Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen
KING’S POV
This week has been particularly long and the only thing that’s managed to make it even bearable for me is knowing that I get to end the day in her arms, held like her world starts with and ends with me, pretending that this is a blossoming love story, the kind that redeems the hero from his demons and saves the damsel from her baggage just to see them to their happily ever after.
She makes it so easy to pretend, to fall into the comfortable routine that balances working and taking delight in making her day a little easier and watching her smile at everything. And if I even for once believed she’d survive in the shit that’s my world, the one that’s not this quiet, beautiful picture that I’ve painted her, finished to perfection with visions of a picturesque house and picket fences, I’d have said fuck unattached string and let’s go for the fucking real deal, consequences be damned.
But she won’t.
I know because I think about it a lot, wishing things were different. I’d caught myself doing it again this morning while I’d watched her sleep in our bed, aglow from the aftermath of our love making. She’s soft, not made for wars and clashes and threats to life. She’s not built for worrying daily if the day is my last but every time she snuggles closer, burrows into me, cuddles me like I’m her security, I want to call bullshit on walking away.
And when she whispers “Thank you” in her sexiest, softest voice after I’ve made her come? Damn!
I’d walked away before I was tempted to wake her to ‘talk”, going to the gym downstairs instead.
I spent the entirety of my morning pushing weights while listening to the recordings I’d just recovered from the night Martinez had been all over her like a bad rash. As opposed to the major Intel that set me hot on their tail, there wasn’t any mention of any kind of chemical ammo, not the kind I’m interested in anyways and I’m not sure if that’s because they suspected they were being watched or because there isn’t any chemical ammo to begin with. But there’s enough here still to have Yasuki burn them to the ground and I’m here for it.
The one thing the man hates when It comes to business is making commodity of women and children, it’s his only rule, so learning that these bastards run a human trafficking rink that sell barely teenage girls into prostitution and a child pornographic rink that rake in the millions they launder through their casino business just made my troubles worth it. I knew there was no way in hell that place was making enough to give them the kind of negotiating power they wield around, butting into everybody else’s business
On the day Yasuki goes to put a bullet everyone of them, because I know he would, I hope he leaves Martinez to me so I cut the bastard up for what he did that night. I will pay him back with or without Yasuki.
I left the gym a little after eleven, looking to jump back into her arms to cool off but I knew something was off the moment I walked through the door. She looked nothing like id left her and everything like the sad little thing I’d seem the day she moved in down the hall. Her eyes were red and puffy like she’s been crying her heart out and she looked a little on the volatile side. It’s the first time I’ve truly not known what is going on in that pretty head of hers.
Before I can ask what’s wrong, she walks over to me with intent like she’s been waiting to pounce on me and hooks herself on me. Her kiss is different this time, like I’m just a thing to dull her pains with. Knowing fucks me up and I withdraw, which in hindsight was stupid because she’d been clear when she asked me to be her vice. What the fuck were you thinking, Kingston?
I should have let her do her thing till she felt better because the moment her lips met mine, my body had responded instantaneously with renewed hunger like I didn’t just have a taste in the early hours of today. It’s just my head that wasn’t having it. Everything just spiraled from my rejection until she got livid and walked out on me with a threat to find my replacement.
My replacement, funny. Nobody’s ever dared to threaten me with that, not even the actresses and beauty queens I dated in the past who had commanded their fair share of attention. And yet, here we are.
I call Remy after she storms out, that biting remark still fouling the air, in a bid to find out what went wrong in the scant hours I was gone. There was to be something new, possibly from back home..
“This is the second time you’re asking me to dig on the same woman. Is there something you’re not saying, sir?” He asks the moment I tell him why I called, pissing me off further.
“If you still want to have a job by the end of this call, just shut your fat mouth Rems and do what I asked.”
He takes a minute to do his thing before getting back to me but when he does, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle starts to fall into place.
“The only thing I can find that’s different from what I gave you the last time is that her ex boyfriend and the best friend, I think, are engaged as of this morning. I’m guessing she saw?”
The tears and the pain makes sense now. Impeccable timing on their part.
Going after her before she does something irreversibly stupid over those two worthless piece of dogshit, I look everywhere I imagine someone who wants to pick up men will go. I find her in none of the places I came up with and as a last resort, I go down to the poolside. We’d both planned to go yesterday before work called so I might as well check.
Unlike it usually is on a normal day, it’s packed currently like there’s a party going on. A lot of bodies are in the pool getting it on and half the girls here are obviously strippers paid for fun. I look around for her because she has to be here somewhere, dreading what I might find.
At this point, I’m resolved to end this madness with her if I find her already sucked up to someone else. I’ll understand that she’s going through shit and respect that but I’ll cut my loses like I should have from the get go. But right now, I just want to know that she’s okay.
Just as I’m about to give up and leave because I can notice the strippers heading to me, mistaking me for one of the guests, I notice something out the corner of my eyes, tucked away in an almost concealed corner.
Fuck, it’s her.
And there’s a little more than just lounging going on there.
Matching over, furious at both myself and her, I get slapped in the face by the reality of what is actually going on here. For an insane instant, id thought this was it, her revenge for my refusal to fuck her but all I see here is this pig forcing her down on him, assaulting her. His hand is over her mouth and her fighting obviously excites him even more.
Posted by utter disgust, I pull her off him with one yank, blinded by rage. I pull him off his chair by the open shirt he’s wearing, my fist making contact with his jaw, hard enough to send blood flying from his mouth.
I go in for a second hit before he can get the rude “what the fuck?” out of his bleeding mouth, aiming to hurt him real bad when I notice the two headed bald eagle tattooed on his neck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!
I notice the other men that’d been scattered around the pool start to notice the commotion and head towards us, all of them spotting identical tattoos on different parts of their body. Shit, I just fucked with the last group of people I want associated with ever, even if for good reasons.
Yasuki will not like this, these guys are the worst.
Fucking Bratva!