My Addiction: Second Chances Series (23 page)

Shit! Nora.

I stopped kissing Ayana’s neck and looked at her. Clearly, she heard what Nora said to me and she looked at me questioningly. I realized I did feel my phone going off a few times while I was talking to Ayana, and while I stood in the hallway, but that was so far from my thoughts at the time.

“Braddock,” Nora repeated.

“Uh, yeah,” I answered. “I’ll be right down.” I hung up, sighed and stood. I helped Ayana up, and as I did, I could have sworn I heard someone groan from behind the door next to us.

I felt Ayana try and move from my arms, but I moved her closer to me. “So, I, uh, have made plans for the next few days.”

“So I heard.”

“Do you want to come?”

She scoffed and again tried to move from me. “Are you joking? You want me to go with you and Nora? I don’t think so. Let me go!”

I frowned and backed her against the wall behind her. I moved her arms above her head and held her there with one hand bringing the other one to her chin. I held her there with my body against her.

“Let’s get something straight, okay? No, I don’t want you to go anywhere with Nora. Hell, I’m not going anywhere with Nora, except to the airport. She is going back to Houston and I’m going to Vegas for a much needed vacation. Now I was hoping that the love of my life would want to accompany me so maybe we could pick up where we left off on the hallway floor of this hotel, but, shit, if she wants to stay here…”

Ayana started nodding her head frantically with a wide smile. “Yes, I want to go! Of course, I want to go.” She started kissing me. “I love you, Bradley. Hmmm, I love you so much, baby.”

Her kisses went from pecks to something more as she started moving her hips against me.

God, I love this woman.

Her lips went to my neck and my hands went right to her ass and gripped her tight against me. I was about to say fuck this flight when my phone buzzed again.

“Shit.”

Ayana laughed. “Come on, Doctor Mills. I promise the moment we get to Vegas and to a bed, we’re getting naked and christening that room.”

I smiled and backed up from her. “I can’t fucking wait.”

“Second chances are not given to make things right, but are given to prove that we
could be better even after we fall.” - Unknown

As I pulled into the parking lot of Hatch’s Martial Arts building, I slowly climbed down from my truck. Today was the day from hell and all I wanted to do was take a shower, shave this shit off my face and go to sleep. Being a Sergeant of a Major Crimes division didn’t allow me time to do shit or have a life. However, I had a great group of men under me. Solomon and Derek had been with me since the academy. We’ve worked together for years, but they weren’t interested in moving up as I was. Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t want the chief of police job in the least, but I wanted to run my own unit.

My Captain knew this about me and knew how good of a leader I was, so he gave me my own unit to house and run. Of course, Derek and Sol came with me. I found Scott Ivey working vice, who became my right hand man very quickly. Danny Suarez, my tech guy, Brady Nelson, Homer Jenkins, and Lester Wallace, all asked to join my team the moment they heard I had one. I’d admit I do have this sort of reputation in the department. That’s all I’m going to admit right now.

Anyway, I was on my way home when I got a call from Ivey asking me if I could pick up Noelle from her self-defense class. At first, I was going to tell him no, but I changed my mind. Noelle had gotten under my skin in a short amount of time. We were still keeping her close to us, letting Santos know if they touch her in any way it’s considered an act of war. As I hinted briefly, I wasn’t the typical cop and my unit didn’t always go by the book. If anyone fucks with me or my unit, it would be the last thing they’d do… Santos, being the smart man I knew he was, knew me. He knew what it would mean to go to war with me and he didn’t want that.

Even though things with Santos were quiet, we weren’t letting up in the least. Noelle went nowhere without us and even if she tried, Scott would lose his fucking mind. You can figure out what’s going on with that.

As I opened the door, Noelle looked over at me and smiled. I nodded my head, then my eyes fell on Ayana. She was standing next to Noelle as she looked at me and waved. Ayana and I had gotten closer after that whole ordeal a few months ago. I’d turned down the asshole a lot. I guess it took me seeing her through that shit to learn who she really was. Ayana is a very strong woman, I give her that. Most of all, she’s loyal to a fault. That loyalty was something you wanted in the person close to you; your family member, friends, or significant other.

I admired her for it, but I just wanted her to give that fierce loyalty to those who fucking deserved it, and her brother wasn’t one of them. Terrence actually showed up a few weeks after everything went down. He explained that he tried to work out something with Allen to save Ayana. He said he teamed up with Allen to take Santos down. Terrence told Allen he would testify, wear a wire, whatever it took to save Ayana. Well, what he didn’t know was two of his guys were already bought by Santos and, of course, Allen managed to make it on Santos’ payroll.

Luckily, Terrence was smarter than he looked. When his crew, that betrayed him, took his unconscious body to the trunk of their car, the rest of his crew in hiding saw it and saved him. Allen, unfortunately, got away from them, but of course he didn’t go far.

I will give it to Ayana; she seemed to have forgiven her brother for his idiotic ways. But you could tell she had changed when it came to him. I think he felt it too because he’d been keeping his distance from her. Take a guess how I know.

Fine, I’ll tell you….I caught up with him one day and told him to stay away from her or I’d cut his dick off and make him eat it. Either way, I think he got the picture.

I did ask for two members of his crew that betrayed him and he didn’t give them up. I’m sure he got his revenge on them or would soon.

Looking at Ayana now, I could still see some of the sadness in her eyes. The shit she went through took a toll on her. It was evident, but, as I mentioned, my girl was strong. Only the people closest to her knew of her demons, and we let her know she’s not alone in fighting them either.

I think she had a great idea teaching self-defense class and so did Hatch. Hatch Williams was ex-Army. He made it his mission in life to teach women how to protect themselves from any and all enemies they should encounter. He and I grew up together, and I knew his mom was a victim of domestic violence. Unfortunately, she lost her life because of it. Hatch made it his mission in life that if he could save at least one life, he was doing something good. I agreed with him and anytime I came across women that had been hurt in some way, I sent them his direction. He’s a great motivator and mentor so I knew, when Ayana said she worked with him in the past, she was in good hands.

I’ve sat in a few of her classes, just to show some support, and to see what she was working with. One class, she actually sparred with Hatch, and I had to say I was impressed. That girl could kick some ass big time. Nevertheless, not all of the fighting and teaching could take the sadness and emptiness from her eyes. No, the only person that could was the very person I saw walk through the door.

He nodded in my direction, then was suddenly pushed back by a flying Ayana. I never understood those two, but my brother told me I probably wouldn’t ever understand. I watched Brad smile and caress Ayana’s face as she held on tight to him. One thing I could say was those two had a love so deep nothing and no one could pull them apart. When they called me to ask for my blessings on them getting married in Vegas, I just told them to stop wasting my time… as if they would listen if I told them no.

Brad had told me one day that Ayana had some kind of hold on him that he couldn’t control. I called him weak. I told him confidently that there was no way I’d ever let a woman get to me that way… not gonna…

“Shit!” I barked.

“God, I’m so sorry,” said someone, with the most heavenly voice I had ever heard.

My arms instantly went around the person that collided into me. I looked down into a set of beautiful brown slanted eyes with just a hint of gold specks dancing in them. Her skin was smooth and buttery chocolate. I couldn’t stop looking at her. And her lips, the gloss on them was a trigger for all of the blood to go straight to my dick. Hell, I almost bent down and kissed her.

This woman was doing something to me that I couldn’t begin to tell you. The top of her head stopped at my chin, the perfect height, and my hands went around a curved waist that I don’t want to admit felt good.

I found my voice and cleared my throat. “No, that’s my fault.”

She shook her head, ponytail swaying from side to side.

“Oh no, really. I can be a klutz. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

“Hey, Phoebe.”

We both turned and found Ayana and Brad standing next to us. I then realized I still had this woman in my arms. She realized it too and was the first to back away. I frowned promptly from the feeling of loss I felt when she moved.

This is bullshit
.

Ayana, grinning like a damn Cheshire cat said, “Are you leaving?”

She looked at the woman.

Phoebe, wasn’t it
?

Phoebe nodded at Ayana and smiled. She moved further back from me and said to Ayana, “Yes, I need to run a few errands before I head home. Great class. I just hope I can use what you’ve shown me.”

Ayana moved slowly to touch her arm. I could see Phoebe flinch a little, but she didn’t move when Ayana touched her.

“I know you will.” Ayana smiled and nodded. “Just keep coming to the classes. The more you come, I swear the more comfortable you will become. When I tell you it will become instinct, I’m not kidding.”

Phoebe nodded and smiled. “I’m sure you’re right. Thanks. See you next week. It was good to see you, Dr. Mills.”

“Please, Phoebe, call me Brad. And it was good to see you too.”

Finally, those brown eyes came to me. I heard Ayana say, “This is my brother-in-law, Lock.”

Her eyebrows burrowed. “Lock?”

“Lockhart,” Ayana added, and I frowned at her. She knows how much I hate that name.

“Lockhart Mills,” Phoebe repeated my name as if she was tasting something for the first time. “I like it!” she replied, smiling at me, and I swear my fucking heart stopped.

“Take care guys.” Phoebe walked away, and I watched her as she moved. The grace and elegant way she walked entranced me. I blinked a few times.

Did I just say entranced
?

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” I heard Ayana ask.

I didn’t reply… I couldn’t.

I can’t believe I fucking said entranced.

I blinked a few times to gather myself, and instead of answering Ayana, I turned to where I saw Noelle’s last position and moved in her direction. I needed to get out of here.

********

My cell started buzzing, and I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t. It kept going off. When I looked at the screen, I saw it was Ayana.

“Shit.”

I sat up quickly and answered my phone. “What’s wrong?”

“Lock, I’m sorry to wake you, but I really need your help.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, what’s up? Are you and Brad okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine. It’s not us; it’s Phoebe. Do you remember her? She’s the woman you met earlier today.”

Hearing the name instantly put me on edge. Ayana didn’t call at 4:00 in the morning asking for help. It’s never that simple. When she called, it’s something major. Hearing Phoebe’s name in the mix made me jump from my bed and grab my jeans.

“Yeah, I remember. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. She called me frantic, telling me that the guy that attacked her before was back and she didn’t know what to do.”

“Did you call 911?” I asked her, as I pulled a sweatshirt over my head.

“Yes, Brad called. But Lock, she freaks out with men. She has a history that I can’t get into, but she needs a friendly face.”

“And you think I can help?” I grabbed my keys and moved quickly down the steps out to my truck.

“Lock, I saw you two together. Phoebe doesn’t like to be touched by anyone. I had to work up to just touching her on her arm and when I say it took a while, I’m not exaggerating. You held her in your arms, Lock, and she let you. So yes, you can help.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay. Send me her address.”

I looked at it on my phone and saw she was fifteen minutes away from me up Preston in Frisco.

When I got to a subdivision filled with townhomes, I went straight to the townhouse that had three cop cars sitting in front of it and an ambulance idling in the middle of the street. I jumped out of the truck and went straight to the house, showing my badge as I moved. I didn’t answer any questions nor did I talk to anyone. My main goal was to find Phoebe.

I heard her scream, and I raced up the steps to a room flooded with cops.

“Move back,” I barked and held my badge up. I barged my way into the room, noting a few faces I recognized. It didn’t matter if I knew these cops or not; if one of them got in my way; it would be a problem.

The sight I saw before me brought my level of rage to an all-time high. Phoebe was crouched in the corner with her hair failing over her tear-streaked face, breathing erratically.

I heard someone say next to me, “We’ve searched the house and found where someone broke in, but they’re long gone. We’re canvassing the area for anyone suspicious right now. We found a piece of mail with her name on it. Her name is uh, Phoebe Gates, twenty-nine years old, lives alone. No priors… a war vet…”

My eyebrows rose to that bit of news, but I didn’t reply.

The officer continued. “When we found her, she was there holding that huge knife and no one can get to her. The paramedics want to check her over, but they can’t get close.”

I frowned and turned. “And what? You fucking idiots were just going to stand here looking at her until she tired herself out? Everyone get the fuck out!  Paramedic too!”

“But sir,” I heard someone reply and I added, “I’ll let you know when you can come in, and close the damn door behind you.”

Damn idiots.

When the door closed, I moved in her direction. I removed my gun, put it on the bed and I softly called her name. “Phoebe, it’s me, Lock. Do you remember me from Hatch’s?”

No response.

“Ayana and Brad called me saying that you had a break in by someone that attacked you before. Do you want to tell me about it?”

Nothing.

I was lost at this point. This, being sympathetic, wasn’t my strong suit. I had to think of something else. She was rocking and shaking uncontrollably and she could easily go into shock. I got down on my hands and knees and moved to her, keeping my eyes steady on hers. At first, she looked blankly at me. Then finally, as if a switch went off, her eyes focused on me.

“Hey, beautiful,” I said softly, and I don’t know if it was my voice or my words, but she dropped the knife and crawled to me. I didn’t move. I let her come to me. When she got to me, she wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her head under my chin.

I didn’t think about anything Ayana said about her not liking to be touched. I wrapped her tightly in my arms and held her close to me. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you again. Okay, baby?… I promise you that.”