Sins of a Siren by Curtis L. Alcutt Page A

exhaled. As it had all her life, trouble found her again. From taking the blame for stealing hair relaxer so her friend Sandy wouldn’t get in trouble with her abusive father to being beaten by her mother for bringing home a stray cat and feeding it—trouble seemed to have always had her on speed dial. She closed her eyes. “I’m sure glad there’s a few thousand miles between me and that nutty ho.”

Fifteen
    T wo hours before calling Trenda, a stranger knocked on Piper’s door. She adjusted her new eyeglasses and looked into the peephole in her door. “Who is it?”
    Darius’s partner, Tyrone, stepped back so she could get a good look at him.
I sure hope this crazy plan works…
“My name’s Eric. I’m looking for Piper Langford.”
    She opened the door and studied the dark brown man eye-to-eye. “How do you know me?”
    â€œWe have a mutual friend…Trenda Fuqua.”
    The rage he saw behind Piper’s glasses was unmistakable. “That bitch is
not
my friend. What do you know about her? Do you know where she is?”
    Tyrone looked up and down the hallway. “Can we go inside and talk?”
    Piper studied him a moment longer, then stepped aside and let him in. She motioned toward her sofa. “Have a seat.”
    He watched the bulky woman flop onto the loveseat across from him. Tyrone mentally went over the script he and Darius had formulated. “I’m gonna get straight to the point; Trenda used me. We were supposed to get married next month but instead, she conned me. She managed to get the passwords to my bank accounts and credit cards. She pretty much drained all my money and fucked up my credit. I also found out she returned the engagement ring I gave her and kept the cash…told me she was havin’ it resized. She is fuckin’
scandalous
.”
    Piper’s face soured. “
Married
! She was going to
marry
you?” He gave a solemn look and nodded. “Yes…she accepted my proposal a few months ago.”
    Piper’s right eye twitched. “How could she do that? I didn’t even know she liked men until I saw her on video giving this cop a blowjob. We had been lovers for over a year!”
    Yeah, this big bitch is gettin’ worked up now
! Tyrone feigned shock. “
What
? She told me you were just a friend she shared an apartment with. No wonder she never let me come here to visit. We always had to stay at my place when it came time for us to be intimate.”
    Piper rose to her feet. “She didn’t tell you about
us
?”
    â€œNo, nothing more than her letting you move in with her.”
    Piper slammed her beefy fist on top of an expensive Bose speaker, causing it to fall off its base. “That bitch! This is
my
place! I let her homeless-ass move in with
me
!” She paced the floor. A tear puddled behind the right lens of her glasses, then ran down her cheek. “I gave that cunt everything.
Every-fucking-thing!”
    He wiped his hand down his face. “I can’t believe she played both of us! I should have known what kind of person she was by the way she talked about you.”
    Piper walked over and loomed over him. “
What?
”
    He scooted back from her. “Well…I don’t think you want to—”
    â€œ
Tell me
, goddammit!”
    I’d better get up before her fat-ass pins me down
. He eased up off of the sofa. “She used to always tell me how you were such a…fool… she bragged about how she had you pay for all her stuff. I told her she was wrong for doing it, but she said that’s the only thing you were good for…made me wonder what she said behind
my
back.”
    She reeked with fury. “I’ll kill that fucking cunt! After all I did… goddamn her!”
    Tyrone watched in horror as she picked up an ink pen off of the coffee table and repeatedly jabbed it in her thigh. He then went into his back pocket and