Clean Slate: Diva's Ink

by Liberty Parker

  “Oh, Marcus, of course I’ll marry you. You are all those things to me and more, you’re my heart, my soulmate and the best man I know. The honor will be all mine.”

  We sit at the park for another hour, eating, laughing and holding each other close.

  With our marriage license in hand, I take my woman home. Glory and Shyann aren’t there so I take her back into the bedroom and make love to her, I show her with my body how much she means to me. We’re laying in each other’s arms, I’m raking my hands through her long dark hair and reminiscing about our life. I hate that tomorrow I’ll be leaving her for a short period of time, but the need to find out what’s happened to Sherry and my unit is weighing heavily on my heart.

  “Marcus?”

  “Yes, baby.”

  “We’ll be okay while you’re gone, please don’t worry about us.” How does she know? I haven’t expressed how much I’m worried about her while I’m away. Something is nagging at me, and I can’t quite place it.

  “I know you will be, baby. Doesn’t mean I won’t worry about you while I’m away. You and Shyann mean everything to me, I love you both so much that I feel it with every beat of my heart.”

  “You always say things that make my heart pitter patter. I love you, Marcus. And I promise to keep myself and Shyann safe, healthy and happy while you’re away. We have many people surrounding us, we’ll be okay.”

  “You can keep telling me you’ll be fine, but I’m still going to worry, baby. Nothing you say or do will change that.”

  “I know, get some sleep, Marcus. You have a long few days ahead of you. I have a feeling you’re going to go through a range of emotions, and you need your strength.”

  Emory

  The next morning, I find myself watching Marcus’ taillights disappear down the road. I’m not much of a praying person, but I say one for him and Jensen. I hope they find their answers and are able to find peace with what they discover. I wipe away the tear that managed to escape and turn back towards the house. Only to stop dead in my tracks, I look around, a feeling of being watched taking hold of me. Spotting no one, I decide that my worry and imagination are hard at play and walk back into my house. This is going to be a long few days. I lock all of the doors, and set the alarm, don’t ask me why I feel the need to do this, I never set the alarm unless I’m either not home, or if it’s time for bed. I’ve never felt that deep-seated need to have it on during the day time, but I’ll follow my gut on this one. I did promise Marcus I’d do whatever it takes to keep myself safe.

  After I get out of the shower and get dressed to start my day, I still can’t shake the feeling of being watched, but I know no one is in the house, so I go and grab a much-needed cup of coffee. As I’m standing at my sink that overlooks my backyard I swear I see movement. I open the curtain and lean over the sink—my face is nearly touching the window as I scan the backyard. I see nothing, no shadows, no person and once again I chalk it up to my overactive imagination. “Get a grip, Emory,” I tell myself taking a sip from my mug. My sisters got me this particular mug for my birthday last year, the cup I’m drinking from says, “Warning, do not talk to me until I’ve had at least two of these.” They’re some funny bitches let me tell you, but the saying is right, I don’t function well, nor am I very nice until I’ve consumed at least two. I shake the eerie feeling that’s been following me all morning and dump my mug into a travel one, topping it off as well. I want to stop off at Dillon’s office and see my baby, before I start my first full day, back at the shop.

  I walk into Dillon’s practice, the back of my neck burning, that damn paranoia is back. I shake it off and keep going. I missed my girl last night and yesterday, I need to hold her in my arms. I walk into the room that has been turned into the nursery and see Amelia, the caretaker Dillon hired, holding Shyann and feeding her a bottle.

  “Hello, Ms. Masters, here to check on this little one before you begin your day?”

  “I am,” I say, as Shyann pops the bottle from her mouth, and begins cooing at me. “Would you mind if I fed her?”

  “Of course not, here sit down,” she says, standing from the glider. I take a seat and she hands me this ball of energy. Shyann, excited to see me begins grabbing my hair and pulling me down to her for a kiss. Hmmm…seems she’s picking up some of Marcus’ traits. I give her a kiss and talk sweetly to her, telling her how much I missed her while Amelia goes and changes Devon. She eventually settles and lets me feed her. She sucks on the bottle as if she hasn’t had a meal in weeks, if she’s missing her parents you couldn’t tell by the way she’s latched on to me and Marcus. The thought makes me sad, but I shake it off and remember the promise I made to them. I don’t know much about her parents, but I tell her about how much they loved her, and how she was the best thing that ever entered their short lives. After she finishes, I change her diaper and tell her I’ll see her later. Walking out that door is one of the hardest things I do in a day. Each and every time, I want to walk back in, and spend my day loving her.

  Marcus

  It’s been a long, hard day on the road. I want nothing more than to have a nice hot shower and call my girl to see how her day was. Having to drive down our road, with her outside sending me off was hard on me. I wanted to grab her up and put her in the truck with us. Logically, I know she couldn’t come with me, but that piece of me that has to go days without her, longs to have her with me at all times. We make it all the way to New Mexico before we call it a day. We still have about eight hours of drive time before we make it to the border of California.

  “So, you’re making an honest woman out of Emory, huh?” Jensen asks me as we settle into our hotel room.

  “As soon as possible,” I respond.

  “So this isn’t going to be one of those long, drawn-out engagements then?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “So when do you think this shin-dig will take place?”

  “Like I said before, as soon as motherfucking possible.” He smirks at me and I know he’s not going to let this go until I give him a date. I grab my phone and call my woman.

  “Hello,” she answers, and I’m instantly hard at the sound of her voice. We’ve been going at it like rabbits lately, and you’d think he’d need a damn break, but no, not with her.

  “Hey, baby,” I say, pressing down on my hard on, hoping to alleviate it just a little.

  “So, I have a problem,” I say, not meaning the one in my jeans.

  “What problem would that be, handsome?” she asks huskily, causing my eyes to cross. I can’t believe just the sound of her voice could cause me to be in so much pain.

  “Damn, Emory,” I moan out, and hear a chuckle from beside me. I punch him in the arm and give him a fuck off look.

  “What’s the issue, Marcus?” she asks again, this time with laughter in her voice, the damn minx.

  “Jensen’s being a dickhead and won’t give me a moment of rest until I give him a date.”

  “Date for what exactly?” I can hear the laughter in her voice, she knows what fucking date I’m talking about.

  “Woman! You know what I’m talking about.”

  “I know, but it’s fun to hear you squirm a little.”

  “Sassy mouthed little minx,” I say to her.

  “Keep it up, and Jensen can keep bugging you, and we won’t discuss this until you get home.”

  “You’re a brat, you know that?”

  “So I’ve been told,” she saucily replies.

  “Minx.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Diva.”

  “Don’t you know it,” she says making me laugh out loud.

  “God, I want you,” I say to her, meaning every single word.

  “You always want me,” she tells me.

  “I can’t seem to help myself, beautiful.”

  “Good to hear, back to that date.”

  “If we must,” I say, wishing I were alone so I could have a little phone sex with my woman. “You know it doesn’t matter t
o me, baby, other than hoping it will be sooner rather than later.”

  “Well, I was going to talk to you about that. I would prefer something small and intimate. Just family and close friends. I don’t want anything fancy nor do I want to spend a fortune. I want it quaint and memorable, I thought maybe we could do a courthouse wedding and have a reception at the lodge.” The lodge she’s referring to is an old barn that was transformed into a rental place for receptions or family reunions…things of that nature.

  “That sounds perfect, except we can go ahead and have the wedding and reception both at the lodge. That way we don’t have to juggle two places and everyone we want there to celebrate with us will already be present.”

  “I’ll call the lodge in the morning and see what dates they have available.”

  “Take the soonest they have,” I inform her.

  “Yes, sir,” she smartassly replies.

  “Talk to you later, baby, I need to shower and get this road grime off of me,” I tell her.

  “Okay, love you.”

  “Love you too, baby. Call me before you and Shy go to bed for the night, need to tell my girls goodnight.”

  “Will do, I’m heading to pick her up now and we’re going straight home.”

  “Sounds good, that will give me time to shower and order a pizza or something to be delivered.”

  “Talk to you soon,” she says before hanging up.

  “Did you hear that fucker?” I ask Jensen, knowing he never moved an inch since I called her.

  “Heard it, I better be your best man,” he says, heading towards the bathroom.

  “Hey! I called first shower,” I call out.

  “You snooze you lose,” he calls back through the closed door. Fucker! He distracted me, this was his plan all along. Payback’s a bitch, and I’ll make sure he gets his tenfold. I’ll order the pizza right before he comes out, then make him pay for it!

  It’s been two days of searching and tracking down people. I swear, if one more person slams a door in my face, they’re going to experience what it’s like to eat wood. I can’t stand flat out disrespect, and that’s all we’ve come across. Here we are going on day three, and we’ve finally tracked down where our company commander has moved to. I find it bizarre and a little unsettling that everyone has moved, and those whose families have remained, are very uncooperative. We pull up to Commander Austin’s house, and see him sitting on his front porch, that’s not unsettling, what is, however, unusual is the fact that he has a twelve-gauge shotgun in his hands.

  We get out of the vehicle slowly and call out to him, “It’s Marcus and Jensen, sir. May we please come up and speak with you?”

  “Thompson, Addison, come on up here, sorry about the welcome, I’ll explain to you once we’ve said our hello’s.” We both cautiously walk up his walkway and open the fence that will lead us to his front porch. He still has the gun firmly within his grasp and Jensen and I look at each other and we both are wearing a ‘what the fuck’ face. Neither of us understand yet why he’s acting so strangely.

  “Take a seat,” he says once we make it up on the porch. My eyes never leave the shotgun that is now placed in his lap. He’s wearily watching us, which puts me on guard. He’s never been like this, even overseas when he had a group of men he was responsible for.

  “What’s going on, Commander?” Jensen asks the question that has been on the tip of my tongue since we arrived.

  “Branson escaped Leavenworth and is taking out our old crew and our families,” he says, as if he was telling me what day of the week it is.

  “Repeat that,” I growl out. Suddenly, I have a wave of nausea hit me. If he’s out, then we’re all in danger, Emory and Shyann included.

  “You heard me, boy, ain’t nothing wrong with your ears.” No, just my sanity I want to say, but keep my mouth closed.

  “How did he escape?” Jensen asks, and I’d like the answer to that question as well.

  “There’s an ongoing investigation, and apparently I don’t have the clearance to get the information. Trust me, I’ve been trying my damndest to get as much information as I can. I just keep hitting a brick wall every time I make an inquiry.”

  “We’ve had the same problem since we found out Sherry was killed in a road side bombing,” I tell him.

  “I don’t know how, I can’t figure it out, but I’m positive that Branson was somehow involved with that. I don’t know how he got over there, but my intuition has never led me astray, and I know in my gut he was involved in that.” I get an eerie feeling that he’s right, and somehow his wife became a victim as well. I tell the commander about Sherry’s wife and the fact that I now have custody of Shyann.

  “You need to keep that precious baby safe, Thompson. I have a bad feeling that others are going to lose their lives before he’s found.”

  “How many are we talking about here?” Jensen asks him.

  “How many what, son?”

  “How many men and families have we lost, sir?” I ask.

  “The three of us and Branson are all that’s left of our old unit.” The fuck did he just say?

  “That’s not possible, why haven’t we been informed?” I ask, of no one in particular.

  “It’s like pulling teeth getting information from the government.”

  “Hear that, why don’t you two stay for a while, and let’s think of a way to get him out of the shadows, we may have to be the ones who put an end to him.”

  And this is how we spend the next four hours.

  Chapter 13

  Emory

  Love is kind, love is blind, love makes the world turn…

  I got a phone call from Marcus last night, and he informed me that he is heading home today. I guess he got the answers to the questions he was looking for. I’m so excited to see him, I can’t believe how much I have missed him while he has been away. My sleep pattern while he’s been away shows how much I miss having him next to me on those nights when he’s home. My worry for him and his friend have been weighing heavily on my heart and mind. I can’t stand the thought of him being as heartbroken as he has been, all I want to do is hold him tight, and tell him everything will be alright.

  Unfortunately, that is a promise that I won’t be able to guarantee. And I am not the type of person who makes empty promises to anyone, let alone my man. But oh, how I wish I could, I wish I could make all of his problems disappear. Wouldn’t my family’s lives be easier if I held that capability? I sigh to myself as I get out of bed and make my way into the shower. Mom took Shyann with her this morning, she said she wanted to spend some quality time with her granddaughter, but I’m sure what she meant was she didn’t want either of them to be home when Marcus arrived. She acts as if neither of us possess any type of control when others are around, which couldn’t be further from the truth. There have been several occasions that I’ve wanted to jump him but have refrained since we’ve been surrounded by everyone else.

  I get out of the shower and head straight for the coffee maker. I brew my single cup, add my sugar and creamer, and relax on the kitchen chair. I’m in my robe, and know I need to change before he makes it here in case Jensen is with him, but I can’t seem to gather the energy needed to make it that far. “After this cup,” I tell myself. I think back to my conversation with Marcus last night, he didn’t give me much in the way of details, but I know what he did manage to find out couldn’t have been good if I’m going by the tone of his voice. It makes me wonder if he’s holding something back, trying to make me believe everything is good, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. I know deep inside of him all he cares about is protecting me, from whatever it is that has his mind occupied, but I want to be there for him the way he’s been there for me.

  He did tell me that he had a stop to make before he came home this morning, but I know he has a long drive ahead of him and decide to head on into the shop. I have a tattoo that I am anxious to get started for a female client. It’s going to be a full back piece of a phoen
ix, it will be grey and black in the bottom and as we get to the top of the bird, it will come to life with bright colors of orange and red. I’ll add some pink for shading and I am excited to do this one. I’ve done plenty of phoenix’s in my lifetime, but this one is original and all my design and color scheme.

  I leave the house and stop dead in my tracks, there’s a note addressed to Marcus on my door stoop. I get a bad vibe off this note, I know that sounds crazy to most folks, but I’ve always been intuitive, and this is giving off some bad juju. I hurriedly stuff it in my purse, not wanting to go back into the house, and make my way to my car, and then straight to the shop. For some reason I don’t understand, I don’t go to see Mom or Shyann at Dillon’s office, I feel like trouble will follow me there if I do. Trusting my instincts, I head straight to the shop.

  Marcus

  We hit the road at two am, wanting to beat the rush hour traffic and we travelled for thirteen hours before pulling over and deciding to not push through for the entirety of the trip. I texted my woman to let her know, she was disappointed, but understood. Even with us taking turns driving, we wouldn’t have made it home in one day like she was hoping for. We pull into a motel room and call it a night. It’s a long trip and I’m anxious to get home, but first thing when I get into town, I’m stopping at the Rage Ryders compound for a sit down with Tic and Wasp. I need to inform them that their family may be in danger for having associated with me.

  Meaning Carson and Levi, since they are in a relationship with Emory’s sister, Rainey. I don’t know how far Branson’s retribution goes, but I know he’s wiping our families off the map, and that’s inexcusable as far as I’m concerned, he also will be crossing the wrong people when he finally decides to come after me and mine. Once my head finally hit the pillow it was lights out, and darkness took over.