by Kiki Leach
As I stepped through the living room, I heard someone laughing from the kitchen and when I walked inside, I found Jolene sitting at the kitchen table with a giant smile on her face and the phone tightly held inside her hand and placed up to her ear. Her face was so red as if she had been blushing or flushed for more than even just a few minutes, her legs were tightly crossed and wound around each other as if whatever the person was saying to her on the other end had gotten to more than just her heart or mind, and her giggles were so loud and piercing that I sort of feared she was going to wake the dead.
"Well alright," she said. "You take care and I'll see you then. Bye." Once she clicked the off button on her phone, she placed it down on the table and outstretched her arms and legs, which told me she had been sitting in that same position for quite a while.
"You're in a lot better mood than you were this morning at the club," I told her.
"I'm always in a better mood when I'm away from that place." She swung her jet black hair from side to side and leaned back in her chair. "But I'll say that it often helps when there's someone on the end of that equation to help move that 'better' in your mood along." She winked.
"Who was that you were talking to on the phone?" I asked her.
"A man."
"I gathered that much. Who was it?"
She leaned forward and grinned. "Just someone I met at the grocery store when Styx stopped me by there on the way home this afternoon. He works at one of the banks downtown as a teller."
"So you met a man with a legitimate job who can actually make you laugh like that before you've even gone out on your first date with him?" I sighed. "Must be nice." I dumped my purse onto the table and sat down. "Is Avery asleep?" I asked.
She nodded. "Out like a light before we even picked her up."
"Where's Madison?"
"She'll be over at Lily's for the rest of the day and into the night. So with all of us out of the house and your little girl spending time with Alisha, I guess it'll just be you and my son here tonight." She grinned. "Alone."
"More like, me, myself and I," I told her. I fell back against the chair and folded my arms.
She glowered. "What do you mean?"
"River didn't want to tell you this because of the past incident involving Madison, but, the man who left me for dead outside the club eight years ago? It was Ricky Fontaine."
"Oh my God," she snapped. "How the hell did you ever get mixed up with a man like him, Mia?"
"It's a long, long story that I don't really want to get into right now."
"Does River know everything about it?" she asked me. I nodded. "Why the hell won't he be here with you tonight?"
"Because Ricky somehow managed to break out of prison, and Wolf wants River and Blue to head back out to Tampa to see how the hell it happened."
"Back," she started. "So that's why they were out there this morning; that 'club business' River said he needed to take care of was about Ricky."
"Yes. I'm sorry... I'm sorry, he didn't want you to know. He didn't want Madison to know -- he still doesn't want her to know that this has all been about him."
"She won't," she replied. "You can trust me on that, honey; I'll do everything I can to help and protect my baby girl, and yours." She dipped her head a little and arched her brows. "Is Avery his?"
I sank down even further in my chair and sniffed. "Yeah. She's the reason he's coming after me. Part of it."
"So you weren't just 'some woman' in need of help from my son. This shit is personal for both you and River in more ways than one." She cut her eyes to the corner and I got the feeling that she wanted to say something else, but instead, she asked another question. "Who is he having to watch you tonight?"
"Slim. Trucker's going to keep an eye out at Meghan's."
"We might wanna have him send somebody to LuAnn's to look out for the girls too, just in case." She reached for her phone and began dialing while I pulled together every piece of strength I had and began praying.
Chapter Twenty-Five
"Alright, yeah." With the phone pressed firmly to his ear, River looked over at Blue and shook his head. Blue dragged a freshly lit cigarette up between his lips and fell back in his seat, chuckling. "Yeah, I'll send one of those other motherfuckers over to LuAnn's to look after the girls. Look, do me a favor and put Mia on the phone.... I'm not pissed at her for sayin’ shit to you about Ricky bein’ the motherfucker, I just need to talk to her about some shit." As he heard the phone shuffle from his mother's hand over to Mia's, River straightened in his seat and cleared his throat. "Hey."
"Hi." He damn near lost his shit at the soft sound of her voice. "What's going on?" she asked him.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm not sure when we'll be back tonight, but Slim'll be out there before the sun goes down, so by the time my mother heads out on this goddamn date with this random motherfucker she met today" --he stopped to roll his eyes as Mia giggled-- "and Avery's off to spend time with Alisha at Meghan's, you won't be there all alone."
"Okay. Thank you," she said. There was a long pause before she spoke again. "You know, I feel like you're going so far out of your way to do all of this for me, and... I don't know, I've yet to give you something in return for it."
River adjusted himself in his seat again and groaned internally. "It's not just about you, doll. Like Wolf said this mornin', this shit involves the club now too. And if you hadn't have come back when you did, I'm sure that asshole Fontaine would've somehow managed to become a thorn in all our goddamn sides all over again, regardless. So outside of what you already promised that day you walked back into my club, you don't really owe me shit."
Blue turned his head toward his best friend and made a face of complete disbelief. Sure Mia didn't exactly 'owe' him shit, but that sure as fuck didn't stop him from wanting to be owed.
River felt Blue damn near burning a hole into the side of his fucking face from staring so goddamn hard, but he ignored him and kept his eyes straight ahead on the road this time.
"Look, I'll see you tonight," River told her. "Call me up when Slim finally shows up there, yeah?"
“Okay, yeah.”
“Alright, doll. I’ll see ya.”
After hanging up, River clicked off the phone and tossed it into his center console. He put his other hand up on the wheel and returned his eyes to the road. Blue ripped his cigarette from between his lips and passed it over.
River shook his head. "Nah."
Blue lifted his brows, then took another long drag of it. "So what's that shit you said about her not owin' you for all the shit we're goin' through to keep her and her kid safe?"
"You heard Wolf, motherfucker. Shit's about more than just her and Avery."
"Yeah, maybe for him 'cause he needs this shit, but it ain't for you, asshole. Not like it was before," he said. "Sure as fuck not anymore, 'least like you was once claimin' it was."
"Still is, asshole."
"Yeah, motherfucker, alright, sure. Maybe if you just keep tellin' yourself that kinda shit, you'll actually start to fuckin’ believe it."
Neither one of them said another word to each other again until they reached Tampa and the prison.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Being alone inside River's house for the first time ever was almost like having that same feeling you get when you're sitting in a giant movie theatre all alone. As nice as it is to not have to deal with other people crowding or crawling all over you to get from one seat to another, or dropping popcorn into your lap as they pass it off to the person behind them, there's also something eerily strange and unsatisfying about it. It's that wanting to be alone but not exactly wanting to feel lonely kind of thing. I was somewhere stuck between the middle of being both.
I had dropped Avery off at Meghan's about an hour before with Slim at my side and spent the rest of the time trying to help Jolene find a dress to wear for her date that didn't show off London or France each time she bent over (though she was looking forward to her date
discovering both). It was a difficult feat at first but just before he showed up, we managed to find something in the back of her closet that struck gold. So much so that he promised before leaving to have her home in time for breakfast, something of which Jolene asked me not to mention to her son.
After strolling through just about every room in the house more than a few times and discovering that nothing worth viewing was on television, I decided to take a bath, with the only one of use being in Madison's bedroom since River only had a shower, and maybe even read a book while trying to drown out thoughts of Ricky and the possibility of him already being in town; and as River had mentioned earlier, hiding somewhere in plain sight. Maybe even with his 'sister from another mister' helping him out despite the constant denials. It was hard as hell to believe that Courtney was even related to Ricky, but then again, I shouldn't have been all that surprised about it. I remembered him telling me once that his parent's had more than a few other children from outside of their marriage to each other, but he never mentioned being close to any of those siblings. And after meeting the both of them so far at different times in my life, I could only imagine why none of the rest of them wanted anything to do with each other.
Once I undressed and threw on a robe, I sat at the edge of the tub, turned on the hot and cold water and waited for it to fill up to the rim. And as soon as I started feeling comfortable for the first time that night in actually being alone, that's when the doorbell rang; it was surprising because Slim had mentioned earlier that afternoon that if he needed to come inside the house for any reason that wasn't an emergency, he would call me first to keep from startling me. I got up from the tub and went over to the counter on the other side of the bathroom to check the cell phone River had given me a few weeks before in case of emergencies, to see if I had accidentally set the phone to vibrate or silent and as a result, had any missed calls. When I realized I had nothing, not even a dropped text, I frowned and shook my head.
After the doorbell rang again, I turned off the water for the tub and slid the phone inside my pocket. I stepped out of the bathroom and looked down the hall and as I moved further into the living room, the bell got louder and louder and the ringing increased throughout the entire house, as if the person on the other side just kept jamming their finger nonstop against the button. I tightened the string around my robe and went over to the window to peek out front. When I split the blinds and looked out into the driveway, I panicked when I didn't see Slim or his bike sitting out front any more. In fact, the only bike I saw was parked a few houses down, and it didn't look like a single one I had recognized.
"Shit--"
"Mia."
I stepped back from the window and soured. That deep, husky voice sounded oddly familiar to me, but I knew that it didn't belong to Ricky, or River or even Wolf or Blue.
"Mia," he called out again, his tone harder and much more aggressive this time. The ringing turned to knocking, so I peeked out of the window again, trying like hell not to be seen, and when I got a glimpse of who was actually standing at the front door, I yelped and covered my mouth.
It was Eightball.
"Shit," I muttered again. "What the hell is this asshole doing here?"
"MIA!" he screamed. "Yo, baby, come on, baby, open the goddamn door for me. Your boy called me up and sent me here to look after you in place of Slim, and I've gotta take a piss, darlin'." When I didn't answer, he closed his fist and banged the door this time, hitting and punching so hard that it shook inside the frame; I flinched. "MIA! Goddamnit, bitch."
He jerked at the knob and I eased out of the living room to keep from being heard, and headed off into the kitchen to grab a knife. Then I reached inside my pocket for my cell and dialed for 911 as quickly as I could. But before I could even push the send button, the 'NO SERVICE' signal suddenly popped up on the cell and I realized Eightball had forced his way inside the house. When I looked up and saw him standing in the middle of the living room, he dropped his hands inside his pockets and drew his tongue around his lips like some kind of snake eyeing its next meal.
"Babe." He kicked the front door shut, then turned and locked it. He waited a few seconds before turning back to me and I placed the cell phone down on top of the counter while trying as quickly as I could to visually locate the house phone. "What the fuck do you exactly plan on doing with that thing, huh?" he asked, referring to the knife in my hand. "Cuttin’ up a goddamn pot roast?" His speech was somewhat slurred and his eyes were bloodshot to hell. It told me everything I needed to know about him in that very moment and all things I wished like hell I didn't.
I tightened my grip around the handle and pointed it downward as I moved around the table. "Where's Slim?" I asked him. I tried as best as I could to keep my voice from shaking as I spoke, but I wasn't sure how well I was doing in pretending that I wasn't scared out of my damn mind.
He moved into the kitchen and leaned against the frame. "Family emergency," he said. "One of his bitches is apparently having a baby and she called him up to let him know about it. Guess that shit was more important for him than being here and taking care of you. Or even coming inside to tell you about it--"
"Why the hell are you here?" I asked him, knowing he was completely full of shit. If Slim had left without telling me, there was no doubt in my mind that it was because of something that this asshole had said or done to him in advance. "I don't believe for a second that he would call you up to come and take his place, and I sure as hell don't believe that River would call you to come back here to look after me either."
He rushed forward and slammed his hand on the table, startling me to the point that I nearly dropped the knife to the floor.
I moved away from the chairs as they bounced against me and locked my jaw while keeping my eyes directly on his face, hoping that I could recognize any sudden moves he was bound to make next.
When he saw me glaring, he stood up straight and started removing his jacket; and I realized he had only done this to show me the loaded gun resting inside his holster.
"Babe, you don't know the goddamn rules of the club. We share pussy around here, unless you're an established bitch. And until you ride VP or Prez's cock, you're not. River's just got you up inside his house, playing the role of wife and taking care of his kid all under the guise of 'protecting you' from that motherfucker Ricky and his crew." He grinned. "It's clear that son of a bitch wants to get up in there just like the rest of us, but you're not letting him. And I can only imagine that it's 'cause he's not the one you're wanting all up in there in return."
I snickered, though it wasn't because I was any less nervous than when he first showed up. "Even if that were true, do you honestly think that the person I'd want up there is you?"
"Even if it were true," he repeated. "So you admit to bein' after VP's dick."
"What difference does it make either way?"
"Not a goddamn difference to me, babe, not a single goddamn difference to me at all. 'Cause at the end of the day, the only motherfucker that's gettin' up there is me; then I can fucking claim you, put you on the back of my bike, so that when I'm made an official fucking member of this club--"
"You won't be made into anything. River would never allow that," I said, which was probably -- definitely, the dumbest thing I could've ever said to anyone ever.
"He's tried telling me shit when it came to you," he said. "Tried getting all up in my face after you told him about what the fuck happened in here between us before--"
"Nothing happened--"
"Not 'cause you weren't asking for it." He smirked. "Bitches like you use shit like this as foreplay. Now put the goddamn knife down," he ordered. My grip tightened even more, so much so that I nearly broke the handle inside my hand. "I said..." He ripped his gun from his holster and pointed it at me. "Put the goddamn knife down on the table, bitch, and step the fuck away from it." When I didn't move, he shifted the gun two inches to the right and shot at the floor. I jumped the minute the bullet slammed into the lin
oleum and made a giant hole. "The fact that you think I'm fucking around--"
"OKAY!" I hollered out. I threw the knife onto the table and backed away from it.
"Good girl." Slowly, he moved toward me, then reached out and grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to him. His eyes went straight down to my breasts and as a result, I tried holding my breath to keep from pushing them out. The last thing I needed or wanted was more attention drawn down in that direction. He pressed his mouth against my ear and chuckled. I wanted to vomit because I could not only smell the liquor on his breath, which was disgustingly warm, but also the cigarettes and marijuana. He was toeing the line between being a walking liquor bottle and an ashtray. "Show me where the fuck you sleep," he said. He lifted the gun in his other hand and shoved it into the small of my back. I could feel the cool metal of it pressing right through the fabric of my robe. He leaned in even further, forcing me to tilt my head. "Show me where the fuck you sleep," he said again.
"I share that room with my daughter," I told him. "I'm not taking you in there."
"Then show me to VP's room. I'll have his bitch in his own goddamn bed." He threw his head back and laughed. "I'll have his bitch in his bed. It's too bad the motherfucker's not here to witness this shit." He jerked my arm. "Let's go."
As he shoved me out of the kitchen, back through the living room and down the hallway, he kicked open each door of every room until we reached River's at the very end. Once we were inside, he threw me across the room so hard that I stumbled and nearly fell into the nightstand.
"Get on the bed," he snapped. He slammed and locked the door and stared at me until I finally did what he asked, though it wasn't exactly as he wanted since I sat down on the edge and shoved my legs together.