by Xyla Turner
The Chase II
Double XX Series
By Xyla Turner
COPYRIGHT
AZINA MEDIA PUBLICATIONS
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This is an original publication of AZINA MEDIA PUBLICATIONS.
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DEDICATION
To the real supporters!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my family, friends, co-workers, supporters, fellow authors and fans!
I love you all and I thank you dearly for your support!
My friend, my savior and my redeemer!
Thank you!
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 1: Xavier
Chapter 2: Xena
Chapter 3: Xavier
Chapter 4: Xena
Chapter 5: Xena
Chapter 6: Xena
Chapter 7: Xena
Chapter 8: Xavier
Chapter 9: Xena
Chapter 10: Xena
Chapter 11: Xavier
Chapter 12: Xena
Chapter 13: Xena
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
XYLA’S OTHER BOOKS
AZINA MEDIA AUTHORS/TITLES
XYLA’S CONTACT INFORMATION
Chapter 1: Xavier
“I’m waiting, Xavier.” Xena stood there in front of me.
Matthew had gone silent, as he’d done enough damage already.
“I swear to God, if you …”she started to say.
“Love.” I took a step towards her. “Okay, here’s the truth.”
She moved away from me and closer towards the door. The look in her eyes said it all. There was panic, hurt, and disappointment in them. She had no idea what kind of monster I could be because I kept that from her. It was all because of her. Never was I like this with any woman. I did not care enough for them and along comes this sassy, force to be reckoned with lady who drives me absolutely crazy and I can't get out of my head.
“Mark Gavin is a private investigator that I hired to find information about you when we first met. The night of the gala is when I hired him.” Her mouth opened and her eyes were filled with disbelief. “He started to take a more detailed interest in you that I thought was unhealthy, so I confronted him about it.”
I looked to Matthew, who eyes were big as saucers. He was not touching this with a ten foot pole.
“He lied to me and said that he was on target, but after visiting his home, he had been keeping tabs on you. There were pictures and shit everywhere you’ve been in the past two weeks. I told him to stop and that his services were no longer needed, but he was keeping stuff from me. This is why I didn’t have some info on you. Like finances, etc. This is stuff I didn’t know. He hadn’t told me on purpose. I assumed he wanted this for his own purposes, so that is what happened. That’s the truth.”
“Xavier, none of this has anything to do with kidnapping.” Her beautiful face was contorted, with her upper lip curved to one side and her brows furrowed with confusion.
“Yes, it does. I asked Gavin to stop, he didn’t, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I would not say I kidnapped him, but I kept him in a secure facility so that he could be persuaded to not continue to pursue you. I won’t take that back,” my voice was now extremely stern, “I would do it again. It was for your own protection.”
“Don’t you dare,” she started making steps towards me. “Don’t you dare try to say this was for my own protection, Xavier. This was you and your controlling ways. You have lost your damn mind!” she screamed. “I can’t…can’t…” she continued to shake her hand at me. “You've crossed the line and you’re going to go to jail. What in the fuck are you thinking?” She shook her head, then screeched, “Kidnapping!”
Shit!
She was losing her shit. I looked to Matt so he could catch her before she ran, but he wouldn't make eye contact.
“Xena, calm down.” My voice softened. “Please, just…”
“Don't you fucking tell me to calm down. You have kidnapped someone. That's a felony, Xavier! You think because you’re rich that you are untouchable? I can assure you that you aren't. Are you fucking crazy? I love you, you stupid bastard and now you’re going to jail.”
What?
Everything stopped. Even my heart or at least it felt like it.
She loved me?
When my heart started beating again, all I saw was her leaving the room and shaking her head, murmuring, “…I can't Xavier. This is too much.”
Xena left.
“Wait, what?” I started moving towards the door.
“Oh, no. Man, let her go. Xena don't need to go to jail because someone called the cops on her for beating your ass in the streets. We don't need that heat, right now. She'll cool off.” Matt blocked me.
“Move,” I growled. “Before I move you.”
“Fuck that, man. I'm already an accessory to this shit. You going have to move me. You’re fucking this up. She madder than a hungry Pitbull. She needs to cool off, because she from Brooklyn and will probably cut your ass. You been pushing her and pushing her. Everybody ain't going keep taking your shit man. And worst of all, you are really fucking a good thing up. Why didn't you tell her?” Matt shook his head, “she going to find out and you’re going to lose her.”
“She won't.”
“Oh yeah, she will. That woman is no dummy. She know you probably ain't telling her everything. Come on, X!”
Fuck.
“She can't know.” I wiped my hand down my face. “I won't lose her.”
Matt shook his head and put his full weight against the door.
“How did we get here?” he asked.
“You know how we got here?” I replied.
“No, man. How the hell did we get here? Fucking kidnapping. Man, this is crazy.”
“This is on me, man. I needed to protect her.”
“But kidnapping?”
“Man, wait until you find the one. I ain't talking about someone you really like, I'm talking about the one you are willing to go to jail for. The one that will have you lay your hands on a man if he dared disrespected her in any way. That one that you'd do anything for. When you find her, then we’ll talk about how we got here.”
He was right, it was crazy, but I'd do that shit again. He was stalking her! The man is lucky the only thing I did was kidnap his ass.
As I walked to my desk, I pulled out my phone and hit a few numbers, calling Dunn.
“Gavin is loose, I want you to find him and bring him to me. Xena has a man on her, so she's covered.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“On it.”
“Keep me posted.” Xavier hung up the phone.
“You put Dunn on it? He's fucking crazier than you.” Matt shook his head. “Listen, I'll keep running XAND when you are in prison. However, I’m not sure Xena will be making congenital visits. I'm just saying, bro. You may want to slow down.”
<
br /> “I'll slow down when I catch him.” Xavier sat down and started to text Xena.
“No, you won't. She's got you all tied up.” Matt said.
“Am I the only one?”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“What I said?”
“What, Xena?” His upper lip curled up.
“Who else could I be talking about?”
“Man, get the fuck outta here. Are you serious? Please don't tell me your paranoia has taken you there. I would never go there.”
I stood up and folded my arms across my chest. “Matt, I know you would never go there, but if you think I don't see how you look at her, you're the crazy one. Not me.”
He was still leaning on the door, but after my words, he straightened and said, “Is she beautiful? Yes. Is she everything any man would want? Yes. If I got to her first, would I have took my chance? Fuck yes.” He started walking towards me. “I like the idea of her, more than her in particular. She's everything, but I want my own everything.”
“I get that.” I laid my pen down on the desk. “There won't ever be another man for her, so I get that.”
“Was that a threat, brother dearest?” Matt joked.
“It was a threat and a promise. Brother.” I sat back down and dialed another number.
“Lee, bring the car around.”
“Where you going?” He asked.
“Take a drive. You want to come?”
“I think I may have to. You are acting reckless right now.”
What else was I supposed to do?
******
We rode around the warehouse where Mark was, then we went to his apartment and his hide out. No sign of him being there. He was not dumb enough to go back to those place, so it was a waste of time until I could calms my nerves and get my shit together before approaching Xena again.
“Fuck man, he’s not going to be here either. Let’s just go home.” Matt suggested.
“It’s still early yet. You got a date or something?”
“Naw, just not in the mood to be out and about lately?”
“What’s up?” I briefly turned towards him. “You’ve been quiet.”
“Not right now, X. Alright, I just need to think. You got your own shit and I got mine.”
“Aight, let’s get takeout from Junior’s.”
“Fine.”
While we were at Junior’s waiting on our takeout food, Matt downed two shots. He normally wasn’t a drinker, especially around me. As a recovering alcoholic, he was always respectful of that. That day, I guess he needed something to take the edge off. When we arrived back to our section of town, I asked, “Hey, don’t really feel like being alone. Eat with me, before Xena gets me locked up for stalker her stalker.”
“Ha. She probably would too. Serves your ass right.” He nodded.
The game was on, but neither of us was watching it The Eagles lose to The Redskins. Yet again. I was deep in thought about how I could get Xena to talk to me and Matt was in his own world, until he asked, “You think he knew we’d turn out like this?”
Fuck.
This was what he was pensive about? Our fucking seed donator.
I was on the long sofa facing the screen, while Matt was on the love seat perpendicular to me. My eyes shifted to him, then I said, “We talking about this?”
“Yeah, man. I’m stuck. X. Like, literally stuck.” His eyebrows were scrunched together. “I’m about to be 40, man. What the fuck have I done?”
“You’ve done a lot of shit. Graduated with your bachelor’s and masters’ degree from Columbia. You’ve helped make XAND everything it is and we have moved beyond that. You have your real estate business and the best of all of those accomplishments is Mara.”
“Yeah, I got that. Mara is the best out of all of those, but X, I got nobody to share any of that shit with. Who do I come home to? Who do I share my day with? Mara is still so young and she’s my daughter, not my friend. You know? I mean, you’re damn near in your mid-forties and you just found a woman that you’re crazy about. And I’m not sure how long you’ll be able to keep her. I ain’t even thought about really settling down because apparently, not only do I have trust issues, but I’ll be trying to strap her down. Has that bastard really screwed us over for life?”
A sharp breath escaped my mouth. This was the last conversation I wanted to have and definitely not in the midst of the bullshit I was in. Matt was always thinking that our upbringing had something to do with how we viewed life.
“Look, the man was a bastard that tortured us. Long term, he taught us that we would have to go after anything we wanted and earn it. We’ve done that. No need in rehashing that shit.” I curtly replied.
“X! He fucking took any and everything away from us that made us happy, because he was a damn drunk. He turned mom into a basket case that needed to be institutionalized and us into controlling freaks of nature and we run everybody away.” He put down his cheesecake and continued, “Don’t make it seem like it was this great life lesson that we had to learn. Our childhood was not normal. He was a drunk.”
“Matt, how many fucking fathers are drunk? Huh? A lot. Okay, so don’t act like this was just us. There is nothing to do about that shit now, so it is what it is. I’ve never said it was normal, but it’s in the past.”
“Is it really, huh? You control everything around you, even your woman. Or you try to control her. You cleared out her apartment and recreated it in your goddamn penthouse. You think that is normal shit? Please, tell me that you do.”
“The fuck?” Slamming my plate down on the table, I turned to him. “What the fuck does any of that have to do with Steve? I’m not a drunk. I haven’t touched anything in twenty-four years, ten months, and ten days.”
“No, but you still have an addictive personality. You’ll always have that. If it’s not your job, it’s your hobbies. If it’s not that, is something else. Now, it’s Xena. You try to control it, so it doesn’t control you. But she does. How many times have you checked in with Jackson to see how she’s doing since she left the office. I bet over ten. She’s in your blood, man. Like an addiction.”
“Again, what does this have to do with anything?”
“Because, are we destined to live like this forever? Will we always be so controlling? So domineering? Things must go our way or we lose our ever loving minds? Are you saying this is life? We are not just simply trying to control everything around us, to make up for the control we lacked as kids?”
“Matt, why do you do this?” I stood up, because this conversation had to be over. “There is nothing wrong with me, okay? I like my fucking life. I’ve made it and yes, I like control, but what man doesn’t. You don’t need a fucked up father to want and like control. There was a reason that I’ve achieved what I have and you too. That’s because we make shit happen and guess what Matt, because we control it. I’m not about to sit and ponder the shit of our past, to justify our futures. That’s not happening tonight. My lady is pissed with me, I got a man on the loose and I just wanted to chill, but if you are going to go down this tonight, do that at your place. I don’t have time for this shit.”
Matt packed up his trash, then stood. “Right, brother. No time for this. What you didn’t mention about your life that you like so much, is why it’s taken you until now to get to a place that you won’t even allow yourself to be happy at. You can’t and won’t, because you’re trying to control the uncontrollable. A damn woman, who is as independent as they come. She built her life, like you. Made her way, like you. Makes shit happen, like you. But you are running her away with your lies and deceit. She’s going to find out and then what. She’s not going to stay. She won’t…”
“What the fuck is it to you about what me and my lady do?” I started to walk towards him. “Why you always worried about Xena. She ain’t shit to you, except a future sister-in-law.”
Matt scoffed. “Yeah, okay.”
“Really, Matt?” I put my hands in my pocket, wit
h my legs shoulder width apart. “What does that mean?”
He said, “It means, good fucking luck. At the rate you are going, you’ll be in somebody’s jail and try to control that. Xena works with at-risk students, she not trying to be hooked up with an at-risk man.”
Slowly, I pulled my hands out of my pocket. Over twenty years ago, those were fighting words but all those years later, they still were. Pulling my right fist back, I swung hard and connected with Matt’s cheek. After the initial shock, he turned around and tackled me on the sofa that I was just stood from. We scuffled around as I tried to get on top of him, but a door slammed, causing us both to stop and turn.
“Sir.” Lee stood in the middle of the room with black pants, white shirt and a black dress jacket concealing his weapon. “I think you need to see this.”
He held up a package as I pushed Matt off of me. Snatching the envelope from Lee, I tore it open to see pictures. Matt was close by me, so he saw them when I did.
“Son of a bitch.” He muttered.
They were pictures of Xena in the same outfit she had on today. There was a pictures of her crying in the car, walking into her old apartment and leaving again in a different outfit. I dumped the pictures on the table and a note dropped out that read: What you don’t take care of, I will.
Fuck!
Chapter 2: Xena
Xavier is full of shit and I knew it. As much as I want to believe the man, I know he’s keeping something from me. I won’t cry anymore, because wheat is the point. I’m not visiting his silly ass in jail. I’ll just need to adopt several cats or something representing an old maid.
Kidnapping.
The man was out of his mind and the crazy part was that I did not even know how to stop him or that I didn’t see the signs before. He’s always been crazy, but I rationalized it as ‘crazy about me’, not crazy, crazy. I could not believe he actually kidnapped somebody. What else has he done? What else has he been keeping from me? I couldn’t even think straight, so I went to work, so I could focus on non-Xavier items.