by K. S. Adkins
He took off that night in that spooky way he does and then we headed up to Lush so I could hear my woman sing. That, and Jules and Venessa threatening to abduct her if I don’t bring her in, so here I sit with the girls fawning over her while I take it all in. There was something about my Doc that made people fall for her fast and hard. I didn’t have a name for it but I know what it felt like every time she smiled at me.
With Venessa dragging her to the stage, Kandace takes the mic and as usual, a crowd gathered. Pushing me to get closer, Jules makes room and says, “Behave,” before heading back to do what she does best, give orders.
“Hi guys,” she says with a wave. “My name is Kandace and I’m going to sing him a song. I hope he likes it.”
Not even trying to hide my shit-eating grin, I cross my arms over my chest and give her a wink. With no music to help her, she wastes no time blowing my God damn mind, again.
Working the stage with her eyes on mine she points at me, smiles at me and sings the loudest I’ve ever heard. When the chorus hit, she pointed the mic to the crowd so they could join in and they fucking did. Tapping my foot and watching it all play out when Bishop rolls up dancing I had to laugh.
“Lucky fucker!” he yells and just then she gives him a wave. “I don’t get it, she’s so white!”
Leaning in so he can hear me, I yell back, “She’s got more fucking soul than anyone I know, brother!” and she did. When she let go everyone within hearing distance felt that shit.
“Ha! Truth, brother!” he says bumping fists. Just then she bends at the waist in front of me points and wails,
The place went fucking insane and for the first time in my life I didn’t mind sharing my secret. With one arm in the arm in the air and a look only meant for her man, she started chanting, Freedom over and over. The crowd joined in, hell, I fucking joined in. After working them up she jumps from the stage into my arms and kisses me like no one was watching. Twirling her around then kissing her again, Venessa grabs the mic and says, “Kandy Kane everybody!”
With a red face at the nickname and the attention from the crowd, she does a curtsey then wraps herself around me. That’s my Doc, always humble.
Pulling her from the floor back to the bar to get her something for her throat, I feel her being pulled from me. Whipping around I see the last mother fucker I ever wanted to see again. I didn’t know the prick’s name I just never liked the guy and I wasn’t having him putting his hands on my woman. This cocksucker wanted a piece of her ten years ago which was why I had to make her leave that fucking party. Yeah, I made peace with it but when a bad seed from your past is near what you love most, you do something about it.
Coming to her side and pulling her behind me he looks up at me and gets a huge smile on his face. “Rome!” he says trying to pull me in for a man hug.
“Get the fuck off me,” I tell him pushing him back.
Drunk and not listening he zeroes in on Kandace who in return is checking her nails. “Heard you were out, man!”
“No shit.”
“How you been?”
“Out on parole, you fucking prick, how do you think I’ve been?”
“Wait, I know her…” he says trying to get a look at her. Glancing up she flips him off and steps forward.
“Let me help, baby,” she says hooking her arm around my waist. “Ahem,” she says clearing her throat. “I dunno, man, she could be hot in like ten years and a fuck load of alcohol.”
Looking completely confused he looks from me to her then it clicks. “Oh shit,” he says smiling at his brilliance. “Are you for real? It’s the bitch from---“
Yeah, so I couldn’t let him finish that sentence.
Leaning over him she pushes him with her foot then offers me her fist to bump. “No one fucks with you,” I tell her and it was the truth. Only difference was I wasn’t a cocky kid holding onto a scholarship he couldn’t risk anymore. I was a grown fucking man that protected what was his.
“Rome!” says Jules throwing her hands up with Bishop holding back his laugh. “You don’t even work here anymore and you’re giving me a headache!”
“Jules,” says Kandace sweetly. “He touched Rome and I reacted, oops.”
“This is the lot bullshit all over again, isn’t Kandy Kane?” she asks grinning.
“Are you mad at me?” she asks with a pout.
“Bishop!” she says after smacking Kandace on the ass. “Clean this mess up, lazy ass!”
“On it, Boss,” he says picking the guy up. Once he’s secure he approaches us takes one look at Kandace grinning and says “Lucky fucker,” before dragging the guy away.
“So,” she says sliding her hands in my back pockets and squeezing. “How’d that feel?”
“I’ve been waiting ten years for that,” I smile down at her. Throwing her head back to laugh I see an opportunity to claim her again so I take it. Leaning in, inhaling her and not giving a fuck who saw it, I bite down.
“Oh God, Rome. Get me home,” she moans pulling me closer.
Licking the sting away, I get her out of the club, home and under me in record time.
“You still love the guy after all these years, huh?” he asks quietly.
“I do, Gage. I really do.”
“He loves you too, you know. He was a wreck without you, sis. He pulled it together, manned up. I can’t fault him for that. We’re good now, you don’t have to worry.”
“Yeah,” I say watching him play ball with my dads.
“Who knows, maybe one day I’ll man up and have a woman looking out the window like that at me.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask feeling rude for tuning him out, but he was already gone.
Clinging to him and refusing to let go, he carries me through the front door kicking it closed behind him. Sucking his lip between my teeth and clawing the shirt from his back, we crash into the couch with him adjusting so I land on top of him.
“Fuck,” he moans grinding on me. “You up for this? Not too tired?”
“Less talking,” I moan.
“More fucking,” he finishes ripping my shirt off. With both of us bare from the waist up, we stop just long enough to stare at each other. “I can’t believe you love me,” he says running his fingers around the side of my breast.
“I can’t believe you doubted it.” I say taking his hands and linking them with mine. The contrast in our skin will never cease to amaze me. We were beautiful apart but we were breathtaking together. With linked hands, he tightens them behind my back to suck my nipple. Watching him, enjoying him, it’s when he looks up at me that I lose my breath. “Your eyes see me, they always have haven’t they?” I ask studying them.
“I never doubted you, Kandace, I doubted myself.”
“I know,” I whisper. “No more hiding, Rome, no more doubt. Fuck the past, it’s you and me now.”
Sliding my pants down and using his thumb to get under my panties, he sits up to watch as he plays. “It’s always been you and me, I was just too fucking busy sitting on the bench. Afraid to get in the game.”
Helping him slide his pants and underwear off, then climbing back on top of him, I lean down bite his nipple and silently thank God he was mine. “See this?” I ask pointing between my legs. “You’re in the end zone, baby. My quarterback needs to get down the field and score, we’re in OT, seconds count.”
“God damn,” he moans getting ready. Then lining up he slides between my legs and groans, “Touchdown,” against my lips. Taking me to my side he covers me fully while he slowly fucks me. Holding him close, I meet his thrusts offering my own. Reaching between my legs he uses his thumb causing me to bow.
“Found it,” he says working me faster from the front and back. Moaning, I reach back and anchor my hands on his head and absolutely explode.
“Tell me,” he says pounding me. “Tell me, I have to hear it.”
“I’m selling my house,” I say reaching back to cradle his balls. Stopping, he pulls me to face him and the look wa
s priceless. “I’m going to need you to say that again,” he says holding my face in his hand. “I said, I’m selling my house.”
“I’m working this pussy and instead of ‘I love you, Rome’, or you have the biggest cock I’ve ever seen, you say I’m selling my house?”
“Bad timing?”
“You want to live with me?”
“Well yeah,” I say kissing him. “I like your bed better.”
“It is a nice bed,” he says slowly.
“Plus, I look really good in it.”
“God damn,” he says flipping me on to my stomach. Raising my hips up, he forgets finesse and goes right for plunging. Gripping the pillows and screaming my approval, he sinks his hands in my hair and pulls back, exposing my neck to him. Rome had a thing about my neck.
“Tell me,” he demands. “Won’t come until you do.”
Arching up so he can see me I tell him. “I love you, twenty nine.”
“My secret,” he moans getting ready to come. “My secret to fucking everything.” Shouting his love for me, he comes good and hard then collapses next to me on the couch where I stayed awake a little while longer, thinking.
We all make choices knowing each one has a consequence. Since I was eighteen years my choice was to believe in a boy who didn’t believe in himself. That despite having it all, he was lost. I have loved the man in my arms for better and for worse before I even understood what that meant. I just had to wait an extra ten years to tell him.
He will now and forever be, worth the wait.
No two ways about it, Kandace was going to kill me.
Showing up on her doorstep without notice with a bossy female covered in blood was not going to go over well. Kandace would step up like always but Rome was going to be a pain in my ass with the questions. They guy was over the top protective of my sister, which a brother can appreciate especially when bringing this to them puts them in danger.
When all this shit started, I vowed that it would never touch my sister or my dads.
I hated breaking promises.
Looking over at her, it bothers me that she’s quiet. The woman was a lot of things, but quiet wasn’t one of them. She was a talker, a joker, hyper and wicked smart. After all these years of feeling her but never actually being close to her, the circumstances in which it was finally happening were less than ideal. This was not how I saw my first time meeting her going. I’ve depended on her presence in my life even if it was just by phone. Camo was the only person I could spend hours talking to, joking with and harassing. She gave it right back and we got each other.
I could wax poetic about her for hours, days. But it all comes down to the heart. Camo had mine and I wanted to have hers but you needed trust for that. Trust wasn’t something people in this business give easily. With her though, I may not trust her motives but I did trust her. Camo liked games, liked control. She also just saved my ass, again. Motives aside, the woman spends her time protecting my life so I was going to have to fuck the motives. Now she was hurt and I was a fucking wreck.
She was… unique. The way she could blend in to any environment, become a shadow or the main attraction was enviable. The way she could alter her appearance was…magic. That was her then, unique and magical.
Mine.
Holding her arm and biting back the pain, I can feel her struggle from the driver’s seat. Not once has she bitched, moaned or begged. She simply accepted it, channeled it, locked it down. My circle of trust extended to my sister (who I love) and Camo (who I barely know, but love too). Someone takes a bullet for you though, that person may even trump your baby sister.
For a woman, she but built like an athlete, maybe a swimmer or a crossfit junkie. Nothing on her moved and I know this because I couldn’t stop looking when she in front of me. For a man who makes a living killing, finding a woman (or in this case, her finding me) who is his equal in every way fucked with that man’s head. Here I had a woman who spent years protecting me when all I wanted was a chance to do the same for her, but she would never get close enough to let me.
Now she was in my God damn passenger seat, bleeding.
“My sister’s name is Kandace,” I begin filling the silence, hating the cause of it. As much shit as we’ve talked about over the years, we both kept family out of it. “She’s a doctor, a great one. Her man’s name is Rome, he’ll quiz us both. She knows a little about what I do but she doesn’t know any of this. My name is Gage use it in front of her, don’t slip and call me Gadget.”
“Keeping your loved ones safe,” she says fighting the pain. “Admirable.”
“We’re close,” I tell her, wanting to offer some kind of comfort. When she didn’t throw a zinger out, I knew she was hurting bad. Camo’s mouth and what came out of it was usually shocking. To have her so still, so quiet, was a testament to her discomfort. Turns out, I didn’t like her in pain.
I liked her being a pain.
When her chin tucks and her head falls forward, I panic. “Stay with me Camo,” I order her. “Open your eyes, we’re almost there.”
Groaning, she cuts her eyes over to me and says, “I’m napping, not dying, sir panics-a-lot.”
Letting out a sigh of relief, I get off I75 and was in Rome’s driveway in record time. When she makes a play for her door, I was there getting it and helping her out. The fact that she let me pleased me, in truth I haven’t felt useful in a long time.
“I can walk,” she says biting her lip.
“I know but lean on me anyway.” I say hooking my arm around her waist and lifting. Just before reaching the door to knock I realized we had a loose end. “What’s your name?” I ask her. “I can’t have them calling you Camo, I need your name.”
Looking up at me and deciding if I was to be trusted or not she says, “Pepper.”
“Pepper,” I test out and liked it immediately. The name fit her to a tee.
“Hey, Gage?” she says my name then squeezes me. “I’m going to pass out now, okay?”
Then she went limp in my arms and my panic went into overdrive. Kicking the door with my foot, Rome threw it open saw the woman in my arms and yelled for Kandace.
“Help her,” I begged with pleading eyes. Running to grab her medical shit, Rome helped me situate her on the couch. “I’ll buy you a new one,” I tell him when her wound starts to gush all over the cushion. “Fuck the furniture,” he says putting a pillow under her head.
When Kandace comes back she was in full doctor mode. Fuck, but I loved my little sister. She was always prepared. “Explain,” she says as she cuts her shirt away. I didn’t like that Rome would see what’s underneath before I did at all and gave him a look that said so.
“Oh fuck yourself,” he says catching my anger. “I’m banging your sister, I could give a shit about other females. Plus, this one looks like she’s twelve.”
Letting out a growl at his show of disrespect, it was my sister who shut us both down.
“Oh this is going to be fun,” says Kandace wiping her shoulder down. “Gage, explain now.”
“She was grazed in the arm,” I tell her. “Long range, rifle. Approximately thirty minutes ago, she says the bullet clipped her.”
“The bullet that clipped her arm just needs cleaning and stitches,” she says moving her on to her side. “But the bullet that clipped her stomach caused more damage.”
“Her stomach?”
“She was hit in the stomach, too,” she says angrily. “You didn’t know that?”
“No,” I confess. “She said it clipped---“
Then Kandace went into action and with limited supplies my sister somehow managed to pull it off. Hours later, I was sitting on the floor to be close to her when she woke when my sister stood over me and asked, “Someone was shooting at you, Gage?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so,” she says sadly. “The goal right now is to keep her comfortable. While she’s out, peel the shit off her face and use a damp rag to keep her temp down. I’m going to shower the
n I’ll be back to check on her.”
Nodding to her, because it was all I could do, I got up on my knees and really looked hard at Pepper, no…. Camo. She was Camo to me. Following her instructions I touch her face trying to find the shit Kandace said needed to come off. Her skin was smooth but felt dry. Moving her hair back I figured out why. When I looked close I could see it, but wouldn’t have known had Kandace not told me.
Starting at her hairline, I began to peel the layers away. Like some freaky shit out of a horror movie her mask came off in one piece. Holding it up I was equal parts impressed and relieved. Finally, the real her. But I was in no way prepared for what was hiding underneath and when I saw it, it rocked my fucking foundation.
For years I wondered why she altered her appearance. I wondered how many times I’ve seen her, been close to her but didn’t know it was her. She admitted she did it when she wasn’t in the field too. Now I knew why. To survive, she had to. Because the woman under the makeup wasn’t average, she was un-fucking-forgetable. Mind numbingly beautiful, flawless and young.
Yeah the name Camo made sense.
Because without make up, no one would ever forget seeing this face, myself included. That was the moment Camo went from being a fantasy to a complication.
Stay tuned for Camo and Gage’s story in Motown Showdown!
The end.
Playlist
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Brenda Wright and Melissa Gill for their hard work! To my girls Courtney, Cora, Venessa, Nicole, Tara & Dawn I just love you. To every blogger, fan, and critic, just thanks for taking a chance on me. A big shout to Connie Thompson and Anja Pfister for pimping an up and coming author because they believed in my work. To Detroit Rock City, I don’t even have to say it. You already know!
To my family, I love you.
Author Bio
K.S. Adkins is a full time everything. When I'm not wifing, mothering or being bossy, I'm reading, writing or shooting. A full-time realtor, lifelong Michigander and all around lover of all things guns and Detroit, I believe in freedom of foul language, gratuitous nudity, tattoos and mosh pits. I've recently taken up drinking wine and feel like I'm really making progress with it. I think my chances at finding a place within the Romance genre is 50/50, but I suck at numbers so what do I know?
