Page 16 of Blind Spot
“And I did it well every time. Ask her how she screamed my name.” He hit me in the eye.
“I sacrificed two years of my life for you, you piece of shit!” I punched him in the ribs.
I grabbed his head and slammed it against the floor. Ramon immediately released his grip on me, and I rolled off him. I jumped up seconds before he did. He rushed me and slammed me against the wall and held me there while I headbutted him repeatedly. The final hit was to his nose, and he released me and staggered back.
I slammed my fists into his face over and over again and beat the hell out of him until he lay on the floor. His face was bloodied and bruised. I kicked him in the ribs.
My chest heaved as I stared at my brother lying on the floor. “You broke a brotherly bond over pussy. I can’t fucking believe you,” he muttered.
“When I went down, you asked how I felt about her, and I told you that I loved her. I told you the only reason that I didn’t get with her was because I didn’t want to drag her down. I asked you to protect her with your life because I’d been doing that shit since I was eight. That’s all I asked in exchange for me taking a rap for you so that your sorry ass wouldn’t sit down for two years, lose your scholarship and internship, and fuck up your life. You couldn’t even look out for me, . . . your own brother. You preyed upon her, dragged her into your world, and treated her like you have every other female you’ve been with. That’s how you feel about me as your brother. So nah, nigga. You broke the bond.”
I limped out of his house with my heart hurting. I loved both of my brothers, and I had already proven there wasn’t shit I wouldn’t do for them. But some things couldn’t be overlooked. Ramon had used and abused my love for him the same way he’d done with women in the past.
Chapter 6
Charly
Dominic didn’t answer my calls or text messages all night long. Karter wouldn’t go after him, and Tunisia backed him up. They both stated that Karter’s going would only make matters worse and that Dominic would get to Ramon one way or the other. Karter insisted that they needed to fight this out because Dominic had been holding things on his chest about his big brother for a while. None of those explanations brought me a sense of peace. It was only my safety that kept me parked on Tunisia’s couch and not running after my best friend.
I called out of work because there was no way that I would show up at the club looking like I had been dragged underneath Dominic’s car. I spent a sleepless night in the full-size bed in KJ’s nursery. The next morning, I watched him while she went grocery shopping and ran errands.
We spent the afternoon cooking lunch, prepping for dinner, and cleaning the house before we headed out onto her lanai to chill for a while. We started off talking about what happened, the ins and outs of the relationship I had with Ramon versus the feelings that I had for Dominic.
“I just don’t get it, Charly. You have loved that man since the day he saved your skinny behind. How did you ever become involved with his brother? It never made sense to me.”
“You know how. I was so embarrassed and hurt when he told me that we could never be a thing. He said he didn’t love me like that.”
“I remember. It was the day after your sixteenth birthday, and you cried like a baby.”
“Yeah, because you’d hyped me up to tell him the truth about my feelings for him.”
“And I stand by my decision, girl. All I’m saying is at least you’re clear on where you stand.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Ramon still makes no sense. I mean, he’s cute, fine, smart as hell, but he’s always had this intimidating vibe about him.”
“When Dom got locked up, he was the one who was there for me. He looked after me and protected me. Whenever I needed someone to talk to or was short on money or whatever, he came through just like Dom did. I don’t know . . . He made me feel safe and secure with him.”
“I feel safe and secure with my brothers, daddy, and uncle, but that doesn’t land me in their bed.”
I laughed and hit her shoulder. “Shut up. I can’t stand you.”
“You love me, boo, because I keep it real.”
I pulled my feet up into the papasan chair with me and hugged my knees to my chest. Looking out into the backyard where the rain created a soothing rhythm as it spattered the gold and rust-colored leaves on the ground, I sighed.
“I don’t know. That year when Mama died, it was so hard. You were spending that year traveling all the time with Karter, my daddy had just started dating Adrian, and Dom was still rejecting my letters. Losing Mama was the hardest thing I had ever gone through in my life. I swear, I thought I wouldn’t makeit most days. But that day after burying her was the hardest because it was so final, you know?”
I turned my head to face her as the tears brimmed in my eyes. Tunisia reached out a hand and rubbed my back. “I’m sorry, boo.”
I wiped the tears. “Anyway, I’d gone over to the Strongs’ house to hang out with Dom’s mom because she was always so sweet to me. She was gone, Papa Strong was gone, and there was just Ramon. I felt so alone, like everyone had abandoned me when I needed them the most. I cried my heart out, and he sat on the sofa beside me, whispering affirmations, holding me, and comforting me. The next thing I knew, he was rocking me. He promised that I wasn’t alone and that he and God would always be there. He said if everyone else in the world left me, he wouldn’t.
“When I told him that he couldn’t promise that because he could die tomorrow, he smiled at me and said, ‘Well, I guess your ass had better have my body cremated so you can carry my ashes with you.’ I laughed so hard at his corniness that I forgot about my sorrow. He wiped my tears, stared into my eyes, and told me that he meant that. The next thing I knew, he kissed me, and I didn’t pull back.
“A part of me felt that it was wrong, but at that moment, he was what I needed. We became inseparable like Dom and I used to be. We started going places and doing things together. I saw a different side of Ramon that I had never seen before. I thought about how Dom said that he and I could never be.
“Then Ramon told me that before Dom went away, he said he wanted me to be with a guy who would settle into a good career, give me a home and a family, and keep me on the straight and narrow. He said that he was that guy. I believed him because Dom told me the same thing. It wasn’t until two months later, after I finally had sex with him, that I regretted it.”
