“What do you want, Karen? I’m in a hurry.”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that the boy’s mother has now gone missing.” She pulls out a cigarette, striking a match to light it. “Nice job on your win in court today. Luck always seems to be on your side,” she puffs her cigarette, “but it’s about to run out. I’m coming for you, Nicholas.”
“If you’re coming for me, my luck has definitely gone to shit. That’s not an image I want in my head.” I shudder—for real.
Last week she introduced a proposal to the city that would require mandatory detailed monthly reporting of all inventory and inspections on all dwellings used for storage purposes along the coastline—buildings like my warehouse.
A proposal that would cost the city a fortune to fund and taxes to be increased exponentially. I have enough city council members in my pocket to shut it down, but if the rumors are true, Karen has also been working her way through the ranks.
I’ve been too busy to attend city functions and rub elbows. Where I prefer to use the buddy system to keep people in power in my pocket, Karen has resorted to coercion, threatening to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law ifthey don’t comply. Being the prosecutor, Karen also has dirt on most of the elected officials.
I’m not too worried about her threats to shut me down yet, but I would be stupid to count her completely out. The proposal is heavily weighted in the state’s attempt to reduce the amount of waste that gets dumped into the Gulf.
For all intents and purposes, the warehouse, on paper, is actually rented to Vade for inventory shipping, receiving, and storage purposes due to the close proximity to Diamond Aces Casino.
That’s how we are able to ship and receive our gun shipments without anyone batting an eye. You expect a lot of coming and going from a legally functioning warehouse.
We could always move the gun inventory out when inspection comes around, but not without great hassle. It’s better to just shut the bill down before it’s passed.
“You know, things don’t always have to be so tense between us.” She tucks the matchbook in the front pocket of my suit, “lighten up a little bit will you?” She winks at me.
“Do you have anything useful to say or are you just wasting my time?” She’s been threatening to take me down for years and hasn’t made a move yet.
“Karen! Let’s go! We’re running late!” a man standing next to a blacked-out SUV calls from a short distance away.
I see my chance to get away, so I take it. “Bye Karen.” I get in my car and speed off.
It’s 6:01 when I come pulling into the carport. Maya is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.
“You’re late.” She tries to give me a cold hard stare, but it’s faltering. Glad to see she seems to be in better spirits.
“I’m one fucking minute late!” I grin at her.
“Whether it’s one minute or one hour—late is late. There’s no such thing as an excused tardy around here.” She grins back.
“Is that so?” I step in close to her and wrap one hand around her waist and one hand around the back of her neck. “What can I do to make it up to you?” I say with my lips closing in on hers.
“I can think of a few things,” she reaches up and traces the length of my lips with her tongue, “but right now,” she reaches down and palms my throbbing cock, giving it a squeeze, “I’m so…hungry.”
She lets go and jumps in the passenger seat of my car, leaving me wanting to drag her out of that car and to my bed. But I told her I was taking her out, so that’s what I’m going to do.
“The sunset is beautiful, I’ve never seen it set over the water like that.” She turns to me and smiles before looking back out of the window.
I change in record time, and we are headed to the restaurant, windows down, enjoying the cooler fall temperature. It doesn’t really get cold in Mississippi until later in the winter.
Living on the coast, you tend to take for granted certain things you see all the time. I pull over into one of the emptypublic beach parking lots and run around to open the door for her.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“I want to watch the sunset with you. Come on, we don’t have long before it’s no longer visible.” I want to be the one to capture this moment with her.
She takes my hand and I help her out of the car. We stand at the edge of the water, her back to my front, my arms wrapped around her. She fits perfectly, like she was made just for me.
We stand in silence as the sun gently sinks down into the water, then she turns to face me. “Thank you, for this. Not just for pulling over for the sunset but for everything. I can never repay you for saving me and showing me how incredible life really can be, even when it feels like everything is falling apart.”
“If you ever decide you don’t want your life anymore, never forget that I do. I won’t hesitate to jump in after you, no matter how dangerous the rapids are, I’ll always be there to pull you to safety.” I tighten my arms around her, pulling her in for a kiss. She’s mine and I hope I never give her a reason to doubt that—or herself ever again.
We pull in to Royal Reds. I’ve been raving about how good this place is to her since we left the beach house. She’s never tried seafood before. I order some crab claws as an appetizer and a round of drinks.
