“You invited my brother? Really, D? For what reason? What reason could you possibly have? I told you to stay away from him. I told you not to fuck with him. I told you!”
I hadn’t let a thing linger before I threw more out, and with each word, D’s face fell. It fell completely, until he had understanding.
He lowered my wrists, and letting go, he rubbed his hands.
“I can explain, Andie.”
Explain. He could explain.
I stepped away, and he reached grabbing me.
“I didn’t invite him for me,” he said, “or to have a fucking good time. I invited him for you.”
I whipped around, pulling my arm back. “What?”
“You.” He gestured toward me.
“For you. If you haven’t noticed, your brother treats you like shit, Andie. He treats you horribly, and it’s not warranted at all. I thought if I could just invite… If I could talk to him… He seems to listen to me.”
“He seems to listen to you,” I snapped, “you who has it all together. You Mr. King of the Fuck Ups.”
He cringed a little when I said that, but didn’t stand down.
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “I just thought I could talk to him. You don’t deserve how he treats you. You’ve done so much for him, and still do.”
“And what place is it of yours to step in? To think you need to fix my family?”
“It’s not. I just wanted to help.”
“Help, huh?” I pushed my hand behind my neck. “And while Tucker and me are getting that therapy session on, what would you be doing? Or should I say who? Tasha? After all, you did invite her. Was that your plan? Keep me preoccupied with Tucker while you go have your fun?”
His eyes went wide. “What? No! Fuck, no. Andie—”
I can’t believe I’m so stupid.
“This,” I said, raising my hand up and down toward him, “whatever this was is done.”
“Andie!”
I left the room, spotting my boys immediately, and they were my boys, completely loyal. I told Gerard to make sure D didn’t follow me, then asked Mason, too.
“Where’s my brother?” I asked, charging out into the main Onyx room. The party was still charged, as if nothing had ever happened, as if I hadn’t lost it on D.
Mason followed. “We tried to have him escorted to your office, but he wasn’t having it.”
“Where is he now?”
Mason spoke, his fingers going to his earpiece. When they left it, his eyes lifted to the ceiling. “He’s on the street. Raising hell like he does.”
Why does he do this? Continue to do this?
“I’m going after him,” I threw behind me, “watch the club.”
I took the elevators to our ground floor, the all-white of Club Prestige’s waiting room greeting me. Our concierge, and overall gatekeeper, Will, acknowledged me with a nod, then I was out the door. Gazing around, I attempted to spot my brother.
I heard him before I saw him.
He was yelling down the street, clearly drunk, as he clomped down the lane outside the club, and he had something in his hands, something small and black that he waved around. It had a handle. He held its handle.
Oh my God.
I ran, cupping my mouth. “Tuck!” But he didn’t hear me, he just kept walking, waving around what was in his hands.
“Tuck!”
As he was stumbling, I got to him quickly, and confirmed immediately what I saw down the street. He had a gun. One he wasn’t shy about holding onto on a public street. A dance club was across the way, and they were watching his spectacle, his ranting, but from their distance, I had no idea if they could see what was in his hands. If they could, they might not still be waiting outside the club in such a formal line.
Tuck went to step off in the direction of the club, but I grabbed his arm. I went for the gun, but he wouldn’t let me have it, sheltering it.
I patted the air, letting him know I was no longer trying to take it from him. “Tuck, what are you doing?”
His eyes were so hazy. This wasn’t just alcohol. He used the gun to scratch his chin, shaking his head.
“They’re going to pay,” he said, “they’re going to pay, And.”
My heart squeezed at my shortened name, then sunk. I touched his shoulder, but he waved the gun a little again. I lifted my hands.
“Who?”
“Those assholes.” He rocked now, swaying while he nursed the pistol. “I sold stuff to them, Andie. I sold them guns and they ratted me out to the cops. I know they did because they were talking shit about me at Prestige. They didn’t even need to mention me. Their lawyers got them off, took care of them, but they ratted on me anyway. They used me, and were fucking bragging about it at your fucking club!”
I closed my eyes. That’s what the fight had been about?
“Why did they do that, Andie?” he asked, his eyes glistening now. “Why did they use me when all I wanted… I… I just wanted them to… To like me.”
The words absolutely crushed my heart, ripping me apart at the very core. I had never heard him speak this way, and if I had, it had been too long to remember. I wanted to console him, but he stepped back.
Rubbing those tears away, he raised his hand, then shook his gun at the club across the street. “They’re in that club now. They went there after security kicked them out, and I’m going to make them pay.”
A shot rang out, a sharp one, a loud one that sent down all the people in that very line. But it didn’t come from my brother’s gun, no because I was holding him.
He was tucked into me, hugging me. He dropped the gun long ago, in fear, in remorse I had no idea, but he held me, his fingers curled into my dress. He held me like a little boy and I held him, but the shot had us both seeking out the source. From ahead, three men came; three men who had their guns pointed our way.
“It’s them,” Tuck whispered. “It’s them.”
I had no idea what he was taking about. Just that in his journey for acceptance, my brother had made some enemies, and those were now mine. I pushed Tuck behind me, ready for anything. They wouldn’t get him. They wouldn’t get him unless they went through me.
Those first shots flew and I expected a burn, my body bent over my brother’s, but that heat of impacted flesh I never felt. Instead, I smelled hot rubber, burning rubber. A flash of yellow crossed in ahead of Tucker and me, and a car took the brunt of the rapid shots.
I stood, both Tucker and me. In front of us, a yellow Ferrari had burned to a stop. It was a Ferrari I’d seen before. It was one I’d been in before, and what was in the front seat had me screaming. There was a body there.
Diondre’s body was collapsed and sunk over the front seats.
D
The pain was excruciating, racking through my body like hot, liquid fire. I felt quite literally sliced at all angles, jabbed and pricked a million times over, and I didn’t know how to make it through it, least of all how my body would.
In the back of my mind, I thought… how grateful. And I was grateful. I was lucky.
No one else had to be subjected to this crap but me.
Heart hurting, I stood behind the glass of a downtown car repair shop. The shop had a car, a beautiful car with a once glistening finish. That finish was gone now, its light extinguished like a firefly to a bug zapper.
That tended to happen when the finish got riddled with bullet holes.
A noise escaping my mouth, I continued to watch the yellow Ferrari’s restoration, the sound nothing but my internal anguish at the scene. This was agony, pure agony having to watch this, but torturing myself, I stayed every minute. I felt I had to. I owed it to this once flawless ride. Lost in my despair, steps sounded to my right. They were soft steps, uneasy steps.
Tucker Simmons had a look on his face when he got to me by the glass - a goofy one that I wanted to slap clear off sometimes, but I was getting used to it. I would get used to it… for his sister.
He chewed the corner of his
lip, another one of those clown shirts nearly dragging down to his knees it was so long. He rubbed the back of his neck, moving in nearer to me.
“It’ll be okay, D. It’s not even your car, man.”
The fool.
I shot my hand to the glass, the sparks of hard work shooting off the side of a gorgeous ride. They had to buff the damn thing out, the detailing crew. The Ferrari wasn’t my ride, but I had rented it for my time in DC. That car was a treasure and because of him, it had bullet holes in it.
I frowned. So many words I wanted to say behind my lips, but I had a feeling no matter how many different ways I tried to say them, they wouldn’t get through to this kid.
Biting them back, I turned to the glass again. I’d watched these guys for hours at the garage. They assured me they could get the job done right, and after they were finished, I fully intended to make the car my own. I had a history in it now. We bonded. I didn’t go out of control with my money often, but when it came to exotic cars I had a soft spot.
Probably why Tuck wouldn’t get it. He spent his money at the drop of a damn hat. I could tell by the size of his friggin’ house. He probably barely set foot in half the rooms it was so big.
Those soft steps retreated as they did every time he tried to come over here and tell me how I should feel about this situation. But then they stopped, and when they did, a set of heels revealed themselves.
Andie came from the other waiting room. I knew because she was an active visitor near the shop’s glass window with me.
Pushing an arm around Tucker, she rubbed his head. My jaw had nearly dropped the first time I’d seen her do that to him, but then it came up. It came up because not only did he let her, but smiled when she did.
That brought mine out as well.
“Don’t worry about him,” she said, trying to whisper the words to Tuck but I heard them. I always heard.
“He’s gonna be all right,” she said. “I swear.”
“You sure, And?”
“I… I think so.”
They didn’t get it. Neither one of them did.
A sigh fell from my lips, and from my peripheral, a loud-ass shirt left. Tucker left. After he had, a hand came sliding up my chest.
I let Andie in, dropping my arm down on her shoulders. I never fought her, but I was losing more and more energy with every minute I was forced to watch the world behind the glass. It was tense and… heartbreaking.
“I don’t know how I’m going to hold up,” I said, shaking my head, and a light laugh fluttered in the air, then touched my cheek when she kissed it.
“Oh, you’ll be okay. I told you we’ll pay for it.”
“It’s not about the money, Andie.” I told her this before. I faced the glass. “This is hard to watch.”
My words went without a response, and I turned, seeing nothing but a smile on this woman’s beautiful lips.
“How are you so damn cute?” she said, smoothing her hands up my chest. I let go of the glass. I was… distracted.
Those slender arms of hers looped around my neck and her breasts pressed against me, her wonderful, bountiful chest. I got to see a lot of it through her tight top, and even more of her through the cream skirt that wrapped around her ass like a taut rubber band.
“Must you continue with this show?” she asked, her fingers locking behind my neck. “Tuck already feels bad enough.”
I grabbed her waist. “He should. He killed a car.”
“The car is fine, but most importantly you are.”
I jostled her hips a little, never too good with words. Especially when it came to ones like those, ones that showed her thoughts about me, ones that she cared.
“That was very brave what you did,” she went on, smoothing her hand down my neck. “Those guys would have killed Tuck.”
And her, too. She’d found out who they were. They’d been at my buddy’s party that night, but were kicked out after a confrontation with Tuck and went to the club across the street. Tuck followed them there with every intention of clipping their asses, the fool. Anyway, they’d apparently heard about the ruckus he was creating and came out to finish him.
That’s when I had come in. I got in my car after I’d found out Andie left. I had no idea how much distance she had on me, so naturally, I thought I needed wheels. But when I saw those guys… their guns…
I put the car in the crossfire, and it caught the hits long enough for the guys across the street to be taken down. I was just glad everyone was okay.
“I figured I’d be you guys’s best chance,” I admitted, smoothing my hands down her hips, “you might not have had one if I didn’t.” I took a gamble that night, and as it turned out, it had been the right one.
I lost her gaze then. It went away and through the glass, though I doubted she cared too much about the car. She already expressed that.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, her throat moving at the words, and I curled my finger under her chin, making her face me.
I smiled. “Since when do I ever ask permission to do anything?”
“You don’t,” she breathed, and with it, a small smile touched her lips. “Thank God you don’t.”
I rubbed her hip.
“So you talked to Tuck? You guys okay?” By okay, I didn’t know what I meant. I just knew that he had been around me just as much as she did today, and each visit had been very much without aggression, and resembled very much a… human, a kid.
“We talked,” she went on. “Also because of you.”
“What can I say, I work miracles.”
“I’m starting to believe it.” Her head lowered, those brown eyes facing me when she lifted it. “And you’re not King of the Fuck Ups.”
“Actually… I am.” I made her laugh when I moved her hips. I liked her laughter, so much. “But you love me anyway.”
“Maybe… Maybe one day.”
“Yeah?”
She chewed one of those red lips, pulling it in, and I tugged her chin, making her release it. If I could make this girl love me, make her see I was worth the love, that would be the ultimate happening, a true miracle I might not be worthy of but more than willing to take.
“Maybe one day soon.” Her smile had me smiling.
I dropped my forehead to hers. “I’d like that.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmmhmm. I feel like I already got the like part down. The love can only be right there on the wings.”
She rubbed her forehead against mine.
“You think you’re always right, don’t you?”
“Not always,” I told her lifting my head. “I just hope I am with you… this time.”
Her arms sagged a little. “I’m sorry. About that girl, Tasha? I know you didn’t invite her. Tuck told me he did and—”
“Don’t talk about her. Just…” I wasn’t good when it came to things like this, but if I could just say the right words, if I could say them just once…
“Can we try this?” I asked her. “You and I? The two of us being a thing, I mean. I’d like to, Andie.”
Her lashes flickered down a little. Her head popped up. “You just live so far away, D.”
“It wouldn’t matter if I lived in DC. I’m rarely at home because of my job.”
“See that’s the problem. You’re so busy and—”
“I will always be. Probably for the rest of my career on the court, but people make it work every day. We take this slow, and see what happens. But we won’t know anything unless we try, unless you try.”
She really had all the cards here. I had no idea what the future would be for us, her here and me there, but one thing I did know was this could work. My good friend had one of the best relationships I had ever seen, and now, one of the happiest marriages.
Marriage… the word had me laughing inside, then smiling.
Where had that come from?
“What?”
Caught, I let the expression fall a little, though not completely. I pressed my mout
h to Andie’s, for the first time in my life, ready to take that step, to take any step with someone else.
“I want it to work,” she breathed, lost in our kiss, my lips. “I want to try.”
It was good that she said that… because I had already started looking at second properties based in DC.
Call me optimistic.
Roxie and Griffin’s story concludes in…
Cherished by You:
A Found by You Finale
Available Now on Amazon!
Stay Tuned for a sneak peek after the blurb!
~ Blurb ~
Life and love can take us many places.
For Roxie and Griffin, the journey has been the best part. The strength of Griffin’s love has tested Roxie beyond belief. It forced her to take a look at herself, expose herself, and fight for the man who cares so much about her. For Griffin, the love of a woman named Roxie allowed him to come into his own. He discovered things about himself he might not have known were possible if not for her. She helped him grow into the man he always knew he could be.
They’ve been through a lot and now that the struggles of the past are gone, they can move forward with the next phase of their lives. CHERISHED BY YOU is an extended novella that shows not only where the couple is now, but where they’re headed. The story takes place a few years after LOVED BY YOU and features many of the couple’s friends and loved ones who have been important throughout the series. There will be laughter. There will be heartache as well, but there will also be love.
So much love.
CHERISHED BY YOU is the finale to Roxie and Griffin’s story and was created for all those who wanted more with a few surprises along the way. The story is considered an extended novella at 55,400 words.
Roxie
A light illuminated the cab, my awareness going off with that first flash. Another followed, and then another and my head rushed at the influx. Even though expected, they shocked the system. They always did.
Enthrall: A Found by You Novella Page 9
