Valerie crossed her arms over her chest, the tops of her breasts popping out of the tank, and I knew in an instant how she’d bewitched my brother. And it wasn’t only her booming body. Magnum liked an attitude, an edge, and this woman had enough for the entire neighborhood, maybe all of Florida.
“Blake isn’t here,” she said defiantly.
“Valerie, listen,” Tulya interrupted, taking a risk I wouldn’t have. Yet she was Tulya, her tone gentle despite being verbally attacked earlier. “We don’t have to see Blake…today…but we do need to talk with you. Could we do that?”
“Talk,” Valerie demanded, her painted red lips forming a pout.
“It would be best to do it without all your neighbors listening in and watching,” Tulya added.
“We will be quick,” I bargained. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what I hoped to accomplish. Clearly, this woman was not going to enter into any agreement with us, and I didn’t even know if my brother was entirely on board with…anything, quite frankly.
“Five minutes,” she said to me, refusing to look in Tulya’s direction.
She turned and walked through the same door we’d entered yesterday; I held it for Tulya, my free hand grazing her lower back as she entered.
As soon as we were inside, Valerie turned and shrieked, “You had no right to come here.”
Recognizing we weren’t making it into the kitchen again, I spoke in the small foyer. “You might have been right if Blakedidn’t exist, but now we know she does. And we have every right to be here.”
“Whatever you want to say, say it.”
Tulya started to respond. “We don’t want to overstep, but—”
Valerie turned to Tulya and cut her off. “Not from you. I know you’re here to assert some sort of dominance or voodoo on me, and you won’t be doing any of that.”
“She is not here to do any voodoo, as you call it.” I defended Tulya, thinking it wasn’t a lie in the actual moment. “Valerie, Blake is part of our community.” I treaded carefully, not knowing how much she knew.
“Oh, I know all about your world, Donovan. If you couldn’t put two and two together, I’ve been with Mag for a long time. We have a freaking baby, a kid now, and he wants me to come with him to your Rubian paradise. I know all about what you can do to others and what she can do, and it is not going down,” she said, glaring at Tulya. “I’ll tell you this—I’m well aware of what my daughter can do. And you must be naïve if you think I would risk anything happening to her.”
“She belongs in Rubia, and you don’t.” I couldn’t help myself. I felt my fists and teeth clench.
“Get out,” Valerie said while stomping to the door.
Tulya tried to smooth things over. “What he means is…we’ve never had a human in Rubia, not even to visit.”
“Go, and don’t come back. Magnum is the only one I will speak to about his daughter.”
“I hate to break this to you, but Magnum is my younger brother, and it’s thanks to our family’s business that he can afford to come back and forth to see you. So I will be back with him.”
I thought I’d gotten in the last word, but the woman my brother had fallen for bested me when she added, “Then I wouldchat with your mother and make sure she knows Magnum is with me and not the woman she picked.”
The door slammed behind us as soon as we stepped out, and I practically ran to the car. Inside the vehicle, I slammed my hand into the wheel before pulling out of the spot. About two minutes into my ride, I turned to tell Tulya she was right, we shouldn’t have gone, and realized she wasn’t there.
Fuck, I left without her.
Stopping in my tracks, I did a quick U-turn and drove back to find a very agitated woman standing on the sidewalk, arms crossed, toe tapping.
I didn’t care that I jammed the car into park and jumped out; it was a rental.
“I’m sorry, there’s no excuse. I’m an ass,” I rambled.
“I’m only happy you didn’t run me over.”
“Fudge.” I almost swore again, this time to Tulya. “I’m an ass, like I said. I was so mad.” I put my arm around her and guided her to the passenger side. “Here you go,” I said, opening the car. She slid into the seat, and I gently closed the door.
I ran around the front and jumped in. I didn’t shift into drive, rather turned and looked at the woman next to me. She was sitting there giggling.
“What? You thought this was funny?”
