Chapter 2
“Welcome to Bower’s Brews.” A young Black girl with long braids greeted us as Sunni and I entered the coffee shop.
Today was my first official day as her full-time bodyguard.
I had moved into her house over the last couple of days, for the time being, and set up my surveillance equipment to keep eyes on her property myself.
Sunni’s house was on the Stone Manor land.
It was about three houses down from the main house.
She had a four-bedroom, two-story home. It was modern and fit her personality.
Even though Mr. Stone had hired a team for the property, I needed to be thorough in my job.
I didn’t trust anyone but myself with protecting the client.
Although today was our first time out in the world since she’d found out about the danger she was in, it felt like she didn’t care.
She had already stressed me out more than I expected.
I’d assumed she’d lie low until we made more progress on the bounty, but I was wrong.
This morning alone, she fed the unhoused and volunteered at a women’s shelter.
She had spent over four hours around strangers, with the brightest smile on her face as she helped them.
The care she showed complete strangers was admirable.
In any other circumstance, I would have applauded her for her activism in the community, but with an active bounty on her head, she was moving like she didn’t care if she lived or died.
Thankfully, the hectic morning had ended, or so I’d assumed.
“Hey, pretty. I love your braids,” Sunni complimented the cashier.
I’d learned in the last couple of hours that Sunni was very outgoing.
She would talk to any and everybody who had a moment to listen.
Hell, she probably would talk to a wall if she felt compelled to.
She complimented all the women and children at the shelter and gave generous amounts of money to the unhoused as she passed out plates of food and toiletries.
She did this all without a camera to capture the moment.
She was just naturally a giving person, which also made her even more susceptible to being targeted and trapped by the hitmen.
“Thank you. Have you been here before? Are you familiar with our menu?” the girl asked. The smile on her face had brightened since she began conversing with Sunni.
Sunni nodded. “THC infused coffee shop. I’m very familiar with y’all’s menu. I’ve eaten at all twelve locations around the country. I’m a big fan.”
I frowned but remained quiet. She was about to consume THC in the middle of the day. This sounded like a bad idea. Unfortunately, she was a grown woman who could do what she wanted. I just had to monitor her while she navigated her high.
“Perfect. Do you need time to look over the menu, or do you know what you want?” the cashier asked.
“Can I get two wing combos with fries and tropical lemonades? With my meal, can I get a side of hot honey glaze? Then can you make one of the tropical lemonades infused, please?” Sunni turned to look at me. Her gaze was intense.
I raised an eyebrow to silently ask her what she wanted.
“Do you do edibles, or do you want regular lemonade?”
My eyebrows knitted together. “You’re ordering me food?”
She laughed. “Duh. You’ve had a long morning. It would be rude for me to eat without feeding you too. I just don’t know if you could handle the infused items they make here.”
I shook my head. “Nah. Don’t worry about me. I’m good.”
She rolled her eyes and returned her attention back to the cashier. “Yeah, girl. I hate when men make things difficult. Anyway, make one drink infused and the other regular. He’s gonna eat too. I don’t know who he thinks he’s fooling. Somebody that damn big ain’t gon’ skip a meal.”
The cashier snickered as she completed the order. “Is this for here or to go?”
“We’re dining in.”
“Got it.”
“Thank you, beautiful.” Sunni tapped her card on the reader. The cashier printed the receipt. Sunni walked down the line to get her drinks, and a few moments later, her order number was called.
She reached for the trays, but I stepped in to carry them to the table for her. Even though I didn’t want to be here, I would still be a gentleman in her presence. There was no way I would let her carry two trays of food over to the table.
I placed her food in front of her and made sure I had a clear view of the entrance before I sat down. I didn’t relax fully. I needed to be on my shit. Underestimating a bounty was a recipe for disaster.
She took a large gulp of her lemonade and grinned. “Yep. Fruity and sour like I like it. You can’t even taste the marijuana infusion.”
I eyed her curiously before my eyes trailed down to the plate in front of me. I was hungry as hell, and the aroma of the fried chicken and crinkle cut, seasoned fries made my stomach roar with anticipation.
“Eat your food. I’m sure whoever is after me is also on a lunch break. Plus, you need your energy up for the evening festivities.” Sunni tore the drum apart from the flat and dipped it in a dark brown, sticky substance. She sucked the meat off the bones as I watched her intently.
“What do you mean evening festivities?” I asked as I tossed a couple of fries into my mouth.
She grinned, showing me all of her perfect white teeth. I noticed she had a piercing in her mouth above her two front teeth. I believe they classified it as a smiley piercing. The piercing and her dark freckles were attractive as hell to me, but I had to remain focused on the job at hand.
“Me and the girls are going out tonight.”
I let out a breath and nodded. She was right. I would need all my strength to keep up with her and her friends while they were drunk and inebriated at a club.
“Wonderful.”
“Now, let me know how good your wings are. One thing I love about Bower’s Brews is that you can get a mix of everything, no matter the time of day.
Their breakfast menu is delicious as hell too.
But my favorite is definitely the wings.
” Sunni talked about the food as she ate.
She could talk the ears off an elephant.
I bit into the wings and nodded my approval. She grinned and finally quieted down for us to enjoy lunch peacefully.
Every few moments, I’d look around the area to make sure no one was lurking or being suspicious.
My eyes would glance out into the parking lot and the entrance as well.
Even though I wore regular everyday clothes, I had two guns tucked and loaded and ready for whatever.
I also had a couple of knives hidden as well.
Since I was a teenager, I’d lived an action-packed life.
From hustling dime bags of weed to catching my first body, the streets built me for the lifestyle.
I grew up in foster care because my parents were too young to care for me.
Some kids could make it out of the system and live happy lives .
. . I wasn’t one of them. It only took one bullying adult to show me I couldn’t trust anyone.
I made my choice to be a bodyguard well before my nuts dropped.
It started with me protecting myself from the predators in the foster care system to protecting myself from the gangsters and criminals in the streets.
If it weren’t for a kindhearted OG, I probably would’ve been dead before my eighteenth birthday.
“How old are you?” Sunni asked, bringing me back to the present.
I raised an eyebrow as I wiped my hands on the napkins on the table. “What?”
“How old are you? I feel like you know everything about my life, and I know nothing about you.”
I scanned her face. Her eyes were low and the usually white part was bright pink. The THC was coursing through her body. She had finished her meal and her drink and had opted to chew a piece of gum as she stared at me.
“I’m thirty-two.”
She snickered. “Damn. When I was in sixth grade, you were going off to college.”
“Not quite. I didn’t go to college.”
“Oh. It ain’t for everybody. What were you doing at eighteen, Mr. Nash?”
“Surviving.”
She licked her lips and leaned forward. Her elbows rested on the table as she eyed me intensely. “Tell me everything.”
Her mint scented breath tickled my nose as I shook my head. “Nah. We should head back to your crib so you can sleep off this high. There’s no way you’re going out tonight like this.”
She grinned. “You ain’t seen nothing yet. This drink wasn’t nothing compared to how high I can get.”
“We shouldn’t test that while there are people out to kill you.”
She shrugged. “I guess. I just don’t want to stop living my life because of choices grown men made on my behalf. It’s unfair that my father’s legal choices have put my life in danger. Isn’t there a street code about wives and children being off-limits? Why wasn’t that applied to me?”
“You got the short end of the stick. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. Most people in your situation don’t make it out alive, but your father loves you enough to prevent that from happening.”
She gulped. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” I stood and gathered our trash. I emptied the trays into the nearby trash can and placed it on the stand to be retrieved by a worker, eventually.
I returned to the table and waited for her to gather her things before we headed back to my car. Not only was I the bodyguard, but I was also the chauffeur too. I invested a lot of money into the three-row black-on-black SUV. Bulletproof and tinted windows.
There was a modified engine as well. My big body could hit two hundred on the dash without a problem.
I waited for her to get in the back seat before I hopped into the driver’s seat. I turned on the car, and it roared to life. I put her address on my GPS and hit the fastest route. Then, I plugged my phone in.
“Can I pick the music?” Sunni popped up in the middle of the seats. She reached for my phone, but I held it out of her reach.
“No. Sit back and put your seat belt on.” I frowned.
She crossed her arms. “You drive in silence. I want to travel to the solar system and listen to some good music.”
“What’s good music?”
“Have you ever heard of ‘Summer Breeze’ by the Isley Brothers? Let me tell you about how you’ll see the whole galaxy while that plays in the background.”
“I’d like you to stay on Earth. Sit back and ride.”
“Fine.” She plopped back in her seat and crossed her arms.
I pulled out onto the main road. Within a few minutes, her high ass passed out while snoring lightly. She looked adorable with her lips doing a little pout.
I shook those thoughts out of my head quickly.
Focus, Noble.
The club scene had never been my thing. The music was too loud, and there were too many crowded rooms with a bunch of strangers standing too close for comfort.
Luckily, Sunni and her friends had gotten a section on a raised platform near the DJ booth.
The four of them were tossing back shots left and right since we’d gotten to the leather couches.
The more they partied, the more I realized the whole group was just as clueless and oblivious as Sunni was. She surrounded herself with women just like her in different fonts. They all came from affluent backgrounds and never had to worry about the dangers that lurked in the shadows.
Sunni was the first of her friend group to deal with a danger of this magnitude, and yet she continued to live without fear—or at least that was what she made it seem like.
My nerves were bad as I stood off to the side.
My goal was to blend into the background.
I wore all black and had to pay the bouncer a generous amount of money at the door to let me in with my weapons.
I also made a note that they could compromise the safety of the establishment for the right price.
With laser focused eyes, I remained calm as I watched as many parts of the club as I could without letting Sunni out of my line of sight.
Speaking of Sunni, every so often, I’d glance over at her.
She looked good as hell tonight. She wore a sleeveless black dress that stopped just below her ass.
Every time she raised her hand to cheer one of her friends on, the dress would lift and show a nicely sized ass.
Sunni was about five feet and seven inches and had a tattoo on her thigh that I hadn’t noticed until she changed into the dress.
It was a tattoo of a cherry blossom. The dark brown and pink ink looked nice on her skin.
You ain’t got no business checking this client out like this, Noble. Lock the fuck in. I shook my head and allowed my gaze to move back to the crowded dance floor.
“Mr. Nash!” Sunni called out. She sang my name several times until I finally gave her the attention she sought after.
My eyes moved back over to her as she grinned at me.
This girl did not care about my job at all or the boundaries I tried to set.
I closed the distance between us and raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“My friend wants to know if you are single.” She smirked.
Venus, the one with the unfiltered mouth, joined in. “You got a wife? Kids? A baby mama? Hmm. Do you like men?”
I frowned.
“Listen. When men are as fine as you, sometimes they want the same thing I want. I ain’t gon’ judge if you do a little sword fighting. I’d just like to be in the room the next time you decide to drop them drawls.” Venus licked her lips and batted her eyelashes at me.
“Please don’t mind her. She doesn’t know how to conduct herself accordingly around fine men,” Georgia added.
“Ladies, please. I have a job to do.”
Sunni giggled. “It sounds good, but I see you didn’t answer none of the questions either.”
Xandria nodded. “Clock that tea, sister.”
I released a deep breath. “No, I am not gay. I don’t have a wife, girlfriend, or baby mama. I don’t have any kids,” I answered.
“Good to know.” Sunni tucked her bottom lip between her teeth.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets and took a few steps back. I tore my eyes away from Sunni and continued people watching.
I couldn’t fight the impending thoughts, though.
We were from two different worlds. She was a spoiled rich girl, and I was a merciless killer.
There was no way our worlds could collide and bring anything good.
I had to be strong and not fold to the temptation of giving her exactly what she was asking for.