Read Online In the Night of the Heat by Blair Underwood - Free Book Online

knives.
    Melanie Wilde saw it, too. She moved toward T.D., standing between us, although her eyes never left mine. “Please keep my card,” she said. “We could really use you, Ten. You can imagine what the stress is like. First the loss…then the trial…” Melanie had been making excuses for her baby cousin her whole life, and she was good at it.
    Mostly for her sake, I opened my wallet and nestled her card inside—although I didn’t offer her mine. Then I tipped an imaginary hat. If I didn’t tend to April soon, I was the one who was going to need a ride home.
    I met T.D. Jackson’s eyes for the last time. They still glinted, sharp. “T.D.? Good luck with the security, man. If I think of anyone else, I’ll let you know.”
    T.D. only shook his head with a scoffing, dismissive laugh. His eyes left mine, and I became invisible. He had exposed his heart to me, and beneath his armor he was sulking like a ten-year-old boy. “Triflin’ motherfucker,” he muttered, walking away. Melanie winced.
    Just that quickly, I was out of the club.
    I didn’t know it at the time, but my tally rose that night. Serena wasn’t alone anymore.
    Now there were two lives I might have saved.

FIVE
    I WAS SHOCKED when April announced she would spend the night with me after the fundraiser. I made a mental note to attend more meetings with her. Apparently, I’d explained my brush with T.D. Jackson well enough in the car to keep her in a good mood.
    We got home late, so Dad was already asleep, and Chela was wrapped in the wall of loud music behind her closed door. I’d eaten dinner with Chela and Dad, so a knock at Chela’s door and a “whassup” were all she needed for the night. I confirmed that she was where she was supposed to be. Chela, like me, was self-sufficient and couldn’t stand crowding. Maybe that was why we worked so well.
    I didn’t tell Chela that April was with me, and Chela didn’t ask.
    I regretted that I had sacrificed my old room, the master bedroom, to give to Chela. The former guest room that had become my bedroom always looked overcrowded because I’d tried to stuff my kettle-bells, heavy bag, and folding mats in, and there was hardly room for a queen-size bed. Chela’s room, on the other hand, was the size of a generous studio apartment. If the room hadn’t been upstairs, I would have offered it to Dad. But I figured that after living on the streets,with only a dead grandmother and a soulless madam as her caretakers, Chela needed a space of her own. I was probably spoiling her, but everything is relative.
    I could tell that April felt cramped in my room, but she didn’t complain. I turned off the light and pulled her close for the kiss I’d been craving far too long.
    â€œLet’s take a shower,” I said. I wanted to wash myself, and I wanted April with me.
    No small feat. The bathroom was across the hall. I pulled her hand into mine, unbuttoning my shirt with my other. But April’s feet dragged behind me before we reached the doorway. “Ten, I want you to tell me what happened today. We spend all this time preparing for a meeting, and then you won’t tell me anything? I didn’t expect her to offer you the part on the spot, but still…”
    â€œShe never wanted to offer me a part,” I said slowly. “She offered me a piece.”
    At first, April looked confused. Then she smiled, thinking it was a joke. But when she didn’t see a return smile, hers evaporated. Her dark eyes flashed. “What?”
    The shower would have to wait. Maybe for a long time.
    I sat April on the bed and started from the beginning, garment by garment. It could have been worse: At least April already knew about my sex-for-pay past. She’d learned my history from a police lieutenant, a former student of her father’s who had tried to keep her away from me. I told April about