Finding Patience

by Eden Rose

  “Trip, do you mind taking Alexa to the kitchen and gettin’ her an ice cream?”

  I don’t leave him much room to say anything because he’s already taking her to the kitchen.

  Patience’s eyes look like she’s about to cry. “You… You…”

  Fuck! I should have known something like this was going to happen when I brought her here. I should have fucking told her about the club and the kind of shit that happened here but I didn’t. I didn’t tell her anything.

  “I wasn’t celibate while we weren’t together. Do you mean to tell me you didn’t sleep with anyone?” I ask her with my eyebrow raised.

  Her eyes narrow and she’s got that smirk on her face that tells me she’s about to flip out. “I did sleep with two someones while we weren’t together and that’s because I thought you were dead! You were dead to me for five years and then two days ago you come back to life! You mean to tell me that for five years you never came looking for me but you were fucking whores? What? I wasn’t skanky enough for you? Is that it? Did you need someone looser?”

  Each question she asks me is like another hit in the gut. “No! You’re bein’ fuckin’ crazy, baby! None of those skanks compared to you.”

  “Why didn’t you come look for me? Why didn’t you come see me?” She screams at me with her finger waving in my face. “Why! I waited for you for three years before I even looked at a guy twice. I went to seventy different countries and didn’t even look at a guy because I felt that you were still alive. For that whole time you were but I thought you were dead. I can’t believe this!”

  “Baby, none of them meant anything to me like you do.”

  Patience is shaking in my hands and I feel her back away from me. “That’s supposed to make me feel better? Did you hold them afterwards? Did you tell them you loved them? Did you tell them how much they meant to you?”

  I shake my head in the negative. “No, I didn’t tell them any of that because you’re the only one for me. I never even kissed any of them. I haven’t kissed anyone since you. None of them meant a quarter of what you meant to me.”

  “I want to get out of here,” she groans.

  I look behind me and see my brothers staring at us with widen eyes and curiosity on their faces. The Bear’s the one that steps forward and places his hand on her arm. She jerks out of his hold and whirls on me.

  “What the hell is this? Why did you even insist on me coming? Is it to show me off or some shit?”

  “I brought you because I can’t stand the thought of not having you near me, Patience! Stop actin’ like a crazy bitch and listen to what I’m sayin’!” I yell at her.

  She stops jerking out of The Bear’s hands and stops to look at me. “I…”

  “You can go back to killin’ each other after I talk to Rabies.”

  We both look at him like he’s crazy. “We’re not killin’ each other,” I bark. “We’re havin’ a conversation.”

  “Well, I have a few things that I need to discuss with you,” The Bear hisses out at me.

  I knew I was in trouble when he gave me that look. It was the look that promised retribution if I didn’t come with him right away. “What’s up?”

  “It’s about both of you, actually.”

  With his hand still on Patience, he starts to walk towards his office. She turns to look at me with questions in her eyes. I smile at her to let her know it’s all right but it doesn’t do anything.

  “What is going on?” She demands. “I need to know what’s happening right now!”

  “First, I would like to get to my office before I start my questions. One of my major ones has to do with the men camped outside my clubhouse. I assume they are here for you?”

  The office door opens and then closes behind us with Slice in the room. He’s got his phone in his hand and he’s constantly looking at it. “My ol’ lady is about to go into labor at any minute.”

  Patience smiles at him. “Ol’ lady?”

  “How much does she know about our lifestyle, Rabies? How much have you told her? Does it have anything to do with the mother fuckers that are printin’ stories about us?” The Bear barks.

  “Rabies? What’s with this Rabies shit?”

  “It’s my road name, baby. It’s nothing for you to worry about it. It’s like a nickname.”

  She scowls. “It’s a horrible nickname,” she retorts under her breath.

  Slice can’t help it but he opens his mouth to tell her what I don’t want her to know. “You know how he got that nickname?”

  I slam my hand on the desk effectively stopping him from rehashing my less than stellar past without my wife. “You think now is a good time to discuss that shit?”

  Patience is standing in front of the desk awkwardly and I reach out to drag her in my lap as I sit down. “Baby, everything is gonna be okay.”

  “First,” The Bear whistles and drops a couple of letters on the desk as he lights a cigarette, “I want to know why we’re receivin’ letters about how you owe someone money and if you don’t pay they are gonna expose you.”

  I greedily rip the letters off the table and push Patience a little off both of my legs to one. I open one up and my blood cools.

  Brett-

  Now you know how easy it is for me to get in your little slut’s house. Now maybe you will realize you owe me. I want 25G by the end of this week or I expose you for what you are. A loser with a pop star wife.

  Mom.

  The next letters are similar to this one but I don’t read them to comprehend what is being said. No, I already understood everything.

  “My mother.”

  PATIENCE

  “What are you talking about?” I turn to look at him.

  Even though I’m still pissed about the skanks in the clubhouse, I’m eager to know what he’s talking about. Plus, I can feel the rage radiating off of him hitting me like a slap.

  With both hands, he slides me until my back is cradled against his hard chest. “Baby, my parents aren’t like yours. They are up to something pretty fuckin’ bad.”

  Knowing that this is exactly where I want to be, where I need to be, I tuck my face into the crook of his neck and breathe deeply. I take in several breaths to get his natural scent to invade all my senses.

  For several minutes, the guys talk in circles around me but I’m not paying too much attention to what they are saying. It’s when I hear the words break in that gain my attention back.

  “Excuse me?” I question and shake my head to clear my thoughts.

  The hot man behind the desk nods his head over to me and then smirks a little. “I don’t know you, lady. I do know that my lieutenant is wild about you. Because of that, you’re under my protection.”

  “Protection? Protection from what?”

  Brett rubs my stomach in a soothing manner, or at least that is what he tries to do. “My mother and deadbeat father are trying to blackmail us, Patience. My dad has managed to sneak into your day to day life.”

  My body heats up to a dangerous temperature and I feel my skin boiling. “You mean to tell me that your parents are behind everything? Your parents are behind my house getting broken into and my shit coming up missing?”

  He sucks in a deep breath. “You knew about that? Why didn’t you tell me that you knew?”

  I shake my head and spin on his lap to look at him. “Let’s see. I’ve known you were alive for like twenty-four hours. When would I have had the time to tell you?”

  The man with blonde hair pushed off to the side, chuckles a little. “You guys have a lot to talk about. I will tell you that the part that concerns us is the blackmail.”

  “How much is she wanting?” I ask already calculating how to more that much money around in my bank account without sending too many flags to Kate.

  “A lot of money,” Brett replies.

  My phone buzzes in my tiny purse and I shimmy the phone out of the bag. I see that it’s Kate and I am already dreading the call that’s about to happen.

/>   “Hello?” I answer.

  “You want to tell me why the fuck your body guards are outside a bikers’ clubhouse?”

  Giggling, I roll my eyes. “Because they weren’t invited in,” I retort with attitude.

  “Patience, you can’t be going places without their protection. It’s why you pay them so much a month.”

  Brett opens his mouth and then closes it before mouthing: How much do they get paid?

  The remaining guys in the room ignore me.

  Ten grand a month, I mouth back.

  “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” He barks.

  I jump a little in my seat because he freaked me out at his outburst. “What?” I ask him.

  The Bear and Slice (seriously, who comes up with these ridiculous nick names) are chuckling to themselves. I turn in my seat to glare at them. They must have realize that I mean business because they shut up right away.

  “Patience! You need to get your shit together. You want to be a bigger target?” Kate yells in my ear.

  I could feel the anger radiating off Brett as he tries to cool himself down but it doesn’t work. He snatches the phone out of my hand and I see that the dangerous look that he shows, is actually something real.

  “What makes you think I won’t protect my wife?” He breathes into the line. “What makes you think that I would let anything happen to her? She’s safer here than she is anywhere else. Stop harassing Patience and let us handle our own shit!”

  With a look of finality, he hangs up the phone and throws it on the desk past me. My eyes watch the movement while my brain tries to keep up with what just happened in here. “Did you just hang up on my publicist?” I ask dumbly hoping I witnessed this whole thing wrong.

  “Looks like he did, super star. We gonna talk about what we’re gonna do?” The Bear asks me with a smirk.

  I’m fuming but I know Brett’s just trying to protect me as much as he can. The part that I don’t like is the fact he feels like he has to protect me. I’m so used to doing everything on my own and now I don’t have to.

  I guess.

  “Is my baby daddy in there?” A woman yells from outside the door.

  Slice shakes his head and counts to ten. “I love my woman, I love my woman, I love my woman,” he repeats. I watch him pump up his chest and reach for the door but he’s too slow because it’s swinging open and a pregnant woman is staring at him.

  The woman looks like she’s about ready to pop and she’s holding her back to help ease the swell of her belly. Her bright blue hair is brushed into a messy bun and her red lipstick is super cute on her doll-like face.

  “Yes, Blue?” The Bear asks from behind his desk with a scowl. “You know meetin’s ain’t for ol’ ladies.”

  My eyes are wide while she ignores him, focusing her eyes on Slice. “Brit says sex will help make the baby come. We need to have sex. Get yourself hard.”

  She reaches out her hand to grab his and drags him out of the office.

  “Jen! Bring me back my lieutenant!” The Bear yells.

  “And I need this baby out, pronto!” Jen shouts with her face masked in seriousness.

  Brett chuckles with me on his lap. The vibrations of his laughter jolt me closer to him and I love it. “Those two…” He replies wistfully.

  Slice chuckles, stops in the doorway to pick his girlfriend up and hold her to him. “I’ve got other business to attend to.”

  “Are you from Tennessee?” Jen asks with a sultry voice.

  “Nope,” Slice answers.

  “Because you’re the only ten I see!” She replies.

  My cheeks hurt from giggling so hard. “Are they always like that?” I ask Brett.

  “Now, when we have sex, I need you to do it very hard! Like fuck me with dedication, you know?” Jen instructs as she leads him down the hallway.

  “Rabies, we need to discuss how you wanna handle this,” Flip states.

  Crossing my legs, I turn a little to look at Brett with curiosity. “What can we do about it? There’s not much that we can do because they’re going to do whatever they want to do.”

  A blue haired woman peeks around the door and looks at us with remorse. “Don’t shoot the messenger, okay?” She asks.

  She’s a short little pixie woman who is too cute for her own good. I wish I could pull off the brightly colored hair but Kate would kill me if I did something like that. Something that would tarnish my reputation or whatever.

  The Bear holds his hand out as an invitation for the girl to come in here. When she does, she sits on his lap and he snakes his arms around her. This must be Chantal.

  “What’s going on, baby?” The Bear asks in his deep baritone voice that makes my thighs quiver.

  Brett chuckles behind me and digs his fingers into my hips to tickle me. “I saw that!”

  Blushing, I wiggle around in his lap to try and get him to stop tickling me. “Stop! Stop!” I cry.

  Since I was having so much fun playing with my husband, I forgot what we’re doing here. The why we are here.

  Chantal turns around her computer and hits a key on it. A video starts to load and play. Once the playback begins, my stomach feels queasy.

  RABIES

  The video begins to play and my guts churn inside. Our reuniting has been tainted by some fucker who recorded us and has now released it all over the internet.

  Clearly, the video shows how hot we are for each other but I don’t want the world to see my girl naked. That’s the last thing that I want. The image of her letting go, the image of her giving herself to me is only for me.

  No one else.

  “Yo, prez!” Someone shouts from behind us.

  I reach out towards the computer and slam it shut. “What the fuck do you want, Trip?” I growl at him.

  I’m pissed off that Trip got to see my girl naked and I’m pissed off that I know exactly who recorded us.

  Patience’s face is red and her breathing has spiked. “No, no, no, no! This is not good! This is not fucking good! I can’t have this kind of a scandal two weeks before my tour! My fans will think I pulled a Kim Kardashian trying to get famous or some shit! I’m not the Kim Kardashian of the entertainment business. I’m like the Demi Lovato. Everyone loves me!”

  I can’t help but laugh at her being so silly about this. “Pink, can you get the video taken down for us before my woman has a mental breakdown?”

  Chantal smirks at me and then clicks away at the keyboard after she turns it around to face her. “I don’t know, man. It’s kind of hot,” she taunts with a smile.

  The Bear grunts. “Is that so, baby? You wanna make a video, too?”

  “I need to go home. I need to go do damage control. Give me my keys. Where’s Alexa?” Patience blurts as she scooches off my lap to begin finding Alexa.

  I hand her the keys but once our fingers touch, I pull her in closer. “None of this bull shit is gonna tear us apart again, you get me? It’s just a video.”

  She nods her head and kisses me really quickly before running out of the room.

  Sitting in front of my brothers, I find the ultimate restraint in my body because all I want to do is kill my parents. “I need Pinky to find them.”

  The Bear nods his head in agreeance. “What’s your plan?”

  “My plan is to scare them. I need to get them really fuckin’ scared and then rip them up. Where they least expect it. I want to know everything. Where they bank, when they sleep, where they go shoppin’ at. Every single thing we can find out about them. I want to know.”

  Unfortunately, we didn’t move fast enough.

  PATIENCE

  Doing a press conference isn’t something that any celebrity likes to do. It’s incredibly invasive and the majority of the questions asked have nothing to do with them or why you’re famous.

  Which is why I’m sitting in the conference room with fifty or so microphones shoved up close to the desk that I’m seated at while waiting for this shit to happen. Get it over with so I can go home.
/>
  We dropped Alexa off at my parents’ house before driving back to mine for me to get changed for the conference. I hate leaving her at places but I would be too distracted if she were there. I can promise you that hanging out with her is so much more fun than answering questions about how I manage to keep my weight down.

  My stomach growls at the table sending a woozy feeling through my body. I squeeze my eyes shut in hopes that it will stop me from passing out. Wouldn’t that just be great? The paparazzi is here to ask about my marriage and sex tape but then they get a scoop on how I didn’t eat.

  Kate’s spot is always next to me and she places her hands on the desk with authority. I have my legs crossed under the table and my hands are wedged between my thighs.

  “Patience! Why did you tell us the father of your baby was dead?” The first paparazzi asks.

  Letting out a deep breath, I begin to fabricate a lie that won’t make either of us look bad. “I was told false information by an unreliable source. It wasn’t until the other day that I found out he was alive.”

  There’s mumbling and humming throughout the press room. I can see their hands scribbling across the pages of their notebooks quickly as they jot down what I said. Isn’t that why they record me?

  “Is he the father of your baby? How do you know that he’s the father? Could it have been someone else?” A female asks.

  Nodding my head, I answer her. “Brett is my husband and he was the only one who could have fathered Alexa. He’s the dad.”

  “Is it true that you don’t know for sure?” A male asks this time.

  The questions are being asked all around the room by both women and men. Typically, the women are the ones that are more cutthroat asking questions that make you cringe. Well, until this guy.

  “I have already answered that question. I won’t answer it again,” I reply as I push my hair back over my shoulder. The last thing that I’m going to do is sit here and answer the same question asked twenty different ways. “If you have another question, I would be happy to answer it.”

  “You have to understand that Patience is going through a rough time right now. She needs to be with her family,” Kate states. “If you have other questions, please ask.”