Chapter 9 #2
He merges onto the highway, takes the next exit, and U-turns.
They pull into the truck plaza five minutes later.
Based on the amount of cars and trucks, lines for the over twenty pumps, and crowds of people going inside, the place is very popular.
No spots available are in front so he pulls up, lets her out, then finds a spot on the left.
When he walks inside, he follows the signs to the restrooms and showers. There’s an actual line for the women’s and she’s waiting. The men’s has no line and he walks right in. She’s still waiting when he walks out.
“I’m going over there,” she says while shaking her head. “Is it clean?”
“Yeah but—” he begins, but his words are cut off when she charges toward him.
She can’t shift her feet any more to prevent the inevitable. Sunjiya has to go now. As she whizzes by him, she utters, “I gotta go.”
Sunjiya is serious about using the men’s restroom.
Because there were two men inside when he walked out and more to possibly come, quickly, he turns and follows her.
The two men frown when she barges in and one starts to speak but the minute he sees Akeem, he closes his mouth and focuses on the sink in front of him.
She rushes into one of the three stalls and he stands guard outside the door.
Real shit, he wants to go in with her but refrains.
Minutes later, when the door opens, he steps forward for her to walk out.
She smirks at the seriousness on his handsome face as she steps toward the sink.
Because a few more men have entered, he stands right behind her as she washes her hands in the clean sink.
True to the reviews, the bathrooms are very clean and have a nice sanitized but refreshing scent.
As they exit, she makes sure to tap the green smiling face on the digital survey framed on the wall.
“Whew! Thank God, I made it. And thank you for being my protection,” she says with a tinge of sarcasm. “You want anything? I’m going to grab a drink and candy or something.”
“Get what you want. I got you. I’m going to grab a drink from the machine,” he says.
“Let me check the machine too. They may have good ice.”
“Good ice?” he questions because to him frozen water is frozen water.
“Yes. The little cloudy, soft balls of ice. It’s so good,” she gushes as they head toward the large drink area with several fountains.
After marveling at the selection, they both get drinks. Because the lines are long, Akeem takes both large cups to the front and hops in the shorter line while she peruses the store for snacks. About ten minutes later, she joins him with both hands full of snacks.
“You don’t have to wait. I got it; you can go to the car,” he says.
“I’m good. I actually like to people watch.” She tilts her head toward a large family of eight in the line to the right. It’s obvious they are related by their similar eyes, noses, and thin lips. “Look at them. Six kids and they all look alike,” she comments and he takes a look.
“The last two are twins,” he says. “Look at them, the little ones. Same height, same build, and both are left-handed,” he notices.
After studying them for a minute, she adds, “But not identical.”
“You don’t think; they look just alike,” he questions.
“No. They’re definitely not identical. Look at their chins and foreheads,” she says before stepping out of line.
Her curiosity and need to be right takes her toward the family.
“Excuse me,” she says to the mother and she turns with a slight frown.
“I have a twin sister and I was wondering if your little boys are twins.”
The short lady’s frown softens then morphs into a smile. “Oh yes. They’re twins. It runs in his family,” she says while nodding toward her husband. “His father was a twin. Identical though; they are fraternal.”
“I thought so. Thanks,” Sunjiya says before walking back over to Akeem. “I told you, fraternal.”
“You got that,” he says.
They move to the register and check out. With her bag full of snacks and drinks in hand, he leads her to where he parked. As soon as they are inside, she rummages through the bag and pulls out chocolate covered cashews. She tears the side of the bag and holds it toward him but he shakes his head.
“I thought weed caused the munchies,” she says.
“Not for me. Never has,” he admits. “But I do want some of those M&Ms. I haven’t had them in a minute,” he says and she pulls them out of the bag and hands them to him.
He starts the car before opening the bag.
After pouring some in his hand and popping them into his mouth, he backs out of the space and heads to the highway.
As he merges, she stares, taking in all of his protective, masculine energy.
He’s the complete opposite of the previous men in her life.
Unfortunately, they wanted to harm more than protect but not him.
Although she smirked at him guarding her door in the restroom, deep down, she appreciated it.
It feels good to have someone other than herself looking out for her.
Her internal thoughts make it to her lips. “Where did you come from?” she asks and his eyebrows pinch.
“Originally, Houston,” he responds and she laughs to herself.
I said that out loud!
“Oh,” she utters after pulling herself together. “But you’re in Austin now. You like Austin better than H-Town?” she asks, almost incredulously. While she’s never been to Houston, she’s heard it’s the place to be for food, fun, and foolery.
“Much better. Austin is slower, quieter, but my parents and brother are still in Houston. They’re in Katy, actually, right outside of Houston,” he says.
“And your son?”
“Marquise but we call him Quise,” he interjects.
“Cute,” she comments. “Is Quise in Austin?”
“Nah. He’s in Fort Lauderdale.”
“How old is he?” she asks.
“Fifteen and trying to get his license,” he says with a proud nod.
“And he’s with your…?” she pries.
“My ex-wife.”
“Oh, you were married. How long?” she asks, then quickly adds. “If I’m being too nosy, you can stop me.”
“We trying to get to know each other. That can’t happen if we don’t talk. So ask what you want. I’ll answer, unless I can’t,” he says because he wants this with her. “I married young. I was twenty-four and Charis and I were married for five years. We’ve been divorced for four.”
After doing the math in her head, based on his son’s age, she asks, “So you were together six years before you got married?”
“Six? Nah. Where you get six from? We got engaged after one year.”
“But your son…” she says, then it hits her. His son is his stepson. “Oh, okay. You knew after one year,” she adds.
“I thought I knew but I was wrong,” he says and she leaves the subject of his marriage at her last sentence. She quickly changes the subject.
“So is this what you do for a living? Find and kidnap people?” she asks with a smirk.
For a moment, he contemplates giving her his normal Army Reserves cover, but because of their unique dynamic and initial meeting, he decides against it.
For the first time, he’s going to tell a woman, her, the truth.
She deserves it, and for this thing between them to work like he wants, he has to be honest.
“Nah. I find and kill,” he says plainly, then turns to see her facial expression. Her eyes expand slightly and her eyebrows peak then she relaxes, which makes him do the same.
Sunjiya’s calm reaction to his revelation surprises her.
He’s a killer. I’m riding in a car with a killer but I’m not scared, not of him.
She’s been around enough monsters in her life to recognize one but that’s not the man who rushed to save her during her allergic reaction and definitely not the man she freely gave her body to.
“How many?” she stumbles out.
“Fourteen,” he admits freely and her body stiffens.
It takes her a minute to digest his words, admission, and body count, a long minute.
After, she lifts her cup and takes a long sip.
Then she opens the lid and shovels ice into her mouth with the straw.
As she chews, he glances at her to study her expressive eyes.
They often reveal what her words don’t, and right now, they show she’s contemplative.
After eating a few mounds of ice, Sunjiya returns the lid to her cup and places it back in the holder.
Then she shifts her body toward him. For a reason she can’t fully wrap her head around, she’s not alarmed by his admission or even scared.
However, she does have a very important follow-up question.
His answer could cause her to demand he pull over so she can get the hell away from him.
Considering her past filled with neglect and abuse, some things are non-negotiable, no matter what.
“How many women and children?” she asks sternly.
“None, not one. I don’t take contracts on women or children. That goes against everything in me. I’m not built like that,” he proclaims, without any hesitation.
Thank God, she thinks but keeps her thoughts to herself. She does sigh audibly, relieved as hell.
“So if Marcelin wanted you to kill Tanjaya—” she begins but he cuts her off.
“Hard no. I barely wanted to take the contract to find her,” he says while shaking his head. “I didn’t feel right about the job from the fucking beginning and should have followed my damn gut and told him no.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. He would have just gotten someone else and that person would have been hired to kill, not find, her.
And…” she begins. After resting a hand on his leg, she continues, “You wouldn’t have grabbed me by mistake.
” She smiles wryly. “I would have preferred a meeting that didn’t involve a sedative, zip ties, and a gun but I guess a girl can’t be too picky,” she says with a titter.
Her now full smile solicits one from him and he even chuckles a little before saying, “I thought you were her. He didn’t mention a twin. Apparently, he doesn’t know you exist.”
“Most people don’t know there’s two of us,” she admits, then shrugs.
“But we are always there for each other when needed. Tanjaya really needs me now, more than I thought. I just hope we find her before he discovers I exist. He’s been at that club in Jacksonville.
For all we know, he has friends there. It might get back to him that I was there with you, the man he hired. ”
“Fuck him. Don’t worry about him because he’s dead already anyway. We just have to find your sister and I think Aunt Pri is going to be the key. We just have to get to her crib and talk to her.”
“Tomorrow,” she adds.
“Tomorrow?” he questions. “We’ll be there in about an hour and a half.”
“And it’ll be after eight o’clock. We can’t just roll up to anyone’s house after eight and expect them to talk to us. There’s four of them, right?”
“Five,” he corrects.
“Well, five. Either way, it’ll be too late. We need to find somewhere to sleep, get something to eat, and talk this through. Although very handsome, you can be very intimidating at first glance.”
“Black mothers and aunties love me. We’ll be fine,” he assures her. He’s so anxious to find out if any of the prospects are the Aunt Pri that he hasn’t considered anything else.
“We will be fine but in the morning. We need to figure out how we’re going to approach them and what we’re going to say anyway.”
Although he hates to admit it, everything she’s saying makes logical sense. It’s already dark and it’ll be even darker when they make it to the small town. A fresh start tomorrow will be better, so he concedes.
“The town is small as shit. See if you can find a hotel and something to eat. We can check in, grab food, and chill for tonight.”
“Not chill. Strategize then fuck,” she utters and he can’t hide his smile.
“Shit. I think you just said my new favorite phrase. We can most def strategize and fuck. Last night was just an appetizer,” he says with a smug look.
Grinning too damn hard, she pours a few M&Ms into her mouth then holds the bag out to him. He opens his hand and she pours some into his palm. While enjoying the candy, she searches for a hotel in Port St. Joe. She quickly learns it is, in fact, a little ass town.
Port St. Joe is located along the shore of Florida’s St. Joseph Bay in the panhandle.
From her internet search Sunjiya learns the small town only has five hotels.
The ones with the best accommodations are small and booked, so she extends her search to a town about twelve miles outside of the city, Mexico Beach.
“There aren’t any hotels available in Port St. Joe. I found a nice one in Mexico Beach,” she says.
“How far is that?” he asks.
“About fifteen minutes from Port St. Joe.”
“If you like it, book it.” He nods toward the opening in the middle console. “Terrance’s credit card is in there.”
While grabbing his wallet, she asks, “How many nights?”
“Do two. Just in case,” he answers. “Are there restaurants in Mexico Beach?”
“There’s some. What do you want for dinner?”
“I don’t care. I can order off any menu. Because of your allergy, you choose. I’m straight with whatever,” he says.
She nods then clicks through the restaurants. Her idea to eat in Mexico Beach quickly changes when she checks the operating hours, which sends her search back to Port St. Joe.
“Change of plans. We have to eat in Port St. Joe. I don’t know what type of town Mexico Beach is, but most eating spots close after lunch.
The few that even sell dinner will be closed by the time we get there.
I found a cute looking restaurant in Port St. Joe.
From the reviews and website, the food looks good and it’s Black-owned.
We can check into the hotel then eat there. They have a little of everything.”
“That’s straight.” Sunjiya removes Terrance’s credit card and driver’s license from the wallet and books.
Because she truly wants to strategize and most definitely allow his fine ass to bless her body tonight, she tries to book one room.
Only double queen bed rooms are available online.
Because she wants a king bed, she has to call the hotel.
The lady who answers is so polite and professional that the booking takes less than five minutes.
“We’re booked,” she announces as she places his wallet back.