D’Kass Black Presents Jail’s Bait: Chains & Cuffs (Book 3)

The mornin breeze was hittin us as we stood there, stunnd again for da umpteenth time this morning.  My head was spinnin in 30 different directions.  This nicca escapes better than Houdini an shyt, I thought.  Joop was standin over dat other cop dat was still unconscious on the floor, lookin out da open kitchen doorway wit this look on his face- he was so madd he couldn’t even speak.

An who could blame him, I thought.

Da same nicca that we called our boy not only disrespected Joop by comin afgter me, not only did he slip me dat date-rape drug an… not only did he try to kill us both, but THIS nicca was the one dat got Joop sent upstate for a robbery charge for a year.  All to try to keep me from Joop.  I alwayz wondered why Joop, Teflon Don Juan of our hood who NEVER got caught at movin in silence an violence, got caught dat night for a simple robbery- cause he had dune worse shyt than that an got away wit it.  We jus thought he was in da wrong place at da wrong time- but it wuz mo than that.  He got set up and sent up.  And he was cool dat Rah-Rah was hurr to watch my back while he was upstate- which is why I hung out wit him so hard.  We NEVER saw this one comin.

Joop lookd down at da sleepin cop, an then lifted his boot an kickd dat po-po rite in da back.  “WAKE DA FUK UP!!” Joop hollered as my Dad an Joop's parents came burstin into the kitchen.

 

“What the- WHERE’S ROBBIE!?!?” My Dad yelled out.

The cop groaned an began to move.  Joop growled an lifted his boot again to kick him, but I reached over an yanked him away from da cop.  “Yo CHILL- beatin his azz aint gonna change nuthin,” I said to Joop, but I knew dat he jus needed to hit sumthin then- da po-po dat let Rah-Rah escape was just as good as anything else.

“Answer me- where is Robbie?” Dad asked again, coming over to help his partna up off the floor.  I jus happened to catch a look at Joop pops- he aint like dat my Dad helpd that other cop off the floor, I knew it- but he changed his face when he saw me lookin.

“I don’t fukkin believe this,” Ms. Regine said, going over to the kitchen counter in the corner.  “Keystone cop muthafukas- let dat boy run off all over da got-damn city,” an she started lookin in the cabinets.

“Did you see which way he went, boys?”  Mr. Joe was askin us, ignorin Ms. Regine.

“Ask yo dumb ass partna,” Joop said, lookin over at the guy- an then he saw what I saw in da two of them, standin together.  “Yo Officer Dan- this aint the TREY you was tellin me about, is it?”  Joop said, his eyes wide, a frown on his face.

“My name is Trey,” Dad’s partna replied, massaging the back of his neck.  “I don’t get it, why does my back hurt?  Did I hit it when I fell?” He groaned.

Suddenly a loud gasp came from the corner.  We all turned around to Ms. Regine, who was suddenly starin at Trey like she saw a ghost.  “I aint realize it, I was so upset over eerything else, oh SHIT!!!”  And she pointed at Officer Trey.  “I know who you are!!”

Everyone turned to look at Officer Trey.  He looked back at Ms. Regine, frownin.  “What’s going on,” he asked, still rubbin his back where Joop had kicked him back to consciousness.

“You don’t remember ME, do you?”  Ms. Regine said, shock all over her face.  “Years ago… you found me at my mama’s old apartment, an you tol me that you had been followin a paper trail- you were adopted and you were tryin to find your birth family- don’t you remember me?”

Dad lookd at Officer Trey.  “You DID tell me you were adopted, Trey- the first night I met you.”

 

Officer Trey looked at Dad, and then at Ms. Regine.  He looked like he was rememberin… “Regine- you used to wear a fro and a lot of African beads..?”

“Yeah honey, dats me,” Ms. Regine said proudly.  “But after we talked you left an I never saw you again.”

“What does ALL THIS have to do with catching the criminal that set up my SON?” Mr. Joe yelled at them.  “Can't this wait?”

“Naw, Joey, this can't wait- yall gotta know rite now,” she said, facin Mr. Joe seriously.  “I forgot all about it, you an I had already split up an I aint know I was pregnant yet wit Malik.  He came to my door an tol me- yo name aint no Trey, by the way- what’s it short for again..?”

“Well, it’s short for Atreyu,” Officer Trey said, and Mr, Joe pulled up and stared at him the same way ms. Regine had- like he seen a ghost.

“Jeanie- why did he come to see you,” Mr. Joe said, this scurrd look on his face.

“He said he wuz trackin down a lead on his birth family- he’d heard his father had made his mother give him up cause she was a servant in his house, an he aint want no one to know he had crept out on his wife,” Ms. Regine said, rememberin.

“It’s true,” Officer Trey said.  “I remember telling you that when I was a kid I was told that my father named me and then told my moms to get rid of me… when I got older I went looking for them but couldn’t find anything out on my own… which was part of the reason that I became a cop, you can get info the normal person couldn’t.  But all I could ever find out about the family was that there was a half-brother out there- that listed your address on his earlier college records.  But… when I tracked you down, you told me that he was dead.”

“Well, that wasn’t actually the entire truth,” Ms. Regine murmured, a nervous look on her face.  She turned to face Mr. Joe.  “I mean, you had jus broke up wit me, an I was havin hormones cause I was pregnant and aint know it,” she was tryin to explain.  Mr. Joe looked like his face was gettin pale.  “I was mad and to me you WAS dead, so when Atreyu hurr came to see me I jus tol him how I felt…”

“Well, you did seem irritated, now I recall- WAITAMINNIT… what are you SAYING,” Officer Trey said, starting to choke.

“The name of that birth family,” Mr. Joe asked slowly, “what was it..?”

 

“Well, it was Hill,” Officer Trey said… “but come on, boss man.  I’d stopped wondering everytime I came across a black family with that name if I was one of them… especially after I was told that the family died out.”

“My father told me when I was a little boy, he’d always wanted to have a son and call him Atreyu,” Mr. Joe said, a shocked look on his own face.  “But I never told anyone that story- NEVER.  There’s no way you could have known about that name unless-”

“Unless your father named me himself,” Officer Trey said, his eyes growing dark.  “I mean… OUR… father…” he added.

My Dad jus slumpd down to the floor, stunnd.  I lookd at Joop, who was starin at this guy, who could possibly be his uncle.  “But- you and Officer Dan…”

Joop’s pops turned around quick when he said dat.  “You know about it, do you, son,” he asked, a bitterness in his voice.

“I kinda stumbld across it,” Joop said; “but I aint seen u since I found out, so I couldn’t talk to u bout it.  I figured dat should cum from yo boy anyway,” he pointed out.

It took three seconds for this to sink in, an everyone startd yellin at once- at each other.

I shook my head.  This shyt wuz jus too much.  From what I guessed, my pops and Officer trey were gettin down wit da get-down, an now Dad jus found out he been fukkin brothers.  I went outside to clear my head from all the got-damn drama.  I sat down on da outside steps in front of the kitchen, my back to da door- an put my head in my hands.  First Rah-Rah escapes an now this… my pops always be gettin in these got-damn love triangles, I was thinkin.

I could hear all the yellin thru da doorway get louder… I stood up, lifted my head to take a look at what was goin on- an felt a cold piece of steel at my throat.

I stiffned, felt someone pressed up against my back while da knife pressed hard against my Adam’s apple, hard enuff to draw a lil blood- an I smelled a familiar old sweat-scent comin from behind me that could only mean one thing.  The hairs on da back of my neck stuck up in horror.

“Come wit me nicca- if you wanna live ta see tomorrow,” Rah-Rah growled in my ear.

 

***

“I don’t believe you, Boochie,” I shouted at her across the series of yells that filled the room.  “To LIE about something like THIS, to make another human being think the last link to his blood family was DEAD because YOU felt rejected?!?!?”

Tears of fright were in her eyes as the three older men in the room advanced upon her, all of us shouting at her.  I had no pity for her now, she practically insured that I would wind up having sex with not only her son, but her son’s father (another one of her secrets), and HIS brother… then with a grimace I remembered that I’d had sex with HER, as well… dear Jesus, I’ve fucked the WHOLE family… “HOW COULD YOU?” I spat at her.

“You don’t get it, Danny,” she said frantically, holding up her hands as if to ward us off.  “Joe and I had just had a big fight and he just up an left… I was SO DAMN madd at him dat when Atreyu came to find him I jus said da nigga was DEAD…”

“THAT WASN’T YOUR RIGHT!” I shouted, the anger building up inside of me- anger for Joe, who had a brother he never knew about, anger for Trey who I was beginning to fall in love with, for his lonely life in the foster care system, angry for Malik, who needed positive men in his family when he was growing up… so much might have been different had Boochie only been honest..!  “Boochie, having a fight and breaking up does not preclude you having no HEART-”

“THE FIGHT WAS ABOUT YOU!!!” she hurled back at me then.

Trey stopped short, and the room got silent.  “The hits just keep on coming,” he said.

“ABOUT ME..?  WHAT DOES THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?”  I said, incredulous.

“We were fighting because Joe said he didn’t want a ghost in our bed, and he kept saying that there was another man on my mind when I was with him.  I tried to convince him dat was bullshyt- but he was right.  He caught me playin with myself wit a vibrator, callin out yo name when I would cum,” she admitted, her face downcast.

 

“Oh shit, I remember that,” Joe said. “You were calling out ‘Danny, Danny, I love only YOU baby,’ and moaning and cumming all over the bathroom floor- harder than you had EVER been when I fucked you.  I packed my shit and left that same day; I wasn’t sharin my bed wit no other kat, even if it was all in her mind.  So AGAIN, that was you, huh..?”  Joe smiled ruefully at me.

I didn’t think I could take much more shocks.  I tried to clear my head as I turned back to Boochie- I was on sensory overload.  “So Joe leaves because you couldn’t stop thinking about ME, even though I was marrying Claire,” I said, “and since you felt rejected TWICE, you decided to take it out on this innocent man here,” I indicated towards Trey.

Boochie swallowed.  “I know I wuz wrong…”

“WRONG? yelled Trey, who towered over her, his face a study in bitter anger.  “YOU TRIFLING BITCH, you lied and tol me that my brother was DEAD!  I stopped looking for any one of them because of YOU, lived all these years all alone- I oughta…” and he raised his backhand to her.  She screamed.

“Trey, hold on,” Joe said then.  He stepped forward.  “She DOES deserve to get bitch-slapped down Main Street for the whole neighborhood to see, but we can't- at least, you have to wait your turn.”

His eyes grew menacingly dark as he turned back to the cringing mass of female flesh.  “That’s the second time you kept a family member of mine away from me, Regine,” Joe said with a growl.  “I’ve been alone too, growing up without a brother, and also having major regrets about all the years that I didn’t get to spend with my son when he was little, all because of YOU!!” he roared at her, so suddenly she tripped and fell to the floor, her head banging against the wall.  She reached up to rub her head, moaning.

“You deserve worse pain than THAT,” Joe said to her as she began to sob.  “MUCH worse.”

“Boy, why you lettin all these men gang up on me,” the teary-eyed Boochie suddenly yelled out.   “Where are you, come defend yo mama..!”

In the midst of my righteous indignation I absently looked around.  Malik was staring around the room, then looking out of the window.  “Hey, yall see where Mar went?” he asked.

“I don’t know, maybe he went outside to get away from all the yelling,” I said.  Lamar! I yelled to the backyard.  Boochie, Trey and Joe stopped moving.

 

The only sound we heard in the still early morning silence was a car door slamming.  This wouldn’t have normally made an impression were it not for the screaming peal of a car just outside our line of sight.  It pulled away with the sound burning rubber makes, as if in a great hurry.

Malik turned back to me, his eyes wide with trepidation.  “Officer Dan- you don’t think-”

“Oh, my god,” Trey said then, “I left the keys outside in the car..!”

We all looked at each other, then as one we dashed out the back door and around the side of the house to the front yard.

The Lexus was gone.  In the street were fresh skid-marks, heading off in the direction of Robbie’s house.  Joe, Trey, Boochie and I simply stared at one another, fresh horror etched in our collective minds- Robbie hadn’t left after all but doubled back- and in the confusion kidnapped Lamar.  My son.

Just then another screech filled the morning air.  Suddenly Joe leapt at me and pushed me out of the way as the Excursion pealed off, Malik at the wheel.  I landed with an OMMPH! on the grass.  Before any of us could regain speech he had whipped around the corner and was gone.

I stood up and brushed myself off, slightly shaken.  “Thanks,” I said to Joe, who looked as shook up as I did at the fact his son almost ran me down with an SUV.

“Don’t mention it,” he wheezed.  “Goddamn it,” Joe said, “we can't catch em, all the cars are gone..!”

“Not all of em,” Boochie said, striding to her Oldsmobile.  “Get in if’n yall wanna catch up ta our kids,” she said, jumping into the front seat and revving her engine, which sprang to life at its mistress’s touch.

“I’ll follow in my car,” Trey said, running down the street to where he’d parked it.  “I have a radio- I’ll call it in, get some uniforms to pursue.”

Joe headed for Boochie’s car, and I started to follow- then thought better of it, turning around to run after Trey.  Before the final showdown with Robbie, I had to clear something up with Trey that was nagging at the back of my mind ever since we discovered that Robbie had escaped, and I saw this as possibly the last chance I could get him alone.

***

 

 

Trey saw me following him and smiled as we jumped into his car and sped off after the Oldsmobile, which was going faster than I gave that car credit.  Trey kept up as it whipped around corners, he sending instructions out to any uniform cars that might be in the area.  He replaced the CB in its holster and looked over at me.  “We’ll find him,” Trey said, placing one hand on my knee in encouragement.  “Robbie wont hurt Lamar.”

“How do you know that,” I asked, glad of the opportunity to talk, it kept me from reverting to father-mode and starting to worry.  “You don’t know Robbie.. or DO you..?”

Trey’s half-smile, which he always gave me in every situation, froze on his face- for just a split second, I knew he had hoped I didn’t notice- but it was all the confirmation I needed. 

“I noticed when we were at Robbie’s house you didn’t come over to speak to his mother,” I said.

Trey suddenly coughed.

“Bingo,” I said.

“I don’t-don’t know what you mean,” Trey stammered.

“You DO get what I mean,” I said.  Trey kept his eyes on the road, both hands on the steering wheel.

“Robbie shouldn’t have been able to get out of those handcuffs.  And for a 6’4 cop, you certainly got bopped on the back of the head pretty hard by a handcuffed 5’10 guy,” I said pointedly.

Trey kept concentrating on the road, not saying anything.

“We were trained in the Academy on how to properly restrain a perp,” I reminded him.  “WolfRam & Hart hired you- they only take the best.  That means that you are fully trained and are very good at your job.  For a kid like that to take you out, either you were having the worst day, or…”

“Or… I let him get away,” Trey mumbled.

“To kidnap my son,” I said with dark resolve.

“He wont hurt him,” Trey began in defense.  “I have to believe that.”

“You mean, after you found out that he date-raped my son, you STILL believe that he wont try to finish attracking him..?”  I looked at Trey, my feelings all twisted inside.  “Trey, I admit that I AM  falling for you- I might even be falling in love with you…”

Trey lit up like a Christmas tree when I said that.

I went on, “however, as a father and a lawyer I can't allow you to defend Robbie to me when he is guilty… as a lawyer you know Robbie is guilty,” I said with a sigh, “even if he IS your son.”

Trey kept driving, his eyes dark.  “He doesn’t know,” Trey said.  “I never told him.”

I knew then that I had reached my shock quota- for the rest of the year.  Next year, even.  “This is incredible,” I said, wiping my hand across my face.  “You just can't make this stuff up..!”

“He was named for me, if nothing else,” Trey added then- “Robert Atreyu, with his mother’s last name of Howard.  Get it- R.A.H.- Rah-Rah… I nicknamed him, too,” he sniffed grimly.  “That was the last thing I ever got to do for my son.”

Pity filled my heart then for Trey.  “Does he not know you at all?” I asked.

“It was his mother’s idea,” Trey answered.  “She didn’t want me in his life, a beat cop who could get killed and break his heart.  She wanted me to give up the badge for her and our son.  I couldn’t do that- you KNOW why I became I cop… to find my family.”

“So in order to find a family you never knew, you gave up the family you COULD have had..?” I said, stymied.  “Trey, baby- did that make SENSE to you..?”

“At the time, it did,” he said, a tear trickling down his face.  “I wanted so bad to introduce my son to his grandfather and his uncle, I thought that a few years without him was worth the price I paid.  Rena forced me to sign away my rights as a parent; that’s why I doubled as a lawyer- to be able to discover any and all legal ways to get custody of Robbie when the time was right.”

“And when you were told that your family was dead, why didn’t you go back for your son then?”  I asked, my heart breaking for him.

“I didn’t want to rock the boat,” he replied.  “I know it sounds like a cop-out, but he was getting older, and his mother seemed like she was handling everything fine.  She promised that if I left things as they were I would get pictures and updates on his progress every so often.  If I didn’t do it then she would go to court and file a restraining order, since technically I had no legal claim to him.  I figured that getting updates was better than nothing.  The time flew by, and before I knew it he was grown and in no need of a father anymore- I waited too late to say anything, so I just left things as they were.”

“You know he has a son, your grandson, right..?”  I said.

“I know, I’ve seen pictures- a bright, beautiful boy,” Trey said with some pride.  “I know I may never hold him, but I at least know my legacy will live on.  And now he has a real family I can give Robbie- an uncle, a cousin…”

“Well, I know one thing,” I said then, “I don’t think Malik will care that Robbie is actually his cousin.  I think he’ll still want his cousin dead for raping his lover,” I murmured.

“Well, maybe we can work all this out,” Trey said with some hope.  “This could work out; we are, after all, FAMILY…”

“This is, of course, after you can get past the fact that you’ve been fucking your brother’s lover- right..?”  I added ruefully.  “Or maybe Joe can get past it- once he realizes that I’ve fucked every member of his family and throws up everything he’s eaten for the past month,” I added with a trace of sarcasm.

“Well, you’ve probably fucked both Regine and Joe- plus myself, but you didn’t have sex with Malik-” then he caught the cat-that-got-into-the-cream look on my face.  He blanched.  “Danny- you DIDN’T let my NEPHEW fuck you too..?”

“It’s a long story,” I mumbled.  “Look, that isn’t the point,” I went on, trying to change the subject.  “If you and I get together, can you deal with having to face your long-lost brother and taking his lover away from him all in the same breath..?”

“If that’s what it boils down to, then so be it,” Trey said.  “You may think that you’re falling for me, but I’ve fallen- hook like and sinker- for you, partna,” he said, looking at me sideways with his heart in his eyes.  “Whatever happens with our kids, I love you, baby…” and a tear slid down his cheek.

Against my resolve a powerful rush of emotion swept through me, and I realized that in the midst of all this chaos, I’d finally felt it- what my son and Malik have been feeling for one another all this time.  I realized that I was powerfully, wonderfully, wildly in love with Trey.  He was everything I’d ever wanted in a lover- and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

 

“I love you too, Trey,” I said aloud, feeling hope grow to the size of a football stadium in my chest- hope that I could have that happiness, finally..! with the man of my dreams.  I reached out and grasped his hand.

He gripped mine back, handsome as he was, the biggest smile on his face, his sexy light brown eyes filling my head with a buzz.  It seemed to me like he’d never allowed himself to be that happy before, and now he was letting it rush, full steam ahead.  My heart began to beat wildly and I almost lost my breath.

Outside the sun had fully risen, and we were in a mad dash to find our children- but inside the car, there was a moment of pure joy- a happiness, the happiness of true love- that wrapped us both up in its grip.  Looking back in that one shining moment, I believed everything was possible- even our two families joining together in harmony, as one giant ball of fluffy, eternal happiness.

How wrong I was to be.