by Edwina Fort
Coming for What’s Mine 2
Joseph and Journey’s Tale
Edwina Fort
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
The Epilogue
Note from The Author
BONUS CHAPTERS!
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Edwina Fort
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address below:
Author Edwina Fort P.O. Box 346 Keithville, LA 1047 www.authoredwinafort.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Coming for What’s Mine/Edwina Fort. – 1st edition ISBN 978-0-692-18270-3
Acknowledgements
I’d like to first thank The Heavenly Father who chose me as a vessel and allowed me to use my pen as a weapon. I’d like to thank my husband who continues to support me and hold me up when my knees give out. I’d like to thank my children who do the very best they can to make only a little noise so mama can write…(LOL) I’d like to thank My sista, GilaYah Joy Beck-Hendrix, you have proven to be an asset I can’t be without. Without hesitation you joined me on the battlefield to help me carry this load, you give of yourself without expectancy of return favor. But today sista, I’d like to take the time and honor you. The world needs more Joys, but since we only have one, I thank The Most-High that I have you on my team.
I’d like to thank my editor Bernadette (Kizzy) Johnson. I know I’m not the easiest to work with, but somehow you’ve managed to weather the storm, when all the smoke and the dust cleared, you were still standing, and for that sis I am eternally grateful.
Finally, I’d like to thank my friends, family, and especially my fans, who took the time out to leave comments on my book and encourage me to continue writing. You guys have no idea how important your feedback is; it does wonders to defeat that voice of doubt. Thank you everybody!
I have something that the rich will never have…enough
- Joseph Heller
Chapter Eleven
The Other Side of Jo
Joseph
A sharp pain shot through my head as I came awake. I went to lift my hand to rub my temples, but couldn’t because my hands were handcuffed to a bed. I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but my lids were too heavy.
“What the f*** do you mean, you don’t know what is going on with him?” The sound of my father’s raised voice caused me to relax back in the bed and pretend to still be out.
“You assured me that he would never become a danger to the public.”
“Mr. Warren, need I remind you that he was created to be a weapon of the United States government? I didn’t design him to be a civilian in any way. If he senses danger, his survival instincts are going to kick in, in which case, he won’t strike to wound, he will strike to kill.” I didn’t recognize the voice of the man that spoke to my father, yet it sounded very familiar. What the hell did he mean design? And who was the he they were talking about?
“And need I remind you that Macon Cooperation paid three and a half billion dollars for him? And he’s just single handily wiped out half of their elite force security.”
“Pss, elite force my ass!” Whoever it was threw something down angrily. “Any one of the Law brothers will single handily destroy an army. And you want to cry to me about some candy ass elite force? Get the f*** out of here!”
“Now is not the time for you to do your peacock strut. You created these—these weapons of mass destruction! Three and a half billion dollars is a lot of money. You’ll have to be a fool to think that something so valuable will not be insured. Those men he killed today was his owner’s insurance policy.” My father spat.
“And yet the fact remains, he’s a three and a half billion-dollar weapon, that you decided without my consent to sell to the highest bidder, letting him loose amongst the public. Repeatedly I have warned of the risk we are taking with such an action.”
“You assured us that he was civil, you said you can control him. He didn’t respond to the cease and desist command. Now my wife is afraid he may kill us all in our sleep!” My father growled, so angry I could hear his teeth grinding together. Their raised voices came from somewhere out side of the room I was in or maybe they were inside the room.
Once again, I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. It felt as if I had been drugged. I was having a hard time determining if I was awake or still asleep. My mind felt sluggish, I gritted down on my teeth, I didn’t like this feeling.
The strange yet familiar man chuckled. “If he finds out what is going on, your wife won’t have to worry, because I can guarantee he’s going to kill us all.”
My father went on a cursing binge. “How can we fix this?” He asked when he had once again gained control of himself.
“I told you the program will work as long as nothing happens to disturb its hold on him.”
“Nothing happened; everything was going according to schedule before he had some kind of war flashback and took out half of Macon’s security team.” My father fired back.
“Oh please, Mr. Warren! You don’t think I know about the love interest? We discussed this. Strong emotions like love can interfere with the programming. His need to protect her will override everything we’ve trained him to do.”
“We did not expect him to fall in love with her. He’s never loved before. How were we to know this time would be different?”
“And what about the child?”
My father exhaled. “He won’t bring her around and he has them under constant surveillance. You can’t get close to them without him knowing. And if he’s not with them then he has the old man who is now completely loyal to him with them, another one of your brilliant weapons gone rogue!”
“Hey! The old man was there as a safeguard because you and your precious wife was too chicken sh*t to be around the kid without one.”
“It’s like you said, a weapon is a weapon.” My father said in a very patronizing tone.
“Either way, he was put there to keep him in order should you lose control. But once again, my instructions were not followed, and you allowed a bond to grow between the two.” He paused for a moment.
“Listen, if you don’t want this thing to crumble down around us, you had better find a way to cut those ties. Until then, he’s uncontrollable; there is nothing I can do.”
“Don’t you give me that!” My father hissed. “I put my whole career on the line for you! Remember if not for me, you would have never gotten a chance to parade your little freakshows in front of the Secretary of Def
ense.”
“How can I forget when you find a way to remind me every time we meet?” The man’s tone sounded as if he was bored.
“Well since you’re so good at hearing, hear this. If this thing crumbles as you so eloquently put it, I won’t fry alone. I’m taking you and all your little monsters down with me.”
Who were they talking about? My mind was so sluggish I couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. If my father was so worried about this person, why didn’t he tell me so that I could handle it? The pain in my head was beginning to drown them out. I went to lift my hand again, but the handcuffs prevented it.
What the hell was going on? I racked my mind trying to remember how I got here. The last thing I remembered clearly was seeing Journey clinging to another man. It had been the most painful thing I’ve had to watch in my whole life. I once was forced to witness one of my brothers-in-arms tortured and then brutally murdered, and it hurt less than that.
That poetry reciting bastard had the nerve to wink at me before he slid in the car and drove away with my woman. As I watched his car speed toward the gate, I swore that when I got through with him it will be awhile before he was able to see out of either of his eyes.
I went back into the house to get the keys to my car. At the same time, I turned on the tracker that I’d put on Journey’s phone and saw that they were headed toward the house.
“Jo, where are you going? You can’t just leave in the middle of your party!” My father growled as he and my mother burst into my old bedroom. I grabbed my keys out of my bag.
“How did Journey get here?”
“What do you mean, dear?” My mother began in her fake placating voice that only grated on my nerves.
“You know what I mean!”
“Joseph, don’t yell at your mother!”
I balled up my fist. I didn’t have time to deal with them right now. That bastard was with Journey and I swear if he so much as lay one finger on her, he was dead. My father grabbed my arm as I charged past him, but I snatched it away and angrily turned to face him.
He flinched. I shook my head, that’s not the first time he’s done that. Anytime I get angry he has to work hard to cover his fear of me.
“What about Chloe, son? If you walk away and leave her down there by herself it will disgrace her and her family.” He spoke in a calmer tone.
“I don’t give a damn about Chloe or her family. I’m not marrying her, I’m marrying Journey. You two need to get used to that fact.” I turned to walk out the door, but my father grabbed my arm again.
“Please don’t do this. The implication from this could be more than you or I are prepared to handle.”
I chuckled. “No dad, the implication of this is more than you’re prepared to handle. Me? I’m prepared to die for this.”
His eyes rounded. “Prepared to die? What nonsense is this?”
I gritted down on my teeth to control the rage that was roaring inside me. “Journey and Ayana are mine and that’s a fact I’ll die for.” I snatched my arm from him again and closed the gap between us, so that I was standing eye to eye with him. I needed him to understand that the words I now spoke were true.
“That’s a fact I will kill for.” I heard my mother’s indrawn breath, but I didn’t wait around to see her fainting spell.
“Joseph, what’s going on?” Chloe cried meeting me at the bottom of the stairs. My mother’s assistant was doing a great job of making sure the rest of the guests were good and distracted inside the ballroom. I could hear Senator Banks speaking on the mic about my accomplishments.
“Who is that woman you were chasing?” I forced myself to stop and give her a few seconds of my time. Like me, Chloe was just a pawn in our family’s politics.
“Chloe, that woman is the mother of my child.” Shock registered on her face. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I can’t marry you.”
She shook her head. “Nonsense, you won’t be the first man to have a child before marriage. The good thing is it happened before we announced our engagement, which means—”
“Which means,” I said interrupting her. I did not have time for this conversation; this needed to be short and to the point. “If she’ll have me, it is her I want to marry.”
“Joseph, please wait!” My mother cried coming down the stairs. No doubt my father was in his study sulking over a glass of his eighty-year-old scotch.
“I will talk to you guys later once I find Journey.” I told her, leaving Chloe in her capable hands. When I pulled into the gate at the cottage, I had to forcibly quit the anger in me. The last thing I wanted is for Abby to see me in savage mode.
As soon as I opened the door I knew something was wrong. Abby was sitting on the couch pushing a sleeping Ayana in her little chair swing.
“Where is Journey?” I asked using all my strength to school my voice. She stood and came towards me with a worried look on her face.
“What’s going on? Journey ran upstairs crying and a minute later she came back down saying she couldn’t sleep in this house or in you guys’ bed. She asked me to look after Ayana for a couple of days. Jo, what happened? Are you guys fighting? Why was she crying?”
I clicked on my phone and saw that her tracker was still here.
“No J.” I hissed as I took the stairs up three at a time. “F***!”
Sitting on the bed next to the necklace I bought her was the phone I’d gotten her and her credit card.
“F***!” Needing to vent some of the rage that was burning in me I turned and threw my phone into the corner of the room so hard it shattered. The slight gratification I got from it was cut short when Abby’s concerned voice came from the bottom of the stairs.
“Is everything alright, Jo?”
“Yeah, Abby, everything is alright.” I muttered as I sat heavily on the bed burying my head in my hands.
Damn, I messed up! Damn!
I was so angry I couldn’t think clearly. I had to steady my heartrate and figure out what to do next.
I needed to get to my office where I had the materials to track her down.
Journey
Okay, so what I’m going to tell you guys next may sound confusing, and it’s because I’m confused. Something happened to Jo. Something very bad. He’s not what any of us thought he was. He’s some kind of… I don’t know.
Let me just tell you guys what I saw.
When Kyle pulled up in front of the cottage I asked him if he would wait for me. I knew that there was no way I would be able to sleep in the same bed Jo had just made love to me in without being ill. Plus, there was no doubt in my mind that he was on the way here, and as you guys can see I’m not that strong. Jo was clearly my weakness and I needed to get away from him so that I could think of what next to do.
So, I went in and asked my mom if she would watch Ayana for me for a few days. I couldn’t stand the feel of that necklace around my neck, so I took it off. And the thought of spending another dime of his after he had told his father that he paid me for sex was just inconceivable.
I held back my grief as I talked to my mom, I wasn’t ready to admit to her how stupid I had been. I held back my grief when I got back in the car with Kyle and asked him to drive me to a dinky motel way across town where Jo would never think to look for me. I was ashamed that I had to ask him to borrow money.
“Really, it’s no big deal.” He told me as he took a hundred dollar bill out his wallet. He reached in to give me another, but I stopped him. Let it not be said I went from being one man’s whore to another.
“I don’t think it’s wise for you to be alone.” He said when I reached for the door handle. I was so physically and mentally exhausted I could barely speak. Plus, the downpour of tears, I was holding back was now choking me.
“Please Kyle, I just want to be by myself.”
“Okay, but promise me you’ll call me tomorrow so that I can take you out to lunch. I don’t want to see you suffer for something that is not your fault.”
“Thank you, Kyle for being there for me.” I whispered instead of a confirmation to call him tomorrow.
When I finally closed the door to the motel room shutting out the world, I walked to the bathroom and ran me a bath. As soon as my foot touched the hot water my tears ran free. Here in this bathroom I didn’t have to hold back my sobs. And I’m not talking about baby sobs, I sat in that tub and had me a good ugly cry.
How could I have been such a fool? I told myself not to fall in love with him. My brother had tried to warn me about him. He wanted to tell me something, but just like Kyle, he didn’t because he saw my nose was wide open.
Oh God!
This was my first time experiencing this kind of heartbreak. Nobody ever warned me about it. They never said that it made you feel so low to the ground you might as well be dirt. Nobody ever said that it felt as if someone punched you in the stomach leaving you breathless.
Why didn’t I see this coming?
Not once since I’ve been back in D.C. has he invited me over to his place. He never took me to any of the dinners and events that he was constantly invited to. The only thing he wanted me for was sex.
I grinded my palms in my eyes.
The sex…
I had been blinded by it. How could I not? The man made love as if his very life depended on it. He wasn’t satisfied until I’m left shaking and panting, begging him for mercy, yet begging for more. In all the lustful, sweaty nights, it never crossed my mind that it was the height of our relationship.
I looked at my pathetic reflection in the water. “What else does a man want with his mistress?”
He never lied. It was me. He had me sign a contract to be his mistress. It was me that started reading more into it than what was there. I had lied to myself. Groaning I hit my head with my fist.
I wanted to go home. I wanted to get on the first thing smoking back to Chicago. I should have never left my neighborhood or the protection of my brother. This is what he tried to keep me from. Alice was right, I didn’t know how the game was played here in D.C.