Chapter 5
The sound of multiple feet thundering against the floor caused me to lift my eyes from the sudoku puzzle I was working on to pass time. I looked up just as soon as my father, Hakeem, Mo, and Dior all entered the room. Untucking my legs, I sat up instantly on alert.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Show her,” my father said, motioning to the TV.
I watched Dior walk toward the remote, then use it to not only turn on the TV but to flip to the news channel. My mouth fell open in horror, seeing Emir plastered on the screen. What really stumped me was the headline: Governor of SC wife kidnapping.
“No, he didn’t,” I muttered to myself in shock.
The couch dipped lower as Keem came to sit beside me.
I had been seeing a lot of him since moving into Dior’s home.
Any opportunity he got to see me, he took advantage of it.
I wasn’t mad about it. I’d missed my big brother, and I knew he felt a little guilty about not knowing what I was going through.
No matter how many times I assured him that it wasn’t his fault, he took Emir’s abuse against me very personal.
“Yes, the fuck he did. Bitch ass nigga,” he spat with the same venom coursing through my veins.
This was extreme, even for Emir. I figured after the first few days, he would just leave me alone, but apparently, he had other plans.
I had no doubt in my mind that this charade he was putting on was strictly about his pride.
He couldn’t fathom the idea of me not wanting to be with him anymore, despite the fact he treated me like trash.
He really stood on the TV tear stricken as he convinced the world I was taken from our home against my will.
My heart began to hammer faster, and I gripped Keem’s hand tightly to anchor me into the moment. “What am I going to do?” I felt myself beginning to go into a panic, but Dior coming to kneel in front of me settled my nerves.
“Don’t worry about this, okay? We’re going to go out of town for a few days to be on the safe side and let things cool off here. Cool?”
My lips felt completely dried out and chapped, so I moistened them. After staring deeply into Dior’s dark eyes, I nodded slowly. “You sure?”
“It’s already done. The jet is being fueled right now as we speak.
We just wanted to keep you informed on what’s happening since this involves you in every way.
You want protection, and nothing has changed about our ability to offer it to you.
” He used his thumb to gently rub my birthmark, and against my will, I relaxed into his touch. “I told you I got you.”
I allowed my eyes to float to him, and I only found sincerity in their brown depths. “Thank you,” I whispered because I was afraid of blurting something I would much rather keep to myself about the way I was feeling about him.
He gave me the smallest smile, yet it felt blinding. “Go pack your bag while I wrap up some loose ends here.”
I had no choice but to trust him, because anything they were discussing was above my pay grade. If Dior said they were going to keep me safe, I believed him. On my way out of the room, I couldn’t help but to give my father a hug. Being back in each other’s lives had been a gift I wasn’t expecting.
Long before Emir flipped his switch, I kept my distance from my father and his lifestyle, but it never meant I didn’t love him.
I just wasn’t a fan of the things he was willing to do at times.
But in a petty way, life had a way of thrusting me into an even darker and violent life, because being married to Emir was the worst things could get.
I was to the hallway when I heard Keem ask Dior very lowly, “Is there something going on with you and my sister?”
I slapped a hand over my mouth to hold in my giggle when I heard Dior’s response. “Aye, mind ya fucking business.” I tucked in my bottom lip to hide my smile and the spark of excitement I felt hearing him refer to me as his business.
“Don’t piss me off right now, Qua. You know she’s my business.”
Leaving the men to plan, I went to my bedroom to do exactly what Qua told me to. I hadn’t been on a trip in so long that I was looking forward to it. No matter the reason for it.
I inhaled the heat emitting from the sun and felt a stillness that didn’t terrify me. It allowed me a chance to be in the moment. No pressure, no violent man trying to ruin everything good about me, no isolation from family, no prison . . .
I raced toward the beach shore with pure glee filling my heart.
Even though I was in Dior’s home for safety, it reminded me of being at home, only allowed to leave if Emir gave me permission to do so.
I didn’t care if we were in Mexico to get away from the scrutiny of the entire city thinking I’d been kidnapped.
I was going to soak it all up because I had no clue when I’d get to experience this again.
Dior was calling my name, but I completely ignored him. The water called to me, and I had to touch it, or I was going to combust into a ball of dust. Right when I got to the edge of the shoreline, an arm around my waist snatched me back.
“Girl, where are your survival skills? There’s nobody in the water,” he fussed with clear annoyance drenched in his tone.
As his words processed through my mind, I started to take in my surroundings. He was right. There were plenty of people standing near the shoreline or up at the restaurant, sitting on the pier, but no one was in the water, which was odd for a beach.
“That is weird. Why not?”
He pointed to the water because the answer was obvious. My eyes finally drifted to the waves, and I gulped, realizing how humongous they were.
“This isn’t a beach for swimming. You see how quickly the water keeps going back out to sea because of this slope here?” I followed along with his words and nodded. “That’s the undertow, and it’s strong as fuck right now. You can be swept out in seconds, even in water that looks shallow.”
I glanced up at him and noticed he seemed pretty tense. His brows were bunched together, and his muscles were flexed. “Okay, well I didn’t know any of that. Thank you for informing me.”
He glanced down at me, and the spaced expression on his face cleared. He gave me a little smirk that made my insides tingle. “Your ass needs full-time security for real.”
I opened my mouth to reply when we heard someone shriek, “Help!” Dior released me, with his eyes trained on the water he’d just educated me on. It sounded like someone didn’t get the memo, and it took us a minute to figure out where the voice was coming from.
“Stay here,” Dior instructed me with his eyes trained on the ocean.
“Wait. What are you doing? Didn’t you just say stay out of the water?” I asked in a panic, grabbing ahold of his arm. There was no way I was about to let him run into those menacing looking waves.
Everyone was standing around with their eyes trained on the man attempting to get back to shore while being tossed further out.
His cries for help brought tears to my eyes.
Dior snatched away from me, tossed his shirt off, and took off running toward the ocean.
I tried to stop him, but it was useless.
I lifted my hand to my mouth in horror. Too afraid to close my eyes and miss a second of this moment, I said a prayer out loud. “Lord, please protect him.”
I didn’t want anything to happen to Dior, and I couldn’t believe he would risk his own life to save someone.
But then I started to think about if it was me.
If it wasn’t for him, that could’ve been me out there, hoping and praying someone was brave enough to help me against an unpredictable and scary beast.
All my senses disappeared except for my eyesight as I watched Dior make it to the man by a miracle. Before I could be relieved, a huge wave gathered behind them and swept them underneath. “Oh my God,” I mumbled when they both disappeared for what felt like forever.
After a few minutes of being tossed around, they resurfaced closer to the shore.
Dior helped the man up, and they raced to safety as quickly as they could before collapsing on the sand.
Two lifeguards raced past me toward them, but I was close on their heels.
I fell on my knees beside Dior, trying to ensure he was in one piece.
“Are you okay?”
He bent over then started to cough up some water. After a few deep breaths, he nodded. Slowly, he glanced up at me. “Yeah, I’m good, mama.”
I tackled him before he could fully get the words out. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” My heart was quite literally in my ass. I thought I’d lost my safety net, and I never wanted a fear so dark to ever have me in its grasp again.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled in a detached voice. When I pulled back to look at him, the distant look from before had returned.
“Thank you so much, man. You saved my life,” the guy he’d gone in to save said in an accent I couldn’t quite place. He was probably from somewhere in Europe if I had to guess.
Dior simply nodded as the lifeguards led the guy away, and I stood to give him room to get up.
He was quiet as a mouse on the walk back to our villa.
I had enough of the ocean for the night.
While it was beautiful at first glance, it was also very violent and unpredictable, much like Emir.
I would not be swallowed in its depths any time soon if I had anything to say about it.
I glanced up at him when I walked into our room, and something in his eyes made me pause just inside the threshold for him to join me.
He closed the door, then pressed his forehead into it.
I could see the rise and fall of his shoulders thanks to the light we’d left on in the entryway.
He seemed to forget I was there until I placed my hand gently on the center of his back.
“Are you okay?” I truly wanted to know. A lot had just transpired, and it was like the ocean had stolen his voice.
Instead of replying to me, his hand balled into a fist before he beat it against the door.
Without a word, he turned and walked out onto the balcony.
Unsure if I should just leave him alone or not, I remained by the door, nibbling on my lip.
Eventually, my concern won over, and I followed him outside.
If he didn’t want to be bothered, he would just have to tell me.
He was sitting down with his fingertips touching.
When he felt my presence, he looked up at me.
“Come here,” he demanded in a voice that made me forget what free will was.
Without budging, I shuffled forward. He dropped his hands to give me room to sit on his lap.
I was not supposed to feel so comfortable sitting on my brother’s best friend’s lap like this, but the truth was, I always felt safest when Dior was around growing up.
Like magnets, his arms went around my waist while mine circled his neck.
Like we’d done this before . . . because we had.
We held onto each other like letting go was a sure way for us to lose our sanity.
His breath on my breasts tickled me, but I welcomed the sensation.
It was a reminder that he was still here.
God had indeed kept him protected on his rescue mission.
“Do you remember my brother Quamain?” It was at that very moment I realized this was much deeper than what happened tonight.
“I do,” I replied, tightening my grip on him. At that very moment, my heart began to bleed right along with his.