Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Karsyn
A few days later
Life felt like it was settling to a speed I could deal with.
The initial shock of being someone’s wife and being pregnant had worn off.
I felt like I was settling in and he was too.
However that didn’t mean things had slowed down when it came to my father.
Psy didn’t talk about business in front of me, but I knew there was something going on.
I also knew my father was behind it. Last night he and Killah left the house late.
Though he assured me it was nothing for me to worry about, I worried anyway.
There was too much tension in his eyes and his being.
Being married to Posydiann had given me a front row seat to the man everybody believed was superhuman.
I watched how people idolized him and the people near the house saw him like a God.
He hated it, but to them that was what he was.
To me, he was my man, my husband, and a man who got just as tired and frustrated as others.
This situation with my father was frustrating him.
I popped the locks on my truck and hopped out, headed into KB’s.
I hadn’t seen my brother in person since before I left for my honeymoon and I missed him.
Of course we talked on the phone, and a few FaceTime calls, but between both of our swamped schedules and me settling into being somebody’s wife, there wasn’t enough time in the day.
Upon entering the dimly lit lounge, I noticed Kolton was not in his normal spot.
I started to think he wasn’t here, but that was unlike Kolton.
He was a workaholic and this place was his baby.
My first stop was at the bar where his usual bartender smiled at her phone.
It was propped up one off the bar beams while she dried glasses.
“Hey Ginny, is my brother here?” I greeted her quickly.
She looked away from her phone then at me. “Uh yeah, he’s in his office.”
I nodded. That threw me off because Kolton hated his office. He hated not being able to see what was going on up front. Control freak.
When I exited the main floor, I climbed three stairs and walked down the hall to his office. The door was closed, so I knocked, only to hear shuffling then his voice.
“I said give me a minute.”
I threw my head back in confusion and twisted the knob. He was my twin, so he had no privacy where I was concerned. When I opened the door, my eyes landed on Amethyst who quickly created space between herself and my brother.
The air was heavy, and most of all, tense. Not to mention Amethyst was awkwardly biting her lip.
“Hey, girl,” she greeted me, nervously pulling me into a hug. She smelled like she had bathed in my brother’s cologne.
“Hey, my ass. Did I interrupt something?” I looked from her to him.
“No, just a quick meeting. I have to get going anyway. Juleus is waiting on me.” She rushed to grab her purse from his sofa. “I’ll send over the new idea when I get some time.”
“Purp, wait,” he said, but she was already out of the door.
“Mhmm. I missed something.” I set my purse down and took in the whole office. There were papers sprawled on the floor. Then I looked at him and couldn’t hold the laughter that spilled from my lips.
“Yo, what’s funny?”
“You and you have a little bit of that purple lipstick on your lips.” I took a seat next to my purse.
He pushed from the corner of his desk and rushed into the private bathroom.
When I heard the water come on, I fell back onto the couch, tickled. My attention was snatched away from whatever Kolton had going on in the bathroom at my phone ringing. I searched through my purse until I had it in my hand.
I didn’t recognize the number on the screen but I answered. There were too many new variables in my life for me not to answer.
“Hello?”
“You’re pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you? You fucked this family royally and you’re proudly walking around with scum.”
“Excuse me?” I pulled the phone from my ear to look at the number again because this was my father but not his number.
“You heard me. I’m your fucking father, but over the years you’ve forgotten that. You and your fucking brother. I’m gonna teach you a valuable fucking lesson about family and why you don’t cross me. We’ll see who's still standing at the end.” Then he hung up.
I was left sitting there stunned.
“Who was that on the phone?” Kolton walked out of the bathroom and stood in my eyeline.
“Your father.”
“Oh, what did he say?”
“I think he just threatened me. Something about teaching me a valuable lesson about crossing him.”
“Yo, what?”
I nodded. “That’s what he said.”
“He’s definitely let those little blue pills get to his brain because that shit right there is a no go.” Kolton was visibly agitated.
I shook my head. “This is all a mess. I came to talk to you about other things and here he is.”
“His old ass is on borrowed time, so now he’s getting desperate. From what I hear, he’s beefed-up security and even hiding out because he knows nothing can stop what’s coming for him.”
I sighed.
“You gonna tell your husband?”
“I don’t know, should I? He’s already dealing with the residual issues of Charles’s bullshit. Me telling him that dear old dad just threatened me will make things worse…right?” I looked at Kolton for some sort of input.
“Considering the family we grew up in, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take any advice from me, especially if you want a long, happy marriage.
Considering we were artificially inseminated and our mother has never been able to tolerate our father, go with your gut.
” He laughed at his own statement while pouring himself a drink.
I laughed as well. “Fine.”
“I would pour you a drink, but in your current condition, that’s not happening.” He laughed at his own joke.
I sighed, irritation filling my body. “I think I’m gonna just take it in.
” My father’s call honestly dampened my day.
This stuff with my father was like a dark cloud that got darker and darker with each thought.
Every time I thought about the idea of my husband killing my father, I wanted to feel bad but couldn’t.
With a father like Charles, what was there to miss?
You told yourself that distance was the best policy, but how far was too far from his miserable ass.
Standing to my feet, I looked my brother over.
He shook his head then pulled me into a hug. “This shit will blow over. Don’t let Charles scare you. Let me walk you to your car.” He kissed my forehead.
I nodded, then grabbed my purse and we left his office, headed to the front.
“You want me to get you an order of hot wings to-go? Wait, shit, is that bad for the baby?” He put his fist to his lips as soon as we reached the front door.
I giggled. “No, crazy, I don’t think so.”
He held the door open for me while I reached for my key fob on the side of my purse.
“See, shit, you don’t know either.”
I pushed his shoulder then bypassed where he was standing to go to my car. I hit the locks, then the automatic start. I was a few feet away when I turned to say something to Kolton but a big blast knocked me back.
The only thing I heard after that was Kolton saying my name, but he sounded so far away. I was surrounded by the sounds of car alarms and screaming people but I could see and my head was banging.
Then I heard him closer, saying my name repeatedly before everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes again, I didn’t hear my brother but instead my husband. His tone was cloaked in anger. I could also hear fear under it. We were inside a massive hospital room with the lights low.
I blinked a few times, trying to make out his frame. He stood with his back to me ,staring out of the window.
“I don’t give a fuck if his fat ass is in a sewer. Find him, now,” he yelled into the phone before I saw it fly across the room onto the let out.
“Easy there, handsome. You can’t just go around just throwing phones,” I said slowly, a cough escaping my lips just as I finished.
Posydiann turned around quickly, which meant he heard me. He rushed to the bed and gripped my hand. His face hovered over mine as those weighted eyes jumped around my features. “You scared the fuck out of me, Syn.”
“I didn’t mean to. What happened?” Every time I tried to remember why I was here, I went blank besides the sound of my brother’s voice.
“You don’t remember what happened?”
“No. I was leaving Kolton’s when I…” My brain stalled and I just blinked.
“You automatically started your car and it blew up when you were walking toward it. Knocked you back and you hit your head and got a few cu—”
“The baby?” I interrupted his statement, my hand going to my stomach.
“Is fine. His mother has a big ass head.”
“Her mother and my head is not big.”
He laughed. “Nah baby, that motherfucker is kind of big, but I’m grateful your hair seemingly took the brunt of it.”
I stared at him. I was about to say something slick, but the realization of where we were settled in. His uncle died here.
“I love you, Posydiann Murphy.”
“You don’t have any damn choice. You better.”
A few minutes later, the doctors came into the room to check on me.
During that time, Psy called his family, letting them know I was fine while also going out to the waiting room to get my brother and mother, or so I thought.
When the doctors were finished, my mother and Kolton entered the room followed by Killah.
They stayed there until I was discharged.
I was grateful for that because the one thing I wasn’t up for was a random hospital stay.
I was thoroughly exhausted when we made it to the house, but the last thing I wanted was to climb another flight of stairs and get into another bed.
I elected to sit on the couch with a nice throw and a good movie.
That ended up being about thirty minutes of The Bodyguard with Junior asking a million questions before Grams and Psy’s mother came over to check on me as well.
They were sweet, Grams nearly force feeding me poundcake and telling me not to cook “nan nigga” in this house a meal until I felt like it.
Their time and conversation was valuable, especially when I knew my husband was struggling.
Posydiann was a protector by nature, so all of this on top of what my father had already done was weighing on him. It bothered me to see him bothered when there was nothing I could do about it.
“He called me when I was at KB’s. He said he’d teach me a lesson for going against him,” I said, lying in bed wrapped in Posydiann’s arms hours later.
I was all caked and movied out, so he carried me up to the bedroom to try to sleep.
After a shower and having my soul eaten out of me, attaining sleep was going terribly.
My brain wouldn’t shut off and apparently neither could his.
“That fat motherfucker is dead, Syn. I put that on my life.”
“I didn’t tell you that for you to tell me that.” I grinned in the dark.
“Doesn’t matter. I believe in being as honest with you as I possibly can be. His fat ass is hiding, probably in plain sight too.”
“I just want this to be over, so we can just be. Is that too much to ask for?”
“And it will. We’ll be straight, I promise. Boring ass breakfast or lunch dates on Saturdays and Saturdays. Prepping for my son’s arrival.”
“You’re gonna be mad as hell when a girl pops out,” I said in a knowing tone.
“I won’t be mad. We’ll just consider it on edge.”
I didn’t respond immediately, instead turning and burying my face into his neck. He smelled like deep green flannel with settled notes of spiced citrus. I kissed his neck several times before wrapping my leg around his waist. I had tension inside of me and so did he. I could feel him.
“You can’t get no dick tonight, Syn.”
I giggled into his neck.
“I wasn’t trying to get any. Can I give you a face mask?”
“The fuck you wanna do that for?”
“Because you’re filled with tension, and since you said I can’t get any dick, we’ll pamper it out of you.”
His laughter filled the room. “Yo, what? I’m not the one who went through some shit today, Syn.”
“You’re not, but when you’re stressed, I can feel it. So if you’re stressed and I’m stressed, how do you expect me not to be stressed?”
“You said stressed too many times.”
“Which should tell you how stressed I am. So that’s a yes?”
“Fine, man. Gimme both of your phones.”
I laughed as I scooted to the edge of the bed to get off. I was still in a little pain, but not enough to sit still and stare at a wall. Doing that would cause the most pain. “Really?”
“Yup. Hand them over.”
I did as he asked, handing him the phone in my hand. “My other one is under the pillow. Now lay on your back.”
I rushed into the bathroom and quickly grabbed the sheet mask packets. When I returned, he was staring into the screen of one of my phones. I knew it was one of mine because it had a case. He didn’t put a case on his phone, so when he tossed them across the room, they shattered on impact.
“Why don’t you have a lock on your phone?”
“Because I have nothing to hide.” I grabbed a facial wipe and climbed back on the bed and straddled him.
He dropped my phone on his chest and I had his eyes. They watched me while I concentrated on what I was doing.
“You know you’re beautiful as fuck, right?”
I lowered my face and kissed his lips. “Thank you.”
Once I was done with the towel, I set it on the nightstand and sat back down on his lap. I was trying not to be distracted by his hands caressing my thighs. Not only that, but he was watching my every move and it was so sexy.
I ripped open the packet for the sheet mask and pulled it out.
“Is this shit gonna burn?”
“No.” I pulled out the wet gel pieces and sat them against his face. Of course I had to fold the jaw part a little because of his beard, but it was done. The funny thing was, even though he was so against it, he relaxed and closed his eyes.
What was messed up was seeing him in such a peaceful state made me want to mess with him. It was like it was absolutely impossible for me not to. I leaned down and licked his lips first, then trapped his bottom one between my own, sucking sensually.
One hand was around my neck immediately, holding me in place while he nastily kissed me back while the other was in my pajama shorts playing with my swollen lips. It was pure euphoria as I pushed against his hand.
“Mhmm,” I moaned into his mouth, feeling like I was about to literally bust and I did just that. Within seconds I was cumming all over his hand and thoroughly out of breath.
When we parted, I hovered over him, satisfied. That was one way to de-stress.