Chapter 19 #2
Once her body is thoroughly cleaned, Sunjiya emerges from the shower, dries her body, then ambles into the bedroom.
After moisturizing and tightly wrapping her wet hair in a towel, she checks her cell just to see if Akeem texted back.
He hasn’t so she places it on the charger, slips into her nightclothes, climbs into bed, and grabs the remote.
She turns it on for background noise simply because her mind can’t focus on any news outlet, TV show, or movie.
Her only thoughts are how the hell has she gotten here and how the fuck is she gonna get out of this?
What started as a simple ask eight years ago has turned into this. She and her twin sister are caught up in a childish game that now has huge consequences. Her heart is at stake and this game could cost her the only man who truly loves her.
How do I tell her I’m using her name, that I’m Sunjiya now? That the broken and abused me is no more. That Tanjaya died in a fire?
She’s gonna freak the hell out.
Fuck!
This shit has gotten out of hand.
What was I thinking?
Hell, what were we thinking eight years ago?
Sleep is evasive because Sunjiya’s mind is cloudy. She tosses and turns for hours as she replays the last few weeks with Akeem, the horrific years with Marcelin, and the night that led her here.
If only I didn’t go to Tallahassee when she called, she thinks as her eyelids start to feel like boulders.
Her body yearns for sleep but her mind has other plans.
She manages to close her eyes about thirty minutes later but the rest doesn’t last long.
By two-thirty her eyes are open again and her mind churns.
The battle between thinking and sleeping continues until the bright Antigua sun illuminates through the large window in her room.
Sluggishly, she drags her weary body out of bed into the bathroom. After performing her morning routine, she grabs her cell and ambles to the kitchen. Her mind needs caffeine and her empty stomach craves food. The trail mix from yesterday has completely digested in her belly and she’s hungry.
A quick search of the kitchen reveals that although the refrigerator and pantry items are scarce, the coffee and tea bar are stacked.
A bag of local coffee from Carib Bean Coffee Co.
rests on the bar, Ethiopian Moka Java. Sunjiya is sold as soon as she opens the bag and the bold scent of coffee, chocolate, and earthiness makes her mouth water.
She measures two heaping tablespoons of the coffee and places them in the maker.
After removing the plastic from a disposable cup and lid, she opens three sugar packets and pours them inside, places the cup on the machine, and presses start.
As it brews, she surveys the fridge again.
Several to-go containers and bags are inside along with bottles of water, eggs, cans of juice, and a bowl of pineapple chunks leftover from her sister’s binge last night.
Not wanting to awaken her twin, Sunjiya takes her coffee and fruit onto the veranda. She’s met with a bright sun and a beautiful view of the serene beach. It’s barely seven in the morning and only a few people are out. After taking a sip of her robust coffee, she decides to try Akeem.
“Hey, bae. I was just about to text you,” he answers and his voice soothes her weary soul. “Why you up so early?”
“You’re rubbing off on me,” she admits. “Plus, I really needed to hear your voice this morning and know you’re good.”
“Oh, I’m good. I got my game plan figured out early, so I might have this deal sealed before the week is out. You can stop what you’re doing and I can meet you in Atlanta to help,” he says and she quickly counters.
“I told you it’s not much. I should be done today and heading back to Austin tomorrow.”
“You sure?” he questions.
“Very. I don’t have furniture to move or place in storage. I’m a minimalist and all I really have is my clothes and shoes.”
“What about your workspace?” he asks.
Shit. I forgot I’m Sunjiya, a travel agent who works from home.
“I’m boxing that up,” she says while making a mental note to order and ship a printer and a few office supply essentials. “But I won’t bring much. I’m not trying to take over your condo.”
“You can take over whatever you want when it comes to me and it’s your condo too now.
I want you to be comfortable, so bring whatever you need, and when I get back, you can change shit up if you want.
I don’t care. You just can’t touch my gun room,” he says and she smiles at his willingness to have her fully in his life and home.
“Can I add a gun to the room? I want to go shooting with you again.”
“We can definitely make that happen. You got natural skills we can work with.”
“Thanks. I know,” she says with a smirk. “A few more shots and I would have hit that damn clay pigeon.”
“My lil sexy shooter,” he says with a deep chuckle. “I miss you already,” he admits in a more serious yet gentle tone.
“I miss you too,” she admits honestly, which makes this visit and conversation with her twin so pressing and pertinent. Sunjiya wants the life with him they are building, but uninterrupted. No one and nothing can come between them, not even her sister. “Please be careful.”
“I’m always careful. I have people I love to come home to and a very beautiful woman just got added to that list. I’m gonna be careful as hell.”
“Good. Call or text when you can. I love you,” she says.
“I love you too,” he admits before ending the call.
“Wow!” The sound of her sister’s voice behind her startles Sunjiya and she jerks her head back.
“So we’re in love? Okay! I can dig that,” she adds as she walks onto the veranda.
After sitting in the other chair, she smirks then crosses her arms over her chest. “Is he what we need to talk about so urgently?” she asks snarkily.
“Part of it.” A big part. “But you first. You texted and said you really needed to see me,” Sunjiya says.
“I did but you told me no. I had to wait until our original meetup but lo and behold, you showed up last night. So, lil sis, you go first,” she snaps and Sunjiya shakes her head.
“Just tell me what you wanted. Mine is complicated.” Sunjiya sighs.
“It was Honey.”
“Honey, what about her? I paid her already, twice. That morning after I left Lazy’s I had you send her twenty-five grand and I gave her ass another five. I told you,” Sunjiya says, confused as hell.
“Another five? You didn’t tell me about that. You sent her that because she called for another ten. That’s why I texted you.”
“Did you send it?” Sunjiya asks angrily.
“Yeah, when you refused to come,” she says with a shrug.
When Sunjiya finally escaped Marcelin and made it to Crescent Falls, she contacted her twin sister. Marcelin’s control over her was tight. She was accompanied by at least two of his goons wherever she went, even when he forced her to go to Lazy’s.
His sick need to degrade her had him pimping her out and forcing her to dance at that hellhole.
Sunjiya hated Lazy’s, especially Ano’s dumb, country ass.
Her only positives about that horrible experience were Honey and one of the daytime security guards, Ced.
They’d formed a bond, and although everyone was under strict rules concerning her, those two broke the rules.
There would be moments when she could get Honey’s phone and reach out to her twin.
Those times were few and far between but it kept them connected.
The plan was simple. If and when Sunjiya managed to get free, she would run and get to a place Marcelin would never expect.
Because he knew about Aunt Pri and found her with her before, reaching out to her was out of the question.
The spot became Crescent Falls and her twin met her there.
They spent the first week together putting shit in motion.
There are so many perks to having a person in the world with the exact same face.
Sunjiya could be in two places at the same damn time.
After crying in her sister’s arms, showering too many times to count, and getting her mental together, she took care of the money first. The fear of Marcelin finding and snatching her back was always lurking in the back of her mind, so she was strategic.
Sunjiya split her money up and distributed it. She took seventy-five thousand and opened several accounts, depositing the maximum amounts that would not trigger the IRS. Then her twin took the remainder to an overseas friendly bank, ACB Caribbean, here in Antigua.
The plan was for her sister to stay in Antigua and wait for her.
Sunjiya had one task to complete before joining her twin—killing Marcelin.
The man who’d deceived and tricked her into trusting him, then caged her and treated her like an animal had to fucking die.
She had the money; she just needed the time to find the person to pull the damn trigger.
Akeem was never part of the plan but turned out to be the necessary missing piece.
Sunjiya just had to think quickly and navigate around him and his tech savvy brother.
Axton finding Lazy Nights Club and Aunt Pri were two very big monkey wrenches, but she maneuvered around them.
Honey was first. There was no way the scheduled brunch meeting with her could happen.
Honey wasn’t convinced that Sunjiya was who she claimed to be.
She was Tanjaya and they both knew it. Sunjiya couldn’t risk Honey exposing her, so that night after they left the club, she’d called Honey.