After dinner, Jordan kissed his godparents and Miss Lucinda goodbye and left to shoot hoops with his friends at the park.  Kari walked her friends to their automobiles.  Lucinda, driving her brand-new Infiniti, drove off immediately. She had a hot date.

“With who?” Faye asked with a smile.  “Wolfman Jack?”

“Don’t hate,” Lucinda said with a grin, and sped away.

But Kari and Faye placed their arms around each other’s waist as they trailed Benny toward their car.  Despite the little jealousy episode, they were still best friends.

“How are you handling things, Kari?  About what happened to Alex in Germany, and what happened to you at Lucinda’s? They’re still talking about that little episode.”

“What are they saying?” Kari asked.

“They said you ran out of the diner to chase down some woman.  They said you two got into some heated argument over Alex, and y’all came to blows.  She tried to get away from you, they said, but you beat her down.”

“That is such a lie!” Kari said.  “These people and their over-exaggerations!  It didn’t happen.”

Benny looked at her doubtfully.  He knew something happened!

“I mean, yes, I had a conversation with some woman, but it wasn’t heated, and I didn’t run her down.  I went out to talk to her further.  She was the one who took it to that crazy level, not me.”

“But what was it about?” Faye asked.  “Alex?”

Kari didn’t even want to mention it.  Alex had a woman problem.  She expected to have many encounters with is exes.  “Yes,” Kari said.  “It was about Alex.”

“What about him?” Benny asked.

“She didn’t say.  She just told me to leave him alone.”

“Or what?” Faye said.

“She didn’t say,” said Kari.

Faye shook her head.  “These people need to get a life.  What’s up with that?  When I used to quit a man, it was over.  I didn’t care who he dated!”

“I’m saying,” agreed Kari.

“Just be careful,” Benny said as they arrived at his car.  “Some of these females can be very difficult.”

Kari nodded.  “I know they can, Benny.  And thanks.  But I’m good.”

“I’m sure Alex is making sure you are,” said Faye.  “He wouldn’t leave the country and leave you unprotected.”

Kari and Jordan were instructed to never speak about their security.  Not to anyone.  He didn’t care who.  Kari followed that order to the letter.

Faye hugged Kari as Benny opened the passenger door for her.  “You take care of yourself,” she said to Kari.

“I will.  You know me!”

“And don’t let those heifers give you heartburn.  They’re just jealous.”

“May I offer a contrary opinion?” Benny asked.

“Here we go,” Faye said.  “Uncle Ben has to have his moment of wisdom.”

Faye and Kari laughed.  “You may offer your opinion, Benny,” Kari said.

“I know it’s your instinct to ignore it,” he said.  “But don’t.  I’m an attorney.  I know what some of these jealous ladies can be capable of.  Just be careful.”

“I will, Benny, thanks,” she said.

“Anyway, got to run, girl,” Faye said, and she and Kari hugged.  Then Benny helped his wife onto the passenger seat, he got in under the wheel, and they took off.

After they drove off, Kari walked around to the side of her house and pulled a few weeds that stood out in her rock garden.  She tossed them aside until trash day later in the week, and then made her way back inside through the back door.

When she saw the dirty dishes on the dining room table, she exhaled.  “Ugh,” she said out loud.  “Now comes the un-fun part!”

She scrapped the leftover food from all of the plates onto one plate, stacked the plates onto each other, and then headed for the kitchen.  On her way she pressed the Play button on the CD player built into the center island, and Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car filled the room.  She had it programmed to always come on first, because she liked the rhythm of it, and the words, as she went to the sink to prepare the dishes for the dishwasher.

“You got a fast car

I want a ticket to anywhere

Maybe we’ll make a deal

Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better

Starting from zero, got nothing to lose

Maybe we’ll make something

Me, myself I got nothing to prove.”

 

It was their song, she thought as she scrapped the one plate of food into the garbage disposal, although she doubted seriously if Alex ever paid that song any attention.  But it had entered Kari’s mind the night Alex, on their very first date, didn’t drive her to a local restaurant for dinner as she assumed he would, but, instead, flew her on his private plane for dinner in New York!  She knew for certain at that time the kind of man she was dealing with.  And no lie, she thought, she was scared to death.  Not so much of Alex, but of Alex’s world and way of life and jet-setting, high-flying lifestyle.  She felt as if she was so out of her league!  But she took the plunge anyway because that was who she was.  Life never was a bed of roses for her, and any good results she’d ever had was because she stood up and fought for those results.  Alex was a hell of a risk when they first met, but she took the chance anyway.  And now, one day, she might just become his wife!

“You got a fast car

Is if fast enough so we can fly away?

We got to make a decision

Leave tonight or live and die this way!”

 

“Not a great way to treat your guest.”

Kari went still.  What the hell?  Did she just hear a . . . voice?

“You heard me.”

It was a voice alright.  An unfamiliar voice.  In her house!  Her heart began to hammer.

“Is this how you treat your guests?”

Although Kari was terrified, she wasn’t so thrown that she couldn’t slyly grab a knife from out of the knife block on her drainboard, and then, the knife concealed, quickly turn around.  When she saw that it was Linda Drakos, Alex’s ex-wife, complete with plastic surgery that made her thin lips appear duck-like, and that almost completely concealed the facial scar Alex had given her.  Kari’s heart-hammering eased, but her anger heightened.  “How did you get in my house?” she asked her.

“How did I slip security you mean?” Linda asked with a smile.  “I studied their habits.  Alex loves to tout them as the best in the business, but they have their weaknesses too.”

“But how did you get in here?”

“After your friends left, and you went around the back of your house, I walked in.  You left your front door unlocked.  But what does that matter?  I’m in the dump now!”

The balls of this woman!  Linda Drakos was one female Kari couldn’t stand.  Her only previous encounter with her wasn’t a good one at all, and Alex had to show the bitch what could happen to her if she harassed Kari again.

But he was out of town, and here she was right back again.  She wanted to take that knife and run her out of her house, but she needed info.  She needed to know what Linda wanted, and if she had sent that woman to threaten her at Lucinda’s.

“What do you want?” she decided to ask her.

“You know what I want,” Linda responded.  “I want Alex.  That’s what I want.”

Kari stared at her.  “Then get him,” she said.

Linda hadn’t expected that come back.  She was astounded by it.  “What?” she asked.

“You want him, get him.  You didn’t have to break in my house for that.”

Linda frowned.  “Are you insane?  You’re telling me you don’t want him anymore?  You don’t want Alex Drakos, the most eligible bachelor in this world anymore?”

“I’m telling you that if you want him, get him.  Why are you coming to me about that?”

“Because you have him!”

“Right,” Kari said.  “He chose me.  And apparently, since you no longer have him, he didn’t choose you.  So how is that my problem?”

Linda didn’t know how to respond to reason.  It was all about emotions for her these days.  She stared at Kari.

“And why would you want a man who would do that to your face anyway?” Kari asked.  “And yeah, I see that scar despite all that makeup and surgery.  Why are you tormenting yourself like this?”

 Linda, deciding that she suddenly figured out what Kari was up to, smiled.  “You think you have the upper hand, don’t you?  You, Miss Plain Jane if ever there was one, think she has what it takes to keep a man with refined taste, not to mention an extraordinarily refined sexual drive, like Alexio, don’t you?  If you think a woman like me couldn’t keep his attention, but a woman like you can, then you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were!”

And then, suddenly, Linda’s smile turned into what it was all along: a hard, cold frown.  “Find a reason, an excuse, whatever, to stay away from Alex,” she warned.

The nerve of this woman!  But it was, essentially, the same message that woman at Lucinda’s had given to her.  “And if I don’t?” Kari asked.

“You will regret it,” Linda said.  “Oh my, how you will regret it.”

A cold chill ran down Kari’s spine.  But it was a cold chill of anger, not fear.  “Bitch please,” she said.  “Take your idle threats and get out of my house.”

“Idle?  You think my threats are idle?”

Linda walked up to Kari as if she owned the joint. “I don’t make idle threats, little girl,” Linda said.  And then, suddenly, she took her hand and slapped Kari hard across the face.  “You’re out of your depth, little girl.  Stay away from my husband,” she added, and then turned to leave the same way she had come in.

But as she turned to leave in all of her snugness, Kari at first was too stunned to react.  This woman, this bitch, she thought, just waltzed into her house like she owned it, slapped her like she had that right, and was laying down the law to her?  And she expected Kari to just let her just walk away?

Kari clutched that knife, hurried up behind Linda, and then flung her around to face her.

Linda was shocked when Kari put that knife to her face.  “What are you doing?” she asked nervously.

“Now you listen to me,” Kari said to her.  “Alex already warned your ass to stay away from me.  Now I’m warning you.”

Linda smiled.  “You?  Warning me?”  And without hesitation, Linda, who, unbeknownst to Kari, held a blackbelt in Taekwondo, lifted her heel and with one kick knocked the knife out of Kari’s hand.

Kari was surprised.  She had no idea the bitch was one of those kick fighters.  But Kari was a street fighter, and she took it to the street!

Kari grabbed Linda by the leg, and then lifted her off of her feet and onto the floor.  Linda’s small purse fell out of her hand, and a small gun fell out of it.  And while Kari let her fists do the talking and she hit her unwelcomed guest hard and repeatedly in the face, Linda was reaching for that gun.

When Kari realized what she was doing, she began to reach for it too, and the two women struggled to get to it first.  Kari won that battle, but then Linda placed her hand on the trigger too.  The gun went off, several times, as the women struggled.

And then Linda got the upper hand, and she managed to point that gun at Kari.  Street fighting was no match for formal-fight training, and Kari found herself staring down the barrel of that gun.  Both her finger and Linda’s finger were on the trigger.  If either one of them pulled it one more time, Kari knew she was going to leave this earth, and leave Jordan alone.     

She had to fight for her life!

She was weak on formal training, but she was fast.  She had speed on her side.  It was going to be risky.  She knew, if she removed her hand from that trigger, it was going to be her head, her life, if she wasn’t fast enough. 

She prayed to God, as beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and she did it.  She removed her hand from that pistol and, simultaneously, rolled off of Linda and away from her, causing Linda to fire yet another errant shot.

But then, as soon as Kari attempted to grab Linda from a better position, and as Linda turned to fire, again, at Kari, the front door was kicked open and Kari’s security detail, who had heard the gunshots from the street, ran into the house.

“Put it down!” one of the men yelled at Linda.  “Drop it now or it ends right now!”

And Linda, no fool, Kari thought, quickly dropped her weapon.

But then she said, “I have to talk to Alex,” and Alex’s men wondered if she was crazy.  But then she added: “I have something to tell him.  Don’t harm me.  He’ll want to hear what I have to say!”

Was it a ploy to avoid punishment, Alex’s men wondered, or was the bitch for real?

Kari, after struggling with her and almost losing, was now a true believer.

That bitch was for real.