Chapter 18
Dionne Henry
Going To The Source
Ihad strength today. Strength to get out of bed this afternoon and do something.
With all the crying, and moping around the house that I have been doing these past few days, I had nothing but time on my hands to think about who could have done something so heinous to my baby.
Someone had to have some kind of motive behind this.
When it first happened, my mind was boggled, so when the cops asked me if I had any idea who could have done this, I really didn’t have a clue.
Once I calmed down a little bit, and reality hit me that Bagel was no longer here, I started thinking about who would have had motive.
Immediately, I started coming up with a bunch of theories, truly feeling like this could have been Tank’s hold hoe Renee that had someone kill my dog.
I only thought that it would be her because we had just got into it at the football game.
Once Tank pretty much told me that she didn’t have the brains to pull that off, I winged her out.
Garrus came to my mind after. I was back and forth on whether it was him.
My gut was telling me that it wasn’t him, but then there was another part that was nagging at me, telling me that it could be.
I just know that when Garrus and I were in each other’s lives, he loved Bagel just as much as I loved him.
Bagel would follow Garrus around my old condo whenever he would come over, and there were times I would find the two of them in my bed together, taking a nap.
When I thought about sentimental stuff like that, I would wing Garrus out, saying that he wouldn’t do anything like this.
Then, my mind would go back to our last encounter.
This man had forced his way into my home, and I was seconds away from being sexually abused by him.
I didn’t think that he could do that, and for that, that’s the reason why I couldn’t wing him out.
That’s the reason why I was pulling up to one of his rental car companies that he owned, needing to have a word with him.
I parked my car in the lot, grabbed my purse that was sitting in the passenger seat, and I stepped out.
I locked my doors behind me, and I allowed my high heels to click against the pavement.
There were sunglasses on my face because I was putting in overtime to hide the small bags that were under my eyes.
I really wasn’t sleeping like that. Last night was probably the most that I’ve slept since this happened, and even with that, I only slept for a few hours.
I walked inside the building of G- Enterprise, and with this being a luxury car rental spot, when you walked in, there was nothing but foreign cars that were inside.
It’s almost like you could smell the new engines, along with the expensive leather interior.
The floors were perfectly polished, and clean, to the point that when you looked down at it, you could almost see your reflection.
Nothing about this luxury rental car dealership were like the others.
This was a place where a bunch of celebrities, and just anyone with a name would come whenever they were in town and wanted to push around something fancy.
Looking around, there were Lamborghini’s, Rolls- Royce’s, and a couple of Jaguar’s. I almost got chills standing here because this is where Garrus and I first met. God, if I could go back in time, I would have never entertained him, especially since I knew that he was married.
“Hi. Welcome to G- Enterprise. Can I help you? What brings you in today?” a beautiful, black receptionist asked me.
She looked as if she could be my age, or probably a little younger.
Because I didn’t want to look too suspicious, I removed the frames from my face, and once I did that, her eyes focused on me, as if she was trying to figure out if she knew me or something.
“Is Garrus in today? I wanted to have a word with him,” I responded, and I’m sure the moment she heard me call him by his first name, she looked deeper into it because her body froze a little bit.
She was getting ready to frown, but she caught herself.
That little bit of action alone spoke volumes.
I could bet my last dollar that she was fuckin him, and that’s why she was bothered by my presence.
I’m sure she remembered the scandal that took place between me, Garrus, and his wife.
“Ummm. He is in, but he’s actually in a meeting right now,” she responded.
“That’s fine. I can wait,” I chirped, not giving a damn how long I had to wait because I was on a mission, and with that, I didn’t care about time.
“Are you Dionne?” was her follow up question.
“I am. Can you make a call to him to let him know that I’m out front, and that I need to talk to him? Thank you,” my reply was dismissive because I wanted her to know that I wasn’t leaving any room for unnecessary conversation.
She was so close to rolling her eyes, but she didn’t do it. Instead, she picked up the phone, just like I needed her to do, so that she could place that call to Garrus.
“Hi. I’m sorry to bother you. Dionne is here. She said that she wants to talk to you,” she went on to say to him the second that the call was connected.
I’m not sure what he was saying to her, but she was quiet, nodding as if he could see her, and then she hung up.
“He’s coming. Just give him one second,” she told me, and I smiled.
“What happened to the meeting that he was in?” I asked just to fuck with her. She didn’t respond, but I wasn’t shocked.
Literally one minute later, I could smell his cologne before I even saw him.
He walked that cocky walk from the back, buttoning his suit jacket, as he walked out front to get me.
I was paying close attention to every little detail as he made his way to me.
I was looking for guilt, but I couldn’t find it because he was so busy walking, and smiling, as if this was a social visit.
Garrus was a very handsome man, not looking like he was in his fifties.
He was in perfect shape, looking better than a lot of men that were much younger than him.
He didn’t do any drugs, he was very mindful of what he ate, and he would only drink occasionally.
I know those things played their part in why he looked good physically.
“Well, to what do I owe this surprise?” he asked, and after he asked it, I could hear the receptionist suck her teeth.
“I need to talk to you,” I was firm.
He tried to put his hands on the small of my back, so that he could lead me, but I put my hands on them, forcefully moving them out of the way.
After the way he violated me the last time he was in my presence, I didn’t want his hands on me.
If I wasn’t losing my mind, trying to find answers on what happened to my dog, I wouldn’t even be around him. His presence disgusted me now.
There used to be a time when I would jump on him when he came over, have him walk throughout my home with me in his arms because I was so stupidly in love, but now I hated him so much.
“That’s fair. Come on,” he said, backing up, and he walked on the side of me, taking us to his office.
Once we were in front of the door, he used his fingerprint to grant us entry, and I walked in. Garrus followed, closing the door behind him, and I didn’t bother fully walking in. I just inched a few feet away from the door.
Once he saw that I wasn’t going to sit, he stopped walking, turned around to face me, and he had the nerve to contort his face to one of a sad, lost puppy. He dropped his head in pure shame, as he looked down at me with helpless eyes.
“Dionne, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the way that I handled you back at your condo.
You know me. I feel like you know me better than anyone because when I was with you, I was my true, authentic self.
That was one of the reasons why I fell in love with you because I could be me.
You should know that I would never in my life do anything to violate you like that.
I have no idea why I did that. I just got so angry because I had been trying to track you down for months, and when I finally got a hold of you, I snapped.
I was wrong, and I’m sorry. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” he finished, reaching his hand out to touch me, but I pushed it away, just as I’d done the last time.
“Stop! Don’t touch me! Do not fuckin touch me!” I yelled at him. He threw his hands up in surrender, as if he fully understood the order that I’d just given him, and he backed away from me, but just a little bit.
I remained calm after that. I looked around his office, and paid attention to the pictures that he had of his children. His wife was nowhere to be seen, so that divorce probably did happen. I didn’t care to know though, so I wouldn’t ask.
“You killed my dog, Garrus?” I asked him, looking him dead in his eyes, waiting to hear what his response was going to be.
When I asked him that question, his eyes bucked, and he had the nerve to look at me as if he was offended by my question.
“What? Dionne, you know damn well that I’m not a fuckin killer, especially not to a fuckin dog! A dog that I bought for you. A dog that was damn near our child. What kind of fucked up individual do you take me for?” he barked at me.
“Okay, so I’ll rephrase the question then. Did you have someone kill my fuckin dog?” I asked, nothing but anger in my voice.
“Dionne, I don’t know what the hell your talking about!
All of this is new news to me. I didn’t even know that Bagel was dead.
Come on. Your painting me out to be a damn monster.
I did mess up the last time that I was around you, trying to force myself on you, but that was a mistake.
Don’t let one fuck up paint the rest of my character.
As angry as I am at you for living me, I would never harm Bagel.
I would never make anyone else harm him, either,” I didn’t know if I believed him.
He wasn’t asking the proper questions. He wasn’t asking how it happened, when it happened, none of the things that I felt he should have been asking me.
“I don’t believe you for some reason,” I responded, and he sucked his teeth.
“Of course you don’t. My word doesn’t mean shit to you these days,” he spat, and I nodded my head.
“Just so you know, I’m working with the cops, and I’m not going to stop until I find out who that man was that came into my condo building, knew to go down to the pet concierge, and leave with my fuckin dog, and then sent me a picture of my dog unalive.
I won’t rest until I find out who did it,” I calmy let him know.
“That nigga that you’re running around with, ask him if he did it!” his words shocked me. So much so, that I froze a little bit, not being able to believe his words.
“You must have forgotten that I’m the biggest Miami Hurricanes fan.
I saw the game the other night. I saw you in the suites with him.
You know I did my homework, so I looked him up.
You coming down here, jumping down my throat, asking me if I had something to do with Bagel dying, when you need to be asking him.
You’re running around with a thug. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had someone do that shit,” he sounded stupid.
I stepped closer to him, and I smiled at him, looking up into his eyes.
“That thug that your referring to is willing to do anything for me. When we find out who killed my dog, he already told me that all I have to do is give him the word on what I want done to the person, and I know that I want that person dead. They must die, just like Bagel did. So, if it was you that caused harm to my puppy, just be ready to die over it,” I kindly let him know, and then I walked out of his office, making sure to slam the hell out of the door on my way out.
The way people would mourn the loss of a child, that’s the way that I was feeling right now.
I didn’t want the person that had done this to go behind bars.
I wanted them dead. A picture of my baby was sent to me, and he was lifeless.
I wanted the same thing for the killer, and for anyone else that was a part of it.
I couldn’t prove it right now, but something in my gut was telling me that Garrus had something to do with it. He just had to.