So, okay, I may have just fudged a little when she mentioned this run and meeting up with her girls. I have a plan, see. I’m going to pick their brains for information on Lenny and then utilize it all to win her over. I’m thinking some alone time may not go amiss here and, while I get that she’s not at ease with leaving the city right now, I’m thinking I’ll have to insist on it…what with everything that’s happened so far.
Look, I’m not saying I’ve gone the insta-love route with her. That would just be ridiculous, considering I met her just yesterday, but I will say that one look, one word from her contradictory mouth, and I felt something that I have never felt before.
I like her so much, in fact, that all I keep thinking of is a nice pussy, childbearing hips, and a mouth that I will master if given the chance. That, in my book, is a good starting point, and fuck it, I just want more with her, okay. No matter how weird it sounds or how scary it seems, even to a man like me.
“Hello, ladies.”
Out the corner of my eye, I see Lenny sneer—and I almost laugh when she snarls—when the short, mocha-skinned hottie named Kelly starts stroking my biceps in a too friendly way.
Oooh, I like that heat I see when they all start babbling at me, and I’m definitely on board with the snarl she lets free when I pretend to ignore her and soak up the lady love.
“And who might you be, handsome?”
I think this one is Farrah, though I can’t be completely certain.
“Hands off, you desperate hobags! That’s Storm. He's my personal bodyguard for the meantime, until they catch the psycho that attacked me at the hospital. Hello? Has anyone even noticed my face? My arm? Goddammit, Storm, step away from the hoard.”
I want to bust a gut when she leaps up and body blocks her gal pals, threatening to pick them bald if they so much as touch my manly physique.
Yep, I think I’m liking this possessive side of Lenny.
“Back off, you animals. I will eat the last candy bar!”
That seems to snap them out of it, and I see the moment they take in her face and the cast on her wrist, their cries of distress making Lenny preen in a way that shouts, “I win!”
“Oh my gawd, girl. What the fuck knuckle-happened to your face?”
“Who was it? Give me two minutes with that slime and I’ll …”
“Sonofawhoretoad, I will kill a bitch.”
I don’t hear the other one’s comment over the din, but I do take an inordinate amount of pride in the way Lenny calms them down, shoots me an “I told ya so look,” and then starts embellishing her ordeal like only a woman can.
“I hope Nick kicks his ass and saves us the scraps. I’m black; my mama taught me how to scratch a bitch without ruining my manicure.”
“Girl, please,” Tina huffs, sucking at her teeth. “My mama showed me how to strip a scalp in under a minute.”
The other two make threats that show them as white girls with no training whatsoever, and I see Lenny’s shoulders shake as she stifles a giggle.
“Calm down. Storm here’s already on the job.”
“Oooolala. Tell me all about the job. Is it big?”
“Tongue?”
“Bal—”
“Oh, hush already, you pigs. The man is standing right here,” she hisses, her cheeks going pink enough that I can feel her blush where I’m towering behind her.
“Oh, don’t stop on my behalf, ladies. I’d dearly love to hear what Coleman has to say about my man parts, since she spent half the night grinding away on top of me,” I grin.
“Bastard,” she hisses beneath her breath before they all fall onto the grass and start doing “yoga,” which is actually some half-hearted stretches and more talk than anything
I’m flattered by their sex talk and some of the outrageous suggestions they have—I like her blushes, goddamn me, I do—but I tune them out after a minute and go back to my job, giving Jericho and Blaze a chin nod from their position in the trees.
You thought I’d take the future mother of my offspring out to the park where any asshole could take a shot at her without a plan? Not in this lifetime. She has to be alive to give me what I want after all and, seeing as that entails say, oh, about fifty years of sex and shared loving, I’m on point and ready for the fucker to come my way.
My phone beeps just as they start talking lube, and I answer with a chuckle.
“Please, Jesus, tell me the blonde with the dirty mouth is single,” Jericho growls, making me wheeze out a chuckle.
“Huh, can’t answer that, bro. What’s up?”
“Lex spotted a black sedan four cars behind y’all earlier. It broke away just before you hit the entrance to the park though, so he followed.”
“Good. I want everything by the time I get back to the house. Anything on the douchebag yet?”
He grunts, and I can just about hear his molars crack.
“Do not like that fucker at all. He’s with some rich chick with a daddy who likes to spoil her. Far as I can tell, he’s living the high life while enjoying a side dish or two. Dudes into those ménage things that are so popular nowadays. What the hell is up with that shit anyhow, bro? Isn’t one good pussy enough, you gotta go for another, or in his case, another cock?”
My chuckle is raspy and filled with violence, as I look down at a chortling, blushing Lenny and see all that dark-haired perfection.
“Beats me, man. I look at her and I can’t fathom needing more, ya know.”
“I gotcha. She’s a freaking peach, that one. If you hadn’t already stamped your claim there, I’d give you a freaking run for your money, asshole.”
“Try and you’ll wake up without arms, loser,” I snarl, sending him a glare and a show of teeth.
“Cool it. I’m messing with you, bro. Tell Lenny I’m planning a barbecue for when this is over and I’ll want you both there.”
Not likely, seeing as I intend to take her on her dream vacay the minute I kill the pig who put his hands on her.
“We’ll see. For now, I want you and Lex on that other thing while Blaze keeps eyes on the house at night.”
“Ten four, partner.”
I end the call and flip him the bird for good measure, while the girls keep pretending to work out and sneak bites of candy bars that are slabs more than bars, my eyes scanning the park every few seconds.
I should probably pretend to blend in or some shit, but I want this asshole to know that I’m here for one reason only. To keep her safe and kill his ass. Let him make of that what he will, because it won’t change a damn thing about what I intend to do.
“Okay. We’re done,” Lenny says after another twenty minutes of whispering and salacious looks and cackles.
“You sure?”
I hesitate to ask, seeing as the hoard seems intent on pawing me to death, but I do it to give Blaze and Jericho time to move out in front of us before I pull her back onto the street.
“Yep. Come on now, before they rape you or something, Storm. Girls!”
“Aw, come on.”
“He’s big enough to share.”
“Greedy.”
“You are just plain selfish, Lenny.”
I pull her away and back into a slow jog, laughing my ass off when she flips them the bird and turns to glare at me.
“You are such a pig.”
“Me? What the heck did I do, sugar?”
Do not laugh, Storm. She’ll attack you and gut you like a fish. Which would be possible, because I go boneless when I outright laugh, one reason we never cracked too many jokes in the field.
“You flirted and made them go all goo-goo eyed on your buff ass. Thanks a lot,” she huffs, her anger giving her jog a bounce that I can get down with.
Especially if her boobs keep jiggling so saucily.
“Hey, all I did was say hi.”
Her grunt makes me smile, and I chuckle at her scream of indignation when all attempts to outrun me fail. Spectacularly.
“I hate you, Storm. Do you drink battery acid
for breakfast or something? Seriously, how can you not be winded at all?”
“I ran through the scorching hot desert with a two-hundred-pound pack on my back for over a decade, sugar. This is child’s play.”
“Asshole.”
“Now that is just plain ornery and mean. I’ll remember to let you drink coffee in the mornings, if this is what you turn into without caffeine,” I crow.
It tickles when she lands a fist in my gut and keeps running, her ass doing fabulous things for her white shorts.
“I didn’t drink any coffee because you were being a dick.”
“Okay. And now you’re being one,” I point out, scanning the area just as Jericho yells into my earpiece.
I don’t think twice, just react as I tackle Lenny onto the grass and cover her with my body. Her scream of fright echoes in my ears, followed by three swift gunshots that land close enough to send shards of concrete flying into my hair.
“Up! Go, go, go!” Jericho snarls, grabbing me up along with Lenny who I’ve curled into my chest like a compact duffle, her little knees poking into me as I fling us headfirst into Lex’s car and he peels away.
The aftermath is silent, filled with her panting breaths, and then we’re moving so fast I feel my head swim before I rear up and off her, keeping her pinned with a hand over her ample breasts.
“Sorry, LT. That was fucking close.”
“Goddammit! Too fucking close, Lex. What the hell happened?”
“The first car must have been a decoy, Storm. I followed till I realized they were screwing with me, and then I put my foot down in your direction when it became clear that you were targeted. I gotta tell ya, boss, this shit ain’t good, not good at all. Miss Coleman should be hidden until that broad wakes up or she can remember the man who attacked her.”
I agree fully, and I will not countenance another refusal from her at this point as I look down into her frightened eyes and see a small nick in her cheek where the concrete must have got to her.
“No more arguments, woman! We’re getting the hell outta here, before you and I end up on a slab in the morgue.”
“O-okay.”
Chapter Eight
Lenny
I feel like hell as we speed down the highway, after Lex takes enough turns to make my stomach protest the constant circles. We haven’t even gone back to my place for clothes and, by the time I realize we left Chaser behind and start getting hysterical, Storm grates at me and informs me that Chaser is safe with his men and that I didn’t have anything of worth back at my shithole anyway.
That pisses me the hell off, seeing as all I own is in that “shithole,” but I choose not to slap him silly and start arguing when he turns furious eyes on me and almost melts me to the spot.
Okay, so maybe he was right and I was wrong about the whole “people want to kill me scenario,” and maybe I should have listened and not insisted on this morning’s run. And okay, maybe I should have told him that my mom and Pete are stinking rich and could easily protect me from this threat, but the truth is that…
Well, I hate being wrong, okay? And crawling back to Mama and Pete after they finally gave up trying to help me with money would be like admitting that I’ve wasted eight good years of my life because I fell for a man Pete hated on sight.
The whole “let’s not tell Lenny what to do” thing has always been a problem for me, one I may just be cured of since I almost died not an hour ago.
“Storm?”
“Not now!”
“But—”
“Goddammit, Coleman. I said not fucking now.”
“I need to pee and you’re pushing on my bladder!” I yell back when he just keeps glaring at the windshield.
He lets go immediately, and I scramble up with a curse, shoving his paw away to glare at both men, one of whom seems to find this situation hilarious.
“We’re not stopping for potty breaks.”
“Fine, then. I hope your friend doesn’t mind his car smelling like piss because I’m about to let go and let God,” I mutter mulishly, even though I don’t need to pee that badly. “Oh and incidentally, the ee may turn into an oo if we don’t stop soon,” I coo sweetly, biting my lip when Lex’s eyes stretch and I see him swallow.
“Do not pull over, Lex.”
“But—”
“She’s talking out her ass, bro,” he grates, glaring again.
Asshole.
“Fine, but if you don’t listen to me that statement may be truer than you think. I’m a doctor. I never hold a number two since it’s not healthy.”
“Lady, I just saw you eat your weight in chocolate after you ran two miles. Spin me another one, why don’t ya?”
The Lex guy seems unsure of whether to laugh or swallow as I meet his eyes and smile, letting off a fart for good measure.
I have no pride left right now, but there’s still that tiny scrap inside me that refuses to cry in front of anyone. And right now, I’m holding back the Hoover Dam.
Lex seems to pale and bites his lips, as Storm curses and throws a dark glare at me, his brown eyes blazing with rage.
“Pull over at the next rest stop.”
I blush a little when Lex starts muttering beneath his breath about my diet, and I vaguely hear Storm mutter about it being me and not the fucking dog. Whatever. Ten minutes later, I’m running for the bathroom and make it just in time to puke into the toilet bowl as tears start pouring down my cheeks.
I’ve never been a particularly pretty crier, and normally I could rival cats with my volume, but right now all I can do is retch and shake quietly as it all hits me.
This is what my life has become. I’m broke, living like a slightly less fortunate hobo, alone, and in danger of losing my life before I pay off bills my ex accrued while screwing other people—emphasis on the people.
This is all I’ve managed to accomplish in the last eight years while every other whoreson from my class has gone on to marriage, babies, and careers that earn them the big bucks and enough bling to match the Hiltons.
And here I am, hunched over a disgustingly gross toilet, my shorts the product of a Goodwill box someone left outside my door, and I have nothing. I could die tomorrow an almost reborn virgin, thanks to the lack of play I’ve had.
I have no cute little house out in the country, no patients who call me by name unless they’re so terminally ill I can’t help but see them regularly, and I have no family of my own!
I suck. I suck so bad that all I have to look forward to when I finally stop bawling like an asshole is an angry ex-Army dude with enough muscle to make me swoon, and possibly weeks away from my dog.
You’re so pathetic, Lenny. Damn, girl, is that it? I thought you were cryin’ for an actual reason, ho. Stop that nonsense and get up. You didn’t cry when that ass Terry tried to introduce you to his sex partners, and you didn’t cry when you saw the credit card bills.
That iiiiiis true. I was more like ’roid raging by the time I got through reading the five-page report on my own blindness. But that was just … that was …
Me being pissed about failure instead of sad about my loss, I realize, as it hits me that I lost nothing at all, really, but my pride. I can’t backtrack here and say I never loved Terry; that would just be me trying to make myself feel better. What I can say now, in all honesty, is that I stopped loving him a while before that fiasco.
Dang it. What a time to have an epiphany, you dweeb, I think as I look down at the poo bowl I just had my head in and spy what seems to be a blood smear on the lip of the seat.
Eeewwwah!
“Coleman?”
“What?”
“You done crying now, sugar?” Storm asks quietly from the other side of the door, making me sag in dismay and acceptance.
Great. Just what I need right now.
“I’m not crying, you meathead. I was puking, big diffs. Go away. I’ll be out in a minute,” I mutter, wiping my mouth and flushing before opening the door and walking straight into his hard che
st.
“Dang it, Storm. I said just give me a freaking minute.”
His fingers come up to pinch my chin, and I can’t avoid his eyes as he looks down at me with regret and some emotion I can’t quite define.
“I didn’t mean to yell at you. I was angry at myself for getting distracted enough to miss the car pulling up.”
I can’t hold a grudge, not when he looks so damned guilty about my breakdown, and I scrunch my nose with a sigh.
“I wasn’t crying because you’re a meanie, Storm, honest. So you can stop looking so guilty,” I mutter, pulling away to rinse my mouth and splash water on my red face.
Great. I look worse than I feel. How could I not see that gem coming, I wonder, as I take in the Rudolph nose and drinker’s red eyes in a glance. All I need to make this a Halloween costume is a hobo hat and a paper-covered half-jack of cheap gin.
“Coleman, talk to me, sugar,” he says softly, coming up behind me, caging me in with his hands resting at my hips.
“I don’t want to die and have what I’ve accomplished be all I’ve accomplished,” I mutter, looking down at the scrunched paper towel in my hand. “I’ve spent four years paying off debt that wasn’t mine because I felt so freaking stupid for how it happened that I refused to ask my Mama and Pete for help. It was like I was punishing myself the whole time, reminding myself why I couldn’t ever trust someone again.”
Admitting that is like removing a ton’s worth of weight from my shoulders, and I sigh when he pulls me into his chest and turns me into a hug.
“Want me to beat that fucker up?”
My puff of breath is more amusement than annoyance that he probably already knows all about the Terry debacle.
“Ask me tomorrow when I’m feeling sane, Storm.”
“You bet, baby. Now, come on, and let’s roll. I think the car has aired out plenty enough that Lex’ll get back in. We have time to make up if we wanna make my house before dark.”
I snort at his ribbing and let him pull me out of the bathroom. I don’t know what the heck I’m supposed to do with Nicholas Storm, but one thing I do know is that I’m not about to let another opportunity pass me by because of fear. Not again.
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