Heels of Love (G Street Chronicles Presents From Love to Loathe Series) (17 page)

I shook my head at him. There was no need for D’Artagnan to feel bad. They both filled me in on everything I had missed at work. O showed me the arrangements that were from the office, and then D’Artagnan showed me the flowers Randy and the dancing door attendant, whose name was Robert, sent me.

Just then, Jyme walked back into the room then and glared at D’Artagnan. I could see the tension in Jyme’s eyes, and I could tell he was holding back some rage.

O turned to me and said, “Well, we should let you get some rest.” I shook my head in protest, and Jyme interrupted by agreeing with O. She gave me another hug, and D’Artagnan squeezed my hand.

D’Artagnan walked straight up to Jyme and said, “I’m sorry. I’ve seen you a couple of times, but we’ve never been formally introduced. I’m D’Artagnan Crain. I’m a coworker of Cricket’s.”

“Yes, we always seem to meet when someone’s shitfaced drunk.” Jyme chuckled, D’Artagnan shifted, and then he cleared his throat.

My mouth dropped open, and the two men shook hands awkwardly. I couldn’t believe Jyme had just said that to him. D’Artagnan bid us all a goodnight and quickly left the room.

Right away, Jyme started whispering to Mrs. JJ again. I just pulled the cover up to my chin and turned on my side. I only had one machine now, and it had a long cord. I heard the door open and shut.

I raised my head to see Jyme sitting in the chair next to the bed again. I turned my head back from him. “We need to talk about yesterday, but I think we should wait till you get your voice back,” he stated. I didn’t acknowledge his words or his presence. We sat there in silence for a long time. I watched the wall, refusing to turn back towards him.

The door opened again and Mrs. JJ stood there looking at the both of us. She stayed in the hospital room with us that night. She stretched out on the couch, and Jyme slept in the chair beside me. There was a knock at the door the following morning. Officer Carter and her partner walked in with an envelope. She asked Jyme and Mrs. JJ to excuse us. Jyme didn’t budge. Mrs. JJ exited the room, and Officer Carter and her partner advised Jyme that either they could speak with me in private there or they could take me down to the station. He sat there for a moment and then he stood and stepped out of the room.

Officer Carter opened the envelope and slid some photos out. “Ms. Hooper, I really hate to do this to you right now, but we need to know all the information while it’s still fresh on your mind.”

“It’s alright. I understand. I don’t mind helping anyway I can.”

“Ms. Hooper, Garrett Smith’s restaurant was burned to the ground last night. We’re starting to think the standoff yesterday was related to an upcoming attack on Mr. Smith.”

Officer Carter took a deep breath and continued. “In saying that, we need to know if you’ve ever had a relationship of any kind with Garrett Smith.”

“No,” I answered.

“Ms. Hooper, if you’re afraid that your boyfriend will find out and if you’re not in a safe environment, we have people that can help you.”

“Wait a minute. What are you implying?” I asked.

Officer Carter pulled the pictures out of the envelope, but she kept two of them in her hands. The pictures she laid out for me to view were photos of Ducati bikes. The pictures were taken at some street bike race. The majority of the photos were at night, but there were a few in the daylight. And in these photos were a burnt orange and a lime green Ducati. I remembered these two bikes because the guy with the chain rode the lime green one and the leader rode the burnt orange one. I didn’t recognize any of the men on the bikes in the photos. I couldn’t see much of them because of their helmets, but I didn’t recognize what I could see of them.

Officer Carter looked over at her partner, and then she set the other two photos down in front me. “Do you recognize any of these guys in these photos?” she asked. I picked up the first photo, and I recognized both of the men. Sitting on the lime green Ducati was Loon and on a yellow and red Ducati was Kanoke. My hand started to shake, and then I looked at the last photo. It was the burnt orange Ducati, and its rider was Jyme.

Chapter 8

Bootylilcious

I
felt sick and handed the photos back to Officer Carter.

“Ms. Hooper, were you aware that your boyfriend was part of a bike crew called ‘The Whistlers?’ They are known to be an organized group who has a lot of ‘street cred,’ so to speak. They race cars, bikes, boats, and ATVs illegally. Their crew’s net worth is around five million dollars unofficially. That is not even including the other dozen of businesses they own. Do you know what your boyfriend’s net worth is, Ms. Hooper?”

I shook my head, too afraid to speak.

“Ten million; and that’s supposed to be from selling fish at a market on the weekends,” she said.

“I don’t know anything about any of this, I swear to you.”

“Well, now you know, so what do you do? Turn a blind eye, or wake up?”

I sat there in shock. I could feel something had been off about him. I’d felt it ever since I met him. I knew he had skeletons in his closet. It always felt like he was trying too hard with me. He had told me repeatedly that he didn’t think like the old reservation ways. But that was all a lie; he was still in that mentality. He was living a double life, and I didn’t know why he sought me out. Everything we had was now tarnished.

“Look, Ms. Hooper, you seem like a real nice girl; you’re still young, you have a good job, and you have excellent credit. Why don’t you find another boyfriend and settle down with somewhere?”

I turned my head towards the window and stared at the buildings.

“We don’t have enough to get them right now, but we will eventually. And everyone that’s part of their crew, whether it’s a girlfriend or the girlfriend’s friends…they are all going down.”

Officer Carter and her partner started walking towards the door.

“Officer Carter,” I called out, still focusing on the buildings outside. She turned, and we made eye contact.

“Why do you think the person that did this, did it?”

“I think that person normally gets exactly what he wants, and he’s not use to a challenge. I think the girl he has his eye on excites him. I think he got jealous because someone else was trying to holler at his girl.”

They both left the room, and about a minute later, Mrs. JJ and Jyme returned. I sent a quick text to Chelle and Ayashe. Mrs. JJ watched me carefully; she was looking for something in my face. But this woman knew nothing about me and my ability to turn everything off. Jyme loaded up the gifts, flower arrangements, and the balloons. He didn’t make eye contact with me on purpose. Mrs. JJ watched us both like hawks, but she wouldn’t get a show from me. I pressed the nurse’s button, and one of the nurse’s came in. I asked if she could take all of the candy, flowers arrangements, and balloons to the children’s ward.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, hopefully they get a little joy out of them as well.”

“That is such a sweet thing to do.” she smiled. I grinned back at her.

Jyme and the nurse loaded the giveaway items onto the cart and the nurse pushed it away.

My phone buzzed; I looked at the screen, and it read, “We’re on our way.” I sat the phone back down on the bed.

“Mrs. JJ, could you give us a minute?” I asked, not looking at her; I kept my eyes on Jyme. Mrs. JJ looked a Jyme for a long moment, and then I saw her pain for him. Her face was crumbling right before me. She went from concerned to heartbroken. She had a sickly and pained look on her face. He eyes watered and I knew then, she knew what was coming, and she wanted to be strong for him. She walked out the room, shutting the door all the way.

Jyme stood up straight and turned towards me. Still not making eye contact with me. He walked over to the window and stared at the buildings with both his arms crossed.

“Why did you do it?” I asked.

“Cricket, don’t do this,” he begged.

“Jyme, look at me,” I demanded. He turned around to face me and finally looked me in the eye.

“You’d be so much more scared of my truth than a lie,” he sighed.

“This is why I don’t let people in my heart,” I breathed out.

Jyme walked over to me and kneeled down right in front of my face. “You didn’t let me anyway near your fucking heart; don’t kid yourself. I couldn’t hurt your precious heart if I tried.”

I turned my head away from him, and he nuzzled his face into the side of my neck. I closed my eyes and let the tears fall.

“Cricket, please don’t do this,” he begged.

“Stop it,” I pushed him away from me.

“Cricket, let me love you,” he begged through falling tears now.

“You don’t know how to love me,” I cried.

“You don’t know how to let me love you.”

There was a knock at the door, and Jyme turned and yelled, “NOT NOW!” I heard two sets of feet shuffling.

I crossed my arms around my chest and squeezed my eyes shut. “You need to go now,” I told him.

“Cricket?” Chelle whispered from outside the door.

“Where am I supposed go without you?” Jyme weakly responded.

“Back to your life.”

“I had no life before the 28
^th
of October. You kick started me up.”

Then, the 28
^th
made sense now. Those flower arrangements had twenty-eight
flowers in them.

“Lil Samson, we should go now,” Mrs. JJ said nervously from a distance. Jyme kissed the side of my neck, and then he kissed my wet cheek.

“I’m cutting you off completely and don’t try to contact me!” I said sternly.

Jyme grabbed my face in such a quick movement, I gasped. He was grabbing my cheeks so hard that my lips puckered up like a duck.

“Get the fuck off her,” Chelle yelled.

I could not turn away from his hold on me. My cheeks started to burn, and Jyme was staring at me with a crazed look.

“Sorry, I don’t have a cutoff switch,” he growled. Jyme then pressed his lips down to my painful puckered lips and bit down hard.

I thrashed from the pain, and I felt hands tugging in all directions. There were so many voices shouting now, but my eyes focused on the black pair right in front of me. I could taste the blood on my tongue. Jyme sucked on my lips so hard, and then he took a loud swallow. He pushed me back onto the bed, and pushed every single person dangling from his arms, neck, and torso to the floor one by one.

Mrs. JJ followed Jyme right out the door.

Ayashe made it off the floor and to me first. “OH MY GOD!” she screamed.

Chelle jumped up off the floor and yelled, “He fucking bit her. She’s bleeding!”

Two nurses started working on me immediately. A doctor in a white coat ran in with a syringe and injected something into my lip. I ended up having to get six stitches, and my lips stayed swollen for over a week.

* * * * *

I cried myself to sleep for weeks, and the pounds started shedding off.

The front desks at the condo and at the office were notified by D’Artagnan not to let any packages, or anyone – who was not authorized on the now very short list – to come through. I am not sure how long the flower deliveries would have lasted if D’Artagnan hadn’t stepped in. I was receiving arrangements at the condo and at the office. D’Artagnan insisted on me working only in the office for at least a month. He picked up all of my territories, and I did all of our paperwork.

We were a great team and started to become good friends. We began carpooling, and we would leave the condo every morning by nine and always retuned by a little after five. We ordered take out for dinner Monday thru Friday. D’Artagnan was now the big brother that I never had. Our relationship was professional and platonic. He never once asked me about Jyme, and I appreciated that. I had a new-found respect for my
new
friend, D’Artagnan.

My
old
friends, on the other hand, had been begging me to have a full girl’s night out with them. When I told them I was not up for partying, they agreed to have drinks instead and catch up. It had been a few months since that dreadful day in the hospital. I met the girls that Friday night; we all met up at Pink Ultra Lounge. I went right after work and caught a cab downtown. The girls were already sitting at a table, and they both had drinks. They didn’t see me walk up; they both turned around scoping out the bar. I sat down and took a swig of the drink in front of Chelle.

“So who are we scoping out?” I asked. They both turned to look at me, and then both of their faces showed horror. Chelle gasped, and Ayashe squeezed her eyes shut.

“What?”

Neither one of them said anything.

“Is something on my face?” I asked, touching my lips and then my jaws and chin. “So, I haven’t seen you guys since Thanksgiving. What’s been going on?”

They both just sat there staring at me, and then a waitress showed up and took my drink order.

“Uhm, so the kids are dying to have a grown-up dinner party, and they wanted me to invite my friends for dinner; they’ve been watching the food network and they want to cook,” Ayashe said with a fake smile.