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Nine
Ilook like I have been well fucked by the time we make it to the party. We showered, and I retouched my hair, but the well-loved look I was sporting couldn’t be disguised.
“Glad you two could finally make it,” Josh says, and I swear I turn several shades of red, not that it can be seen.
“And did you get down here on time, or are you getting here right before us?” Jaasiel challenges his brother.
“Touché,” he says, smiling.
“Where is the woman of honor? I see Aryan is here, but not Brooklyn.”
“She went to change clothes and got held up after the ceremony and ended up running late.”
“The food looks wonderful. The staff did an amazing job.”
As they are talking, I wander over to where the food is set up and it smells amazing. Then I see Praise in the kitchen making sure everything is up to her standards. She looks like she got some rest now that the dark circles under her eyes are gone.
“She looks better, doesn’t she?”
I let out a startled squeak, covering my heart with my hand to try to stop it from jumping out of my chest when she spoke. Her name is True, and I remember because she threatened me over her husband.
“You scared the shit out of me!” I say, breathing hard. How did she manage to make no noise like that? I think, turning to look at her further, eyes squinted.
“I sent one of my administrators to run,” she throws up air quotes when she says run, “into her one day when she was leaving the restaurant and offer a place to stay. She was indeed homeless and struggling to get to the shelter that was close to work. She made sure she got to work because that was the only time she would eat or wash up. Being a single woman in some of those shelters is not safe. We didn’t get a chance to tell Jaasiel yet because suddenly we can barely find him.” She says, looking at me.
I look back at her eye to eye, blinking because I’m grown, and so is Jaasiel. “Well, Jaasiel is grown, so I am not sure what you’re trying not to ask me.”
“You got a smart-ass mouth,” she said, face turned up, and I raise my eyebrow back at her because whatever she starts, I can stop. “I like it, you’ll fit right in.” She shakes her head yes as she says it, and I smile for the first time since this conversation started.
“Jaasiel seems extremely happy, and you seem like you make him happy, but the moment you step out of line, you will be on a milk carton, and I mean that as disrespectfully as possible,” she says with a smile.
I squint my eyes at her while a little smile plays on my lips, “You can try, I’m not a damsel in distress or a shrinking violet,” I tell her.
“Oh, I can tell. I did not get to this point in life not being able to recognize things in people. And I know you know how to read people too, so you should know I am not the average person making a threat; when I say it’s a promise, I mean it.”
I take a second and really look at the woman I am talking to but not just that, I also look around at all the people in here and I do not know how I didn’t see it before. But when I look at Jaasiel, I do not see the same thing I see in his brothers. “Oh, I believe you, but it still stands. Bring your A-game because I wouldn’t go out without a fight.”
“Just the type of woman Jaasiel needs in his life. He is so laid back that he needs a strong woman to cuss mother fuckers out! Let me see your gun.”
“And who cusses out people in your marriage, you or Atlas?”
She laughs before saying, “Both of us.”
“Of course. So what are you going to do with Praise?”
“I’m going to keep her,” another voice says, causing me to jump again. How do these women move so silently? This one is Joyce, if I am not mistaken.
“Don’t come over here interrupting! Let. Me. See. Your. Gun!”
“What makes you think I have a gun?”
“Girl, she can smell a gun a mile away. Some women shop, some knit, others crochet, for True it’s guns.”
I reach in my back holster and hand her the Kimber Micro 9mm.
“I knew it! Ooouuu, I like this! I have to show Atlas so he can get me one.” True says, posing with the gun like she’s one of Charlie’s Angels. I look over to Joyce, who is shaking her head.
“Is she serious?”
