"That's why,until she's ready, she needs to be with us. Got it? After that, she can go where she pleases, sleep with whomever she wants. She'll be able to protect herself. Until then, I will rip out the throat of any member of this team who sabotages my authority as her primary guardian again."
"We've all been practically living like monks for a reason," Shabazz finally said in a forceful tone. He glanced at Marlene and waited for her nod as she calmed down. "Marlene hasn't been tripping for no reason."
"Damn, Mar. I'm sorry," Rider said again. "I just didn't know."
"Me neither," J.L. said quietly. "Sorry for giving you the blues."
"Now you've been schooled, so no more team dissention. We clean up our act until Damali fully transitions. Right now, she's vulnerable to a master vamp attack. She's wide open, sensing everything in her environment ... learning, cataloging, growing so fast internally it's wearing her out."
"You mean we brought on her outburst earlier?" J.L. asked in a near-whisper. "When we were all feeling rammy, and needed to get out ... and she started ragging about everything?"
Shabazz held the team enthralled with a steady gaze. "Yeah, brother. And what that means is, if you feel something, Damali will inadvertently pick it up from you. You go out and indulge in anything, you bring the vibration back to a Neteru in sensory transition. Get drunk, she's slightly lit. Get pissed off, and start cursing and causing chaos, her fight instincts kick in. Get - "
Marlene held up her hand. "Oh, Shabazz ... don't even say it."
* * *
Alejandro leaned his weight against his front door as he inserted the key in the lock. Giving the unmarked squad car the finger, he entered his beach house, and began taking off his suit jacket. It was all f**ked up. Everything about the situation. Carlos was tripping, was about to start a war on three fronts - blaming the Asians, the Russians, and the Dominicans, possibly even the Jamaicans, without proof positive, and their ranks were too thin to bring it on. They couldn't bury their boys until the police were finished with the bodies, then it would be a closed casket deal for all of them. This was no way to live.
Pure disgust filled him as he passed through the foyer and stepped down, into the sunken living room. Spanish tiles echoed in complaint under his heavy footsteps. They had made their money, and had come up from the bottom. Now it was time to go totally legit and chill - but Carlos was always pressing for more power, more territory. Alejandro crossed the living room to his private bar and poured a drink, and then stood before the sliding glass doors that led to the deck. His gaze scanned the horizon. Beach was in front of him, a pool to the left, a Jacuzzi to the right, white on white was behind him, leather everything, a sound system to die for, and a fine woman upstairs in his bed. He sipped deeply from his glass, allowing the fumes of the fifty-year-old scotch to burn the back of his throat with bitter sweetness.
Life was bittersweet. He took off his tie and threw it on the glass coffee table behind him. Was a time when he couldn't have dreamed of owning a seventy-five-dollar tie, let alone all of this. And Carlos wanted to start a war? To what end? Their cousin and their best friends were already dead. Enough was enough. He was out.
Alejandro finished his drink, considered the stars, then pulled a small package out of his silk pants pocket. He took a hit of coke, allowing the sting of the drug to blast his nasal passages with a burn that became another bitterness on the back of his tongue. Good product. He made a sound and cleared his throat with it, setting the glass down by his tie as he left the room to head toward the bedroom. He hoped Sophia was awake, and wouldn't start no shit. Tonight he didn't need to hear a bunch of bull - just needed to get laid and go to sleep.
Thank God. She was sleeping quietly on her side. In the dark he could tell that she was na**d under the sheets when he'd entered the room. He glimpsed her briefly and turned to take off his clothes. Alejandro went to the chair and kicked off his leather slip-ons, and began undoing his belt when he heard her stir.
"Glad you're home early," she whispered.
"Yeah, me too," he murmured, noting that the sound of her voice was unusually smooth. That's why he kept this one around - she knew how to read her man.
He walked to the side of the bed and sat down, slipping off his pants and placing his pager/cell-phone on the nightstand. She rubbed his back and he closed his eyes. God, her hands felt so good, and her breath was so warm against his cheek. Tension drained from him as she stroked away the stress in every muscle.
"Come to bed, baby," she whispered. "Whatever it is, you won't solve it tonight."
He covered her hand at his shoulder with his eyes still closed, feeling the softness of her skin under his palm. "I know. Cops are outside, and Carlos... well. A lot is going on right now, and you're making me forget all about it."
He could feel the bed shift as she moved against his back.
"Take off your jewelry, baby."
Her breaths were coming more like rasps, her tone wanton, sexy - yes, that's why he kept this one around.
"I never take off my cross," he murmured, allowing her kisses down his spine to send a shudder through him. Yeah, she could do that down the front, too, in a minute. His body was ready for her, just from the thought of it.
"I don't want it to break when I ride you." She laughed from a low place in her throat.
"You plan to rock my world hard enough to break my chain?" He chuckled.
"See for yourself - you be the judge," she whispered. "I know that piece is special to you, because it came from your brother when you joined his squad ... but if you want to really see what I can do, take it off. It's your choice."
He smiled, sitting up just enough to reach behind his neck, find the clasp, and open the thick chain, dropping the silver jewelry on the nightstand without looking at it. "I don't do this for everybody, you know."
"I know. That's what makes it all so special."
He moved around her and laid on his back, smiling up at her pretty face as she straddled him. The moonlight coming through the window gave her an aura like that of an angel. Wet, hot woman surrounded him and made his eyes roll to the back of his skull. He shuddered as she moved against him in a low, grinding circle.
"It better be worth it," he murmured, admiring her na**d br**sts that jiggled ever so slightly each time she circled his groin.