She paused. “That night we were in that cloak room, he beat me after that too. One of his goons spotted me coming out. That beating was so bad he wouldn’t even let me go to the hospital. I just had to tough it out at home. And all y’all Washington DC bigwigs were hailing that monster as some paragon of virtue when he could make Jeffrey Dahmer look like a good guy.”
Hammer could see the anger, the bitterness, and the pain in her eyes.
“I can no longer be the quiet little girl some big strong man wants to take care of,” she said, “because I was that girl, and I can’t go out like that again. I can’t allow it to happen. You don’t go through what I went through and be untouched. That shit touched me. It knocked the hell out of me. I’m still trying to get my footing back. It’s easy for you and Mick to tell me to quit doing what I do. It’s easy for Big Daddy to tell me to find a good man, settle down, and live a good life. I want that shit, too. But not if it means I have to give up myself again to get it.”
Then she shook her head and grabbed her wine glass again. “I’m fucked up,” she said. “That’s the truth. I’m a fucking handful.”
Hammer felt such strong affection for Amelia that he inwardly had to wrestle with himself to keep it tamped down. But he had to let her know something. “I can handle you,” he said heartfelt. “Don’t you worry about that.”
Amelia needed to know that she hadn’t scared him away. She smiled too. “If any man can handle me, and that’s a big if; but if any man can, it’s you,” she said equally heartfelt.
And it was real at that moment in time. Maybe too real. They both looked away, and she returned the subject to their original conversation. “I didn’t see it coming,” she said. “That’s what went wrong. We took heavy casualties. All of my men and most of yours too.”
Hammer nodded. “Yep. It was a pro hit, no doubt about that.”
“And I should have seen it coming. That was my fault. But after the first wave, when I got away, I thought I was home free. I’m not usually that careless. But I was that time.”
“So were your men,” Hammer said. What she loved most about him was the fact that he didn’t patronize her. If she messed up, he called her on it. She messed up. He didn’t try to tell her it wasn’t her fault. “Half should have stayed and fought, but the other half should have escorted you.”
“Your men weren’t exactly titans of battle either,” she said, and then looked at him. “Oh, yeah, I knew you had me followed. What am I stupid? I told you I didn’t like that shit, but you keep putting those fools on my trail anyway. I don’t like spies, Hammer.”
“They aren’t spies. They’re there if you need them, but they don’t report back to me on your activities at all. I promise you that.”
Amelia stared at him, unsure if she could believe that promise. She knew why he was going all out on her protection like that: she was the mother of his son. But that only begged her other question: if she wasn’t his son’s mother, would he even be with her? “I don’t need protection,” she said, and sipped from her glass of wine.
But Hammer begged to differ. “You need it,” he said bluntly.
“Why? Because I’m JoJo’s mother?”
Hammer stared at her. She’d never know how proud he was that she was the mother of his son. But that wasn’t ever going to be the only reason he cared about her. “Among other reasons, yes,” he said.
She smiled. “Other reasons my ass. What other reasons?”
Hammer didn’t respond.
“You’re silent because there are no other reasons, and your ass knows it,” Amelia said. “You weren’t concerned with my safety before you knew I had your son.”
“That’s what you think,” he said.
Amelia looked at him. Hope sprang within her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I was concerned with your safety before I found out about JoJo.”
She wanted desperately to believe it. “You were?”
“Yes!”
“Why?” she asked, and stared at him.
He was uncomfortable as hell. Why was she always so inquisitive? “We had a relationship. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Oh, Hammer, get real! All we did was sleep together, and even that wasn’t exclusive.” Although it was for Amelia.
“I still stand by what I said,” Hammer responded. “We had a relationship and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“So you have a security detail on every woman you sleep with? Is that what you expect me to believe?”
Even Hammer had to smile at that. “Not quite, no.”
Amelia smiled too, although this was an extremely serious subject for her. “Not quite, hun? Okay, how many? How many of your numerous women do you have your men following to make sure they’re okay?”
“It’s getting late,” Hammer said, looking at his Rolex.
“No, now, Hammer, don’t even try that! Your ass was the one who said our relationship was what caused you to have your guys on me. So I want to know how many other women in your little black book have you also provided security for?”
Hammer didn’t respond.
“How many, Ham?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“How many, Hammer, I’m not changing the subject.”
“None, alright? Satisfied? None.”
She was satisfied indeed. “It’s not a question of being satisfied,” she said. “It’s a question of why.”
Hammer felt as if it was a moment of truth for them again, but he wasn’t at all sure if either one of them was ready to face that truth. But he barreled ahead anyway. “I don’t place you in that category.”
Amelia continued to stare at him. “What category?”
“Everybody else falls into one category. You fall into another one. You’re in a category all your own.”
Amelia felt a swell of emotion, but she maintained her cool. Besides, she was no bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid. She had issues, and so did Hammer. “If I’m in a category all by myself,” she said, “what category does Reggie Dell fall into?”
Reggie Dell, Hammer thought. She was always bringing up Reggie! That was why he had already taken it upon himself to set up a meeting. “She’ll be in Canada day after tomorrow,” he said. “On Friday. I want you in Montreal, too. The three of us are going to have a little chat.”
Amelia was shocked. It would be the first time she and Reggie had ever been in a room together that she knew of, or even spoken a word to each other. Hammer always kept them separate. “What will this chat be about?” she asked.
“The three of us.”
Amelia shook her head. “I don’t do that threesome shit,” she said. “If that’s what that’s about.”
“Just bring your ass to Montreal on Friday and see for yourself.” Then he looked at her. “Okay?”
Amelia had a sinking feeling this meeting would be all about how important Reggie was to him, and how she could forget all thoughts of supplanting that. More heartbreak for her, in other words.
But she was too curious to let the opportunity to finally meet the apparent love of Hammer’s life pass her by. She had to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Maybe then she could move on. “Okay,” she said.
He rose to his feet. “Now get out of that tub before you wrinkle.”
She laughed. But she stood up.
Hammer grabbed a towel, wrapped it around her body, and then lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He stood her on her feet, dried her off, and then pulled back the satin sheets. After he had her snuggly in bed, he undressed and got in with her.
He laid on his back, and she turned sideways, toward him, and laid her body against him. Then she reached down and began stroking his penis. But he touched her hand and lifted it to his muscle-tight, bare chest. Although he wanted her, and had the hard-on to prove it, he knew she was still in a state.
“I just want to hold you tonight,” he said.
Amelia smiled as she looked i
nto his loving eyes. And she snuggled against him and wrapped her arms around him, too. No man had ever been as kind to her, and had done as much for her, as Hammer had. She loved his arms around her naked body. She loved the feel of his hard body against hers. She loved . . . him?
She closed her eyes. Too much to deal with right now. She had a lot on her plate already than to dig deeper into her feelings for Hammer. She had to assess the damage to her operation. She had to find that asshole Jerardo Jovanni and damage him. And that meeting with Reggie Dell, the one woman who just might take Hammer away from her, was soon to come. But somehow that meeting with Reggie became front and center on her mind as Hammer held her, and trumped all else.
CHAPTER NINE
Scotty Rollins sat at the center island in Amelia’s gourmet kitchen, and Amelia stood on the opposite side of the island sipping coffee and smoking a cigarette. It was early the next morning, and she was still in her bathrobe. She only smoked when she was uneasy, and she was uneasy this morning. What happened yesterday was the worst hit her organization had ever taken, bar none.
Scotty, too, was smoking and sipping coffee. He was there for the damage assessment, and it wasn’t pretty.
“It was a massacre,” Scotty said, “and I’m not just talking about what happened with your detail. They hit us left, right and sideways. We’ve lost nearly forty-eight percent of our sectors. That’s six operations over five states, all gone. And Columbia hasn’t even checked in yet. You heard from Carlos?”
Amelia nodded as she tapped ash off of her cigarette. “We talked. There’s been no aggressions in South America. None in Europe either.”
“Just our U.S. market for now?”
“Oh, it better be forever,” Amelia said. “I wish those fuckers would try to hit us anywhere else, especially overseas.”
“But what does the fact that they hit us at all tell you?” Scotty asked.
She looked at Scotty. He was a handsome man with beautiful, smooth, coal-black skin. He was her righthand man, and the best manager she’d ever had. But they both had dropped the ball on this one. “What does it tell you?” she asked him.
Scotty had to think about that. “It tells me that whoever’s pulling this shit can’t reach that far maybe. That’s why they only hit us in the States.”
“Or that’s what they want us to think,” Amelia offered. “Remember how they hit us to begin with? It was precision strike after precision strike. I was captured because I thought the threat was contained, when it wasn’t. They may be trying to distract us again, by making us feel as if the threat is only Stateside.”
That was what Scotty admired most about Amelia: her ability to think zigzag when the rest of them were thinking straight on. “Good point,” he said. “Want me to notify the sector leaders outside of the country?”
“I already have,” Amelia said. “I ordered them to tightened up security and stand down. No shipments in or out, no movements in or out, until they hear directly from me.”
“Speaking of tight security,” Scotty said. “Damn, Boss. Where did all those guys around this house come from?”
Amelia hesitated. But he was her security chief: he had a right to know. “That’s Hammer’s doing,” she said.
“Hammer Reese? Get the fuck out of here! Really? Those are his men?”
Amelia tapped her ash. “Yup.”
“He did all that? I told you that man loves you.”
It would be a dream come true if they were there. But she knew they weren’t. “He loves his son,” she decided to set Scotty straight. “Don’t get it twisted.”
But Scotty knew better. Amelia was odd like that. She never allowed anybody to come in, even somebody like him, who truly cared about her. She was odd like that. “What’s next, Boss?” he asked. “I’ve got everybody, Stateside anyway, on high alert. We’ve got to hit back. They killed nearly a hundred of our men in one night. It was strike after strike after strike like you said. Nobody was able to warn anybody else because it was all going down all at once. And they were going to top it off by icing you.”
A chill ran down Amelia’s spine when Scotty spoke that truth.
“You want me to bring all of our sector chiefs in for a strategy session?” he asked her.
“Hell no,” she responded bluntly. “They stay at their stations and hold that shit down. Once I find out who’s responsible, and I already have a good idea, then we’ll strategize.”
Scotty shook his head. “Still pulling that shit I see.”
“What shit?”
“Amelia the lone wolf. Always has to do it on her own. You can lean on me, you know.”
“No thanks,” she quickly responded. She was forced to lean on Bulldog all those years. She wasn’t leaning on another man ever again. “I got it,” she added.
They both could hear the footsteps of somebody coming down the stairs. Scotty looked at Amelia. “Got company?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
She hesitated. “Hammer,” she said.
Scotty was shocked. “Hammer? You didn’t tell me he was here!”
Amelia frowned. “Why the fuck I got to tell you who’s in my house? Who the fuck are you?”
Scotty had forgotten, for a second, that Amelia was a black woman who didn’t take shit from anybody. Not even him. But he still didn’t like it. He was Amelia’s security chief. He was her protector, not that asshole Hammer Reese!
Hammer entered the kitchen in a different suit, one among many that he kept at Amelia’s house. He, too, was surprised to see that another man was in the house. A very attractive man. And one he didn’t know. He walked to where Amelia was standing, removed the cigarette from her hand and doused it out, a situational habit he kept telling her was bad for her, and looked at Scotty.
Scotty was shocked that Amelia would let a man handle her like that, but he wasn’t surprised. Amelia wasn’t herself, or maybe was too much like her true self, whenever his name came up. “Good morning,” Scotty said.
“Good morning,” Hammer said. “And you are?”
Scotty looked at Amelia. He knew Hammer Reese because every hood knew that bastard. But he was surprised Amelia hadn’t told Hammer about him: her chief of security.
“That’s Scotty,” Amelia said. “Scotty, Hamilton.”
Neither man was satisfied with that introduction, but Amelia didn’t give a shit. “I’ll call you, Scott,” she said. “That’s all I should need for today.”
Scotty was surprised by the dismissal, but he stood up. Amelia walked him to the front door.
When she returned, Hammer looked at her. “Who is he?”
“He works for me.”
“Doing what?”
“Security.”
“I’ve never seen him around here.”
Amelia hesitated. “Business security,” she said.
Hammer knew what that meant. “You need to give that shit up, Amelia. What happened yesterday should be a wakeup call. That should be enough for you to realize it, too.”
But Amelia wasn’t giving up her livelihood. What else was she going to do? Stay home and bake cookies? “I’m good,” she said.
“Being held at gunpoint, the men guarding you are now dead, and the only reason you’re here to tell about it is because of my contacts on the streets, doesn’t sound as if you’re good to me. Good means your ass would have seen that shit coming, and you wouldn’t have gotten caught.”
Hammer sounded upset. Amelia looked at him. She knew, on some level, he really cared about her. He would not have come himself if he didn’t. “You’re right,” she said. “I blew it. I’ll never forgive myself for what went down yesterday. And you know how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me. But I’ll get it back together. I’ll straighten this mess out.”
Hammer looked at her. She looked so beautiful to him, even in her bathrobe. Then he realized nothing was probably beneath that robe, and his penis began to throb. “What can I do to help?” he asked her.
“You’ve done plenty, Hamilton. Thanks. But I got it.”
“I was thinking about letting Oz blanket you.”
But she was already shaking her head. “No.”
“Don’t fight me on this, Amelia. It’s just for a minute. Just to make sure this shit has died down.”
“No.”
Hammer’s temper rose. “I can fucking make it happen,” he said, “whether you want it or not. And you know that. I’m trying to respect these boundaries you’ve placed between us, but there are limits. When it comes to our family; when it comes to you, me, and our son, I’m in charge. I run this, and don’t you forget that.”
Any other man and Amelia would have recoiled at the suggestion that he was in charge of her. But she loved when Hammer called them a family. She loved when he made clear that he was somebody she couldn’t push around. She needed a man like him, and she knew it to the very depths of her being. She only wished his heart was available to need her, too.
“I want Oz with you,” he said, “until I’m convinced this shit is over.”
It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. Amelia already knew that. And that was exactly why she didn’t need Hammer’s best friend and righthand man anywhere near her. Hammer would try to put an end to her business for good if he really knew the full extent of the shit she was in, and that would be an epic battle and she knew it. She’d lose the little she had of him over it. She knew that too. “I got this,” she said to him. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
But Hammer’s expression changed. “Until I’m satisfied this shit is over,” he said, “I’m going to be babysitting our son. I’m taking JoJo with me.” He looked at her. “Until this is over.”
Every instinct within Amelia wanted to say oh hell no, especially since she knew how controlling Hammer was and how easily he could try to keep JoJo with him on a permanent basis. He threatened a custody fight once before because she wouldn’t give up her business ventures.
But she also couldn’t pretend there wasn’t heat around her. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t nearly killed, and would have most likely been killed, had Hammer not heeded the call and came to her rescue. This was their child they were talking about. Fuck her pride, she thought. “I think that’s a good idea,” she said.
Amelia Sinatra: Hammer Time Page 8
