Desired Too

by Lessly, S. K.

  Angel came back to where we were and looked around at the damage I caused.

  He smirked at me. “Making a mess, I see. Was he too much for you?”

  I frowned. “Fuck you.”

  Angel laughed, grabbed this fucker by his hair and yanked back. “Are you ready to cooperate and tell me what I want to know, or do we have to get creative?”

  We didn’t get an answer so… Yeah, we got creative. I didn’t do too much damage, though. After all, we were in an apartment with neighbors that could call the cops. Instead, I just hit a few pressure points on his body that caused him a large amount of excruciating pain. He saw the error of his ways and spilled the beans.

  We left and went to our hotel, checked in, ate, then came back. When we pulled up to Raquel’s apartment, I saw a beautiful black woman walk out, with the very forthcoming dead man holding the door. I had never really been attracted to a black woman before, so I never looked at one. I mean, truly looked at one. I’d seen a few that were drop dead gorgeous on television, but I rarely saw one on the street or at a club that had me a little worked up. That was, of course, before I saw Georgia. However, I had to say this woman was fucking fine as shit.

  I tapped Angel. “Can we get this shit over with?” I pointed to the woman that was now talking to the dead man walking. “I just found the woman I’m making mine for the next few days.”

  Now I’d seen my cousin get pissed; hell, even murderous. But this look on his face was something I’d never seen in my life. No, wait, I take that back. I had seen that look, but it was usually looking back at me through a mirror.

  I studied Angel and watched him tense up, his jaw grew tight, and his gray eyes darkened. It was then that that I realized that the sexy as shit black woman was Raquel. I had never seen a picture of her. All Angel would say was that she was beautiful and sexy as shit. She was the one that Angel told me had gotten away.

  I never expected her to be black. I wasn’t a racist, and I knew Angel didn’t care about the race of a woman. Shit, neither did I. But that didn’t stop me from expecting Raquel to have long, blonde colored hair, and a creamy, bronze complexion, along with a huge set of tits and a nice size ass.

  The woman across the street had raven colored hair that reached her shoulders. She definitely had a creamy, almost silk-like complexion, but it was darker than bronze. And, as I said before, she was dick-hard fantastic to look at. What stumped me though was the lack of tits. Angel was an ass and tits man. But I’d seen him sacrifice a chick not having an ass, but had the big breasts, for a good blowjob because his biggest turn on was the double trouble. He always managed to find the one woman with the biggest tits. The woman before me; well, let’s just say that if she didn’t wear a bra, it wouldn’t be a travesty. He clearly didn’t care, and I knew, at that point, that she meant more to him than he admitted.

  We sat in the car quietly as rage manifested itself in my cousin while he watched “his woman” walk away from her apartment hand-in-hand with “dead man walking.”

  Right before Raquel disappeared from view, I noticed Angel reaching for the car door.

  “Oh, fuck no,” I said and turned quickly into traffic.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” he said to me, but I didn’t answer him until we were far away from the couple.

  I looked over at him. “Whatever you’re contemplating in your head is not a good idea.”

  He frowned. “Oh, so you’re a psychic now? You know what I’m thinking?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, and all I can see in your future is blood running down the streets of San Fran. That’s not happening.”

  “I wasn’t going to spill any blood.”

  I shook my head. “No, I wasn’t speaking about you. That woman right there has some fire in her. Damn, I could feel that shit from across the street. She’s feisty and could probably give you a run for your money. Don’t forget you told me all about her. Now that I’ve seen her with my own two eyes… Yeah, bro, I just saved you from getting annihilated on the streets of San Francisco.”

  Angel didn’t reply. He just stared out of the window at the passing scenery, but I knew that this business with Raquel wasn’t over. We were going to be in that city for four days, so I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away while we were there.

  During our stay, we made a few visits to the apartment. We even followed her around a bit, but I never let Angel out of my sight. Why you ask? Well, let’s just say he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Watching the woman, which he had deemed to be his, parade around the city with another man, made my cousin worse than me. He went crazy!

  He was mean, evil and didn’t give a shit about anyone around him. The meetings that I dreaded and thought were going to be meaningless banter back and forth was anything but. No, they were quick and to the point. Angel didn’t waste time being civil. He was threatening and hell, I loved it. I hated trying to be politically correct while telling someone if they crossed us, they’d be sorry. “Just be blunt” was always my motto, and Angel was so much more than that. He told them, “Fuck with me and I’ll kill you.” Just like that. There were no pleasantries, no sitting down and negotiating, nothing but the blunt threat of death. Some didn’t like it. Some actually wanted to test whether Angel was true to his word.

  We didn’t have a problem leaving the city of San Francisco with bodies under our belts. That was the course of doing business. What I wouldn’t allow to happen was Angel getting to the one person that he actually couldn’t kill. She had moved on. She had found someone and hell, if Angel wasn’t going to change his life of crime to being wholesomely legal and legit, then he needed to let her go.

  I think by the end of our trip, he understood that walking away was the right thing to do for her. It took a long ass time for me to convince him, but he knew he had to let her go. I did take it upon myself to keep tabs on Raquel throughout the years. I did my best to keep her out of trouble. Through my involvement with her safety, along with the threat of a brutal death from Angel to the prominent families within San Francisco and surrounding areas, she stayed safe. She did of course manage to get herself into some shit from time to time, despite my unknown help, but all in all, no one messed with her.

  I hired some muscle to keep an eye on her, or I would do it personally. Some people tried to test our reach and disobey the order, but they were dealt with swiftly. Angel gave Raquel the family’s protection. If anyone messed with her or harmed her in any way, they would pay severely, and trust me they did.

  When Angel had business in California, I would take him to watch her from a distance. I was sure he knew I was looking out for her. It was a given because I knew how much he cared for her.

  Since the moment I’d entered this family, I knew the one person that would have my back in anything was Angel. In turn, I made sure he understood that I would always have his. It was the reason why I kept my eyes on Raquel then, and it was the reason why, for two weeks now, I had been watching her.

  When Georgia met Raquel, I had the displeasure of listening to my wife tell me all about Angel’s new woman. She went on and on from the moment I picked her up from Sunday dinner, at my Uncle’s house, until we got home. I only lived about twenty minutes from my uncle, but I swear the ride felt like a lifetime.

  Georgia went on and on, telling me how Angel was a closet chocolate lover. I wanted to throw up. Apparently, according to Georgia, this woman was Angel’s match in every way. She said this woman was smart, bossy, sassy, classy not trashy, which was Angel’s typical, and hot. Now, if my wife says a woman was hot that meant she was smoking hot. She also told me how everyone’s mouth was on the floor, and it wasn’t because she was black. They were shocked as shit that Angel couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He kept touching her, kissing her, and catering to her, not caring at all who was around. Angel never behaved that way with any woman he brought around the family. He also never brought a woman to dinner at his parent’s house. He didn’t care about bringing a date to dinner at a restau
rant, but a woman had to mean something to him in order for him to take her to his parent’s home.

  As soon as she told me how Angel was acting, before she even told me her name, I knew it had to be Raquel. My cousin was gone over this woman. I knew if he ever got a second chance to have her, he wouldn’t waste time claiming her.

  I understood why he didn’t pursue her a few years ago, before she moved to California. She was young, naïve and Angel was just getting into his role in the family. Plus, his mentality back then was something she wouldn’t have been able to deal with. When I encouraged him to let her be and he listened, I knew then that he still wasn’t ready and neither was she.

  Now things had changed. Angel was still off his rocker, but he’d learned to control his destructive urges. As far as Raquel was concerned, I had learned a lot about her over the years by watching her. She had definitely grown up in the time she was away, which was a good thing. She didn’t know it at the time, and I bet she didn’t know it now, but the direction she’d taken in her life had prepared her for this moment, it prepared her for Angel.

  Raquel wasn’t squeaky clean. As I mentioned before, she did get herself into some trouble that I secretly had to make go away. I had hoped she had learned from her mistakes, but as her biggest mistake presently sat in front of her, I guessed that wasn’t the case. She’d learned the hard way that she wasn’t able to do everything on her own. She fucked herself though when she decided to put her trust in the wrong person. And, even though I did what I could to help her, as it seemed, she’d fucked herself again.

  Once I found out Raquel was in town, I picked up my role as her watcher, despite the shit that went down between Angel and me. I was pissed as shit with him, but I would not knowingly let anyone or anything hurt him. Once I found out her past had resurrected itself, I knew I needed to step in. If I didn’t, this fuck up could potentially be an issue for my cousin and a possible bloodbath would ensue. So, I decided to do what was expected of me, and that was to make sure Raquel was safe. What bothered me was the fact that I was alone.

  I mentioned a while back that my cousin had employed some fucking idiots. Sometimes the tactics they used or the course of actions they took made me question how Angel had stayed alive this long. When I first started with the family, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t do everything that was necessary to ensure the safety of their boss, and I still couldn’t. If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to step in as easy as I did and take over. I also wouldn’t be sitting in Denny’s, on the west side of the city, making sure that the most important person in my cousin’s life stayed alive.

  What I needed to find out was why I was the only one actually watching her. To be honest, I shouldn’t be doing this. Darrell or Hugo should, especially if they did their due diligence and learned about Raquel’s past. But as with many things, they hadn’t done their job. They needed to know what was coming and, as usual, I would be the one to prepare them.

  The night before, I had driven to a building a few blocks from the Drexel University’s campus. I parked across the street from the building, then checked my watch. It was almost one in the morning. I knew he would be making his way home right about then. As much as I told them not to be predictable, seeing him stumble into his apartment with his flavor of the night proved they hadn’t listened.

  Well, maybe he will after tonight.

  I waited for another thirty minutes, which was probably too generous, then exited my car. I walked purposefully to the building, taking from my pockets the items I needed to open the locked front door. Once I entered the building, I called the elevator and rode it up to the ninth floor.

  I stood still after I exited the elevator and listened to my surroundings. Since it was thirty minutes past one, I expected a few people to still be awake, but all was quiet as I moved to the apartment I needed. I don’t know if luck was on my side and this son of a bitch needed his ass kicked, but just as I got to his door, it opened.

  “You promised I could stay this time.” said a whiny voice that I somewhat recognized.

  “I know, baby, but I have to get up early tomorrow. I have shit to do, so I need to get some sleep.”

  Just as the back of the chick’s head came into view, and my brain registered who she was, I pushed her back into the apartment. She collided with the apartment floor just as I pulled my Glock and closed the door behind me. Hugo quickly went for his gun that was behind his back, but he wasn’t quick enough.

  “What the fuck…” spilled out of Hugo’s mouth while at the same time I heard the woman on the floor say. “Lincoln? Oh my God! Please don’t…”

  “Shut the fuck up!” I barked without taking my eyes off of Thing 2.

  “Two fingers…Slowly…” I told him and waited. First, he hesitated, before he slowly brought his 9mm from the back of his pants.

  “Slowly lay it on the ground in front of you then kick it away from you. Next, raise your pants up past your ankles. Do it slowly. You know I don’t have a problem with dropping you.”

  Hugo hesitated again before he did exactly what I asked. His ankle holster was empty.

  “Good. Now step back slowly and move over to that puttana on the floor.”

  Eleanor made a face, but she didn’t say a word. Hugo moved and stood still as he could. He frowned at me as if he was going to do something about his predicament, but I knew he wouldn’t. He may have been stupid, but he wasn’t suicidal. In fact, I decided to help him come to the right decision by saying, “Please don’t think I won’t blow your fucking head off. Don’t forget who the fuck I am. I will bury you without a second thought.”

  He didn’t reply, but I could see some of the tension ease in him.

  I waited for a beat just to let him complete the battle he was having within. Then I asked, “What the fuck did I tell you and Thing 1?”

  Hugo stayed quiet.

  I moved quickly to him with the gun still pointing in his face. When I got within arm’s reach, I quickly brought the gun down to my side and collided my left fist with his face. I hit him twice in the nose, and just as he was about to fall back, I grabbed him by his shirt, brought my gun back out and put it under his chin.

  “Did you hear what the fuck I just said?”

  “I heard you,” he replied, breathing through his mouth.

  “Oh, so you’re ignoring me then?”

  I kneed him in his stomach, hit him in his face a few times with the butt of my gun and as he kneeled in front of me, I pulled out the silencer from my pocket. I screwed it on quickly and brought it down to his face. Eleanor started screaming, but quickly brought her hands to her mouth. She knew the severity of the situation and was smart enough to shut the fuck up.

  Hugo, being the somewhat smart person that he was, also knew the severity of the situation. His eyes grew wide and he raised his hand as if that was going to stop the bullet.

  “Wait, wait, Lincoln, I wasn’t ignoring you, okay? I just had to remember what you told us, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, and did you figure that shit out?” I asked him.

  He nodded quickly, then said, “You told us to call you if any shit went down with Angel.”

  “That’s right. So please tell me why my phone has been silent for the last few months?”

  Hugo looked to Eleanor as if she had answers before he moved his eyes back to me. “Sir, there hasn’t been any trouble. I mean, there’s something going on with Eddie, but nothing we can say or prove. Darrell is looking into it. I’m sure…”

  Pissed, I stomped down on his knee, and he yelped, “Arrrrrgh!”

  “I don’t give a fuck about that simple motherfucker. I want to know why you haven’t called me about the chick he practically moved into his apartment.”

  Hugo looked confused for a split second before his eyes grew again. “Do you mean Ms. Waters?”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? Who else would I be talking about? Did he move another woman in with him?”

  “No, you’re right
. Sorry. I just mean… I don’t know why we would tell you about her… She isn’t bringing the boss drama or dangerous drama.”

  I looked at Eleanor and saw she had stopped being afraid and started paying a lot of attention to our conversation.

  I moved to her and pulled her up by her hair. “Get your shit and get the fuck out.”

  I pushed her to the front door. I looked over at Hugo and motioned him to escort her out of his apartment. He slowly got up from the floor and gingerly walked a very angry Eleanor to his front door. She looked at him as if it would be the last time, then threw a hateful glance my way before she left.

  Hugo turned back to me after closing the door, blood dripping from his nose and the gash on his forehead.

  “Back up from the door and place your hands on your head. Don’t fucking move.”

  He did as I asked, and I went to his kitchen that was next to the door of his apartment. I was going to tell him to get his own towel and clean himself up, but I knew he would have a weapon in the drawer somewhere, and I would hate to have to kill his ass.

  I grabbed a towel and threw it at him. He started wiping his face, beginning with his forehead, then he brought the towel to his nose.

  “So, let me get this straight; you let this woman, who has been out of the city and away from Angel for years, come back in his life without looking into her?”

  Hugo didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to. These fucking imbeciles couldn’t think entirely on their own even if you paid them. And shit Angel was.

  Hugo finally said, “Sir, we did look into her.”

  My eyebrows rose. “Really, and what did you guys find out?”

  He paused again and just stared at me.

  I sighed deeply, unscrewed the silencer and put my gun away. I folded my arms and he relaxed.

  He sniffed and continued to hold the towel to his nose. “Darrell gave Stinky the job to look into everything. He was supposed to look into her financials, criminal background, who she was dating, their background; the works.”