Baltimore Chronicles Read Free

Derek away for life.

Chapter 1
The Best Laid Plans
    Tiphani sat across from Scar and picked up her martini glass again. She was finally feeling a buzz. She still couldn’t believe she was on a yacht, sailing off the coast of Florida toward the Caribbean. Scar sat across from her on a long black leather bench that was built into the yacht’s upper deck wall. Tiphani stared at him with hazy eyes. She thought Scar looked hella sexy, rocking his Hermes boat shoes, a wife-beater that hugged his muscular chest, and a Gucci fedora sitting on top of his big head. She had conditioned herself to look past his ugly-ass scarred grill; his swagger was enough for her. It was more than her husband ever had.
    Tiphani looked down at the feast set out in front of them. The table was full of all kinds of food prepared by Scar’s own personal chef. There were lobster tails, huge freshly steamed shrimp surrounded by cocktail sauce, rich, leafy salads, tropical fruits, and the most expensive beluga caviar money could buy. Despite all of it, Tiphani hadn’t touched a bite.
    â€œWhy you not eating?” Scar asked her, picking up one of the huge prawns, ready to throw it back.
    â€œI’m not really that hungry,” Tiphani said in a low tone, swirling her liquor around in her glass. She wasn’t interested in the food, Scar, or anything on the yacht at this point. She was missing her kids and having second thoughts.
    â€œShit speak for yourself.” Scar wasted no time digging into the food he’d paid a grip to have his chef cook up.
    Tiphani took another sip of her drink. She ran her fingers through her long, jet-black hair, like she usually did when deep in thought. The sun was beginning to set, and her mood was continuing to go down right along with it. The sea breeze kissed her beautiful face and whipped around her perfect, shapely legs. Between the dreamy scene—the sunset, the ocean, the ritzy yacht?and the buzz she was feeling, Tiphani was mesmerized. Flashes of her kids’ faces played in her mind. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d done the right thing by letting Scar stage her kidnapping.
    When Scar’s little henchmen had snatched her from in front of her home, they had blindfolded her and put her in a van. Tiphani, not knowing it was a set-up, had fought ferociously, clawing hunks of skin from one of their faces, kicking and biting wildly. Scar had instructed them not to hurt a hair on her head, but she didn’t make it easy, cursing, spitting, and bucking like a wild animal.
    After she had finally worn herself out and sat still for five minutes, Scar’s men tried to explain to her what was going on, but she wouldn’t hear anything from them. In her mind she had been thrust into a fight to save her own life. Only after they’d told her what Scar had instructed them to say did she listen. She was informed that Scar had ordered the fake kidnapping, just in case neighbors or any other witnesses had been watching, and that there was a reason for everything. They also told her that Scar just really wanted her to meet with him and lay low for a while.
    With all of the commotion, Tiphani was trying to make sense of it all. To her it seemed to be a bit much. She thought he could’ve just told her to come and disappear with him without all of the theatrics, but she figured Scar knew what he was doing. They explained that Scar knew when she didn’t show up for her kids, her disappearance would be reported, and everyone would think she was missing. Scar had staged the kidnapping because he wanted it to seem like she was snatched, that it had something to do with her husband’s dirty dealings.
    After getting wind of the meeting between his brother Derek and his old crew member Flip, it wasn’t lost on Scar that Flip had probably revealed a bunch of shit that could send Scar to prison for a long time. Which was why he had to shut Flip up permanently. He’d