Rapture 2: a BWWM, Alpha Male Romance (22 page)

THIRTY-FIVE

Rush

When I got back inside, it was as though I hadn’t missed a beat. The mood was still festive, drinks were still flowing and energy was high. I walked straight to where Alika was and put my hand around her waist and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.

“Your nose is freezing, baby,” she commented, reaching up to rub it to warmth. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too, babe.”

“Aww, ain’t that cute?!” Gavin stated. “Now I
know
that the beat down that Q talked about was because of Alika. Look at how he looks at her, you guys. We already know!”

“Seriously? You’re still on this crazy shit?”

“Yep!” Gigi blurted out. “I want all the tea!”

After I fulfilled their curiosity and let them in on the incident…minus a few details that weren’t their business…like the fact that Alika and I were in the middle of a small fight at the time, we all retreated to the media room to watch a movie. However, once we were all seated comfortably, everyone decided that a movie wasn’t necessarily on their agenda.

“Yeah, dude,” Marco started. “We were gonna stay and hang out until the sun started to come up, but I think it’s time for us to get going. Wanna get my wife home and…uhhh…
relax
a bit.”

“Good choice of words, baby,” Gigi grinned.

“Okay, what about everyone else? Because I arranged for you guys to all get dropped off at home since there was drinking going on.”

Simultaneously, they all objected to the ride, with reasons ranging from, they were fine and that they wanted to sleep in tomorrow, to not wanting to have to come back for their vehicles.

I was happy that each of them felt capable of transporting themselves because I desperately needed to talk to Quinton. The matter was of extreme urgency. 

“Babe, I need to talk to Quinton for a little bit. Can you and Tracie walk everybody out and I’ll see you upstairs?”

“Of course, baby.”

Quinton and I walked out on the back lawn near the gazebo where I could talk to him in private. I couldn’t afford for anyone to hear what we were talking about, and I wasn’t ready to tell Alika yet either.

“It’s cold as fuck out here, man!” Quinton exclaimed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Maaan!” I laughed. “Suck it up. We’ll be out here for five minutes tops.”

“Alright then, I need that clock to start tickin’. A muthafucka’s nuts ‘bout to freeze and they been summoned for duty.”

“T…M…fuckin’
I
, dude! Anyway,” I started. “I need you to travel to Denver, Colorado on an emergency trip. I’d go if I could, but this wouldn’t be a good time for me to do it.”

“You don’t have to explain. I understand.”

“Thanks, man. Tomorrow morning when you get—”

“I’m sure you mean in a few hours, right? Because it’s already tomorrow…unless you really do mean,
tomorrow
.”

“Okay, since we wanna be all technical and shit. When you get up in a few hours, I need you to come by so that I can give you everything that you need for the trip. I have to gather it first though, but time is of the essence.”

“I got you. Whatever you need.”

“I’ll give you small details though just so you can know what you’re walking into. Have a seat,” I instructed. Once we were both seated, I took a deep breath, and then released. “You know they’re investigating my father’s death as a homicide, right?”

Quinton nodded his head slowly in comprehension.

“Okay, well I stepped out earlier because the detectives investigating wanted to talk to me about a person of interest in the case.”

“Aww, shit, man…” he commented, rubbing his hand across the top of his head.

“My mother was here for a couple of days, Q. She was—”

“Your mother? I thought you didn’t have—”

“Yeah, I thought I didn’t either. But it’s a long story. Short version is that she was forced to leave. New identity and everything.”

“Forced out…” he spat. “New identity? What! Let me guess. It was by your father, right?”

“Right,” I confirmed.

“Fuck. Dude had his hands are in everything, huh? Pulling kids from their parents and shit. That shit ain’t cool on any level, man.”

“Right. I mean, believe it or not, I hate like hell that Lance had to die, but right now, my focus is on my mother. She was gonna stay for this dinner tonight, but she went back to Denver early. I didn’t realize why at first, but now I think I might.”

“Moms got all the way gangster on his ass, huh?” he whispered, with shock in his voice.

“I think so. They had a picture of her at the club. It’s her. I wouldn’t have known that it was her had I not seen her for myself. Shit is fucked up, Q. But I’m thinking she just snapped.”

“Hell yeah, man. Something had to trigger it, though because she coulda snapped
years
ago.”

“I’m guessing she snapped when she found out about Michaela. Because she did mention wanting to meet her when she was here. She didn’t know that Michaela didn’t live here, so she probably came to see us both before shit hit the fan. This shit is all making sense to me now, Q,” I said, in a voice that was close to a whisper.

All of the truth was hitting me like a bulldozer, and I started thinking back over everything and all that I needed to straighten out, and one of those things was definitely, some kind of way, getting across to my staff that they aren’t to mention anything about having met my mother.
Or
…
shit. I’ll figure it out
.
I got other more pressing stuff right
—

“What’s up, Rush?” Q asked, snapping me back to the present. “You just disappeared, and my ass is going numb on this damn bench.”

“Yeah…damn…I just thought about something.”

“What…?”

“Not a big deal. When you come tomorrow…I mean, in a few hours, I’ll have everything you need.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

We both stood to get ready to head up front so Quinton could leave. When we got there, Alika and Tracie were hanging out in the living room in a girl chat, talking a mile a minute.

“Alright, Q. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, slapping hands with him, then stretching, and releasing a yawn. “Babe, we can walk Tracie back down to the guesthouse, or she can—”

I noticed a smile creep across Alika’s face, and then her and Tracie proceeded to giggle. I looked from one to the other, then over at Quinton.

“What the fuck am I missing?”

“She’s coming with me for the night, dude,” Quinton announced.

“When did that shit happen? You’re one slick motherfucker, Q! All I can do is congratulate you,” I said, fist bumping with him.

“That’s so tacky!” Alika yelled.

Quinton and I guffawed heartily, as he and Tracie waved us off and headed out the front door. When the door had closed, I turned to Alika and tried to contain my laughter, causing her to shake her head at me.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Rush. Making fun of my friend is not cool,” she scolded. “I’m sure she was embarrassed!”

“Not embarrassed enough, clearly.”

“Rush!”

“Well…! What? I’m not knocking her. She’s giving in to her cravings for a big strong Samoan guy. Who can resist that?”

“You’re something else,” she said, slapping me across the top of my arm. “What if I put you on punishment for that behavior?”

“What if I told you that you’re funny and that that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day?”

“You’re so cocky.”

I looked down at the tent growing in the front of my pants. “I guess you’re kinda right, huh?”

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach. “I guess that means I’m on duty.”

“I sure as hell hope so because blue balls—”

“Aww, baby. You won’t have that problem. Let’s go to our room and make some noise until the sun comes up.”

“Shit, I’m right behind you.”

THIRTY-SIX

Denver, Colorado

Home of Siobhan Cavanaugh

The next day…

“Can I help you?” Siobhan asked, looking curiously at the stranger standing on the other side of her front door.

“Yes ma’am, my name is Quinton and I’m a good friend of Rush’s. He sent me.”

Quinton reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out the burner phone that he and Rush had been communicating on. “Hold on a second while I get him on the line for you.”

Siobhan allowed herself to relax just a little as she stood in the doorway of her home. After a few seconds, Quinton handed her the phone.

“Here you go…” Quinton said, surrendering his device to Siobhan and taking a few steps backwards. He wanted her to feel confident that there was no threat to her.

“Hello?” she spoke softly.

“Mom?”

“Yes, it’s me, Rush.”

“Are you okay? You sound different.”

“I’m okay. I was just a little confused about who was at my door,” she said, hand-signaling for Quinton to come inside, then ushering him to a seat in her living room.

“Well, I sent Quinton there to get you. I want to do this quickly.”

“But—”

“Mom, you’re not safe there. I know about what happened. The police were here last night.”

A few seconds passed before Siobhan burst into tears. It didn’t matter to her that she had a stranger sitting in her living room. In that moment, it was just her and Rush and she felt free. The guilt and the turmoil were releasing from her soul in a way that made her feel lighter on the inside.

“I’m so sorry, Rush. I’ve bought more trouble than not to your life. This will just work to complicate things in a way that—”

“No, it won’t complicate anything. And I’m not judging you, Mom. I can’t even begin to know what you’re feeling. But I know having a daughter of my own, regardless of how new she is to my life, protecting her is at the top of my list.”

“But authorities won’t see it that way, son. It’s been years. I didn’t react when it mattered most. I reacted almost three decades later. I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life. But I already knew that the possibility existed,” she said, sitting on the larger sofa near where Quinton sat. “When I heard about Michaela, it brought everything back to the surface for me,” she sniffled. “I couldn’t stop myself, Rush. I did some questionable things that I’m not proud of to get close to your father’s dealings.”

“It’s fine, mom. We can talk about all that later. But for now, I need you to be where I can make sure you’re okay.”

“But coming to you is right where—”

“I’m going to move you. You’ll be fine. I’m working on a few things. Don’t worry about anything. I just want you out of there.”

Siobhan looked over at Quinton, and then spoke into the phone in a lowered voice. “There’s someone who knows, Rush. And he was here. He’s a person who knows me by Gia. He worked for your father, and—”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t want to involve any more people, Rush. I just wanted you to know that somebody else knows so that you don’t waste your time getting involved when it’ll all be over soon anyway.”

“Who is it, Mom?”

“His name is Kenneth.”

“Okay,” Rush stated calmly. “And so now you know that since someone else knows, it’s all the more reason you need to leave.  Don’t worry about packing anything. I’m going to have your place emptied and cleaned. Just get dressed and grab a bag of the things you must have. Leave the rest to me. Quinton is gonna make sure everything is set, okay?”

After a moment of pause, Siobhan finally surrendered. “Okay.”

When she handed the phone back to Quinton, Siobhan scurried up the stairs to grab a few things, throw on some clothes, and to fix her hair.

“I’m ready, Quinton,” she announced, when she came back into the room.

~*~*~

Half an hour later when Quinton and Siobhan arrived at the hangar with the driver, he escorted her onboard the plane, and proceeded to walk back to the car and out of earshot where he placed another call to Rush.

“Hey, what’s up, Q? Is something wrong?”

“Look, I heard your moms say that somebody else knew about what happened and that the person had been there.”

“Yeah,” Rush confirmed. “I know who he is.”

“That’s good because he may need a visit.”

“I was already gonna have a talk with him,” Rush confessed.

“Yeah, but I’m thinking a different kind of talk.”

“And you think that why? You think it’s a blackmail situation? I’m already on that.”

“No. It’s more than that, man. I think that something might’ve happened.”

“Happened like what?!” Rush said, in a state of panic.

“It’s a gut feeling. When I got to your mom’s, she didn’t look too good. She was disheveled, nervous, and kinda out of it.”

“Maybe it was because a stranger showed up to her door, Q…? I’m just sayin’.”

“Ha, ha. No, I mean, I don’t know her outside of meeting her today, but you know I’m a good study on people. She cleaned up nicely, but at first sight, she wasn’t so right, and neither were her surroundings.”

On the other end of the line, Rush remained quiet. Not a peep came from him, and Quinton already knew what that meant, so he ended the conversation with: “We’re on the way back now. See you soon.”

“Okay. Thanks, Q.”