Power (Romantic Suspense) (13 page)

Domingo gripped the knife hard. “And if I slice your neck right now?”

Noah laughed. “Then everybody on this property will die. Because if I die, my men will kill you. Then they’ll destroy the few of your men that will stay loyal. But let’s face it. In this game, no one stays loyal to a corpse. Everyone watches the old boss die and then follows the new leader.”

Domingo kept his mouth closed.

But Noah wasn’t finish. “Do you see the men behind me? How many of them would let your mother run free after you and I are gone? Who do you think has been keeping these wild men at bay today? Shit. I bet some of them are already pondering how they would rape your sisters and if the kids would watch.”

Domingo’s jaw twitched. “You’ve always thought you were better than me because of your good little home and your fancy degrees.”

“Think, Domingo. Don’t be stupid.” Noah laughed. “In fact, what would Jesus do?”

Water glazed over Domingo’s eyes. “R-run, Cain! Just. . .R-un.”

“You never should have killed Rasheed,” Noah added.

“You were going to kill one of us anyway.”

“But I hadn’t chosen.” Not caring anymore, Noah turned around, moved to me, and held out his arm. “Are you okay, Mary Jane?”

I was more surprised that he actually sounded worried about me. “I’m okay.”

“Sorry about that. I just had to talk to an old friend.”

“Are you really going to kill him?” I whispered as we walked off.

“I have to.”

“Why?”

“He killed children. If I let it go, then he may do it again. And it will definitely let others know that kids are no longer off limits.”

I let out a long breath. “He was your friend?”

“Yes. A very good one.”

“How do you feel about killing him?”

He paused and stared at me for a second. “I don’t know yet. I usually put my emotions away and deal with them another day.”

“So you compartmentalize?”

“I do whatever it takes to walk these streets.”

“But isn’t it hard to walk the streets when there’s so much blood being spilled around you?”

He didn’t look like he wanted to answer, but he did. “Yes.”

“Do you have nightmares?”

Silent, he let go of my arm and walked off as if agitated with my question.

I hurried after him. “So, where are we going now?”

“We have one more place to go.” And then his voice sounded dark and terrifying. “Come on. We have an ex-boyfriend to visit.”

Wait. What? Oh, fuck! Harold’s threat about posting my nude picture.

Chapter 8

Mary
Jane

A young man invited frisky old women into his home.

He said to his servants:
"Mix a drink for one, and have sex with the other, if she wants to."

The women spoke up as one:
"I'm not thirsty."

–Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)

O
nce
we climbed in the limo, I turned to Noah. “What do you mean we have an ex-boyfriend to visit?”

“How long have you dated this idiot?” Noah pulled out my phone and typed into it.

“Not that long and what are you texting him?” I tried to grab the phone, but he kept it away from me. “What did you just say?”

“He wants to talk to you, face-to-face. I gave him a meeting place.”

“Wait. We can’t do that. You can’t do that.” I tried to get the phone again, throwing myself on him and trying to wrestle his hand to me.

With his rock hard arms, he barely moved. “He threatened to post a naked picture of you on Facebook and anywhere else. Your family and friends will see that beautiful pussy in the air.”

“I saw that text, but—”

“What do you think happens to someone that messes with my people?”

“I’m thinking not good things.” Shock hit me. “I’m one of your people?”

Again, that cold mask of his faltered. “You’re with me now.”

My phone buzzed again and he typed some more.

“What are you telling him?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Noah set my phone on his leg, took out his own cell, and got on it. “Crusher, head over to Manny’s Pizza really quick. We’re meeting a punk ass kid named Harrold. When we arrive, park, find him, and bring him to me. What? No. Huh? I said no. I want to do it. Fine. You do it, but don’t kill him. Yes, but not any of those old Disney movies, at least do the new ones.”

What the fuck are they talking about?

Noah groaned, “If you play that song, then it’s your job to clean up the blood.”

I’m so fucking lost right now.

He hung up and put the phone away.

“Okay. Look,” I said. “You can’t hurt him. Harrold is an ass cock, but I couldn’t deal with the guilt of somebody being hurt around me. Just let me call him and—”

“How long did you date him?”

I frowned. “What are you going to do?”

“How long?” he growled.

“Barely four months.”

“When did you break up with him?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Why?”

“What are you going to do to him?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

His features warmed a little as he scooted over to me and pulled my arms down. “Why did you break up with him?”

“Because he was boring and a bit possessive. He never liked it when I went out with my friends. He barged in on Girl’s Night a few times. I caught him looking into my phone. Plus, he didn’t think I was that funny. He thought I should pay more attention to my classes.”

Noah picked my phone back up and pulled up the image. “And when did you take this picture?”

Embarrassment froze and kept me speechless. I could barely look at it with him so near. “Put that away.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s embarrassing.”

“No. I’ve never seen a prettier pussy than that one. And so wet. He either has a top notch cell phone camera or I’ve made several mistakes today.”

“What mistakes?”

“Instead of yelling at you, I should have been lapping at that puckered little clit right there. Mmmmm. Look how wet she gets.”

My breasts felt heavy and my nipples stiffened. He pressed his warm body against me and I craved him even more. I wanted his clothes off and cock jutting out to me. “I don’t want you to hurt my ex. Sure, I have to talk to him and tell him not to—”

That stone cold expression covered his face. “You think you’ll be more effective than me?”

“I think I would be more legal.”

He leaned his head to the side. “I own the police. What’s more legal than that?”

“Doesn’t matter. You don’t get to hurt people for me.”

“No?”

“No.”

He leaned in closer. “Or what?”

Fear began rising, but I pushed it back down. I didn’t know much about men like him, but I knew that punking out and whimpering like a baby wouldn’t be the answer. I pulled up my courage and glared back at him. “I don’t fucking know what, but I would figure out a way to make your life uncomfortable.”

We stared at each other for several seconds. Neither of us blinking. For some reason, I couldn’t fucking blink before he did. It might’ve been the childishness in me, but he’d have to blink first.

He blinked and I flashed a wicked smile.

Great! One tiny, insignificant victory for me! Ha! Take that. You can probably kill me and everyone I know with one phone call, but can you beat me in a blinking contest? No! Stand the fuck down!

Sneering, he picked up his phone again, pressed some buttons, and talked into it. “Crusher, change of plans. Put your Disney cd away. We won’t get him. Yes. Yes. I know. Tell Fuji and 305 to run over to Manny’s and grab him. Why? Because they fucking listen. Okay. What? Maybe. Look, not fucking Snow White. No. Because that soundtrack has the worst songs. It sounds more like opera. Jesus, enough about this!”

Disney cd? Snow White? Am I hearing this correctly?

He paused while Crusher must’ve asked what the guys should do next. “I don’t know. Have them keep him there. Until then, we’re taking a detour. Take us to Vaso Beach.”

When Noah hung up, I asked. “Why are we going to the beach and what’s up with the Disney stuff?”

“We’re going to the beach because we need to get some things straight.”

“And the Disney stuff?”

“Don’t worry about that. In fact, if you never know, your life will be the better for it.”

“Fine, but what do we need to get straight?”

He took my phone out, pulled up that picture again, and captured his bottom lip with his teeth. “You stumbled into the wrong bar, Mary Jane.”

“What does that mean?” I tried to take the phone away from him. “And stop looking at the photo.”

He shut it off. “I’ve never seen a prettier pussy.”

Embarrassed and surging with hormones, I turned away and stared out of the window. “Stop saying that.”

His laughter filled the limo.

We arrived at Vaso Beach in no time. I hadn’t been out here in years. Too many tourists littered the place. Vaso was the Spanish word for glass and Vaso Beach had many varieties of sea glass. Smooth, multi-colored, and frosty, thousands upon thousands of these jeweled little pebbles covered the sand. They were the product of humans and nature. Like the glass beaches of California, people had used our shore as a trash dump for forty years. They filled the place with discarded bottles.

Years before my mother was born, the state stopped the dumping and spent the next ten years cleaning up as much as possible. The ocean waves did the rest, tumbling the broken bottles and glass over and over for many years, giving them smooth, rounded shapes. Through the tide and sea power, the shore became this beautiful mistake. A tragic miracle. By the time I was born, everyone had begun calling it Vaso Beach, because the area has a heavy Spanish population surrounding it.

Once the limo stopped, Crusher let us out, handed Noah a huge blanket, and returned to the front and got back in.

“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never been here at night.”

“I’m always sitting here and thinking.” Taking off his jacket, Noah covered my shoulders with it and led us forward. “This beach is my second office. The blanket is my desk and chair. Sometimes I have to get out, be alone, and keep my mind still.”

“Is that what keeps the nightmares away?”

“I never said I had any.”

“How could you not? I took a psych class and it talked about post traumatic—”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

A cool, salty breeze blew past us. A few strands of my hair fell out of my up-do and tickled the side of my face. Noah stared at stray hairs like they were freaking nipples. My body shivered and I couldn’t pin point why.

Must he always make me jittery? Look somewhere else.

I drank in the beautiful view around us. The powerful ocean waves crashed out in the distance, delivering a soothing sound above the moonlit pebbles. They glowed on the beach and almost appeared alien. As if we’d stepped into a fantasy world where bright gems dotted the sand.

We both took off our shoes and Noah got rid of his socks. One would’ve thought that him barefoot in his expensive suit should have taken away from his hotness factor, but it didn’t. If anything, my body surged even more with hunger.

What are we doing?

I let him hold my hand and tried not to enjoy his hard fingers against mine, too much. The entire evening had become bizarre. I was his captive, not his date. I had to remember that. “So you need time to come out here and think?”

“I don’t need time to think,” he replied.

“Are you sure?’ Glowing glass pebbles smoothed against my feet. “That guy at the party seemed a bit crazy.”

“That’s not a difficult problem. There’s just one solution and I’m ready to do it. I didn’t want to kill him earlier today. It was going to be a hard decision. But now, this is easy. He took away our friend and I’m pretty sure he was the one who killed those kids in the park. I love him, but not enough to let him live after children have died.”