My brother and father looked at each other silently, signaling something to each other that I didn’t understand.
I shook my head and stood. “You two have said your peace, and I can understand your concern. Now hear me, you two don’t get to tell me how I run my life!” When my brother attempted to stand, I pushed him in his chest. “No, Victor, it’s your turn to shut up and sit down.” He didn’t budge, of course, but he got my point, so sat back in his seat. “The hypercritical bullshit coming from the two of you is making my head hurt. Dad, I know for a fact that you and Mr. Leonetti have had dealings in the past. I don’t know to what extent; I just know you worked either with him or for him. You knew what kind of man he was back then, and I highly doubt he’s changed. However, that doesn’t matter to you. What he’s into, the fact that this company could be brought down with Leonetti so fast, doesn’t seem to bother you one bit. It’s okay for you to take his money and make him rich, but it’s not okay for me to do the same?”
I looked at my brother, “And you, please get off your high horse. You also know who Angel is. You and he were boys. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, and I don’t care. If he were so dangerous to my well-being, you wouldn’t have brought him to the house or around me back then. I’m so sick of you two trying to run my life for me, as if I don’t know what I’m doing. I know exactly what I’m doing. God, it’s like everyone around me has changed and grew up, except you two! We are right back to the same reason why I left. Let me be!”
I stood there shaking. I couldn’t begin to tell you the pain, hurt, and rage that I was feeling.
“Let you be?” Victor repeated incredulously. “Are you kidding me? Instead of you dealing with this shit and listening to reason, you ran away. Now, yes, we are right back here, and it seems we all grew the hell up and you haven’t. You’re still doing the same stupid shit you did before, chasing after a motherfucker who’s not worth shit. He had no business touching you. He should have kept his fucking hands to himself. Nonetheless, he’ll learn.”
Finally, it hit me what this was all about, where all the hostility Victor had against Angel was coming from. I didn’t know how he’d found out, and I didn’t care. I just nodded and laughed. It was a hysterical laugh, but it roared out nonetheless.
“Oh, is that what this is about?” I chuckled sarcastically. “What? You think Angel took advantage of me three years ago? You think that he soiled your sweet little sister? Ha! That’s the biggest joke I have ever heard. News flash, asshole; Angel, didn’t come after me. I went after him.”
“Raquel!” I heard my father warn, but, unfortunately for them, I was on a roll. You know me; poking the bear and all that.
I smiled at my now scarily enraged brother. You would think at this moment, I would back away. I mean, steam was literally blowing out from his ears, nose, and mouth, but I didn’t back down.
I continued, “Oh yeah, I sought him out. I put on the shortest skirt that I could find and went after what I’ve wanted since the first day you introduced us. Oh, he tried to fend me off, but I wasn’t having it. He gave in finally, not after much fuss, and I got what I wanted from him. Oh, please believe, brother of mine, he wasn’t my first. Remember Roger, your bestie in high school? And Sloan? Dominic…”
Okay, just so you know, these were made up situations. I mean Roger, yes, we hooked up, when I was in college. Sloan and Dominic, they tried to push up on me. However, I turned them down. I wasn’t a slut. Yet, hell, I wasn’t a saint either. My point was to piss my brother off. As tight as his fists and jaw were, I can safely say that I had achieved my goal.
“Raquel, that’s enough!” my father asserted.
“No, dad, that’s not enough,” I argued. “You two have no idea what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen or what I’ve done. You’re painting this picture of what you want me to be, and that’s not who I am. Every day of my life, I felt like I was a replacement for what you lost. I was never good enough for the two of you. Nothing I said or did was good enough. Every time I looked in your eyes, all I saw was disappointment. Do you have any idea how hard you made things for me? I wanted you two to love me for me, but it felt like you only loved me because of her. Well, I can’t live up to a shadow of someone I never met!” I looked at them both and said as softly as I could, “I’m sorry, but I’m not her. I’m not mom. I’ll never be her.”
“Damn, straight you’re not!” my brother spat with the most disgusted frown on his face. “She wasn’t a fucking whore!”
“Victor!” my father boomed.
Nevertheless, the damage was already done. The bear was officially awake.
Now, you may be saying to yourself that I brought this on myself, and maybe later I may have to agree with you, but right now…nah.
I walked up to my brother and smacked the shit out of him!
“Fuck you!” I spat, hand stinging from the collision with his face.
I grabbed my purse and the contract that Angel signed and walked out of the office.
I faintly heard my father calling my name in the distance. I didn’t slow down and I knew he ccouldn’t get past the now crowd that was standing around my office door eavesdropping.
I slammed my phone against the wall in frustration, because there was nothing else around me to throw, as waited for the elevator.
My first thought was to leave Philly and go somewhere else, anywhere else, except here. I could quickly pack my things. After all, it wasn’t like I hadn’t done it before. However, I thought better of it. Instead, I decided to call a friend of mine in San Francisco. I asked her to get me a room at another hotel and put it under her business name. I needed time to decompress. I needed to get away without running.
Maybe my brother was right, and maybe after a few days or weeks, I may even apologize for hitting him, but not right now. Right now, I wanted to punch him repeatedly until I exhausted myself. So, instead of taking my frustrations out on him, I decided to do something else. I moved my things to my new hotel and changed clothes. Then I walked to this gym that I knew was close to Center City and Penn’s Landing that was ran by some guy named Lou. I figured that was his name since it was on the outside of the building.
Anyway, I ignored the many faces staring back at me as I entered. Lou’s was your typical testosterone filled gym with men flashing great bodies as they worked out. I moved with a purpose to an empty punching bag. There was a girl, with chocolate skin and beautiful light brown eyes standing next to the bag, packing her gloves away.
“Mind if hit the bag?” I asked her.
She smiled. “Nope, it’s all yours. You need tape or gloves?”
I smiled back. “Nope, I’m good.”
She nodded. “Cool. Let me know if you need any help or a sparring partner. We also have trainers to help you work out or get into shape, not that you aren’t already.” She smiled shyly and I smiled back as she continued, “If you have any questions about the equipment, a trainer, or anything else, my husband over there can help you out.”
I looked over as she pointed to this fine ass white man holding a brown haired little girl in his arms while another one stood close to his legs. Both little girls were light brown in complexion with golden, thick curly hair that fell freely on each of their heads. They were adorable.
When I got a good look at her husband, it made me frown, and I found myself saying, “Um, is he a fighter here? He looks like a banker or something.”
The woman next to me laughed. “Yeah, he gets that a lot, but he’s the reigning MMA amateur fighter for the last two years.”
My eyebrows rose. “No shit?”
She laughed again, confirming, “No shit.”
I nodded and asked, “What’s his name so I can look him up?”
I suddenly noticed her stand a little straighter with a gleam of pride in her eyes when she said to me, “The Reaper.”
Chapter Eight
Angel
Shit, I must be a glutton for punishment.
&
nbsp; I went around his block three time before I finally parked. I had no idea if he was home. Yet, I didn’t let not knowing stop me.
I got out of my car and headed towards the building, thinking, Fuck it. Whatever happens, fucking happens this shit needs to end.
Once I got inside and off of the elevator, I saw that the door to Lincoln’s condo was cracked. The second that I smelled smoke and heard the baby crying, I moved quickly towards the door. I drew my weapon, as I quickly moved through the door just in time to see Georgia with a fire extinguisher.
She was aiming at the stove and a pan that had flames shooting out of it, threatening to become out of control.
“No! Don’t!” I yelled, knowing it was going to be hell cleaning up that mess. I grabbed a plate that was sitting on the counter and quickly covered the pot and flames.
I moved further into the kitchen, grabbed a towel, and started fanning the detector closest to me. It took a few seconds for the sensor to clear before it stopped. Now all could be heard was a baby’s shrieking cries from deep in the apartment.
Georgia was in panic mode. Her eyes were wide as shit. I could see her chest heaving up and down, extinguisher shaking slightly in her hand.
When she put the extinguisher down, she started moving, I assumed, to go get the baby. I reached her and touched her arm. “Hey, why don’t you have a seat, Georgia? I’ll go get the baby.”
She looked as if she wanted to protest. She glanced back at the open front door, seemingly waiting for someone to come through it at any moment.
I soothed her fears. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Trust me.”
I moved toward the sound of the baby and found him in a first floor room that I didn’t remember Lincoln having. The baby was wailing his little heart out, probably scared as shit from the noise of the smoke alarms.
“Hey, big guy, is your mother scaring you with her lack of cooking skills?” I asked him in that weird voice adults typically use when they’re talking to babies. I reached for the baby blanket, threw it over my shoulder and then picked him up slowly and brought him to my chest.
He was definitely a big boy. He was about eight pounds when he was born but, shit, it had only been a few weeks since he was born, and he was huge. “What have they been feeding you, buddy?” I chuckled as I headed for the living room.
Georgia was sitting in one of the stools at the island when I walked back into the front room.
“What were you trying to do?” I asked her. “Were you trying to see how quickly you could burn down the building?”
She rolled her eyes, saying, “It wasn’t that bad.”
“Really?” I looked at her skeptically. “Why were you by the stove anyway? And where is Lincoln?”
I was playing with the baby when I realized that she didn’t reply. I turned and looked at her and saw the tears forming in her eyes.
“I don’t know where he is. I think I scared him off.” Then she buried her head in her hands and started crying.
Shit! Now what am I supposed to do?
My eyes darted around the room, waiting for someone to appear and handle the breakdown that Georgia was having. Someone needed to do something because I didn’t know what to do.
Her cries got louder, so I secured the baby in my arm like a football and moved to where she was. I placed her hand in mine, laced our fingers together and led her to the couch.
“Tell me what happened,” I leaned forward, grabbed for the tissue box sitting on the table and placed a few in her hands.
She mumbled a “thank you” wiped her eyes, and then blew her nose.
I brought little man up to my chest and patted his back.
Georgia looked at me with puffy red eyes and smiled. “You are so good with him.”
I’d made a few trips to visit her and the baby without my cousin being around. Too much time had lapsed for us to pull our weapons on each other, but it still could get messy. Lincoln had a thing about loyalty and so did I. His dumb ass should have known that my hands were tied and I had no choice.
I’d tried to tell him, but he was also stubborn as shit, so we still hadn’t addressed the issue.
“He’s a great kid,” I told Georgia.
Georgia nodded and sniffled. “I ran him off, Angel.”
I shook my head. “I seriously doubt that, Tesoro.”
She sniffed again. “You don’t know that. You didn’t see how mad he was. I ran him off running my big mouth.”
“Running your big mouth about what?” I asked.
“You.”
I sighed and shook my head. “Georgia…”
Georgia tucked one of her legs underneath the other one and faced me.
“No, Angel, this is ridiculous. You two haven’t spoken in seven months, almost a year. This has gone on long enough. You two are like brothers. He loves you more than he loves his own. He's acting like a dick.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped my throat. Georgia cursing was hilarious, and it really didn’t go along with her mannerisms.
“You don’t kiss this baby with that mouth, do you?” I joked.
“Come on. I’m serious. You can call him a dick. It’s okay,” she said as she smiled at me.
“Tesoro.” Georgia lets me call her sweetheart in Italian because she has never heard me call another person that. It was easier for her to stomach since it’s in another language because she still hated those terms of endearment, except I was sure when Lincoln called her baby.
“You don’t have to fight my battles for me. I can handle it on my own,” I expressed to her.
“Then handle it, Angel. I’m sick of seeing him mope around this apartment like he lost his puppy.”
I groaned, “I’m the puppy, really?”
She smacked my leg. “Oh, cut it out. I’m metaphorically speaking, asshole.”
“Please, Georgia, enough of the cursing. You will not kiss my nephew with that potty mouth of yours.”
“See, I miss your humor, Angel.”
I shook my head. “I’m the same Georgia.”
“No, you’re not, and neither is he. Admit to me that you haven’t been the same without him and he without you. He needs you, Angel. Hell, both Drakes need you.” Her eyes suddenly started filling again. “He misses you.”
I took her hand in mine. “Drake is my family, my brother, and this shit won’t go on much longer. Why do you think I showed up here today? I figured he’d be here.” That obviously wasn’t good enough to Georgia. She was still pouting, so I added, “Look, Georgia, I understand Drake. I’ve known him for years. And although I’m about sick of his stubborn shit, I respect how he feels. Leave this shit to the two of us, okay? I know what I’m doing.”
She sighed and then finally nodded. “Okay, but you two better handle this shit quickly or there will be hell to pay.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
She grew quiet as I brought the baby down to my lap. I talked to him, watching his little face light up and smile at me. I thought Georgia was just in her own world because she was so quiet, but I should’ve known better. You can’t leave Georgia’s mind to idle. Shit gets crazy in her head.
“You need a girlfriend,” I heard her say.
I couldn’t stop the laugh that fell from my lips. I looked at her, asking, “I need a girlfriend?” I’d repeated it because, shit, I couldn’t believe what the hell I’d just heard.
Georgia touched her son’s little hand that was gripping my finger and replied, “Yes, you need a girlfriend; someone that understands you, someone that knows you, that can challenge you. It can’t be that female friend that you sometimes see, either. What’s that one’s name? Lucy?”
I didn’t reply because I didn’t have a clue where this was going. Whatever her goal, I was sure it wasn’t to piss me off. However, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Raquel and her stubborn ass.
Georgia touched my arm and our eyes met. “You need someone strong with the right amount of sass to put you in your place wh
en you need it, and someone who will ride or die with you no matter what.”
“What makes you think I need that?” I replied curiously.
Georgia shrugged. “Because, it’s time, Angel. Despite who you are and you being an asshole sometimes, you’re a good man. Drake doesn’t tell me everything that goes on in the family, but I’m observant. I know you’re next in line and not Eddie. I can see that Uncle Bruno is tired.” A look of sadness swept over her and it made my heart stop.
“Do you know something that I don’t?” I asked her.
She shook her head frantically. “No, it’s nothing like that. Angel, you can’t tell me you don’t see it either. He seems to want to rest and not worry about the family as much. It’s as if he’s ready to pass on the torch. And I’m not slow to understand that you’re more suited to take over than Eddie.”
I handed her son back to her and turned completely to face her. I asked, “Okay, Tesoro, what does that have to do with me having a girlfriend?”
Georgia smiled. “Come on, every great leader needs that great chick by his side; the woman to balance him. I think you need that.”
I scoffed disgruntledly. “Yeah, well, I have to disagree with you on that.”
I mumbled some shit under my breath about women being more pain in the asses than anything. That made Georgia smile even more.
When I heard her say, “Oh shit,” I looked up, thinking that Lincoln had walked into the door. However, the shit-eating grin on her face told me that it was something more terrifying than that.
She said to me, “You’ve found her already.”
I frowned. “Found who?”
“Your soul mate; you’ve found her, didn’t you?” She then scooted closer to me. “Tell me about her. What’s she like? Is she pretty? Well, hell, of course, she’s pretty, right? I mean, you wouldn’t claim a dog for yourself, now would you? Wait, she’s not slutty, is she?”
I stood and moved from her. “Georgia, you’re fucking nuts, do you know that?”
“Come on, Angel. Spill.”
It was time for me to go. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t ashamed to admit that Georgia was right because she was. I was just pissed that she could tell.
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