Page 15 of Rough

“You’ll always be mine. And I’ll love every pound that you gain.”

“But what if…”

“Lauren, I appreciate that you’re looking for ways for me to tell you that I love you. No matter what scenarios you give me, the outcome will always be the same.”

“What’s that?”

Salt leaned forward and kissed my pouting lips.

“I love you, my girl. We’ll figure out the rest. Just remember to talk to me and we’ll find a way.”

“Promise?”

Salt sat down his glass and pulled me into his arms. He snaked a hand under my robe and smacked my thigh before kissing me deeply. When he pulled away, he put my necklace back into place around my neck. With a firm tug, he pulled my lips back to his for another kiss.

“I promise.”

And this time, I believed him.

SALT

Iasked Lauren to be my date for my boss, Khari’s, wedding. She said yes and here we were sitting in the pews watching the oddest thing of all time. Khari and three of his best friends were marrying the same woman, Tina. At the same time, Christopher and Normandi were getting married as well. A lot was happening, and you had to pay attention to who was speaking to who, to know what was going on.

Seeing Normandi and Tina in their dresses had me thinking about the day that Lauren would wear one. I was excited to see what she’d choose and then what she’d wear to our honeymoon. It’d probably be the night that I’d give Neriah a little brother or sister. How she was holding Neriah right now made it worse. I knew she’d be an exceptional mother, attentive, and would teach her everything that she needed to know as a growing girl. Almost on cue, Lauren cuddled Neriah close and slid her hand into mine.

Maybe I didn’t need to wait until we were married to give her babies.

After they were pronounced as man and wife, a man came up to me and said that one of the guards needed me for a moment. He pointed at Noah and nodded. He was second in command of Khari’s guards and if he needed me, something was up. The man in front of me, I didn’t know him, but they could have hired him since there were so many people to keep safe.

I walked over to Noah and he was busy directing people who were standing to prepare for the exit. I moved in close and he nodded his greeting as he spoke to a woman.

“What’s going on?” He asked when she moved out of sight.

“I was told that you needed me.” I said, turning so no one could read my lips.

“Negative. I’m trying to divert these people to the back of the building so we can keep them out of danger. We found a few bombs on the cars and I’ve directed them out of here. I need to buy some more time, so I’m sending people out the back instead.”

“So you don’t need me?” I was confused because it sounded like he did.

“I could use another trusted hand, but I didn’t tell anybody to tell you that. Who was it?”

I looked up to where I sat, but the man wasn’t there. Neither were Lauren and Neriah.

“Noah, have you seen Mia and Jamila?” Jordan asked while looking around.

“No.” We both said at the same time.

“Lauren and Neriah aren’t where I left them either,” I said, checking the rows of people filing out of the building.

“Something’s up,” Jordan said as he glanced around.

“There he is.” I pointed to the side exit toward the front where the man who’d expressed that Noah needed me was moving toward.

Jordan and I moved in that direction, and Noah continued moving the people, but kept watch. He said something into his jacket and Drew appeared, coming from the opposite side. The three of us moved to the exit the guy used and followed it outside with guns drawn.

Outside, Mia, Jamila, Lauren and Neriah were being shoved into an SUV by another guy while the first one jumped into the driver’s seat. Jamila broke free and ran toward us. Jordan broke into a sprint to grab his daughter and began shooting in the guy's direction, trying to grab her. Thinking better of it, the guy slammed the car door and ran to the other side before the car drove off quickly.

Jamila’s screams were loud as she ran to her father, devastation clearly written on her face. He picked her up quickly and hid behind the car nearby. He held her to his chest and peered at me with murder in his eyes. I felt the same fucking way as we jumped into the SUV he was next to. All inside, we followed behind the car but lost it on the freeway, too far behind.

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