Page 65 of Kandie Shoppe

By the time my lips claim hers, she’s not fighting me anymore. She opens for me. I take her mouth. She receives my plunder with a sigh. I growl, reaching down to grip her ass, fitting her against my hardness. I lose myself in her taste. Her touch. She melts into me as she always does. Lucious. Sweet. Mine.

It takes me several minutes to realize there are sirens blaring. Ripping my head away, I listen. Voices erupt from the coms station.

“Stay put.” It sounds like a plea. I press a kiss to her brow. Stepping away, I pull the door closed. She looks ravaged. If I were a man who felt things like guilt, I would feel bad, but those sentiments died on faraway sands. “Don’t make me hunt you.”

The words that greet me when I enter the coms station are — “Loves, El Diablos, riot at Big Love Park.”

“Gotdamnit,” I swear. “All units to Big Love Park, pepper spray only. If they disperse on their own, let them go.” I give the instructions, knowing just how combustible this situation can get when two of the most powerful entities go head to head.

By the time I get there melee is in full effect. There is an entire slugfest with men from both groups tearing at each other.

“What the hell happened to you?” I ask Davies who’s holding his nose, both nostrils stuffed with blood-tinged tissue.

“Them.” He waves listlessly to the crowd of at least two dozen men brawling. “Tried to break ’em up. Pulled out the pepper spray but before I can deploy it, I got coldcocked.”

“He might have a concussion,” Garcia says from his other side. “We’re outnumbered. You want to call the state police?” he asks helplessly.

“Nah.” Taking my phone out, I call the people who can stop it all. “Hey, your guys are out here fight with the Loves at the park.”

“Huh? I guess they found out I got their matriarch,” he says snidely, then calls away from the phone. “Your grandkids out tearing up the park you worked so hard to have named after the family. It’ll be a shame some of them ended up dying out there because y’all took my wife.” There is a lot of back and forth with clear admonishments from his sister, Lourdes, I can’t quite catch.

Then finally, grudgingly, he says, “I’ll handle it.”

Another several minutes pass, then one by one, the El Diablos pull back. The only problem is the Loves still want to fight. Then there is a loud whistle and a “hold -up” and raised hand from Benjamin, motioning for them to settle down. He speaks to the men gathered. The words I can catch from the distance he’s away are- Mama-Pete and Pa-Pete are Angel’s guests until Ezekiel-Jane’s safe return. Defeat falls over the crowd. There is a stalemate. They won’t have the family’s matriarch until they give Easy back. The only leverage they could have had would be the only other person Angel loves — his sister, Lourdes, and she’s safely ensconced at her brother’s hidden mansion. I don’t even know where it is.

With the type of work Angel is in, I wouldn’t blame him for taking the measures he has to keep his family safe, but kidnapping the older couple as collateral and retribution is farther than anything I have ever seen.

Once the crowd disperses, I look over my crew of officers. “I really hope nothing serious goes down around here. Take him to the medical center to get checked out,” Nodding to Davies, I tell Gonzales.

“Sure thing, Sheriff,” he says way too cheerfully.

The building is quiet when I return. “Any problems?” I ask Lydia, who’s reading on her phone as usual.

“Nope. Quiet as a church mouse,” she says not even looking up, so engrossed in the story.

“Thanks.” Not bothering to disguise my intentions I head straight for lock-up. Going over to the cell I already know what I’m going to find before I open the door. She didn’t even try to mask her disappearance. The bed is neatly made, the pillow as pristine as it was when we entered earlier. I search the room looking for anything that will tell me how she escaped. Nothing. The floor is smooth. No dust, no scrapes, there are no windows in this cell.

It’s like she turned to mist and floated out of the cell.

Chapter

Nineteen

Kandie

Grabbing my go bag, I start stuffing essentials into it. Fresh clothes and underwear. I know I don’t have a lot of time. I saw him leaving Big Love Park after the fight halted. I hate I had to even come here. But there are El Diablos posted up at Mama-Pete’s house. I barely missed the ones headed to my little house. Ducking into her patch of collard greens and snap peas is the only thing that saved me from them seeing me. Lord knows what they would have done. Angel was two seconds from hulk smashing my ass when Ulysses brought his porcelain pied piper ass into my shop, trying to boss me around. What is it with us and these big ass men? It must be a curse or something. Crimson and Clover need to add something into the vanilla-rose to repel not attract these guys.

Freezing for a second after I hear the thunderous pounding on my back steps, I clutch the half-filled bag to my chest backing up hoping to escape by way of my balcony when my doors nearly flies off the hinges. The dead bolt falls with a heavy thunking pop and bounce then skitters across the floor, settling somewhere beneath my bed.

“I told you to stay put,” Ulysses heaves, coming to stand like a furious Abominable Snowman in the middle of my loft.

“I didn’t say I would.” Hitching the bag on my shoulder, I sidestep, making no effort to hide my intention.

“You’re under arrest,” he seethes. I can’t help the giggle or the burst of full-blown laughter escaping me. Pretty soon I’m doubled over heaving with heavy chuckles.

“Wait, wait, wait.” I hold my hand up. Giggles spill out again. I can’t help it at this point. Rising to my full five-foot-two, I ask, “And how is that working for you? They say insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome, but I guess I can’t expect anything different from you. When did y’all stop marrying y’all Shelby cousins? I thought your daddy was the first, but maybe I was wron?—”

My words are trapped so quick it takes me a minute to catch my breath. My toes are barely touching the ground. He has me pressed against the wall. His hand is heavy and hard against my throat. He could snap my neck. Not that I’d care right now.

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