“Stay here?” she murmured. Hell nah! She hadn’t gotten out of her bed and ended up on ‘the Block’ in the middle of the night only to be told to stay in the car. He had clearly bumped his head. She climbed out of the car and ran to catch up to him.
She was so busy looking around to make sure no unmentionable characters were near them that she ran right into his back.
“What?” Terrell turned, startled and confused at seeing her. “I told you to stay in the car. You’re the driver, remember?”
“Are you crazy? I wasn’t staying in that car by myself.”
