Heart-On: Turf Wars #2, Bella Jewel [ebook reader screen txt] 📗

legs, smiling all bright and chipper. “What brings you guys over here?”

“Had to give your boy a hand,” Riggs says, and Adan shoots him a glare that makes my insides cry a little. “He needed to get some shit done and you were sleepin’.”

“It’s not that late, is it?” I ask, glancing down at my phone and then gasping as I realize the time.

I assumed it was early morning, I never sleep past seven. I didn’t check my phone because I didn’t think I had to. It’s eleven am. It’s nearly lunch time.

“Oh my god! Why didn’t you wake me up?” I say, leaping off the counter.

“Because you obviously needed the sleep,” Adan informs me, voice gruff.

“I’m not here to sleep, I’m here to work. I need to change your dressings.”

“Already fuckin’ done.”

I blink. “By who?”

“Me,” Riggs says. “Don’t ever plan on doin’ that again, dealin’ with him was makin’ me wild, but we got there.”

“God,” I say, shaking my head. “I have to check. If you get an infection, it’s on me.”

“You’re not checkin’, I won’t get an infection. Watched you do it a hundred times, we cleaned it and redressed. It’s fine.”

I clench my teeth, everything inside of me wanting to check, but knowing full well Adan won’t let me.

I say nothing and go back to my coffee.

“Put some fuckin’ pants on,” Adan orders.

“Why?” I smile sweetly. “It has zero effect on you, so I’m not sure why it’s troubling you so ...”

I take my coffee and waltz past, putting it down on the table and then “accidentally” dropping my phone and leaning down to grab it.

Beckett whistles again.

Then makes a grunting sound like he just got elbowed.

“Ooops.” I smile over my shoulder, and then take a seat.

“Good luck with that, brother,” Riggs says, slapping Adan on the back. “We got a ride tomorrow, business as discussed. You can go in the truck behind us.”

“Fuck,” Adan growls. “Need to get on that bike more than I need fuckin’ air.”

“Time will come, either way you’re comin’.”

With that, Riggs and Beckett leave.

Adan walks to the table, glaring down at me.

“Good morning to you, too. What ride are we following them for?”

“Business.”

“Right.”

“You drive me, you stay in the car, that’s the end of it for you.”

“Sounds wonderful.”

“Put some fuckin’ clothes on.”

“No thanks.”

We’re interrupted by my phone ringing loudly, the ringtone, the one that makes me cringe from the inside out, filling the large space. It hasn’t rung for a few days, I was hoping that meant they were going to leave me alone, but it would appear they’re not going to give up quite as easily as I’d like.

I feel the color drain from my face as I slam the red button, over and over, long after it’s hung up.

“Who the fuck was that?”

“Nobody,” I say quickly, shoving my phone into my pants. “It was nobody.”

“You just went white as a fuckin’ ghost, it wasn’t nobody.”

“It was,” I snap, standing. “Leave it alone.”

I take my coffee and walk outside, sitting on the chair on the front patio and breathing in the fresh air.

They’re never going to leave me alone.

They know legally they’re not entitled to a damn thing, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to come for what they believe is theirs, legal or not.

My mother is a cold hearted monster. My step-brother is even more so.

He’s the literal demon of my nightmares.

He made my teen years awful. He tormented me and attacked me. He was older, smarter, but that didn’t stop him from destroying me little by little.

My mother, the selfish cow that she is, turned a blind eye.

My stepfather turned to me.

He was kind, and gentle, and made me feel like I mattered for the first time in my life. I was older when they came into our lives, maybe fourteen or fifteen, so I never saw him as a father, just as someone my mother married and someone who actually cared about how I felt.

It wasn’t until I was eighteen that things changed, that those feelings became something much more and stupid me was brainwashed by a man who I knew should know better, and we fell into a very inappropriate relationship that should have never happened. He fell in love with me, and I him. In my eyes, he was my hero. He mended the pieces of me that felt so broken, but, in all reality, he was only digging deeper wounds that couldn’t be healed.

He died when I was twenty, and I thought I’d never go on. I thought for sure my life would be over. The worst part was, I couldn’t tell a soul. Not even Eve. She thought that every tear I cried, was because he was the only person I had who was kind to me. She had no idea how much deeper it went.

Then I got the call that he left everything to me and was very specific about my mother and his son not getting a damned thing.

Then came the threats, the violence and the drama.

So, I ran.

I just got up and ran.

I have never touched that money, but it’s there, like a god damned monster looming over my head. Day in, day out.

They want it, and they’re not going to stop until they get it.

I know that but ignoring them feels like the only power I have right now.

I don’t have to give it to them, but the fear of what they’ll do if I don’t ... scares me.

“Hey,” Adan clicks his fingers, and I jerk, looking to him.

I didn’t realize I was zoning out so badly.

“What?” I mutter.

“What the fuck is goin’ on? You’re clearly thrown by whoever called you then.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “No, I was thinking about something else.”

“Bullshit.”

I stand and smile at him, right up in his face. “I’m none of your concern, Papi. Let’s just leave it be.”

His mouth twitches, but in a very angry way.

I turn and saunter off.

Fuck him.

I have other shit to deal with.

“WHERE EXACTLY ARE WE