“YOU MUST HAVE LOST YOUR FUCKIN’ MIND!”
The frightening shriek rang familiar and had my legs quivering in my pumps. My movements were slow thanks to the four cocktails I downed at the restaurant, but eventually I was able to turn to see Azmir’s onrush towards me and immediately felt him toss my limpid body away from the car. Panic settled in when I couldn’t stop flying and then I felt the arms of someone else. I looked up to find Ray’s long arms surrounding me, breaking me from my near-cement collision.
Thompson flew into a rage. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing, Jacobs? She doesn’t belong to you anymore!”
Azmir’s seething eyes left mine, but before he looked over to Thompson and I saw red in them. They were droopy and told stories of his lack of sleep, restlessness, and something darker—fury. He was draped in a wonderfully fitted two-piece dark gray suit with a hint of a gloss that exposed his deliciously crafted thighs and his dress shirt was untucked with the first few buttons undone. The stubble in his face couldn’t go unnoticed. While the look flawed on most men, it wondrously made Azmir’s look edgy and sexy as hell and turned me on to end. My strong, commanding, virile mogul was exhausted, and looked at me with such ferocity that it terrified me. In a flash, I saw pain and betrayal in his eyes that oddly gave my drunken state a boost of courage.
“Who do you think you are, making a scene like this?” I fired away.
Azmir’s face scrunched as he walked closer to me suspiciously. It was deathly frightening. I didn’t know what he was capable of, I’d never seen him this angry…with me. That’s when I saw Thompson rushing Azmir, and before I knew it, he swung his fist and hit the tip of Azmir’s chin and seemingly without much impact.
Fearing Azmir would be caught off guard and harmed, I screamed, “Nooooooo!”
Azmir, unfazed by the minor blow due to Thompson’s inaccuracy and lack of strength, maintained his amble towards me.
“Are you… Have you been drinking?”
I didn’t know how to respond to it. His revelation made me feel exposed and that somewhere along the way I’d allowed my tipsy state to show. His scowl effectively forced me off my balance and farther into Ray’s hold. Angrily, I snatched away from him, trying desperately to give a fa?ade of dignity.
“What is it to you, Azmir?” was all I could think to retort.
Azmir reached over to me, causing me to flinch, and with tender care, wiped my right eye.
“You let her…fuckin’ did this to her in the middle of a workday?” Azmir yelled over to Thompson.
That’s when I saw Thompson, again launching toward Azmir, “Don’t fucking touch her!” he screamed violently and hit Azmir in the back of his head.
Again, Azmir didn’t recoil. It was as if Thompson’s efforts were from an errant toddler.
Hoarsely, Azmir ordered to Ray, “Take her to the fuckin’ marina! I’ll be there in a minute!” Brooklyn was definitely in effect.
When Ray gently, yet firmly took me at my shoulders, he urged, “Come on, Ms. Brimm. Let’s go.”
“No! I’m not going anywhere!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Azmir, I don’t belong to you. I’m not one of your many assets!”
Calmly and with gentle tugs, Ray begged, “Ms. Brimm, please. We’re causing a scene at your place of business.”
Huhn?
I turned to see at least a dozen of people gawking at the events taking place. Then what should have been my initial fear in a sober mind had arrived. At least a half a dozen of brawny and treacherous looking men suddenly started closing in on our cipher and zeroed in on Thompson like vultures to its prey.
“Give the word, Divine!” the thick one with his shirt already removed vowed, flexing his chest muscles, nearly drooling with harmful anticipation.