Jakobe reached back after exiting the truck to lower Nakida into the dark alley that the truck had parked. His mind was going a mile a minute as he fought to keep his anger under control. The fact those two-faced bastards had tried to kill him wasn’t going to go unpunished. He knew the why, and he knew the who; now, what he needed to know was just how deep the attack went. When he cleaned house, he wanted to cut out the entire cancer. He waited until the women joined him in the backseat of the waiting SUV before he spoke his mind.
“Have you called Major yet?” he questioned his mother.
He took note of the look of shock that flashed in his mother’s blue eyes before she hid it.
“Why do I need to call him? He’s your fuckin’ friend!”
Jakobe rolled his eyes. “You must mistake me for a fool if you think I didn’t know that you two have been screwing. Shit, I don’t know why you both think it’s necessary to hide it, but whatever. Have you called him or not?” he pressed, pulling out his phone.
Niamh stole a quick glance at Nakida. “I texted him, yes,” she answered, at last.
“Good. I want to make sure he’s on alert,” Jakobe grumbled as he typed away on his phone.
Nakida could care less who was sticking it to who. She just wanted to know what the hell was going on. Not to mention, where they were racing off to. She gave the two of them enough time to volunteer the information to her, but seeing that neither one was going to give it up, she asked.
“I can see where he gets his rudeness from,” she snapped.
Two pairs of confused blue eyes locked onto her.
“I would like to know what’s going on?”
Jakobe waved his hand for his mother to speak.
“Since we’re going to be a family,” she said, clapping cheerfully before adding, “it’s the same old drama. You get too much power, and some fuck boy wants in on it. I can honestly say that this time, we did… well, I didn’t do anything to start this crap,” she corrected when Jakobe cleared his throat.
“I take it that you can be a loose cannon at times.” Nakida smirked.
The calmness of his mother, as she spoke, combined with the crazy look in her eyes, sent a chill up her spine. She realized really quick that his mother was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She was no longer the clean-cut woman from the party just hours before. She had shed that skin to become the cold warrior before her. Nakida’s eyes scanned over her body. Her auburn hair was pulled back into one thick braid. Her black, leather jacket clung tightly to her frame. The woman wore a plain, black t-shirt with skin-tight, blue jeans. Her outfit was completed with the ankle-high, combat boots that she wore.
Niamh tilted her head while she watched Nakida examine her openly.
“I’m no less than you are, my dear. I actually think that we are evenly matched.” She smiled.
She chuckled when Nakida turned her head to watch the landscape speed by. She’d had a very long talk with many people that had known Jakobe’s baby mama. Words could not describe her excitement when it was found out just who he had been spending his time with. She knew that this beautiful, black woman before her would be all that she had ever wished for when it came to a wife for her son. She lowered her gaze. She could feel her son’s eyes burning into the side of her head while he tried to figure out what her comment had meant. The damn boy had no clue of all the fun this woman was going to bring to their family. He had complained about her antics. Well, she knew that, with Nakida, she was going to take shit up to a whole new level.
“So,” she said, slapping Jakobe’s leg. “Where are we going?”
“First, we’re going to drop off Nakida. Then—”
“Why?”
Niamh bit her lip to keep the giggle from escaping her painted lips. There was a fight brewing.
“Because where we’re going, you don’t need to be,” he explained.
“Forgive me if I want to know who was shooting bullets at me.”
“That might be, but I’m telling you no.”
“Then you can just drop me off at my house then.”
He shook his head.
“Then how am I going to get more clothes?”
“All of your things are being moved as we—”
“To where?” she snapped.
Jakobe took a long, steadying breath. “If you would let me talk… They are being moved to a secure house.”
Niamh put up her hand to stop Nakida. “The house belongs to me. No one would dare make a move on you or Jakobe there.”
Nakida’s eyes widened. “You’re married?”
“In name, yes. Our life is very… complicated.”
“Hum,” was Nakida’s response.
“Although you have proven that you can handle yourself—” Niamh paused when she felt Jakobe’s tight grip on her leg. “I’ll side with him on this one. You have my grandbaby to think about.”
Jakobe was happy that his mom said that. He could see the fight leave Nakida at that fact. He watched as her hand went to her belly to shield the growing life in there. She wasn’t going to do anything to threaten her second chance. She had never seen him in his natural element. He didn’t want her fearing the man that he was. He didn’t want her to see the cold killer that he was known to be. He knew now that she had come from his world, but the thought of her going back to it bothered him. It was stupid of him to think that he would have been able to have a normal relationship with her and not have her find out. He saw now that it had been wishful thinking on his part. He’d just hoped that he could have kept his two lives from bleeding over for a little while longer. He ground his teeth in silence as he fought to get his temper under control. He couldn’t let the thought of her disappearing on him make him do something rash in his attempt to keep her. Keeping his trigger-happy mother in line was going to be hard enough. He watched the love of his life as they rode the rest of the drive. He could see the wheels of her mind turning as she went back to blindly watching the scenery outside.
It took everything in her to not let the dread at the sight of the impressive home on the hill register on her face. She crossed her legs to still the worry that she felt. The house, if you could call it that, was beyond breathtaking. The place was more like a compound. She didn’t have to be in the daylight to see the sights that they were passing after the iron gate swung open to let their vehicle inside. She knew it was just as she had remembered it from her youth. She stole a quick glance past Jakobe’s mother, who was sitting between them, to find him looking at her. He knew. He had to know. Now, she realized what his sly smile was all about when his mother had told him who she really was.
The sound of barking dogs caused her to break the hold that his piercing blue eyes had on her. She looked ahead as the car slowed at the second gate that was manned by gun-toting guards. Her mind was racing. Jakobe was actually him. Even then, so many years ago, she’d had a crush on the young boy who had caused her so much grief the last time that she had visited the house. The cute bully had become a strong, handsome man, indeed. Without a word, she stepped out of the SUV to gaze at the large mansion before her.
“Well, don’t just stand there,” Niamh said with a laugh.
Nakida jumped at the sound of the woman’s voice. With a nod, she fell in step to enter the house. A warmth overtook her as memories of the past washed over her.
“Drink?”
“Yes… Juice, of course,” she added quickly at a frowning Jakobe before he walked off.
“It hasn’t changed that much, has it?”
“No,” sighed Nakida as she leaned against the large island.
“Shocked, huh?” Niamh smiled, handing a glass of cranberry juice to Nakida.
“I think that word is too mild for what I’m feeling,” she mumbled.
Niamh tossed her head back in laughter. “Well, you know what they say. You can run, but all roads lead you back to where you belong. I can still see you running through this house, yelling at that damn pool party.”
“Ugh,” she answered. “He was so mean to me.”
“He was, wasn’t he?” Niamh chuckled.
“And it was over all over a damn piñata. Shit, if I knew that he was going to bitch and whine about it, I would have let him bust it open. He didn’t have to stop being my friend over it.”
Niamh stiffened at those words. She narrowed her blue eyes as she scanned the girl’s face.
“Is that what you were told?”
Nakida shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what I was told, but I’m sure there was more to that story, but…”
She watched as Kobe’s mom tapped the side of her leg in deep thought. She could see where Jakobe got that stare that seemed to strip a person to see what was laying underneath from.
“My mom was the real reason, right?”
“Yes.”
“Look, I’m sorry for whatever she—”
Niamh held up her hand to stop the apology. “You don’t have to worry about paying for the sins of your mother. It was a matter between adults that happened years ago,” she responded in a serious tone. When she spoke again, her voice was lighthearted. “We had gotten so sick of hearing him complain about that damn piñata. I mean, for fuckin’ weeks, he was moping over it.”
Nakida laughed at the crazy look on his mother’s face to stress her point.
“Well, he was just a boy.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t here to be tortured by it. No matter what was going on, somehow, it went back to you and that damn pool party. Finally, his father had to ask him what the hell was wrong with him. You know what he said?”
At Nakida’s shake of her wild head, she spoke, “He said that it wasn’t the fact that you skipped the line to get another turn. He said that it wasn’t that you got the candy before him at his party. He said that he was mad because a pretty girl like you shouldn’t have to work that hard to get what he could give you himself.”
The silence fell, like a stone, between them. Both women gazed into each other’s eyes across the space between them. Nakida watched as Niamh walked over to stand before her. She reached out and took Nakida by the hand. Her smile reached all the way to her eyes to bring light to them that, once again, Nakida recognized, seeing it so many times in Jakobe’s.
“I’m going to talk to you like a ma ’ma, ok. You and my son are very strong-willed, and I like that about you. But I didn’t raise a punk. Even at the young age of twelve, he was a man. Don’t try to walk in front of him, and damn sure, not behind him, or you’ll have a problem with me.” Dropping her hand, Niamh straightened her shoulders. The crazy glint in her blue eyes returned. “Now, I have to strap up to go beat a few skulls in,” she said with a wink before she strolled from the kitchen, only to return a second later. “Jakobe has the entire left wing on the third floor. Welcome home, baby.”
Ten minutes later, Nakida entered the marble hallway. She nodded at the few people that she passed in the hall, on her way to the winding staircase. Whenever she thought of this part of the house when she was older, she always thought of the movie Scarface. She glanced at the heavy chandelier that hung from the high ceiling. Without a doubt, that thing would have crushed anything that was unlucky enough to get trapped under it. As she went further up the stairs, the noise from below faded away. As a child, she had never gone to this part of the house. The three times that she had come over to visit while the parents mingled, she had only been on the main level and the grounds outside.
After hitting the landing, she turned left and walked through the opened, double doors that led to Jakobe’s living space. The area was more like an apartment with many different rooms and bathrooms. The only thing that had kept him from never leaving was the fact that his wing was without a full kitchen. It did have a mini bar and a mini fridge, though. She was so deep in thought that she had strolled right past Jakobe, who was standing in one of the rooms.
Silently, he fell into step behind her. Quietly, he reached over his head and removed his shirt to hang it over his strong shoulder. His eyes never strayed from the sway of her hips and full ass. He wasn’t surprised by her reaction to realizing their lives had been entwined for a while. He, too, had experienced a jolt at the realization of who she really was. It was like coming out of fog. He could have kicked himself for not seeing the resemblance between her and the young girl that was three years younger than him.
He also felt something much more sinister for a moment while he had gazed down upon her. All of the things that he had heard much later on about why she had never come back after that pool party had come flooding back. He shook his head at the voices that had said, even then, that he wasn’t good enough for her. It was the same fear that he’d had to overcome as a man entering her life. However, here he was—with the same damned woman that he had been told was off-limits for reasons that had later brought pain and grief to his mother’s life. He narrowed his eyes as he wondered if she knew the real story behind what had actually happened years ago.
“The master bedroom is right there, on the right,” he spoke behind her, causing her to let out a scream.
“What the hell,” she grumbled, swinging around with a fist to her chest.
“You were walking too damn slow.” He smirked with a shrug.
Jakobe closed the space between them to tower over her. “Have you come down from your high?”
“Yes…I’m sorry for being so…” she trailed off, trying to find the right words.
“Bitchy? Crazy?” he offered.
“You know I don’t like crazy.”
“But in this case, you got to give it to me, though.” He chuckled. “So, can I call you Laila, or should I stick with Nakida?”
He watched as she moved her gaze to something behind him. The fact that she was trying to hide from him pissed him off.
“Don’t do that. I have to be able to trust you,” he snapped.
“Is that why you’re keeping me in the dark about what’s happening?”
“What I’m doing is trying to protect my woman and our baby,” he said with a growl. “I have no problem telling you anything. I have a problem with you trying to get involved.”
A stiff nod of her head was her only response.
“This way to the room.” She pointed.
She was going to do her best to put his mother’s advice into action. There was no need for her to jump in front of a bullet when he was more than capable of dealing with his own issues.
“Nice room.”
“Yeah. We can go back to my house in a few days after the cleaners set it right.”
“Why?”
Kobe stopped on his way to the bathroom to look back at her.
“I thought you wouldn’t want to stay here,” he stated.
“I always liked this place.” She shrugged. “Plus, with all the manpower, I’m sure your enemies will think twice before coming here.”
“True,” he said, tossing his shirt to the floor before he took her by the hand to lead her to the bed. “I wanna talk to you,” he added.
“We can talk later.”
“You will always come first. Besides, I’m sure the people I’m going to be visiting will thank you for giving them a few more minutes too.”
She sat quietly and watched him as he pondered what to say next.
“Nakida,” she answered at last.
Jakobe nodded. “I’m sorry. I know it was selfish, on my part, to think that, no matter who you were, bringing you into this world of mine would be alright.”
“It was obviously meant to be, right.” She sighed. “I still can’t believe you’re the bully that was so mean to me.” She smiled.
“Oh, I had my reasons.”
There was that tone again. His deep voice had turned silky smooth, causing her insides to melt. His heated gaze fell, staring at her parted lips.
“I hope you aren’t playing me, Nakida,” he mumbled before he lifted his eyes to bore into hers. “You will be here when I get back.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a declaration of intent. There was a fierceness in the depths of his eyes that she had never seen before. She tilted her head.
“I’m looking forward to finally getting to know the real you.” She smirked.
There was a challenge in her words that sent a wave of excitement throughout his body. They both had been holding back things from each other that no longer needed to be held in. He leaned back as a wicked grin formed on his handsome face. She watched as he got to his feet to disappear into the bathroom to change.