Chapter 1 #2
Once she was safely in the back seat of a squad car, Cobra said, “Make sure you add assault and battery to the charges, Straw.”
His best friend looked at him and shook his head. “One day you’ll take my advice and put a lock on your zipper, Cobra. And you need to follow me to the precinct to give a statement.”
“No problem. I’ll call Tez to meet me there.”
Straw lifted a brow. “So, the hot-shot attorney is in town, too?”
“Yes. All three of us are. The church is honoring Uncle Howey on Sunday, in an appreciation dinner, and we came home for that.”
“That’s right. Mom did mention something about a dinner at the banquet hall you and your brothers built for the church. And to think that the woman we arrested thinks you’re a gangsta. You’d better hope Ms. Inez doesn’t hear about this.”
He hoped his mother didn’t hear about it either.
“There is no reason why she should. This was official police business, and I’m asking that it not be broadcast. Just make sure you don’t let anything slip to your mother.
” Straw’s mother, Molly Collins-Strawberry, and Inez Masters had been thick as thieves since high school.
“I’ll make sure this doesn’t get leaked to the press on our end, Cobra,” Straw said.
“Thanks.”
***
A few hours later, the triplets–Cortez, Colton, and Cobra ─ sat in Cobra’s home nursing their favorite drink—scotch.
Cortez was married and lived in LA with his wife, Victoria.
Three months ago, they had welcomed their son, Cornell Masters, into the world.
On the same day, Victoria’s cousin, Kennedy, and her husband, Haddison, also gave birth to a son they named Bracen Maceo Wolf.
Colton was engaged to be married in June–seven months from now─to Kelly Perkins.
Everybody was happy for Colton and Kelly and excited about their wedding plans.
Kelly, who owned the KP Consulting Agency, had been brought on to work exclusively for Masters Unlimited and would be opening branch offices in Boston and New York.
It was a cold night in November, and the brothers appreciated the heat from the fireplace.
And Cobra was enjoying the downtime with his brothers.
His trip to the sheriff’s office had lasted three hours, far longer than it should have.
But Allison–whose real name had turned out to be Bernice Whey ─had tried to retaliate against Cobra by claiming he had not mentioned there was a video camera in his bedroom and had invited her to his home for the sole purpose of taping their sexual activities.
Her attorney, who showed up looking as if he’d slept in his suit for the last two days, immediately jumped on Bernice’s allegations and suggested that Cobra drop the charges against his client.
Speaking on his brother—and client’s—behalf, Attorney Cortez Masters outright refused the offer.
He made it clear the charges would hold, and that if Bernice Whey, aka Allison, tried to drum up false allegations against his client, he had no problem taking it to trial.
This wasn’t the first time he’d come across a woman like Bernice.
In fact, he’d seen several. And in his experience, it wasn’t usually too difficult to prove the woman had a pattern of this sort of behavior with other men.
All it had taken was a call to Peachtree Investigations, where Landon Chestnut was a partner.
Landon was a family member by marriage with Cortez, and a good friend of Colton’s and Cobra’s.
Within an hour, Landon had uncovered damning documentation filed a few years earlier by both fathers of Bernice’s two kids.
The files stated that each man—who admitted having sex with her, and DNA backed up that the child in question was theirs—had used a condom.
Given what he now knew about Bernice’s methods, Cobra guessed that the condoms used back then had been tampered with as well.
Only then, she hadn’t been caught. This time, she had.
Cobra had been watching Bernice Whey the entire time, saw how nervous she’d become when Cortez started revealing what he had discovered about her in just a short period of time.
He had a feeling there was more she didn’t want to come out, especially now that she knew a private investigative firm was doing the digging.
In a surprising move, she pleaded guilty to all charges—two counts of sexual assault for the condom tampering and spiking of the wine, along with assault and battery. She was released on bond but had to return for sentencing in a month.
“You know, Straw might have a point, Cobra,” his brother Colton said, breaking the silence. “You need to put a lock on your zipper.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Cortez added, grinning.
Cobra honestly didn’t see anything amusing about the situation.
What if he hadn’t seen that video? What if he’d fallen prey to Bernice’s plan?
Hell, he had no doubt that in nine months, she would have been on his doorstep, claiming that he was her baby’s daddy.
And once it was proven true, he would have been responsible for a child he had been tricked into making.
And another thing. If Cortez hadn’t forced the woman to drop her frivolous claim that he’d invited her to his house so he could video their bedroom activities, he could have been charged with a sexual offense.
He didn’t want to think about what would have tarnished his character and business reputation.
Tonight’s events had definitely been a wake-up call for him.
“I think you guys and Straw are right. I plan to take that advice.”
His two brothers stared at him for a moment, and as if he needed clarification, Colton asked, “And that advice is…?”
“I’m keeping my zipper locked.”
Now that got his brothers laughing. “What do the two of you find so funny?”
“There’s no way in hell you can go without sex,” Cortez said.
Cobra shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
“Well, I can,” Colton said. “For years, you’ve told anyone who would listen that regular sex keeps the mind sharp.”
“And I still stand by that,” Cobra confessed. “But regardless, I think I’ll manage to survive going without sex for a year.”
“A year!” Cortez and Colton exclaimed simultaneously. “No way you’ll last a year,” Colton said.
A smirk appeared on Cobra’s face. “An all-expense-paid trip to the Bahamas for a week says I can.”
“You’re on,” Colton said.
Cobra then looked at Cortez. “And I bet you four prepaid airline tickets–first class–anywhere in the country, over the course of a year, tickets I had planned to use for whenever I wanted to visit my favorite nephew in LA, that I will last without sex for a year.”
Cortez smiled. “First of all, Cornell is your only nephew, and since you will lose, I have no problem going along with this.”
“Neither of you will win the bet,” Cobra said. “After what Bernice, Allison, or whatever her name was, tried tonight, I am through with women.”
“For a year?” Colton asked.
“For longer than that, but for the bet, a year is good,” Cobra said. “Even if I am attracted to someone, all I’ll have to do is remember what went down tonight to kill my desire.”
Cortez rolled his eyes. “We’ll see. And you have to be honest with us, Cobra, if you fail and can’t hold out for the year. Then we win.”
“You guys won’t win.”
“Let’s shake on the bet,” Colton said.
The three brothers placed their glasses of Scotch aside, then held out their hands, shaking on their bet and sealing the deal.