Page 14 of His To Obey

“Who Autumn, no. But she might as well be.” I spoke trying not to reveal too much. “Do you have siblings? More McCallum’s I need to fight off to make partner here?” He shook his head laughing.

“Yes, I have siblings. A brother who is an anesthesiologist and a sister who is a nurse. I think your position is secure baby girl.” I cleared my throat and crossed my legs at the ankles. Thank God I was leaning on this desk, or his words and sexy ass tone would have made me stumble.

“Nice.” The room grew silent. I didn’t know what else to say. Holding conversation was new for me. It was always business with me. This, this was playful and getting to know you stuff. Shit I for damn sure have never done.

“So, tell me about Ms. Blythe. Do you have siblings? Big brothers? Little sisters?” My eyes bugged and my body stiffened at his question and mentioning of a big brother. My chest felt tight and my thoughts betrayed me. I tried not to think of my brother. I buried my thoughts of him deep but the mention of him brought him right to the surface. My mind drifted to a dark place and like any other time I thought of him it enraged me.

“I’m sorry Blythe, I should have protected you.”

“It’s okay Brayden, I don’t hate you. Just please don’t do this.”

“I have to.”

“Blythe, Blythe. You good.” Pharaoh reached over and touched my shoulder. I jumped up from the desk and accidentally forced the wheels of the chair to move into the wall. It made a loud thud on impact.

“Get out!” I stared him in the face and pointed to the door.

“Nah, what the fuck. You good?” He asked standing and walking towards me. I backed up to avoid him touching me.

“Just get the fuck out.” Closing my eyes I continued to point, I was panting and damn near ready to hyperventilate. Shuffling could be heard in the room before his footsteps sounded and got further and further away. The door closed gently and I broke down in tears.

I tried for so long not to think about my brother and the decisions he made but truthfully, I thought about him a lot. I thought of everything and everyone in my past. Life was so fucked up for me for so many reasons. My childhood created my cold heart. I am sure I looked like an idiot in front of Pharaoh. He probably thought I was crazy for spazzing, but he made me feel without even realizing it. No one asked about my life, no one cared. He seemed interested, like he wanted to know me. This was all too much.

I gathered my things and raced out of the door. I needed air fast. I felt like the walls and my past was closing in on me and I wasn’t strong enough to deal with it. Slipping off my heels, I took the stairs. I didn’t have time to wait for the elevator. I didn’t want to risk running into anyone or worse him. I didn’t want to be pitied; I just wanted to be alone for a minute to gain my composure.

My phone blaring on my stand pulled me out of my thoughts. My brother’s words were on repeat in my mind. His eyes watching me, not saying a word just watching, with pools of tears in the corners. Flashbacks played in my head on repeat, and I allowed myself to fall into the memories.

My body was covered in sweat and my shoulder and arm felt like I was training for the men’s weightlifting competition.

“Please!” The man strapped to my X cross begged. I couldn’t tell you what he was pleading for or how long he had been begging. I blacked out and took my anger out on his body.

I received a message on my Dom phone from the Senator’s son when I rushed out of my office to get home. Anger fueled my mind and I accepted the request to strap his ass to anything and torture him like he was a bad boy. I needed to gain my control back from the thoughts of all the terrible men in my life. Taking it out on him, I chained him to the X and whipped him until I blacked out. My phone rang again and I dropped the whip and made my way to it.

“Yea?” I all but yelled once I swiped the screen to answer.

“Umm, hey. You okay? You been swinging for like twenty minutes now.” Autumn tenderly spoke in the receiver. I shook my head no, knowing she could see me on the camera. I didn’t want to speak the words. I know saying it out loud would cause my tears to fall. “I’m on my way.” I hung up and made my way back to the light skinned figure strapped down laying still as if he was seconds from death.

I didn’t have sympathy for him. He was among the men that I hated. His father was helping him cover up rape allegations. The rumors were that he lured in a sixteen-year-old girl and when she got scared and said how old she was he took it. She’s pregnant now and hiding out. They wanted to get rid of the baby before the truth came out and he got charged. They tried to pay her off, but she was refusing and I didn’t blame her. She deserved justice. The marks on his body were me getting revenge for every young girl that wanted justice and couldn’t get it because muthafuckas like him with daddies’ money.

Unstrapping him, I let his body fall to the floor. I looked at him in disgust with tears, slobber and snot covering his face.

“Get the fuck out. And you have one week to make shit right or everything we did here gets leaked to the news.” I seethed before walking towards the door. I didn’t even give a fuck that he didn’t crawl out. He ran out naked with his clothes clutched tightly in his hands.

I sent a message to the clean-up crew and went up to my place to shower.

“You wanna talk about it?” Autumn sat next to me on my balcony. She showed up 45 minutes later, she knew when I needed her and she always came running. We opted to skip alcohol tonight because she knew I would have gotten drunk and cried. So, we passed a blunt back and forth and vibed to music.

“Not really.” I spoke back. I was tired of my past and wanted to rid myself of the thoughts and fears.

“Okay, you know I got you no matter what.” I looked over and caught the gaze she was giving me.

She was truly my world, and I appreciated her always holding me down. I reached out my pinky, and she interlocked hers before we pressed our thumbs together. This was something we started years ago. She knew I hated physical touch, but she loved it. This was our compromise. It symbolized our loyalty to each other always with a pinky promise.

“This is my song.” She stood to her feet and swayed to the beat as Jhene Aiko sang about how creative the man was making love to her body, but she didn’t want his heart she just wanted to fuck. We were both so obsessed with her sultry voice. I often listened to her to keep my mind in a mellow place.

I watched Autumn throw her hands in the air and dance like she didn’t have a care in the world. Slow rocking and caressing her body. I knew she was feeling the blunt we smoked because she always turned into a midnight ballerina when she was feeling good. I couldn’t help but watch her in admiration. She embodied the person I wish I could be. Carefree, but I couldn’t I was trapped by the demons of my past and they had my ass in the chokehold.

“Dance with me B.” She made her way over to me just as ‘While We’re Young’ played through the speaker I had set up on my balcony, another classic by Jhene.