Motown Breakdown (Motown Down #4) (7 page)

Shaking her head, she backs away and I see her wiping her eyes. “You knew,” she whispers. “You fucking knew and you didn’t help me?” Then closing her eyes and putting up a hand she says, “That’s what this is about. Guilt. You feel guilty for picking your Evie over helping me.”

“Mama, I – ”

“I should be used to it by now,” she whispers. “Leave, Crews. I have a call to make, a job to finish.”

“What fucking job, Luna?”

“You’re looking at it!” she screams while pointing to the door.

“I’ll always regret not doing the right thing,” I tell her backing away.

“Regret,” she says turning toward the window. “Will get you killed. Find the door and use it, Crews.”

So this time I did.

Steeling myself for this call, I grabbed every blanket I had and climbed back into bed.

In my world, you did not hand out trust like cards. It was earned, you bled for it. Or in my case, was beaten for it. I’ve never shared our world with outsiders or given Marco any reason not to trust me. Sure, I was vocal about hating the business but I still handled business. I played my part as the dutiful daughter, I did what needed to be done and would vomit all of the evil out only when I was alone. Honestly, I vomit so much that the lining to my stomach is wrecked and now I can only eat small amounts of food.  This was my life, even if it royally sucked.

The whole
Crews loves Evie
nightmare could wait, this could not.

From the first time Shade saw the marks Marco left behind, he appealed to him for marriage. In the beginning, I was all about Shade and it became clear that he would never hurt me physically. I trusted him, he was going to save me. However, once Marco approved the union it wasn’t about him saving me. It was about saving both of us. I wasn’t the only one with a target on my back, Shade had one too. Because he wanted to change the game and had the loyalty to do it. Marrying me would elevate him, elevate us both and daddy didn’t like that. Day by day Marco’s hatred for me escalated no matter what I did. Since Shade couldn’t be with me twenty-four-seven he saw an opportunity to get me out of Marco’s line of fire and used Monarch’s war to do it. Monarch and Cinn caused one hell of an uproar, but this reprieve wouldn’t last forever.

“I need you,” I whimper into the phone.

Barking orders at whatever man was closest, most likely Razor, a solider who hates me, he comes back on the line, “Leave the door open.”

Crawling out to unlock it, I toss back two aspirin and get situated on my bed. My face was throbbing, my side was on fire and the head butt I took from Crews followed by the wallop I took from Marco had me close to tears. In a few minutes when Shade stormed in, he’d see me for what I was; a weakling.

Suddenly, I was tired.  So I decided to close my eyes just until he got here. I didn’t dream, I had no nightmares either. I was simply void.

“Luna baby,” he whispers waking me.

Opening my eyes and seeing him genuinely worried about me had the tears falling. “He marked me,” I cry pitifully. In our world, to mark a woman (property) was a huge sign of disrespect. In this case, I was promised to Shade and this was a big
fuck you
to his honor. A big middle finger he wasn’t supposed to know about. But I always told him, it served me well
to
tell him.

“Shh,” he says cradling me. “Tell me what happened.”

“I went to the shelter,” I sputter. “He said if I didn’t come home in two weeks, after I healed, he would come back and finish me off. How can you even want someone weak like me?”

“I will always want you,” he reassures me. “Marco senses the shift in power, he’s onto us, Luna, and he’s acting out as we hoped he would. I’m holding him responsible for his treatment of you. When we marry, I’ll kill him as I vowed to.”

“Kill him now,” I bawl into his designer shirt. “Before he kills
me
!”

“Luna baby,” he whispers. “I will not let that happen. But you know it’s not time yet. Settle yourself and know I will handle this.” he says gently and I manage to calm some until his next request. “Now turn a light on so I can see you.”

“No!” I rush out. Throwing myself into his arms I start shaking to prove my point. “Don’t. I’m hideous.”

“Never to me,” he promises before leaning forward to turn on the lamp. But once he got a good look at me, I had to give him credit, he was
pissed
. He was quiet for several minutes before asking, “Why is your shirt off?”

Turning to the left, I show him the footprint from Marco’s Ferragamos. “I took it off to check the damage and it hurt too much to put it back on.”

“You are still beautiful to me,” he says taking my mouth. Shade kissed fairly well. Actually, he did most things fairly well. It wasn’t like I hated him, I didn’t. I actually cared for no one more than I cared for Shade. I just wanted to be wanted, loved and free to be me. Shade cared but it was territorial and in the end, business. “Lie back,” he instructed and I couldn’t deny him, I knew better so I did as I was told while he helped me do it. Once I was prone, he kissed my belly before slowly moving up my body. To say it didn’t feel good was a lie. This was what I knew and I loved it as much as I hated it. Loved because of the power it gave me, hated because of what that power would cost.

I knew the drill, my role in the game. When he stuck his fingers in my mouth, I would suck them. When his mouth latched on to my nipples, I would cradle his head. When he fed me his tongue, I would moan when I took it and finally when he slid inside of me uncaring of my injuries, I would dig my nails into his back.

“I missed you,” he says sliding his fingers in my mouth. I didn’t mind this considering it kept me from speaking. When he started on my nipples, I sunk my hands in his hair and whispered that I missed him too. His tongue was warm and I imagined it tasted like whisky. When he parted my thighs and slid inside of me, I dug my nails in as expected. “Fuck,” he moans pumping harder. Ignoring the pain in my side, I made sure to scratch him deep enough to leave marks, he liked being marked up. “You’re so wet for me,” he moans into my neck. It’s true I was wet but, it wasn’t for him.

The harder he fucked me the more I thought of Crews. Shade would never mark me, but Crews would. And it wouldn’t be out of disrespect it would be because his nature forced him to mark what was his. Shade didn’t need to; I was his as decreed. God, to belong to Crews… To have him inside of me… “Take it, baby,” he orders me. But my sick mind heard, “Take it, mama.” And with a visual of Crews on
top of me, my back arched, my thighs tightened with my nails dug deep; I came hard and I came fast.  If it wasn’t for biting the inside of my cheek when it happened, I would have screamed the wrong man’s name too.

“You really missed me,” he moans into my ear before rolling off onto his side.

And because I couldn’t have one, I settled for the other when I asked him to stay. Throwing an arm over me he mumbles, “My Luna,” before passing out. As for me, the vanilla ice cream was churning in my stomach.

That black sedan has been parked out front since last night. It didn’t take a genius to figure out Luna wasn’t alone and that her guest was her fucking fiancé. That was her phone call,
to him
. I wasn’t back in my apartment ten minutes before I let the hurt in her eyes pummel me. Not stepping in, leaving her to get beat was on my shoulders. I fucked up by not reacting. I really fucked up admitting I knew it was happening and
still
doing nothing. It happened so fast, all I could think about was Evie when I should have been thinking about Luna.

Bringing Marco up wasn’t smart either. I had assumed he would be the one she’d asked for help. But no, based on her phone call and the sedan, it was Shade. I couldn’t bitch about how she went about helping even if her method was gutting me. Dressing for work, I decided not to be here while he was around. Call it whatever you want, but I didn’t want to be anywhere near that guy while he was spending time with the woman I wanted to spend time with. Grabbing the keys to my bike, I open up the door and walk out at the exact time as he does. Fucking figures.

“You’re the neighbor,” he says staring me down. Gotta say if I was going to peg what Shade looked like, in my mind it wasn’t the giant in front of me. This guy was six six easy. Slicked back hair, muscles he likely earned killing people and a face even a guy like me envied. Jesus, for Luna to have initiated the kiss with me, she had to be drunk. This motherfucker was a God damn living Adonis. “Crews,” I tell him offering a hand.

Grabbing it roughly he says, “Shade.”

“Take it easy,” I try going around him.

“You are responsible for Frank?” So I wasn’t expecting that either.

“Depends,” I shrug.

“Luna says you took care of it, of him, for her.”

“He put his hands on her,” I tell him. “Held her at gun point, I didn’t appreciate that.”

With a look of respect and suspect he nods. “Neither do I. Seems I owe you now Mr.?”

“Crews,” I repeat. “You don’t owe me; the guy was better off dead anyway.”

Not one to take the hint he leans against the wall and I couldn’t help but notice the pillow indent on his cheek. I also did not like what it implied. “Do you know Luna well?”

“No,” I say honestly. “See her around once in a while, saw that guy giving her shit and stepped in.”

“Well,” he says pushing off the wall and he was so fucking big it bowed. “That won’t happen again, soon she’s coming home where she belongs.”

“Glad to hear it,” I tell him motioning to get out of the way. “Later.”

“Mr. Crews?”

“What?”

“You didn’t by any chance see anyone come to visit her yesterday afternoon did you?”

Shit. She already dropped my name saying I saved her ass. Who knows what the fuck else she told this guy. “If you mean the guy who put his foot in her stomach, yeah I saw him. When I found her on the floor spitting up blood, I tried to help her out but she said she was calling her fiancé. Guessing that’s you.”

“Yes it is me. You saw the man responsible and let him go?” he asks sizing me up. “The same man who would put a bullet in Frank’s head for far less of an offense did nothing? Do I look like a fool to you?”

“Look,” I say getting in his space. “Your woman made it clear I needed to fuck off and mind my own business. That’s what I’m doing and your idea of an offense and mine are very different. The way I saw it, I had two choices, go after him or help her. Your woman needed help.”

“Would it appease you if the man responsible for hurting her will be held accountable?”

Loaded fucking question. “It would appease me if I could go to work.”

Nodding in dismissal, I blow by him and straight to my bike. After this encounter there were two things I knew for certain. The first was I’d be seeing him again. The second was when I did, one of us wasn’t walking away from it.