Power (Romantic Suspense) (30 page)

Fuji paused from messing with the ceiling. “People like who?”

Tasha raised her eyebrows at the big man and looked at me as if questioning who the hell he was.

“He’s my. . .cousin. Felix meet my roommate Tasha.”

Fuji glanced over his shoulder. “Who’s Felix?”

“Never mind.” I returned to her. “So, who’s come by? My mother said she stopped by.”

“Like almost every day.” Tasha flipped a page. “Your aunt has been around too. She took your computer since it was broken and some of your photo albums.”

I did my best not to look alarmed as I sat up. “My
aunt
?”

“Yes.”

Mom has no sisters. Neither does Dad, not that I would know them if I’d seen them. I’ve never met that side of the family. So. . .who the fuck was that?

“So, I wonder which aunt it was.” I gave a nervous laugh. “I have so many of them. What did she look like?”

“Pretty,” she said, sounding surprised. “Glamorous, I guess. She had on a sun dress with a rose print and a beautiful necklace with a ruby butterfly hanging from—”

“Shit,” I mumbled.

Vibrators, lube, and tons of notebooks rained down from the ceiling after Fuji knocked the ceiling tile out too hard. “That was Butterfly.”

“Clearly.” I shook my head at all my sex toys on the ground.

“She’s been here,” Fuji said. “Noah isn’t going to be happy.”

I shivered in fear, wishing I wasn’t injured and could kick her ass myself. “Yes and the bitch has my computer and photo albums. That’s all of my personal information.”

Tasha scrunched her face at me saying
bitch
. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged while a few more vibrators fell.

“How many of these things do you need?” Annoyance laced Fuji’s voice as he picked up several vibrators.

“Those are emergency ones. I don’t need them, now.”

Fuji didn’t bother replacing the ceiling tile. He jumped off the bed and gathered the notebooks. “We got to get you the fuck out of here.”

“Mary Jane?” Tasha closed her bible and stood. “What’s going on? Who are all these strange people coming by?”

Fuji glared at her. “Who else came by?”

“A little boy. I think he was Mexican or something. He had a Mohawk.”

“What did he want?” Fuji cursed some more and slung the notebooks into a bag on my desk.

“He didn’t say anything,” Tasha said. “He just waved, walked in, looked around like a detective and left. I think he had a key.”

Mohawk. Knowing him, he picked the lock.

Tasha continued, “After that, he left. It must’ve been the day after your Aunt came. And then your boyfriend, Harrold—”

“We’re not dating anymore,” I corrected.

“Well, he came here in a wheel chair with three guys. I think they must’ve been coming from baseball practice or something, because they all had bats. He left a message that you are to call him immediately.”

Awesome. Harrold is seeking revenge. You may want to focus on healing, before Noah ends up killing you.

“We have to go.” Fuji grabbed me up fast, not being as careful as he’d been earlier. A bag of my joke books hung on his other arm. “Tasha, if anybody else comes by, you call Mary Jane’s phone and let her know immediately.”

Tasha grabbed her bible and scowled. “And who are you?”

“Eh, do what I said, so I don’t have to slap you.”

Shocked, she dropped to her knees. “The lord is my shepherd! He takes care of me!”

“Really?” I shook my head while being carried me out. “You could’ve been nicer.”

Tasha yelled off in the distance, “He leads me to green meadows and quiet waters!”

“We don’t have time for nice.” Fuji huffed. “Fucking Butterfly knows your name, if she knows this is where you went to school. Next stop is going to be your families’ houses if she gets a good picture of them.”

“What?!” I tensed.

“Sorry, MJ. Everything should be fine. Noah’s had security on your mom since the first day you were in the hospital.”

“He has?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t supposed to say anything.” He sped up, the bag of joke books slapping his back with each step. “Now, he’ll probably have your mother brought to the loft and watched over. We probably have to—”

“Excuse me? Do you realize I’ve been lying to my mother this entire time? Not to mention the fact that she will not like Noah because he’s a murderer—”

“What are you more scared of, her dying or you getting into trouble?”

“Hmmm. Let me think about that.” I attempted a joke, but neither of us had any humor left. Shit was becoming even more serious.

We made it back downstairs and outside faster than we’d went up. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken our time in my room, because when we arrived at the car, someone had flattened the tires.

Not good.

“Motherfucker.” Fuji sighed. “I knew this was a bad idea. Noah is going to kill me.”

“He better not touch you.” I held him tighter. Recognizing the van, I was glad Mohawk remained by Fuji’s car. I was about to say let’s just see if he’s in there, but then a female whistled behind us.

Fuji turned us around. Three identical black women stared back at us, dressed casually, but elegant. All three had hazel eyes. Their faces were exact replicas of the other, but their hair was different. The one on the left wore braids. The one on the right was baldheaded and in the center, the triplet had blue waves.

I recognized their black pants and horn shoes from Le Couture. They had to be Butterfly’s crew. The flash and expensive clothes screamed her, but most of all, one of them had a gun in their hand, pointing at Fuji’s head.

Fuji’s voice shifted into a thunderous sound from nightmares. “Put that fucking gun down.”

The blue haired one spoke up in a raspy voice, her hand shook a little as she held the gun. “Don’t make me shoot you, Fuji. We’ve had some good times. I’d hate to throw flowers on your casket. Just put down the girl.”

“No.” Fuji’s voice became colder. “What do you know about a gun, NeeNee?”

“That it goes boom and kills a motherfucker real fast.” Blue hair raised the point a little higher.

“You’re not going to shoot me.”

“Don’t play me, Fuji.”

I swallowed down fear. “So. . .I really don’t want you to shoot Fuji. Is there a way that I can convince you to put that gun down?”

“By getting into our van over there.” The baldheaded one gestured to it. “Butterfly got a price tag on your head. We’re just trying to collect. We don’t want to hurt you or anything.”

“Bullshit,” Fuji hissed.

I tried to climb out of Fuji’s arms. “Let me go.”

“No.”

“Eh, put me down.”

“No.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m a free woman. I have a right to go with the creepy triplets if I want to.”

The weird women exchanged glances while we continued to argue. I looked around. A few students walked by, but no one noticed what was going on.

“Are you fucking crazy, MJ?” Fuji asked.

“Yes.” I hit his arm. “Come on. At least let me stand.”

“You’re not going with them.” Slowly, Fuji let me down.

“They’re going to shoot you if I don’t go with them. I almost lost Crusher, not that he is a bestie, but I would’ve missed him. If something happens to you, it’s going to be hard on me.”

“Man, do you think I care about a bullet to the brain. I’m more afraid of Noah than these hoes.” He cleared his throat. “I mean women and besides, NeeNee ain’t going to shoot that thing.”

“Relax. I’ll be okay.” Doubt filled my head, but what other option did I have. Butterfly was looking for me so hard that she might go for my family. I didn’t want that. I might’ve fallen for Noah and put myself into his dark world, but Mom and the rest of my family were innocent.

“MJ.” Fuji’s bottom lip quivered. “You’re not going with them. They might not hurt you, but Butterfly. . .”

Let that bitch come around me. She surprised me with the knife last time. Next time, I’m attacking first with anything in my damned hand.

I stood up straight. Pain swelled in my chest. “Tell Noah that I kneed you in the balls so you couldn’t chase after me.”

He twisted his face in confusion. “Tell him what?”

I rammed my knee into his crotch as hard as I could.

“MJ!” Fuji doubled over and crashed to the pavement.

The three women exchanged glances again while the blue haired one put the gun away. The whole time, her fingers continued to shake. “Oh, shit. Uh. Get in the van.”

“I need help.” I glanced at Fuji. “I’m so sorry, big guy, but I’d rather your dick hurt than your head explode from a bullet.”

Besides, I have creepy little Mohawk boy around this parking lot, somewhere.

The girls led the way and I took a page from my judgey roommate’s book. In my head, I prayed to God as much as I could.

The Lord is my shepherd. He takes care of me. . .

Chapter 21

Noah

A husband with bad breath covers his wife with kisses, murmuring

“My dear, my Hera, my Aphrodite!”

She, turning away, murmurs,

“My Zeus, my dead cod, er, my dread god!”

–Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)

I
have to end this with Butterfly.

The chick knew every move I would make, before I made it. She’d anticipated me burning down her brothels. By the time my soldiers appeared with the gasoline, all of the places had been emptied out. I couldn’t find her anywhere. No one spotted her. Not one woman or man, no matter who I threatened, had anything helpful to say. Why did I never realize how much of an enemy she could be? And why did everyone think that I cared for her? Just because I gave her business and slept with her more than the others, they thought she was more than what she was?

It was time to teach her and everyone else a lesson. This bitch has to go. She hurt my lady. That’s a strict death sentence. And fucking Crusher got shot twice. That has never happened. Shit is out of hand.

I had to resort to drastic measures. It was time to take a trip into Ebony Forest. I hoped I would make it out alive.

Relax. Don’t think about the men and women with sharp teeth and hungry bites. Just go in and ask for help and then, get you and 305 out of there.

“Keep on going forward,” I ordered.

305 drove our limo leaving Din City and headed south.

Proctor Road led into Ebony Forest, the best place to bury dead bodies. For some reason, the woods always reeked of burning cinnamon and honey. Imagine someone making a batch of cookies, but letting them cook in the oven for five hours.

The full moon hung over skeletal trees. Although spring, in this forest, leaves never grew on branches. The trees forever remained towering stripped bodies, swaying back and forth amid a chilly wind. The deeper you moved into the forest, the more the trees leaned down to the ground. The more they began to shape into circular patterns and then something more—dead horses, stiff and beautiful. Bark and wood shaped into creatures that swayed in the wind.

People claimed magic flowed through these woods. I didn’t have a good explanation. Life was a mystery anyway. Who knew what would come each day? Who knew what happened after death? Was there really a God or many gods? Was there power all around or inside of us?

Focus. Go into the woods, get help, and get the fuck out.

When I was young, Rasheed’s and my main job was to dig graves. Sometimes, that was all we did. We’d sit by five or so newly dug holes, rap some of our favorite songs, and talk about what girl had the biggest tits in our class. After a while, some soldiers would arrive with corpses and dump them in front of us. It was one of those first level jobs in the gang, sort of like a janitor in a major company. I touched my first dead body at too young of an age, held the cold thing in my hands, dragged it across the soil, and rolled it into my first hole. We got a hundred dollars for each body and did that for about a year, before being promoted to runners.