Breathless: In Love With an Alpha Billionaire (Breathless 1)

"Boo bitch!" Justine said as I stood eye to eye with her chrome-plated pistol. She walked toward me, and I backed up into the house with my hands in the air.

My heart nearly jumped out of my shirt.

"Justine, what are you doing? I thought you were sick."

"Oh, I'm sick; sick of you being with my man, but I have medicine for your ass," Justine said as she pressed the barrel of the gun to my head.

"Ja-cob…is not here. He just got on his jet on the way to Miami to check on you," I said, hoping that would make her back down.

"Don’t tell me where my man is! I know where he is. I sent him there. I didn’t come for Jacob, Destiny. It's your home-wrecking ass that I'm here to settle up with." Justine's mascara ran wildly down her pale face. She looked as if she hadn’t had good sleep in days with disheveled hair and a wild look in her blue eyes.

I continued to back away from her. She drew closer with the gun pointed between my eyes, until I backed into a wall.

"I should kill your black whore ass where you stand. Who do you think you are to try to take my man?" she asked before hitting me on the side of my face with the gun.

"Awwaaw!" Blood gushed from my face and I hollered in pain, while gripping my face with my hand.

"Shut the fuck up before I shut you up. You've been running around here having a ball with Jacob, but this is real life right here. When you take something that belongs to another woman, you have to suffer the consequences. And, there are consequences for taking the one I love."

"I didn’t know…" I started to say.

She turned the gun around and hit me with the butt in the center of my face. I fell to the ground, hollering out loudly. I hoped someone would hear me and call the police. Then I remembered Jacob had no neighbors. He’d bought out the entire floor, and the businesses below the condo were closed.

"Wrong answer! I'm not going to let you stand here and act like you didn’t know Jacob belonged to me, especially when you saw me at the airport about to kill myself over him. You knew! Bitch, you knew!"

I lay on the ground and watched as she hit her own head with the side of the gun. She took out her cell phone and dialed a series of numbers.

"Move and you will die," she told me while making the calls.

"Hello my darling, Jacob," I heard her say before she kneeled down and popped me with the pistol again.

My head pounded so hard that I couldn’t think about moving. The beautiful smiles of my babies flashed before my eyes right as I blacked out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

JACOB

She Needed Me

My plane ascended into the air. I prayed Justine would make it through her latest suicide attempt, or at least hold on until I got there. I needed to tell her I was sorry for distancing myself from her. I had not taken her calls for the past three months, and the thought of her dying without knowing what she meant to me pierced a piece of my soul. I couldn’t believe that, as mentally ill as she'd become, I'd allowed a rift to come between us. I loved Destiny with every part of my manhood, but Justine was there for me when I didn’t know how to be there for myself. I should have never left her side knowing she needed me. I owed her my friendship.

"How long will it take to get to Calvary General?" I buzzed the pilot and asked.

"About one and a half hour, sir."

"Cut that down in half and step on it," I said. My cell phone buzzed. I rushed to answer it, when I saw that it was Justine's number. "Hello?"

"Hello my darling, Jacob," Justine said, sounding as calm and regal as ever.

"Justine…" I was relieved to hear her voice, but baffled that she was on the phone. "What are you doing talking on the phone? I just got a call from Calvary General saying that you were hanging on by a thread."

"Oh, I'm far from hanging on by a thread. I can't say the same for Destiny," she said with a wicked laugh. “She’s a little under the weather…or should I say under the gun.”

"What are you talking about? Are you…" I stopped midsentence, when I recognized Destiny’s shrilling scream in the background. I eased forward in my seat. "Justine, who is that hollering?"

Then, I heard it loud and clear. A loud thud, wailing and then silence.

"Oh, that’s that cry baby whore of yours. I thought black women were much tougher, but this one is kind of weak Jacob," she said again calm, covering her voice. "She's knocked out now, so she won't be crying for a while, if she ever cries again."