by V Vee
Heaven may have been engaged to my best friend—my former best friend—but she belonged to me. And Steele men did not share.
It was time for me to go and remind her who she belonged to.
Chapter 1
Biotechnological Industries: Baltimore Location
Heaven’s Workplace
Baltimore, MD
Heaven
Present Day
My job sucked sometimes.
Like really and truly.
It sucked.
And I wasn’t just saying that because it’s something that’s expected for those of us who do not work in a creative job or one in which they have flexible hours and make a shitload of money. Because I made a shitload of money, and I had flexible hours. The plain and simple fact is, I said my job sucked because it fucking sucked.
Especially on days like today.
I’d been working on a particularly difficult case, trying to find or to develop a cure for arthritis, only to be told that the company I worked for was pulling funding and redirecting my efforts towards finding a permanent solution and cure for diabetes. I knew it was because my boss, the “Big Boss”, the owner of the company: Jeonathan Cobb, was doing all he could to help with his wife, Ella Hall-Cobb’s, project, but still… who wanted to deal with diabetes all day, every day?
Especially when that person had to then travel home and deal with a child who had the disease as well?
Of all the things my daughter could have inherited from my parents, being born with Type-1 diabetes was just not a good look. For either of us. At seven years old, my little girl, Ashley, had way more of me in her build than she did of her father’s. I could already tell my little girl was going to have more curves than a racetrack, and it bothered me a bit that I could already see that, but what upset me more was that her father wasn’t around for me to vent to about it.
Mother fucker was no doubt still in Afghanistan, playing soldier.
Fuck. Him.
I blew out a breath, full of frustration, and shook my head. I did not have time to be thinking about, much less getting angry about, one Mr. Edward Steele. I was a single mother, engaged to a great guy, one who would never abandon us, abandon me, and I was also a very well-respected member of the STEM community.
Eddie had been my high school sweetheart.
And that’s all he would ever be.
Resolved to my thoughts—the same thing I’d been chanting and reminding myself of for the last seven years, ever since I gave birth to my daughter without Eddie being around or even knowing about it—I nodded once more then opened my eyes and took in my surroundings.
My “office” was actually a laboratory. One that I shared with six other scientists. We each had our own stations, our own tools, supplies, many of us working on different projects, and because we were all basically nerds, we tended to work in complete silence. The lab was sterilized to within an inch of its life. The walls white, the testing tables a black marble with birch wood cabinets below. Every test tube, flagon, and more was cleaned, unless it was currently in use. There were books and notebooks on every surface. All opened to different sections for research, and cold air blew in from the one, and only, vent in the room, against the far-right wall.
It was hell. I was working in hell.
“Hey, Jones?” My coworker, Trevor Stand, called over to me from his station and I turned away from my perusal of the office to face him.
Trevor did not look a bit like what most people thought of when the word “scientist” was used. He wore glasses, but only to read. His strawberry blond hair was always pulled up into a manbun at the back of his head, his chin, jaw, and upper lip were covered in a perpetual five o’clock shadow. His nose had a bump in it, as if he’d been in a few fights outside of the lab. And his body? Let’s just say, I completely understood why my friends, Xana, Victoria, Romily, Ivory, Eden, and Blossom were attracted to their guys who were all hockey players. There was definitely something about knowing that a man was strong enough to take a hit and not crumple, as well as knowing that just beneath the surface there was an aggression within him just looking for an outlet.
Trevor definitely had that look about him. It was just too bad that all of my girlfriends were involved. They were either married or they had a “situation” that didn’t encourage interference by any outside sources. And while Trevor was definitely a nice guy, he was definitely not worth one of those heifers handing me my ass.
And as for me?
My eyes flicked down to the engagement ring on the third finger of my left hand. It was a 2.5 carat princess cut diamond ring, surrounded by tiny emeralds on all sides. I’d been surprised, then flattered when Zander had opened the ring box to show me what was inside. I mean, it wasn’t like our relationship was… standard. Or hell, even normal. He was the best friend of the man I’d been in love with for four years. The man I’d been so sure I was going to marry one day. But when Eddie had left for the Marines, I hadn’t been aware of the fact that I was carrying his child in my belly. I was only a few weeks into my summer semester at college when I realized it. I’d been scared. Devastated. But I’d been extremely hopeful. I’d been so sure that when I told him, that Eddie would have been ecstatic. But, his letter back to me had been… apathetic at best, dismissive at worst.
Zander had been the one to comfort me. Really, from the moment Eddie had deployed, it had been Zander who’d been there for me. In every way I wanted and all the ways I needed. He’d even been the one to make sure that my letter to Eddie about our child had gotten to him, and he’d delivered Eddie’s response back to me. Because Eddie was in a remote Afghani city, and since Zander’s family, the O’Sullivans, had more connections than God, himself, I’d trusted him to help me out. Then I trusted him to be there to help me pull myself back together when Eddie proved to be untrustworthy. Zander was truly the greatest man a woman could ever ask for.
So why the fuck did I have to force myself to kiss him? Why wasn’t the attraction there? Why did I have to think about Eddie just so I could sleep with the man who I’d pledged to spend the rest of my life with?
Not something I could really process or deal with in that moment. I was at work, trying to solve a major medical issue, not have an existential crisis regarding my love life.
“What’s up Stand?” I responded.
Trevor waved the lab’s phone in my direction and I nodded, pointing at the extension on my desk. I waited for him to transfer it over.
“Hello, Biotech Industries. This is Heaven Jones. How may I help you?” I spoke into the phone with a pleasant and professional tone. No one ever really called me at work. Only three people had the number: my sister Ava--and by extension, her husband, Kynan; Zander, and my daughter Ashley’s school.
“Hello Ms. Jones. This is Principal Leon. Ashley is in trouble… again.”
I groaned and palmed my forehead. I loved my daughter, but she reminded me a little too much of her father… the biological one, not the one who’d been raising her for the last seven years.
“Thank you, Principal Leon.” I sighed and started to gather my things. “I’m on my way.”
Heaven
When I arrived at Ashley’s school, I expected to find out that my little girl, who seemed to take on the mischievous characteristics of her father more and more with each passing day, had gotten in a fight. Though Ashley called Zander “Daddy” my little girl behaved like a child whose parent had recently died and they didn't know how to cope with the loss. And though there were those around us who didn’t understand why she acted the way she did, whenever Ashley misbehaved, my older sister, Ava, would give me a look filled with so much meaning, I would feel even more ashamed than I already did on a daily basis.
I know I should have sent more than one letter to Eddie about being pregnant with his child. Even in spite of his very brief, three-line, written response to me:
Dear Heaven,
I’m in Afghanistan.
What the fuck do you ex
pect me to do?
Take care of it.
Eddie
It’s what Ava had told me to do. She’d told me--repeatedly over the years--that she didn’t believe Eddie had written the letter that Zander brought back to me. And while there was a part of me that wanted to believe the same thing, I had the proof of the handwritten letter sitting in my underwear drawer in my bedroom.
And maybe my hurt and disappointment had been filtered into my womb while I was pregnant with Ashley and it was the reason she was acting out. Because when I appeared at the school and saw there were three janitors scrubbing off glitter paint that spelled out the words: Ashley Jones, the queen of all, I was reminded so much of the man who’d broken my heart, that if I didn’t know any better I would have sworn I was back in high school with Eddie and Zander.
I stepped into the principal’s office and frowned at my daughter who sat in a chair in front of Principal Leon, or as she was known outside of the school, Parker Leon. Oh, wait. I keep forgetting… she was Parker Steele.
Eddie’s sister-in-law.
“Hey Heaven,” she gave me a sad smile and I sighed.
“Hey Parker.”
Chapter 2
Steele Family Home
Eddie’s Childhood Home
Baltimore, MD
Eddie
The sound of the doorbell penetrated the workout playlist I had blasting into the room I was in the middle of renovating.
Since being back I’d gotten in touch with my brother, Logan, gone to see my nieces, Holly and Noelle, hung with my sister-in-law, Parker, and met up with some old friends of mine from the Marines who were now living as civilians. And while to those on the outside it would seem as if I’d accepted Heaven’s decision to marry Zander and resigned myself to being without her, to those who did know me, they were quite aware of the fact that I was merely planning. Making a contingency plan for every possible scenario.
And I was waiting for Zander’s bitch ass to get back in town from whatever bullshit trip his job sent him on.
The loud, insistent chime coming from outside the front door had me smiling. I knew who it was without even checking.
Zander.
I’d sent my old friend an… invitation, to come over and see me now that I was no longer in the Marines, and had, in fact, returned to Baltimore in order to reclaim what was mine.
Z,
Hey motherfucker.
I hope you’ve been enjoying my woman.
You’re going to need those sweet memories to cling to
As I rip you limb from limb and make you choke on your own dick.
You know you fucked up right?
Heaven is mine.
Has been since freshman year of high school.
If she’s sleeping with you, just know it’s my dick she’s thinking of.
If she kisses you, know that it’s my face she’s seeing.
If she says she loves you, it’s not the same way she says it to me.
Because what we have is real.
You were just a placeholder for the real deal.
So now I’m back.
Back to reclaim what belongs to me.
All of it.
And fuck anyone who stands in my way.
The Marines taught me a lot about how to kill a man.
Want me to show you?
You know where I live.
Bring it on, bitch.
Eddie
I’d known my taunting words in the letter would have Zander rushing over to my old home to set things straight. Either he was going to tell me that I had things all wrong…
Or he was going to come and try to stake his own claim.
Either way?
I was about to kick some Irish ass.
I walked down the stairs, the old creak that existed in the sixth step had been fixed—finally—and there was a whole new banister at the landing upstairs. I didn’t even bother to check the peephole in the front door before I tugged it open.
Because I know Zander, probably more than he realizes I do, I was expecting the cheap shot he took as soon I stood in front of him without a door to separate the two of us.
My head jerked to the side, and I spit out a mouthful of blood, before I turned back to face the man I’d grown up with. Who I’d considered a friend. Who had betrayed me in the worst way.
I gave him a bloody smile, wrapped a hand around his slender, bitch ass neck, and dragged him inside. I lifted him up, one hand around his throat, the other around his right thigh and hurled him across the entryway so he collided against the wall with very little effort on my part.
Heaven was fucking with this little, skinny ass motherfucker?
It’s a good thing I planned to remodel this area next, I thought to myself. I locked the door behind me, jerked off my sweaty tank—so the little fucking prick couldn’t use it to grab me, or to choke me—and strolled over to where he lay, groaning, wincing, and trying to get up.
“So… you thought you’d wait until after I left to try and make a play for my mother fucking woman?” I asked, my voice low, my teeth clenched.
“Fuck. You,” Zander growled.
I snorted. “Fuck me? Fuck me?” I shook my head, reached down, grabbed his hair and tugged his head back with one hand. With the other, I bitch-slapped his ass… hard.
“So you’re just going to lay there and let me fuck you up, huh?” I asked as Zander slowly rose to his feet.
He shrugged, blood dripping down from his lips onto his baby blue, button-down shirt. I took in his appearance, trying to figure out what exactly had managed to turn Heaven’s head in his direction. Zander was still wearing those goddamn black suspenders. His black slacks were perfectly pressed, still maintaining their look of sophistication, even after being tossed across the room, and colliding with drywall. On his feet were a pair of black, Italian loafers, but it was the sight of a gold ring, resting on the third finger of his right hand that caught my attention.
It had the letters: H, A, Z on there.
Heaven And Zander.
I saw red in that moment. Not only had he stolen my woman… not only was he trying to fucking broadcast across all of goddamn Baltimore that he was going to marry my Heaven, but this fucking twat was walking around with their initials on his hand? Just like the tattoo that Heaven and I had gotten when we were seniors in high school.
This little bitchass.
“I’m letting you dig your fucking grave, trash,” Zander growled, and I let out a laugh.
“I’m trash? You’re the one who couldn’t wait to fuck my woman once I was out of the picture.” I walked up to him once he was steady on his feet and leaned close. “Tell me something, when you shoved your little pencil dick inside that tight pussy, was my cum still inside of her? Did it trail down your cock? Did that make you harder, knowing my spunk was probably still filling her body while you were inside her?” I smirked at the look of anger and disgust that covered his face and I moved before he had the chance to punch me. I slammed his head against the wall and spun him around, my arm wrapped around his neck, squeezing the life from his body. “What about when you kissed her?” I growled. “Was the taste of my dick still on her breath when you made your move?”
I anchored my feet, spreading them shoulder-width apart, straightened my shoulders in order to tighten my grip on Zander’s throat. The feel of his body squirming and fighting in my hold made me feel more powerful than I’d ever felt before. I felt his body start to sag, and not wanting to kill him—yet—I dropped him to the floor, before pulling back my foot and kicking him in the stomach.
“You just couldn’t wait to try and take something that belonged to me. That belongs to me.” I corrected myself, before I shook my head. “I hope you’ve enjoyed the time you’ve had with her, because I’m here to take her back. And once I do, after I remind her of whose pussy that is, of who owns her heart? I’m coming for your ass, Zander. I’ve got a bullet or two just waiting to make your acquaintance,” I promised him.
<
br /> And because of my time in the Marines, the attention to detail, the situational awareness I had honed over the past eight years, because of my need to always be tuned into my surroundings, I felt more than saw the moment Zander went to reach for a weapon.
Fucking coward.
I pushed off my toes and did a flip over the still prone body of the man who’d taken our reunion from an engagement of fisticuffs to attempted murder.
He’s trying to kill me? This is about more than just pussy--damn good pussy--but still…
The gunshot reverberated loudly in the house and I snorted when Zander cursed at having missed me. But before I could retaliate and repay him in kind, but with a bullet that would meet its mark, the sound of sirens filled the air. I grit my teeth, knowing, without having to check, that the person outside was a McCarthy… or associated with one.
Fuck Logan’s association with The Irishman.
While I’d been off serving in the Marines, my brother had returned to Baltimore, discovered he had twin daughters with Parker, and that Parker was, rightfully, pissed at him. After doing some next-level R&B music video apologizing, the couple had made up, then found themselves in a fight for their lives against an enemy Logan made overseas. He’d turned to his friends for help, one of which happened to be a younger brother of the most notorious Irish mob boss in modern-day history.
Andrew “The Irishman” McCarthy.
When I’d read my brother’s letter, letting me know about our family’s new… “friendly association” I’d almost gone AWOL to ask him what the fuck he was thinking. However, once he’d explained fully the danger he and his family—and by proxy, Heaven and me—were in, I’d acquiesced. But, while I’d known that our new “friends” were extremely vigilant, I’d already been visited by them twice since returning Stateside. The last time I’d been informed that if I ever needed help, for any reason, to give them a call.