Chapter 1 Tariq “Reek” Horton
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
My phone vibrated against the bathroom counter right when I was buttoning my jeans.
Mya: You sliding through later or what?
I smirked to myself and tucked my phone into my pocket just as I heard Sienna moving around in the kitchen. I stepped out of the bathroom with my Glock at my back, my work phone in one hand, and the smell of coffee and bacon hitting me before I even made it to the hallway.
Sienna looked up from the coffee pot when I came around the corner. She was wearing a little silk lingerie set that hugged her body. I always appreciated how beautiful she was. She was the type of woman a nigga was supposed to settle down with, if he had any sense.
“You’re leaving already?” she asked.
I checked the time on my work phone and saw that I had missed three calls from Big A and one from a runner on 63rd.
“Yeah,” I said. “I got work.”
“You always got work.”
I shrugged and walked over to the island. “That’s because I always got money to make.”
She slid a plate toward me anyway. “Eat first.”
I looked down at the eggs, bacon, and fruit cut up on the side. Sienna was good for thoughtful and intentional shit like this. She paid attention. It would’ve been easy to wife her, if I was the kind of man who wanted that. But I wasn’t.
She wasn’t a bad woman at all. Sienna was smart, sexy, connected, and knew how to play her position without being loud or needy most of the time. She wasn’t embarrassing or broke, and she wasn’t one of those clingy women that made a nigga want to climb out the nearest window.
I still didn’t want the routine, expectations, or a woman waking up every day thinking she was getting closer to some version of me that did not exist.
Still, I picked up the fork and took a few bites because she was standing there watching me.
My phone vibrated again in my pocket. I pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and read the text message preview at the top.
Security: Flight landed. She’s home.
I stared at the message for half a second too long.
Sienna’s voice came from too close, as if she was coming toward me. “Who is that?”
I locked the screen and slid the phone face down onto the counter. “Work.”
I set the coffee down and dragged my hand over my beard, already irritated by the shift in my mood. The whole morning had suddenly just gone left because of one damn text.
Ava was back in Chicago.
I hadn’t spoken to her, seen her with my own eyes, or heard her voice outside of the memories that hit me at random.
But I knew what parts of Thailand she frequented the most. I knew what market she kept going back to, and what little restaurant she liked enough to return to twice in one week.
I knew when she met with vendors, when she was out late, when she was chillin’ by the water.
The night before Ava’s flight to Thailand, Saint called me talking about putting security on her while she was there, and I had hit him with, “Already did that.”
He had gone quiet for a second.
Then he said, “The fuck?”
I played it off, telling him it was my job to stay ahead of things and that he was slipping if he was just now thinking about it. I told him I wasn’t about to let anyone tied to the family move around overseas without eyes on them.
But I had honestly done that shit for me, for my own comfort and peace of mind. Because the second Ava got on that plane and left the country, I felt as if she had left me too. I needed to know where she was, that she was okay, and that she wasn’t over there falling in love.
Security was told to update Saint, but to update me on the low as well.
I checked every update; every picture, every video clip, every little note about where she went and who she was with.
I had watched her laugh in some market in Bangkok with bundles hanging from her hands and sunglasses on like life was so sweet without me in it.
I had watched her on a boat with the wind hitting her dress.
I watched her eat her way through half that country.
I watched her glow magnify. I watched her get finer somehow.
And I had hated myself every time my phone lit up with another image and my first instinct was to open it like a thirsty nigga.
Leaving for Thailand had been the smartest thing she could’ve done for both of us. The distance had finally given me room to breathe and to get her out of my face and head.
But now she was back, and I could already feel myself slipping into that same old bullshit; yearning for things I had no business wanting.
Sienna touched my arm. “You’re somewhere else.”
I looked down at her hand on me, then up at her face. “I’m right here.”
“No, you’re not.”
Her voice wasn’t accusing. She was just observant.
That was the problem right there. She was catching on to the rhythm of me, learning my moods, learning how to read what I didn’t say.
I wasn’t surprised. That was what women did when they were in love.
But I had made it clear to Sienna multiple times that I didn’t do relationships.
I didn’t waste my time building some pretty picture in my head of a wife and kids.
That shit never sounded sweet to me. It sounded suffocating, temporary and like one more setup for disappointment.
I didn’t know how to love deeply because nobody had ever loved me like that first.
My father had never fucked with me. My mother dropped me off and moved on.
My grandparents kept a roof over my head, but they made sure I knew I was a burden while they did it.
I learned young not to expect softness, not to trust care that came with conditions, not to build my life around people promising forever when life killed, switched up, and left too easy.
So, I stayed out the way of all that.
At least I tried to, because Ava made that shit hard.
I didn’t like how we had left things before she got on that plane. But distance was still the best thing. Because whatever Ava wanted from life, whatever she needed from a man, I knew I wasn’t built to give it to her.
That was the only part that made staying away feel like the right move. Even if I hated it.
I stepped back from Sienna and grabbed my keys off the counter. “I gotta roll.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “I wanted to spend some time with you. You got here so late last night.”
“And I’m leaving this morning.” I glanced at the time again. “That’s how this works.”
Her lips tightened, but she didn’t pop off. Sienna was too refined for that.
“I know how it works with you,” she said. “You make that very clear.”
I stared at her for a second.
Then my phone vibrated again.
It was Big A this time.
I answered it while walking toward the door without saying another word to her. “What?”
“The fuck took you so long?” he asked.
“I’m leaving out.”
He snorted. “Then move faster. Found out some nigga from the 63rd spot been trying to set us up.”
“I’m on my way.”
I hung up and shoved the phone back in my pocket.
Behind me, Sienna said, “You could at least kiss me before you leave.”
I paused with my hand on the knob.
Then I turned and looked at her.
She stood there with her arms folded and her face giving away just enough that I knew she meant it.
Like I said, she wasn’t a bad woman, and she deserved to get back the same love she was giving me.
So, I walked back over, grabbed her by the waist, and kissed her on the cheek. She kissed me back like she wanted more, but I pulled away.
Her eyes searched mine.
“You always rush out,” she murmured.
I gave her a look. “That’s because I’m not the nigga for lingering.”
She let out a dry little laugh like she wanted to be annoyed but knew better than to push it too far. “A’ight, be safe.”
I nodded once and headed for the door.
By the time I got downstairs and to the truck, I was already texting Mya back.
Me: Maybe later.
Then I opened the thread from Malik, Ava’s Thailand security guard, again like a damn fool and stared at the last picture they’d sent me of Ava at the airport before boarding her flight home.
She was wearing a big sweatshirt and her hair was down.
She looked tired but still beautiful. I zoomed in on her face for no reason and stared at it for a few seconds.
Then I locked my phone, cursed under my breath, and started the truck.
Ava being back was bad for me. I already knew one look at her in person was going to ruin me. I had told myself Thailand had put enough distance between us for me to extinguish my obsession with shorty.
But that was a lie. The second I saw her, I knew I was in trouble. She still had the same hold on me.
Ava being gone had been hard.
But Ava being back was about to be worse.