by Edwina Fort
This whole time he had a woman. This whole time he had made me feel as if I was his world. This whole time he had played me for the fool I am.
I had to do something. I needed to make some moves. But the only thing I managed to move was my body from the bathtub to the bed. And that is where I stayed for nearly two days.
I would have stayed longer, but Kyle showed up at my door.
“Who is it?” I muttered from the bed.
“It’s Kyle.”
I exhaled putting the cover back over my head. I didn’t want to deal with him. I didn’t want to deal with anybody.
“Journey, open up. You promised you would go to lunch with me yesterday. I waited all day, you never called.”
I did not…
Throwing the covers back I sat up. My whole body protested the movement.
“Kyle, I’m not hungry.” I couldn’t even change the fact that I whined that.
“I know you may not feel hungry now, but once you get out into the fresh air and the sunlight, you will see that you are. It’s been almost two days, you have to eat.” He paused for just a moment.
“I know this really nice restaurant that have the best jerk chicken in town.” I collapsed back in the bed just wishing he would go away.
“Come on, Journey. I’m not going to go away. You’ve been closed up in there too long. Queen, you don’t deserve this.”
Tears came to my eyes… Kyle called me his queen, but Jo made me feel like his queen. I sat up and dried my eyes.
“Okay, I’ll be out in a sec.” I told him trying my best not to cry. I was tired of crying.
“Okay sweetheart, I’ll be waiting right out here in my car.” I nodded wiping away another flow of tears. However, it did no good, as soon as I got in the shower they sprang free. What Kyle said was true. I could not stay shut up in this room forever, mainly because I had to check out today; the hundred dollars he had given me had reached its limit.
But the Heavenly Father knows I did not want to leave this room. I did not want to go home to my mother’s questions and Jo’s apologies. I did not want to deal with the fact that Ayana, who now loved her father just as much as she loved me, would not understand why her little family wasn’t together anymore.
Now I had to be one of those mothers that had to share a child with a man I could barely stand to look at. Exhaling I pulled my black sweatpants and a t-shirt out my bag. Pulling my locs back into a ponytail I took one last look at myself in the mirror. I was presentable, but it looked as if I was on my way to identify the body of a loved one.
Oh well…
The sun burned my eyes when I exited my room with my bag on my shoulder. I wish I had thought to grab my shades.
“Hey Journey, you look amazing.” Kyle said as he opened the car door for me. I tried to smile at him, but the smile may have come out a bit of a sneer.
Kyle drove some kind of sports car that sat low to the ground. I think it was a Corvette, but don’t quote me. Leaning my head back against the seat I mourned the loss of the dark motel room. He got in and smiled at me and I wanted to yell at him. Instead I lifted one side of my mouth in what I hoped was a smile.
I didn’t want to take my anger out on him. He’s been nothing but supportive during this whole debacle.
“You’re going to love this restaurant.” He said as he put the car in reverse and pulled out the parking spot.
“Alright.” I muttered as I watched my little escape slip farther and farther away. Leaving this place meant it was time to face reality. It was time to face my mother, Ayana and Jo. The fact still remains I was under contractual agreement to be his mistress. I didn’t know how I could go on at this point. The thought of it sickened me.
I kept hearing his father asking me what was the going rate for my services. I never thought I could hate someone, but it was safe to say I hated Jo’s parents. The both of them were evil as hell. I didn’t ever want them around Ayana. I exhaled, we had some stormy days ahead of us. I was prepared to go to battle. They had no idea the monster I could become to protect my child.
I will fight them all! Jo, his parents…The f***ing Senate! All of D.C. if I have to!
Kyle’s voice pulled me from a very dark place. “We’re here.”
I was so far into the sunken place I didn’t notice how nice the restaurant was or even how the waitress looked that took our order. I couldn’t even tell you what I ordered. Kyle sat across the table and talked to me and I couldn’t repeat anything he said if my life depended on it. In my mind I was coming up with a way to get me and my child away from these vampires.
It was during these thoughts that I looked up and saw Jo, the head vampire walking through the restaurant door. Everything about him was proficient. The way he walked. The way he held the door for the lady going out. The way he looked at me and read how hurt I was in my eyes.
Several things happened. First, I disgusted myself because for just a moment my thirsty gaze drank him up as if he was a tall, strong, muscled glass of chocolate milk.
As always, he was well put together in a grey suit that had been custom made for him, his broad shoulders filling the jacket out in only a way that he could. On his feet was a pair of matching grey boots.
Damn it!
Kyle looked behind him to see what I was looking at and jumped up out of his chair.
Now…this is when things started to go south.
“What are you doing here?” Kyle asked using his body to block Jo’s view of me.
“Man… look… just get out my way, okay?” At this point, it was no hostility in his voice. He sounded defeated.
“I’ve come to take Journey home. I need to talk to her.” He reached his hand past Kyle towards me.
“Journey, come here baby, please, I need—”
Kyle, feeling impowered by the dejection in his voice slapped his arm away. “She ain’t going nowhere with you man!”
There was a collective pause. It was as if the restaurant as a whole took a deep breath, everybody waiting to see what would happen.
When Jo struck, he did it so fast it took all of us a minute to comprehend what happened. He hit Kyle so hard in his face that the man’s feet left the ground, but Jo was on him before his body could even land. His arm was moving like a machine as he punched Kyle over and over again in his face.
“Jo, stop!” I cried running to him. I tried to grab his arm to stop it, but the strength in his limb was beyond anything I had ever felt. The first punch took Kyle out; blood poured from his nose that I was more than positive was broken.
“Help me!” I yelled at all the people who were just standing around watching. Several of them even had their phones out recording it.
“My woman mutha*****!” Jo growled as he continued to pound Kyle’s face.
One minute I was there on Jo’s back trying to stop him from beating Kyle to death and the next I was grabbed roughly from the back, picked up and then slammed on the ground.
Pain shot through my body. Confused I looked up and saw that the restaurant was now filled with men dressed in black military gear that was roughly pushing and throwing the other customers into the kitchen. One of them had slammed me on the ground.
Were these the police?
It couldn’t be, the way they were handling the people was illegal anywhere. A woman screamed out when her phone that she was using to record Jo was taken from her and then she was shoved through the kitchen door by her head.
Jo turned to look at where I had been slammed on the ground and I swear there was nothing in his eyes but death as he stood and took in the fact that we were surrounded by soldiers or something.
And this is the moment the Jo we know left the building and a terminator took his place.
And yeah… I know you’re all like terminator? Really Journey? That’s a bit much, isn’t it?
Well let me tell y’all something, a shadow fell over his eyes. There is no other way I can describe it.
Guys, if I wasn’t there witnes
sing what happened next, I would have never believed it had somebody tried to explain it to me. The man that slammed me on the ground faced Jo, holding out his hands as if he was trying to keep him calm. He began to say strange words to him, something about walking alone in a field of clovers.
But Jo’s eyes came to me where I still lay on the floor one more time and then all hell broke loose. Moving like lightening he grabbed a spoon off the table before kicking the man so hard in his knees he collapsed forward, the sound of both of his legs breaking will be something I will never forget. I screamed because as his head was coming down, Jo used the handle of the spoon imbedding it into the man’s chin and up into his head.
My eyes widened in horror as the body dropped next to me. I had to stifle another scream when it twitched and the all life left it. Blood begin to ooze from the hole in his chin. I gagged. It took all the strength I had not to vomit.
When the other men saw what happened to their leader, they came at Jo with all they had and amazingly I watched as he took them all out. This kind of stuff you only see on TV. The first man that reached him threw a punch but ended up getting his face smashed hard into the table causing the table to break in two.
No way he survived.
Jo did some kind of turn around the next guy taking his head with him; the sound of the man’s neck snapping like the sound of that first guys legs breaking will be forever seared in my memory. He picked up a chair and bought it down on the head of another man that dove to take out his feet, the chair broke apart leaving him holding both the legs in his hands…
And I kid y’all not, Jo used them legs to beat the hell out of the rest of the men. One after the other, they dropped until he was left standing there surrounded by bodies. When he saw there was nothing more to destroy he threw the sticks down and walked towards me.
I tried to scoot back away from him but my hands were slipping in the blood of the dead man with the spoon rammed into his head. Completely ignoring the fact that I was terrified of him he leaned down and scooped me up in his arms carrying me out the restaurant. He put me on my feet next to his car.
“Get in.” Was all he said after he opened the door for me.
I didn’t argue, I didn’t blink, I got in. The energy that was coming from him at that moment was astonishing.
“Are you alright?” He asked when he got into the car. With wide eyes I nodded. I was still not talking to Jo. As he drove he checked himself for injuries. He didn’t talk to me, so I didn’t talk to him. But I watched him.
Jo had checked out. This killing machine that now drove me was not sociable. He was like a robot.
What the hell?
He drove to a empty park and got out of the car. I sat there and watched him pace back and forward in front of the car. Several times he grabbed his head as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Seeing him in anguish was tearing me apart, I wanted to comfort him, but I was afraid of him.
I can’t lie. What I just witnessed had freaked me out. Jo took out a whole army of men by himself, many of which he left dead. It was like he had been some kind of war machine.
After about thirty minutes he got back in the car and pulled off. Jo was back, he rubbed his hand down his face and I could sense him trying to figure out the best way to break the ice.
What the hell kind of Twilight Zone sh*t is this?!
“J—I…”
Looking straight ahead I waited for him to explain what I just saw.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“What are you, Jo?” My question was so low I feared he may not have heard it.
“I’m a man.”
I shook my head. “No man can move like you did back there. You were faster and stronger than anything I have ever seen.”
He shook his head. “I’m just a man.” He clutched at his head as if he had a headache. Whatever it was going on with him, he was having a hard time reasoning within himself about it as well.
“You nearly killed Kyle.” My words were still very quiet, the last thing I wanted to do was wake that killing machine back up.
“That bastard had it coming.” He growled as he angrily drove down the street.
“Can you see that that’s not alright?” I kept my voice low.
He turned to look at me then, his handsome face twisted in anger.
“Why aren’t you yelling at me? Why are you talking to me like you think I will hurt you?” He hit the steering wheel and I damn near jumped out of my skin.
“J!” The anguished sound that came out his throat tore at my heart, but I still clutched the door handle for deal life. I couldn’t help it. You guys have no idea what I was dealing with. I was shaking all over.
“Baby, I will kill myself before I ever hurt you.”
I wanted to believe his whispered plea, but he wasn’t stable. We didn’t talk again until he pulled up in front of the cottage. He killed the engine.
“Tell me what I have to do to prove to you that I love you and I will never hurt you.” This was my first time ever seeing him so vulnerable. It was a complete mind screw after seeing him destroy a whole army of men by himself.
Now he looked at me like a lost little boy in desperate need of love. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that this powerful man actually needed me. Tears filled my eyes.
“If you love me, Jo,” My voice quivered so bad my words were barely recognizable. I paused and gathered myself.
“If you really love me…tear up the contract.”
Chapter Twelve
Letting Go
Journey
I almost believed the look of pain that came across his face.
Almost!
My heart had turned to stone. At least that’s what I convinced myself. So, no matter what he said or what he did, I will not turn back.
“J please, ask me to do anything else. Anything. Just—” He paused for a moment, his eyes searching mine.
“Just don’t leave me…” His words made him very vulnerable. He was taking a risk even uttering them. Vulnerable like I was watching him walk into his party with another woman on his arm.
“Do you love me?” My voice was cold.
“More than anything in this world.”
Be strong, sista! He doesn’t mean it!
“Then let me go.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. I could see him wrestling with himself to do the right thing. He didn’t answer right away, I began to get worried that he was going to force me to fulfill the contract anyway.
“I’ll tear up the contract only under one condition.” He spoke those words without looking at me. He stared straight ahead out his front window.
“What?”
“You don’t leave D.C., you stay here in this house and allow me to continue to support Ayana and you.” I began to shake my head, but he held up his hand.
“Just hear me out.”
Although I didn’t feel like I owed him anything I sat back in the seat and listened.
“I f***ed up. I know that. It’s so many things I should have done differently. I have to own up to that. But a man needs to know he’s taking care of his child and his wom—” He caught himself.
“His child’s mother. So please, I won’t force you to allow me to see Ayana. I would like to see her, but I won’t force you. Just stay here close to me, so that at least I’ll know you guys are safe.”
I wanted to say no to his request, but my mother had raised me to have compassion. She called it the fruits of the spirit. If the roles were reversed and I could not see Ayana, I would go mad with worry. And yes, I would want her to be in the same town as me. I would want to know without a shadow of a doubt that she was safe.
But he wanted me to continue taking money from him. To me that was personal. It would make me feel like I was still his.
Well…there was a such thing as child support. And famous people like him paid a grip. Maybe I could look at it like that.
“If I agree to this, will yo
u tear up the contract?”
Still staring straight ahead, it was clear he was not happy with my question, the muscle ticked in the side of his chin.
“Yes.”
It took everything within me to school my features.
I was free! I couldn’t believe it…
“Okay, deal.”
I didn’t wait to see how he took the news, I just opened the door and got out. Without looking back, I took my keys out my bag and went into my quiet home. After I closed the door I leaned back and listened as he started the car and pulled off. Only then did I exhale in relief.
“Oh God!” I whispered into the empty living room.
I can’t believe it’s over.
“Journey, is that you?” My mother called from upstairs. I could hear the gentle hum of her television. No doubt she was watching the afternoon news.
I began to head in that direction. “Yeah mama, it’s me. Don’t get up, I’m coming up.”
Remembering I had blood on me I stopped at her bedroom door, so glad she was lying down in her bed and could not see the back of me.
“How are you feeling?” She asked sitting up in her bed. It looked like she had been napping.
“I’ve been better.”
She smiled sadly at me as she patted her bed next to her. “You want to come lay down and tell me about it?”
“How about over tea a little later? I really need to shower and to get some rest.”
She nodded as her eyes raked over me trying to determine in what condition I was in. More than anything I wanted to lie next to her and cry my eyes out, and if I wasn’t covered in that man’s blood, I would.
“Where is—”
“Not coming back.” Tears came to my eyes as I waited to see how she was going to take the news. Surprisingly, she didn’t say much, just nodded once again.
“Okay, baby. Ayana just laid down for a nap, so go ahead and get some rest.” I nodded.
“Thanks, mama.”
The first thing I did when I closed my bedroom door was strip out of my blood-stained clothes. I didn’t bother putting them in the dirty clothes hamper, instead I put them in a bag and pressed it down in my trash can. I didn’t want my mother to see them. She would ask questions that I was not prepared to answer.