Nathaniel
“THE HELL YOU doing here?”
I looked over at my brother ready to swing ‘cause why the hell he ask me like that?
I glanced around the kitchen in the home I grew up in before looking back at him with a frown.
“I live here, nigga, the fuck?”
The serious look on my brother’s face shifted into a smile as he shook his head. “You got a whole spread not too far from here so I’m trying to see why you ain’t over there.”
It was crazy how often people had to remind me that I had my own land. It didn’t feel like mine yet and I wondered if it ever would.
“You must’ve been trying to hump on your wife or some shit and that’s why you acting like this.”
“Already did but that doesn’t mean I can’t go for a round two.” He rubbed his beard like my observation had given him something to think about.
It might’ve been the lack of pussy I was currently getting that caused me to frown.
Couldn’t believe I was hating on my recently virgin brother for finally popping his…
dick? Whatever his ass popped he hadn’t eased up on Yzzy at all.
It might also have been the fairy-haired baddie that had me up half the night and was the reason I was here today.
I popped him playfully in his chest with the back of my hand to get him out of his head. “Let up on that girl, Samp. It ain’t her fault you were out there saving yourself for marriage. Don’t break her in half just because you just learned how to use your dick.”
His heavy-handed ass pushed me, and I almost hit the wall. I was taller than my brother but he was more muscular. Trying to push him back would’ve been more difficult than wrestling a bull so I let him get away with it.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before leaning against the counter.
“Why don’t you get you a girl and get out my damn business?
First, it was I wasn’t doing enough. Now I’m doing too much.
You came over here to talk to me about sum’n, speak your piece before I have to put you outta here. I suddenly have things to do.”
He reminded me that I was the one who had called his ass over here. It wasn’t necessary but I needed to warn him about what I’d set up with Charisma.
“There’s going to be someone moving into Yzzy’s old casita temporarily.” My tone was even as I tried to deliver the words without him thinking too much about it.
“One of the hands?”
He sat up immediately concerned. My brother took his job as the CEO of our company seriously so the idea that he’d missed something with one of the men who worked for us would set him on edge.
“You know they would’ve come to you first. No, I’ve hired someone to work as my secretary of sorts I guess. Well, more like she handles all the shit I don’t want to do. She was living in a hotel so I figured there wasn’t an issue with putting her up in Yzzy’s old place.”
Sampson’s face went back to a frown as he studied mine. “She? You know this girl?”
“Nope. But I got a good feeling about her.” I couldn’t help but grin because I did have a good feeling about her. We knew to trust our guts and so far everything with Charisma felt like she was good people.
“I’d never doubt your gut so I won’t even question you.”
I nodded, happy that he was echoing my thoughts without me having to put up too much of an argument. “‘Preciate that.”
“How beautiful is she?”
I coughed as the air I was inhaling seemed to get stuck in my throat. “Say what?”
Sampson waited patiently for me to get myself together looking at me like I was being dramatic.
Since he made it clear he wasn’t worried about my survival he kept talking.
“You might get a good feeling about her but I know you, Bucky. You not going to be out here just moving any ol’ kinda way without a reason.
You have a good heart, but there’s something else to it.
You’d have put her up on your dime somewhere in town before you let her come on this land.
That’s personal because this is home. More than the place you bought not too long ago and often forget that you even own. ”
“She was caught up in a place that she shouldn’t have been.”
“Explain.”
I sighed not wanting to give him too much information but I could see the big brother side of him emerging. That meant he wasn’t about to let this go until he was satisfied. “That old bar off 26, You know it?”
He nodded slowly like he was trying to jump to conclusions off my initial statement. “Yeah, the place Yzzy went last year after the rodeo. Little hole in the wall that City got them from for me.”
“Yeah, that one. It’s been sold and they’re running girls out of there.”
His furrow deepened and when his arms crossed and he sat up I knew he was pissed. “And why the fuck were you there, Bucky?”
“Recognizance.”
He sighed and ran a hand down his face and I was secretly laughing at how stressed he looked.
I’d been the first thorn in my brother’s side and I took pride in giving him hell.
Just because I was in my thirties, that didn’t mean his job as big brother ended.
“Nate, don’t have me woken up out of my sleep because you’re out here doing something crazy.
You really running around the Valley in a shiesty? ”
“Well, not last night. Not the whole night. I had to take it off to go inside the bar.” I spoke candidly, which I’m sure pissed him off. He was expecting me to quell the rumors I’d implanted in his head. The issue was only a passing one last year but the need had grown recently.
Sampson took a swig from his bottle and took a deep breath to brace himself. “Jesus. Just tell me about this girl. I don’t have time to delve into the madness you’re doing in your free time. Just be safe is all I ask. Now, you’re saying she was turning tricks?”
It was my turn to frown because I was offended as fuck that he thought Charisma was hoin’.
“Hell no. Her ass ain’t have a clue what was going on. Apparently, only some people are there working like that. The others don’t know I don’t think. She certainly didn’t.”
“And you know this for sure?”
Sampson never took shit at face value. His brain didn’t work that way. It was why we were all so shocked that he’d been tied to a conniving bitch for so long. His honor or his guilt had kept him from looking too deeply beneath the surface of her bullshit.
“You’ll see what I mean when you meet her. The girl is as green as a newborn lamb.” I met his eyes so he could see this wasn’t a folly on my end. I vouched for her and he would take my word that she was good.
“And what are your intentions with her?”
I laughed because now he was trying to protect some stranger from me like I was a piece of shit. I might have had a few belts with notches on them but every partner I’d ever had was willing in the experience. Shit, most of the time they’d hunted me down.
“Bruh, why are you sitting here acting like she’s going to slaughter?”
Samp’s arms crossed his broad chest as he stared me down like the answer didn’t have to be spoken but he would humor me. “You’re the one who called her a lamb and you’re a gotdamn wolf. You might have taken a rodeo season off but you’re still the Rodeo Romeo. So, again, what are your intentions?”
“I should be pissed that you’re over here thinking I’m plotting—”
His loud ass bark of a laugh interrupted what I was saying. He slapped my shoulder as he moved to one of the large barstools and took a seat. “She’s that beautiful, huh?”
He had me fucked up even though he was right so there wasn’t too much protesting I could do.
“Shut up, Samp. Yes, she’s beautiful but I also need the help. The girl ain’t someone that I’m trying to get over on her but I’m not lying that I think she’s good people. I’m trying to look out for her.”
“That’s all?” He eyed me so suspiciously that I wanted to lie but something in my soul wouldn’t let me. Because if everything worked out the way I wanted it to I wasn’t about to let him gloat when I made her my girl.
“As of right now, yes.”
His eyes rolled like he wasn’t literally married to someone who used to work for the family. “Bucky—”
“Don’t mind him. Not everybody is going to wait two years to get there forever like you, Old Man.”
Yzabel, my brother’s wife, walked in and gave him a kiss on the side of the head.
She turned to make her way to greet me but he pulled her down onto his lap and kissed her properly.
I wasn’t even bothered by Samp’s ass acting like this any longer.
Since they’d made stuff official, you rarely saw the two of them apart unless they were at work.
And even then, he would find a reason to be around her. And she was just as bad as he was.
“It’s late as hell, Yzzy. It’s wild that I’m up before you.”
They shared a glance at my comment and I just knew they’d been up doing some random shit I didn’t need to know the details of.
“We were up late.” She tried to look innocent but the grin on my brother’s face ruined the bit.
“I’m sure y’all were. But y’all grown and married so I ain’t got shit to say.” I held up my hands because the last thing I wanted was to hear any details about the two of them.
“Who is this girl?” Yzzy’s question was probing but I could tell she was trying to see if this was a one-time thing or someone she should attempt to get to know.
“She’s new in town. Moved here for I don’t know what but I couldn’t just mess up her job like that and not have a solution.”
“Hold up, how’d you mess up her job, Nate?” The smile on her face and humor in her tone meant she knew I’d done something wild.
“Oh, I had to beat this man’s ass because he wouldn’t take his hands off her.
She’d said that she wasn’t about to fuck him cause she wasn’t there for that but he wasn’t hearing her.
So I fucked him up.” Yz nodded her approval but Samp had the nerve to look like somebody’s daddy who was about to fuss.
“You conveniently left that part out when you got here.”
“It didn’t seem poignant to the story. I came to let you know what was up, not to rehash why we ended up here.”