Page 40 of Kid
“You got it.” Twist replied.
With Twist gone, I walked back to where I’d been sitting and picked up my chopsticks. “Tell me about Emmitt Shipps.”
“My ex? Why?”
“He owns Terra Langley.”
“That can’t be right.” Nella shook her head. “Emmitt can’t own a business. He’s an idiot.”
I stared at her while chewing.
She sighed and set her chopstick across her bowl and drew her legs up underneath her bum. “I met him when I was seventeen. My mother thought he was a good candidate for me to date. I thought he was cute, so I didn’t complain.” She paused to sip from her juice. “We’ve been taught to look for Prince Charming. He was clean-cut, polite.”
“You thought he was your prince.” I muttered.
“Of course!” Nella replied. “Of course! I mean this man was on time, he was supportive. We were together for a few years. On my twenty first birthday he proposed.”
“You said yes.”
“Yeah. I mean, until then there were no red flags.” She shrugged. “I thought I was on track for my dreams. Being a wife, then a mother, working, having a home together. About six months later, I came home, and he had some bimbo handcuffed to our bed.Ourbed. This was where I gave myself to my fiancé and he had some strange woman—”
“Breathe, Nel.”
She gritted her teeth and inhaled. “The things he was doing to her.”
I cupped one of her cheeks with a palm as her shoulders rose to her ears then fell.
“He would never have done them to me.” Her voice cracked. “He treated me like I was a prude. He wouldn’t even kiss me roughly.”
“Did you tell him you wanted more?”
Nella nodded.
“I told him I wanted to try, to see what I was into. But he was my man, right? He weas the one I should have been exploring with. I wanted to do those things with him—withmyman. At first, I asked him to leave but he refused. So, I kicked his ass. Afterward, I called the police to get him out. It was just a mess after.”
“Do you think he’s capable of kidnapping?”
She seemed thoughtful. “I think he’s capable of all the bullshit things. He’s the kind of man that will smile to your face. But if you turn your back to him, he will put a knife in it.”
“Well, we need a plan.” I told her. “For now, I need you to eat, and we’re going to have the world’s strangest date.”
“We are?”
I kissed her lips then her nose then between her eyes. “Yes. We’re going to watch a movie on my phone.”
Nella laughed. “You’re too good to be true.”
I didn’t reply.
I fed her some food from my plate and we finished dinner.
When I cuddled into bed beside her again, I exhaled and shifted to get more comfortable.
“What kind of things did you want Emmitt to do to you?” I asked her, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“The sexy things.” Nella admitted. “The way he sucked on her nipples and fingered her. He looked at her body as if she was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen. He had her handcuffed to the metal headboard. He wouldn’t even go down on me.”
I said nothing.
