Part 9 (1/2)

”Hey, girl!” Inez said laughing. ”Where you going?”

”I, uh, was just gonna pop into town, see if I could pick up a bottle of wine, or something.” Damali lifted her ponytail off her neck to allow the air to cool her skin. ”Did anybody at the house fill you in on what's been going on?”

”No, girl. Carlos was in some meditative trance, Rider was out there with Mike, blowing s.h.i.+t up in the yard, everybody else told me to go ask you, since the old heads were on an errand. So, here I am!” Inez turned off her engine and jumped down out of her Jeep. ”I'll ride shotgun,” she said without waiting for Damali to respond. ”But, I'ma tell you now, Carlos don't need no more alcohol in his system. Brother was tore up!”

”The wine is for me,” Damali said flatly.

”Then, girl, why ain't you say so?” Inez said, oblivious to her mood. ”Let's go.”

She knew Inez well enough not to immediately launch into a discussion of pure terror right off the bat. Her girlfriend would freak, go hysterical, so she had to deliver the news calmly. Besides, she remembered what it was like coming off the natural high of a fantastic getaway with the man she loved. Damali sighed; a wave of sad memory washed through her.

Damali gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were beginning to lose color. Inez immediately reached for her radio, turned it on, and then clicked it over to accept a CD.

”Chile, you can't get nothing out here but country western. I swear!” Inez fished in her oversize Louis Vuitton purse, found her CD case, and began nipping through selections. ”Girl, we need some riding music.” Inez laughed and pushed a CD into Damali's dashboard. Her head began bopping the moment the equipment ate the disc. ”Ae along for the ride. Where was she going, really, other than away from her own home that had just been built? Crazy.

”I saw him sucker punch a werewolf, once, coming at him full charge. Was like in the cartoons,” Damali said with sisterly pride, laughter becoming a tonic throughout her system. ”The mug stopped, shook its head, like yada, yada, yada, and Rider got him, single sh.e.l.l. But it was Mike's swinging wild, cinder-block hit that slowed that sucker down.”

”Yeah...” Inez said with a breathy sigh. ”I've been scared of stuff all my life, girl, but when that big tree trunk steps in front of me I know everything is gonna be all right.” Inez leaned in closer to Damali. ”He likes kids... I showed him my boo and everything, and he carries her picture in his wallet now-can you get to that? Her own daddy don't even do that. This is the craziest life-I mean, I never expected my life to turn out like this, much less meet somebody like him under these circ.u.mstances... but... D... Lawd, chile...”

Damali started humming to the next cut. This is where the conversation was about to take a dangerous turn. She was one beat away from shouting, la, la, la, la, la-I can't hear you. ”Yeah, Mike loves kids,” Damali said as a diversion. Yup, go back to basics, family, and very generic topics-please. ”Worked with a lot of kids from the neighborhoods through his church, rec centers, schooling the little knuckleheads, and I don't imagine, even with a nine in their hands, too many were about to start no mess with Big Mike. Like I said, he's the last person you wanna step wrong to and have on your a.s.s.”

”Correction, girl,” Inez said with a giggle. ”If anybody is gonna be on your a.s.s... daaaayum!”

”See, now!” Damali said, laughing and turning up the music volume. ”I do not need to know that.”

”But, D-”

”La, la, la, la, la-I can't hear you!”

”But, oh, my G.o.d!”

”No, do not tell me no mess-that's my brother!”

”I know, girl, and we was cool for all them months, got to know each other first, 'cause I had to calm down from trippin' so hard about having to put my baby girl somewhere safe and the fact that there were actually demons, and s.h.i.+t, and plus, had to learn how to fight, and, but then, D, last night-”

”Stop!” Damali shouted, turning up the car stereo so loud that the b.u.t.ton wouldn't click to the next level.

Inez laughed hard and turned it down. ”For real, what had happened was-”

”Not listening, glad y'all are in love, TMI, not my business, uh-huh, not my business, it's your birthday, whateva, I ain't listenin', 'cause it's my brutha, shut up, 'cause you my sistah, whoop, whoop-”

”Girl, you crazy!” Inez laughed so hard that her head nearly collided with the dashboard. ”Stop!”

”You stop, and I'll stop.” Damali wiped her eyes still laughing and tried to focus on the road. ”We're going in here, get some licka, and go home. I don't wanna hear no mo', got it?”

”Girl, neva in my life have I seen fourteen-”

”La, la, la, la, la, I am not hearing you!”

Inez laughed as she watched Damali literally run from her through the store aisles. Yeah... maybe Damali was right. Some of this she couldn't tell another living soul. She was so happy she was about to burst, and had to keep telling the little b.u.t.terflies in her belly just to calm down and be cool. But every time she thought about her man, a new wide smile flashed across her face.

She leaned against a shelf, almost crus.h.i.+ng the snacks, but d.a.m.n, a sister was too content. The brother moved real slow, methodical, they way he stripped off his s.h.i.+rt-she could still see it in her mind. Dark Hershey's chocolate, that was the color of his skin... with a chest and abdomen cut so righteous she had actually covered her mouth. She closed her eyes and smiled, remembering the lopsided grin he gave her when she'd done that... and the way he never lost eye contact with her as he undid his pants and stripped them off, causing her to gasp in awe.

Inez wrapped her arms around herself. Damali needed to hurry up, she had to get home. What was she thinking out here shopping with her girl, when her six-foot-eight pleasure giver was back at the house? They was girlz, and all, but shoot.

Especially the way his big ole country hands could cover her entire behind like he was palming a basketball... legs like tree trunks, and how he had so much rod she had to sit on his lap or get split, have mercy!

All she could think about was how he was strong enough to actually stand up... stand up-and walk with her, talking yang in her ear, asking her what she wanted while holding her heavy a.s.s four feet off the floor... neva missing a stroke-the man could wurk. In his arms she felt like the prettiest, thinnest, tiniest little thing, and she'd never felt like that in her life... told her the sweetest things, made her cry it felt so good.

She was getting the chills just thinking about those arms of his, the way the muscles stood up in them she could literally see each strand while he'd held her, and his back... and shoulders, and his b.u.t.t, Lawd save her. Then, before the night was over, she'd finally figured out how to make him holla and lose his mind. It had been a pure victory to take him there, to make him stop acting like she was made of gla.s.s, and stop whispering all low thunder and cut the natural fool. She'd felt like a queen. Mike was her man. That's what he'd told her. Called her baby... suga. Inez s.h.i.+vered.

”D, you wanna hurry up getting that wine, girl?” Inez called out, swallowing hard.

Damali glanced at Inez and hastened her steps away from her girlfriend. No, she was not hearing any of it, and the vibe coming off of Inez had enough static charge in it to make her hair stand up. Damali almost ran into the adjacent aisle trying to mentally blot out the too graphic images of her big brother.

But Inez followed her around the store like a stalker. Every aisle Damali went into, Inez was right on her heels. Her best girl was harder to shake than the press. Each time she tried to tell her some amazing attribute of her brother, Damali held up her hand and made a guttural sound. People in the packaged goods store must have thought she had some type of disability, because her responses to Inez were a series of up, ot, ut, hupp, hut, and nopes with her hand jerking up every five seconds, which only made Inez laugh and pursue her harder.

”Okay, okay, okay,” Inez said, teasing her in a forlorn voice. ”But if I can't tell my best girl about the best time I've ever had in my life, then who can I tell?”

”Tell Jesus,” Damali said, laughing harder. ”Take it to the cross,” she said, singing the old spiritual through the aisles.

”Girl, you crazy? This I cannot take to noooobody, especially not Him!”

”Then, there you have it. Your secret is safe between A and B, that would be you and Mike, and I'ma C my way out of it.”

”You wrong, girl.”

”It is not wrong for me to preserve my sanity,” Damali fussed, putting two bottles of champagne and a merlot on the counter. She eyed the cas.h.i.+er skeptically, and slid her cash across the counter, not touching his hand. Then she ignored his offended scowl and discreetly waited until he put her cash down and slid it back toward her, hoping Inez didn't notice as she collected her change and rattled on with her complaint.

”Here's the thing, 'Nez. I do not ever want to be sitting across from y'all at dinner in the compound and not be able to look my brother in the eye because I know too much of his business. So, on this one, spare me the details.”

”Aw'right, aw'right, aw'right, I get your point.” Inez sighed but her smile was still bright. ”You happy, though?”

”Yeah, I'm happy,” Damali muttered, as the cas.h.i.+er rung up Inez's purchase. ”Wait. Let me get that,” she added quickly, as Inez was about to place cash in the guy's hand. n.o.body needed to touch anybody, especially in this potentially infected town.