The Baker And The Queen Pin

Chapter 44: Woman to Woman

~~~Keisha

As I see her eyes, I see how she looks at me. I see how Maria thinks about me, I see it because those eyes are like that of a predator. She doesn't see me as a woman worth knowing, she sees me as someone who is in her way, a woman who just happened to get Booker. She doesn't see me as anything else.

She doesn't respect me nor does she want to. She just wants me gone, 'I'm not threatening you. I want you to understand something. You've seen too much and the only reason you're alive is because of Booker. You're not important, you're just someone who is alive on a Tuesday.' she says to me. "Fuck you." 'As much as I may be bisexual, I wouldn't touch you with a 10-foot stick.' she says with a smile.

"Screw you. Enough of this. We both know what you want. You want me out of the picture but the sad truth for you is I'm not going anywhere nor do I plan on going anywhere." 'So here's what we can do. We can go with your plan and you live your life in relative peace or we can go with mine. I have Gregory and Gregory snuff you out and you go missing. Your kids will learn to accept your death and move on with their lives.' I feel anger at myself and I feel guilt, I knew what I was doing when I decided to give her a piece of my mind. I knew what I was doing when I attacked Booker and yet here I am now.

Booker wasn't a bad man, he even tried to work it out with me numerous times. He wanted fair visitation and all I did was make sure he would suffer in the worst ways possible and now he's with somebody who can quite literally do whatever she wants with him. "He's a good man, you don't deserve him." 'And you do?' she says with her eyebrow raised.

'You don't deserve to be happy with a man like him." 'Then why? Why do you do everything you can to get in my way? It's bad enough you're alive and now you have to find a reason to do anything you can to hurt him.' "I don't want my children to be raised by a woman like you." It's then that Gregor begins to put his hand on my shoulder and Maria raises her hand to stop him.

'Keisha, work with me here.' She says, kindly, 'Do you honestly think I would expose your children to this lifestyle?' I could see her staring right through me, 'Do you want to know what makes me so different? I don't care and when I do care, I put everything into that person. I allow that person to know how important they are to me. Booker will never know the kind of woman I am behind the scenes unless someone tells him with sufficient evidence. I want to know how you got that recording?' She asked me, straight-up. She didn't dance around the question, she just asked me. I knew how I got it but would she believe me?

It's then that she smiles and says, 'That conversation had to have come from a certain night that had occurred. I listened to the recording over and over again and I don't know how you, a person that wasn't even there knew what I was doing.' "The girl that you killed? I knew her mother and when she didn't come home and then her husband and child were found, I knew who it had to be. It had to be you especially since," 'But how did you get the recording?' she asked again, 'You weren't there and I made sure I wasn't followed, too so how did you get the information?'

"Remember Kevin?" And I saw it, her eyes lit up with rage as she said, 'You have a copy somewhere don't you?' "Yes. That's my leverage against you. I may not be able to get rid of you, Maria Smirnoff but I swear to go if you hurt my kids, I'll-" Before I even knew it, she was close to me and I felt heat across my face. 'You bitch. How dare you think you can blackmail me. If you think this is over, it's not.'

It's then that I return her smack with a hard punch against her face. She hardly reacted as she looked right at me. 'I thought you would hit harder than that. I guess I'm sorely disappointed. You better pray that I don't find out how to get that information and if you think that threatening me or Booker's peace again with your little petty calls, I will have you dealt with or without the consequences. As long as you disappear, I won't have to deal with you.'

At that moment, I could see it. Maria was always prepared, she called my bluff but she didn't know that I had another recording but it wasn't enough to indict her at all. The one that I had before wasn't enough to indict her but it was enough to let Booker know something was amiss.

As Gregor, Gregory and Maria begin to leave, Maria callously threw money on the floor and said, 'That's your monthly payment. Don't spend it all in one night.' Her mask slipped for a moment but if there was any emotion in her, I knew she was genuinely in love with Booker. I knew that because Booker brought the best out in everyone as long as you were around him. If you were around him long enough, you would feel happy and he would make you feel safe.

I know I can't help Booker and there's nothing I can do but goddamnit, this hurts. It hurts because I know how dangerous she really is. It hurts because she's a better woman than I thought, she's a better woman than me yet I knew she was capable of doing much worse. It's then that I begin to play the recording.

'Did you move it?' I hear a voice on the recording, 'Of course.' It was Maria, 'So it was taken care of and dealt with the family, too. We don't want too many questions to be asked.' 'Yes ma'am' 'Oh and Kevin, remember if this comes up at all, you were never there.' 'Excellent.' I hear him say, that was the last thing he said before he disappeared. It's just every time I think about it, I know the truth. She wanted me to know the truth but for what? What kind of leverage?

This woman can crush me and she knows how to do it. She's making it obvious that the only reason I'm getting away is that she knows doing something to me is going to upset Booker and I know how much she really cares about him. As I finished, I put the recording away and I found myself, picking up the money on the ground. I stopped spending it so frivolously and I started donating it to the church I went to. As I lay in bed, I think about crying but then I get a call from my pastor.

He was a nice guy and he was genuine to me, something that I didn't expect. I knew how much I appreciated this man, how much I appreciated how kind he was to me and I knew that he was too good for me. As I'm sitting there looking at his call, I attempted to ignore it but something in me makes me want to talk to him and I slide it to the right. "Hello, Peter." As I say it, I hear his voice, his sweet voice then says, 'Good evening beautiful. How have you been?' "I'm doing good. How have you been since your wife passed?" 'I've been doing my best. Thank you for the advice with my daughters, it really helped out.'

"It's okay. I know how it was with kids, they can be really stubborn but I think your children just need time. I think you'll handle it well." I say with a genuine smile on my face. It's then that he says, 'Can we video call later?' I blush as I say, "Yes but I have to get myself cleaned up." After I say it to him, he says, 'Okay. I'll call later.' I felt kind of bad but I wanted him to know I couldn't wait.

As he says, 'Alright Gorgeous. I'll talk to you later.' I think about the fact that ever since I was engaged and then married twice and broke it off, I told him about it and I know I deserved to be alone but yet there was a man who wanted to talk to me, a man that wanted me to be happy. Did I deserve to be happy after everything I had done? A part of me then said no, not at all but I then put it out of my mind as I got ready to get dressed. I hope Peter can give me some guidance on some of the things I know.

End of Chapter: Woman to Woman