Page 100 of Love me Like XO

“You swear what, Givens? Niggas in the hood ain’t scared of you. Riding through and shit like you’ll make it outta that motherfucker alive if you try something. Betta flash that badge somewhere else, cause on me you know how I get down.”

I was fucking floored, because with my sister clinging to him this young nigga had damn near told her father he’d touch hisass. Apparently Malik realized how floored I was, because within seconds his hands were on my sides, and he was pulling me out of the middle.

I wasn’t for this type of situation, so once I made sure my sister was fine with whomever this dude was, I left. Shit like this was why when it came to my mama and her. I didn’t do drama, and with my mother that’s all you got.

A few minutes into the ride I found myself looking over at Malik. He was so focused on the road and whatever he was thinking about that he didn’t feel me looking at him.

Leaning forward, I turned his music down making him glance momentarily into my direction. “Since when you start touching my mu?—”

“You knew him didn’t you?” I asked thinking about the way Paul looked at Malik. He looked almost petrified when he was looking at Malik.

“Knew who?”

“My mother’s husband.”

“Knowing him is a strong word. Know of him yeah.” He nodded then reached back for the music, probably trying to end the conversation. He didn’t like to tell me about what he had going on.

“But he knew you. Your face. All of that. He was so scared to come off the porch that the entire time you leaned against the car he stared at you, like he’d seen a ghost.”

He nodded. “Sometimes people be fraudulent as fuck. They don’t be who you think they are. They hide beh?—”

“Are you…who I think you are?”

“That depends on what you think. Shit who you think I am.” His expression never changed as he paused his speaking. “I’m a man who will do whatever to keep you smiling as well as safe. The nigga who makes you cum on demand and plans to keep that going forever. The man wh?—”

“Isn’t gonna tell me how he knows my mother’s prick of a husband.”

“You’re goddamn right. The man who is gonna protect you from any and everything, even if that means himself.”

I looked at him for a while, before nodding my head. The vaguest fucking answer sufficed. I loved him enough for that to be enough. I probably sounded like one of those dumb broads, the ones who believed everything their man said. At this point with his name scarped in my collarbone I was one of them.Dick dumb and branded… My man, my man, my man.

Chapter 18

I Care …

EMPRESS

Instead of leaving me in the house like he normally did when he went to work at the bar, Zero woke me up insisting that I come to work with him. This was him trying to makes sure I wasn’t at home sulking or any of that. Funny enough I hadn’t really been sulking since my brother’s pep talk. Let him tell it that was golden and he should have charged me for it.

“How long are you going to ice your pops out?”

I cut my eyes in his direction stopping the task he’d assigned me this morning when we first got here. In my defense between my little necessary nap and my numerous lunch breaks I was barely able to get any work done. I was trying, and now here he was wanting to bring up my father like he wasn’t a sore subject. “Til I get over it.”

“And when is that gonna be? You do know he wasn’t the one who did that shit right?” I could feel his eyes on me, begging me to look up. Stubborn though, that’s what I was and even though he wasn’t in that car his daughter was.

“You’re right, he wasn’t, but what about when he did see me the only thing he could say to me was that we were family? Thengive me some weak ass update on Fiona that I didn’t ask for.” Finally, I looked at him.

“So, that’s what you pissed about? His approach to you.”

Within seconds I was shrugging. “I don’t know, bae. I guess part of me wanted for once my father to see his error. To not try to make excuses for her, for him to say how you don’t baby. Or whatever, but again he didn’t say any of that. When he approached me his point was to make sur?—”

“Why not tell him that? A motherfucker won’t know what you’re feeling if you don’t tell them. Shit, I tell you that shit all the time. How the fuck is anybody supposed to read your mind, Empress?”

I didn’t have a rebuttal because he was right. “Fine.”

“Fine like what? Fine like you’re gonna talk to him, or fine li?—”

“Fine like the next time I see him I’ll hear him out, but don’t be on no setting me up shit. It’ll happen in its own time.”