Her face lit up. “For me?!” her heart jumped in her throat. “But my car is okay…” Her voice trailed off when she remembered how okay it really wasn’t. She had missed her car payment last month and the letters had filed in. The bank loved to threaten reclaiming property quite eagerly.
He shook his head unbelievably. “Just take the gift,” he shoved it in her hand. “Let me take care of you. That’s all I ask.”
Accepting the gift, she kissed him gratefully. It was going to be hard getting used to this.
Chapter9
The luxuriant vacation was over in a flash. She now sat behind the wheel of her sparkling pink Mercedes Benz, unsure as how to handle it. She’d been afraid to touch it, because in doing so it might disappear. But when she put her especially decorated key in the ignition and turned it on, the deep rumble reverberated through her, causing tingles of shock waves across her body. Just the pure adrenaline of it all was overwhelming.
She drove through the familiar streets of her neighborhood, hoping no one would notice. But of course, she got plenty of stares from passersby. It wasn’t too often that a car of this prestige made it to these parts. After all, her apartment wasn’t in the nicest area of New York City. It was in one of the older run-down parts. Sometimes, gun shots were common-place, and Charles worried about her safety living there.
“Come live with me,” he had suggested, not so long ago. She had taken a while to come to a decision, but he insisted so much that she gave in. After all, they were getting married, what could it hurt?
As she pulled up the street where she resided, she couldn’t help but notice a familiar beat-up tan car. It was pimped out completely, a gaudy spoiler on the back. She cringed, slowing down and parking a few cars away. What was he doing here?
Debating whether to tell Charles to meet her out here, she had decided against it. Any problems from her world would have to be resolved on her own. She didn’t need him to babysit her or be her bodyguard. And if Devon was here to give her a hard time, as she knew he was, then she would have to deal with it as she always did. Her new fiancé didn’t need to know certain things about her life.
Grabbing the pepper spray from out of her car, she tucked it in her purse. She had a bad feeling about this.
She walked up the stairs to the welcome door, opened it, and then walked down the familiar hallway until she got to her front door. She took a breath. Her heart was pounding in her chest, making it harder to breathe calmly.
Please don’t let it be open… She prayed silently. Odds were he was waiting inside. He had a habit of doing that, knowing he was unwelcome in her home. That didn’t change anything.
Devon was her violent druggie ex-boyfriend. She had learned that the hard way. His need to control everything was the worst quality about him, and one day she pushed him a little too far. Granted, she’d known this about him before she started dating him, but love was blind. She was so infatuated by his muscles and handsome physique that she overlooked his real intentions.
She burst through the door, planting her feet firmly in the opening of her home. “Get the fuck out,” she yelled boisterously. “I know you’re in here, Devon!” She didn’t want to deal with his shit today. And she was afraid to enter her home and meet with his Russian roulette personality. If she dodged a beating today, she was asking for one tomorrow. And unfortunately, there was nothing she could do but suffer through it. She was tied down too far in the game, despite the fact that she had never asked for any of it.
“Shut the damn door, bitch,” Devon’s familiar deep voice bellowed from her living room. “I’m not playing with you.”
“Do as he says,” another male voice echoed behind him.
Her heart sank upon realizing who else was there. “Jerome,” she questioned, feeling a knot building inside her.
She hesitated with shaking hands before sliding the door closed behind her. This time he had brought family, and it only meant one thing…trouble.
Tiptoeing across her plush carpeted floor, she passed the small hallway and into the kitchen that overlooked her living room. Her heart sank at the picture before her.
Devon stood with a small handgun resting beneath crossed arms. It was the most casual posture he could’ve mustered while still retaining his menacing stance.
Seeing her, he smiled, his super white teeth revealing gold fillings, which clashed against his dark ebony skin. “Welcome home, Babe,” he licked his lips, eyes trailing all over her body.
She felt sick and mentally molested. There was once a time where she found him sexy as hell. But those days were over. She had grown up and moved on from that way of life. It was what she had been used to as a young girl. The foster family who finally adopted her were wonderful people, but their children ran their own shebang right under their noses. And in the midst of it all, she had gotten caught up in the stupid decisions of her siblings.