She’s confused and hurt.
“Keera,” Tonya mutters, frowning at her daughter. “You’re being rude.”
But ignoring her mother’s unspoken warning, Keera looks Alejandra up and down. “I don’t even know you.”
Unblinking, Alejandra offers a firm, “You’ll get to know me,” not backing down to the sixteen-year-old.
Alejandra’s polite show of power has Keera’s brows rising, almost impressed. She side-eyes me. “And she makes you happy?”
I raise my hand to scratch at my brow and fight a grin. “Unbelievable, I know.”
“Hey.” Alejandra elbows me in the ribs, and I wheeze out a long breath at the unexpected move as Tonya laughs and Keera’s lips twitch.
It’s then I know everything is going to be okay.
I didn’t even realize I was looking for the reassurance.
Not until I found it.
The drive home is uneventful, and I’m thankful for it. After spending time with Tonya and Keera, I made every effort for the young woman to warm up to me. All I got in return was that stoic stare. She did, however, give me an inch at the end of the night when she stood to hug Julius good-bye. I didn’t expect much, so when she looked me up and down and pursed her lips, before reluctantly muttering, “Welcome, fam,” I let out a stunned little laugh.
And now, as we drive on in silence, I have to get something off my chest, something I’m not sure how to broach.
I turn to face the man I will protect with my life, and proceed with caution. “She’s your sister, isn’t she?”
Julius glances at me momentarily, his brows low in confusion, before turning his eyes back to the road. “Uh, yeah. I told you that already.” He frowns, misunderstanding me. “You feeling all right?”
I shake my head. “Not Tonya,” I mutter gently. “I meant Keera.”
When his face shutters and his hands tighten around the steering wheel, I add softly, “Ling told me you killed your father, because he was raping your sister. I’m beginning to think that Tonya fell pregnant as a result.” But he ignores me, feigning concentration on the road. I blink at his curious reaction. “It’s okay, Julius. It’s nobody’s business, and I’m not going to tell anyone. I just wanted to let you know that I know, is all.” When he disregards me, it hurts, but I understand this fact must be painful for him, so I mend the rift by reaching over and squeezing his thigh, saying, “Hey. I’m sorry for bringing it up. If you want to talk about it, about anything, I’m right here.”
Five minutes pass, and as they do, soundless mayhem wreaks chaos in my mind.
What have I done?
When, finally, he speaks. But he does this without feeling. “She knows,” he utters roughly. “Told her when she was fourteen.” He huffs out a breath, and it’s almost as if all his energy is spent with it. He looks so tired, so lost. “She cried, called herself a freak, told us she felt dirty. It was a miracle she came out perfect as she was.” His expression turns lax as he thinks out loud, “I remember the epiphany she had. She was fourteen, and not only had she found out she was, for all intents and purposes, an abomination, but she also found out that her mom was raped by her own daddy.”
My eyes close at the heavyhearted words that spill from him. I calmly wonder how long he’s kept this all to himself.
“Oh, baby.” The whispered endearment is wrenched from my tight throat, thick with emotion.
“Deserves the world, that girl,” he allows. “They both do.”
“I’m sure they do,” I concede courteously, and a particularly heavy pain slices through me knowing I will always come third in this man’s life. But I accept the fact and move forward.
“I swore I’d give it to them, no matter the cost.”
Ah.
It begins to make sense. I have found what drives him to do what he does and I’m not at all surprised. Not even a little bit.
Admiration sweeps through me, but as quickly as it comes, it goes, and in its place festers the pain of uncertainty. I, too, had a champion at home.
My heart squeezes sorely.
What has become of my brother and sisters?
“Julius,” I approach warily. His eyes briefly glance mine and my heart aches, as I all but beg, “I really would like to speak to my brother.” He turns back to the road, and I quickly rush out, “Just one last time and I-I promise to never ask again.” Slumping in my chair, my eyes close and I reach up to cover my face with my hands. I speak through them, but it’s muffled. “Before you tell me they’re not my family anymore, I need you to know that you risk upsetting me, and when I get upset—” I remove my hands from my face and pose my futile, under-delivered threat. “—I am less than cooperative.”
Unfortunately, it’s the only threat I have to use right now.
Luckily for me, Julius’s lip twitches, and I catch the sight of his shoulders moving in silent laughter, and my uptight posture eases. After a moment of composure, he humors me and does it in perfect seriousness. “Can’t have an uncooperative wife now, can I?”
I nod and return in complete sobriety, “I’m sure you’ve heard the saying.” I turn to catch his curious look and realize he has no idea about the saying. I take pity on him and fill him in. “Happy wife, happy life.”
His shoulders bounce some more as mirth takes hold, and I smile to myself at the light teasing.
Julius reaches over and takes my hand, entwining our fingers then pulling them to his mouth, where he presses soft kisses to my knuckles. And my stomach swirls with solid waves of tenderness.
I barely hear him when he mutters a hushed, “Damn fool of a man.” Another kiss. “Burnin’ in hell.” A soft peck. “Worth her weight.”
But, and here’s the important thing…
I do hear him.
The house greets us in silence, and as I walk past him, Julius catches me around the waist and pulls me to him, his front flush against my back. He leans down to place his stubbled cheek to mine, and I lean into it, regardless of how it scratches the delicate skin on my face.
For a strange yet exhilarating moment, I wonder if this is what normal feels like.
If it is, I never want to lose what little normal Julius provides.
“Nice night,” I reveal q
uietly, into the darkness of the hall.
“Yeah,” he drawls at my nape, and the heat of his breath has me breaking out in gooseflesh.
How on earth was a woman meant to keep her mind about her when in his presence?
At the moment, I don’t really care about my sanity. I spin in his hold and hook my fingers into the pockets of his jeans, standing on my tiptoes, wanting desperately for him to take my mouth in a deep, earth-shattering kiss. “Bedtime?”
His gorgeous eyes hood, and it’s so goddamn sexy that my core contracts. “Mmmm,” is his only response, the approving sound vibrating through his chest to mine.
I don’t hear her step out of the shadows.
Ling speaks softly, her voice unusually tentative. “You’re back.”
I want to yell at her for interrupting and plan on doing so, but when I turn around to deliver, her appearance has me backing off.
Dressed in a short kimono-style robe, her legs bare, with no makeup on, her hair wound up into a ball at the top of her head, she avoids my gaze when she announces, “We got a delivery this afternoon. It was an envelope. I forgot about it till about twenty minutes ago. I didn’t—” She swallows hard and bites the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t think it was important.”
Julius steps out from behind me and makes his way over to her; his cautionary stance tells me this is a rare display from Ling. “Ling Ling,” he says guardedly. “What is it?”
Holding the robe together tightly, she starts, “I only started watching it when you came in. I would’ve called, but—”
Watching it?
“It’s a video?” Julius enquires.
It’s so strange seeing her without her perfect red lips, her perfectly straight hair, her perfect composure. Part of me wants to cheer at the discovery that she is like any other woman, but it’s so alarming that, instead, it gives me chills.
She’s well and truly shaken up.
“A video from Gio,” she confirms. My body turns rigid. Then, finally, she looks up at me, eye to eye, but what she says next has me wishing she didn’t. “And it’s addressed to Alejandra.”