Breathless 4: Loving Montie

by Shani Greene-Dowdell

  Breathless 5

  LOVING MONTIE

  by Shani Greene-Dowdell

  © Shani Greene-Dowdell 2017. All Rights Reserved

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above stated publisher. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  PROLOGUE

  Justine

  I Didn’t Hear No Bell

  “You really need to see this, Justie.”

  “What is it?”

  “Jacob just purchased a seventeen-million-dollar home for Miss Thang!”

  My breath caught in my chest. I was unable to exhale as I registered what Mommy was saying. I heard through the grapevine that Jacob purchased an elaborate mansion for Destiny and her kids. But why was that bit of news broadcasted in the Miami Herald for all to see?

  “That house belongs to you,” Mommy’s pressured tone cut into my thoughts like a knife. “She doesn’t deserve a damn thing. If she hadn’t come along, Jacob would be my son in law by now…” she rambled on.

  I hummed to block her out.

  Sitting in a pear green, Baroque antique chair reading the morning news, Mommy wore a flawless up do. With her makeup picture perfect and her back straight as a board, she sat prim and proper in her seat as she talked to me.

  Everyone bragged about how I mirrored her cover model beauty and trim physique. If I was so perfect, why didn’t I have the only man I ever loved? Hell, the man I was groomed to live in matrimony with would soon be another woman’s husband.

  “I can’t Mommy. I just can’t read about him and her. Don’t keep putting it in my face,” I said. I couldn’t even say their names aloud, much less read about their perfect little marriage.

  I looked away from my mother in shame. It wasn’t enough that I was hanging on to my sanity by a tiny little thread. She was still pressuring me to get Jacob back.

  I couldn’t stand to listen to her pine on and on about Jacob and the black damsel that swept into his life and became all he needed and more. My parents had arranged for Jacob and I to have a relationship like their own, but our ship sailed and I wasn’t on it. Destiny boarded in my place, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

  I didn’t want to read the headline news. However, I saw it in plain sight from where I sat. “A Fairytale Comes True: Billionaire Jacob Turner Purchases 17 Million-Dollar Home as Gift for Soon-To-Be Wife.”

  Underneath the headline was a larger than life picture of the couple smiling for the camera as Jacob’s hand rested just above her hips. They had an entire spread on the power couple, their unconventional love, future, and inherited empire.

  Without reading the pumped-up drivel, I figured Destiny doted over Jacob, while boasting about her upcoming duties as his wife. She’d probably said something about him completing her, and he said she was the love of his life, or some other Romeo and Juliet lines.

  I re-read the headline.

  Wife.

  Wow.

  She was going to be his wife.

  I had every intention to kill that bitch to prevent this day from coming. If I had it to do over again, I would squeeze the trigger as soon as she opened Jacob’s door. Her shrilling scream and pleas for her life wouldn’t affect me, if given another chance to end this nightmare.

  Murderous thoughts were exactly the reason I couldn’t get sucked back into the world of Jacob and Destiny. Me in their world would be fatal for someone. Thoughts like these rendered me powerless. To know the love I had for him was unrequited broke a part of me beyond repair. When I felt broken and weak, I wanted to do something to take my power back. Slowly crushing Destiny’s windpipe wasn’t entirely out of the question.

  Two weeks ago, I snuck into the pricey home the article bragged about and made love to Jacob one last time. While he may have pretended to think I was Destiny, he knew. How could he not recognize how it felt to touch me inside? She couldn’t have possibly snuffed out everything we shared.

  Jacob claimed the darkness tricked his eyesight, and he thought I was she. I would never believe it. On my dying day, I would never believe Jacob didn’t know he was making love to me. In my soul, I knew he felt me, understood our passion and needed it again. The familiarity of our love had to have resonated deeply within him.

  “What are you going to do about this, Justine?” Mommy asked, and thoughts of that savored rainy night when the city lost electricity faded away.

  “Nothing…I have to get over him so I can find my inner self,” I quoted a line from the psychiatrist I had been seeing since I caused ridicule for our family by going to trial for attacking Destiny and holding her at gunpoint. It should have been enough for my mother that both the justice and medical systems thought I was certifiable. Did she want me to end up on First 48?

  “No, what you need to do is get Jacob back! I’ve been pushing for the two of you to be together since you were toddlers. There is no way Miss Thang has blown in like the putrid wind and taken your future husband. This is not happening.” Mommy slammed the paper down and stood abruptly.

  “Mother,” I looked at her sternly. “It has already happened. Let it go!”

  She rambled on about how she didn’t raise me to be a loser and that there had to be something we could do to persuade Jacob that he made the wrong choice.

  Hmmmm….mum. I hummed louder to ignore her.

  I struggled enough internally without her added stress. It was a feat every day not to get up and go slit tires, scratch cars, or kidnap children. With my legal and mental health battles, I didn’t need her to keep hounding me about Jacob. I truly didn’t think she knew what kind of monster she would awaken by demanding I do something to get him back.

  “Well, she needs to go back to that ex-husband of hers. She was slutting around with him after she got out of the hospital. What’s his name?” Mommy asked but answered her own question. “Montie. Yeah, Tammy told me all about her sleeping with him. She should’ve just stayed with him, her own kind. That way everyone would be better off.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I offhandedly replied, though I wished there was a way I could ignore her rant. Humming clearly wasn’t working.

  “And he’ll be down here in a few days for that youngest child of theirs birthday party. I hope they rekindle and she realizes she needs to be with him, because Jacob belongs to you.” Mommy was relentless in digging up old feelings of betrayal and animosity, which resurfaced with a vengeance and swirled around in my mind. My hands shook. An uncontrollable nervous tick started in my right eye.

  She was right. Jacob had been my lover, friend and everything to me. Why should I be alone, left with only his memory while he skates off to be happy and free with Destiny? I deserved to be happy, too.

  Only losers roll over and let the other woman win, and I’m no loser.

  “So, the little brat is having a party in two days?” I asked in a devious tone I hadn’t used in months.

&nb
sp; “Yes, there will be plenty guests there. That might be the perfect time to pull Jacob aside for a heartfelt convincing,” she winked, “while Destiny’s distracted with the activities of the day.” Mommy’s face held a scheming grin.

  “Hand me that newspaper.” I tore it straight down the middle when she handed it to me. I balled up the part of the image that had Destiny in it. “Okay, Jacob is mine, and I’m willing to fight for what’s mine.”

  “That’s what I want to hear.” Mommy handed me a glass of tea.

  I took a sip while glowering heatedly at the crumpled-up paper on the table in front of me. I concocted a fool proof plan to reinsert myself into Jacob’s life.

  Two hours later, I parked a block away from his house and waited until a man I was certain was Montie Brown walked out to his car.

  “He’s here already,” I mumbled as I jumped in my car and followed him.

  “There’s more than one way to play the game,” I said as I tapped the steering wheel. Montie would serve as the perfect weapon in the war I was about to wage for Jacob’s heart.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Montie

  Outside Looking In

  There I was in Miami. Destiny planned a big party for Montana.

  When we were irresistibly in love, she wanted our creations a part of me forever. She made sure my offspring carried my name. That was then. Now, she had a new fiancée, and I was invited to the massive home they shared. In keeping with the truce we made in Atlanta, I interrupted my summer vacation with the kids so Destiny could throw Montana a birthday party. For the most part, I was unbothered by the intrusion.

  I arrived in town a day before the party. Destiny wanted to take Montana to the salon and shopping. I wouldn’t dare think of my little princess spending her birthday without me or her mother, of whom she was the spitting image. Therefore, I obliged.

  What more could a brother ask for, than to fly his kids to another state to be with the ex-wife he still loves and her new white husband? Not to throw race around, but damn, was I so bad as a husband that she abandoned the whole race entirely?

  I shook my head after pulling up to their larger than life, Italian-style mansion. I hopped out of my rental and received a heartily welcome by Jacob and Destiny. They stood inside the foyer waiting for me to walk up the driveway.

  I would be fronting if I lied and said seeing Destiny so exhilarated, as she walked around showing off her many new possessions with Jacob’s hand resting on the small of her back, didn’t chip away at my soul a bit. Man, it had me lit on the inside.

  At one point in my life, my life goal was to share this type of dream home with her. That was when she was my wife…when we were in mutual love. A love I thought we’d recaptured, when we reconnected after Jacob’s crazy ex attacked her. I thought we were on the road to rebuilding our love, while she was healing from her whirlwind infatuation with a white boy. I had no clue this Jacob cat had such a grip on her.

  I wrestled with my feelings as she bubbled over with glee maneuvering about their massive estate. My children ran from room to room excited about one thing or another. I felt like a grade A loser, standing on the outside looking in at my family.

  I stopped and peered out of an expansive window to allow myself time to bite back the bitterness threatening to rise. If it made it to the surface, I was going to act ignorant. I didn’t want to do that. Not to my children. Not to myself.

  I looked to the bright side. The next woman in my life would have the best of me. If I ever found a woman half as special as Destiny, I would never let her go. I would spend my last breath making sure she was living the life of her dreams. I wasn’t billionaire status, but my bank account wasn’t anything to sneeze at. I had everything I needed and more to spoil the right woman.

  “So, man, do you want to hang out later? I’m free to do whatever. How about I show you around the city?” Jacob asked later that evening when we were sitting on the patio sipping on a beer.

  I had been held hostage by the happy couple most of the day, until Destiny took Montana to the mall and thought it would be a good idea for Jacob and me to bond. I was looking for any viable way out. I turned to see Junior swing the racket and hit a tennis ball against the wall, as he played a game of solitary tennis on the court about fifteen feet away from the patio. Hanging with Junior was the only positive thing about this ‘family day’ fiasco.

  “Nah, I’d hate to intrude on you and Destiny’s evening,” I said with a slight tightening of my lips masquerading as a grin. “I’m going to hit a few hot spots up and see what I can get into, solo.” I placed my beer on the glass table, which made a soft clank.

  “No, no, Montie. You’re new to my city. You have to let me show you around,” said Jacob. His warm smile had all his teeth showing. Good thing one of us was happy. ‘Cause I felt like smashing something, preferably his big ass silky head.

  “I said I’ll be fine on my own!” I snapped.

  “Cool,” Jacob said throwing his hands up in neutrality.

  I didn’t mean to pop off on him, but I couldn’t think of another way to get him to back down. There was no way I was about to hang out with him.

  “Well, if you don’t mind me making a suggestion, I suggest you check out the Lapidus Lounge. Very nice, minimal drama, and high security,” he said.

  “That’s probably what it’s going to be then.” I stood to offer Jacob a peace offering in the form of a handshake. “I’ll be back for the party tomorrow at two,” I said.

  “Sounds good, man,” Jacob said, standing to his feet, as well. “And, Montie, I’ve been meaning to thank you for being so understanding about Destiny moving here with the kids.”

  “Yeah,” I said, but really, what choice did they leave me?

  I was past ready to end this conversation at once. I needed a hardcore drink and some major distance from my ex’s perfect little world. It was hard to be happy for them, when I thought about her being mine every day. I was alone. Who was going to keep me warm at night?

  Except for the love of my children, who would soon be hundreds of miles away daily, companionship was dang near nonexistent in my life.

  “No man, you could’ve caused us a lot of stress through the courts about us moving the kids so far away, but you didn’t. I appreciate the way you handled things,” Jacob said.

  “Listen Jacob, like I said in Atlanta, I just want to see my family…well, my son and daughter happy. I know that starts with their mother,” I admitted, although sternly.

  “On that we can both agree,” he said, sizing up my intent. “Still, I believe one good turn deserves another. So, if you ever need anything, for your business or otherwise, let me know. I’m here for you.”

  “That’s good to know,” I said, doubtful the day would ever come that I would ask him for a damn thing. It was high time this so-called future husband to ex-husband bond ended. “Come here, Junior,” I called my son over to say my goodbyes.

  “Are you about to go, Dad?”

  “Yeah, your mom texted me a few minutes ago and said she was on her way back and I’ll be back tomorrow,” I told him as I hugged him.

  “Okay.” He hugged my neck before running back over to the tennis court.

  “Take good care of my family,” I absentmindedly told Jacob as I watched Junior run and play. After all we’d been through, I didn’t doubt that he cared for them. I just felt compelled to say the words aloud.

  “It’s already done. You have my word on that,” Jacob replied.

  “Good then.” I turned to walk through the house unaware of my surroundings this time. I did not look at any of their high-priced possessions. I just wanted out of there.

  I passed the maid, almost bumping into her. She rushed ahead of me to open the front door for me. “Good day, Mr. Brown,” she greeted.

  “Uh huh.” I headed down the steps to my rental. I backed out the driveway into oncoming traffic with a deep pain flowing through me, the magnitude I never would have imagined.

  Juni
or and Montana would be a FaceTime or Skype away. I could fly in and out of Miami with ease. So why did it feel like the breath was being snatched from my body?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Montie

  A Stranger in My Arms

  I only wanted to focus on enjoying the things available to me: my health, a thriving business, two kids that were full of life, and a relaxing environment with good music, drinks, scantily dressed ladies, and perhaps a good game playing on the big screen. Tonight, I’d infuse myself back into the world of the vibrant and living. Maybe just being around different people would make me feel better. I went back to my hotel and got dressed in a pair of black jeans and a gray fitted shirt. An hour later, I walked through the doors of the Lapidus Lounge. I had to admit Jacob was on point suggesting this place. The women in there were top notch and the vibe was chill. It was damn near intoxicating.

  I walked over to the bar and placed my drink order.

  “Can I get a shot of Henny?”

  “Coming right up,” the bartender said before turning to grab the Hennessey off the shelf.

  “Here you go,” he handed the warm, brown fluid to me.

  I downed it and clanked the glass down on the counter. An attractive lady a few seats down caught my attention. Her familiar aura drew me to her. She, too, tossed back shots and stared aimlessly as if she had loved and lost. I guess there really isn’t any happiness at the bottom of the glass. She’s tossing them shits back and still looks like shit. I chuckled.

  After thirty minutes or so of watching the game on the screen and watching her, I decided to end our long suffering. I went to sit beside her. Well, misery loves company, so here goes.

  “Are you here alone?” I asked because I didn’t want any problems with any random Miami dudes.

  “It’s just me against the world, baby. And now that you’re here, it’s just me and you,” she said with a wink. She took another long swig of her drink. Then slowly swayed to the music while in her seat.