She’s my downfall. I knew it, I saw it coming and I just didn’t give a damn. She’s the one. I’m falling just like Gray, White and Luka. I’d worry—it’s not like my taste in women can be trusted—but, even my family loves Addie. I can’t ignore the pull I feel towards her, I can’t fight what she does to me and after the taste I just had, I don’t even want to try. I’m claiming her and I’ll worry about the rest later.

I’m following her car and I can literally taste her. My cock is throbbing imagining sliding inside of her. I’m as anxious as a young kid about to get laid for the first time. I’m tightening my fingers tighter and tighter on the steering wheel, each mile that goes by my anticipation amps up.

I spend the entire ride, praying her father didn’t come home early. I need him to be gone. I have to have more of her. What we just shared was just a small taste and I want to get drunk on her.

When we turn up the street where Addie’s father lives. That’s when I hear the sirens. Then all at once cars are coming around me. I reach for my phone to call Tani and see what in the hell is going on, but it rings almost at the same time. I briefly look at the caller ID before I accept the call.

Luka.

“Luka why is the entire Mason Police Department swarming by me on Cotton Street?”

“Is Addie with you?”

“Shit, man there’s a firetruck. What’s going on?”

“Black! Is Addie with you?”

“What? No—”

“Son of a bitch!” Luka yells. Every cop instinct I have tells me something bad is going on.

“She’s in the car in front of me. She’s safe, now tell me what in the hell is going on?”

“The Mayor’s house is on fire man. Call came in about five minutes ago.”

“Christ,” I swear.

“I’ll be there in ten. I’m just dropping Petal and the kids off.”

“Got it,” I tell him hanging up even before I finish talking. I immediately try to call Addie.

“Hey, is someone impatient? I’m driving as fast as I can.”

“Addie, honey. I need you to pull over.”

“Black, we’re almost at the house and I’d much rather we continue this in the privacy of my bedroom, not in a car on a street. A busy street. Did you see all the cops and fire trucks? I wonder what’s going on? I see smoke up over the hill and I can smell—”

“Addie, pull over.”

“Black—”

“Addie just do it!” I order, but it’s too late.

As we start up the hill to her place the glow of the emergency vehicle lights shine like a beacon. Addie doesn’t stop, instead she goes faster. She slams on her breaks when she gets to the road across from the house. She gets out of the car just as I pull up to a stop behind her car. I jump out and grab her barely in time to stop her from charging straight into a war zone.

“Oh my God! What happened?!?!?” she cries, fighting me to get away. I hold her tighter, bringing the side of her body against my front.

“Addie, baby. You can’t go there. It’s not safe. We have to wait until they get the blaze under control.”

“Daddy’s house,” she says her voice miserable and full of anguish.

“I know, baby. I know,” I tell her, holding her close.

“What could have happened?” she asks and I don’t know what to say. “All my stuff was in there, Black.”

“I know, baby. I know,” I repeat, not knowing what else to say.

“Daddy’s stuff was in there,” she says tears falling down her face. She stops fighting me and leans into my body, letting me hold her and take her weight. She’s not sobbing. I think it might be better if she was. Instead, it’s just these tears falling from her eyes and her voice so sad and full of pain it hurts to hear.

“It will be okay, Addie.”

“Pictures of my mother were in there, Black. I’ll never get those back.”

“Addie—”

“It won’t be okay. The pictures are gone. My keepsakes of her are gone… it’s not okay,” she whispers so quietly that I can barely hear her over all the noise.

“It will be,” I argue, trying to reassure her.

“It won’t,” she says and I give up trying to tell her it will. She’s right. She’s lost things she’ll never get back.

“I’m losing my mother all over again, Black,” she whimpers and that’s when the sobs begin to tear through her. I pull her down onto the ground, sitting her in my lap and I just hold her, pulling her head close to my chest as she cries. I look out over the top of her head at the Mayor’s mansion and the total devastation of the house is astounding.

“I’ve got you, Addie. I’m here with you. It will be okay.”

I don’t know if she hears me. She’s crying too hard.