Chapter 15
Jabarri
“It’s time,” I say to Skai as she flits around her bedroom, hanging up her clothes.
“We’re ready to try again?” she asks, pausing her steps to look at me. I offered to hang her clothes up so she could sit down, and she told me unequivocally no. “You’re not about to mess up my clothes handling them like I have seen you handle your clothes.” So I took a seat on the bed.
“One thing the shootout should have shown us is that life is short. I am ready to be married, baby, aren’t you?” She doesn’t say anything, just disappears in her closet. “Skai?” I call out to her when she doesn’t immediately come back out, and when she doesn’t answer I am in motion. I find her standing in front of the rack holding the shirt she went to hang up, twisting the fabric in between her fingers until the tips are white from blood loss. Reaching out, I gently loosen the fabric from around her fingers before taking the shirt to hang it up. “Talk to me,” I tell her, pulling her into my arms and sinking us both to the floor. I put my back against the wall and put her back to my chest in the hopes of making it easier for her to talk if she is not looking me in my face, even though I really want to see her as she talks.
“It’s just thinking of being a wife. It terrifies me at times. I want to get married one time, Jabarri, and I want to be a good wife to a good husband. I have come into this relationship with a lot of baggage,”
“And we’ve dealt with it,”
“We have, but how long are you going to be patient if something resurfaces?”
“So why did you say yes, Skai? Did you just say yes because you were hoping our family wouldn’t support us?”
“I said yes because I want to be married, Jabarri, I just said that, didn’t I? And I never really thought our family would not support us, but I knew our situation would have us taking our time telling them, and that would give me some time to work on my shit.”
“Baby, I would never put my hands on you ever unless you are begging me to spank you when I have you face down and ass up,” I say, and she laughs, breaking her tension just like I hoped it would. “But right now, I am very tempted to put you over my knee and give you that spanking.”
“Only if you want to lose the knee you put me over and the hands you use to try to spank me,”
“So damn bloodthirsty,”
“No more than you are. I know you don’t get, it but I do. I want to come to you whole, Jabarri. We’ve both waited a long time to get here with each other, and for years I have fought against my attraction to you. I want to be whole and present in this relationship, especially in our marriage. I do not want to be the broken woman you have to tiptoe around because you may trigger me, and I have a meltdown. This relationship shouldn’t be one-sided, Barbie, and if I am not whole it will be. So yes, I want to be your wife, that’s why I said yes, but I also want to be mentally healthy when we get married.”
“I love you for thinking about me and our marriage like that, N?ku Ahi. Why can’t you continue to work on it as my wife? I can support you, because whether we are legally married or not, you are my wife, not future wife, but my damn wife right now, and I am your husband. I am not going anywhere, no matter what. And by the way, so far, you have been an exceptional wife,”
“I’m your wife?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why am I still paying all my bills?” she asks and I pick her up and turn her around so fast she shrieks out a scream.
“What bills do you still pay, Skai?”
“I just paid my credit card bill today!”
“You are a complete sneaker head, Skai. How much was the last pair of sneakers you bought?”
“That is beside the point,”
“Hmm, okay, and besides that, what other bill are you paying?”
“I just paid for my own gas,”
“You paid for gas? I distinctly remember taking your car and filling it up, so when did you pay for gas Skai?”
“Almost a year ago.”
“Wow.”
“The point is, as your wife, I shouldn’t have to pay for anything.”
“I see. Where is the money coming from that you pay for all of these imaginary bills with?”
“My bank account,”
“The one ending in 6702?”
“Yep, that’s the one.”
“Hmm, that’s the same account I deposit money in every month, so I gotta ask what bills are you paying?”
“Never mind you are completely missing the point.”
“Yeah, you’re right baby, I’ll do better, okay?”
“That’s all I am asking!”
“Right. Skai,”
“Okay. When do you want to do this?”
“Josh and Savvy will be coming back tomorrow night, and we’re having a family dinner, so I think today is the best time,”
“Jabarri, it will be a pretty raw time for my mom seeing as she is moving my brothers remains here,”
“We’re talking to them tomorrow night, Skai.”
“Fine,” she’s say, giving up the fight. “Truth of the matter is my brother’s body has been here and reburied. DJ took my mom away for a couple of days to give her time, so realistically there is nothing stopping us from having this conversation.” She says, finally giving in. I stand with her in my arms and carry her to the bed dropping her on it.
“Let’s get some sleep, we’re going to have a hell of a day tomorrow.
Present Day
Skai
I sit there watching my mom spazz out, literally. DJ tries to calm her down, but she is not having it. “I lost one child, Joshua! I will not lose another one!” she tells him when he tells her to calm down. She continues to pace the room, vacillating between being pissed and being terrified.
“Mom, please calm down. I am fine, and Jabarri is running facial recognition on them, plus we killed them, so please relax for a second,” My eyes track her until she finally sits down next to me, pulling me to her like I am three years old instead of a woman in her thirties and I let her.
“Skai, run through this again,” DJ says, and I do. When I tried the first time, I was a little shaken up, but now that the adrenaline has tapered off, I can think a bit more clearly.
“Let’s see the video,” he says, and I pull out my phone to play it. I cast the video to the big TV, and we all watch the video. Jabarri made sure to remove my video portion of the video, and we all watched as the guy with the gun shot and killed the other guy, as the other guys there picked up the body and threw it in the water seconds before noticing me.
“We have a problem,” Jabarri says, walking into the house. We are still at the resort since the compound is still under construction.
“There were four guys there, but there were seven men that were killed, and if that isn’t bad enough, two of the original four weren’t among the dead.”
“So two men got away that know Skai was there, but they were able to make some calls about the situation enough so that backup came to assist,” DJ summarizes.
“Well, as far as we know, they don’t have a video of Skai, so they don’t know who she is.” Aryan says.
“Yeah, but how long is that going to last? We know they were able to make at least one phone call and get help within minutes, so how do we know they didn’t get a picture of her license plate numbers?” Joseph says.
“And for all we know, they didn’t get a picture of her plates, and they have no idea who she is,” Jaasiel chimes in.
“You know our motto, we think and prepare for the worst but hope for the best.”
“Why does his ass look so fucking familiar,” Atlas asks, looking at the guy with the gun.
“Because that is Arturo, or as he is better known, Art. He worked for my father, and if I can recall, was just as ruthless and brutal, but he was a small fish,” True says.
“He doesn’t seem all that small right now.”
“It’s been eight-ish years since we six-footed Victor, that’s plenty of time for someone to climb the ladder and take over the organization,” True says, studying the image of the guy on the screen.
“So where does that leave us?” Anson asks.
“Skai, you’ll move in with us so we can keep you safe, and we’ll keep someone with you at all times,” DJ says.
“No,” I say immediately.
“Skai, it wasn’t a question.”
“Ma, I am fine. I am not moving in here,”
“Listen, menace, I agree with Savvy and Josh. Your safety is top priority.”
“I appreciate that, but I am safe,” I say, cutting my eye at Jabarri and can tell he wants to speak up.
“Oh yeah, how do you figure, what’s going to happen if they come for you in the middle of the night? Please, Sweets, give your mother a little peace of mind and move in and let us protect you until we can figure out if they know who you are and come for you.”
“Ma,” I start again and it turns into a full-fledged argument between me and everyone except Jabarri. Even the wives take their husbands side and feel like I should move in with my mom and DJ.
“I am not doing it!” I yell, making everyone shut up. The idea of being away from Jabarri for just one night makes me physically ill.
“Skai Nalani Errington! You need to think about this, if you go home, you are all alone all the way across town, at least twenty minutes away. Everyone has a wife or a wife and a kid or kids. They can’t be sleeping on the sofa to protect you. So what are you going to do? Who is going to protect you if you are not here?” She asks, and I release a deep breath dropping my shoulders in defeat before looking at Jabarri.
“I will,” he says, dropping the bomb in the middle of the room, and a blanket of silence falls over the room.