Page 41 of Only You

“You think your trigger finger is faster than mine?” She spoke. Rock immediately dropped his weapon. For the second time tonight, I stood in disbelief. A fly could’ve flown into my mouth had this mask not covered it.

“What in the entire fuck!” I belted out.

“I thought you said you didn’t fold,” Lynx said, as if she hadn’t heard my exclamation.

“I didn’t, I told you that. Well, at least not about this. I was folded, though, and enjoyed every minute of it. So, it must have been you then.” Lioness said.

“Girl, I enjoyed my folding the same as you, but I didn’t say shit!”

“What in the hell are they doing here then?” Lynx asked.

“You two know we can hear you, right? Explain, now, and do it quickly,” I barked out.

“We came here for her ass,” she said. I didn’t need further explanation to piece together the fact that Charise was the reason Tay left the hospital so abruptly. I would get all the details from her later. We needed to move. I quickly reached into my band and got the ketamine and stuck it in Sin’s neck. I heard a whiz, and Charise’s body immediately dropped to the floor.

“What the hell, Lynx, did you just shoot her?”

“Relax, it was only a ketamine tranquilizer dart. You two are so primitive. Step into the new age. Besides, I wouldn’t have shot her. I know you two would like to get all this information first,” she said nonchalantly, and Lioness giggled behind her.

“I know you ain’t laughing, miss stick a chick in the neck,” Rock said. Lioness snarled from what I could see of her exposed eyes.

“Fuck you Rock, I wasn’t about to run up in Porter’s and draw a weapon on the poor girl. I couldn’t fit a gun under that tight ass skirt I was wearing anyhow. You would’ve seen it,” she said.

“Will you two stop and help us get these motherfuckers out of here. You and I will talk,” I turned and said to Lynx.

“I can’t believe this shit! If this is what family missions will look like, count me the hell out,” I said, grunting and complaining under my breath. They thought it was somehow funny and knelt over, laughing.

“Rock, do you have some catnip, a damn ball of yarn anything to wrangle these damn cats,” I said as they continued to laugh this time louder than the last.

“I swear I’m in the same boat as you. Your father didn’t leave a damn handbook? He trained these feral ass kittens,” Rock said. When he said that, they both threw their hands up like claws, hissed, and then kneeled over laughing again. I threw my hands up in exasperation.

Somebody send help!

CHAPTER 23

Tayla

Imay have joked around a lot tonight, but I knew that Ice was pissed. He came right in, throwing our captors in a room before nodding for me to follow him. I followed him down the hall into another room where he closed the door and lifted his mask. His locs fell framing his face, which was overly calm and unfaltering. He stood just at the door, studying and not saying a word. The atmosphere in the room felt charged as we surveyed each other.

In my defense, he wasn’t supposed to be here. I also hadn’t said a word to him about how he snuck out of the house like a thief in the night. The moment he shifted me from his lap, I awakened. I waited to see if he would lift me and carry me to bed. However, I was covered with a blanket, and within five minutes, he was gone. I wasn’t sure whether to be upset that he’d left or elated that I could carry out my little plan without him knowing.

I chanced walking over to him and placing my hand on his arm. His hand twitched under my touch. I quickly snatched it back because I knew what that meant. The last time I’d seen his hand twitching like that, I was pinned to the wall.

Shit!

“Baby, I’m highly fucking turned on. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but I love seeing you as the Lynx. I could break your back in right now!” He said, continuing to run his eyes up and down my body.

“Aside from that, we have shit to discuss, just don’t touch me while you’re doing it,” he laughed and shook his head. After getting that off his chest, he jumped right into what he wanted to know.

“Tell me everything,” he said with the same calmness as his anger. We didn’t scream at each other or yell, which had never been our vibe. But the tone in which he spoke to me let me know that it was Brice I was talking to. I sighed and began to speak.

“The day at the hospital, I was one hundred percent sure that it was Ivy who had been drugging me. I remember having this raging headache and you telling me that I needed to pull through because you’d done everything you needed to. I heard you, but I couldn’t open my eyes. I tried with everything I had, but they wouldn’t budge. Then you left the room, and someone came in right after you. I thought you had returned, but it was a woman. She carried a sweet floral scent that I would never forget. It was faint, but with the rest of my senses down, it overpowered me with the impressionof her touch when she lifted my hand. Then I was out, everything went black, and I woke up in the guest bedroom.

I knew it wasn’t Ivy when you introduced me to Charise Newton. She had the same smell and touch. Wait. The day I got shot, Nina was talking to Sin about a link that could be used as leverage against both sides. I wonder if Charise is that leverage. No, that doesn’t make sense because what does Charise have to do with Costa?” I huffed a breath as I explained. Then I saw the anger flash across his face in the fluorescent lighting. After that, he grew so quiet that I wanted to ask him what was on his mind before he started to speak again.

“I snuck out tonight because, as your man, I just want to fix all your problems. Nina and everybody who she associates with is a fucking problem. I’m scared for you, Tay,” he said with anguish, then inhaled a deep breath.

“I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you, Baby. How we were tonight though, doing shit behind each other’s backs, I don’t want to move like that anymore. We either move together or not at all. And that goes for shit you have going on with Jourdan too,” he said reaching over to pinch my chin as he looked into my eyes before letting go.

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