Chapter 3
I kissed Keith with so much passion, and it was well overdue. He was my man, and I loved him. Keith and I had been dating for six months now and he satisfied me in all areas. Keith and I had a fling back in high school. After high school, we went our separate ways.
A year ago, Keith reached out to me on Facebook. In the first message he told me that I’d been on his mind lately. In the beginning, I didn’t fall for it. Keith was freshly divorced. I wanted nothing to do with it. Yet he applied so much pressure, and in the end I fell for it. Usually, Keith would fly out to see me. He knew how much I did my best to avoid being back in town. Now that I was back, I was sure we would spend much more time together.
“I’ve missed you so much, Keith,” I said in between kisses.
“You look so sexy, baby.”
He lifted my shirt over my head. He instantly unfastened my bra causing my breasts to spill out. It’d been a month since we saw each other, and it showed. Slowly he placed me on my feet. He rolled my bottoms down, placing kisses along my legs. My body shuddered from his touch.
Keith was different. He cared more about his career instead of being in a biker gang like everyone else around town. He was romantic and soft. He didn’t hold an evil bone in his body, which was why I fell for him. On top of all that, he had a huge sex drive. Keith worked me in ways I’d never experienced. At first, I thought he wouldn’t know what to do, but the way he hit my walls had me crawling back for more.
“Here, baby. Sit in this chair. I want to try something new.”
Keith lowered me into the chair sitting in the middle of the living room while he kissed on my body. My nipples hardened. I felt my honeypot dripping with wetness. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a scarf, and covered my eyes.
“Baby, what are you doing?”
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
Before I could respond, he kissed my lips, inserting his tongue into my mouth, overpowering me. Since I temporarily lost my vision, my other senses were on high alert. I could hear him moving around, and suddenly, I felt a rope being tied around my ankle. I knew Keith was into freaky things, but this was different.
“Keith?”
“Do you trust me?”
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve always wanted to try bondage. My wife thought I was weird. She made fun of the things that turned me on.” He kissed my feet. “Please don’t tell me you’re like her. Are you going to judge me too?”
He continued kissing my feet, sucking on each toe individually. He knew this was my kryptonite.
“Do you trust me?” he asked again.
I nodded while trying to control my breathing. “I trust you.”
He finished tying my ankles together before he worked his way to my arms, tying them behind my back. During the foreplay, he rubbed, gripped, and kissed all over me. I was living on the edge. Keith had me on the verge of exploding.
“I’ll be right back, baby. I left something in the bathroom.”
“Hurry. I don’t know how much more of this teasing I can take.”
A few seconds had passed, and Keith hadn’t returned.
“Keith, baby, what’s taking so long?” I called out.
Suddenly, a finger rubbed across the top of my beast. Instead of becoming excited, my heart raced out of fear. The scent wasn’t Keith’s. The cologne was different. I shifted roughly in the chair.
“Keith, what the fuck is going on? Take this blindfold off me right now!” No response. “I don’t like this fucking game! Keith, I don’t play like this. Answer me.”
“Calm down. It’ll be okay.”
My back stiffened. That wasn’t Keith. I wasn’t sure who this was. My mind raced, my heart pounded out of my chest, and my palms sweated.
“Who the fuck is that?”
The person laughed heartily. “She got a mouth on her. Savage Saints don’t do that well of a job raising their women, but shit, I’m not surprised.”
“Take this blindfold off and untie me. I’ll show you a real Savage Saint!” I shouted.
He laughed. “Your wish is my command.”
Seconds later, the blindfold was removed. I blinked fast to regain my vision. The room had six men, all dressed in black, standing in front of me. They all had guns in their hands. My eyes darted to the corner. Keith stood there with his head down like a coward.
“Keith? Keith! What the fuck is going on?” He didn’t answer me. He didn’t even bother to look at me. “Keith, did you set me up? I thought we meant something to each other.”
Again, he still didn’t look up.
“My son doesn’t owe you an explanation,” the voice said from behind me.
I looked up and saw it was the ex-chief of police, Kelvin. Kelvin was the chief of police of the city of Myersville for twenty-years. He spent a lot of time locking away all the bad guys and bringing justice to victims. Everyone who knew him knew he was just as dirty and grimy as the criminals. He lost his job title when he couldn’t calm down the war between the Savage Saints and Iron Knights. It was a stupid reason to lose his job, but those were the cards dealt.
I knew Kelvin was Keith’s dad, but the way Keith explained it, their relationship was toxic. When things intensified with Keith, I asked him about his father. Everyone in town knew my bloodline was Savage Saints. Kelvin hated my family, but when Keith admitted to not speaking to his father in five years, I felt more comfortable getting to know him. He would always express how he hated his father. He would vent to me about how abusive and controlling his father was.
“What do you want?” I asked, looking him straight in the eye.
My father taught me to never let another person know what I was thinking or feeling when they had me under pressure. Always look them straight in the eye and never break. I couldn’t avoid how vulnerable I felt being naked in front of all these men, but I kept my head up to let them think I wasn’t fazed.
He squatted, making eye contact with me. “There’s a lot I want from you.” He rubbed his hand down my thigh. I tried to kick but remembered my ankles were restrained.
“Oh, she’s feisty and fine,” he said. “Son, I see why you are interested. Shit, everybody in here can agree.” The rest of his minions agreed.
“But now it’s best you get back to your wife and kids. They are probably missing their father,” Kelvin said, looking over at Keith.
My eyes darted over to a coward ass Keith. He stood there like a child being scolded. It was disgusting.
“You’re a weak ass man! A pussy ass motherfucker! I feel stupid to even think you had any balls,” I spat out.
“Whew! Talk your shit,” Kelvin said, laughing at the interaction.
“What the fuck do you want?” I asked. “You doing all this yapping but ain’t saying shit. If you’re going to do something, then do it. Stop prolonging this whole shit.”
He leaned down in my face. This time his mug was more intense, yet I wasn’t scared.
“You’re just like your fucking father, ain’t you? Walk around thinking motherfuckers fear y’all. When y’all ain’t nothing but the devil on the Earth.”
I rolled my eyes. Even though I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this, and it was possible that I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t dare let any of them feel as if they won. My parents taught me that.
“Again, what the fuck do you want from me?”
He gripped his hand around my throat. “Watch your fucking mouth!”
“Dad!” Keith shouted, finally finding his nuts.
“Shut the fuck up! Don’t you dare defend this bitch. It’s her family’s fault I’m dealing with the shit I’m going through.”
My eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, bitch. If it wasn’t for the Savage Saints, I would have had a longer career. But no, now I’m sitting around doing all these stupid ass odd jobs. Your father fucked me over! He and I both know that.”
I scoffed. “Take that up with him,” I said nonchalantly while shrugging my shoulders.
Before I could blink, a hand flew down across my face. Seconds later, I could taste the blood from my lip. If my hands were untied, everyone in the room would be taking their last breath or already had taken it.
“Shut the fuck up!” Kelvin shouted. “To make matters worse, they are still causing problems. That shooting the other night… that innocent bystander was a relative of mine! The community is sick of y’all motherfuckers. I’m here to send a message to the Savage Saints to let them know we’re sick and tired.”
I licked more of the blood that had spilled from my lip. “And what message is that?”
He leaned down closer in my face. “We have just as much power, bodies, and skill as them. The dirty shit they do, we can do ten times harder.”
He pulled a gun and pointed the cold barrel to my forehead.
“Dad… I-I thought we were only supposed to send a message. Ya know? Rough her up a bit,” Keith nervously said.
“This is the message.” He cocked the gun back.
My eyes remained on his. I kept reminding myself to not break. I wasn’t raised that way. I was a Savage Saint. I said a soft prayer, internally prepping for what was next.
Suddenly, a loud bang sounded, followed by a gunshot. We looked toward Keith. Keith fell face forward and laid on the ground crying. There was blood gushing from his arm. I darted my attention to see where the shot came from.
My heart raced when Conqueror walked further into the room, holding two silver pistols out in front of him. The other men grabbed their guns, pointing them at Conqueror.
“Y’all pussy motherfuckers ain’t doing shit. Put them paper weight ass guns down.”
None of them moved. He looked down at Keith and shot a bullet into his leg. Keith screamed to the roof tops. “Now again, Imma ask for y’all to put the guns down or the next bullet’s going in his head, then I’m picking another one of y’all.”
The men lowered their guns except for Kelvin. I scoffed.
“Pussies,” I said.
Conqueror looked at me. A flash of empathy filled his eyes, then rage. He looked back at Kelvin, who still held his gun.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Conqueror asked.
“Who the fuck are you?” Kelvin spat.
“Motherfucker, I’m the one with the questions. Why is she tied up, naked with blood dripping from her lip?” No one answered him. He let out a spine-chilling chuckle. “Oh aight.” He fired another shot, striking a different man in the thigh. “If I got to take you motherfuckers out one by one and bit by bit, then I will.”
“Goddamn, Kelvin. I told you this shit would go south!” The one that was just shot yelled, holding his thigh as it gushed blood. “You know them Savage Saints are a dangerous group!”
“Nah, fuck that! They ruined my life and are continuing to ruin others. He clearly ain’t learn after what happened to his wife.”
My blood boiled. My mother was a sensitive topic for me. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was just like me, guilty by association. My father swore my mother didn’t know about any of the hard illegal stuff they did but I begged to differ. That was why she was dead. My mother knew everything.
“Keep my mother’s name out of your mouth. You lost your job because you were a shitty excuse for a chief. Everybody knew you were doing business with the Saints and the Knights. You ain’t no better than the rest of us.” I spit the running blood from my lip at his feet.
Conqueror walked toward me without removing the gun pointed at Kelvin. He moved with a strut to let everyone in the room know he wasn’t scared of nobody. He stopped in front of me and slowly removed the ties from my wrists. He handed me his shirt and then his gun.
“Keep that shit on them ’til I untie you.”
I did as I was told. A few seconds later, I was free. I moved my ankles, feeling the pain from them being tied too tight. The anger I felt from being in this situation outweighed it all. I kept the gun aimed straight at the middle of Kelvin’s head. I was pissed beyond belief. I didn’t take well to being embarrassed or played.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t put at least two bullets right between your eyes?” I asked Kelvin.
He had his gun aimed at me, but I could smell the fear oozing from his body. He wasn’t expecting this to happen, and I didn’t expect to see Conqueror.
“Your father ruined my life. I’m angry! He walks around here flaunting like he got it all when he is ruining people’s lives. I had a family. I was on my way to retirement, but your egotistical father ruined it for me.”
“Your beef is with my father. Not me. You should’ve taken that up with him. To have your son play with me for this long is insane.”
My eyes darted over to Keith, who was still rolling around on the floor. My heart ached knowing that I was falling for him, but this whole time he was playing me. The entire thing was a slap in a face. The fence around my heart was back up and it was stronger than ever.
“If you’re going to kill me, kill me!”
It had been a long time since I pulled the trigger on someone. Instead of giving Kelvin the satisfaction of killing him right then and there, I called Junior. After the third ring he answered.
“Yo?”
“Junior, I need you at 673 Holly Drive.”
“What’s going on, Bug?”
“I need you to handle something for me.”
In the background I could hear Junior moving around. Seconds later, I heard the cranking of his car.
“Who hurt you?” he asked.
Junior’s voice was no longer calm. He was on high alert.
I gave him a quick rundown, and by the time I finished, Junior was shouting at the top of his lungs. “These motherfuckers must think we done went soft! Ain’t none of them making it home to their families. I’m five minutes away!” He hung up the phone before I could reply.
I didn’t want to stay there any longer. I knew my brother, and I knew how my brother felt about family, regardless of how much we disagreed. I looked back at Conqueror. He still had his gun aimed at Kelvin. His jaw was tight, and I could tell by the grip of his finger, he was ready to let one out of the chamber. I took a moment to put my clothes back on. Once I finished, I looked at the sight in front of me, disgusted by these cowardly ass men.
“Let’s go,” I said.
He darted his eyes to me and then back at Kelvin. “That’s it? We’re just going to leave? Nah, lay them niggas where they stand.”
“Take me home,” I said, physically and mentally drained.
It pained me to know someone I’d been falling for would set me up. It was devastating and heartbreaking.
Conqueror sucked his teeth. We headed toward the front door, my head held high. There wasn’t an ounce of me that wanted to give these men the satisfaction of thinking they won. Before I could make my way on the porch, Conqueror let out a loud sigh. I spun on my heels to see what the problem was.
“Nah, fuck that.”
He let off two rounds in the back of Kelvin’s head. The thrill and excitement of seeing Conqueror kill Kelvin sent a rush through my body. I looked at Keith, who was still on the ground crying out in pain. My heart shattered. I never would’ve thought Keith would do me the way he did.
“Why, Keith?” I asked, knowing damn well he was in too much pain to answer. “I thought what we had was real. I thought we loved each other.” I felt myself getting choked up.
“I did love you. I do love you. But my dad—he?—”
I didn’t even let him finish. I snatched the gun out of Conqueror’s hand and emptied the clip on Keith. One single tear fell before I wiped it away. I passed the gun back to Conqueror and looked at him
“Now you take me home.”
For two hours I laid in the same spot. As soon as I walked through the door of my house, I went to my bedroom and locked myself inside. The lifestyle I was born into drained me. Tonight reminded me that no matter how far I went and no matter how much I ran I would always be affiliated with this life.
My father, my brother, uncle Belt, and Conqueror were downstairs. I knew my brother called my father immediately after he hung up on me. They were downstairs questioning and grilling Conqueror on tonight’s events.
Conqueror was only doing his job. It was me who gave him the okay to drop me off. If he didn’t trust his instinct and listened to me, he wouldn’t be going through it with my brother and father downstairs. All this fell on me. If it had not been for him, there was no telling where I would be.
I finally found the energy to head downstairs. I could no longer take the torture he was experiencing. Once I made it to the bottom of the steps, I made my presence known.
“Relax, y’all.”
All eyes darted toward me, except for Conqueror. He had a stale expression on his face. It was as if the men in front of him didn’t faze him. He looked unbothered.
“Bug,” my father said, running over to me and wrapping his arms around me. He hugged me tightly and placed a kiss on my forehead. He pulled back and scanned my body. “You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m good, Dad.” I glanced over at Junior. He scanned me from head to toe. I knew he was making sure there wasn’t a hair out of place on my body. “Is it handled?” I asked.
Junior was met with a mess because of Conqueror and me, but I knew Junior would get everything cleaned and not traced back to us.
He nodded. That was all the confirmation I needed. I walked past my brother and sat across from Conqueror. He didn’t look defeated or sad. My father could do the most. I was shocked to see him so calm after the brutal tongue lashing he got.
“Junie, I want to ask you a question,” my dad said.
“Yeah?”
He sighed. “What the fuck were you thinking? Getting yourself involved with the chief of police’s son! You don’t mix business with pleasure.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dad, it wasn’t even like that. The way Keith described their relationship, it didn’t exist.”
“And you fell for that bullshit?”
“Are you here to check on me or to harp on me about what happened? I fucked up but I refuse to sit here and be scolded like a child. It’s done with.” I folded my arms over my chest and crossed my legs.
He shook his head. “That’s beside the point, Junie. You’re vice president now! You need to be thinking smarter. This shit is real. Your ass could be somewhere dead.” He glanced at Conqueror. “Then what kind of bodyguard are you? You weren’t supposed to take your eyes off her.”
He didn’t answer. He kept a straight face. Them blaming Conqueror didn’t sit right with me. If anything, he saved my life.
“Dad, Conqueror saved my life. Instead of sitting here jumping down his throat about it, you need to be thanking him.”
“It shouldn’t have even got that far. If he wouldn’t have let you out of his sight, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
I sighed. There was no getting through to my father. Once his mind was made up on a situation that was it.
I stood from my seat. “Look, I’m tired. Today has been long enough. I’m home, and I’m good. Y’all can leave.”
“Junie, this is not done.”
“Sure it is. There is no reason to keep talking about it.”
I hugged my dad, my uncle Belt, and then tapped Junior on the shoulder. Conqueror stood up to leave.
“Nah, you ain’t going nowhere,” my dad said. “When I said twenty-four seven, I meant that. After what happened to my baby girl, I can’t trust no one. You’re staying here.”
My eyes jumped between the two of them. Conqueror’s brow raised from confusion. That was the only expression Conqueror had showed during this conversation. From the scrunch of his eyebrows and the tightening of his jaw I could tell he was pissed off.
“Dad, that’s unnecessary. I’m fine.”
“Goddamn, Junie! Whether y’all like it or not, he is staying. You got four bedrooms in here. Pick a damn room.”
“But, Dad?—”
“I said what the fuck I said,” he roared. “Next time you’ll consider thinking with what’s in your head and not what’s between your legs.”
I gasped. My father had been pissed with me before but for him to say something like that stunned me.
“Dad—”
He shot me a look that let me know he was no longer debating his choice. He looked at Conqueror. “Pick a room.”