“Your boy has lost his mind,” the brute man mumbled under his breath but clearly loud enough for me to hear.
“What did you just say?” I asked.
“Mind your own business,” the brute man said, turning to face me. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Jeb’s father stepped forward and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Come on, Neil. Calm down.” Then, and only then, did Jeb’s father look at me with a brief sympathetic look before he quickly turned and walked to his table behind Neil.
“Come on, girl. Let’s get out of here,” Kemara said, dragging me out of the restaurant. “That guy with him is with the brotherhood. I remember seeing him at that meeting I followed Channing to when we were dating. He has the tattoo on his neck and everything.”
I knew about the brotherhood tattoo all the men got, but it was something about that tattoo being on his neck that made him look even more sinister.
“The fool acted like he wanted to eat you piece by piece,” Jayne chimed in as if she were reading my thoughts.
“Are you okay?” Alise asked as she came over to hug me, and our hug sparked a group hug where both of my friends and my sister encircled me and shielded me with their love.
“I’m okay,” I assured them, but deep down, I wasn’t. I would never be okay with my fiancé’s father and his friends treating me as if I were subhuman. I would never be okay with the hate.
Chapter 11
Jeb
When I saw Renee walking toward my office door, I thought she was about to tell me Trey was there to see me. Her announcement, however, sent a wave of misunderstanding over me. Father?
“Jeb, your father is here to see you,” she repeated, sending my mind reeling. “Do you want to come to the front to meet him, or do you want me to send him back,” Renee asked.
“Send him back,” I said as I sat back in my chair, sighed deeply, and waited for the old man to enter the doorway. When my father appeared, walking into the room wearing a dark pair of pants and a white button up shirt, he looked relaxed, but something told me this visit would be anything but relaxing.
“Hi,” he said as he walked to the door of my office and stood there waiting for me to invite him in to sit down.
“Hi,” I said curtly.
“Can I come in?”
“What brings you by today, Dad? Well, unless you’re ready to apologize for the way you acted the last time I came to your house, I don’t want to waste your time with pleasantries,” I said as my father walked into the room and stood at the edge of my desk.
The slight scowl on his face let me know this would not be a reconciliation visit, so why did he come to the club?
“I’ll apologize for the way I acted when you apologize for all this talk about bringing this black woman into our family. Son, you weren’t raised this way, ” he began but I cut him off.
“She’s the woman I love, and there will be no apologies for that. The same way you loved mom, I love Tameka. There is no way around it. We’re getting married,” I said firmly.
Rising to my feet so that my father and I were eye to eye, I let it be known with my posturing that I was prepared to fight for the love I had for Tameka.
My father’s eyes fell from mine, and he sighed heavily. “I don’t understand, for the life of me, why you would go and do something like this, son. You need to give this more thought. You just watched this kind of foolishness destroy my brother’s family. Why would you jump up and get you a jigaboo, too! None of this is making sense.” He shook his head in disbelief as if the sheer thought of me marrying my beautiful girlfriend taunted his mind.
“Dad, I—”
“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to deserve this?” he said, sounding near the brink of tears.
I sank down into my desk chair and absorbed the verbal punches my father had thrown my way. He acted as if I’d dishonored the family name by committing a mass murder that was picked up by both the President of the United States and national news when my only sin was that I’d followed my heart. I became enraged over the insults he’d lobbed at Tameka while playing the victim.
“Dad, it’s simple. I love her, I’m marrying her, end of story. Your feelings about it are your feelings about it. It doesn’t matter how many names you call her. None of them are true, and it just shows how immature you are,” I said.
“So, you’re really going to force my hand like this?” he asked.
“What do you mean, force your hand?”
“You’re forcing me to distance myself from you.”
“All I’m doing is marrying the woman I love. It’s the same thing you did when you married Mom.”
“No, this is not the same thing! How dare you compare her to your mother? I just ran into her and her friends at the diner, and she is nothing like my Emmy, rest her soul. Emmy was a beautiful woman with elegance and grace, and you know it.”
“Dad, you’re closed minded. Tameka is beautiful just like Mom; she’s feisty and caring…all the things I love,” I admitted.
“But she’s a—”
“Don’t say it! I don’t know why you even bothered coming over here today, if all you’re going to do is say the same things you’ve been saying. I understand you’re not changing your position on me marrying Tameka. Fine. But I’m not changing mine either. She’s going to be my wife. Now, deal with it!”
My father stood from his seat, glaring at me before he meandered toward the doorway looking like a battle beaten soldier. “Don’t call me when her attitude kicks in and her gang banger cousins are ganging up on you about to whip your ass because you’re white.”
I almost chuckled over the absurdity of his comment, but I didn’t. Everyone I’d met in Tameka’s family was cordial and welcoming, well, except for Rodney, but he was her ex. I had gotten past the mighty blows of Tameka’s resistant attitude, and it only made me desire her more. I was battle tested and ready for whatever the future held for us.
“If I do have to deal with her cousins, I can handle them myself as a man. I don’t need your help with her family, and I never asked you for it,” I told him.
What I needed was to have my father back, but it was obvious from him turning his back on me and walking out the door that that need would unlikely be fulfilled.
“Fine. I guess this is it for us, Jeb. I did my job raising you,” he said as his last ditch effort to get me to see things his way. “Now, you have to go out here and learn things the hard way.”
“I guess so,” I said, my heart lurching out of my chest at the thought of never seeing my father again. How in the hell could this be it for me and my father? The man who taught me everything it is to be a man. The same man who was obviously devastated that his lessons of hate had been overruled by love.
“Bye, Son. Have a good life.” He walked out of my office door with his slumped shoulders making him look a clear four inches shorter than his usual six foot two stature.
“Dad—” I wanted to call out to him, but it only came out as a faint whisper before I slumped in my seat and exhaled.
It was all said and done. My relationship with my father was over. I held my head high like he taught me to do and walked out of my office and back to work.
***
As soon as I got home from work, I looked for her. She was sitting on the sofa reading a book when I went over and sat beside her. “How was your day today?” I asked.
“It was fine. I ran into your father when I was out with the girls,” she said, and I could hear the change in her tone, which held a bit of trepidation. “The guy that was with him was rude to me, and your father pulled him away.”
I stood up from my seat, ready to head back out to find out who’d disrespected my woman. “Who was the guy?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. He had red hair and a tattoo on his neck. Kemara said it was the brotherhood tattoo. Thank God, you got that god awful thing removed before you met me.”
“Yeah, was he a tall guy.
About my height,” I probed.
“Yes.”
I walked toward the door. Tameka sprang to her feet and ran behind me. She grabbed my arm and made me face her.
“Wait, Jeb, where are you going?”
“I’m going to talk to Dirty Neil about the way to address you the next time he sees you. He’s the only fool I know that has the tattoo on his neck, and he’s bad news. We already have that stalker that’s running around here trying to get in Alise’s house, and now this.”
“Wait, the man tried to get into Alise’s house?”
“Yeah, Bruiser told me about it right before I came home. That’s why I have to address Neil right now. You don’t know him like I do.”
“No, you can’t do that. I don’t want you getting into fights with everyone who looks at me wrong. That would only make our situation worse,” she said, tugging at my arm to try to get me to come back into the house.
I didn’t budge. “Tameka, as a man, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to sit around and allow men, who know I will beat their asses, to disrespect you? These men in the brotherhood, some of them, have been dismantled by me before, and now they think I’m soft and want to try me by mistreating you. I can’t let that happen.”
“Jeb, how do you know it was Neil? It could have been someone else,” Tameka asked, and I knew she was bringing that up again only to stall me out.
“He’s the only piece of slime that has the tattoo on his neck, and you said he has red hair and was hanging with my father. It’s him. I’ll be right back babe.”
“I’ll get married in Hawaii!” Tameka tossed out as she looked at me as if she was ready to give in. “I will. If that will stop you from going over there to fight with that man, I will do it in a heartbeat. I don’t want you to have to fight every time someone disrespects me.”
“I won’t let them hurt you. Just like I won’t let them change our wedding plans.”
“No, Jeb seriously. After looking at the hatred in that man’s eyes, I understand what you were trying to shield me from. So I’ll say it again, if you will stay home, I will marry you in Hawaii.”
“Baby.” I grabbed her face into my hands and crooked my neck to kiss her pouting lips. She tasted like her sweet vanilla lip gloss, and it coated my tongue and lips with sweetness. “Don’t change for me, and you damn sure better not change for them,” I told her.
“I’m not changing…I’m compromising,” she said.
The vulnerable look in her eyes made something shift inside of me. I was no longer concerned with dealing with Neil’s dirty ass, I wanted to make sure Tameka knew there wasn’t a damn thing she needed to compromise on when it came to our love, especially her principles.
“I can’t let you do that. I won’t do it,” I told her.
“Stay here,” she said once again.
“I can’t let it go this time, Tameka,” I said and walked out the door before she could say another word.
I rode around town looking for Dirty Neil. I knew his hangout spot was at the tavern and sometimes with my father, so I went to both places and then rode by his house but his truck wasn’t anywhere to be found. I called my father up to see if he would tell me where Neil was, but his response was to tell me not to start any more trouble than I already had.
Reluctantly, I drove back home and entered the house, frustrated. I went into my bedroom, planning to take a quick shower before I returned to the club. I found Tameka lying in the middle of the bed snoring lightly. She was holding a picture of me and her, a picture we took while in Aruba.
I stripped out of my shirt and laid down beside her, pulling her into my arms. She nestled close to me with her backside rubbing against my cock, and I didn’t know how much longer I could lay like this without sliding inside of her.
I let out a ragged moan when she rubbed against me and her gown rode up her waist revealing that she was pantyless. I pulled off my jeans and began rubbing all over her body. Tameka responded with the sound of sweet moans then she laid on her back, and I climbed on top of her. Her loud moans made my dick harden just from the sound of her voice.
“You are mine,” I whispered in her ear as I slid inside of her and began rocking to our rhythm.
“Yes!” she said as her slick pussy gripped my throbbing rod, and I began pounding into her with all I had in me. “I’m yours,” she whined.
I was close to climaxing, so I gave my all toward making her cum all over my dick. I held onto her ass cheeks pulling her as close to me as possible. We were so close that we could breathe for each other.
“Jeb!” she called out my name and chills popped up all over my flesh. My pressure point within was about to erupt, but I aimed to please her. “Jeeeebbbb. Jeb, baby,” she screamed and her orgasm began to break through as I rocked, pumped, and massage her insides.
I kissed her to let her know how much I was in love with her, and no one’s opinion could change that. That’s when I felt her body tense and her pussy gripped my dick like a vice.
“Jeeebbbb,” she yelled out my name even louder than before.
“Tameeekkaaa,” I groaned as we climaxed together.
I laid down next to her and brought her into my chest. She cuddled in next to me and interlocked her fingers with mine.
“You see this ring?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said, smiling.
“It represents our circle of love. No one can get in it but us,” I said. “For better or worse.”
Chapter 12
Tameka
One Month Later
I hung up the phone after making possibly one of the most important calls relating to my marriage with Jeb. I hoped my message was received well and that we could move forward as one family unit now that the air was clear. I didn’t even want to think about all that was said, so I dialed Kemara’s number to clear my head. It was only a few hours before my bachelorette party, and talking to my sister was always calming for me.
“Hello,” she answered weakly.
“Hey, Kemara, what time are you getting here?”
Kemara yawned. “I don’t know. What is it that I’m getting to?”
“Girl, you’ve been sleeping so much that you forgot about the party tonight, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Oh, no, I didn’t,” she said as if she were remembering the party just then. “I was just taking a nap. What time is it right now?”
“It’s 6 p.m. Are you going to be there at 8:00?”
“Yeah, I will be there. I’m getting up now, about to get dressed.”
“You’ve been forgetting about a lot lately. We just talked about the party this morning,” I reminded her.
“I know. I’ve been asleep since I got off work, but I’m going to get up now and I’ll be there at eight,” she said.
“Has Channing already met up with Jeb?” I tried to get some insight on what the men were up to.
“Channing is excited about that party tonight. He got off work at noon and has been out picking up stuff for it, and he’s already there now.”
I laughed. “Get your butt up and get over here then, and let’s get our party started,” I said excitedly. “This is my last night single!” Again… I giggled.
“Okay. I’m coming. I’m getting up…” Kemara said sluggishly.
“Hey, sis,” I said and paused.
“Yeah, what is it?”
I told her about the phone call I made before I called her, and it felt good getting it off my chest to someone. I wasn’t ready to tell Jeb about it just yet. I wanted to see if it would do any good first. Kemara encouraged me and told me I did the right thing. She still sounded sleepy, but she was there for me and that was what mattered.
Kemara had been sleeping more and more lately. At first, I figured it was because of all of the trying she and Channing were doing for a second baby, but now I was convinced their tries had been successful.
After dressing in a flattering pink jumpsuit and black sandals that showed off my glittering pink toenail
s that matched my bouquet, I picked up my jacket and headed to the clubhouse to make sure everything was in order for the party. Alise and Jayne were there when I arrived, and they had fully decorated the place and had it looking fabulous. I wanted a gold and black color scheme with pink scattered in, oh and lots of balloons. We had lots of bachelorette games to play, including a batch of male dancers that would be here later.
I only had a small group of about twenty friends, family, and coworkers gathered for the party. I couldn’t wait until Jeb and I said our vows tomorrow, so I could get all of this hoopla, as fun as it had been, over and done with.
Kemara turned down alcoholic beverages all night, which affirmed my suspicion. She was pregnant! I knew it, I thought to myself as I watched my sister carefully. She definitely had the pregnancy look, and I was excited about the thought of a new addition to our family.
Alise, on the other hand, was doing everything she could to act as if she didn’t notice Bruiser, who had decided to skip the men’s party and guard her all night long. The man wouldn’t take his eyes off Alise, and Jayne was right there to egg Alise on about it.
“Can you at least go outside and let us ladies have some privacy?” Alise asked Bruiser as he stood in the corner scoping out the room like he was the Secret Service.
“No,” Bruiser said plainly and went back to scanning the room as if he wasn’t bothered in the least by Alise’s outburst.
“Ugh, he is so fucking annoying,” she said on a long sigh.
“Girl, with all that your stalker has been doing over the past month, you need to sit your tail down somewhere, and let that man protect you,” Jayne said. “Besides, I feel better having him here.”
“I told you that you can have him,” Alise said and huffed as she got up and started walking toward the door. “I’m going to get some air. I need it.”
We gave each other the side eye when Bruiser trekked behind her, knowing another one of their tiffs were about to go down.
Jayne loudly clasped her hands together and asked, “When are the dancers coming?”
Safe Place Series Page 23
