Chapter 6
Hondo
The Wedding Day
She was simply fucking beautiful, inside and out, a heart of fucking gold.
A heart I had every intention of protecting, even if it took every breath in my body.
I hadn’t seen her this morning since Moms insisted she sleep in the other room instead of with me last night.
I didn’t like that at all because in the last few weeks I got used to sleeping with her in my arms. Mama was talking all that shit about tradition while both Patience and I were on some fuck tradition shit.
“Damn, you really fucking did it, huh?” My brother’s voice behind me had me turning around.
“Did what?”
“Got Patience O’Leary to the altar. That’s what, nigga.”
I laughed. “Yo, you’re stupid. You know that?”
“Yeah, I am, but I’m also grateful that you’re getting married so it’s a lot of available pussy out there for me to lay eyes on.” He winked.
I shook my head because he was serious. Our mother was going to take this event to introduce him to any and every woman she deemed a prospect of helping him slow down. That was Alora and just how she was.
My brother and I talked for a while longer before he left and I was there alone, wondering how I was about to sneak into the room where Nic was.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled my phone out when I heard a door close and footsteps.
That immediately put me on alert because I knew for a fact nobody was supposed to be up here… not yet at least.
I was swift, moving into the bathroom that connected the room I was to where Nic was. I didn’t hear anything, which had me moving faster. Once I was in the washroom, I held on to the knob tightly as I twisted it to open the door without making a sound.
I might’ve seemed paranoid, but something didn’t feel right. Usually when I felt this way, I was right. Over the years I had learned to trust my gut because that motherfucker had never steered me wrong.
“Who are you?” I heard Nic’s voice from the other side of the door.
“The last face you’re gonna see, princess, and a man who's about to make some very easy cash.”
I opened the door a little, peeping that whoever he was had his back to me. Dumbass, because if this was a hit, having his back to the door was stupid.
I eased in, positioning myself right behind him.
“What do you mea—” She saw me but paid attention to the front of the hitman. That meant he had a gun.
“Shush, the last thing I need is for him to hear you over here.”
“Too fucking late.” My hand was over his mouth, gripping his chin, and the other was at the back of his head. I broke his neck stealthily and dropped his lifeless body onto the floor. Then I rushed over to Nic, pulling her body into my arms.
She trembled in my arms while I assured her that everything would be okay. What the entire fuck?
It took her a moment to calm down, but I had the body removed and she was escorted to the room I was supposed to be in.
“What was that?” she asked, seated on my lap, looking down at me.
“I don’t know, but I’ma find out. On my soul.
” I reached up, gripping her chin so she was looking directly at me when I said my next few words.
“I don’t know what the fuck that was and that will be the only time you hear me tell you I don’t know.
I got you with everything in me, Nicolette. You just gotta trust me to have you.”
She looked at me, those cool blue eyes boring into mine as if she was looking for something. I guess she found it because within seconds she was nodding. “Okay?”
“Okay like what, Nic? Like you're still about to marry me today?”
She smiled. “Yes, I’m still gonna marry you today. But you do have to let me go so I can get dressed.” She then motioned to the silk robe she was still wearing.
“Nah, you good. You can dress in here.” I grabbed my phone from the end table, dialing my security.
I instructed them to let the makeup and hair people up, but for them to be brought to my room.
Nic was my responsibility and about to be my wife.
Hell nah I wasn’t taking my eyes off her again, not until I knew what the fuck had just happened.
While she dressed and got put together like she needed, I sat in the chair watching the whole process. My eyes jumped from person to person, never looking away from her too long, like I’d lose time.
“Um. Hondo, why are yo—” My mother’s voice had me moving to the doorway where she stood.
“We good.”
“You sure?” My mother’s eyes went from me to Nic.
“Gotta be. Anybody come in here after you left?” I asked, taking my eyes off Nic for less than a second to look at my mother before they went back to her.
“Her father, but that’s it.”
I was quiet, my eyes tracing everything about her. I felt paranoid about what I was thinking.
“You don’t think…” my mother started, but her sentence trailed off when Nic looked in our direction. “Coming dear, we have to get this show on the road.” My mother left my side, moving toward her.
Nah, couldn’t be. But in my eyes, everybody was guilty until proven otherwise.
When my baby was done, my fucking soul beamed.
I had never been one of those men who doted over a woman, but for Nic, I did it all.
Her dress was long sleeved and form fitting, low as fuck in the front, but didn’t show too much, just enough so I wouldn’t have to take more life today.
That didn’t mean motherfuckers could look too long though.
If they knew what was best for them, they’d give a brief glance and look away.
“Son, you gotta get your jacket and get to the altar.” My father’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
I blinked a few times, standing to grab my jacket from his hands. “Nah, I’m walking her down the aisle.”
“Hondo.” My mother’s voice had me looking over my shoulder.
“She’s safe, Hondo.”
“I know, because I’m walking her down the aisle and handing her to my damn self.”
My father chuckled.
“Stop laughing and talk some sense into your son.” My mother mugged my father, then stepped up to fix the buttons on my shirt.
“That makes sense. Makes perfect fucking sense to me, Lora.”
She grilled us both. “You’re both crazy.”
“Nah, the man is protecting his future and I respect it. Now let’s go take our seats.”
My mother shook her head, then allowed my father to take her hand. “You look beautiful, baby doll,” she said to Nic who was looking at us.
She approached me after everyone left. “You think my family had something to do with this?”
“Everybody bears watching, baby. Meaning I don’t trust anybody with your safety but myself right now.”
She giggled. “Okay, so you’re gonna walk me down the aisle?”
“You damn right.”
She shook her head. “You’re nuts.”
“Probably. Are you ready to walk me to this aisle or you boutta stall?”
She nodded and grabbed the bouquet.
“You’re fucking beautiful, Nic.”
She blushed. “Thank you, husband.”
When we made it to the top of the aisle, I peeped Titus look at his father who looked dumbfounded as fuck. It was almost like they didn’t expect her to make it to the aisle, let alone out of the house. I dead ass could have been paranoid, but something told me I wasn’t.
“I got it from here, son.” Titus stepped to my side.
“Nah, you’re good. Go take a seat, old nigga.” I looked him up and down with a menacing stare, showcasing just how I felt about him in the moment.
“Excuse me?”
“Yo, you heard me. Either take a seat or I’ll have somebody come seat you.”
His whole fucking face cracked, but he moved out of the way. When we finally began moving, I glanced over at Nic who couldn’t hold back the amusement embedded in her features.
“You’re something else, you know that?”
I laughed as we continued two stepping toward the altar and the pastor.
The music died down when we got to our destination. Things happened quickly after that moment. Before I knew it, the pastor was asking for the rings then telling me I could kiss my bride.
I kissed her forehead, pulling her frame closer to mine.
We were now married and sitting through a reception I would have much rather received a recount of.
I had other plans for our wedding night, plans that included the private jet and me and her landing on some secluded island for the next few days.
Because of who I was and what I was into, I couldn’t do any longer than a couple days.
Not to mention I wanted to know who was bold enough to come for her, here of all places, and how they’d gotten in.
Something was off about the way both Shamus and Titus looked aloof when they saw her.
It was almost like they didn’t expect her to walk down the aisle.
“You look like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.” Her soft voice and the softness of her hand as it grazed my neck interrupted my thoughts. I looked out at my family enjoying the party, then over at her.
“Nah, I’m just thinking.”
“About what?” She countered.
“The fact that I could have gotten a recount of this from Otto in a few days. But right now, I’d rather have you naked over the Pacific while we go be held up for a couple days.”
She grinned. “Is this what marriage looks like for us?”
It took me a minute to understand her entire question. “Marriage looks like whatever we want it to look like, Nic. I told you this with us was real and I meant just that.”
“Whatever I want?”
I gave her a quick look and a grin. “Went from we to I? You boutta have me regretting saying that shit, huh?”
“Maybe, but then again, probably not. You never know, we may want the same things, husband?”
That earned a laugh out of me. “We’ll see, but yeah, whatever you want. Within reason.”
“Okay.” She nuzzled close to me. “How much longer do we have to be here?”
“Till you go over there and tell Alora you’re ready to go on your honeymoon,” I said, just to fuck with her.
She cackled. “Um no, that’s your mom.”
I shook my head. “Nah, that’s you, baby. You gave her something neither me nor Otto could. You gave her a daughter.”
“Well technically, you did that. You paid for a bride.”