Michele

Three days I have painted buoy after buoy. The foam pieces used to mark things in the water are unattractive in their original form, but they serve a purpose. Many people paint them and turn them into decorative pieces like what I’m doing now for the wedding. The beach turquoise background per the client’s request makes the pink of the peonies pop. Each one I paint reminds me of the love I once had with Jackson.

A peony starts as a tight ball. Much like young love. You keep it tight, light, and close. Then as time passes you blossom. The ball opens into so much more.

Petal by petal the bloom expands as does your heart and your capacity to feel. A peony starts small and expands to a huge flower with petals layering out in different shades making the dimensions grow.

I first loved Jackson Presley as a girl. We were young and he was so strong. My life was chaos. My mom worked all the time and my dad drank everything away. Paul was my keeper until we became teens. He was into his friends and anything that kept him out of the house.

I felt like someone needed to help our mom so I stayed home to cook, clean, and keep up with the laundry. Jackson understood me. Rather than push me to go out, he would come over and help me clean up. The memories are so many and take over my thoughts.

“Where’s your dad?” He whispers standing behind me at the stove while I make dinner.

The ground beef is thoroughly browned as I dump the elbow noodles and add the cheese sauce.

“Passed out in his room,” I reply as I shiver from his kisses to my neck.

I stir the mixture in the skillet as his hand slides down the front of my pants to cup my sex.

“Got the laundry done and put away for you baby. Have to say, love those panties with Ka-pow written all over them.”

He presses between the lips of my heat as my panties dampen in desire.

The room heats as I relax against him dinner forgotten as he pushes the cotton fabric of my panties aside to slide a finger into me.

He works me up as the bundle of nerves inside me build. The tiny ball in the pit of my stomach rolls as he stretches me with two fingers and his tongue dances behind my ear. The tight bud expands inside me before exploding in an array of colors behind my eyes as I clench my inner muscles around his digits moaning softly.

“Fuckin’ whore like your momma!” My dad grumbles behind us and Jackson reacts.

Swiftly, his hands are yanked from me as he turns his body and rushes to my dad slamming him to the old worn out carpet of our living room.

“Fuckin’ disrespectful drunk! Esther works hard to keep a roof over your head and you call her a whore.” He punches him in the face, blood splatters. “Michele is not a whore, she’s my love, my woman.” He swings and connects again.

I cry out never being in a situation of so much rage.

“You’re scaring me,” I call out to Jackson who immediately stills.

He climbs off my dad and wraps me in his strong arms. “Never gonna scare you again baby. You’re always safe with me.”

True to his word, Jackson never stepped out of line again to cause me any reason to fear him. I was always safe with him. He also had a unique relationship with my mother. Once he got a job, we would always find money in the most random places after he would leave the house. When we got married, he would pay my mom’s electric bill at the office when he would pay ours or cover her rent without telling her. I knew though, I saw our accounts.

I never asked him about it.

I wish I had.

I wish I had at least said thank you once.

The front door opens and I feel the lump form in the pit of my stomach. Antonio walks in with a man behind him who is taller, but no less impeccably dressed. He wears aviator sunglasses to cover his eyes, but his lips are as plump as Antonio’s drawing attention away from the scar running down his cheek.

Antonio strolls right to me. “Good afternoon, Peony.” He leans down to place his lips to mine. I turn away which causes his companion to laugh.

Tension fills the space as Antonio grips my chin and forces my face to his. When he presses his lips to mine, he applies pressure forcing me to open my jaw allowing him access.

Immediately, I bite his tongue, he jerks back releasing his grasp.

“Puta, good thing I like it rough.” He smirks before his companion steps up causing Antonio to naturally move to the side.

The man stands in front of me, lifting his aviators I fight my instinct to gasp when it is evident the eye above his scar is missing. Fear courses through my veins as my adrenaline kicks in and my every instinct screams to run as the man studies me.

“Mi primo is a different sort of man, Hermosa.” The man’s thick Hispanic accent mimics Antonio’s.” He extends his hand to me, “I’m Javier Almanza.”

My hand trembles as I fight to calm my nerves to shake his. “Welcome to Peony Paints, Mr. Almanza.” I try to sound unafraid.

“My friends call me Javi,” he gives my hand a squeeze before releasing it and sliding his aviators back in place. “You’re a strong woman.”

“How so?” I spit out before I can stop the words.

“Many men don’t have the cojones to look a man like me in the eye. You did. I respect a woman who despite her circumstances she keeps her head up.”

“I’m not seeking approval from anyone.” I reply feeling my pulse quicken. Antonio moves swiftly behind me taking a cold metal blade to my neck.

“Your place in this world is to submit. You’re crossing a line. A line your beauty can’t save you from the consequences.”

I swallow as I feel the pinch of the blade penetrate my skin. I refuse to drop my head. Instead I focus my eyes on the man in front of me behind the sunglasses.

“Release her,” Javi commands and Antonio does. “We have business.”

Antonio doesn’t look back to me or speak as he heads to the stairs.

“I look forward to more time here,” Javi states before following his cousin up to my living area.

Nervously, I try and fail to get back to work. After three hours, with more men coming and going, I make my way upstairs to my living space. As soon as I cross the threshold, I have Antonio in my face. Moving to the side, I find myself pinned between the man in the suit and the wall.

“You’re not welcome here.” I tell him trying to stay strong. Shaking my head, I try to sort my thoughts. “It’s my home. Albeit, not the home I asked for but you stuck me here. I’ve repaid my debts to your family with everything asked of me. Now, I’ve been working for hours without a drink or snack. Your space is the third floor this is mine.” I steel my nerves knowing I have to stand up for myself because no one else will.

Antonio doesn’t move. He doesn’t give me an inch to breathe. Instead, he smiles and looks at me like I might be his next meal.

“Back off,” Javi commands from behind him. I look around the beast in front of me and see Javi sitting on my couch with his arms stretched out wide across the back.

“She needs to learn her place.” Antonio explains.

“I told you I’m no cartel bitch. I don’t want to have a place and a car all for you to be in charge of my life more than you already are in my business.”

Javi laughs. “She has spunk.”

Antonio’s jaw ticks in frustration with me.

“Come sit with me, Hermosa,” Javi says patting the cushion beside him.

I brush past Antonio but take a seat in my chair not the couch.

“Tell me, how did you come to be part of mi familia?” Javi asks.

I find it odd he’s asking me this since I was sure Bates told him all about me. Rather than question it, I just answer. “My husband went to prison for killing my brother. The detective on the case said you could protect me from my past.”

Javi studies me and I fight the urge to stare at his missing eye. “Was your husband abusive?”

I shake my head back and forth. “No, Jackson was a great husband.”

“But he killed your brother?”

“They say it was because my husband was working for you and my brother disagreed. He says he is innocent and even found a way to be exonerated.”

“Jackson, you say?” Javi asks and Antonio paces behind me. “Jackson Presley?”

I nod.

Javi’s facial expression shows that he seems to recognize or remember something important. “Your husband cost me a powerful player.”

I raise my eyebrow. “Paul?” I can’t help but still wonder what my brother was into. Lee Bates set me up and then disappeared. I have never had a chance to ask anyone about my brother or Jackson.

“No, Bates.”

I gasp realizing that everything Jackson said was true all along. Bates was tied up with these men more than my husband or my brother ever were. I knew it in my gut, but hearing it makes everything so real and I’m in too deep.

Javi Almanza taps his chin in a way that has me wondering what’s on his mind. “What do you know of your husband now?”

“Nothing. He went to prison. Bates helped me fake my death and leave town. He said there would be people after me and my mother if I didn’t disappear. In return for giving me a new life, I just had to attach some packages at my handler’s instructions. Yes, I lost the cost of the painting but that was the price I had to pay.”

He pauses trying to read me. “What was in the packages?”

“I have no clue. I don’t care to know.” And it’s the truth.

Javi Almanza smiles sinisterly. “You are an asset to my association.”

“Me!” I shake my head. “No! I just want to paint. Whatever you have going on, I don’t want to be part of it. Please.”

“In too deep to turn back now.” He lifts his phone. “Need to get an update on where Jackson ‘Rowdy’ Presley is these days.”

I raise my eyebrow questioning him so he stops looking at his phone and looks directly at me.

“Your husband got out of prison and killed Lee Bates.” I fight back all my emotions knowing that the man in front of me is looking for something from me. “Then he hit the road with Bates’ partner Dover ‘Collector’ Ragnes forming their own club of sorts.”

The pit of my stomach rolls over and over. Jackson killed Lee Bates.

“He’s made quite a name for himself. The whole group has. They call themselves the Devil’s Due MC. Word on the street is they solve unsolved crimes. I wonder if your husband has concerned himself with your supposed death.”

“He can’t find me.” I whisper knowing too much time has passed between us.

Too much betrayal.

My betrayal to him.