Marc

“I’m ready for you to tell me what’s going on,” Alexis said, walking into my office.

I turned to look at her and what I was seeing made me feel happy. She looked much better than she had the night before. I felt bad that I didn’t really have time to help her adjust the way that she probably needed me to, but I had to make sure that she was safe, plus I had to prove that I was ready to head up this business deal that we were doing with The Family. It was the first time that my father was staying completely out of things and I wanted to make sure that I had it all together.

“Well, right now…I’m just trying to focus on keeping you safe. Also, I’ve got some business deals going through that is pretty major for us.” Alexis gave me a blank look. “What I need you to do is not worry. And go down to the basement to Carla. There is a salon down there. I think you need a new look…just to be safe.”

“I got a text from Kingston. Something’s going on with Jazmyn. He said I needed to call him.”

I turned to look at Alexis quickly. “I’ll call him. We need to be getting you a new cellphone, too.”

She nodded her head. I saw her face change as she readied herself to say what she needed to say. I sat back in my seat. I was waiting for this moment to come. The moment when the shock wore off and the anger set in. And the fear.

“Marc, I don’t know what’s going on and this is a big change. What I do know is that I don’t want any more fucking secrets. You’ve brought me here to this…estate. I didn’t even know you had it like this. Then you tell me that we’re a part of some fucking mafia family or some shit?” She threw her hands in the air and paused for me to respond.

“Well, Lexi…”

“I don’t even wanna hear that shit right now! I thought I could trust you, but I guess I can’t. You know what? I should have known your ass was in some crazy shit when I found out the only way you wanted to fuck was if I was begging for fucking mercy from all the pain. So…what is it? You’re the assassin or some shit? That’s your job? You go around torturing people and making them beg for their lives?” She paused again and I tried to decide if she really wanted me to answer this time. “You ain’t got shit to say?”

“Lexi, I don’t torture people, I…”

“The hell you don’t!” she interrupted. I clamped my mouth shut. She didn’t want me to talk after all. “You been torturing my ass since day one and calling it ‘love.’”

I flinched when she said that. We still hadn’t talked about our sex issues. I hadn’t even had sex with my wife in months. Stroking my own shit every night was killing me but if I didn’t let out the stress, I would have been killing someone else.

The reason I fucked her the way I did was because I didn’t know any other way. I’d only had sex with one other woman before Alexis. I was fifteen years old when I met Jennifer and she was twenty-one. She was the daughter of my father’s accountant and she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen up until then. She was from the Dominican Republic and had dark black hair that stopped right at the curve of her plump ass. She had an hourglass shape and wasn’t ashamed to show it to anyone who cared to look. And I sure as hell didn’t mind looking.

I never had a childhood so even though I was only fifteen, I had the demeanor of a grown ass man. My father didn’t raise kids, he created leaders. So instead of partying and hanging out like all the other fifteen year olds, I was attending meetings with my father, going over the financial details and making sure that every cent we were supposed to have was accounted for.

Jennifer wasn’t normally at the meetings because she was in college. But once she graduated, her father began bringing her along. He stated that he was bringing her because she assisted him with handling my father’s affairs. My mother was convinced that he brought her along to dangle in front of me in hopes of us pursuing a relationship. He didn’t know his daughter. A relationship was the furthest thing from her mind. I would never forget the first time I had sex with her.

“You want me to what?” I asked her. I knew she couldn’t possibly be telling me what I thought she was telling me.

“Grab that belt over there.”

I did as I was told.

“Listen, Marc. You’re a leader. You’re the man. You need to fuck like one, too.” She shoved the belt in my hand. I grabbed it. It was a heavy leather belt, one that could cause a lot of damage. I felt powerful when I held it.

Jennifer showed me the way that she liked it; which pretty much was hard and rough. She liked to be spanked, bitten and slapped. She liked her hair pulled and she didn’t want me to ease my dick into her. She wanted to be impaled by it. She liked it when I shoved it inside of her and made her have to catch her breath. After a while, I began to enjoy it, too. I loved her reaction. It turned me on to turn her on.

Now here I was with a wife that didn’t like that and I didn’t know what to give her. She hadn’t wanted to talk about it and it wasn’t exactly something I could ask a friend. It wasn’t like I could go to Ortega and say, “Hey, how do women like to be fucked?”

“Lexi, I never want to hurt you, I just didn’t know…”

“That shit doesn’t matter right now, Marc. You need to tell me why you kept all of this from me and I need to know now.”

She stood with her hands on her hips. I figured now was a good time to finally try to speak. I opened my mouth to speak, then paused to see if she would interrupt me. When she frowned her eyebrows at me with a hidden order to ‘speak or else,’ I decided to explain myself.

“I hid it from you because I didn’t want to lose you! And then every time I tried to get you to come with me when I had to go out of town for work, you wouldn’t come. I was trying to explain this shit to you then!”

Alexis just stood looking me at me, blinking her eyes with shock. “I know you don’t expect me to sit here and let you blame this on me when all you had to do was sit down and tell me all of this in perfect English!”

I closed my mouth. She was right. I could have just told her but I thought maybe if I took her with me and she was able to hear about it and see how normal and luxurious the life would be for her, she would deal with it better. I wanted to have her go with me on a business trip in the Caribbean or in Paris and explain it to her there. I knew there was no way she could think of me as a monster while lying on the banks of the crystal-clear beach sipping margaritas.

“I’m sorry, Lexi. But this is it. There are no other secrets and there will not be any more,” I said. I gave up. You couldn’t win a fight with a woman anyways.

Alexis seemed to calm down some once she saw that I wasn’t trying to defend myself. “Fine,” she puffed. “Now how do I get to the basement?”

I pointed to the elevator behind her. She turned back to me with a face full of fury when she saw it.

“A fuckin’ elevator, Marc?” she huffed. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about all of this.”

I knew I was in the wrong for not telling her about everything, but I wasn’t going to apologize for being in a position to be able to afford things that others could not. Especially when it made it so that I was able to protect her from someone who was looking for us because she decided to play ‘Madam Bring the Pain’ at some brothel.

“So you found out that we’re filthy rich, Lexi. Get over it and get used to it. Any woman in your shoes would be glad to have all this. You got a man who provides you with everything you need and more. The hell you whining about? Now go get your something done with your hair so that people won’t recognize you right away,” I mumbled at her as I walked in the opposite direction.

She sighed loudly before walking over to the elevator. I sighed as well and pulled a cigar out of the lapel of my designer jacket. I knew Alexis would be fine but today was the last day that I would be easy on her. She had a lot to learn about being a gangster’s wife and she didn’t have a lot of time.

“When does the meeting start?” I asked Ortega.

“In about an hour. Everyone will be early and ready for you well before then, of course.”

I sat quietly and thought to myself as I played with my cufflinks. I could feel Ortega’s eyes on me as he tried to analyze my thoughts from the outside. Ortega was the closest thing I had to a best friend and he knew me better than most people. So it was no surprise to me that he knew exactly what was on my mind.

“You sure you’re ready to see Jennifer?” he asked me.

I looked up at him, sat back in my chair bringing my arms back behind my head. “Of course I am. This is not the first time I’ve seen her since we were involved, Ortega.”

“True,” he said, swirling the toothpick around in his mouth. He pushed his greasy hair out of his dark smoky grey eyes before continuing. “But this is the first time you’ve met with her in this house while your wife was in the room below getting her mane tamed.” He pointed to the floor.

“Doesn’t mean anything.”

“You don’t think that Alexis will suspect anything?” Ortega asked me.

His skepticism was evident and I could understand why. Jennifer was a very sexy, confident woman and she did nothing to hide that fact. She strutted around in her tight skirts and pants like it was nothing although she knew she was grabbing the attention of every man in the room. Meanwhile, Alexis was still moping around in sweats and incredibly large t-shirts that hid every curve on her body. She was still beautiful to me, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wished she would change out the house shoes for heels and stilettos from time to time.

“I think that Jennifer being around may be a positive thing for Alexis,” I said. Ortega looked at me like I’d grown a third eyeball. “I’m almost sure of it.” I looked at my watch.

If I were honest with myself, I would know that there was a lot that could go bad with my ex and my wife in the house at the same time. Especially when my ex looked like Zoe Saldana with a Nia Long haircut and my wife was walking around like Cousin It. But I figured that Alexis could take seeing a beautiful woman working around her husband. It may make her feel threatened enough to put on something that at least showed her knees and walk around like she still cared about her appearance.

“How was your conference call with Cal?”

“Who?” I asked him, still deep in my thoughts.

“The representative for The Family who you spoke with yesterday. Didn’t you two have a conference call?”

“Oh,” I remembered, sitting up in my seat. “Yeah, we did. He said that Ty is dealing with some issues in Miami concerning some members of his team and that he will have to postpone us meeting up with him for about a month or so. Either way, that’s good news. It gives me time to get Alexis used to things before we really get into the thick of business.”

“I agree.”

I checked my watch once again. “Well, it looks like it’s about time to—”

“Hola, fellas,” I heard the sweet, milky voice from behind me.

I swiveled in my seat to look directly at Jennifer as she walked into the room. She had her short, dark black hair in small ringlets, bringing the focus to her hazel brown eyes. Her smooth brown skin sparkled a little in the light as if she had an angelic glow about her. The perfume that she wore wasn’t too demanding, but it filled the room quickly as it edged its way up my nostrils and commanded my manhood to attention. I adjusted in my seat, hoping to cover my erection, but I saw Jennifer’s eyes swoop down to the seat of my pants and I knew I’d already been discovered.

“Hmmm,” I heard Ortega behind me.

I didn’t bother turning to look at him because it was already known to both of us that he’d been right. Jennifer being here was more of a problem than I’d thought it would be. Her and I had been meeting on a monthly basis to discuss our finances, but my sexual frustration was at an all-time high this month due to the fact that I’d hadn’t been relieved by Alexis in months nor had I been able to relieve myself in weeks. Jennifer’s plump, firm ass looked like it was all the release that I would need and I knew she was willing to hand it over to me if I wanted it.

“Jennifer, nice to see you again,” I said, making sure not to look at her directly.

“Oh, I can tell it is,” she giggled. “Anyways, we have a lot to discuss.”

“Okay, give me a minute,” I said as I grabbed my iPad from out of my briefcase. “Alright, ready. What’s going on?”

“Well, everyone is delivering the amounts that are expected except for Tariq’s crew.”

“Oh?” I asked her. I looked over at Ortega and I knew he was reading my thoughts. This was the third time in four weeks that Tariq’s crew was coming in under what was expected.

“Yes, this time they were about $10,000 under. That means over the last couple weeks, the total is,” she flipped through a few papers and ran her fingernail down the page until she got mid-way, “about $30,000. Give or take a few…thousand.”

“Okay. We’ll handle that one.” I looked at Ortega and he nodded his head to assure me that he understood.

“Ooooh, can I watch?” Jennifer smiled, showing off all of her pearly whites. She flicked her tongue across them seductively and I felt my manhood rising again. I shook it off and tried to focus.

“Ortega, we’ll pay him a visit tomorrow, okay?” He nodded his head at me and started pecking away at his phone. “Alight, Jennifer, continue.”

“Gladly,” she said. She flashed me another smile before looking down at her paperwork.

I groaned inwardly.

I’m going to have to get rid of her before some shit gets started for real.