Chapter 18
I waded through the crowd carefully, looking for Jiselle.
I didn’t dance but was down to stand behind Jiselle while she did her thing.
She was having fun and deserved that. She’d quit the bar so Stone could keep his job, even though they really could have both quit.
Jiselle still wanted to cam and I was cool with that. Stone had the mechanic shop.
I’d thrown another three months on his mortgage without telling him but that was an issue we could discuss in two months when the original six-month payment was supposed to lapse and allow him to get back to his payments.
I wasn’t hurting for the money and he was slowly starting to let me do what I do, whether it was telling Drake I’d match the money he’d saved from working to help him get a used car to me and Jiselle doing weekly grocery shopping for the house.
A smile crossed my face as I thought about how much we’d grown in the last few months but quickly vanished when I heard Jiselle yelling.
My head snapped in her direction and I saw her feet planted in her heels while she tried to pull her arm free from a man gripping her by her elbow. She cocked back and punched him and he jerked her in and shook her.
I shoulder checked the people between us, and as soon as I was close enough, I stole on ol’ boy and knocked him on his ass. I didn’t care what he and Jiselle were arguing about. Words didn’t need to be exchanged. I’d seen all I needed.
I hit him again and again and again.
Thinking he could grab a woman, my fucking woman, was insanity.
I hit him again, straight face shots, one after another.
His nose cracked beneath my hand and I felt the skin on my knuckle crack open.
It burned slightly from punching him in his mouth so hard his teeth had cut me.
Instead of stopping, I wrapped my fist in my other hand and hit him with my hands clasped together.
He wasn’t moving and blood coated his face.
That wasn’t enough.
I wanted him dead. There would never be another chance for him to grab Jiselle.
Part of my brain comprehended people yelling around me and one of the voices belonged to Jiselle. I hit him again and jerked when someone yanked me off him. I was immediately in a tight headlock and reached up to free myself.
“I’ve got you.” Stone spoke into my ear. “I’ve got you. Shh. Shhh.”
I exhaled and all of my senses slammed back into my body. My tunnel vision lapsed and suddenly I could hear all the noise clearly. Jiselle was hysterical.
Stone let me go and I made a move to comfort our girl but paused when two yelling cops pushed their way to the center of the circle.
Fuck.
I immediately tried to think of ways to spin this shit but didn’t get a chance.
Stone maneuvered around me, closed in on the man I’d beaten, and was almost instantly yanked off him by two cops. I froze for a beat before I realized he was getting arrested on my behalf.
Jiselle was yelling incoherent sentences in my ear and I followed him and the cops.
“Stone, what are you doing?” I caught up to him and my eyes darted between him and the cops.
“Just take care of Selle,” he said. “Get her to stop crying and get her home safely. I’ve been to jail before, Kiano. Don’t trip.”
“The fuck do you mean don’t trip?”
“Exactly what I said. Just call Morocco.” He stumbled slightly as he was pulled along. “Call Morocco!”
“Alright.”
Jiselle and I followed Stone to the cop car and Jiselle leaned over and threw up when the door shut.
“Can they get my keys? Please?” Stone questioned. “Can they please get my keys?”
The cop looked from him to us and nodded once. He reached back and grabbed Stone’s keys and tossed them to me.
“Thank you.” I pocketed them as I walked over to Jiselle who was dry heaving now.
“You’re okay.” I rubbed my hand up and down her back. “You’re okay.”
I looked up at the sound of knocking. Stone was tapping on the glass.
“Get her home.” He tapped on the glass again and I nodded.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let me get you home.” I helped Jiselle stand up straight.
“But Stone?!” She gestured toward the car.
“We’ll get you home and I’ll take care of Stone. I promise.”
“You promise?” she repeated.
“I promise.”
She looked back at the cop car and sniffled as she walked over. Stone gave her a little smile and she pouted as a whole new wave of tears flowed from her eyes. She placed a hand on the glass and he shook his head with a smirk while he did it in return.
“Go home.” He knocked on the glass and Jiselle wiped her eyes. “I love you,” he said. “Go home.”
“Come on.” I bent, grabbed Jiselle’s legs, and hoisted her over my shoulder.
One hand went to her skirt to hold it down. The other went to the car window and Stone set his hand against mine and winked at me. I was glad he didn’t look panicked, not that he needed to. I would have him out of there by the time he was booked.
I got Jiselle in the car and to Stone’s place instead of either of ours. I helped her take her clothes off and got her into the shower.
Then I sat on Stone’s bed and called Morocco.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“Kiano.”
“Kiano?” he repeated. “What’s up?”
“Stone got hemmed up at the bar and told me to call you.”
“The fuck you mean he got hemmed up?”
“There was a fight in the bar. Shit got out of hand. Stone got arrested. All he told me was to call you.”
“Yeah. We, uh, we’ve all been locked up at one point or another. I can call a lawyer who’s helped him before.”
“Yeah. Okay. Well, I’m going to make some calls on my end too, and when you get back in the morning, I’ll be here if you want to talk.”
“Alright. I’ll shoot you a text and let you know what I come up with.”
“Alright.” I hung up and called my parents immediately.
My mom answered after three rings.
“Kiano?”
“Yeah. I need a criminal lawyer for a bar fight.”
“What?”
“Stone got a charge for a bar fight. He has prior charges. What do you have?”
“Give me a second.” She yawned. “Let me get up and I’ll send you a number to get things moving. I don’t know if they’ll answer tonight, but if not, I have a house number. We can pay extra for the inconvenience. Is he booked already?”
“I doubt it.”
“Well he has to be booked before anything else can be done.” She paused. “Actually, let me make the calls and I’ll call you back with an update.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I know them. It’ll go better if I navigate it.”
“Alright.”
“Keep your phone on, alright?”
“Yeah.”
The line went dead and I took a deep breath before I hopped up. When I walked into the bathroom, Jiselle was still sniffling in the shower. I threw my clothes off and climbed in behind her.
“Come on. You’re going to make yourself sick, sweetheart.” I pulled her in and let my hands stretch along her back. She nodded and closed her eyes. “You want to breathe with me?” I asked and she nodded again. “Come on. Let’s breathe.”
I closed my eyes and took deep breaths with Jiselle.
Then I scrubbed her body clean and helped her out of the shower.
She went to work brushing her teeth and I climbed back in to take care of my hygiene needs.
Once I finished, Jiselle sat on the bathroom counter while I brushed my teeth and we collapsed into Stone’s bed side by side.
I lay on my back, one arm around Jiselle while she snuggled into my side, and just stared at the ceiling. His bed still smelled like him.
I missed him already.
After spending damn near every night together after we got together, his bed felt too big with just me and Jiselle in it. It felt too empty, too cold. Jiselle’s arm and leg tightened around me and I leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
“What the fuck happened?” She breathed against my skin.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said and kissed her forehead again. “It’s going to be okay.”