Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
What. The. Fuck? Looking at my woman, I can’t believe she thinks she’s a burden. Again. “Who the hell said you’re a burden? It’s my honor to do things for you, Othella.” My blood pressure is rising, and I know if I don’t control it, it’s going to get worse.
Her eyes look devastatingly raw. Goddamn, her mother has done a bang-up job of wrecking her self-esteem and self-worth. Taking Othella gently by the face, I force her to look at me.
“Do you think I really believe you are a burden?”
Her eyes beg me to understand, but her body gives off a totally different signal. Othella doesn’t speak, but she doesn’t have to. I can read her like a book. “Oh, ladybug.”
Chuckling, I kiss her again. This time, I pull her into me and don’t let go. “I love you, Othella.”
“Wh-what?” she stutters and looks at me with eagerness. God, she’s starved for love, and I am so ready to give it to her. There will never be a day from now on that she doesn’t know what love is. She will understand that being with someone isn’t a goddamn burden.
“You heard me, ladybug. Now, answer my question.” I kiss down her throat and she whimpers. Every time she gives me those little noises, it goes straight to my dick.
“Yes. I’ve always been one. No one ever wants me around.
Hell, even my roommate at college kicked me out because I was too young.
The Dean of Education had to make a special arrangement for me to live by myself and even that was out of duty,” she whispers to me, and I pull back so I can look at her.
Tears well in her eyes, but I can see the need and hope in there.
“I will take care of you forever. Never forget that ladybug.”
Her arms come around me so hard and fast that she knocks my footing loose and we stumble a bit. I chuckle and hug her, keeping us from falling. “There now, I got you, Othella. Always and forever.”
Rubbing her back, I feel the stiffness and the worry seeping out of her. Othella turns her face into my neck and kisses my pulse. My cock twitches, and I’d take her to bed right now if Bruiser didn’t walk into the room.
“The mayor is here. You want me to let her in?”
“No!” Othella screams so loudly it hurts my eardrums, but I don’t say a word. Bruiser’s left eyebrow rises but he smirks.
He raises his hands in an act to make him look innocent. Yeah, right. The man is almost seven feet tall, with at least 350 pounds on me. “No problem, ma’am.”
Othella looks at him and gives a small smile.
“You… you and I are friends now.” Her words come out wobbly, but my ladybug is determined.
She steps out of my embrace, extending her hand to Bruiser, and I want to growl in frustration.
I reel it in, knowing this is needed. The feeling that Othella doesn’t have many friends makes me angry.
Bruiser takes her hand and Othella beams. “Any friend of Noah’s is a friend of mine. Besides, you…”
She pauses and blushes. “You saved me. I owe you my life.”
“Oh now, Miss Othella, you don’t owe me a damn thing. It was a pleasure helping you. Now, let me get rid of the mayor.”
“Let me,” Othella says, and I bristle.
“Wait.” I walk over to her and hold her back to my chest. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“You’re coming with me, right?”
“Damn straight I am. If all hell breaks out, Bruiser will handle it.” I wink at him, and he looks down at my woman.
“I got your back,” he says and vanishes into the back of the house. The man can move in silence like no one I have ever met.
With my hand in Othella’s, we walk to the front of the cabin and open the door. Glynna looks raving mad as Othella stands there, holding the door open. “What are you still doing here?”
“What’s the matter, Mother?” Othella bites back. Well, this may not go smoothly after all.
“I don’t want you here, Othella. It’s that clear. You were…” Glynna stops talking as she sees Clyde on the ground.
“What did you do?” she screams at Othella, and I step in front of her.
“You mean, what did Clyde try to do with Othella?”
Glynna’s face contorts in anger. “I’ll have your job for this.”
“What a threat, Mayor!” I laugh and watch as Othella steps up behind me and puts her hands on my back.
Damn it, she’s scared of her mother. For all her bravery, this woman can bring Othella down to a scared little girl.
That pisses me off to the point I’m seeing dots in my vision.
Of all people to be scared of, it shouldn’t be your mother.
“I think you need to know that Clyde will be going to prison for his attempted assault, breaking and entering, and for what he’s done in the past.”
At the mention of the word “past,” Glynna whirls around and stares at me with dead eyes. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
Othella steps around me and pulls up her shirt. There’s embarrassment on her face, but she stands there. “You know exactly what it means, Mother.”
There’s no love in Othella’s voice as she glares at her mother. Glynna laughs manically. “You can’t prove anything.”
Bruiser chooses that moment to step into the living room. “Well, ma’am, that’s not quite true. You see, your office has been under surveillance for quite some time. There were some things not quite right, and the governor’s office decided to step in.”
Utter silence. You could hear a pin drop in this place, but I wait by Othella to see how Glynna is going to react. “You all are crazy. I’ve done nothing wrong, and I have nothing to hide.”
Bruiser just stands there and gives me the smallest of nods to go ahead. Pulling the remote from my back pocket, the television comes on. The screen lights up the room with Glynna and Clyde talking about taking out Othella.
“Look, what we did when she was younger didn’t work. I want you to take her to a remote location, have your way with her, and then kill her. Make it look like suicide or something. Just get her out of my hair. With her here, it could raise questions.”
Glynna demands Clyde to do the deed and Clyde smirks. “Just like last time, we shipped her brother off to the military. Maybe I can ship her off to the slave trades. We don’t have to kill her.”
Clyde sounds like he doesn’t want to hurt Othella in a deadly way, but still, the slave trade? Dear God, they both deserve to be put in jail for a long time. Othella trembles next to me and I pull her into me.
“As you can see, ma’am, we have a conspiracy to commit murder charge and tax evasion to start. I’m sure my team is digging through the entire office and the archives to see what else we can find. But as of right now, you are under arrest.”
Glynna’s mouth opens in shock, but only for a second. “You!” she screams as she moves toward Othella. Bruiser stops her right before she reaches my ladybug.
Othella looks at Bruiser, happy to have him on her side, but then turns to her mother.
“I used to believe that if I was a good girl, you’d love me.
I can see how wrong I was about that. Even now, I tried to come home to patch things up.
To see if you could at least tolerate me.
You can’t and while it stings to know, I do know and I hate you.
You treated me like dirt, but not anymore. Not even your name will save you now.”
I expected her to slap her mother but she doesn’t. No, my sweet girl turns to me and hugs me. “Can we go somewhere?”
Her question is so sweet and shyly asked. “Of course. Let’s get out of here.”
I pick her up and swing her over my shoulder. She screams but giggles as she slaps my ass. “You keep that up, and I’ll fuck you right here.” We make it to the bedroom just as Glynna is being read her rights, and the house starts crawling with the state police.