CHAPTER 2
Present day
Calico dragged into her apartment building. The long days and even longer nights was starting to take its toll on her. She let out a moan. The strap of her purse was cutting into her shoulder due to all the files she had stuffed into it. She hated bringing work home from the office, but lately, she didn't have a choice. She would have preferred using her nights to work on the designing projects she had coming due. However, her new supervisor seemed to have it out for her. The damn woman would purposely wait 'til the last moment to give her the information she needed to get her work done. It didn't matter that Calico would flood the woman's email with follow up messages inquiring on the files. The boney middle aged lady would come by her desk to drop off a mountain of files, leaving behind the heavy smell of cigarettes in her wake. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what she had done to piss the bitch off. She came to work on time. She never left her chair unless it was for her break or to use the bathroom. She never pretended to work, but was actually on her phone. She dressed according to dress code even though the other female employees in the accounting department didn't seem to give a damn. She was the model employee.
Of course, the few people in the office she considered friends had told her that was the problem. They said she was too damn good. No one, let alone the supervisor, wants to be outdone by a lower employee. Calico sighed, and thanked God once again that she had her own thing she was working to get off the ground. It had taken her awhile, but it seemed as if things were working in her favor. Maybe, if she played her cards right, she'll be able to march into her supervisor's corner office and tell the bitch to kiss her ass before she threw her resignation on top of her desk.
A big smile formed on her full lips at that thought, as she placed the key into the front door. Unfortunately, the smile turned into a loud scream. A dark figure materialized out of nowhere behind her to press her up against the wooden door.
"Shut your loud mouth. Hurry up and open the damn door," cried the man from behind.
"Rush...Rush, is that you?" she asked as she fumbled with the lock while she tried to get a glimpse of him over her shoulder. She hadn't seen or heard from him in a week.
"Hurry up," he shouted as he shook her, as if doing so would make her move faster. When he heard the door finally give way, he shoved her out of the way to enter the apartment. Stunned, Calico walked in, and kicked the door closed, then turned back to see what was blocking it from closing.
"She's with me," mumbled Rush. He paced in a circle while he waited for the woman that had drove him home to enter the apartment.
Calico eyed the pale red head as she passed by. There was something wrong. It was more than the chill she felt run up her spine that told her that. It was also the fact that Rush was wearing a hoodie. Her brother couldn't stand being hot, but there he was in long sleeves and all with the hood pulled low over his face in the hot swamp called South Florida. The woman quietly sat down in the arm chair, plopped her purse of the floor, crossed her legs, and watched them as if she was awaiting a play to start.
Calico opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.
"I'm in trouble. I mean some deep, stank, dirty, elephant size s**t," he said in a shaky voice.
"I don't have any money. I'll tell you that right now," stated Calico as her gray eyes darted back and forth from her brother then to the waiting redhead.
"F**k money. That shit isn't gonna help me," he replied. He reached up and pulled off the hood.
"Your face?"
Rush paused for a second to look at his sister as if she was crazy. He was in for far worse than the beating he had received at one of the nightclubs a few days ago. Walking over to stand in front of Calico, he grabbed her shoulders, and lowered his face until it was just inches away from hers. At that closeness, he looked like a brown-skinned crack head to her because of how wide he had opened his eyes to stress his point.
"They're talking about putting me in jail for life. Do you understand? LIFE!! I can't do jail. I can't be raped, Calico. You have to help me."
She bit down on her lip to keep from screaming out in pain that his boney fingers were creating on her tender flesh.
Shaking loose, she said, "I don't know who you killed, but I'm not helping you hide a body."
"Have you lost your mind? You know I can't stand the sight of blood. No, it's not that," he insured her.
Sasha tapped her French manicured finger on her thigh. She watched the girl closely to see if she would be the key to her mission. Her brother had thrown his sister on the table and said that she would be better for the task that they had tagged him for originally. She didn't know if that was the case, but she was willing to break a few eggs to achieve the goal. The girl and her chicken s**t brother were just pawns.
"Let me clear things up for you. It's Calico, right?"
Calico leaned around her brother to get a look at the woman that had been watching them argue.
"First off, my name is Sasha. It's not my real name, but it's the one I've been using for a while, so it's grown on me," she began. She was amazed at the poker face that the girl was able to muster up. Most people would have become frightened already, but the woman just sat calmly, hanging on to her every word. "Your brother was beaten up at a club a few days ago after flashing way too much cash in front of the wrong people."
Calico rolled her eyes and nodded.
"That's when we picked him up."
"We? Who exactly is that?" question Calico.
"The D.E.A. We reached out to your brother to help us in an ongoing investigation." Now, that got the reaction she had been expecting. Calico's eyes grew three times their size as she worked her mouth, but nothing seemed to come forth.
"Why is the D.E.A coming after my brother?" Had Andreas gotten into something illegal? Oh God, maybe he was really a dealer even then. He was really young to have had such a big corporation?
"Because Rush's employer is actually a big time dealer."
"And he's going to be the inside man that's going to bring down the operation," Calico finished in a high pitched voice. She was a big enough fan of mysteries, and Law and Order to know where the woman had been headed. She shook her head sadly as she looked at Rush. "Well, you won't have to worry about jail because you're going to die. You see how frightened he is," she pointed as she glanced back over at the agent. "He's going to die," she stated matter-of-factly.
"I agree. That's why we're here. He suggested that you would be much better fit to do the job.
"You f***in son of a bit—" she spat before she clamped her mouth shut. "I don't know anything," she grunted with her hand up. "I only met the man once over two years ago." The confused look on Sasha's face gave her reason to pause.
Sasha tossed back her head and laughed. Glancing over at Rush, "She has no idea. You never told her," she said. Her brown shocked eyes looked the man up and down. "Calico, you and your brother work for the same man. I'm sure you see him every day."
"I don't work at the warehouse," she mumbled.
"I quit working that job last year," he snapped. "How the hell you thought we got this apartment?"
She sat back to let everything wash over her. Of course, she wasn't going to tell him that she had thought Andreas had given him a promotion after their back seat rump, just like the ten-thousand-dollar gift. Suddenly, she started with a jerk.
"Wait, wait... you said we work for the same man. You mean to say Russell is a drug dealer?" she asked in awe. The man was always laughing. He was generous, too. Of course, he did make a habit of sweating the female staff, but Calico had chalked that up to him being a nasty old man doing his best to relive his glory days. Although now that she thought about it, she had caught a few things off with some of the accounts. Worried that she might have been at fault, she had doubled, then tripled check the figures only to come up with the same end result. Being the model employee, she had taken her findings to her supervisor.
Maybe that's the reason the b***h hates me, she considered.
"Are you sure? Never mind," she remarked in her next breath, holding up her hand for Sasha to not answer. "Of course you're sure. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. Damn! And you got me that job knowing all of this," Calico continued to babble. She narrowed her gray eyes to glare at Rush leaning against the wall. She had stopped viewing him through the rose colored glasses of their childhood a long time ago. After their grandmother had died five years ago when she was nineteen and Rush was twenty-three, it had only been the two of them against the world. Even though they had family that could have helped them, no one did. She had dropped out of school and got a job to keep them afloat, since Rush always seemed to be losing his. That was until he started at the warehouse. Then she was able to continue college full time while working full time, too.
She closed her eyes and thought back to her grandmother. That woman had done her best to raise her and Rush, when their father was nowhere to be found. Their mother had just decided one day that she was done with being a parent, left them, and never came back to pick them up. That old woman had seen into Rush's soul a long time ago. She had recognized the crooked, broken, and selfish spirit in him then. In spite of it, she still tried, prayed, and preached in hopes that it would take root, but it seemed that it never did. He blamed everyone for his shortcomings, missed opportunities, and was never willing to put too much effort into anything.
"I don't know anything, but I can copy files and pass them off..." Calico's words trailed off at the sad expression on Sasha's face. She was sure they heard the loud churning of her stomach. Her bowels were preparing to give way under the stress.
"We're not the IRS, hon."
"Then I can't help you."
"Thanks to Rush's gift of throwing others under the bus, he has given us an opportunity that we otherwise wouldn't have come up with. It appears that Russell has been putting a dangerous synthetic drug by the name of flakka on the streets. We have enough information to take him down, but we can't until we know who his supplier is."
Calico was proud of herself at how she was able to keep a straight face. She had heard people at work talking about a drug that turned the users into walking zombies with some of them actually turning into man eaters under its effect.
"I must be dumb cuz I'm still not catching on here."
"We have arranged for you to take on a decorating job. It will put you in the right place to see and hear the information that we need."
"But why would—"
"Because he knows you. You won't be a threat."
"Do you want me to pack his stuff now?" inquired Calico as she got to her feet. There was no way she was doing this.
"Rush tells me that he has given you money. It that true, Calico?"
She stiffened at the icy tone of the woman's voice. "Of course he did. He pays half of the bills."
"So you've taken drug money and you work for the same man that your brother also works for who happens to be a drug dealer," Sasha explained slowly so she could understand her meaning. "It won't paint a pretty picture in court."
"Are you threatening me?" Calico whispered.
"Heavens no. I'm just using my gift to look into your future, that's all," smiled Sasha.
**
Calico was having a hard time staying focused at work. To be honest, since that day two days prior in her apartment, she had fallen from her star rating at her job. When she came into work, she didn't do a damn thing. The stack of files waiting on her to be balanced just sat there on her desk. Every so often, she would snatch one up, open it, and stare at the numbers, only for her to toss it back down a few minutes later. In her mind, what was the use? She was a dead woman walking. She was a lone fish about to swim in a tank of sharks. She had already started researching her life behind prison bars by watching the first season of Orange is The New Black on Netflix. The way she felt, maybe she was on that zombie making drug because that's the way she had taken to walking around.
She lifted her head in her cubicle to hear what the girl said on her way by.
"Okay," Calico answered as she got to her feet to shuffle up to the front to see who had come to the office to see her.
I swear if it's Rush, I'm going to do the world a favor and kill his ass, she promised as she tightened her grip on the pen in her hand. She had thrown him out along with Sasha that day. She hadn't heard from him since. She held out her hand, pushed open the glass door, and walked into the lobby. The sun shined brightly as if she wasn't living in hell.
"Someone's here for me?" she asked the receptionist. She followed the platinum blonde's gesture to the man whose back was to her. She frowned while she eyed him from behind. He seemed strangely familiar to her.
"Excuse me. How can I help you?" she asked. Her entire world seemed to switch to slow motion. He turned to face her and she about passed out. She took a step back as if it was Satan before her instead of the man that she had had sweaty sex with two years ago.
"Andreas," she shrieked.
The smile he gave her stole her breath away. Maybe it was the bright sunlight on his tanned skin? Or the way his eyes sparkled? Or the way his tailored suit hung to perfection? Or the fact that he had been the last person she had slept with which caused all the memories of that night to come rushing back. But, he looked even sexier now than he did two years ago. There was a strength about him, a confidence, and something else that he did not possess the last time.
He regarded her from behind his hooded gaze. She looked fine as hell in her form fitting light gray pencil skirt and royal blue silk wrap around shirt. The overlapping material created a deep V that offered him a glimpse of her full breasts. He reached out and pulled her into his embrace. He knew the girl behind the desk was watching them.
"What are you doing here?" Calico stuttered.
"I'm here to take you to lunch. I owe you one, remember?"
"I... I can't leave. I—"
"Sure you can," he commanded while he guided her toward the door.
"But my purse, my phone, I—"
"Leave it," he hissed, dragging her through the doors. He led her to his car, opened the door for her, waited until she got in, and then slipped into the driver's seat. The roar of the sports car coming to life made her jump.
"Do you mind if I smoke?" she asked.
He cut his blue eyes at her before he pushed the button to let the windows down. He leaned forward to push in the cigarette lighter. He watched her reach into her bra and produce a joint.
"Where did you get that from?" he grunted as he switched gears.
"A friend at work. I normally don't smoke, but it's been one hell of a week," she explained.
"Why don't you wait until after lunch to partake. I don't want you to be brain dead."
She shrugged, placed it behind her ears, and slumped down in the seat. She looked so depressed.
"I think you're going to like where I'm taking you."
Again, another shrug as she glanced out the window. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the air on her face as he sped down the highway. He tightened his grip on the leather wheel to keep his temper under control. He had always known that her brother was a lazy motherf***er. He didn't want to work. He didn't want to start at the bottom. He had tried to encourage him by giving him responsibility, but it only took Rush one time seeing Russell, and he was hell bent on working for the man. All he saw was the quick money. Andreas didn't give a damn about Rush. It was Calico he was worried about. For the millionth time, he tried to understand how they had gotten to that point. He had been working behind the scenes secretly on a plan that would have yielded the same outcome without Calico getting involved, but for some reason, no one seemed to care.
He pulled up into the valet once he reached their destination. He opened his door and looked over for her to do the same. His heart clenched when he realized she had fallen asleep. Gently he shook her awake.
"We're here," he informed her.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, sheepishly. "I haven't been sleeping the best lately. Where are we?" she asked. She cupped her hand over her eyes to shield them from the blinding sun.
"At A Fish Called Avalon on Miami Beach," he answered. His hand snaked around her waist as he pushed her forward.
She surveyed the elegant restaurant that had tables lining the walkway under large umbrellas.
"A table outside? And if you shrug your shoulder one more time, I'm going to beat you," he hissed.
Calico blinked, then laughed as she nodded her approval.
Andreas quickly ordered their drinks to get the waiter away. He kept the conversation light due to the fact that he knew the man would be returning soon. It was after they had looked over the menu he let his intention be made known.
"I thought you weren't ever going to cash my check."
"I had to get over the shock. Thank you, by the way. I didn't think I had done anything that great to have deserved it."
"Well, it was good, but I agree not that good. I just wanted to help you get going." He knew his statement was only half true. He hadn't been able to duplicate the experience he had with her with anyone else, and it wasn't because he hadn't tried. God knows he had tried, but to no success.
"Well, I wanted to do right by that, leg up. I did my research. Then when I was sure, I started taking on small jobs. Mostly staging houses, and a few shops."
"You should be given the superwoman title of the year. I don't know how the hell you're going to work and follow your dream plus play undercover agent," he whispered, angrily.
This time, Calico was able to gain control of her coughing after a few seconds.
"Rush told you?" she inquired, looking over her shoulders.
"Oh, I saw him, but didn't talk to him. I beat the s**t out of him. I know that's your brother, but he crossed the line getting you involved in this s**t."
"Wait, so you know? So it's true then?" she gulped, leaning closer to ensure he didn't have to talk loud. The fact that he had admitted to have roughing up her brother hadn't even moved her.
Andreas sighed, running his hand thru his hair. She was happy he had kept on wearing it the same way.
"Yes, it's true."
"How do—"
"Because I have a few business dealings with him," he answered, quickly. He wanted to stay in control of the conversation to ensure she didn't find out too much until he had gotten what he wanted. He had been up all night plotting this meeting. He was determined for it to go the way he had planned. He almost had her.
"Wow," she remarked in disbelief.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with. Russell is not the man you pass in the hall on the way to the break room, Calico," he warned slowly.
She shook her head as she lowered her gray eyes in defeat. "I don't have a choice. I'm going to his birthday party tonight. Sasha has worked a way for me to do a designing job to get me in to find out the stuff she needs to know."
He saw her shoulders visibly slump. He knew she was right for the picking.
"The job is at his night club. It also the place that he has many of his meeting. Apparently there was an electrical fire that caused major water damage," he kept talking to keep her from asking the question that he saw dancing behind her eyes. How do you know so much? "I want to help you. I can keep you safe if you're willing to take my offer."
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