Chapter 3
Opening the shower door, I grabbed my towel off the hook and wrapped it around my waist. My hand swiped the residue off the mirror where I could slightly see my reflection.
My phone buzzed on the counter. It’d been vibrating ever since I stepped in the shower.
My ears perked at a sound coming from the front of the suite.
Exiting the bathroom, I slid my strap off the nightstand next to the bed and crept out of the room. Housekeeping wasn’t coming at this time of night. Somebody had to be breaking in, and I was about to send their ass straight to hell. My gun was already drawn before I fully came into view.
“Why the fuck are you in my room?” Solei questioned me.
She stood there in front of the door with her pumps in her hand.
My eyes immediately zoomed to her feet. Blood oozed from the side of her right foot.
Her lipstick smudged a bit on the corner of her mouth, and her hair drastically needed to be brushed.
“Didn’t your daddy ever tell you to not pull a gun on somebody unless you gon’ use it? Get that shit out my face.”
She stumbled a bit. I rushed over to her and removed her shoes from her grip and said, “Sit down.”
“Nigga, you don’t tell me what to do. You still ain’t told me why you’re in my room.”
Gripping her by the forearm, I pulled her over to the couch and pushed her down. “You’re in my room,” I corrected her.
“No, I ain’t. See.” She lifted her key card up in the air.
“That’s my fucking key card you took earlier.” I trotted down the hallway to the bathroom to see if they had a first aid kit in there so that I could clean her foot.
I couldn’t find one, so I grabbed a rag, wet it, picked up one of my T-shirts, and went back into the living room.
Solei had her phone up to her gorgeous-ass face.
The light hit her at the perfect angle. I couldn’t even lie.
Solei was beautiful as hell. That milk chocolate complexion made me weak.
It wasn’t even her beauty that was attracting me to her right now.
It was her mouth. Her fearlessness. She didn’t care that I had a gun pulled on her; she was still talking her shit.
I sat on the coffee table in front of her. Solei’s dark eyes shifted over her phone at me. “Why are you in my face?” The alcohol radiated off her breath.
“You hurt your foot.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you ain’t.” Taking her leg, I propped her foot into my lap. Her toe nails were white and were pretty as fuck.
“You want to suck ’em or something?”
Ignoring her, I wiped her foot, ripped a piece of fabric from my shirt, then tied it around her foot. She snatched it back. The light from her phone disappeared, and she tossed it onto the couch alongside her.
“I’m going downstairs to the bar.”
Solei lifted from the sofa, and I pushed her back down by the chest. “I think you’ve had enough to drink for the night. You can sleep that shit off on the couch.”
“Who do you think you are? My daddy?” She laughed and stood to her feet again.
“I said I’m going to the bar.” She brushed past me and headed for the door.
The way she was staggering, she didn’t need to go out that door alone.
Something might happen to her ass, and the Saint-Merciers might try to come for me if they knew I was the last person to see her.
“I’m going with you. Let me get dressed first.”
Solei smacked her lips. “Do I look like I need a babysitter?”
“You seriously want me to answer that question?” I bet she didn’t even know how she hurt her fucking foot. She was probably just roaming around the hotel. It was late as fuck, and she wanted to go down there to a fucking bar.
Solei rolled her eyes. “You got five minutes. If you’re not out by then, I’m leaving without you. What you got in here to eat on?” She made her way to the kitchen, and I went into the bedroom part of the suite to find me something to toss on.
Knowing that Solei meant exactly what she said, she was gon’ leave this room without me, I didn’t have time to look for something.
The first thing on top of my suitcase was a black T-shirt and some black sweats.
This wasn’t normal attire for me to go out in, but I was doing what I had to do.
The Saint-Merciers and I have been at peace lately, and I wanted to keep shit that way.
After the incident with the chick that was trying to pin Wicked and me against each other, we’d been cordial.
The crazy fool wanted him dead because he didn’t want her.
She knew that I was the only person in the city that was crazy enough to go up against that family without a care in the fucking world.
By the time I made it back out the room, Solei was nowhere to be found. That was when I realized that she only agreed to me coming with her so that she could slip off. Smart girl.
The suite door shut behind me as I trod toward the elevator.
Hopping on, I took it down to the first floor where the bars were located.
I entered the first one, and the music was loud as shit.
People were crowded at the bar. There wasn’t an empty table in sight.
My eyes scanned the room for Solei, but I didn’t see her anywhere, so I headed to the restrooms to make sure she wasn’t in there before I went to check the next bar.
“Solei?” I called out her name as I knocked on the door. There wasn’t an answer. Maybe because the music was too loud. Pushing the door in, I skimmed underneath the stalls and didn’t see her feet, so I shut the door back.
I trod to the other side of the hotel in search of the second bar.
This one wasn’t as crowded. People probably didn’t want to travel this far.
I found Solei in the back with a few people surrounding her.
She laughed, displaying all thirty-two teeth.
Picking up a shot glass, she tossed it back.
Her eyes connected with mine, and the smile she once wore faded.
This damn girl was a handful, and I’d only been around her for a few minutes.
Keeping my eyes locked on her, I made my way over to the table she sat at. I stopped, staring at her, not even acknowledging the others sitting at the table.
“Can I help you, Mr. Corvo?” The corner of her mouth quirked.
Removing my gun from my waistline, it made a thud sound when it touched the table. Instantly, the table cleared. Solei rolled her eyes and tossed back her next shot.
“What I told you about waving that stupid thing around?”
I slipped into the booth with her. “I’m just here to make sure that you get back to your room safely.”
“Why do you care?” Her perfectly trimmed eyebrow lifted to her baby hairs. “Huh?”
Once again, I ignored her, not trying to give her the fucking satisfaction of going back and forth.
My eyes scanned the bar, checking out everyone and every exit.
The main entrance and back exit. About eight people sitting at the bar.
Most of the people in here were older. They shouldn’t be too much trouble.
The dance floor was empty, excluding the woman that was swaying her hips and feeling on herself.
“I need another drink.” Solei lifted her hand in the air.
“No, you don’t.” She cut her eyes at me.
“It seems like you need one yourself. Uptight ass. Like someone shoved a stick up ya ass.” She scrunched her nose.
That was some of the cutest shit I’d ever seen.
I bet she was sexy as fuck whenever she was mad.
“Can you bring me another round? And bring one for him too,” she said once a woman approached the table. The woman nodded and walked off.
A song came on, and Solei leaped from her seat. She gripped me by the hand and pulled me from the booth along with her, out onto the dance floor. “This my shit,” Solei made known.
I observed her body as it swayed to the beat. Solei wore this black mesh jumpsuit with a black bra set underneath. She was more on the slender side, but she had a nice onion booty on her.
Someone bumped her, and she landed right into my arms. “Watch where the fuck you going,” I warned and then stared down into her glossy eyes.
I could feel the rhythm of her heart through her chest. It was rapid, as if she was nervous about something.
Solei didn’t give me the impression that shit made her uneasy.
“Get off me,” she said and pushed me back from her.
She looked behind me and then headed back toward the table.
I followed closely behind her. She grabbed the shot glass and tossed that shit back like it was water.
Solei was well past her limit, but that didn’t stop her from grabbing that second glass.
“After everything that I’ve done for them .
. .” she started and rested her elbow on the table.
Solei’s eyes connected with mine. “They still treated me like shit because they thought I was talking to you. They wouldn’t even believe me.
” I noticed the glisten in her eyes, but she wasn’t about to allow a tear to fall.
“Sometimes they make me feel like an outsider.”
By now, her cheeks were flushed from the alcohol. Her glossy lips were slightly parted while she fanned herself dramatically with a cocktail napkin.
“Why is it so damn hot in here?” she complained, tugging on the neckline of her jumpsuit.
My eyes briefly dropped. The heat wasn’t the problem. Music pulsed through the dimly lit bar while people laughed around us, but I barely heard any of it over the sound of her voice.
“I killed my husband.”
That caught me a bit off guard. Apparently, the liquor was causing her to confess her sins.
“Why?”
At this point, she had me intrigued. I wanted to know more.
“For my family . . .”
I studied her profile while she stared down at her glass. The diamond on her finger caught the dim lights from above, reflecting across the table. She looked too soft to have blood on her hands, but with her being a Saint-Mercier, I should’ve known better.
Solei was extremely pretty and looked delicate. I knew better than to confuse beauty with innocence. Some of the deadliest women looked like they wouldn’t even hurt a fly.
“I had to do it. He was gonna hurt Wicked . . . He shot me,” she said just above a whisper.
I understood that kind of loyalty better than most.
Solei laughed bitterly before downing the rest of her drink. “I feel like I’m cursed.”
My eyes slightly narrowed. “Cursed?”
She nodded. “Every man I’ve ever been with has only been with me because he thought he was gon’ benefit from it. Don’t nobody ever want me for me, and after Zayden, I don’t think I want anyone else. I just don’t want to try and trust again.”
“You just been dealing with weak-ass men. They ain’t got no motion of their own.”
She frowned, as if she’d gotten offended. “I’m just telling you the truth, mamas.” Her stare lingered on me. I could see the curiosity building in her head.
Danger recognized danger.
“You think I’m crazy?”
I looked her dead in the eyes and replied, “No. I think you loved your family enough to do what you had to do.”
She pulled her stare away from me and cleared her throat. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said before lifting from the table. She stumbled a moment and lifted her hands out in front of her to hold her balance. “I’m good,” she made known and stepped away from the table.
I watched her as she strutted to the restroom. Her fingers raked through her long, black hair. Men lustfully gazed at her, but none of them dared to say anything to her. They probably thought she belonged to me.
The vibrating of my phone gained my attention. Grabbing it from my pocket, I swiped the screen and placed it to my ear.
“Got damn. How come you ain’t been answering the phone?” Ghost questioned me. With everything that has been going on with Solei, I had forgotten all about how my phone had been blowing up.
“Been a bit preoccupied. What’s up?”
“Alexander moved the meeting up. Eight o’clock.”
“Did he say why?”
“No.”
“A’ight.”
Commotion came from near the restrooms. I looked up and saw Solei standing there with a couple guys in front of her. They probably noticed how drunk she was and thought they were about to get her. Not on my watch.
“Gotta go.” Ending the call, I got up from the table and made it over to them just as Solei grabbed a bottle off a nearby table and smacked one of the men across the head with it.
The bottle shattered, and he stumbled back.
The other one closed in on her. I gripped him by the back of the neck and rammed his face into the nearest wall.
My gun lodged into the back of his head. “Touch her and you die.”
Solei gazed at me. Her eyes softened. I got lost in them, searching for her soul.
“Get the fuck off me,” the nigga mumbled.
“I think it’s time for you to go,” I told Solei, and she nodded. This time, she didn’t even protest. I released the nigga from the wall and backed up from him. My men surrounded him while we exited the bar.