by Xyla Turner
Avery, no longer looked at me like she was confused but that she was beginning to understand. Therefore, I kept going.
“You in the arms of that man... that sent me for a spin. I can’t bury someone else I love. Well, I don’t want to. I was holding on to you so tight that I was starting to suffocate you and I needed to balance that shit out. So, I gave you some time. Gave you some space. Tried to get my shit together cause I don’t want to run you off.” I moved into her, now that her defenses were down, so I could cup her face. “Want to see your belly full of life. The one that we create. Want to buy you a house that will have you twirling in it, like you did in this one with a big yard and an art studio so you can draw whatever you want.” My voice grew low as I whispered against her lips. “Want my ring on you. My mark inked on that perfect skin. Little tiny terrors running me fucking crazy like their mama.”
My fingers wiped the tears from her eyes as I kissed her lips softly at first. It was when her hands grabbed my hair that I took the kiss further. Her moan had me wrapping my hands around her ass, then her thighs to lift her and put her against the wall. Rounding my hips, to grind into her core, I pulled back and whispered, “Can’t leave, sweetheart. I won’t let you.”
This time, it was Avery that growled and pulled me in, so she could take more.
She could have it all.
Absolutely everything, if that meant she was staying.
13 Chapter 13
AVERY WEST
Shiz just told me that loved me. Hell, I don’t even know if he was aware that he said it, but he said it and I heard him with my own two ears.
He was in love with me.
I was in love with him.
Truly, but I still had to go.
Pushing him off of me, I slid down to the floor, until my feet connected. Being as short as I was, with my petite but plus-sized self, this was an easy transition.
“Shiz, I have to leave,” I shared with him.
“No!” he exclaimed. “Can’t let you do that sweetheart.”
“It’s six months. Shiz. I’m not saying I wouldn’t come back, but I have to try this. I can’t keep doing this. Wandering around thinking about what I like. This is something that I’ve worked for, I owe myself to try,” I told him.
He was leaning against the wall, contemplating his boots. The man seemed lost and I almost felt sorry for him. He up and left me high and dry without one word, but here I am trying to accommodate him.
After a while, Shiz looked up and said, “I’m going with you.”
“WHAT!” I yelled, more loudly than I thought.
“You heard me.” He nodded as if he was confirming within himself too. “Going with you.”
Avery scoffed, “You can’t go.”
“The fuck I can’t. You’re going and I’m goin’ with you. Where in New York?” I pulled out my phone.
“Shiz, come on,” she protested with a smirk, as if she didn’t believe me.
“Where, sweetness,” I asked again.
“Brooklyn.” She sobered when she realized I was not playing. “Shiz?”
My head tilted up to look at her, as I located the fifth borough. Then I texted Razor and asked if we had any affiliates in New York.
“Yeah?” I answered.
“You’re serious?” She looked at my phone.
I locked and slipped my phone back in my pocket. Then I captured her jaw with my right hand, as I gently tilted it up so I could see those beautiful eyes.
“Avery, you’re going to carry my fuckin’ kids, okay.” I gave her a lopsided smile. “Yeah, I’m going with you. It’s for six months. This is paid out, you’re still on contract and I don’t get any money from this rental. Plus, you’ll move in with me when we get back and set up your own job situation. You get the certification or whatever else you need, and we’ll go from there. Okay?”
She simply looked at me but didn’t say a word. Her mouth was partly open, and I could see a peek of her upper two front teeth, but nothing.
“Sweetness,” I called. “This works. New York is like three to four hours away. I can still run the shop and come when I need to. Razor is letting me know about affiliations in Brooklyn, so we can have a place, connections and not feel like a fish out of water.”
My phone buzzed, causing me to pull it out and saw Razor had responded.
Razor: A group, called Defenders had just connected, seems solid, but can reach out. What’s going on?
I’d respond to him later, but glad there was a viable resource. When I looked back up at Avery, I saw she had tears brimming in her eyes.
“Sweetheart,” I called and cupped her face with my hand. “What’s wrong?”
“This is not real,” she murmured. “Can’t be.”
I laughed and kissed those shiny lips. I knew that shit would be on me but I did not care.
“It’s real,” I confirmed, as her head shook in disbelief.
Avery closed her eyes and I gave her that moment. It was a lot and it had always been, but with a father and brother gone way before they were even able to live, there was no time to waste. Time was of the essence.
When she was able to get her shit together, she walked me through the details of the program. It was solid and her visit to New York was the final interview, where she was selected. Her artwork was eclectic and would fit nicely in the New York scene. This was the confidence booster she needed and there was no way I would not be there for that.
The next day, I spoke with Razor, who congratulated me on solidifying the relationship. Bronx even chimed in and despite the shit I had given Bear, he was also giving his support.
“Moving, huh?” Bronx asked.
“Just six months. It’s nothing,” I told him, as I sipped on a beer at the compound’s bar.
“Guess not, when you’re wrapped up like that.” Bear chuckled.
“You would know, big man,” I threw back at him.
“Fuck, yeah. Dessy’s driving me crazy about this wedding though,” he added with a roll of his eyes.
“Y’all got that planner, right?” Bronx told him.
“Yeah, so now it’s Dessy and the planner getting on my fuckin nerves,” he clarified.
We all burst out in laughter at the man’s dilemma. All of them had already been through that particular drama, except me. However, instead of offering support, we were giving him shit. That’s what brothers were for. We’d help them move.
Now, we would do that.
Avery had made her rounds telling the women about moving and that I was going with her. Then somehow my shop knew because it was a damn small town and everyone talked to everyone. Therefore, when I went inside, the first thing that I hear is, “So you out?”
It was Zero, as he was prepping a nipple to be pierced.
“Not out, like that. Just going away for a couple of months. How’d you hear?” I asked.
“Somebody told somebody,” he grunted and shot the gun through the areola.
The woman screamed, and he quickly put the straight barbell on it to secure it, then gauze to clean the blood, and a variety of sea salt-based piercing aftercare products.
“It’s serious, huh?” He kept talking.
When I didn’t answer, he looked up at me and then I spoke, “Yeah, gonna marry that one.”
“Nice,” Zero nodded. “Happy for you man. Let me know what you need.”
“Will do. Appreciate the support,” I shared before I went behind my station.
The news traveled through the shop as my people came in. They heard, wanted to confirm, and in essence, wanted to know what that meant for the shop. Once they all realized life would go on the same just without me in the shop as often as I had been, they were good.
My realtor called me to share that there was a property over near Razor’s that was half built, and the owners couldn’t finish, so it’s available. I hopped in a truck and made my way over there and stopped dead. It wasn’t much but it would be. This would be the one to make Avery twirl. She w
ould fucking love it. There was an attachment to it that could be her studio and shit, I could have my own. It was three stories on a huge chunk of land. The man cave could even be theater style. I saw the vision, plain and clear.
After taking Avery out for dinner, where she shared that everyone had already known she was moving. Even her parents called and congratulated her, then yelled at her for not telling them first.
It was apparent that she was excited about the opportunity, which solidified that I’d made the right choice to join her.
Razor hooked me up with Baxter Church, the lead for the Defenders. They were a security company that specialized in search and rescue, surveillance, bounty hunting and other things. Razor had said something about one of New York’s finest joined the group after some corrupt shit went down within the department. They were highly skilled and good at what they did. Sort of like the Guardians, without the motorcycles.
There were a couple of places that Baxter said he had under his watch, he’d send me the logistics and we could set up a meet. When I told Avery about the housing, she nearly jumped out of her seat.
“O-M-G!” she exclaimed. “Are you serious. Wow! I should have known you Guardians don’t play around.”
“Very serious. Need to be safe and the communities have excellent schools.”
“I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE this,” she exclaimed. “Like, it’s done.”
This was after I put down the deposit on a Brooklyn brownstone that Baxter hooked us up with. The money was for gratitude, since he was not an official member of the Guardians. It did feel like the man and his group, were nomads of a sort in connection with the club. Apparently, we’d helped them out in a situation. A recent one, which put the two organizations together, along with some cops in the New York area.
We were eating wings at a local joint and Avery was licking her lips and fingers from the tangy sauce.
“Good?” I mused as my cock grew hard, watching her sucking on the pads of her sauce-covered tips.
She smiled at me.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “This is the best. I need to come down for a trip to come here.”
The woman had a point, the wings were good. However, I wanted some New York pizza or at least a cheesecake from that place located close to Manhattan.
The next week, as I was walking to the compound, I saw Apollo and Snoop come from across the way, with a grease-covered towel thrown around their necks.
“Sup,” Apollo greeted me. “Got something for you.”
“I ain’t order nothing.” I told him but stopped walking to see what he was talking about. “You sure?”
“Yup,” he nodded towards Snoop, then turned back around towards the garage and not the compound. “It’s over here.”
I followed the man, thinking about what he could have been talking about. The last thing I ordered was almost two years ago when I needed something for my truck.
We turned the corner and to my surprise, I saw a silver and black vintage bike that looked seriously familiar.
Holy fuck.
“Yo...” I started but couldn’t finish. “What the fuck is this?”
“For you, brother,” Apollo said with a nod.
“Razor? Bronx? You?” I asked as thoughts ran through my mind.
He merely shook his head in the negative and nodded towards the bike.
“Check it out,” Snoop said as he wiped his hands with the filthy towel.
I warily walked over to the bike, as I took it in. The small indentions that dad had put into the machine, were still visible. The bumper was the same, tires looked brand new and the muffler was shining with the sun that broke through the cracks in the blinds of the garage. It was my baby but on another level.
“Who?” I asked as pride filled my chest.
Apollo simply looked at me and smirked in that knowing way which told me he would not spill the beans, but also told me exactly who it was.
My woman.
Turning on my heel, yelling to them that I would be back, I rode right back to her place and banged on the door. She rushed to the door with her eyebrows up and yellow gloves on with ratty jeans and a t-shirt with the word artsy etched on it with a script font.
“Fuck,” I hissed as I scooped her up in my arms, kicked the door closed with my boot and began to tear every piece of clothing off of her right there in the living room. I bent Avery over the couch and began to bury my cock inside her tight heat until she was moaning for me to fuck her harder.
I did too.
Fucked her nice and hard as I slid my thumb in her tiny asshole. She mewed like the lioness she was, which had me erupting in her wet heat. Once we both were able to stand on two legs and compose ourselves, Avery asked, “What was that about?”
I cupped her face and said, “My bike.”
A tear came to her eye and I knew that she went through a lot to make that happen. She had to because the bike was so old, Apollo and Snoop had told me it was a wash, but here it was, that my woman found a way.
“Love you,” I told her.
“I love you,” she muttered as her eyes tried to escape the intensity of my stare.
“Come here,” I growled as I pulled her to me, and walked us backward upstairs to her room, so I could fuck her again and again.
My heart was overwhelmed. It was tight and felt like I was about to burst with emotion, but it was the one act. Hell, it was all the acts that Avery had stormed in my life and fucked me up. She was everything I needed and I never even knew that is what was necessary for my life. She was crazier than a loon, but my fucking crazy. Crazy for me. And I was the same for her.
By the end of the month, both Avery and I were living in Brooklyn, where I connected with Baxter’s group of Defenders and went on a couple of runs with them. I temped at a tattoo shop in the Park Slope area and got a chance to hang out with a few of New York’s finest. Well, one of them had left the force, Reggie, and was with Baxter’s group. He and his lady were newly married and she and Avery became quick friends. There was a barbecue in Queens, where all of us met, including Ryan and his wife, D’asia, Vic and his wife, Kat, Reggie and Jade, and Baxter’s crew. The women were off talking about girly shit or men and we were talking about the fucked-up shit happening in Brooklyn and what we were going to do about it. As I looked around the yard, I felt a different sense of the world. It reminded me of home with the Guardians. We didn’t sit around and take shit from nobody. We saw an injustice and we did something about it. Here, in Brooklyn, New York, I was connected with more men and women, doing the same things in different ways. It was refreshing.
The six months went by quickly and for me, it was like I wasn’t even gone, since I was there twice a week. Instead of Avery moving back into her house, I moved her into mine, which she originally balked at, so I got her dad to be a part of the argument.
“Girl, do what the man says,” he told his only daughter.
“I can’t believe you Dad. Mom?’ She looked to her for assistance.
“That’s your man, honey. You got to either stand up to him now or ask him how high later.” She raised an eyebrow at her.
Avery folded her arms and said, “I’m standing up now. The answer is no.”
I moved into Avery’s space and whispered into her ear, “Sweetheart, love you more than anything. Just want you with me. Think of Brooklyn. What I did every single night.”
My woman groaned.
That is when I knew I had her. My tongue working her folds on a regular basis made compliance easy. That came from Bronx. One day I asked him how he was able to get Shay to simmer down. He said, besides knocking her up, he is #TeamTheRock and mastered the tongue action. Razor, Apollo and Bear shared they were also TeamTheRock but they each accused the other of their women having them wrapped around their fingers. I’d been a witness to most of it, so I knew it was true. I might have shaken my head too hard or laughed too loud, because Razor shifted his insults to me and said, “Avery had you, way before any of our women had us
, besides Bronx here. That woman crushed your bike and all you did was find a way to put her in your life.”
All of them nodded and laughed at my downfall. Shit, I even laughed because my President was right.
“So, what you’re saying is, that they run the fucking show?”
Each man looked around the room and grunted at different points, “Yeah.”
“AVERY,” I CALLED. “COME here.”
I called her as she was looking around the plot of land in confusion. It was the place that the owners didn’t finish but I wanted her to see it before we broke ground.
“What’s this place?” she asked, in her yellow dress that brought out the colors in her melanin skin.
She seemed to glow, which almost had me double checking to remember if she was on the pill or if I had used protection.
Grabbing her hand, I pulled her behind me as I made my way to the property.
“Shiz,” she called in a sing-song voice.
Turning the knob on the frame, we walked into the barebones of a large house and I turned to face Avery.
“What’s this?” she asked again, when she saw the seriousness on my face.
“This,” I waved a hand around the space, “is ours if you want it.”
Her eyes squinted as she processed what I just said, then she asked, “What?”
“Avery,” I grabbed both of her hands again. “Sweetheart, love you with everything I got. I saw this and thought of us. The future us. Our living room, right there, kitchen over there. The extension will be your art gallery and the basement, can be my ink slash man cave. Four bedrooms for our kids, a jacuzzi for you when you’re tired and need me to rub your feet. Or when they swell, cause you’re knocked up with my son. I want to see you help build this house, so you can twirl in it like you did the temporary one. Wanna fuck you in the foyer, on the stairs, against the fridge, in the backyard and anywhere else, I can make you cum.”
