Chapter 9
Ace
Raya looks like she’s seeing a ghost.
I pull up on her, shrouded in darkness, my face twisted in anger. She’s seen me like this before. In truth, she’s the only one who’s ever seen me like this, because—and I hate to admit this—she’s the only one to bring this intensity out of me.
“I-I…I just…”
“Just what?” I demand.
She shakes her head.
I’ve seen enough.
I put my car in park and cut the engine, jumping in her passenger side before she has a chance to lock me out.
“You always ride around with your doors unlocked?”
She shakes her head again.
“What’s goin’ on, Raya?”
She takes a deep breath, sighs loudly, then finally loosens the death grip her fingers have on the steering wheel.
“Look at me.” I wait until her eyes are on me. “It ain’t a damn thing you can’t tell me. I knew who I was marrying. I’m not here to judge you, but I can’t help you or protect you if you don’t let me in.”
“You don’t wanna help me with this.”
I stare at my wife’s trembling lips. “Try me.”
She swallows hard.
“Alright then,” I say. “Let’s start with; who the fuck is Sisco?”
The pause stretches long enough that I start to feel a familiar pinch in my stomach. A nagging twinge that reminds me, almost every day now, that Raya is a precarious kind of woman. Ain’t no resting on my laurels with her. I’ma be on my toes for the rest of my goddamn life.
“Okay,” she finally says. “There’s this little girl.”
“Stop,” I say, holding up a hand. “I hope you aren’t about to tell me you’re fixated on some little girl. Because there’s a lot I can overlook, but—“
“It’s not like that,” she interrupts. “She used to be my student. Honestly, I don’t even like her. As a person, I mean. But…” she trails off, shrugging slightly. “I check on her from time to time just to make sure she’s okay.”
“Why?”
She shrugs. “I guess…in some ways…she reminds me of me. Only, I didn’t really have anybody who checked on me when I needed it.”
“What about Tori?”
“Well, yeah, Tori, but she was always on the go. It wasn’t…enough.”
I turn, angling my body toward her as that settles in. “Is this little girl being abused?”
“No,” she rushes out. “Nothing like that. But she’s a lot. Just like I was. And I guess I don’t want anything to break her like it broke me.”
I nod. “And her name is Sisco?”
She smiles for the first time. “Sisco’s her father. And I think he’s cheating on her mother. So I’m here scoping him out, that’s all.”
I scrub a hand down my face, then shake my head in disbelief. “So I just pulled up on my wife doin’ a fuckin’ stakeout? That’s what you’re saying?”
“I guess so.”
“And what were you planning on doing once you got proof?”
She shrugs again, and I feel like she's too nonchalant about this. “I hadn’t worked that out yet. But it was gonna start with this.”
She reaches across the space between us and opens the glove box, pulling out a black sheisty and a knife.
I stare at them, then at her.
And then I burst out laughing. Ain’t shit funny, really, but I guess all the tension and anxiety I was holding had to come out some kinda way.
“Raya, Raya, Raya. What am I gonna do with you?” I lean across the console and press my lips against hers. Warm softness overtakes my senses, making me pull away before I get too excited. “You were gonna stab him?”
“No,” she says like she’s offended. “Just scare him straight.”
“And what if he overpowered you?” I say. “You didn’t think this all the way through, huh?”
“I was mad.”
“I know.” I tap the tip of her nose with my index finger. “You know I can’t let you do this, right?”
She opens her mouth to protest, then her eyes dart to the left. “Wait, there he is.”
I turn my head to see a tall, light skinned man walking out of the club with a woman. They’re touching. Laughing. He walks her to a car and kisses her.
Raya nods. “There it is. That’s my proof. That’s not Aniya’s mother.”
“And you still ain’t doin’ it," I insist. "It’s too dangerous.”
“So what should I do, then?”
I know she’s challenging me. For her, it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how. I could take her home right now and she’d find a way to be right back at it tomorrow.
So there’s really only one thing to do here. She knows it, and I know it.
We follow him into his apartment complex. When he gets out of the car, I pull the mask on, step out, and close the distance between us in seconds.
Sisco isn’t very observant. My gun finds the back of his head before he even notices I’m there.
“Don’t move.”
He freezes. I push him against his car and plant my feet, ready to square up if I need to. Then he starts shaking, and I realize he ain’t about shit.
“You got a wife at home, don’t you?” I grit. “And you out here acting like you don’t. That ends tonight.”
“I—I—“
“Shut the fuck up.” My voice cracks like a whip. “You think nobody sees you out here moving foul? You think you slick, huh?”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“You damn sure are.” I press the gun harder against his head. “I’m watching you, Sisco. Keep your shit clean or I’m coming right back.”
“I hear you,” he says, voice trembling. "Are you with Navaeh's brother?"
“Don't worry about it. So you gonna go home and be a family man?”
“Yes!”
“You swear?”
“I swear on my mama’s life, my kid’s life, my life. I’m done.”
I rack a round into the chamber.
His knees buckle, sending him to the ground. He raises his hands in the air, blubbering like a bitch.
“Don’t make me come back, you understand?”
“I swear to God, I won’t.”
I watch him for a minute, feeling my anger rise up like lava before I erupt in a blind rage, striking a blow across the back of his head with the butt of my gun.
There’s a sickening thud followed by a strangled groan as Sisco’s body juts forward, collapsing against his car.
“Happy holidays, fuck nigga.” I stare at him in disgust as I back away, only moving my gaze when my hand is on my door.
Back inside the car, I fall into the driver’s seat and go to pull the mask off, but Raya grabs my arm before I can.
“Leave it on.”
My eyes meet hers, and even in the dark, I can see the sparkle in them, the glint of arousal. She reaches over me, pressing the button to move my seat back. I smile inside the mask, knowing exactly what’s coming.
She goes to her knees in front of me, and I let my head fall back against the headrest. My dick hardens as she slowly pulls my zipper down, her dainty little fingers brushing my erection, probably on purpose, probably to tease me.
She has me in her hands, now. My third favorite place to be.
Her tongue snakes out, swirling around the tip.
I suck a slow, sizzling breath through my teeth as she takes me into her mouth and tries her hardest to suck the motherfucking skin off my dick.
Fuck. Her mouth is so warm and wet. And the way she sucks me, like she's desperate to taste my nut, like she's dying to feel it slide down her throat—that shit makes my fucking toes curl. My wife is the fucking GOAT.
It doesn't take me long to give her what she wants.
After, the windows are fogged, the moonlight hazy. I stare at the out of the sunroof as my chest heaves, wondering what’s next. I never know with her, which is part of the fun. And the torture.
I just assaulted a nigga on her behalf, but I guess I shouldn't complain. I killed her fucking daddy a few months ago, so this is actually progress that we're making here.
She rests her head on my thigh, her breathing steady again. I stroke her hair lovingly, because that’s how I feel. I just committed a crime, but I did it for her, and for the little girl in her who needed protection. Fuck everybody in her life who failed on the job. They’re the reason she’s broken.
But at the same time, I feel lowkey triumphant, because I just discovered something about my wife that I hadn’t expected.
Something about her little mission here, the way she wanted to protect that kid, how fierce she was about it, makes me think she’ll be a good mother. It’s in her. I saw it. I felt it.
That was a concern for me before, I’ll admit. But now…I smile at the possibilities.