Teach Me To Love - Chapter 16 Part 2

“So you have no idea why your husband continued to take the children on the weekends to Canada, but in truth using their bags and clothes to transport my cash, drugs and chemicals,” Carne said.

          Rachel gasped frowning as she thought about the many times in the past three years, Robert had insisted on going back to Canada with the kids to check on his mother. First excuse was an illness and then to keep up with things for his mother – supposedly. Those had been all lies in order to use the twins.

          “And you don’t know that Robert used his college education to help produce my Ecstasy?” Carne further admitted.

          “Why are you here? To cause trouble in Robert and my marriage? Well, you’re already too late for that,” she seethe facing him.

          “I want my money,” Carne said, coming up very close to her.

          She looked at Robert needing to hear this admission from her husband’s own mouth. “Do you owe him some money, Robert?”

          Carne answered her instead, “Eighty thousand, not including the usage of my lab, my own ingredients and, of course, interest.”

          Rachel knew off the top of her head she didn’t have that kind of money saved and Carne didn’t look as if he was interested in a payment plan.

          The room was silent because Rachel knew Robert wasn’t about to speak while Carne was there and Rachel was devastated at what she had now just discovered. What else could go wrong in her life?

          “Tell you what,” Carne said, gathering his coat speaking as if he were going to do an enormous favor for her. “Since you look like the smart one, Mrs. Herlong, you’ll both have forty-eight hours to get me my money or you’ll be owing me your body for services until you’re dead.”

          Challenging him, Rachel asked, “And if I won’t do it?”

          Carne smiled knowingly as if he had that secret she was dying to know. “That won’t even be an option to discuss, Mrs. Herlong, because you have to consider the other lives you have at stake.” Going to the bookshelf where there was a current school picture of Jessica and Justin. “And don’t think about running – either of you. I’ve got connections everywhere.”

          Going to the door, his men followed him.

          “Isn’t there something else we can do to resolve this misunderstanding, Mr. Smith?” Rachel pleaded desperately.

          Carne clicked his tongue and shook his head pathetically. “She really is innocent, isn’t she, Robert? That was one thing you weren’t lying about. Too bad.”

          “But his debt isn’t even mine,” Rachel beseeched. “I had no idea what he was doing.”

          “You’re married, Mrs. Herlong. Ignorance is not going to get you out of this.”

          Rachel watched him leave and angrily turned to Robert. “What is going on?” she demanded to know. “What have you done to this family now?”

          Robert finally stood up and actually had the nerve to look cocky. Approaching her in two steps, he backhanded her to the floor. “Shut the fuck up,” he sneered, shaking all over. He was looking apprehensively every once in a while at the front door as if Carne Smith was about to come right back through it. “Carne is a bitch. He won’t do anything, but talks big fucking game.”

          Tasting the blood in her mouth, Rachel cowered on the floor at Robert’s feet hoping he wouldn’t strike her anymore; feeling frustration and fear well up inside of her with no way to get it all out.

          Robert went over to get a bottle of Wild Irish Rose from the high cabinet not bothering with a glass, but took it to the head. “Fuck this shit,” he muttered under his breath and started for the door.

          Getting up, Rachel asked, “So what do we do? Just wait?! What if he comes back? What if he tried to hurt the children, Robert? Tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

          “You can shut your crying, Rachel!” he barked. “I told you he won’t do nothing.”

          Bravely moving up to him, she asked, “Did you steal the money, Robert? Did you do what he said you did?”

          He shrugged it off as if it meant nothing. “So what if I did. It’s not as if I didn’t deserve it. He was only giving me two percent of the cut he was making. I’m the one that set up that lab and made the shit he was selling on the streets.”

          “But with his money, Robert! Where’s the money you took?”

          Robert rolled his eyes in exasperation as if Rachel should know.

          “Where is it?!” she demanded to know not caring if he hit her again. The lives of her children were at stake. She didn’t give a damn about hers and she sure as hell didn’t care about Robert’s life right now. It was Jessica and Justin that were important to her. “For the sake of our children, Robert,” she implored, grabbing his arms. “Tell me what you did to with the money.”

          He snatched away from her and hissed, “I spent it. I smoked it. I snorted it. I gambled it all away.” He opened the door and looked back at her in disgust. “What the fuck you think I’ve been doing wit hall the money, Rachel?!” he asked incredulously.

          “Is there any more coming in?” she asked, remembering the phone conversation Robert had with Fletch yesterday. She wasn’t going to admit she had listened in on the phone call.

          “I got loan sharks to pay off with a cut I got coming in. If I don’t, I’ll be dead by morning.” He opened the front door to go out. “I’ll figure this shit out, even if we have to send the kids to Canada with my mom.”

          “And me Robert? What did he mean about me owing him my body? Prostitution? I can’t do that?”

          He snorted perversely, “You ain’t used it for nothing else. Might as well do something for me.”

          Rachel flinched as the door slammed in front of her. She was glad he was gone, because she really didn’t want to even see his face any more. She was mad, scared, aggravated and so shaken up she didn’t know what to do.

          First thing was first; she had to find out a way to get all that money.

 

Teach Me To Love - chapter 16 Part 2

Sylvia Hubbard
Author of Stone's Revenge just newly re-released @ http://lulu.com/StonesRevenge .

Check out my blogs: http://SylviaHubbard.blogspot.com or http://LoveABlackWoman.blogspot.com

 

Want to promote your book: http://HubBooks.biz

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