“Can you please stop on Maple Street? I want to see Joseph before I leave.”
Daniello looked at me with question. “Take a right up here.”
Daniello eased onto the street, my Chevelle sticking out like a sore thumb. But the street, like every other road, look deserted, and I was sure we went unnoticed.
“Stop here, please.” Amber quickly exited the car and walked up to what looked like the most well-kept house on the block. I watched her knock before she was greeted by an older woman, who I swore I recognized. She quickly made her way into the house, and I sighed a little in relief.
Daniello got out of the car, taking long strides away from it. Puzzled, I followed him until he was at the end of the street, looking each direction.
“What are you doing?”
He turned to me with more emotion in his face than I ever thought possible. “This place…Jesus Christ, this is where you come from?”
I felt the lump gather in my throat as he looked around, desperate for some sign of life, some sort of way to believe places like this didn’t exist. He got no relief. My lover was full of untold emotion and words as he turned to me.
“Don’t pity me, Daniello. I—”
He gripped my arms and looked down at me, completely exasperated. “I do not pity you, Taylor Ellison. I could never pity a woman I admire. You…what you have done, leaving here, the woman you have become.” He leaned in, claiming my lips and covering me in warmth as he held me tightly to him, giving me the most passionate kiss I’d ever received in my life. I ignored the pain burning through my side as I let him have his way with me. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any closer, he pulled me tighter to him, roaming my mouth with his tongue, his strong arms not giving any leeway. He pulled away after sever
al minutes, my body molded to his and whispered to me, “Phoenix.”
As his realization dawned, so did mine. This man understood me.
Amber’s shriek interrupted our moment as she begged the woman at the door for her son.
“Please, he belongs with me. Please, just let me have him!”
Daniello and I headed her way as she sat on the steps in front of a closed front door.
“Leave me here. I can’t leave him. I can’t,” she said with a shaky voice.
“If you want him back, come with me. I will help you. We can get you on your feet. It’s the only way.”
Daniello remained silent. I was sure all of this drama was far from what he was used to dealing with. Then again, he had a sister with nine children. He stared at Amber absently, and I nodded my head toward the car.
“Amber, there is no future here, you know that. It won’t be long. I’ll hire the best lawyer in the city. You just have to do your part.”
She nodded as she looked back at the door.
The ride back to Charleston was odd, to say the least. Maybe it was the reprieve from the severity of the situation that had us all in better spirits. The minute we were miles from Dyer, Amber’s eyes lit up as she looked around her wistfully.
“Have you ever been out?” I asked as she shook her head.
“Never, not even to Memphis.”
“Get ready for a little culture shock,” I said, looking at her in the backseat. “I live near the ocean. That’s the first place we will go.”
She smiled then, a deep, genuine smile, though I knew her skin was crawling with need. It would take weeks to break her habit, and she was handling it better than I thought possible. I would get my doctor to write her a prescription to help her sleep most of it off. I was curious about Joseph but didn’t want to bring up such a painful subject while she smiled. Daniello tapped his fingers to Breaking Benjamin’s “Sooner or Later” as I played DJ most of the way. He seemed to like my taste in music as he test drove my Chevelle through Tennessee.
“I think I will get one of these for home,” he mused and then added, “Maybe one that smells better.”
“Uh, yeah, sorry about that,” Amber muttered as she kept her eyes closed, the pain of withdrawal hitting her hard.
I had tried last night to get the smell out as I cleaned up my sister’s vomit out of my sixty-thousand dollar classic car, but the scent still lingered.
When we finally arrived in Charleston, I saw Rocco sitting idle, waiting. Daniello parked the car with ease next to my collection in the garage.
Amber wandered into the condo as Daniello turned to me.