Page 100 of Tangled Hearts
“Westside, Jade City, that’s the block that made me. Raised on cracked sidewalks, hunger tried to break me. Still stand tall,can’t no system ever cage me. Rap what I live—this the life that paid me.”
When Cash’s verse ended, he pointed at her from the stage, and she flipped the camera to herself, laughing. “Y’all see me? I’m with the hottest rapper from Jade City,” she teased, voice dripping with pride.
Minutes later, he was offstage, sweaty, and amped up, pulling her straight into his arms. His hands were everywhere. One hand on her waist, the other sliding down her thigh, anchoring her against him like she belonged there. The DJ switched to a twerk anthem, and Noir didn’t hesitate. She turned and dropped it low. Ass bouncing against him while the crowd went wild around them.
Cash grinned, steadying her with both hands, leaning down to murmur in her ear, “Goddamn, you look good as hell, pretty girl.”
Noir laughed, throwing it back harder just to test him. “I know.”
Everything around them was reckless and loud… just two people giving in to the night. This was something worth holding on to. Too often, love in their world was about claiming and controlling, about who had the upper hand. Here, in the sweat and bass, it was about release. About being seen, wanted, hyped up in public without shame.
Because that was the lesson love kept teaching her. When a man put his hands on you in pride and not possession, that meant something.
Tangled hearts weren’t always about pain.
Sometimes they were about the joy you let yourself taste in stolen moments. The trick was learning the difference, knowing when to hold onto it and when to let it pass without chaining yourself to it.
Noir laughed when Cash humped her playfully, snaking his tongue in her ear.
For a moment, it was nothing but music and the electric pull between them. Until a hand gripped her arm.
She turned around fast, eyes flashing with shock before transforming into anger. “Get the fuck off me,” Noir snapped, jerking her arm back.
Christian’s jaw pulsed. His eyes were locked on her with a kind of love that always came out looking like war. “You really in here, dancing on this fuck nigga? That’s what we doing now?”
“Don’t do this here, Christian,” Noir said, looking around knowing cameras were already on them. It was reckless of her to think Christian wouldn’t see it but that’s what a scorned heart did. Made you reckless in a city whose king you had been running from. “You blowing my phone up all night, and now you want to embarrass me in public? I ain’t with that shit.”
Cash stepped up. His demeanor was calm but unflinching, his security was already moving into position. His hand stayed at the small of Noir’s back. “She with me tonight, nigga. Respect that.”
Christian’s crew spread through the crowd, eyes mean, hands twitching like they were ready to turn the club inside out.
Christian didn’t back down, though.
His love for Noir ran too deep to swallow. “Nah, you don’t get it. This my girl. I don’t give a fuck what tonight is.”
Noir rolled her eyes crossing her arms. “Your girl? When you out here making me compete with every bitch in the city? Nigga please… don’t claim me now.”
The sting of her words hit him, but Christian’s voice softened in a way only she could pull out of him. “You know I love you. Don’t play with me like this.”
Cash didn’t flinch. “Love don’t look like pulling her out a club, nigga. You love her? Let her choose. Don’t force no shit on her.”
Security shifted closer, but Cash’s tone stayed even like a man who wasn’t afraid of anything. He wasn’t. He was from the same streets, carried the same scars. The difference was, he played it cool.
Christian smirked bitterly. “You think ‘cause you got a chain and a couple records you can take my place? You can’t. I’m in her muthafuckin’ soul, lil boy.”
Noir stood between them, her voice cutting through the tension. “Y’all sound stupid. Both of you. One of y’all tryna own me, the other tryna save me like I need rescuing. I’m my own person. And right now? I’m choosing me.”
Christian reached for her arm again and that was it.
Cash moved fast, pushing Christian back so hard he stumbled into one of his shooters. The crowd screamed as bottles tipped and chairs scraped.
Christian swung back fast, catching Cash in the jaw.
Security rushed in, trying to wedge themselves between them, but fists were already flying. Cash got Christian in the ribs before Christian grabbed his shirt, dragging him into another punch.
Noir shouted over the music, shoving at anybody who came too close. “Stop! Both of y’all, stop this shit!”
But neither man heard her.
