A Test of Love: Interracial Erotic Romance (Chasing Love) (26 page)

Argh!

There was no pain on earth that existed like a good hit to the testicles. It was lightening mixed with millions of hot razors digging into flesh. I would’ve tapped out if he could, if I had the ability to do anything else but clutch my balls and shriek. Stomping came from the distance. The viewing room was far in the basement’s far back so that the whole staff wouldn’t stumble upon it.

I crawled away. Troy caught my foot. I kicked him. Grunting, he jumped on top of me. Just when I was about to punch him in his gut, cold steel touched my neck.

I froze. “What is that?”

“Don’t worry. It’s a knife not a gun.”

I coughed. “I’m still worried.”

“Good. You’re smart.”

“And you’re not.”

“Why’s that, rich boy?”

“Because I thought we were friends who could help each other out.”

“Friends make sure other friends don’t do stupid shit.” Troy straddled me, his heavy weight pressing down on my center until I could barely breathe. “Like take my sister for instance. You fuck her over and that would be some stupid shit.” The sharp blade cut into my skin. Screaming, I tried to wrestle out of his arms. He had a good hold, even in the dark, which told me he’d done this kind of thing before. Troy had an acquaintance with this type of fighting, something that no gym sparring could’ve prepared me for.

He sliced a long line into my neck. “This is your first warning when it comes to my sister. The second warning goes across your Adam’s apple real slow-like.” He jumped off of me.

I rushed to my feet and swung at the air, ready to beat his behind. “Come here! Goddamn it. Come see me with the lights on.”

Troy chuckled. “Look at you, man. I give it to Jazz. She sure didn’t pick no punk.”

His voice sounded from the right. I punched in that direction. He tripped me. I crashed back down to the ground.

“I’m the sanest of my brothers.” Troy kicked me in my side. I screamed inside of my head, not giving him the joy of hearing my weakness anymore. “Be lucky, I’m the one who brought you the message. This is our thing, you know. We let any of the guys Jazz is dating understand that they have to be accountable for when they fuck with our sister. I never sent you the message. Viv had my head hostage.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to tell your sister Viv thank you.”

He kicked me again. This time I was ready for it. I flipped his ass over and slammed my closed fist into his face. He screeched. It was joy to my ears. I almost danced until he got out of my reach.

The lights came on. My men arrived on our sides, and a very pissed Jasmine raced down the stairs. “What the hell is going on?!”

Chapter 23

JASMINE

“Fools!” I paced between Chase and Troy. “Both of you fighting like kids. Who even started this?” I spotted the long jagged cut on Chase’s neck and almost growled at Troy. Vivian had to hold me back. I struggled to get out of her arms. “How could you, Troy?! All of you promised you wouldn’t do that anymore.”

“I wasn’t even there when Sherman and Mike promised.” Troy removed the bag of ice off his eye. “Mike said that shit, not me.”

Yeah, right.

“Mike said that none of you would cut any of my boyfriends again. Let me go, Viv!”

“What are you going to do?” Viv grinned. “Beat Troy up?”

“That’s a start!”

She pushed me a few feet back. “Calm down. Your man has lived to pimp another day. It’s a minor cut. He’ll be fine.”

“Oh, shut up. All of you.” I stared at Chase’s neck again. An old woman I’d never seen before dabbed at the cut with a white cloth and applied some clear gel on it as she spoke in Italian. “What is she saying?”

“To not get in fights with big guys like Troy.” Chase chuckled.

“That’s not funny.” I pushed out of Vivian’s arms. “None of this is a joke. Troy, you don’t hurt my boyfriends.”

“Boyfriend,” Chase corrected.

“Whatever. That’s not the point.”

“It
is
the point.” He started his gaze at my face and decorated my whole body from head to toe.

“Really?” I frowned. “You’re just going to ogle my breasts as someone fixes your wounds.”

“It’s one cut. I’m fine.” Chase waved the woman away as she bandaged it up. That incited several fast Italian words to shoot from her mouth. He stopped trying to stand up and instead took the freaking bandage like he should have the first time.

I twisted Troy’s way. “Have you apologized?”

“I just gave him a beer from upstairs.”

“What the hell does that have anything to do with an apology?” I asked Troy.

Chase responded instead, “It’s how men apologize.”

“No, it’s how jackasses apologize, and stop standing up for Troy. It will get you no points with my brothers. We can’t let them—”

“We’re fine.” Chase sipped his beer. “Apparently, from our heated dialogue, I gathered that this is the typical thing one must deal with when courting their sister.”

“Pretty much.” Troy put the ice back on his eye. “I’ve just been all busy making sure Jazz didn’t get killed, but once Benny showed up, I had time to—”

“Be a degenerate,” I finished for him.

“To make sure Chase understands that you’re not just some poor chick from the hood who can be treated any way. That if he thinks you’re going to be in a relationship with him, he needs to treat you right or die trying.”

“That’s stupid,” I said.

“It’s pretty brilliant. If you ask me.” Chase took another swig. “How many of her boyfriends have you cut, Troy?”

“Are we talking before or after they broke up?”

“Interesting.” Chase handed him an unopened bottle of beer. “Count them all.”

“She only had two main ones, college boys. Mike cut one after he played her. I got the other one at his wedding.”

“What?” I almost fainted. “You better not be talking about when you escorted me to Hugo and Lisa’s wedding. You cut my best friend’s husband at their wedding?”

“He was your boyfriend first. Come on, Jazz. You should’ve known that if the guy cheats on you, blood is going to leave that cat’s body either now or later. I cut him under his tux and even helped him clean it up. The smart ones take their punishment.”

“Or call the cops,” I argued. “That something you should consider.”

“Too bad none of your brothers are afraid of jail.” Vivian patted my shoulder. “I happen to think that it’s sweet that your brothers do their best to protect you.”

“I think they watched the damn Scarface movie too much and skipped over the tragic ending.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Meanwhile, we’re all in the kitchen while three crazy divas are upstairs plotting my demise.”

“You’re safe. Benny is here. I don’t like the man, but I trust him to protect you,” Chase said.

“Speaking of my father.” Vivian walked around me and grabbed her own beer from the cooler next to Troy’s legs. “Where is he?”

I didn’t like how silence came. “I’m going upstairs to check on him.”

“No,” Troy and Chase said in unison. It was funny how their fight had somehow brought them closer together rather than more distant. I didn’t relish in this new connection between them at all. It would only be positive reinforcement for Troy to further be a jackass.

“I’m just going to see if he is okay. There are cameras everywhere. No one is going to bother me.”

I wish one of them would try to approach me. It’s daylight now and we’re not in an alley, heifers!

“Wait until I’m done being fixed up.” Chase finished his beer.

“Troy must have hit you pretty hard. Did you just order me to stay?” I asked.

“I suggested an alternative.”

I looked at Vivian.

“Sounded like a macho order to me.” Vivian shrugged.

“Let the record show that Vivian doesn’t like me and will say almost anything to get me in trouble.” Chase held his hand to his heart. “I’m just a victim here.”

Troy spat out his beer as he giggled. “He’s really growing on me, Jazz.”

“Oh, stop it.” I headed up the stairs. “Come on, Vivian. Let’s go see your dad.”

“I won’t go inside if that man is in there,” she said. “I can wait out in the hall or something.”

I rolled my eyes, but since she was behind me, she couldn’t see. “That’s fine. I just need your awesome Kung Fu fighting skills anyway.”

She sliced the air with her hand. “I have been known to deliver justice to all those who have messed with mine.”

“Is that a Chuck Norris line?”

“No, but that reminds me.”

Oh, God! Do not start with the Chuck Norris jokes!

Vivian didn’t watch many action movies. The only way we could get her to check out any when we were kids was if Chuck Norris acted in them. Sadly, he’d starred in so many in the 1990s that Vivian ended up going to the movies with us several times. The action actor then became her secret obsession. I never got it. Then his television show,
Walker, Texas Ranger,
began, and there was no getting her away from the screen. She forced me to act out fighting scenes, her as Walker, me as stupid person getting his ass kicked.

And then the jokes came soon after.

“Many people say the Earth revolves around the sun,” Vivian said. “But I researched it.”

I gave off mock boredom. “And what did you find?”

“The Earth is actually still. What happens is the sun follows Chuck Norris as he does a daily jog around the Earth.” She cracked up with laughter.

Alrighty.

“Do you know that one time Chuck Norris dove off of a huge tower?” she asked as she climbed the stairs behind me.

“No.” I pretended to yawn. “I was not aware of this occurrence. And what happened to dear Mr. Norris?”

“Well, the ground didn’t make it.”

And my bus stops here.

“Okay. That’s your two-Chuck-Norris-joke limit for the day.”

“We agreed on three.”

“No. I said more than two Chuck Norris jokes in one day gives me diarrhea.”

“I thought that was five. Come on. Let me say one more. You must admit with everything going on. . .a little Chuck Norris in our lives could really lift our spirits.”

We got to the top of the stairs. All of the bedroom doors were closed. Quiet rode the air.

“Fine. Say your stupid joke.”

“Some people wear Superman pajamas.” Vivian formed her lips into a wide smile.

“Let me guess. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.”

She hit my back. “Oh. That’s not fair! I get another one.”

I knocked on the bedroom door behind which Benny was supposed to be hiding out. I didn’t get why he’d been even made to stay up here. Chase didn’t worry. Benny’s intel seemed to be just as good as his. If anybody was moving in the house, Benny somehow knew and even heard everything. I’d concluded that Benny probably had kept his wiring of Chase’s old home updated as technology improved. That was the type of guy Benny was, always thinking a few steps ahead of everyone else.

I knocked again. No one answered.

“Why does outer space exist?” Vivian asked.

“Because Chuck Norris’s penis is huge or something?”

“What? That’s a perverted answer.”

“It’s not like there is any clear logic to these jokes besides the fact that he is the man.” I opened the door and peeked my head in. Empty. No one was in there and this room wasn’t like the one Chase and I stayed in. There was no bathroom at all.

Where are you, Benny?

I ducked back out and closed the door.

“So what’s the answer?” Vivian asked.

“What?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Why does outer space exist?”

“Your father is not in his room,” I whispered. “Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“I don’t spend my time trying to understand that vile person anymore.”

Oh, yeah. She hates his guts. Note to self: Vivian won’t be logical when Benny is in the conversation.

I glanced down the hall. All of the other rooms remained closed. I knew for a fact that Dawn stayed in the farthest one on the end. Vivian, being my favorite asshole in the world, drew a huge number one in the center of Dawn’s door with a black permanent marker. If Troy wasn’t going to get us kicked out of Atrani and Chase’s house, Vivian sure would. The door with the number two done in green paint was where Wendy stayed. I’d wrestled the marker out of Vivian’s hands, went to go hide it, and returned to discover Vivian painting the numbers on the doors instead.

I think she’s been smoking today. How the hell did she get the weed?

“Do you give up?” Vivian asked.

“Not only do I give up, I’m hoping you will as well.”

“Outer space exists because it’s too afraid to stay on Earth with Chuck Norris.”

“Holy hell. No more jokes, please.”

“That’s blasphemous. I think.”

We stood in the center of the hallway, staring at those three doors with marker and paint on them. An urge rushed through me. It was strong and ready to make its dream come true. Every cell in my body said, “Go ahead. Do it. Face these bitches and see for yourself who tried to shoot you.”

What could go wrong?

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Vivian’s raised one blond eyebrow.

“You want to go confront Dawn?”

“Well, that too. I was really thinking of one more joke. In fact, if you let me tell the last one, I won’t tell on you for going to talk to them.”

“I wouldn’t care if you did.”

“Yes, you would. You’d hate for Chasey-poo to know you’re disregarding a direct order.” She batted her eyes. “Sure. He won’t do anything now, but we both know he’ll make you pay in the bedroom.”

Did everybody hear us having sex that day?

Vivian started jumping around and yelling like she was in church. “Jesus! Oh, Lord! Oh, save me!”

“Okay. Okay. That’s enough.” I shushed her.

The door with a rainbow-painted three opened. Lucy sneaked her head out. Not much had changed about her since the last time I’d seen her, besides the fact that she wore casual clothes instead of a business suit. A crochet needle was in her hand. I focused on the sharpened end as her face reddened and she hid it.

“What’s up, Lucy?”

“Nothing much. I mean, well, a lot, but not as much as you. I mean. You’ve been shot, right?” She came out into the hall and stared at my hurt arm. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I’d come to the restaurant, but when the guards said that we couldn’t talk to you and Chase, then I decided to just go to Colorado and be done with it all.”