Sweet Taboo Page 16

  “Do you know the intruder?” The operator asked as the pounding on the door began.

  “Maybe,” I murmured. And to test my theory, I called out. “Camilla, DeSean’s not here.” Then I waited.

  “I ain’t here for him. I’m coming for you!” She shouted through the door.

  I was shaking and terrified that no one would get here in time. Most of all, I worried what would happen to Keyon. “Tell me the police are on the way,” I begged the dispatcher as I slammed shut the door separating the laundry room from the hall. I didn’t want her to see where I was going.

  “They are on the way. Stay on the line until they get there,” she responded.

  I sighed. “I can’t promise that. If she gets in, I need to go get the little boy sleeping upstairs,” I whispered as I moved toward the stairs. “She’s pushing on the door. Dammit.” I could hear she had the door open enough to stick the gun through from the sounds of the metal on metal. And now, with enough leverage, she’d be able to push the dryer out of the way.

  “She’s going to be in the house any minute. I don’t think there will be any way for us to get out. We’ll have to hide and hope the police get here in time. Gotta go.” I ended the call, wishing my leggings had a pocket.

  As I rushed up the steps, I dropped another text to DeSean: It’s Camilla. Then I stuck the phone in my bra. Keeping it classy. I sighed.

  There was no need to keep the phone in hand, since I didn’t expect a response. After all, he was probably driving and was so far away that there was a good chance I’d be dead before he arrived. I couldn’t count on anyone. This was me versus Camilla, and I had to protect Keyon. She was clearly unbalanced. I raced up the stairs and, determined to buy as much time as I could, I started shutting all the bedroom doors as quietly as possible, hoping it might throw her off. First my door, then DeSean’s, and when I reached Keyon’s room, I gently picked him up and held him close. Think. Think. Think.

  In my arms, the little boy stirred. “T?” I knew he wondered what was going on.

  “I need you to be quiet.” I held a finger to my lips.

  His eyes widened. “We play hide?”

  I inhaled sharply and nodded. I should’ve thought of that. “Yes. We hide.” Then I carried him out of the room, shutting the door behind us. I listened a moment, wondering about Camilla’s location. It sounded like she was still struggling in the laundry room. I flicked the switches at the top of the stairs, turning off the few lights I’d left on the main floor and the second story landing.

  In the dark, I made my way toward the bonus room, shutting the last two bedroom doors along the way. From the sounds downstairs, I’d done it just in time. I could hear her steps on the hardwoods.

  “You can’t hide!” Camilla called out.

  “Mommy?” Keyon asked before I thought to silence him.

  I froze, hoping she hadn’t heard him, but instead I realized she was about to run up the stairs.

  “Mommy’s coming!” She laughed gleefully.

  This wasn’t going well at all.

  Without further hesitation, I raced inside the dark bonus room and since I was unfamiliar with the space, I crawled across the floor to the wall so I could feel for the door. Keyon was holding tightly to my neck, his legs wrapped around my waist. I could hear Camilla on the landing. She was far too close as my fingers grazed the handle. I latched on, yanked the door open, and snuck inside with Keyon.

  “I need you to be super quiet,” I whispered.

  “We hide, T?” He rubbed his sleepy eyes.

  “Yes. Shhh!”

  I knew where the light switch was and I needed it for just a moment. I’d seen there were boxes up here last time we hid in the attic. Maybe there was a way I could tie the doorknob shut. I started rifling through the first box. Christmas ornaments weren’t going to save us. Garland was way too delicate. The next box held Halloween. We were going through enough horror right now. I pushed that box aside as quietly as possible. In the third box, I hit pay dirt. There were camping supplies which included bungee cords. With Keyon still clinging to me, I wrapped a cord around the door handle, hooking it to itself and then tried to find something to attach it to. I twisted around in my spot and my hair ended up caught in an exposed nail. With a grimace, I yanked it off and hooked the bungee cord, hoping this would slow her down.

  Almost immediately she was pulling on the door unsuccessfully. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath while Keyon looked up at me. Knowing I had to be strong for him was the only thing holding me together. What was taking so long? Where were the police? It was a Wednesday night. How much criminal activity could be happening in Charlotte right now?

  “Come out or I’ll shoot,” Camilla threatened in a low voice.

  “I’m pretty sure if I come out, you’ll shoot anyway. So, I’ll take my chances in here, thanks,” I grumbled.

  Still, I moved further away from the door with Keyon. We ended up at the edge of the subfloor when the first shot came through the door. He looked up at me and his lower lip began to tremble. His eyes watered. And he wailed.

  “You’re scaring your son,” I snapped as I held him to my chest and covered his ears.

  “I don’t care. I never wanted him. I wanted DeSean!” Camilla retorted.

  My heart ached for this kid. We had to get out of here, had to get away from this psycho. I took a deep breath. There was only one hope at this moment.

  “We’re going to hide in a new place,” I whispered in Keyon’s ear as I tried to remove the wood cover to open the scuttle hole into the garage. When it was clear, I leaned down and peeked inside the garage. The light was on, the garage door was still stuck open, and everything was silent. “Sit here. I’ll go through first and then you climb into my arms. Got it?”

  He nodded sadly, his body still wracked with sobs.

  I dropped through the hole and landed on the top storage shelf in the garage. Then I held my hands up to him as promised. With Keyon in my arms, I made my way down the tiered shelves. We’d just landed on the garage floor when I heard Camilla rushing down the steps.

  Moving to the garage door, I whispered, “Crawl under and I’ll be right behind you.”

  I watched him make it and had managed to get on my belly when I felt the gun on the back of my head.

  19

  DeSean

  * * *

  “Tommy, I need you to cover me. Tegyn. Keyon.” I spluttered out an explanation that I knew made little sense. My mind was elsewhere.

  “Go. I got you. Marvin will understand.” Tommy practically shoved me out the door.

  This was some bullshit. I was in security and I couldn’t even protect my house. I rushed across the parking lot to my truck, unlocked it, hopped in the cab, and started racing toward the house. While I drove I tried to process Tegyn’s text. There was a woman with a gun and a garage remote. I swallowed hard. Maybe Camilla wasn’t as stupid as I thought. Maybe all those nights that she’d been alone in the house, she’d been plotting and planning how to hurt me, how to completely ruin me. Somehow, she’d figured out the combination to the safe. I swallowed hard. It was set to the six-digit date of my first kiss with Tegyn. How could she possibly guess that?

  I grabbed my cellphone from the cup holder, determined to call Camilla. There was a still a chance I could talk her down. I used to be able to reason with her. That was the only way we’d lasted as long as we did. I hit the button and the phone rang and rang, but she refused to pick up. On the off-chance she’d actually listen to a message, I decided to leave one. And I chose my words carefully.

  “Camilla, I know you at the house. Think of our son. Don’t wreck him. Don’t hurt the person taking care of him. Please.” I could feel my throat closing up. I didn’t want to get all choked up on the phone so I ended the call.

  None of this made sense.

  I arrived at the house in record time. As I pulled into the neighborhood, there were cops pulling in right behind me. Obviously, Tegyn had managed to get thr
ough to 911. Still, as long as she’d been alone with Camilla, I feared the worst. My ex was crazy and ruthless.

  I pulled in behind her vehicle, parked outside the garage. If I could prevent an easy escape, I was going to do it. The garage door was stuck less than two feet off the ground. I hopped out of the vehicle, scanning the area and seeing no one, listening but hearing nothing. I wasn’t sure whether that was bad or good.

  As I started toward the house, an officer raced from his car in an effort to stop me. “Sir! Sir!”

  I paused and turned to him. “My ex-wife is after my new girl, and my baby boy is in there. Let me try to talk her out.”

  “I can’t let you do that, sir.” He shook his head.

  “Oh, I’m not asking.” I took a few more steps toward the house. A second later, I saw my son crawling out from under the garage door and felt hopeful for the first time since I’d received her text.

  I rushed to him and snatched him up. Then I rushed back to my truck where the other officers waited. Though he wore winter jammies, he didn’t have anything on his feet, evidence that Tegyn hadn’t had much time to try to get them out. “Where’s Tegyn?” I asked him, even as I stared at the door, willing Tegyn to crawl out next.

  “T garage.” Then he looked at me with wide eyes. “Mommy here.”

  I sighed. “I know, buddy.” The cop car was still running. “Can he wait in here?” I asked. “I need him safe and warm.”

  One officer nodded. “I’ll stay with him.”

  There were three other cars and countless other officers to enter the house and stake out the exits. “I’m going to crawl under the door,” I announced. “You can go in through the front door. This is the key.” I passed them my key ring with the house key held up. “Camilla is unbalanced. Check the police reports. About a week ago, she broke in here and tried to kill herself. I can’t let her hurt anyone I love.” Then I strode down the driveway to the garage.

  “Sir.”

  I ignored them. I had to. Tegyn was my everything, and Camilla was determined to take her away from me. At the garage door, I listened carefully. Camilla seemed unaware of the commotion outside. To their credit, the cars had pulled in lights only, which meant no sirens gave them away. I took a deep breath and pulled the gun from my holster and hid it in the back of my pants, then pulled my shirt over it. Inside the garage, I could hear Tegyn trying to keep her calm.

  “Camilla, Keyon shouldn’t be out in the street by himself. Please go check on him. You can tie me up. I’ll wait. I just don’t want anything to happen to him,” she pleaded.

  “Shut up!” I could hear a thud and I suspected Camilla had hit Tegyn with a blunt object. “I need to get rid of you before DeSean gets back. Then everything will be fine,” Camilla muttered. She sounded even crazier than she did the night she broke the glass door in the basement.

  “What good will that do? I don’t think getting rid of me will solve the problem.” Tegyn sighed.

  There was another sound. This time I recognized metal and I guessed she’d resorted to pistol whipping Tegyn. “Maybe now you shut up. I gotta think.”

  “If you want to get on his good side, try loving his son. Take care of your boy.”

  I swallowed hard. That woman was more worried about Keyon than she was her own life. I couldn’t take it anymore. I shouted under the door, “Camilla, I’m coming in.” I had no idea what I’d find, but I couldn’t stay out here when Tegyn was being hurt in there. Slowly, I crawled under the door so I could be in there with them. When I managed to get inside the garage, I found Tegyn bleeding from her temple and her mouth. She looked slightly dazed, but calm, despite having her hands and feet taped together with duct tape Camilla had taken from my workbench in the garage. Damn, I made this too easy on her. She was using all my stuff against me.

  “Keyon’s okay,” I told Tegyn. “He’s in the police car.” I watched Camilla for a reaction. Her eyes widened. “It’s not too late to get out of this, Camilla.”

  She glanced back and forth between me and Tegyn. “It was always too late, wasn’t it? From the minute you two met.” She shook her head. “I knew. I always knew.”

  “Camilla, we had agreed to separate. You were living in the basement family room. I wasn’t cheating on you.” I sighed.

  “I was gonna get you back. We wasn’t done yet. Not as long as I still lived here. I even had your baby, but you still wanted her!” Camilla started pacing. “I knew if she was gone, you’d want me again.”

  I shook my head. “No. Nothing could’ve changed things with us. Think, Camilla. You know it’s true. We wasn’t right for a long time.”

  She whipped around and glared at me. “So, you mean to tell me if I killed her right now, you wouldn’t take me back.” She pointed my spare revolver at Tegyn.

  I inhaled sharply and slowly moved to put myself in between them. “Are you the one who has been threatening Tegyn?” I asked quietly, hoping to regain her attention.

  “If I could just get her to go away, we’d be fine,” she muttered again under her breath. She tapped her forehead with the muzzle of the gun. “Think. Think. Think. I gotta fix this.”

  “So, it was you.” I nodded and inhaled deeply. Behind Camilla, I could see shadows in the laundry room. Obviously, the police were getting in position. “Then I should thank you for helping us reconnect,” I began. “Tegyn and I hadn’t talked in three years.”

  “You had a file on her. You kept everything about her. You never stopped thinking about her!” Camilla wailed as she dropped to her knees. “I had to do something.”

  “I get it, but everything you did had the exact opposite effect.” I shrugged. I wasn’t lying. As much as I hated Camilla for so many things, she really was the reason why Tegyn and I reconnected. “None of this has worked. You should just give up. No one has been hurt. You’ll get off easy.”

  She froze and shook her head. “I ain’t going to jail.” Camilla paced back and forth. “I ain’t losing you. I’ll kill us all ‘fore I let that happen.” She fixed the gun on Tegyn again and pulled mine from behind me and pointed it at her.

  Police burst into the garage from under the door and the laundry room at the same time. There was even one officer peeking through the scuttle hole. “Drop your weapons!” One officer shouted.

  “No!” Camilla growled. She whipped around and pointed the gun at the officer. “This is a family problem and you ain’t family.”

  I watched her finger almost imperceptibly squeeze the trigger and I knew the police would be forced to respond. Without hesitation, I threw myself on top of Tegyn. From the corner of my eye, I realized Camilla noticed and started to turn the gun on me, but the police reacted swiftly. Bullets flew. Seconds later, Camilla fell to the ground, her lifeless eyes fixed on me. I sat up, pulled Tegyn to a sitting position and crushed her to my chest. “Tell me you’re okay,” I urged. Then I glanced at the police swarming us. “She needs medical attention.”

  “An ambulance is on the way,” one officer assured us.

  “I’m fine,” Tegyn murmured. “I just need to know Keyon’s okay.” She blinked back tears.

  “He’s fine, baby. I promise.” I brushed the hair from her face and started working on removing the duct tape. “We’re all fine. And now our nightmare is over.”

  Tegyn was transported to the hospital because of her head wound. Since it was after bar hours by the time she was loaded into the ambulance, I called Tommy to make sure I could drop Keyon off there.

  “He can spend the night. Take care of Tegyn. Pick him up tomorrow sometime.” The seriousness in Tommy’s voice told me he realized the gravity of our night.

  “We’re worried about a concussion,” the ER doctor told us. “Acetaminophen for the headache, but no aspirin or ibuprofen. Also sleep is fine, but if there’s trouble waking up, then you’ll need to be seen again to re-evaluate the head injury.”

  “And that’s it?” I asked. I wanted this woman to be safe and healthy.

  “Yes, a nurse wil
l be in shortly with the discharge papers.” The doctor shook our hands and disappeared out the door.

  “Before you say anything, I’m fine. Don’t worry.” She smiled at me, her lids lowering. “Just sleepy.”

  “I’m going to take you home and hold you all night. I’m never going to be able to let you go. Look what happens when I leave you alone,” I murmured as I kissed her forehead.

  “Yeah. Your crazy exes try to kill me. Got any more of those lurking about?” she asked while squinting at me.

  “No. And I don’t plan on having any in the future.” I held her hand and brushed her knuckles with my lips.

  “No?” She grinned.

  I shook my head. “Is it too early to point out that I’m now free to marry you?”

  She pursed her lips. “Maybe a little. Is it too early to suggest we sell our houses and buy one together?”

  My pulse sped up and I glanced at the ceiling. “Thank you, Lord.”

  A nurse entered the room with a clipboard. “Who’s ready to go home?”

  Epilogue

  One year later…

  * * *

  Tegyn

  * * *

  “I know you don’t think you’re carrying that box,” DeSean grumbled as he came over and snatched it from my hands. “I thought we talked about this. I carry. You unpack. And I’ll help with all that.”

  “I’m feeling pretty useless these days,” I mumbled. I gestured to the back of the house where Mama Delta and Arionna were cooking while Necie set the table. “Watch,” I urged. “Hey, Mama Delta, is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Yes, you get off those feet, girl. You baking my next granddaughter. Rest.” The woman wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ll get you a drink. You want milk?”

  I raised my hands and then dropped them in frustration. “I can do things.”

  DeSean waggled his brows. “Don’t I know it. And tonight, I’ll let you do me to prove it. It’s bad luck not to have sex the first night in a new house.” He pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to mine. “I love you, Mrs. Brown.” He released me so he could lay his hands on either side of my bulging belly. “Look around, baby. We did it. We sold two houses and built our dream home before our daughter arrives.”