Page 3 of Divine

“What you said, baby girl? Go back in there and finish kicking his ass? You know I will.” He laughed maniacally.

“Good night, Syre. Stay out of my damn business,” I said as I opened my car door.

His crazy ass was still standing at the entrance of the restaurant as if he wasn’t at risk of being arrested for assault. I loved and hated how protective my family was over me. Sometimes, I wanted the freedom to do shit my way and make my own mistakes. Trevor might not have been Prince Charming, but wasn’t that for me to realize on my own? I would have eventually seen the news myself.

“Liam! Liam!”Ming shouted, nearly shattering my ear drums as I drilled into her.

I gripped her throat, hoping to quiet her enough so that I could complete my mission of fucking her brains out. Right before I released, I yanked out of her and let my guys off into the condom. It was a habit. I had broken enough condoms in my day to perfect my pull-out game down to a science. Backing out of bed, I stood to go to the bathroom.

I removed the condom, dropping it in the toilet and flushing before moving to the sink to wash my hands. I wet a washcloth then headed to my bedroom to wash Ming up. As usual, she was knocked out by the time I made it back to her. That didn’t stop me from cleaning her up and pulling the cover back up over her.

After a quick bird bath in front of the sink, I went to the living room where I’d left my twenty-five pound weights last night. No matter what, I made sure to get in a little workout every day. Right now was the perfect time to work off some of the residual adrenaline. I went through my three sets of twenty effortlessly before I dropped the dumbbells I had been curling and looked down at my watch.

It was a couple of minutes to six which gave me about an hour to shower, eat, and head out to my job. I had to be at the convention center by seven fifteen. For the past seven years, I had been working as security for a company that serviced the football stadium and convention center in the area as well as other local entertainment venues. It was a cool gig since it came with perks like seeing free shows and shit. I hardly ever had to get active.

Although I worked as a security guard, my job didn’t require much physical activity. I fell in love with working out when I played high school football. Those days were long gone, but I still liked to stay in pretty good physical shape due to the nature of my job. I tried to work out five days a week. Being a night owl usually worked in my favor when I couldn’t find the time to get it in during the day. My post quickie upper body workout was enough to satisfy me for the day.

As I moved through my house, I grabbed a protein shake from the stash on my counter. I cracked the seal on the bottle and threw it back, finishing it by the time I made it to the bathroom. I tossed the bottle without stopping before stepping into my bathroom where I turned on the shower to let it warm up.

While I waited for the water to adjust, I brushed my teeth and applied the new face and beard cleanser I had been using. So far, it kept my dry skin from flaking like it usually did at the change of the season. Once the soap was all over my face and beard, I stripped out of my clothes and hopped in the shower.

Fifteen minutes later, I was washed, dried, and moisturized. As much as I couldn’t stand a fucking uniform, the all-black rent-a-cop attire required for my job had grown on me. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to worry about what I would wear from day to day. I could just throw on my clothes and head out.

With the urging of the current supervisor, I applied and tested for a position as his replacement. He had been working for the company for over twenty years and had reached retirement age. It had been a few weeks, and with his retirement soon, I knew the announcement of the new supervisor would be coming any day now.

I was excited about advancing with the company. I made a decent living, but the supervisory position came with a 20 percent pay bump. I could use an extra 20 percent tacked onto my salary.

Growing up as the son of one of the biggest goons in the state of Georgia came with certain luxuries like getting every new pair of shoes that came out. Even as an adult with little to no access to my dad’s money, I found myself struggling to deny myself certain things.

There was half a million dollars in an account set up for me by my dad when I was twelve. I was supposed to access it after my eighteenth birthday when I started working by his side. Since I didn’t fuck with my dad anymore, that day never came. The money was just sitting in an account accruing interest. My mom had given me access to the account years ago, but I wasn’t interested in blood money. I checked the statements a couple of times a year, but I was my own man.

Even without their help, money was never much of an issue for me. I had twice as much in my own accounts just from living below my means. Up until five years ago when I turned thirty, I lived with roommates and limited my splurging to sneakers. There was no limit or no telling how much money I would spend on shoes. To make sure I stayed out of my parents’ pockets, I did whatever I had to do.

Although he was idolized in my neck of the woods, my dad was a pure monster for lack of a better word. He gave us anything we could ever want financially, but he was a mean drunk and a womanizer even on a good day. My mom and I suffered from his tyranny behind closed doors while he was hailed as a king in the city.

My mom and I endured my dad’s abuse in silence until I was thirteen and started fighting back. He backed off of me, but my mom still took the brunt of his punishment anytime he felt slighted or just wanted someone to take his frustrations out on. It only took a couple more years for me to get fed up with him putting his hands on her for good.

With my mom’s encouragement, I decided to end him. I was sixteen years old when I beat my dad within an inch of his life. My intention was to kill him and face the consequences of my actions, knowing that my mom would finally be safe in his absence. Instead of letting me face the music, she sent me to a friend’s house to spend the night after the attack.

I spent the entire weekend waiting for the cops to arrest me for murder only to find out that my dad wasn’t dead. Not only was he still alive, but my mom had concocted a story about an armed robbery to clear my name. She had bruises and a black eye to prove that they had both been attacked and beaten. I was in the clear, but I felt that I failed her by not completing my mission.

By then, I’d started stepping up to help with the family business. My dad used my strength and size to his advantage anytime he needed a soldier to step in and help handle someone. I worked as the muscle for his business until the day I got fed up with it all.

When I was around twenty, I ended up catching an aggravated assault charge for doing my dad’s bidding. His overpaid lawyer got it reduced to battery, and I only ended up serving a year behind bars. That was enough time for me to reconsider the direction my life was going in.

No matter how much guilt I harbored for my dad’s situation, I knew I didn’t want anything to do with him going forward. Since my mom felt like she had the upper hand, she refused to distance herself from him. It had been ten years since I’d seen either of them, and I was a better man for it.

Once I put on my uniform, I walked over to my bed and shook Ming awake. She grumbled as she stirred in her sleep.

“Get up, Ming. It’s time for me to go to work,” I told her.

“Can’t I just stay here until you get back?” she asked, never opening her eyes.

“You know we don’t do that. Come on now. I’ll call you in a few days.”

“I don’t know why I keep coming here,” she complained, throwing the covers off her legs and shaking her head as she sat up.

“You and I both know why.” I chuckled, not bothering to wait for her response as I walked out of my bedroom.

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