Her Protector

by D. Camille

  “No, I want to speak with him alone,” she insisted.

  Sean kept driving. “What did Trent say when you told him you were meeting with Justin? I’d thought there would be trouble when I came to pick you up.”

  Carolyn turned to him. “Trent doesn’t need to know. He’s upset enough as it is and what happened between him and Justin is just too much.”

  Sean agreed. “He’ll find out eventually.”

  “By that time he won’t be able to do anything about it.”

  “It’s your call.”

  Carolyn touched his arm. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

  He shrugged. “I understand why Justin has done some of the things he’s done. I’m not a fan of his, but I’m not trying to kill him either.”

  She smiled at him. “You were always so smart and mature.”

  They arrived at the hotel where Justin was staying and Sean escorted his mother upstairs to the designated room. When Justin answered the door dressed in a white dress shirt and dark slacks, he and Carolyn stared at one another without speaking.

  “Justin,” Sean greeted.

  “Hello Sean,” Justin continued to watch Carolyn.

  Sean looked between the two then waited until Justin finally stepped back to allow them to enter. He did a quick skim of the room then looked at his mother.

  “You want me to stay?”

  Carolyn took her eyes from Justin and turned to her son. “No, I’ll be fine.”

  Sean nodded and looked at Justin. “I will be right outside this door. Please don’t make me have to come inside to hurt you.”

  Justin smiled. “I assure you that your mother will be free to leave at any time.”

  Sean looked at Carolyn once more before leaving the room and closing the door softly behind him.

  “Hello Carolyn,”

  At the sound of her name on his lips, Carolyn turned to the man who’d caused her to nearly lose her mind. She took in his smooth dark skin and dark eyes. His once jet black beard was now sprinkled with gray and gave him a distinguished look.

  “Justin Black,” Carolyn said automatically, remembering calling him that in the throes of passion.

  “Can I get you anything?” he offered and she felt the familiar tingle.

  She shook her head. “No, why did you want to see me?”

  “I wanted to talk to you,” he answered. “Please have a seat.”

  Silently, Carolyn walked over to the sofa then watched as Justin took the chair furthest away from her.

  “You look beautiful Carolyn,” he told her softly.

  “Please don’t do that.”

  Justin nodded slowly. “I want to apologize to you.”

  Carolyn froze. “What exactly are you apologizing for?”

  “For taking advantage of you during a difficult time in your life. For encouraging you to give our twins up for adoption. For losing Trent and for not speaking to you after the babies were born,” he told her.

  “That’s quite a bit to apologize for.”

  Justin sighed. “I did quite a bit of shit that wasn’t right.”

  Carolyn looked away. “I was a willing participant. I don’t fault you for my actions.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” he said slowly.

  Looking back at him, she asked, “Why are you here Justin?”

  “Because I have to try to put my family back together.”

  “The twins?” Carolyn asked.

  Justin leaned forward. “The twins, Jordan, Sean and…you.”

  ******

  Lotus awakened an hour later and stretched in her seat. She looked over and saw green eyes watching her.

  “Hey,”

  Kent touched her warm skin. “Hey, did you sleep good.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t wait to get into my own bed.”

  Leaning over, he kissed her softly. “I can’t wait to get into your bed either. It’s smells like coconut. I feel like I’m in the tropics.”

  Lotus returned his kiss. “You like tropical stuff.”

  “If it’s on you.”

  She smiled. “What do you have to tell me?”

  Kent took her hand. “When we get back to Atlanta it will be all over the news that the FBI busted a ring of misogynistic money launderers connected to sex trafficking and prostitution. Marc and Kyle initiated and coordinated the simultaneous arrests. They’re taking two of Warren Harding Jr’s cousins; a guy named Ben Watson who happens to be Tara’s grandfather; Erik Hanson, a guy who was investigating Trent and a few more of their cronies.”

  “Warren’s cousin Wallace,” he paused. “I don’t understand why that whole damn family is named with W’s.”

  “Anyway Wallace was laundering illegal money through his uncle’s pharmaceutical business. Warren Sr. turned over all his financials to us when Sean suspected something funny was going on. When I went through the numbers, it was clear what they were doing. I followed the dots and they led me to the whole sordid story.”

  Lotus eyes widened. “What in the world?”

  “All of these men have fucked up views of women and have no qualms about hurting and using them for their own purposes,” Kent said angrily. “A few of the Hardings knew that Wendell had some old business with Lily, and they wanted to use you to extort money from her to continue to fund their fetishes and vices.”

  “Warren was involved in this too?” she asked.

  “Junior has managed to maneuver himself out of the spotlight for now, but I’m not done with him,” Kent assured her. “He swears that he was only trying to protect you from his family. We haven’t located a direct connection to him other than tampering with your car that night.”

  “Did he send me that card?” Lotus questioned.

  Kent shook his head. “No, I have an idea who that is. I’m waiting to prove my theory.”

  “Who?”

  “I’ve got a tail on them, don’t worry.”

  Lotus grabbed his shirt. “Should I be looking out for someone?”

  Kent took her hand. “Trust me baby. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. The most dangerous men are in custody and the ones who are left are mine to handle.”

  She still looked worried. “When do we start my Diamond training?”

  Kent rolled his eyes. “Can we get back to Atlanta first?”

  “What did Ray say?”

  Kent frowned. “I’d rather not say.”

  He recalled the meeting he’d attended of the Uncut Diamonds the day before when Ray had found out that Lotus wanted to become a Diamond. Everyone at the table had looked at Kent.

  “What in the hell is this Kent?” Ray had stormed.

  “She wants to train to be a Diamond.”

  Ray then frowned. “This is not a damn dating club where you bring your girlfriends to be Diamonds. Hell, you all do more coupling up than actual damn missions.”

  “I’ll train her,” Kent had offered.

  Ray had pinned him with a look. “I’m sure as hell not.”

  Kent had nodded then Trent and Callie spoke up. “We’ll help too.”

  Isis had looked at her husband and he’d frowned at her. “And we’ll help,” she’d said smiling at a still frowning Marc.

  Finally, Kyle had added his two damn cents. “Lotus knows that I’m there for her, whatever she needs.”

  “Thanks everybody. Lotus will be happy to know that you all offered to help.” Kent had looked at Kyle. “But I got this.”

  Back to the present he looked at Lotus. “All the team supported you and offered to help.”

  “Did they?”

  He nodded. “Even Marc and Isis.”

  She smiled and he smiled back at her. “We’re going to take it slow though,” he informed her. “Don’t think you’re going to be ‘helping people’ right off the bat.”

  Lotus kissed him. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”

  “You don’t know what you mean to me little Momma.”

  ******

/>   Carolyn felt her breath catch. “What do you mean Justin?”

  He clasped his hands in front of him. “If I would’ve waited just a few more months, we could’ve been together without sneaking around. I regret the way that I treated you because you deserved much better than that.”

  “It started out with me wanting to get back at Xavier, then wanting to be with you every minute. I was angry with myself for letting my emotions get involved since it was only supposed to be an affair,” he explained.

  Carolyn frowned. “What emotions? You had no emotions Justin.”

  “Not ones that I allowed to be seen.”

  He sighed. “Carolyn for the longest time, I believed that I was in love with Camille Smith.”

  “The doctor that they were looking for?”

  Justin nodded. “We met when I was young and I asked her to marry me. Long story short, she turned me down and I met Joanna, who happened to look just like Camille. For years, Camille was always the one that got away and my heart was locked away for only her.”

  Carolyn listened quietly.

  “Then as luck would have it, Camille decided to give me a second chance.” He shook his head. “But the heart I’d locked away for her had actually been taken without my knowledge.”

  She looked at him in confusion because he couldn’t possibly be saying…

  “It belonged to a beautiful woman who’d lived next door to me. A woman I’d watched love and nurture her son. A woman who’d given me not one, but two beautiful children.”

  Carolyn stood to her feet. “Nooo…” she whispered and headed for the door. Justin caught her from behind before she reached the door.

  “Carolyn…” he whispered in her ear. “I came back for you because you are the one.”

  “Justin, this can’t happen.”

  “I found our kids and I’ve brought them both home to you,” he said holding on to her. “I knew I had to do that first.”

  “Chloe hates me,” Carolyn held back her tears.

  “And Trent hates me,” he replied. “But at least we’re all together to work this out.”

  “It’s too late Justin,”

  He leaned down to her ear. “It’s never too late Carolyn.”

  “Let me go,” she whispered. “Or I’ll call for Sean.”

  Justin turned her in his arms. “Tell me that you don’t feel anything…that you never did.”

  “I don’t have to tell you a damn thing!” She pushed against his chest. “Let me go!”

  “Give me one reason why you won’t try?” he demanded.

  Carolyn stared up at him with her chest heaving. “Because you made me lose my husband, my children and my mind…”

  ******

  Justin felt his world shatter as he looked into her watery eyes. Gently he pulled her into his arms and held her close as she began to sob against his shirt.

  “Carolyn…” he began then couldn’t go on.

  “If you can’t forgive me, I understand because I don’t want you to hurt anymore because of me,” he said brokenly.

  He lifted her face to his and she saw the anguish in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  Justin released her and walked away to look out of one of the windows, while Carolyn wiped her face and stared at his back.

  “Believe it or not, I really thought that I was doing the right thing by giving the twins up. I wanted to spare both Jordan and Sean the humiliation of our affair especially so soon after Xavier’s death,” Justin told her.

  “I realized that I created the most horrible situation for all of us, then I knew I had to bring us back together…at least to try.”

  He lowered his head. “I know I’m asking a lot of you, but I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here if you change your mind.”

  The silence filled the room for a few long minutes before Carolyn moved back to the sofa. “Tell me about Chloe.”

  Justin turned and looked at her before coming to take his seat again. “She’s a lot like you. She’s a beautiful, kind, loving woman who can hold her own.”

  “I never held my own with you Justin,” Carolyn admitted.

  “When it was something important to you, you did.”

  She shook her head. “She looks at me with so much anger.”

  “Well, Trent wants to kill me, so I guess those are our kids.” Justin told her.

  “Trent is a sweetheart,” Carolyn said thinking of her youngest son. “He’s been through so much.”

  Justin looked away. “The Black Diamonds beat the hell out of that foster father who hit Trent.” He looked back at her. “I killed him.”

  Carolyn’s breath caught. “Justin…”

  “He hurt my son. When they finished with that bastard, I was on his doorstep the next day,” he admitted.

  “There is nothing I won’t do for my kids,” he said adamantly. “Or you.”

  Carolyn closed her eyes. “How do we bring them together?”

  “Cautiously,” he answered and she looked at him.

  “I’ve asked Trent to forgive you,” Carolyn said quietly.

  Justin smiled. “I’ll work on our son. He’s going to know that I love him but I’m not afraid of him and his anger won’t push me away.”

  “And you’ll have to do the same for Chloe because those two will hold on to their anger forever if you give them an ounce of reason,” he finished.

  He looked at Carolyn. “I guess they get that from you.”

  She smiled softly. “No, I think you have a hand in that.”

  Justin moved to sit next to her and gently took her hand. “We have four beautiful children between us and a yard full of grandkids. I don’t want to miss any more of their lives being angry and separated.”

  “I don’t either,” Carolyn agreed. “But we can’t be together again. There’s too much water under the bridge.”

  Justin nodded. “I understand.”

  “But we can work together for the family,” Carolyn offered.

  He nodded again. Then he kissed her.

  ******

  Sean waited outside the door for his mother. Feeling his phone vibrate, he pulled it from his pocket and answered.

  “Hello beautiful Lily,”

  “Hi Sean. How’s it going with Carolyn and Justin?” Lily asked.

  Sean sighed. “She’s inside with him. She didn’t want me to stay with her.”

  “Do you think he would hurt her?” she asked concerned.

  “Not physically or else I’d never have let her go in there alone. Justin Black is a lot of things, but he doesn’t abuse women,” Sean confirmed.

  “Do you think this will give her a setback, seeing him again?”

  Shaking his head, Sean answered, “Honestly, I think she needed this which is why I agreed to bring her. Maybe she can heal completely.”

  “I think she never got over him,” Lily confessed.

  Sean looked away. “I know that she didn’t.”

  “But I also don’t think that takes away from her love for your father,” she told him softly.

  “It’s a difficult situation. I looked up to and admired Justin Black like a father. I can’t forget the man that he was. I also can’t forget the things he’s done,” Sean said quietly.

  “I guess we will have to see where his heart is,” Lily offered.

  “I agree, that’s why I’m taking it one day at a time.”

  “I wanted to check on you and to tell you that when you’re done with your mother, I have something waiting for you at home,” she said sexily.

  Sean lifted a brow. “What does my goddess have for me?”

  “A treat for a patient warrior that will reach to the depths of his soul and soothe his beautiful mind,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “I think I can accommodate that.”

  “I know that you can and you do it very well. I have three amazing children to prove it,” Lily told him.

  “We could increase that number.”

  Lily smiled. “Yes, my warrior, we
definitely can.”

  Sean looked up as the door opened and his mother exited.

  “I have to go goddess, but I will see you soon. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  He replaced his phone in his pocket and turned his attention to his mother. “Are you okay?”

  Carolyn looked at him. “Yes, I’m ready to go now.”

  Sean looked at the closed door then back at his mother. “Do I need to go in there?”

  “Everything is fine. Justin’s knows where I stand.” She informed him. “Now we have to bring Trent and Chloe together.”

  “Will you be visiting him again?” Sean questioned.

  Carolyn shook her head. “No, I won’t be visiting Justin here again.” She began to walk to the elevators and Sean followed closely behind.

  “Would you like to get some lunch?” he invited.

  Carolyn smiled and touched Sean’s face. “Go home to your wife, son. Play with your children and enjoy your family.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked concerned.

  The doors opened and Carolyn pulled a pair of designer sunglasses out of her purse. Exiting the elevator, she slowly slid them on and began walking towards the exit.

  “Baby, I’ve never been better…”

  ******

  That evening the Black Diamonds met on the docks at their secret warehouse. They didn’t want to run into Trent at the Black Diamond building nor have any of the wives ‘accidentally’ listen in on their conversation tonight.

  “Kent is back in Atlanta with Lotus and the Hardings are in custody for the time being. They’ll be out on bond tonight,” Sean told them.

  Ray nodded. “Erik Hanson and Ben Watson are also in custody here in LA and I’m expecting the same.”

  “Kent put together an air tight case. He’s really good with those damn numbers,” Ray complimented. “Some of that stuff would’ve never been uncovered.”

  Sean agreed. “Yes, he did a really good job and he fell in love during the process.”

  Ray’s eyes narrowed. “I swear; I’m not having one more damn couple as Uncut Diamonds. This shit is out of hand.”

  Jordan shook his head. “These young ones. I don’t understand what the hell they’re thinking. Who the hell wants their wife to have the ability to kill you?”

  Both looked at him. “Your wife does too, Jordan” Sean pointed out.