A light knock sounded on my office door, and then a key slid into the lock. I leaned back in my chair, linking my fingers together over my midsection with my elbows braced on the arms of the chair as I watched Aaliyah open the door.
I could’ve cried the day she finally walked on her own. And I wasn’t an emotional man. But fuck, after watching her struggle for months, I’d been slowly losing hope, though I would’ve never told her that.
But she did. She defeated the odds stacked against her.
Red was a hell of a woman.
Weeks of physical therapy had helped her gain her strength back and full mobility of her body. She’d taken to working out every day to rebuild her muscles. I couldn’t lie and say I wouldn’t miss the extra softness she’d gained while she was recovering, but if she was happy working out, I wouldn’t stop her.
Her happiness was all that mattered at the end of the day.
Red was dressed in a pair of black slacks that hugged her curvy ass and hips, and a plain black blouse completed the outfit. Her red hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and I wanted to do nothing more than bend her over my desk and pull at that bun as I rammed my cock into her until those red tresses spilled down her back and shoulders again.
Fucking hated it when she tied them up. Theonlyplus was that her freckles were more prominent when she had her hair tied back.
She arched a brow at me. “You ready?”
I grunted and looked at my watch, muttering a curse. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I rumbled, standing from my chair. Gripping her chin in my hand, I slid my lips across hers.
She rolled her eyes at me when I released her. “Don’t seem so excited, Johnston,” she teased, a small smile tilting both sides of her lips. That was another thing I’d missed like fucking crazy—seeing her entire face change with her smiles.
Today, Wendy would be having her trial, and I wanted to be there to see her get sentenced to prison. And I wanted Aaliyah to have that closure, too. She’d almost lost her life because of my crazy-ass wife, who had no qualms about cheating on me but lost her fucking mind when I did the same.
Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but fucking hell. If I lost Aaliyah that day, someone would have had to put a bullet through my skull. I would have lost my shit oneveryone.
“Just want her behind bars, Red.”
Aaliyah slid her hands under my cut and along my sides, looking up at me through those stunning blue eyes I loved so goddamn much. I’d never get tired of staring into them. “And she will be. I almost bled out on that lot out there. There’s no way she’s getting out of this, and that judge will laugh in her face if she tries to plead insanity.”
I grinned down at my spitfire of an old lady. “Baby, I paid that judge to make sure she doesn’t get off easy. Pleading insanity is the last thing you have to worry about her being able to do.”
Having people in positions of high power in your pocket paid off.
She hummed low in her throat and leaned up on her tiptoes. I quickly grasped her hips since her balance could still sometimes be shaky, and I didn’t want her falling. “I’ll properly thank you for that later.” She teased her lips along mine.
I growled, sliding one hand around to palm her thick ass. She softly giggled, pushing herself closer to me. “We don’t have to go to the hearing, Red.” Fuck, when she made promises like that, I didn’t give a damn about anything else.
She giggled again and slipped out of my reach. I narrowed my eyes at her. She was such a fucking tease.
But I loved her. I loved her with every fiber of my being. Every bit of my soul belonged to her.
“Yes, we do. Now let’s get going before we’re late.”
With that, she strode up the hall, and I sighed, scrubbing my hand down my face.
Aaliyah had me wrapped around her finger, and she didn’t even fucking realize it. The depth of my love and feelings for her was unmatched by anything else in this world.
Aaliyah held my hand in hers. We were sitting in the very back, the club standing along the wall. Aaliyah was the only one that had dressed up for the occasion. The rest of us were wearing our normal attire of dusty, scuffed-up boots, worn jeans, t-shirts, and our leather cuts. We didn’t have a goddamn thing to hide, and we wanted everyone to know it.
And I wanted everyone to know and understand who the fuck was standing behind Aaliyah if theyeverdecided they wanted to fuck with her.
I didn’t want to give Wendy the satisfaction of us dressing up. I believed the only reason Aaliyah did was because she wanted Wendy to see she was alive and well despite taking a bullet to the gut and almost losing her life not once, but twice.
Red’s ex was already dead—died in a random food fight gone horribly wrong. And I could make anyone else disappear just as easily as I had him.
You didn’t touch what was mine and live to tell the tale.