Page 64 of Breaking the Rules
“Don’t let these niggas fill your head up with dreams. They’re not going to look out for you like I do.”
“That’s where you got me wrong. Where you’ve always gotten me wrong. No one can look out for me or love me better than me. And then everything else follows. Take care of yourself, Zay.”
She ended the call and swiped the tears from her face. “All this crying.”
“You paid my sister’s retainer?” Noble’s voice rumbled her core.
Snapping her head in his direction, she tucked her lip between her teeth. “Yeah, my brother asked me to.”
“You knew she was my sister before you did?”
Savanhi shook her head no.
“So all the money you had to do whatever with, you used it to take care of her.”
She nodded.
“Shit,” Noble blew and clenched his jaw.
Savanhi weakly asked. “What?”
“If I tell you right now, you pull back from me. Get dressed, I’m taking you to breakfast.”
“Say please.”
“Sassy, please.”
She smiled faintly, watching him turn away and roam to the room. The scratches from their throes of passion were evident on his back. “Okay.”
Downtown Los Oceania, Savanhi and Noble walked hand in hand.
“Thank you for breakfast and not bringing up that call,” Savanhi hummed.
“I wouldn’t. You with tears on your face, I cannot take that shit,” he replied. “But I get it. Your brother might be a little misguided, but I understand his worry. He’s been your protector all your life, and not being able to do it is probably driving him crazy. I know it gets to me. I look at Areli and I try to figure out what I could’ve done differently to have her mother here withher. And then I hear y’all somewhere in the house giggling. And I know she’s going to be okay. I thank you for that.”
“It’s the least I can do. Honestly, I lost one protector and found another. I’m learning to accept the help and love from others.”
“If we were supposed to be in this world alone, we would all have our own. I know you want your independence. You’re going to have that,” Noble stated.
Savanhi released a dry laugh, purposely biting her tongue. For days, she’d been convincing herself that being kept would fare well with her. The truth was it wouldn’t. Not in this life or the next.
Noble stopped in front of an empty building and furrowed his brows. “What was that?”
She bounced her shoulders. “I’ve been trying to tell myself I’ll be okay with being kept. And since we are in this thing, I have to be honest with both of us. I can’t do it. I adore Areli, but I need to be able to have my own and not just what her uncle gives me.”
Noble hummed and nodded. “Aight, so tell me. What do you want?”
“I need to figure out how to get my own studio,” she stated. “The only way I can stack money that fast is-”
“Don’t even,” he warned, turning his back to open the door.
Savanhi followed him into the empty building. “Deuce, I just want something of my own.”
He hit the light switch and turned to face her. “Is this big enough?”
“Yeah, but what’s the cost of this? I can’t aff-”
“This is yours. Because I interrupted your life. I took you as my own. And I know you will do everything within your realm of integrity to fight for yourself. So this, is yours.”
