SWNOVELS Bright Like Midnight: Chapter 2
skin itched, too tight on my body. I needed to relax. Find a release. Let go. But these fucking parties my brother threw weren’t the place for that.
I was working. Watching the crowd. Monitoring Reno’s people. Ensuring everyone knew whose territory they were being given the privilege of occupying.
The fact that I was working for Reno, my big brother who’d barely gotten himself through high school, only made my skin tighter. If our uncle hadn’t had a heart attack, a come to Jesus moment, retired, and passed the baton to Reno, he’d still be pissing away his time, selling weed to his friends.
Giving Reno even a modicum of power had been a mistake. He had no idea how to run a business, legal or otherwise. The only reason he was able to maintain his power was through my near-constant intercession and his own brutality.
Not that I wasn’t brutal in my own right. I just used my brains a hell of a lot more than Reno ever had.
I have stat homework due Monday I would much rather be using my brains to finish.
Vanessa fell into me, wobbling on her heels from too many shots of tequila mixed with a few lines of blow. She should’ve been an expert at walking while out of her mind since she was rarely sober.
“Hey, baby,” she cooed. “You’re so grumpy. Why don’t you smile?”
I took a handful of her ass, holding her upright. At least she felt good pressed against me. That was something.
“Why don’t you go to bed?” I countered.
“Are you coming with me?”
I let myself look at her for a beat. Bronze skin, fat ass, big, natural tits, plump lips—Vanessa had all the ingredients I needed to get me hard and get me off. And she had, more times than I would bother trying to count.
Getting off was a necessity, but my hand was more interesting than Vanessa at this point. She relied on her attributes to entice, then she lay there with her legs open or her lips parted, acting like a human receptacle.
A dead lay was a dead lay, no matter how hot she was.
“Not tonight. I’m working.”
“Awww,” she whispered against my neck. “That’s too bad. I miss you, baby.”
My hackles rose at those words. I’d had enough of this.
“You were in Marco’s bed last night, Van. I think you’re doing just fine.” Gripping her waist, I unlatched her from me and shoved her a foot away. “You need to walk away. I’m not interested. There’s plenty of willing dick for you to ride, it’s just not gonna be mine.”
She gasped like she was surprised I’d speak to her that way, but this was the only way I’d ever spoken to her. She wasn’t my woman. Van spread her legs for any of my brother’s crew. She was easy in every way, but telling me she missed me? No. That wasn’t me. It never would be.
In the dim warehouse light, Vanessa’s angry flush glowed red, but she kept her puffy lips shut. This girl had been around men like me long enough to know how to behave. She could go be pissy with her friends, but not to me. Her opinions and feelings weren’t welcome here.
“Fine. Be a dick. But don’t come begging for me when I’m gone, Amir. ’Cause you will miss me, and the only way I’ll come back is if you beg.” She swiveled, almost falling on her ass, and marched away in a crooked line, staggering into a few people before the crowd swallowed her up and she disappeared.
Beg. Jesus, that was a joke. There was no woman alive I’d beg to have.
A smack on the back of my head brought me out of my stupor. Before I had the chance to react, Julien plopped down on the beat-up coffee table in front of me, cackling.
“Yo, dude, are you in la-la land or some shit?” He covered his mouth, but there was no disguising the fucker was laughing at me.
“Something like that.” I raised a brow at the one friend I’d maintained since childhood, Julien Grey. “It’s peaceful in la-la land. Must be because you’re not there.”
He flipped me off, but his wide grin didn’t dim even a fraction. A long time ago, his mom said he left the womb smiling, and I believed it. He didn’t have the kind of life that brooked his sunny disposition, but he held tight to his innate goodness, and in this world, that was saying something. I’d kept him out of Reno’s crew and would die before I let him join. Being on the periphery was bad enough.
“Unfortunately, I’m gonna be the bearer of bad news. That little fuck Schiffer’s here and he’s unloading product.”
I sat up straight, scanning the crowd.
“Molly?” I asked.
Julien shook his head. “Nah. Marco bought from him to check his inventory. It looks like he’s got all scripts. Percs, Oxy, some Addies. From what Marco saw, Schiffer’s cleaning up. The crowd is liking what he’s supplying.”
I rubbed my chin, attempting to maintain a level head even as my blood boiled. This kid knew better. He really did. That was why he’d been staying out of my eyesight. You didn’t walk into Reno’s party and sell your own product. That wasn’t how it worked. Schiffer was small time, no real competition for Reno, but it was the principle and the fact that we’d caught him at this game more than once. Obviously, the lesson hadn’t been drilled into his head hard enough.
“Bring him to the back.” I nodded toward the courtyard behind the warehouse. Surrounded on three sides by brick walls with barbed wire on top, it would give us solid privacy. We didn’t have any neighbors, so it was ideal for the kind of talk we’d be having.
“He came with a girl,” Julien said.
I rotated my head on my neck, stretching it out, getting the blood flowing. “Bring them both.”
I was already outside, waiting for them, when Marco and Julien shoved Elliott Schiffer into the courtyard so hard, he went down on his knees. They followed him out, a short girl walking calmly between them.
If she’d been struggling, yelling, cussing, spitting, I wouldn’t have given her a glance until I’d dealt with Schiffer or needed to use her to deal with Schiffer. It was the lack of dramatics that brought my attention to her. Something sharp plunged into my gut when I met big blue eyes under the midnight sky.
Zadie Night.
“What the fuck’re you doing here, little mama?” My fists went to my hips as I helped myself to a slow, up-close perusal of her for the first time in months. I couldn’t find any pleasure at the sight of her, not with how we left things and her appearance here with Elliott Schiffer.
“Don’t touch her!” Schiffer climbed to his feet, whipping his attention back and forth between me and Zadie. Marco and Julien barely had their hands on her shoulders. They weren’t hurting her. She was standing like a docile little doll between them, her gaze burning into me.
“Did I tell you you could stand?” I walked forward, fisted the top of Schiffer’s hair, and swept his feet from under him. He landed on his knees with a crack, gritting his teeth to keep from crying out.
He glared at me, eyes wild and face flushed. “What do you want from me? I didn’t do anything.”
I kept my hand in his hair and yanked his head back. “Do you know who I am?”
His mouth ticced. “Everyone knows you’re Reno’s brother.”
“Amir,” I spit out. “I’m Amir. That’s Marco and Julien. I have to tell you, we take personal offense on behalf of Reno that you thought it was okay to come into his territory and spit in his face. The disrespect, Schiffer. The audacity to sell your product right under his nose. Do you think Reno’s a little bitch?”
Zadie gasped, and the pure sweetness in the sound was almost enough to distract me. Almost. If I hadn’t been on the very edge of losing my mind and ripping her apart at her pretty little seams, it would have.
“No, of course not. Reno doesn’t sell what I do, and I’m small. My supply is minuscule compared to Reno—”
I jerked his head hard, bending so we were almost nose to nose. “What the fuck do you know about Reno’s supply?”
Schiffer’s shit-brown eyes bulged. “Nothing, nothing. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I was being stupid. I’m so stupid. This won’t happen again. It won’t.”
“No, it won’t.” Taking my hand from his hair, I shoved his chest. He skidded on his ass across the brick ground. “Convince me it won’t happen again. I need you to assure me.”
His face had gone purple. Sweat dripped down his temples. His shaking hands reached into his pockets, yanking out folded bills and two baggies filled with pills. Knowing how small time he was, they were most likely stolen from his rich friends’ mommies’ medicine cabinets.
“Keep it.” His tone had gone from threatening to placating in the span of a minute. The little shit must’ve realized the kind of trouble he was in. “Take it all. Please, I want you to have it.”
I knocked the bills and pills from his hands. The wind whipped it all around in a whirling dervish of depravity.
“You think you have to give it to me? I own your shit. I own you right now. If I take you to see Reno, tell him what you’ve been doing, what do you think will happen?”
His swallow was audible, and I swore to all that was holy his bloodshot eyes filled with tears. This big man, who showed up at a Savage party intent on horning in on Reno’s business, was crumbling before my very eyes. I would have been laughing if he hadn’t brought little Zadie Night along for the ride. That, I didn’t find amusing in any way.
He raised his hands in supplication. “I screwed up. I know it. Please, I’ll do anything. I have more money at home. I’ll pay you. Just please, please don’t tell Reno. It’ll never happen again.”
His patheticness disgusted me, further serving to piss me off. My foot shot out, striking him in the gut, and he immediately folded to his side. That had felt good, but it wasn’t enough, so I unleashed on him, hitting his legs and back over and over until Julien shoved me back a step.
“He got it, man. He got the message.” He spoke low, calm, the way he always did to get me back in my head. The thing of it was, this time, I hadn’t left. I knew exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t going to kill this little shit, but I wanted him to limp out of this courtyard and feel the message I imparted a long time after.
“Please, Amir.” Her whisper was watercolors on canvas. Too delicate for a place like this.
“Please, what?” I folded my arms over my chest as I stood over her groaning boyfriend.
“Please let him go.” Her soft little chin trembled, but she held it high.
I cocked my head. I had every intention of letting him go, but I still wanted to see how this would play out with her. “Why should I? Do you have any idea what your boyfriend was doing?”
She shook her head. “He’s not—”
“Zadie, baby,”—Schiffer crawled onto his knees—“don’t talk to him.”
Julien gripped my arm, holding me back from taking Schiffer down again. He didn’t get to tell Zadie what to do—not when it came to talking or not talking to me.
“Please, Amir. He won’t do it again.” She took a step toward me. The outside spotlights glinted off her silky, light-brown curls. “Just let him go and—”
“What will you give me, Zadie?”
She blinked. “Give you?”
I nodded slowly, shrugging Julien’s hold off my arm. “I told your boyfriend I need assurance this won’t happen again. Since I don’t believe him and you’ve thrown yourself in front of him, what will you give me to assure me this shit is done?”
Her pink tongue darted out to lick her lips. “Um…well, I don’t have much, but—”
I slid my piece from the back of my jeans, aiming it at Schiffer’s head. Zadie squealed. Schiffer whimpered and most likely pissed his pants. Julien threw his arms out. I didn’t look at him to see his expression, but I knew he thought I’d lost my mind. I knew exactly what I was doing.
“What. Will. You. Give. Me. Zadie?” I gritted out.
Schiffer attempted to block his head with his arms. “You can have her! She’ll work for you or suck your cock. You can take her. Please, Amir. Please. She’ll do anything you want her to do.”
That…surprised me. If I had less control, I would have blown his head off for making the suggestion. For giving Zadie away instead of sacrificing himself.
“Too fucking far,” Julien ground out. “Way too fucking far.”
Zadie mewled like she’d been physically injured. But she didn’t cry, nor did she drop to her knees. Her eyes grew rounder, never leaving me, not even to glance at her boyfriend who’d just unnecessarily sacrificed her to save his own ass.
“I’ll do it,” she rasped.
My nostrils flared. “You’ll suck my cock, little Zadie?”
She wrapped her arms around her middle. “If that’s what it takes for Elliott to walk out of here alive.”
My chin lowered. I blinked at her, wrapping my head around what she was saying. It was almost impossible to understand. No, I didn’t understand. It enraged me that she cared about this piece of shit so much, she would give me her body to protect him.
And he would let her.
“All right.” Safety on, I tucked my piece in my pants and held my hand out to her. “Come here, Zadie.”
She came without hesitation, slipping her small hand in mine. “Please, Amir,” she whispered. “I think he gets it. He won’t do it again.”
Little Zadie Night was a trembling flower in a storm, but she’d put on her brave face for her man. Then again, she’d shown the same annoying courage the first time we met. At least then it hadn’t been as misplaced.
I shifted my attention to the blubbering waste of flesh on the ground. “Get up, Schiffer.”
He lifted his head first, wincing at Zadie by my side, but his mouth stayed shut. Then he staggered to his feet, swaying slightly, his shoulders rolling forward. All that false bravado he’d had minutes ago had fled as quickly as his loyalty to his girl.
“Are we clear here?” I asked.
His head bobbed on his neck. “Yeah, we’re clear. It won’t happen again.”
Releasing Zadie’s hand, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and jerked her against me. “And this little treasure is mine now. Do you understand?”
The color drained from his face. His mouth gaped. I waited for his protest, but it didn’t come. He pressed his mouth into a firm line, then nodded. “I understand.”
Zadie made a low, strangled sound. I wondered if her precious heart was breaking.
“If you see this girl on campus, who is she?” I pressed.
“Uh…” Schiffer rubbed his chest, stole a glance at Zadie, then aimed his eyes toward the ground, “I don’t know her. She’s a stranger.”
“Wrong,” I barked, making the girl beside me jump. “You don’t see her. She doesn’t exist to you. Your eyes stray to her even once, I’ll consider this peace treaty broken and be forced to tell Reno you were spitting in his face tonight. You feel me?”
“I feel you,” Schiffer choked out.
I tipped my chin at Julien and Marco. “Take care of him. I need to have a conversation with Zadie Night about what it means to be my property.”
No doubt Julien strongly disapproved of what I was doing, but he knew the score. His mouth stayed on silent as I steered Zadie through the warehouse. Her short legs scampered to keep up with my swift pace, but I wanted her out of here as quickly as possible. She didn’t belong here. Not in this place, not with these people. Hell, she definitely didn’t belong with me. But I’d paid in full, and now, she was mine.
My SUV was parked across the street. I opened Zadie’s door for her and watched her climb into the passenger seat without any protest, then I locked her in and rounded to the other side. I jumped in, turned over the ignition, and pulled away from the curb, driving us back to Savage U.
After unlocking my phone, I tossed it to her. “Put your number in there. Then call yourself so you have mine.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“What do you think is happening right now?”
She looked up from my phone, the screen lighting up her face. “I think you’re going to explain what it means to be your property.”
I hit the steering wheel. “No, Zadie. Don’t repeat what I said. Tell me what you think is happening. What do you think it means to be my property?”
Her exhale was delicate. “I haven’t really thought about it. You mentioned sucking your—”
“We’re not doing that tonight.” My lip curled with disgust, though I wasn’t half as disgusted as I should have been. “Not when that asshole’s scent is on you. I don’t want his sloppy seconds, no matter how pretty you look when you’re afraid.”
I expected her to make a quiet protest, like she had that night in her dorm, but she remained silent. Her shallow, panting breaths were the only sounds between us.
“I’m taking you back to your dorm. You’ll go upstairs and text me a picture of you secure in your room. You have tomorrow free, but when I contact you, I expect an immediate reply. On Monday, after your classes, you’ll come to my house and we’ll go over what it really means to be owned by me.”
She said nothing, but there was no question she heard me. Even though I didn’t want to give her a break, I did. Zadie might’ve had poor taste in who she gave it up to, but a girl like her wasn’t in situations like what went down in that courtyard very often. Or ever.
She needed a minute, and quite fucking frankly, so did I. If I started making more demands now, I’d overstep into a realm even I wasn’t into. Taking Zadie as my property was walking the line, but I wasn’t pulling back from that. No, I planned to enjoy every second of having Zadie Night under my control.