Tanner's Devil Part 6.1

Good Morning Readers:

I see you are enjoying the story. Me too. I'm so into these characters. I've never worked with two strong males before and trust me its exhausting - mentally.

I'm imagine Donetello as that cool cat from Four Brothers for some reason - cute but vicious to the bone and Devlin. Gawd, he's just awesome and I really don't know what he's going to do. I'm seeing a lot of attributes that i can bring out in him that I'm just falling for.

So, I'll try to get through this part by the end of the day and maybe even hit part 7, but as always, you know I gotta end on a high note.

By the way, I posted to my other blog, How To Love A Black Woman, (http://LoveABlackWoman.blogspot.com). So in between post while you're sending me those subliminal messages to hurry up, go over there and read and comment on that one. LOL

Thanks for enjoying yourself and a special thanks to Steven and Dawn for your contributions to my car and computer fund. Everything received is wonderfully appreciated!

Enjoy...



Pari had stepped out to the corner party store, while Tanner and Donetello had been in the room, so he left after he couldn’t find Pari in the apartment. Once Pari returned, Tanner had donned on some blue jeans and a pink blouse with matching pink shoes to match. Tanner also made a few calls to some friends and then tried several times to get in touch with Jamroque, but was very unsuccessful. She packed a change of underwear in her purse and anything she felt she needed if she was going to stay over night with Donetello. But that was a big if, because Tanner was still very confused about her on lack of emotions toward Donetello.

What had this stranger done to her?

Tanner convinced Pari to take her to the school to pay off her student bills before the deadline time. Pari still had a small beat up ghetto-fied Festiva that could get around.

While in route to the school, Tanner noticed the black Buick with tinted windows following them and alerted Pari to this after telling Pari everything that had happened, except about her suspecting who the john was. She wasn’t sure herself and wasn’t about to tell a lie on a hunch or a brief picture on TV and a weird man who had affected her more than she would ever let even herself know.

“I told you!” Pari spat angrily.

“Please Pari, no lectures. And no offers of secret friends helping me out and whooping Dontello’s ass. I was wrong to deceive him and this is my mess.” Tanner was not one to really involve friends in things, but she knew Pari would come in if things really got out of hand – hopefully it wouldn’t.

“You need to lay low for a couple of months, Tanner. This shit is going to hit the wall too soon and you know Donetello could get so upset he could hurt you, I don’t care how much he loves you.”

Tanner knew all this and her brain had been thinking like that as soon as Donetello had left even though he did not indicate if he knew what was going on or not. But with her unable to reach Jamroque, this really put her on edge because she didn’t really know what Dontello really knew. That’s why the extra phone calls were needed while waiting for Pari to get home from the store because Tanner knew she had to have a plan.

“Where am I supposed to lay low, Pari? You know the only family I have is you and you’re stuck up in the ghetto with me.” They cackled together, but there was still uneasiness about it all. If Tanner had to hide, there would really be no place she could that Donetello didn’t know about.

Pari waited in the car, while Tanner ran in to pay the school. After a few minutes of being inside, Tanner rung Paris cell phone.

“What’s up?” Pari asked.

“Are they still around?” Tanner asked. “Pretend you’re checking your make up to look in the back window.”

After a moment, Pari said, “Yeah. Black Buick with two guys.”

Tanner groaned knowing Donetello had sent those men to keep an eye on her and report back to him. ‘Skeming smart ass bastard.’ He wanted her to fuck up so bad, she’d come crawling to him for mercy and of course he’d accept her back once she promised to be his whore forever.

“In two minutes a friend of mine, Dawn, I told to meet me in the school, will come out dressed in my coat and hat. Greet her like you would me and then drive over to Maybellene’s Salon. I put two hundred in the glove compartment. That should give you enough to look great and keep Dontello’s men busy for a couple of hours.

“Cool. Be careful, Tanner. I’ll go check on Nina this afternoon for you to make sure she’s taking it easy.”

“Thanks and I’m always cool. I’ll call you at the salon. Dawn knows what to do to keep you out this mess.” Hanging up, she took off her coat and hat and traded different color items with Dawn, a classmate who Tanner had tutored and owed Tanner a big favor. “Remember the plan. Get your hair done, put back on your stuff, go across to the party store and in the last aisle, slip in the back of the store and go out. I’ll send the cab at the time to wait for you and it’ll already be paid enough to take you anywhere. The wig is in my coat pocket.”

Dawn nodded and left out the woman’s restroom right by the student service office, while Tanner went back to the student services office to pay out her tuition and graduation fees.

“Good news, Ms. Tanner,” the female clerk said excited after checking the computers. “Your professors have signed off on the credits for early graduation. You don’t need those two extra course requirements you thought you had to take. All we need is your internship completions papers and you’re all set to graduate in the summer.”

Tanner was surprised and very happy. “I’m done?”

“Yes! Your M-Cats were more than excellent and we’ve sent your results, now that you’ve paid, over to the graduation committee.”

This was the best news she had heard in a very long time and she tried her best not to cry.

“Do I have to complete the internship?”

The clerk checked the computer again to be sure. “No. The head counselor said it was not needed. You have three months free until graduation.”

Tanner was elated at the prospect of being finished with her education she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“According to our records, you aren’t schedule to start interviewing until the summer. Even though we can’t move up your graduation date, we could move that up for the more perspectives to view your resume and call you in for interviewing.”

‘Three months free?!’ her mind screamed. Tanner couldn’t have been happier knowing in three months she would be done with school and would be certified – legit. She had taken on an overload of classes so she could finish early and had done the extra internships just so this could happen, but to hear that it was happening from all her labored hard work was beautiful music to her ears. She wanted a mental vacation now to get her head straight and begin the process of packing up her life in Detroit and leaving.

“I’m going to refuse that offer,” Tanner told the clerk satisfied that she was just eligible to graduate.

Tanner’s text message alert on her phone went off just as Tanner was exiting out the student services office.

Pari sent her a message, “Jam called home machine. Phone left over Nina’s. Will call u back @ four, after some business.”

Tanner called the machine at home and left her cell phone number on the answering machine in a general message just in case Donetello called. This was an evasive way to give Jamroque her number with his cell phone lost. Her gut feeling told her that the business had something to do with Donetello. Obvious it was a ploy to get to Jamroque because it wasn’t a direct request to see Donetello. It was just a way to sneak up and get information out of Jamroque. Hopefully the bodyguard would call her before he got to Donetello, but Tanner doubted he would.

And what would Donetello do to the stranger if Jamroque told where he had taken Tanner?

Dontello’s words whispered deadly in her head, “No man ever thinks of taking you away from me.”

The idea of Dontello being so angry that he couldn’t find Tanner if she decided to run made her imagine that in his angry rage Donetello would go after the stranger.

Checking her watch, she saw it had been almost a couple of hours. Pari and Dawn were most likely at the salon deep in getting their hair done.

She paid for a cab to take her to the motel she had been to last night.

On the way there, she listened with the driver to the radio news.

“Millionaire bachelor and reported thirty three year old virgin, Devlin Sanchez, is still missing. The family spokesman has told the press since Devlin walked out of the church Thursday morning on his much anticipated wedding day, there has been no word of him. Devlin Sanchez walked out of his wedding ceremony because according to witnesses he found his fiancée’ and brother –“

The driver turned off the radio. “That’s some fucked up shit,” he sneered in disgust. “Man waits all that time to lose his virginity to a drop dead gorgeous bombshell and he catches her fucking his brother in the back of a church. I wouldn’t have ran personally I’d have kill both them bitches.”

The cab came to a stop in front of the motel and she passed him a bill and a piece of paper.
“That’s for the fare and a favor.”

He took the money and note.

“Be in the alley of that address at six p.m. sharp. Don’t be late. Take the passenger to wherever she has to go. You’ll know her because she’ll be coming out the back to the party store with about my measurements.”

The driver nodded and Tanner got out. She found the room and looked around just to make sure she really had not been followed. She had Dawn’s ratty grey ankle length coat, but underneath she was still dressed comfortable in her jeans and blouse.

Tanner had not been the kind of woman to dress up. She loved to look casual and never went many places where she had to wear professional dress. Even at work she dressed down in the nurses gear.

Taking a deep breath, she prepared to knock on the door.

Tanner's Devil Part 6.1 (c) 2006 Sylvia Hubbard