You Don't Touch John's Cousin Read online

  Looking over her shoulder, she could see the other two guys had followed her into the parking lot. Nothing to do but go forward.

  She set her shoulders and picked up the pace. The guy in front was considerably overweight and his dark t-shirt couldn’t hide the expanse of white belly showing.

  It was like a plumber’s crack, but in the front.

  When she kept walking towards him he spoke, his voice seemed pretty high to be coming out of such a huge guy. “Where you goin’ sweetheart?” He spoke around a toothpick in his mouth.

  Cheryl Lynn glanced at him and made to walk to the side of him, “To my kids, they’re hungry,” she mumbled.

  “Not without paying a toll, sweetie.”

  His little black eyes hinted at a darker meaning than she wanted to think about. “I’ve got nothing you want.” She went to step farther around him when he moved to block her.

  “Sweetie, you got everything I might want. Food and …” He was surprised when she lashed out to kick him between the legs.

  Momma had always told her that talking never solved anything when someone threatened you.

  “God dammit!” Big bellied guy dropped to his knees, his voice going up even higher. Cheryl Lynn heard the footsteps running up behind her and started swinging the grocery bags before she even looked.

  She hit the Hispanic man upside his head with the shopping bag of cans. The flimsy plastic ripped, spewing cans everywhere. The momentum of the other packages carried her too far around and the white guy grabbed her left arm and reached around with his right across her face, blocking her sight.

  She stomped down hard on his instep and bit his arm, causing him to yank his arm back.

  “Fucking bitch!” He screamed.

  A dog barked somewhere in the night.

  That was when pain flared up in her face and she lost her focus. She had been hit with a glancing blow from the guy’s other hand. It caused her to stumble to her right. The first guy was getting slowly to his feet.

  She swung her bags at the guy that had hit her, releasing them and running for all she was worth without finding out if she had done any damage or not.

  Her adrenaline pumping, she took a second to look behind and noticed the white guy helping the big guy she had kicked. He starting to yell at her when she went around the corner. His voice carried after her into the night.

  “Mark sends his regards!”

  —

  The cold press she was applying to her face was helping a little. When she arrived home without further incident, she told the children to call for a pizza. She wasn’t going back out there tonight. She couldn’t make herself do it.

  Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. She got up to check the door and ensure it was only the pizza guy when Todd ran yelling from the kitchen, “Pizza!”

  “Wait!” She yelled to him, yanking open her bathroom door and trying to make it down the little hall but he was too excited, and too trusting.

  They were all too trusting. She had never been in this kind of situation in her life. She grew up in a small town, went to a small university and married. Everything had been idyllic, until she confronted Mark.

  Not for the last time she wondered if she should have eaten her pride for the children’s sake. She was willing to take the mental abuse and mind games. She might even be willing to fight. But if Mark took his anger out on Tina and Todd, Cheryl Lynn wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.

  “Hello young man…” Cheryl Lynn’s blood ran cold. She could see Todd staring up at someone who had to be tall on the other side of the door. The door blocked her view, but this guy’s voice was deep.

  This wasn’t a pizza guy.

  Cheryl Lynn’s demeanor changed. Those mother-fuckers had come for her children! She raced into her kitchen yanking open the utensils drawer, she half screamed, “Get away from the door, Todd!” She grabbed the meanest looking knife she had, a cheap butcher’s knife.

  Todd stood transfixed looking at the guy as Cheryl Lynn raced back to the door. She reached over to pull Todd out of the way so she could try to slam it shut. That was when she got a glance of a guy in a suit by the pale landing light at her door, accompanied by a woman.

  She slowly let go of her son as she brought her left hand up to her mouth, covering it. Tears started streaming down her face.

  The big man smiled at her, “Hello cuz… It’s been a while.”

  She opened the door more fully, stifled a sob and went to hug her cousin, little John.

  John deftly took the knife from her as she grabbed him and started sobbing into his chest. John heard a small commotion behind him to see Bethany Anne paying a pizza guy down by the sidewalk. He noticed Bethany Anne pull her phone out and could hear that she was ordering more food.

  He winked at the young man staring up at him and the young girl that had peeked around the corner. John held the knife out, “Todd, isn’t it?” The young boy nodded, “Would you take this knife back to the kitchen?” The young boy took a few steps and reached out to grasp the knife. John held it out for him, “See how I’m holding the blade, with the cutting edge away from me and the handle to you?” Todd nodded, “You say ‘thank you’ when you have it in your control. That’s when I release it to you.”

  “Thank you?” His voice was part curious, part apprehensive with his mom crying into the big guy’s chest.

  “That’s right, now take it to the kitchen.” Todd turned and walked back behind the door.

  Bethany Anne came walking up behind him. “C’mon John, let’s get this out of public view so we don’t become this evening’s entertainment.”

  She was right, no reason to create new stories for people to talk about.

  John spoke down to the top of the head on his chest. “Cheryl Lynn? We need to go inside.”

  His cousin nodded, then wiped at her tears with her hand. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the apartment. Bethany Anne walked behind him and closed the door while holding the pizza box in her other hand. She said softly, “I got this.”

  John nodded, “My boss will get the kids fed, why don’t we go talk about this in private?”

  He was able to get Cheryl Lynn to start walking down the short hallway. He followed his cousin and was in the process of closing the room’s door when he heard Bethany Anne speaking. "My name is Bethany Anne, what's yours?"

  CHAPTER THREE

  Cheryl Lynn reached out to grab some tissues from a little travel pack she had been hoarding for the nasty bouts of sneezing she suffered. Dallas was horrible for her allergies.

  John’s huge hand held out a handkerchief in front of her face. She took it and nodded her thanks. Maybe she would crack the tissues open another time.

  “How did you know?” She asked while trying to dry the tears from her face.

  “The group I work with must keep tabs on family members. I was told early this morning that things were bad between you and Mark. I got here as fast as I could.”

  She nodded, her shoulders slumped, “You always told me he wasn’t a good guy.”

  “No ‘I told you so’ coming from me. I think we live with our decisions and you’ve already paid that price.”

  A small laugh escaped from her lips, “I’m still paying that price.” She looked up at him, “Did you know that he cheated on me?”

  John shook his head.

  She looked back down, “He did. Not just once, but a lot. I found out there were at least four times. He claimed he needed to feel like a man again. That the women were nothing but conquests. He didn’t love them.” She sniffed, “At least, that’s what he said.”

  John let her speak, to get it off her chest. He had tried to get Cheryl Lynn to see the truth about Mark back in college. Mark had been really into himself then, he was still into himself. Cheryl Lynn had first rebuffed Mark’s advances and that made him want her all the more.

  She told the story again, how they dated off and on throughout college and she had never given in. She had made him ‘put
a ring on it’ before she would go to bed with him. While her personal beliefs did have something to do with her decision, in the beginning she had just been too shy. A late bloomer, she still hadn’t felt she was attractive. No matter Mark’s advances or other guys asking her out.

  Mark had just been the most aggressive guy and she finally realized he must be telling the truth since he was still dating her after two and a half years.

  Now, she had realized it had all been about the conquest with Mark. With the ring and the bedroom, she had just been one more notch.

  They had Todd quickly, Tina soon after. Cheryl Lynn had focused on the kids and Mark’s occasional forays into the bedroom suited her just fine. She hadn’t spent much time or effort trying to figure out why Mark was so easy going about her lack of interest. It had only been in the last couple of years, once the kids started becoming more independent, that she was interested in adult companionship again. That was when it became apparent that she and Mark didn’t really have a close relationship.

  She wasn’t stupid. Momma had always said, ‘find out your problems and face them head on’. She tried to be the sexy little vixen that she knew Mark liked, but after the first two or three times, he became disinterested again.

  She had hired the investigator to just cover the bases. She hadn’t expected to really be presented with so much evidence. The first time she found out, she held out hope that it was a one-time fling.

  By the fourth time, when she got the call that fateful night, she realized she wasn’t facing her problem head on. She had been hiding from the truth about her husband and her own feelings of disgrace and failure. Sometimes ‘hiding’ was easier and allowed her to avoid doing what was needed.

  By the time she was done yelling at Mark, expecting some sort of argument, he merely told her that since the house was in his name that she was welcome to leave that night. The kids could choose who they would stay with.

  Mark had expected the children to stay with him, in the house with their toys and games.

  He had gotten angry when all three packed their bags and walked out into the garage. He started ranting and yelling about how ‘rejecting their own dad wasn’t going to help them in life’. That leaving him was tantamount to saying they didn’t love him at all.

  Both kids had kept their comments to themselves and got into Momma’s Honda Accord. It had been paid off two years ago.

  The only similarity it shared with her husband’s car was the silver color.

  The first place she found to stay had been a nice motel. It hadn’t taken Mark 48 hours to cancel all of her credit cards and move the money from shared accounts into an account she had no access to.

  Because of that, she had to find a place that would accept cash, and ask few questions. She had connections with a local church, where she had been making donations. She had never thought she would be the one who needed the help.

  She asked him, “How did you find me?”

  John smiled, “From the church.”

  Her brow furrowed, “They promised they would never tell anyone.” She didn’t like the fact that they were passing out the information.

  “My boss can be persuasive.” John decided that was enough information.

  “Your boss?” She watched as John pointed his thumb in the direction of her kitchen and dining room. She asked, “That lady is your boss?”

  He nodded, “Yes she is, you saw her? I didn’t think you were tracking too well.”

  “I wasn’t, but I’m aware of everyone who’s around my kids.”

  He asked, “Are the kids skipping school?”

  She shook her head, “Spring break, I have to deal with school on Monday.”

  John heard a knock on the apartment front door and cocked an ear. Cheryl Lynn asked, “What is it?”

  He put up a ‘wait one’ finger. He heard Bethany Anne answer it and ask what the total was. “My boss ordered more food and is taking care of the delivery driver.”

  “Oh!” Cheryl Lynn started reaching for her pocket book.

  “Don’t! It’s already paid for and she wouldn’t accept your money anyway.” John knew how all of his family had been brought up. It was a testament that Cheryl Lynn was as upset as she was, otherwise she would be making them tea or coffee right then. He looked at her eye, “How did you get the shiner?”

  She reached up to her eye, “I was roughed up this evening by some guys Mark sent after me. I think they were supposed to rough me up a little more, but I was able to get in a few licks and run.”

  “How do you know Mark was behind this?”

  She glared up at him, “Because the prick I kicked in his manhood told me at the very end that ‘Mark sends his regards’. I ran away before confirming any last name.” She practically dared John to criticize her efforts.

  “Is that why you came to the door with a knife?”

  She nodded her head.

  There was a knock on the room’s door. John reached over and opened it. A medium pizza box was stuck through. A woman’s voice, “Eat up, there’s more.” John grabbed the box and she closed the door for him.

  He turned to the bed and opened the box. She had placed two plates and napkins inside the box, a third plate was keeping the rest from getting greasy. He pulled out a slice of pepperoni and put it on the plate along with a napkin and handed it to Cheryl Lynn. “Eat up. You need your energy.” There was another knock on the door.

  He turned back to the door after Cheryl Lynn took the plate. He pulled it open. Bethany Anne had two sixteen ounce Cokes and a small medicine cup. In it, there was some red medicine. Smelled like a cough syrup to John. He took the bottles in his left hand, the medicine in his right. “It will help with the eye.” she told him. John nodded and Bethany Anne closed the door again. He kept his back to his cousin and got the medicine close enough to sniff it.

  There was the hint of copper in the medicine. The smell of blood.

  John smiled reflectively, God, he loved his boss!

  He turned to his cousin, “Grab a Coke and open it, then I want you to down all of the medicine and wait until you can’t stand the aftertaste, then drink some Coke. Got it?”

  She eyed her cousin, “I do have kids you know. It isn’t like I don’t have medicine taking skills. Besides, I don’t have any medicine that is going to help this eye right now.” She took the small cup, “This smells like cough syrup. That isn’t going to help.”

  “Trust me, by morning your eye will be fine.” John said, and she raised a dubious eyebrow at him. He shrugged and added, “I’ll bet you a ‘truth’ if I’m wrong.”

  “Any truth?” She and John had played truth or dare as kids all the time. John had even fallen out of a tree when he was five because she had dared him to climb it. Thankfully, it had only knocked the wind out of him and he had never told his parents anything other than he had fallen trying to climb.

  When John confirmed with a nod, she downed the medicine with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to know if Angie Garcia’s story about the two of you in the back of the movies was ever true.” She made a face, “Gahh! That shit is awful. I hope she didn’t poison me with something out of date. I didn’t pay attention to the expiration when I bought that stuff at the dollar store.” She lasted twenty seconds before taking a large drink of the Coke.