Chapter Sixteen
~Christian~
Mama was right. How many times had kids and adults had to admit that in their lifetime? Probably every day of their lives if they were honest, and the thought battered my brain like a hurricane on land. Making that tape backfired like a grenade glued to the hand of the idiot who pulled the pin after playing with super glue. Except, it didn’t make Foreign hate me. No, things were much worse than that, the disc had been stolen. All my fault, despite Foreign trying to take the blame for it being in the wrong hands, and until I found the thief, I couldn’t fix this. There was no guarantee I could even, if I did find the guilty. Their actions would dictate the direction our lives, our livelihoods, and how far Foreign flung me away from her when the chips stopped falling and her dreams were affected.
Livid with everything except Foreign, surprised steam wasn’t rolling out of all of our ears, I waited in the doorway for Astrid and Foreign to give the all-clear in the bedroom that had been neatly ransacked. Meanwhile, I scrolled through airlines on my phone, searching for the first thing smoking out of Colorado. With the apartment being sparsely furnished, there weren’t many places for the thief to search, and possibly did a jig after raping her laptop, or pissed they didn’t look their first.
It looked like they came to the bedroom first. The drawers to her chest and dresser were all hanging out of their cubbyholes. Foreign glanced in them all, more to see if anything had been left behind in them, than if anything was missing—there was only clothing in the furniture. After taking a peek in the opened drawers of the nightstand, she muttered something under her breath then bypassed the bed with its mattress laying lopsided from the thief’s exploration under it. At the tiny closet behind the bedroom’s door, she carefully stepped over strewn shoes to lug down a plain black duffel bag on wheels from the top shelf.
I quickly purchased two tickets to California in the morning, then treaded inside the room to relieve her of the bag, placing it on top of the rumpled covers on the bed. “Tell me what you want, baby. Feel free to pack this bad boy full. No way in hell you’re staying here tonight and other nights I can tempt you to stay with me.” Would never live here again if I got my way.
She froze in place in the narrow lane between the bed and dresser, simply staring at me as if thinking deeply, then she nodded. “I would love to stay with you as long as it takes me to get an adequate weapon for living here until I can move. I won’t lie and say I’ll ever feel comfortable enough here again.”
I would’ve wondered what it took for her to finally accept my help without a minor skirmish, but my chest was filling with outrage I had no outlet for, so it was overwhelming me. The son of a bitch had taken my woman’s security in her own home. If that shouldn’t be a crime punishable by however many times I can plow my fists in his face before I broke something, I didn’t know what it should be. If I find him, he’ll be punished that way anyway. She and I would definitely be discussing other residences for her before we left the driveway though. And she wouldn’t be leaving my side until I found her somewhere else to live.
Foreign stated what to pack underwear and sleepwear-wise as she and Astrid crossed the hall to the bathroom where the mirrored medicine cabinet’s door had been swung wide on its hinge over a shell-shaped sink on a pedestal.
“Damn, the bastard took my Triptan for my migraines and extra strength Tylenol,” she lamented. “At least he left the birth control.”
“I guess that makes him a pill popper or dealer,” Astrid grumbled, scribbling in a notebook. “Either way being in possession of controlled substances is another charge the son of a bitch can look forward to being arrested under. I don’t know why I feel like it was a man, maybe a professional crook, that came in here. A woman scorned would’ve torn the place apart just because she was pissed and in your territory. Can you call your doctor and get him to call you in another prescription? Migraines are nothing to play with.”
“Yeah,” Foreign uttered, sounding so damn forlorn it broke my damn heart. “There was nothing else to take in here besides my medication. Let’s move on to the living area where I already can tell you nothing is missing. He’s taken everything that mattered, besides my laptop. I think I’d have felt better if he’d have stolen that too. Then, I could psyche myself into believing it was just a pill popper getting lucky in a random robbery.” The walk-through was going to go quick since she wasn’t a packrat, and I couldn’t get her out of here fast enough.
“What next, sweetheart?” I asked while hovering over the duffel bag.
“Ah… grab two pair of jeans and t-shirts please. Oh, and the white Nike’s the bastard threw right outside the closet. I’ll leave my products I want from the bathroom on the toilet. Thanks, babe.”
“You’re welcome, love.” I moved to grab the shoes, before I grabbed her instead, then waited for them to finish up in the bathroom before I could scoop up the items she stacked on the commode’s lid.
“Don’t touch any of the hard surfaces of the furniture, Christian,” Astrid ordered as they exited the bathroom.
“I wouldn’t have to touch anything if Foreign will just let me buy what she needs.” But I think most of us in here knew how well that would go over with Foreign.
She didn’t even respond because she knew that we knew she wasn’t going to consent to spending from my pockets if she could help it. I didn’t push the issue because what I really wanted to do was snatch her up, then run, and hide her from any more pain, which was possible only some of the time—that was when she allowed it. I couldn’t be with her twenty-four-seven as much as I wanted to. What I couldn’t, or she wouldn’t let me shield her from, she’d fight her own way through, and boy was I having a hard time with not kidnapping her to save her. We all knew how well that would go over too, so I settled down and remembered to be thankful for my girl’s backbone. She would always bounce back one way or another from anything.
I stood in the hallway while they progressed from room to room. It would be so lovely if the bastard who broke into the apartment got the nerves to come back while we were still here though. Astrid would be scraping what was left of him or her off the wall. Foreign hadn’t deserved this no matter how many ambitious socialites she nearly drowned; she had the right to teach people she was not to be fucked with. People had the right to learn that lesson.
Deputy Greene looked back over his shoulder. “She hasn’t caught a flight out of the city.” Didn’t mean she was still here, but she knew better than to stay at the resort—I wouldn’t be able to resist breaking in her room and… only God knew what I’d do from there.
Natalia better find the deepest hole and crawl in it, then stay there until my body had been returned back to the dirt it came from.
“So, she could be anywhere.” Astrid breathed out heavily as they turned into the kitchen. “Again, I am so sorry about this, Foreign, and can’t decide if this burglary was professional or not because if he wanted it to look like a random robbery, he’d have certainly grabbed the computer and the television. Maybe he wanted you to know it wasn’t a random robbery. To feel violated and paranoid that he could get to you when he wanted. The bastard… or bastards. Whichever applies.”
“No need for you to apologize, Astrid. You didn’t do it, and yeah, I think Natalia would want me to feel violated and paranoid. Then she’d have power over me. I’m convinced this is her doing, whether I was robbed by her hand or a minion she’d hired, I just need to prove it.”
I hated listening to the misery in my girl’s voice, but now wasn’t the time to get any angrier because her space had been desecrated, and I couldn’t shelter her from the world like I wanted to. We had to deal with this.
As I bent to pinch a couple of pair of jeans from the third drawer of the chest, Astrid resumed the conversation. “We won’t stop until we both prove it, and this is my county now. It’s supposed to be safer than this, and it will be soon as I get this bastard off the streets. You should call Tommy after you’ve listed what’s missing. I’ll vouch that you need a few days off to deal with this. He may not let me get any more free plates at his restaurant since I wouldn’t let him ride with me after I’d arrested Nevaeh’s big mouth for arson, but he will take my word as a Sheriff to give you a few days to grieve. Home invasions hurt too.”
Nevaeh’s big mouth? Inwardly, I laughed my ass off. It sounded like the Sheriff looked out for her own—apparently everyone connected to Tommy—as much as she could when they let her.
“Knowing Tommy, he’d give me the few days off anyway since he’s positive I’m nuts on a good day,” Foreign advised.
Astrid snorted. “He thinks all women are nuts on their good days, homicidal on their worst.”
After spending time in Arrow and dragging Foreign kicking and screaming to her own heart, I agreed with Tommy.
“Yep,” Foreign replied dryly, “that’s Tommy. There’s nothing else in here missing unless the crook took some dishes. He definitely rambled through the four cabinets and my freezer. Seriously! Does it look like I’d have, even less can afford, anything of value if I live here?”
When her voice rose, then something slammed shut, followed by Astrid shrieking for Foreign to not touch anything. I snatched the bag from the bed and double-timed it to the kitchen, to shelter my girl in my arms anyway. When she came into them willingly, face heated with her fury, and burying her head in my jacket again, I knew we needed to leave now. Whatever I didn’t pack, she’d get at the resort.
Before she shed one more fucking tear over this, I’d drive myself to hell first. “Astrid, is there anything else you need from us?”
In my sideview, Shannon eased up to the dining table. “If she says you guys can go, I’ll stick around for the maintenance man. After this, naturally, I feel the need to demand more locks for my doors and bars to go across my windows. Fucked being an easy target and robbed next. I’m at home alone during the day and don’t own a gun, but I’m not being anybody’s victim again.”
Again? I questioned—there was a story there too, but not my business right now. It would be though if Foreign decided to remain living here. She was the type to not let someone run her off completely, until she was good and ready to go.
Astrid patted Foreign’s back. “No, you two can go. If I need anything else I have Foreign’s number. Leave me yours too, Christian, and I’d like to meet the maintenance man. There’s mostly single women and mothers in this area, so I’ll be making demands for better security right along with you, Shannon, as well as hiring someone to patrol the area regularly. This shit will not keep happening on my watch.”
I slung the duffel bag on one shoulder, extracted my wallet from my back pocket to retrieve a card, passing it to Astrid.
Shannon edged around the table, stopping in front of the sink beside us. “Thanks for being backup, Sheriff, and being a referee.” We gave Shannon a funny look, before she explained what she meant by that. “If the maintenance man says he can’t help me, I’m going to help myself to his ass.” She was as feisty as Foreign—God help the maintenance man.
Muffled snickers ejected from inside my coat, tickling my chest.
“Don’t make threats in front of the Sheriff, Shannon,” Foreign counseled.
“Not a threat, that was a promise, boo,” Shannon pledged.
“And I didn’t hear a damn thing,” Astrid asserted. “Neither did Greene.”
“Neither did Greene what?” he asked from the doorway, twisting at the waist to eye Astrid.
“Exactly!” all the women chanted together.
He chuckled then turned right back around. “Women!”
I scooped Foreign up, intending to carry her to the car.
She wiggled in my arms, exhuming her head. “Babe, you know I can walk, right?”
I grinned down at her, erratic naughty thoughts tinged with guilt firing left and right in my mind. “Is that right?”
“Oh hell, you’re answering a question with a question again.” She dropped her head back on my forearm, grimacing up at me with a small smile. “What am I about to lose now just for the right to walk on my own feet?”
If she could tease and indulge me in the middle of this shit show, she was going to be alright very soon, especially if I distracted her. “I want twenty-four hours to pamper you.”
“Christ—” Foreign started.
“She’s in,” Shannon butted in, then clutched at my arm, pulling me around the table. “Now both of you get out.”
“Hey, it’s my apartment!” Foreign complained.
I let Shannon guide me to the door as if I needed the help getting there. Greene stepped aside, unblocking the doorway with his bulk as if he was on bodyguard duty. Well, I guessed he was at the moment. Who knew if the burglar wasn’t still milling around, spectating the trauma they’d caused, debating doing something else stupid like confronting me or Foreign, if it was Natalia?
Greene sure as hell needed a raise for having to do two jobs after the hell I had brought with me to ArrowNatalia wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. I was confident no one would have broken into Foreign’s place if we’d hadn’t been put in the position to make an enemy of Natalia. I put us in this position, would make this up to Foreign for as long as I lived. The only damn problem would be getting her to let me.
********
~Foreign~
On the way to Powers Royal Resort, Christian and I both had our phones glued to our hands. I called up the girls, giving them the latest development in my life, cancelled date night until further notice, and got an earful for my troubles because I didn’t call as soon as I discovered my apartment had been burglarized. That was followed by offers to call in favors for anything I needed and to move in with them and their guys if I no longer felt safe in my own place. I thanked them kindly but turned them down, stating I wouldn’t be intruding on them like that, which earned me a sideways grin from Christian.
Yes, I was letting him take care of me. For one, I wanted to be wherever he was. Two, I didn’t feel like arguing with him only to give him his way anyway. Three, I needed to chill before calling up my boss and mother, warning him about the disc getting out, telling her that I would be in town tomorrow. Four, Christian’s arms were calling my name—I didn’t have to seek solace from him, I wanted to, even if he didn’t pamper me for twenty-four hours as promised. Yet, that was exactly what he did.
We hadn’t even gotten inside the suite all the way when he vanished in the bathroom to run a bath for me. By the time I climbed out of the water, I’d been plied with champagne, a BLT sandwich, chocolate-covered strawberries, and sweet-nothings whispered in my ear as I soaked in his jacuzzi. Then I was directed to leave on the fluffy towel covering me from breast to knees for the masseuse, hairstylist, and manicurist who were setting up in the living room. He guided me to the masseuse’s table first, then disappeared in his office for the three hours it took the women to finish with me.
Spa-day was all well and good, and I was almost completely relaxed when the ladies left. I had a moment to myself to call my boss who cracked six jokes on me in one breathe about the disc and my kinks.
“Boss, I don’t have kinks,” I said dryly, but wasn’t about to relay the fake blackmail the disc represented, had enough of my business about to hit the streets as it was.
He chuckled loudly. “You got something if you’re making sextapes.”
“I didn’t make it or was aware I was being filmed in… compromising positions.”
“Compromising positions?” he hollered with laughter. “Is that what the kids are calling giving it up naked in front of a camera these days? And… Wait a minute.” His humor had dried up like the desert. “You weren’t aware?”
“No, Christian’s home security system recorded us. He bought the disc to me because he wanted me to know that I was very capable of loving a man. I didn’t destroy the disc like he told me to because I was too busy thinking about the man I’d left behind stupidly. Never in my wildest dreams did I think almost drowning a conniving bitch would bring he and I this much trouble, but I’m not ashamed of the disc. I’m just giving you the heads up and hope you’ll allow me another day off to deal with my family, tracking down the disc, and the burglary if you don’t fire me first. I’ll make the days up when I get back and don’t need my birthday off after all.”
“Dammit, Foreign, I knew that temper of yours would be your undoing. Now, you got problems that have problems.” Oh, he was pissed, probably because he’d have to find my replacement for the day after tomorrow himself. Again!
“Damn skippy, my problems came with problems.” I sighed, half relieved he didn’t give me walking papers again, half frustrated with my current circumstances biting me in the ass. “And FYI, my lust for Christian was my undoing, not my temper… and my lust may be his undoing if that disc is leaked.”
“And nope, no lawyer can fix that unless you want to sue Natalia’s ass. You know… I bet you can get at least forty acres and a mule out of her.”
I snorted. “You are obsessed with getting paid for unpaid labor when you were never a slave, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” he replied quickly. “My forefathers… damn that makes my mother sound like a ho, doesn’t it?”
I snickered helplessly. We had gone so far off topic we were about to lap the original one.
“I have an education, Tommy, I know what you’re saying.”
“Thank God for that. Anyone else would ask how the hell did I have four fathers and who were they? I swear I’d gave them random names just for being ignorant, and my four fathers would want me to get compensation on their behalf by the way.”
“I trust you on that,” I quipped. “Anyway, a civil suit is an option, especially if she’s prosecuted for releasing the disc or it’s proven she had anything to do with it, but a lawsuit is a task for another day. I have to get to California and warn my mother first, so she can do damage control.”
“Can you put me on speakerphone when you talk to her? I bet she’s going to rip your ass a new one and I’d like to hear it for myself. You know so I have the facts when the shit hits the fan.”
“I really do appreciate your sympathy, boss,” I commented sarcastically. “It’s so refreshing.”
His snickering rebounded through the line. “I think that’s my cue for saying how sorry I am this is happening to you and Christian. It’s going to be okay, Foreign. The high class has all kinds of skeletons in their closets, and now you fit right in.”
“More of your special kind of sympathy, thank you very much for it, boss.”
“You’ll be fine without my sympathy. One thing a black woman knows how to do is bounce back. And if you’re not ashamed, you don’t even have to do that, just wait for the media frenzy to die down. I won’t even make you waitress when business is slow, so no one bothers you.”
A truckload of gratefulness descended on me, and it was awkward. “Thank you for that, Tommy… I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you as a boss. I’m positive anyone else would’ve fired me.”
“Hey,” he said quietly, “if we don’t have each other’s backs, who will?” Christian would, and I needed him.
“And since you’re getting all emo on me, Domestic, I’m getting the hell off this phone, but I am glad you found someone to settle your ass down.”
“You can’t stand being serious, can you?”
“No,” he said, dead-seriously.
With one last giggle, I bade him goodnight, then went in search of Christian. I sat on his lap as he updated me on the progress, telling me how he was hacking into Natalia’s devices with software he created to download all her incoming and outgoing calls. It also worked on getting through to her texts and emails for the last two days. This was not something he could report to Astrid, because it was illegal. I didn’t care. The information superhighway was a fickle, disloyal bitch, and it would take one to deal with her, plus the added security measures he uploaded to our devices against people with his abilities.
I felt better already, even if it was my home that was attacked, but there were too many ways for people to enter our lives these days. Having some of those doors into my world fortified went a long way towards giving me some comfort after my privacy had been ravaged. But there was no more comfort to be had outside his arms; no alerts from the software on the disc came through by eight in the morning when it was time to leave for the airport. Neither of us slept much. Most likely that was because we spent most of the night making love. It was slow and tender, using what caused our problems to make peace with the same problems making love had caused us. Now, if I could just avoid the fifteen minutes of fame that may be arriving any minute now, things would be that much closer to being right as rain again, or so much better.
We took the blue beast to the airport, circling the aerodrome-shaped glass building to get to the private plane sector. He parked near a hanger with a white jet sitting pretty outside it. I was pretty sure he had chartered the plane and eyeballed him as we parked but kept my thoughts to myself. Complaining about jet-setting in style to the coast like the elitist he was wasn’t going to get me on a commercial airline in coach with the regular people, not if Christian could help it.
Grinning, he shut down the car’s engine, the wind whipping around outside on the cloudless, sunny day. “Before you go off on me, Foreign, the private jet will shave forty-five minutes off the two hours and some change it would take if we flew commercial,” he explained before giving me his undivided attention and pocketing my keys in his loose-fit jeans.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said breezily, as if I wasn’t thinking what I hadn’t said. “Besides, I know we need to get to California quick. Airport security doesn’t work that way and…” I scratched behind my ear, probably looking shamefaced as I admitted, “… I chickened out on calling my mother. In my defense, this is something she and I need to talk about face to face.”
He chuckled, calling me on my shit—I was worried like hell—without saying a word.
I scowled. “That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it okay!”
He twisted in his seat, reached over with both hands, grabbing the lapels of my coat and hauling me over the gearshift to him alright waiting in the middle of the bucket seats. “Hey, if you don’t want to admit you don’t want to disappoint your mother, you don’t have to, baby. I can read you, no words needed, and this is the one and only time we’ll be explaining ourselves about the disc.”
Another reason to love this man—who wanted to clarify their brand of bullshit if they didn’t have to? Certainly not me who didn’t even get a chance to respond if I wanted to before his mouth was on mine, stealing my right mind.
He pulled back slowly, tipping his forehead to mine. “What do you want to do first when we get there?”
I took a few seconds to think that through. “Get my mother on neutral territory, which would be the cemetery. She can’t kick me out of there when I drop this doozy in her lap. Before she gets there, I can ask my father some questions I’ll never get the answer to and vent.”
“Sounds good, but you still have to give her a heads-up. I don’t think anyone appreciates being called into last minute meetings… especially at a cemetery.”
I groaned, “Alright. I thought it would be better to hit her with everything from the blindside, then run myself.”
“You could do that even if you went to her house.”
“Oh, hell no! I don’t know who’s there with her, don’t want people overhearing what may never come out, and don’t want to be attacked by a bunch of family at one time. I may lose my shit and hit someone because I’m not actually ashamed of what’s on the disc, and I won’t be made to feel that way by a bunch of snobs that have probably done worse things. The disc was private property that no one had the right to come into my home and take from me.” Then I entertained the notion of counting his teeth when he grinned wide enough to make a dentist’s job easy.
“I absolutely agree, sweetheart, and we have to get going. I’ll have the flight attendant escort you on board while I get our bags.”
I nodded and retrieved my phone to dial the mansion’s number from heart. It went straight to voicemail. I left a cryptic but plain message for my mother—Meet me at Pops’ grave in three hours, Ma-ling. Enough time to fly there, drive to his grave, and tell him what I wanted him to know, I hoped.
I hated to leave the cocoon of the car. It was a dog-eat-dog world out there. Yeah, well, I got out anyway, only for it to be awkward boarding the jet and sitting in luxury tan leather chairs. I still didn’t want any parts of this world. Everyday people didn’t rent jets. I didn’t want to get accustomed to a lifestyle that was like a drug, a habit that had to be kicked. It was so easy to be spoiled, letting others do everything for me.
I settled into my awkwardness like it was a well-worn coat that would protect me from the environment. That was until Christian introduced me to a quickie mile-high-club-style in the black and tan bedroom off the main cabinet, swearing he wanted to take my mind off the journey we were on.
I countered with he just wanted to get his rocks off, and hell yeah, I was game because I had rocks too. All that awkwardness had flown out the porthole by the time we were shacked up in the standalone shower for a swift wash in the bathroom connected to the bedroom, both toweling off when the attendant announced we’d be landing in ten minutes in a no-nonsense tone. Basically, get our asses in the seatbelts naked if we had to. Naked might be better than the tee-shirt and jeans I put back on, technically underdressed for visiting my mother who didn’t dress down even for bed. I refused to change anything however. This was everyday-me who would never be loved for me by anybody if I conformed every time I felt mediocre.
On the backside of LAX, we touched ground. Before I could say I’d go inside the airport to rent a car—to contribute something to the trip—he was already saying, “All you have to do is be here, sweetheart.”
Does he read my mind?
“Christian, you don’t know that was—” Save it because he reads your mind.
I put the shut to the up. He smirked, then steered me from the jet to a tinted, black Escalade SUV on the tarmac with our bags in hand, one belonging to his laptop. I waited at the passenger side because he forgot to unlock it, probably because he wanted to open the door for me who asked, “Yours, I take it?” Got my answer when I stepped from the running board very much needed for a lift up to inside the vehicle that smelled just like him.
“Yep, you said you wanted it. You’ll be driving it back to Arrow, so you can get used to it.” My blue beast officially had a second driver, and I just couldn’t seem to care.
I reached for my seatbelt. “Technically, I didn’t want the SUV, but I ain’t about to start walking and catching rides in my own car to place either, so a bargain had to be struck.”
“Did I make good on it?” Christian stepped forward, crowding me in my seat, his nearness doing a better job of cloaking me from the environment than a coat of awkwardness ever could.
I caressed the side of his face with one hand. “You make good on every damn thing you do.”
“That’s because you deserve it and I sure as hell want you to be happy with me.”
“No, it’s just the man you are, and I don’t deserve you but I’m keeping you for as long as I can.”
With a sly smile, he stepped back, reaching for the door, intending to close it. “We’ll agree to disagree on what you deserve, and you better be prepared to keep me for always, Foreign.”
He shut the door, probably before I could spit out a comeback. I didn’t have one, didn’t need one, while observing him circle the front grill as he watched me through the windshield. ‘Forever’ sounded wonderful.
Once he climbed in the driver’s seat, we shucked our coats, too bulky for the mild weather, then started toward the gravesite he didn’t need directions to. I lived inside my head for the thirty-minute drive to the other side of the city, mentally listing what I wanted to say to my father. Strangely, the list wasn’t as long as I thought it would be.