CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The next morning and Janita placed a tray of bacon, a tray of eggs, a tray of toasts, and a pot of piping-hot grits on the breakfast table: a down-home Tennessee meal.
Von was already seated at the table with a huge smile on his face that could not be disguised.
He didn’t know how he was going to broach it, but he knew he was going to.
“How was your night, sis?” he asked her as she put a plate in front of him.
“It was good. How was yours?”
“Mine was great. Did you get much sleep?”
Janita looked at him when he asked that question. When she saw that grin on his face, she slapped him upside his head. “Very funny,” she said, and he laughed out loud.
“What’s so funny?” Hawk asked as he entered the breakfast hall with his Wall Street Journal morning newspaper tucked under his arm, and sat at the head of the table.
“I didn’t know they made those anymore,” Von said of the print newspaper Hawk was carrying.
But Hawk wanted his question answered. “What’s so funny?” he asked again.
“Nothing at all,” said Janita. “Just my silly brother being my silly brother.”
“I was just asking her if she slept much last night,” said Von. He wasn’t ready to put it to bed. “Which is the question I’m asking you. How was your night, Hawk?”
Hawk knew what he was implying. He took his newspaper and threw it at him. Von ducked and laughed. He was having the time of his life.
Then they settled down and began putting the various food items on their plates while Janita went and poured Hawk a cup of coffee.
Hawk chewed on toast as he watched her. Although he wore another one of his Versace tracksuits because of his intention to go by the office today, Janita wore a pair of shorts and one of his Lakers t-shirts that swallowed her.
But her legs coming down from that shirt and those shorts were perfection.
Her butt was perfection. She still looked sexy to him.
And he was getting aroused just looking at her.
And thinking about how it felt to be inside of her again last night.
That was why, as she sat his cup of coffee in front of him, he grabbed her and sat her on his lap.
He knew it was a brazen thing to do in front of Von, but there was no way he was going to hide his affection for this lady after all she did for him. Not ever.
Janita loved his show of affection, too, and wasn’t worried that Von wouldn’t let her live it down.
After his ordeal and after last night, she was more determined than ever to do whatever she had to do to hold onto this man.
She knew she couldn’t compete with those movie stars and recording artists, and she wasn’t going to try.
But she wasn’t giving up Hawk without a fight.
She decided the day she saw him nearly dead on his living room floor, that he was worth every ounce of fight she had within her.
Her concern was if he thought she was worth fighting for too.
Hawk looked at her sweet, smooth face, and her large, tender eyes and smiled. “Did I ever tell you how grateful I am to you and your brother?”
She smiled too. “Only about a hundred times.”
“Well, here is number 101: Thank you, baby. Thank you so much,” he said heartfelt, and then he kissed her passionately on the lips.
Then they looked at Von, as if he was next to be thanked. “I’ll take a Maserati instead,” he said. And they both laughed.
But after breakfast, Hawk decided to get down to business. He had to figure out what was going on and he had to figure it out in a hurry. Because in the meantime, he was not going to let Janita nor Von out of his sight.
He cleared the table in front of him, grabbed his iPad he kept on the cupboard behind him, and began writing out scenarios: “Kemberly and her brothers attacked me when I got back to L.A.,” he wrote.
“Somebody tried to kill you and Von after you dropped me off at the airport. Shelly was shot several times several months ago.”
That was news to Janita and Von. “He was?”
“It was a drive-by shooting and he got caught in the crossfire. At least according to the cops. But was it really random?”
“Right,” agreed Von. He and his sister were leaned forward and hanging onto Hawk’s every word.
Hawk continued writing: “My mother was kidnapped and then returned just before the attack on you guys, and just before the attack on me. Why was she released unharmed?” Hawk asked rhetorically. “Why was she even taken just to be returned so soon? Was that related to what happened to us?”
“And don’t forget that attempt on your life before Kemberly and her brothers got to you,” Janita said. “I know you didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, but it concerned your mother so much that she hopped on a plane to come and see about you.”
Hawk nodded and wrote that on his iPad too. “Right,” he said.
Then Janita had another thought. “When Kemberly called you and told you she was in the hospital because she had attempted suicide, why would she be so certain that you’d drop everything and go see about her?”
“I probably wouldn’t have dropped everything had she phoned me,” Hawk said.
Which surprised Janita. “If she didn’t call you, who did?”
“Greta Jacobs phoned me.”
Von frowned. “Who’s that?”
“My secretary. She said somebody from the hospital had phoned her and said Kem was in critical condition after a suicide attempt. And that she was asking for me.”
“So your secretary was just going by what the hospital told her?” Von asked.
Hawk nodded. “Right.”
“If it was the hospital,” said Janita, and Hawk agreed with that too.
“But I still don’t understand why Kemberly would want you dead if she knows you’re the person that could take her career to the next level,” said Janita. “And it can’t be about her being jealous of me.”
“Stop dismissing that,” Hawk admonished her. “She saw you at my house a month ago when you came with my mother. She very much assumed you were the one I had chosen.”
“But that wasn’t true,” Janita said.
“Back then, no, it wasn’t.” Hawk agreed.
Von heard that back then caveat. “What about now?” he asked.
Hawk hesitated. He was not a man who exposed his vulnerabilities. But for Janita and Von, who stood by him and never left his side at the lowest point of his life, he’d do anything. “Now, yes,” he said.
Von exhaled and smiled. Janita was inwardly smiling too.
“We have no idea who ambushed us,” Von went on to say. “But what about Mr. Shelly? Do they know who attacked him? Do they know who shot at you that morning? Could it be the same person?”
Hawk was impressed with Von. “Now that’s a good question,” he said.
Janita was impressed too. “Sure is, DeVontay. Real good question.”
Hawk phoned his CEO. He put the call on Speaker just as Shelly was answering the call. “Yo?”
“Good morning.”
“Hawk? I know better than that. Your first day out of the hospital and you’re calling me about work already?”
“Not work, but I do have a question,” Hawk replied.
“Okay shoot.”
Hawk smiled. Funny he should use that terminology. “Do the authorities know who shot you a few months back?”
“Nope, and I have been asking them relentlessly. It was a drive-by shooting and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time is how they view it. But nobody’s been arrested. Given how many drive-by shootings they have a on daily, they seriously doubt if anybody ever will be caught.”
“Could the person who shot you be the same person that shot at me that morning at Eagle?”
“Who?” Shelly asked. “Percy Jacobs? That’s who shot at you.”
“But could he have been the person that shot you?”
“No way. I would have recognized Percy. I didn’t get a great look at my shooter, but I was certain it wasn’t Percy.”
“So there’s no connection then?”
“None,” said Shelly. “I would have recognized Percy.”
“But wait a minute,” said Janita.
Hawk and Von looked at her. “What?” Von asked.
Janita looked at Hawk. “Didn’t you say the woman that called you and told you about Kemberly’s suicide attempt was a Jacobs too?”
“Greta Jacobs, my secretary, yes,” Hawk said. Then he and Shelly seemed to get the connection at the same time.
“I forgot Greta was a Jacobs too!” Shelly said.
“So had I,” said Hawk.
“What are y’all talking about?” Von asked.
“Percy Jacobs tried to kill Hawk,” said Janita to her brother. “Greta Jacobs is his secretary and was the one who called and told him about Kemberly’s suicide attempt. That’s too crazy to be a coincidence.”
“For real,” Von said excitedly.
“Where’s Greta?” Hawk asked Shelly over the phone. “Is she at work today?”
“She’s not. As a matter of fact, she hasn’t been to work in three days.”
“Since Hawk got out of that coma,” said Janita.
“I’ll be damn,” said Shelly. “That’s right!”
It was right to Hawk, too, as he jumped to his feet. Janita and Von hopped up too. “Get her address and text it to me, Shelly,” Hawk was saying.
“Don’t go rogue on me, man,” Shelly fired back. “You just got out of the hospital. I’ll call Lassie and let him and his team handle it.”
“Who’s Lassie?” Von asked.
“The chief of security at Eagle Records,” Hawk said. “Text me that address,” he ordered Shelly and ended the call. “Let’s go,” he said to Janita and Von. He wasn’t letting them out of his sight.
“I need to go upstairs and get my gun,” Janita said.
“I’ve got an extra one in the car. Let’s go,” he said again as he hurried for the exit.
Janita and Von didn’t delay. They hurried behind him as he went to his five-car garage on the side of his house, grabbed the keys to his Maserati Quattroporte, and tossed them to Von.
Von was surprised and thrilled. “Me?”
“You said you preferred a Massi. Drive,” he ordered as he and Janita got in on the backseat.
Von drove alright. They all jerked backwards when he sped out of that garage so fast that it felt as if they had just been launched from a cannon. And it got even faster from there.