Page 24 of Next Level
Fuck me, I glance over, and Christ Almighty, she’s smiling at me.
“Cool, my real name is Jane Blossom Jones,” she says, with her big-ass smile.
“Blossom?” I question.
She giggles. “Yeah, my parents are hippie motherfuckers. I went by JJ most of my life, but when I started tattooing, I became Cherry. Get it, Cherry Blossom. It’s why I have them tattooed all over my body.”
“I like cherry blossoms,” I say, looking straight ahead.
If only she knew how much I like them.
I glimpse over at her again, but damn, I can’t do it for long. This bitch has to have some voodoo powers. I really need to keep my eyes on the road.
I don’t trust myself if I keep glancing over at her.
“Okay, we’ve got the introductions out of the way. Let’s focus on my dirtbag of a brother.” She pauses. “Adopted brother, that is.”
Clenching the steering wheel, I ask, “What do you know so far? Did Sunshine fill you in? Once I know what you know, we can hopefully fill in the blanks.”
I can see her in my peripheral vision, tilting her head like she’s trying to figure me out. “Well, I know what you put out on social media.” I want to look over at her, but I don’t. Instead, I stay quiet, letting her continue. “I saw all your videos, so anything else you have, let me know.”
For the next hour, we chat back and forth about the facts and what she knows, as well as what I know. Luckily, she knows a lot about her adopted brother. She corrects me every time I call him her brother. She definitely doesn’t like him.
Cherry tells me he was a troubled kid and always has been. He made her life hell. He’s older, and when her parents got pregnant with her, I guess he rebelled, thinking they wouldn’t love him as much with them having their own child now.
We talk about their upbringing. I feel the attraction beginning to build between us. Our banter back and forth is relaxing and electrifying at the same time. We discuss what we’re going to do once we get there. Cherry even planned a wayfor us to check if anyone was at the cabin without alerting them. Thank God she knows the area well since the cabin is secluded on a lake, making it the perfect spot to hide out.
We both don’t understand why Sam is involved or why he took her. Cherry thinks maybe he’s back on drugs but doesn’t know for sure since she hasn’t spoken to him in over a year. We are relatively sure that Jared is his biological brother. It’s the only real link as to why Sam is there.
I gave Cherry my folder and notes for her to review. She’s been reading through them and reviewing photos and stuff for a while. I’m just focused on driving, giving her time to process everything I’ve recovered so far.
“Thank you for helping me,” I say, still staring straight ahead.
“You’re welcome.” She pauses. “Sunshine shared your video on social media, and as soon as I saw it, I knew right away I had to help. I’m sorry it took me so long to see it. I was at a tattoo convention, so I wasn’t online much.” She sounds apologetic.
“I’m just glad you’re here now,” I reply, giving her a side glance, smiling.
That hair. Fuck me.
I’m itching to touch her. She’s sitting back with all my papers in her lap, resembling a fucking goddess.
“Me too. We’re going to get Samantha back. I promise,” she says, sounding confident.
My heart constricts hearing her so devoted to my kid that she doesn’t even know.
My phone rings, sounding throughout the cab. Seeing it’s Dawg, I answer, and it goes straight to the speaker.
“Wadsup?” I answer
“You two good? Where are you?” he asks.
“Yup. Making good time. We’re over halfway there.”
Sunshine’s voice comes through the speakers next. “Cherry, you good girl?”
“Yes, I’m good. Nothing to worry about. Level has been nice.”
I look over at Cherry with questioning eyes. Like what the fuck.Nice?Like I would be mean to her. And I don’t really know how I feel about her calling me Level compared to Ray. I think I like Ray better coming from her voluptuous lips.
