“AJ did that?” He points toward my face. “That was him in the background when I called? You went to see him?”
Arnez slides her hand down to mine and curls her fingers around it, forcing a cocoon around his keys.
His chest rises and falls in slow, succinct motions. “You ain’t leave our house looking like that this morning. You…you looked…”
“I told you I can clean her up, Pup. You just need to come in the house with us,” Arnez cuts in.
Her tone is delicate, although the words attached to it are heavy.
“Where is he, Lovie?” he asks.
I pull out of Arnez’s hold and push my sore body against his, but his limp arms stay at his side.
I press my face against his chest and inhale him. “It doesn’t matter where he is.”
“Look at your face, though,” he whispers.
He pulls me from his chest and rakes his fingers down my swollen cheeks with wide, coal-black eyes. There’s more of that dark feeling in my stomach than there is light right now, and I feel the heat emanating from his body.
“Look at your face…” His hand slides down to mine, and he tugs his keys from my grip.
“You don’t need to go and do anything,” I reply.
“Look at her face, Nez,” he mutters hoarsely.
“I see her, Pup. I see. I told you I can clean her up and I’ll put her in the bed. I’ll even stay and cook?—”
“Somebody needs to tell me where the fuck he is,” he chokes out. “How did this happen, Lovie? I want an answer before my head blows the fuck up.”
He tries to push past us, but I hold my arm out, bracing it against his hard stomach.
“I’ll go to every hotel in this city.”
“Wait. Look…look,” I stutter, reaching into my purse and grabbing the Morgan Stanley folder.
I yank it open, pulling the envelope from inside and letting the folder fall next to his shattered glass.
I pull two of the checks from the envelope and flash them in front of his dark eyes. “Look!”
He nudges my hand out of the way and takes another step forward, but I curl my fingers into the fabric of his shirt and Arnez grabs him from behind.
“Look at me, Rich!” I bellow out desperately. “Look at me, baby!”
His dark eyes flicker down toward me.
“I took care of it,” I gasp.
His eyebrows furrow and his mouth turns down.
“It’s over.” I let go of his shirt, placing my hand over his heart, then flashing the checks with Melo Barnes’ name printed on them in front of his face again. “It’s all here. Two million dollars to take care of our problem and a million for us.”
He blinks. “What?”
I reach into the envelope and pull the check out with his name on it. “I took care of us. I…I took care of you. I made him pay. I made AJ pay.”
He closes his eyes, shaking his head.
“He could’ve killed you.” His deep voice breaks.
