Obsession: Loving An Alpha Male (33 page)

Josh opened his eyes the moment he felt the plane land in Newark. They had made the flight in no time and had two Suburbans waiting for them on the tarmac. Misty, Shane, Stanley and Junior piled into one truck while Josh, Malcolm, and Ivan climbed into the other. Josh got an update from Nickels that he didn’t like on his way to Kenya’s parent’s home. As a matter of fact, he told Malcolm to drive faster.

Junior called him that moment and told him he needed him to stop.

“Junior, can’t you tell me what you need to over the phone?” Josh barked.

“No, I can’t. I need you to see something, and it can’t wait,” Junior replied, his voice pensive and agitated.

Josh took deep breath and told Malcolm to pull over. Junior jumped out of the back seat of the truck and moved quickly to the truck Josh was in. He jumped in, and Josh told Malcolm to drive, but Junior stopped him telling him it wouldn’t be a good idea until he saw what he had. Josh turned in his seat to a pale–faced Junior and stared.

Josh’s reluctantly asked, “What do you want to show me?”

Junior hit a few keys on his computer then handed it to Josh who was in the front seat of the truck.

“Nickels said this just happened about an hour ago. He said they tried to bargain for more time.”

Josh wasn’t listening anymore. On the screen in front of him was Kenya. She was tied to a chair with a cloth covering her eyes. There was a large man next to her with a mask covering all but his eyes. To Josh he seemed to be about six three, three hundred pounds.

Next he saw another man, smaller in height and weight, with the same mask on his face, say into the camera, “You think I’m a fool? What do you take me for? I’ve given you enough time, but it seems you take me for weak. Well, now I will show you how weak I can be. Say goodbye to her.”

The camera went back to Kenya, and Josh watched in horror as the man next to him punched Kenya on the side of the face knocking her sideways. She screamed as she was savagely beaten with no prejudice or restraint. The large man kicked her in the stomach, on her legs and every other place he could.

Josh could feel the anger rising, he could feel his only strand of restraint break as he watched the woman he loved curl up trying to protect herself from a beating he had no doubt she wouldn’t recover from if it didn’t stop.

“Do you see what happens if you fuck with us? We will beat her within an inch of her life. Maybe we’ll do what you failed to do and make money off her, but first we’ll each fuck her good, starting with Rafael.”

Josh couldn’t see the man that was talking. The camera stayed focused on the man and Kenya. When Josh noticed the man went for his belt buckle, he was about to hurl the laptop out the window but stopped when he saw Kenya kick out, hitting the man in his testicles. The man fell over, and Kenya scrambled for safety.

Josh watched, trepidation running wild in him as he saw her run out of sight. He could no longer see her, but he heard her scream for help then she said the weirdest things that maybe to Junior it didn’t make sense, but to Malcolm, Ivan and himself it was golden.

He hoped she got out, but when he saw the big man get up and go out of the room, he knew she hadn’t. Seeing her dragged back in and beaten more made him close the laptop and without saying a word got out of the truck.

He left the door open for a second, and Malcolm thought he would be okay. Josh had a huge temper, Malcolm knew, and from what he saw, he was waiting for the bomb to drop. It did two seconds after he was clear of the car. Josh closed the truck door so hard it shook the entire truck violently, causing the passenger’s window to shatter.

Josh walked away from the car as Malcolm climbed out. Josh felt the agony bellowing in him. He needed to explode. He wanted to explode. Malcolm watched his brother walk back toward the truck, and he could see the storm brewing in his face. He came around to the passenger side of the truck and saw Shane coming up on the other side of Josh.

Suddenly the most agonizing and murderous yell that either of them had ever heard, erupted from Josh as he slammed his fists on the hood of the truck. Pain rocked his body with ferociousness and savagery. He’d never felt this kind of pain in his life. His heart ached, his breathing became labored. Instead of anger, he felt weakened and sadness… He kept his hands on the truck and was immediately surrounded by his brothers.

Misty was outside of the car instantly, ready for anything. She knew how volatile Josh could be, and seeing what happened to Kenya, she couldn’t help the murderous feeling that was sating her as well. Watching both brothers surround Josh made her catch her breath. Josh yelled again but kept his head down between his stretched arms. Shane had his hand on the back of Josh’s neck, and he had his head bent as well, no doubt trying to calm him she thought.

Malcolm, who Misty always labeled the peacemaker, seemed to be seething with rage as well. He was quiet and just kept a supporting hand on Josh’s shoulder. So she hoped Shane would be able to calm him instead. If there was anyone that could at least limit the amount of carnage that will undoubtedly happen now, it would be one of his brothers. Misty was shocked however to hear what Shane was saying to Josh. It wasn’t by any means soothing.

“We’re going to get those sons of a bitches. Do you hear me? We’re going to make them pay for what they’ve done, Josh. I promise you… one by fucking one, we are going to rip them the fuck a part, piece by fucking piece. They won’t get away with this shit. I promise you they won’t.”

Shane kept saying things like that over and over again until the blood gutting sounds from Josh ceased.

Josh couldn’t breathe. He was trying desperately to catch his breath, but he kept hearing her screams and seeing blow after blow connect with sickening thuds. Control and logic was no longer in his vocabulary. He was out for blood and revenge. He needed it, his body thrived off it. Hearing his brother repeat over and over his promise was adding fuel to an over charged fire. Josh knew for a fact he was going to do more than just kill them, especially to the big man who laid his hands on her.

Josh finally stood and nodded his head to Shane. Shane squeezed Josh’s neck in acknowledgement, and Josh could tell that whatever he had planned for this cartel, he wasn’t alone. He looked around at everyone assembled, and yeah, he definitely wasn’t alone.

Josh took a few more breaths, getting mentally ready for the war that was about to be unleashed.

“You ready?” he heard Malcolm ask.

He looked over at his brother.

“No,” Josh replied because quite frankly he wasn’t.

Curtis and Jesse both pulled up to Curtis’ family home from about five years of being stationed overseas. Curtis couldn’t wait to see his family. He’d been away for a long time, actually too long. He purposefully stayed away, not wanting to see his father kiss so much ass in one minute, and in the next talk shit about the very people he was sucking up to.

He hated his father for thinking that kissing ass was a way to show power and success. His father would do anything for money, he knew. When Curtis decided to join the military, his father went ballistic. He wanted Curtis to get into the family business, but Curtis had no desire to do that. That was his sisters’ thing, mostly Kenya.

Kenya was smart and had the gift for investments, and the financial shit that he had no desire to learn much less do. But he commended his little sister. Seeing how accomplished she was at such a young age touched him, made him proud.

He admitted to himself one day that he needed to truly get to know his sister better. She was such a good person with a heart of gold, and his father treated her like shit, which was another reason why he left home and stayed away. He hated witnessing the way his father berated his little sister when all she wanted was his acceptance, his love.

There were many times, when he got older, he would talk to his father about the way he treated Kenya. But his words went on deaf ears. His father had a thing for light skinned Blacks and Caucasians, period. He wanted to make sure Kenya never thought she was better than him or anyone darker than she. Kenya would never treat anyone that way, and he knew it, and Curtis knew his father knew that as well. He just felt his father needed to vent and take out his frustrations and twisted thinking out on someone, and unfortunately it was always Kenya.

As he and Jesse, his childhood friend and fellow Army recruit, walked up the steps to his house, he heard a loud scream. It was his mother.

He ran up to the door and opened it as quick as he could. He followed the voices, and what he saw almost made him lose his mind. On the television screen was his sister, tied to a chair, being savagely beaten by some masked man.

“What the fuck is going on? Is that real? Is that Kenya?” Curtis spit out.

“Son,” his father started and walked toward him with his hands up in a calming motion.

He watched with utter amazement as his sister ran for her life then screamed out random things before being dragged back in the room and beaten within an inch of her life. Curtis’ hands balled in tight fists, and his muscles tightened in his entire body. He looked over at Jesse and saw the same look on him as he knew undoubtedly was on himself.

He heard a voice say, “Maybe now you will understand we mean business. The time table has just been pushed up. Have my money within the hour, or she is sold or dies, whichever I decide.” Then the voice laughed, “Well, that is if she isn’t dead already.” He laughed again and the screen went blank.

Curtis looked around the room. They were in the family room of the house. His two sisters, Rasheda and Latisha, who were pale and in shock, were sitting on the couch. Wayne and his parents were there, standing, looking lost. His mom was on the floor crying, and his father just stood there looking at the screen.

Curtis noticed two people he hadn’t ever met before in the room as well. One of the men looked far worse for wear than his sisters did. He was the same height as he was with the same complexion. Curtis’ body was more defined, that of a soldier’s body, and he no longer had hair on his head.

Curtis walked in further and looked over at his father and Wayne.

“Somebody better tell me what the fuck is going on, or I swear to God I’m going to start tearing this room apart starting with you.” Curtis pointed at Wayne.

Wayne, who just realized Curtis and his brother, Jesse, were in the room shook his head.

“I don’t know what’s going on.” He frowned and looked over at the two men he didn’t know. “Why don’t you ask them?”

Curtis walked toward Wayne. Curtis used to like Wayne. He felt like his sister was in good hands with him, so seeing that wasn’t the case caused a boiling rage to ensue.

“Yeah well, I’m fucking asking you. You were the one that was supposed to look out for her. She trusted you, I trusted you. What the fuck happened.” Curtis’ voice rose with the last sentence sending his mother in a fit of cries.

“Son,” his dad started again.

Curtis felt a hand touch his arm, and he swatted it away.

“Don’t fucking ‘son’ me. What the fuck did you do? What’s going on?”

“We don’t have time for this, Virgil. We need to get this money if you want to see Kenya alive again.” The older of the unknown men spoke.

Virgil turned and narrowed his eyes as he said, “This is your fault, Baxter. I told you we shouldn’t have asked for an extension. We should have called that CIA woman that you were working with.”

“I told you we couldn’t do that. She wasn’t answering my calls, okay. I’ve tried that. So now we’re here, and if you want to see your daughter again, we have to come up with two point five million dollars in less than an hour,” the older Baxter announced.

Virgil ran his hands over his head. “I don’t have that kind of money.” He looked at the younger man. “Noah, you got my daughter into this. You need to come up with this money.”

Noah frowned. “I got her into this.” He shook his head, “No my friend, this was all you. You’re the one that wanted the million dollar deal.”

“Yes, but not at the price of my daughter.”

Noah laughed. “You’re joking right? You practically begged us to take her off your hands.”

“You bastard, you were supposed to watch after her, but you lost her,” Virgil bit back.

Curtis watched his father frown, but he’d seen that look before. He knew whatever this Noah guy was saying was true. He knew his father.

Curtis said, “So let me get this straight. You…” he pointed at his father “…sold my sister to this piece of shit for what… to make money?”

“That sounds about right!”

Everyone turned around and found the now cramped family room filled with five white men and a black woman, each looking as if they were here to murder each and every one of them.

Curtis frowned. “Who the fuck are you?”

But Josh didn’t reply. He surveyed the room slowly, trying to find any threats. He easily identified everyone in the room, including her brother that just spoke to him.

Josh moved further into the room and looked around. His brothers posted to either side of him, and Misty took his back. Junior, Stanley and Ivan stood by the door with their arms folded.

Josh said, “My name is Agent Cooper, and I was coming here with the intent to ask for you cooperation on getting Kenya back. I was hoping you and I could work together to bring her home in one piece.”

Josh made eye contact with everyone in the room.

He rested his eyes on Kenya’s father. “However, in light of the current situation, I’m going to just take over.”

“How dare you come in here telling us what you’re going to do? You don’t know what’s going on here.” He turned and found the elder of the Baxters talking.

Josh tilted his head. “Oh, I know exactly what’s going on. You and your pussy of a son got mixed up with the wrong group of people for money. You fucked up, and now Kenya is hanging on for her life because of it. I think that sums up everything.” He looked back at her father. “So when they call back for the rest of the money you owe, I’ll talk to them.”

“You will not do a fucking thing,” Noah yelled and stepped forward and moved to stand closer to Josh. He sized him up, realizing that Josh was at least a few inches taller. He puffed out his chest nonetheless and said, “First of all, we don’t know if we can trust you. We’ve dealt with an agency before, and it got us nowhere. Second, my wife’s life is at stake here, and I will not let you or anyone else put her in more danger.” Noah stretched his hand out to grip Josh’s arm, saying, “So why don’t…” but he never finished his sentence.

He was thrown back against the wall with a vicious blow to the face by Josh. Josh kneed him in his balls twice then in his stomach then Josh wrapped his hand around the man’s throat and kneed him again in his balls just for good measure.

Noah got slammed again against the wall, and Josh moved closer to Noah’s ear.

“I know what you did to her… I know about the video site, and I know the real reason why those sons of bitches have her. You sold her to them to pay off your debt…”

Josh squeezed tighter and watched the whites of Noah’s eyes erupt red. Noah scrambled for Josh’s hands, but he couldn’t prevent the tightness that seemed inevitable. Josh wasn’t letting up.

He whispered, “So my advice to you is shut the fuck up and stay out of my sight. Then run as fast as your coward mother fuckin ass can run. Run fast and far, and you better hope and pray I don’t find you, because if I do find you, I’m going to fucking kill you. Do you understand me? You’re a fucking dead man.”

Just when he saw the life slowly leaving Noah’s eyes, he felt a hand on his shoulder and a squeeze. Josh let go of Noah’s neck but not before he took everything he could gather into his fist and connected with Noah’s jaw. Noah dropped instantly. Josh watched Noah’s motionless body, fighting the urge not to kick him in the face.

The moment he turned to the people in the room, he calmed his breathing and realized the room was in chaos.

The women in the room were screaming and crying, and he heard, “Get that crazy son of a bitch away from my son. I’ll have you arrested for this how dare you…”

Josh, rage still fueling him, looked at the elder Baxter and said, “Where were you when he fucking kidnapped her, huh? Where the fuck was you when your fucking son was playing Russian roulette with her life and got off watching her struggle to breathe?” Josh moved to within inches of the old man’s face. He said with a calm he didn’t feel, “Your son is a sick fuck, and you are fucking lucky I don’t put him out of his misery right fucking now.”

No one said a word in the room. Noah’s father simply looked down at his unconscious son then back at Josh.

“But say something else, and I will break his fucking neck right in front of you.” Josh stared at Noah’s father until he looked away.

“What is the meaning of this, Jim?” Kenya’s father asked.

Josh looked his way. Misty came to him with a towel, and he wiped some of the blood from the nose he undoubted broke on Noah.

Josh scoffed, “Wow, like you really give a fuck.”

“Man, who are you?” Curtis asked, frustration etched in his voice.

“You must be her brother, Curtis.” Josh replied, feeling himself calming.

“Curtis Frost?” Misty added.

Josh looked over at her then back at Curtis.

“Yeah, that’s me, but who are you fucking people? Why are you here? How the hell can you help my sister, and what the fuck do you want in return?”

Misty looked at Josh. “Since you downgraded your duties, command wants you to train two newbies under your house. They happen to be Curtis Frost and Jesse Markinson.”

Josh looked at her stunned.

She shrugged. “I was supposed to tell you once you got back from London.”

Josh looked back at Curtis and eyed him more intently. He then looked at the man standing slightly behind him.

“I take it you’re Jesse?”

Jesse simply nodded.

Josh looked at his brothers and shook his head. He took a few deep breaths. This was unreal to say the least. Josh decided he would explain himself to only Curtis, since in fact he had been out of the loop for a while.

“Your sister and I met while she was living in Pittsburgh. I don’t have the patience to tell you anything further but this, she’s mine, and I’ll be the one that’s going to find her and bring her home.”

“That’s outrageous! No daughter of mine would purposefully date a white man, especially when she’s married to that man you just beat senseless.”

Josh frowned, disgusted with the sight of her father and didn’t have a problem with telling him, “You are a fucking disgrace as a father and a man. For you to have treated your own daughter as if she was a fucking nuisance when all she ever wanted was you to love and accept her makes you lower than the people that have her now. Someone like you should be laid to pasture and put out of his fucking misery. That sick twisted motherfucker was choking out your daughter every night for a week, and you didn’t notice. He had her locked in a basement, chained to a fucking bed, but you didn’t have a clue. You accepted that asshole because you were too fucking glad someone finally took her off your hands to care what was happening to her.”

Kenya’s father puffed out his chest and was about to say something when the phone started ringing. Josh stopped Kenya’s father from answering it.

Josh moved closer and said, “Do what I say and don’t fuck up. If you do, I will kill you.”

Kenya’s mom started crying again, and Kenya’s dad cursed.

Curtis said to Josh, “I hope you have two point five million dollars.”

Josh looked over at Junior, but he was already on the phone. He nodded, and Josh motioned for Kenya’s father to pick up.

The same masked man he saw on the video before came on the screen.