King turned and cupped my face with both hands. “Look, sweetie, I only wanted to check on you. All my boys told me it was a mistake. But I had to fucking see you. You were the light on the inside for me.”
“Then stay right now and tell me everything,” I pleaded. “How are you really here? What are you going to do now? If I was the light on the inside, then I can be the same here.”
“You’re wearing a diamond ring,” King said. “You belong to someone else.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “Don’t move. I’ll prove something to you.”
I hurried away from King and through my cramped apartment to my bedroom. My heart hadn’t had a second to calm. From trying to say something reasonable to Nelson to him hitting me to King appearing from nowhere and saving me…
I fell to my knees and reached under my bed for the box of notes. It was a desperate move, but what choice did I have? I never thought in my wildest dreams that King would be standing in my apartment. It was just like it always was with us - he’d show up, save me, and then take off.
I wanted that to change.
I ran back through the apartment and lost my breath again when I saw him standing near my door.
He was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. I watched him go from handsome boy to rugged man with each passing year. I felt all the feelings a girl turning woman could feel and experienced enough with King to know if there really ever was one person in the world for me, it was him. Nobody would compare and nobody would ever come close.
I couldn't let him slip away from me again.
“Here,” I said and jammed the box against his chest.
“What the fuck is this?”
“All the letters you sent me,” I said. “I kept them all.”
“Letters?”
“When we were banned from seeing each other.”
“No shit,” he said.
King peeled the top off the old shoebox and I saw the way the corners of his mouth started to curl up. He moved the notes around, holding the box with one hand. He plucked a note out and shook the paper to open it. I saw the look on his face as he read, the memories obviously crashing back at him really hard.
“You have to tell me what’s going on,” I said.
“I’ll tell you exactly what’s going on,” he said. He put the letter back in the box and handed it back to me. “These are memories. These are fucking great memories. Everything we ever shared together, right?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Keep these forever. That’s all I can say, sweetie. I have to get back with the boys right now.”
“I don’t feel safe,” I said.
King touched my face. Reaching back with his other hand, he opened the door.
As his thumb stroked my cheek, I felt my heart started to crack.
“King…”
“Lock your door. I’ll give you my cell number if something happens. You know I’ll always protect you. But anything more, sweetie, right now…” He slowly shook his head. “Fuck.”
King pulled me in and planted a kiss to my lips.
“Hate me all you want, but you know this is right.”
King broke away from me and left the apartment.
I stood there, holding the shoebox of notes.
King came crashing into my life and then was sucked away. Just like a fucking wave. This time it felt like the wave had hit me hard… and I was now drowning.
14
(King) *NOW*
I COULDN’T STOP THINKING about the ring. She let some guy put a ring on her finger. And that same guy was then going to take a swing at her? Well, that guy would never touch her again. That was for sure. But the ring? That was something else. That was making a promise to another man. It shouldn’t have hurt me the way it did. I had gone looking for her. I had wanted to see what kind of life she had.
I throttled my motorcycle and sped up, taking a turn with speed. I tempted the road, the reaper, tempting everything to go wrong and have me drop my motorcycle and end up dead.
It didn’t happen.
In some weird way I almost felt invincible. Yet the only thing that could hurt me was Linds. And she was doing a great fucking job at it.
Giving me a box of letters then?
I didn’t need to see that shit. I knew every word that was in those letters. I wrote those words. I sent those words to Linds. I gave them to her as though I was able to slice a piece of my heart out of my chest and give it to her. That was the entire fucking point of it all. So she knew how I felt, no matter what happened.
I rode right to the strip club and parked my ride next to the rest of the Reap. I could only imagine the hell they were in there stirring up by then. I ripped open the side door and walked inside. The flashing lights and thudding music overtook my senses, along with the sight of beautiful woman strutting on a long stage.
I saw Knox and Slam standing at the back wall, a beer for each one. They were talking. Of course they were talking. They were so fucking wrapped up their lives and the Reap, they were missing the pussy all around. I couldn't say I blamed them though. My mind and heart was back in Linds’s apartment.
Knox hugged me and asked, “Did you get what you wanted?”
“No,” I said.
“I’m sorry, bro.” He patted my chest. “Take a load off. Literally.”