Carson, Ashton, and Kyrie spotted the assaulter before Jahlil did. But he could tell by the way her body tensed that there was an immediate threat to the peace he’d been wrapping her in. When he looked to the entrance, Ashton was shoving Tyriq Styles backward.
“Get your ass out of here, nigga,” Ashton boomed. “Before we forget who the fuck we are and rock your ass.”
Jahlil motioned to the security he hired permanently for Emani. “Get them to the car.”
There was no stalling in how fast security escorted Emani and Donnée to the Sprinter out back. Jahlil stood in front of his boys and looked over Tyriq. The mere thought of what Emani endured at his hands caused his nostrils to flare. He remembered that there was cameras trained on him so what he wanted to do to Tyriq would have to take a back seat.
“Listen, no disrespect. I just wanted to tell her congratulations. She proved me wrong. She can make it without me,” Tyriq spoke.
“Ay, man. Take your ass back to Lavendale before I got to show you-”
“Show me what, nigga? You play with balls,” Tyriq snipped.
Ashton’s snipe didn’t help. “Yours are about to be next.”
“That little pussy got you about to lose your shit. I know, nigga. Just tell my girl I said con-”
Tyriq couldn’t get the rest of his dumbass comment out of his mouth before Jahlil punched him in it seven times. Tyriq stumbled backward, dizzied by Jahlil’s powerful blows.
“What you want me to tell her again?” he challenged, watching as the men Tyriq was with didn’t even bother helping him stay upright. “I say you get your ass on the first fuckin’ thing smoking to Lavendale before I forget that me and my lady made a deal to be better versions of ourselves. It’s nothing to pull up where you want and send you back to your mother in pieces. Fuck outta here, nigga.”
Jahlil stepped over him and roamed out of the club. The group behind him kicking him in the process on their way out. The ride home was quiet. They were supposed to be drunk, celebrating the new year and enjoying what the new year looked like for them. Instead, there was a silence that could be sliced with a knife. When the sprinter arrived to the house, Emani was the first off and into the house.
“You want us to go?” Donnée asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, stay. I’ll have her down in a few.”
With that, he started off in the house behind her, finding her on the balcony of their room with her arms wrapped around herself.
“I’m not reverting,” she stated, sensing him. “I’m reflecting.”
“Aight,” Jahlil hummed, leaning on the door and allowing her space for a moment.
“I’m on the mountaintop looking over everything that’s happened to me. Things I allowed to happen to me. And I feel vindicated. A year and a half ago, seeing Tyriq would’ve shaken me to the core and there would have been no protection or reprieve. It would’ve just been me looking in his face remembering every hit, every degrade, every embarrassment. Feeling scared. Alone. Humiliated. I didn’t feel any of that tonight. I won’t feel any of it tomorrow. I won. I’m winning. I have a family who loves me. A man who will throw himself on the sword for me every single time and not think twice. I won’t ruin this victory by looking down the mountain.”
“You know I’ll forever protect you.”
She smiled softly before turning around. “I know. And I don’t ever want you to think that I don’t feel it or I don’t see it or I don’t know that you love me with every part of your being because I love you with mine. You want to know what I thought about the whole way home?”
“Tell me,” Jahlil urged, stepped toward her. “I’d give all my money to know what goes on in that beautiful mind when you go silent.”
“Come close so I can tell you,” she hummed, taking in a breath when he boxed her in.
He craned his neck so his forehead could press against hers. “Let me hear it.”
Emani’s hands roamed over his chest and shoulders. “The first thing was that my man loves me a whole lot because he makes sure when he has to regulate, I’m nowhere near it. A protector. He gives me space – a safe space to process my emotions. A provider. He jumps at the opportunity to be there.”
Emani pulled his hand off of the banister and placed it on her flat stomach. “A father. I’ve been holding on to this since your game in Pine Haven.”
“You’re pregnant?”
“I am indeed carrying your seed,” she hummed. “You made a home out of me.”
Jahlil closed his eyes and hummed as he hugged her.
“You’re my home, Jahlil, and not even the horror I faced with those nameless men will ever change that. Nothing will ever undo what you’ve given me. I’ve wanted a home my entire life and I have it.”
Jahlil sniffled into her hair. “I’m so fuckin’ happy, E.”
