Page 50 of If I Gave You My Heart
I leaned back in the seat and then closed the door. The entire ride to the hotel the encounter was playing over in my head. Adonis was okay with getting in the gloves and fighting with Hassan, but once he brought up him fucking his bitch, he was reaching for my gun to put a hot one in him. It didn't sit well with me.
On top of seeing the girl earlier, it was just too much. Now usually, I would have kept my mouth shut, but I needed him to be transparent with any feelings toward his ex because I needed to know if I was leaving his ass in Ohio or not.
"Does your needing space have to do with your ex?"
Adonis turned his head so quickly in my direction that it made me look out the window to make sure that no one was outside. His face was twisted really badly before he responded.
"You think it's about a bitch? I need space for my mental, Nyoka. You're sitting over there worried about a fucking female. That shit has probably been on your mind since we saw her earlier."
It was several things on my mind but the last situation with his friend was the last straw.
"You seemed on edge when Hassan mentioned her."
"Lima is small as fuck. He can be talking about any bitch I blew down on. It sounds like you're trying to place feelings where they ain't. How many times do I gotta tell you I'm done over there?"
I sat quietly. Although I hadn't brought the topic up much, I had brought it up enough to where it could bother him.
"I just wanted to ask."
"Yeah, and when you're not asking, you're jokingly implying. Give me the keys, Ny and go ahead upstairs. I need a little minute."
Although I didn't want to, I handed Adonis the keys and made my exit. He got out of the car and walked to the driver's side. He didn't pull off until he saw I made it safely through the hotel's automatic doors. I was going to try my best to wait up for him. I had bigger things to worry about, like Onyx being his mother and the bounty on my head.
Chapter 12
Joy
I looked around at the empty tables that surrounded us. He made sure to shut the entire establishment down for this meeting. Sitting across from the man who had started all of this was troublesome. Murray still put butterflies in the pit of my stomach, and I hated it. I taught both Jolene and Adira to run when a man gives you that feeling. That feeling right there would have the smartest of smart women moving like a damn buffoon.
The tints on the shades he wore were a tan with a hit of auburn that matched the auburn-colored suit he was wearing perfectly. I had never seen Murray out of place, even back in the day when heroin had him. Still, that man was always dapper. His natural curly hair was slicked all the way back behind his ears. Murray had always been a slim-built man. He was tall and lean, just how I loved them. I watched as his frail chocolate hand swiped at his nose as he sniffled. I raised my eyebrow because I knew people with addiction always substituted for another addiction. I had weaned him off the heroin ages ago, but who knows if that powder had its claws in him?
Five decades had passed since the last time I had laid eyes on Murray. Still, his scent and mannerisms were the same. He played with the chain on his neck, the same chain I and all the other Supremes of The Heart Mirage had before he parted his thin lips to speak to me.
"Queen of Hearts, why did you call this meeting?"
Murray was all about business, and he damn sure always stood on it. I looked at the small red heart tattoo that now lay across the wrinkles on my wrist. I looked at his wrist and saw the same matching tattoo. So many memories flashed through my mind as the story ofusplayed rapidly.
"This is family business," I asserted as I shook all emotions off.
I had to remember who it was that I was sitting across from. This was the same man who had taught me how to turn my emotions off and yet the same man who once used to control them. He took off his shades, folded them closed, and then sat them on the table before offering me a response. That was one thing about Murray. He always moved on his own time.
"Family?" he questioned with a raise of his thick eyebrow.
"I need you to contact your daughter and tell her to lay off your grandson's girlfriend."
Those light brown eyes stared at me emotionlessly. He had given those colored eyes to Jolene, who had passed them down to Adonis and Adira.
"Murray…" I didn't mind pleading when it came tomyfamily.
I hadn't seen this man in damn near fifty years because, to him, having a child was no want or need in our profession. I, on the other hand, was elated when I found out I was pregnant with Jolene. I had helped this man build his billion-dollar black market business, and in return, the only thing I was given was a deadbeat father.
I was leaving this table with all of my requests made, or I had already decided on putting his ass in the dirt. I hadn't killed anyone since Adonis was five years old, but I promised myself I would knock the dust off of my rusty ways and step back into the lion's den if this man did not agree to my terms. He tilted his head to the side as he eyed me.
"My Joyous Love."
I didn't want to, but I smiled. I didn't get how, after all these years, this man could still have that effect on me. I was supposed to hate him. He had left me to be a single mother to run a business that we had started together, and still even old in age he had never come back for me.
"I need this handled, Murray…"
