Angelina [Orchidea: Love on the Bayou 5] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (5 page)

“Just burning off some steam,” Jerry said, and Angelina smiled as she lowered her arms.

“Thanks for the workout, Jerry. I’ll see you later.”

“Hey, you going to see the band play in the Quarter tonight?”

“Not sure if I’m ready to venture out.”

“I can tag along with you. You know, watch over you,” he said then winked.

“Where’s the band playing?” Ryder asked as Jacque stood there listening in.

Jerry began to speak with Ryder as Angelina looked at Jacque and squinted her eyes. They widened, and he realized that she remembered him.

“Jacque, right?” She bent down under the double ropes and walked toward the side. There were no steps, so she had to jump down. When she did. She landed on her feet, but Jacque was absorbing her body.

“Good memory,” he replied, and she reached next to him by the table and picked up a bottle of water. She took a long sip, and he watched her. She was only about five feet six. He towered over her big-time, but she didn’t seem intimidated.

“You’re into martial arts right?” she asked.

“He’s an ultimate fighter champion,” Ryder yelled over, and she smiled as Ryder and Jerry looked over their schedule.

“Impressive.” She bent over to get something out of her bag, and that was when he saw the bruising on her ribs.

“Hey, that didn’t just happen did it?” he asked her as he touched her side. She jerked away from him and then stared at him as if he had totally insulted her.

“You know what it’s from so why even ask.” She pulled out a T-shirt and put it on.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

She stared at him as if she didn’t believe him.

“It’s not from today.”

He didn’t want to argue with her, but for some strange reason he was completely turned on by this woman and her attitude.

“You looked good in there. Have you been boxing long?” he found himself asking and trying to keep a conversation going with her.

“I’ve been taking Jerry’s kickboxing classes for years.”

“That looked a hell of a lot more intense then kickboxing.”

“I needed to let off some steam.” She grabbed her bag. “I’ll see you later, Jerry.”

“Okay cool. You call me if you need a ride. I hope to see you later.”

She smiled then waved good-bye.

Jacque walked along with her. “I’ll walk you out. I just finished up, too.”

She looked up at him.

“You don’t have to. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself even though I screwed up once.”

He was shocked and wondered what she was talking about.

“Hey, I don’t get the reason for your attitude,” he stated as they walked out the door. He grabbed his duffle bag and followed her outside. The entire time, he caught sight of all the guys checking her out. It pissed him off and she wasn’t even his girlfriend.

Angelina walked to her black car, a beat-up convertible Camaro. She tossed her stuff into the backseat then turned to look up at him. Her dark blue eyes looked a bit sad.

“Listen, I don’t need an escort, despite everyone’s opinion. What happened at Dominate was crazy, I know that. It scared the crap out of me okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid, and it sure doesn’t give you or anyone else the right to insist that I can’t even walk to my car without help. So do me a favor and just leave me be.”

“Whoa, sweetheart, again, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about an incident at Dominate.” As he said the words, he thought about the meeting Tye and Mike were calling for at the house. It had to be about Angelina. Jacque had just returned from Vegas last night and hadn’t even seen his brothers.

She placed her hands on her hips and stared up at him. The slight breeze caressed her hair and a strand fell across her lip. He reached out without thinking and pushed it gently from her lips. He placed it behind her ear.

“Honestly. I don’t know about any situation. I just haven’t seen you in a while and wanted to catch up.”

She took a deep breath and her cheeks turned a nice shade of pink.

“I’m sorry. I just assumed that you had spoken with your brothers. Ya know what, just forget about it. Forget what I said. I need to go. It was nice seeing you again, Jacque.”

Why did she sound like she wouldn’t see him again? He wanted to see her again. He wanted to get to know her. She was interesting to say the least.

“Hey, where is that band playing tonight? Maybe I’ll join you guys if you’re going. I mean Jerry asked me to hang out, but I was kind of tired. I just got in from Vegas last night. Long week out there.”

“Doing what?”

“Fighting.”

“Who?”

He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.

“Like Jerry told you back there, I’m a mixed martial artist. I do some matches here and there when the crowd is big and the money is good.”

She looked him over.

“I’ve watched that on TV before. That’s a really intense sport. Crazy really.”

He smiled at her as he looked her body over. “I like crazy. It gives me an adrenaline rush.”

Her cheeks reddened again and she shyly looked away. Holy fuck did his cock just get so fucking hard. He maneuvered his bag in front of him to hide his erection from her. The damn gym shorts would certainly give him away, and Angelina was jumpy.

“Well, the band, Sweet Trix, is playing in the Quarter at ten. But I’m not sure I’m going.”

“Can you give me your number and I’ll call you? I’m only going to go if you’re going.”

She looked up at him and held his gaze.

“Are you anything like your brothers?” she asked him.

He wasn’t expecting that. “What do you mean?”

She was silent a moment, and a sad expression crossed her eyes.

“I don’t think so, Jacque. I have to go. Maybe I’ll see you around.” She got into her car, started the engine, and slowly exited the parking lot. Jacque couldn’t help but wonder what that was all about. He knew that Tye and Mike liked Angelina but weren’t ready to commit. She seemed pissed off at them.

As he went over to his car and got into the BMW, he looked at the clock. His brothers were meeting in an hour. That gave him time to shower and join them. After watching Angelina box in the ring with that sexy body, he could use a cold one. As he exited the parking lot, he thought about what she’d asked him.
Am I anything like my brothers? What’s that supposed to mean?

Lei Wong crossed the room. His black Prada dress shoes made a clacking noise with each step he took across the marble flooring.

He eyed the young woman sleeping on the long oriental ottoman. Her hair was dark brown, not the color of onyx as he had ordered.

Her hips were big, her ass small and her thighs fat.

“What is this? This is not what I ordered, Tayo.”

“There seemed to be a bit of a situation in New Orleans. Charlie fucked up and nearly got caught. He left for China immediately,” Niko, Lei’s other guard, added as he stood there at attention along with Jordane.

“I don’t understand the difficulty in doing this. Jiang Huan special ordered a young woman with dark blue eyes, long onyx hair, big tits, and a super sexy body. The picture Charlie sent was near perfection. Where is she and what is this one doing here?” Lei asked, raising his voice.

“Charlie fucked up, plus the cops are onto the women going missing.”

Lei took a few deep breaths. “I have three weeks to get that woman to Jiang Huan. What do you expect me to do now?”

“Find another one. We have others looking around for the women on the order forms,” Tayo said.

“You do not understand. We are talking about Jiang Huan. He is one of the craziest bastards in China. You want someone killed, you contact Jiang Huan. You want to ship in pure cocaine or pills, you contact Jiang Huan. He has provided me with numerous jobs over the last five years and has made me richer than I ever imagined. So if he wants this particular woman, then you three and your connections better start searching for her. She should be easy enough to find.”

“Yes, sir.” Niko bowed his head. Tayo and Jordane did the same.

“Sir, what do we do with this one?” Jordane asked as Lei looked over his shoulder.

“Whatever you want and then get rid of her. The drugs only last eight hours.”

* * * *

“Why didn’t you call me right away, when this first happened?” Jacque yelled as his brothers gathered around the game room in the house. No one was really even playing the game of pool. They were drinking beers and talking about the week’s events.

“Why are you so pissed off about this? You were the one who wasn’t interested in pursuing her or any woman. Too young is what you told me.” Lucifer raised his voice back.

They were all feeling the pressure. None of them were dealing with the events calmly.

“Listen. It doesn’t matter. We’re getting together now and discussing everything. That’s the purpose of this meeting,” Terrance stated.

“It would have been nice to know considering that I just fucking saw Angelina today,” Jacque told them as he paced the room. He was freaking out. Now he understood why she was on the defensive, well sort of.

“What? Where was she?” Tye asked.

“At the gym, boxing in a ring with Jerry. Fucking guy was hitting on her.”

They all made various noises.

“This has to end. The other night scared all of us,” Mike stated this time.

“She said something to me today and I didn’t get it. She asked me if I was anything like my brothers. What the fuck are you guys leaving out?” Jacque asked, and then Terrance explained about Angelia’s behavior under the influence of drugs.

“She said that she wanted all of us?” Mike asked. Terrance and Lucifer nodded.

“Fuck!” Tye said then ran his fingers through his hair.

“What are we going to do?” Mike asked.

“Talk this through. This is a huge decision. There are five of us. We all live very active and sort of eccentric lives. Angelina’s a sweet, young woman. She’s twenty-six. That’s a six-year difference between her and Tye, and he’s the youngest of all of us. We have businesses to run and a lot of traveling to do. It doesn’t seem fair to make her feel like an object between us,” Terrance said.

They were silent a moment.

“It wouldn’t be like that. Not with Angelina. There are five of us to take care of her and protect her. She wouldn’t ever be lonely or made to feel like she was last on the list of all the things we do. With one of us always around her, that would never be an issue,” Mike stated.

“She seems intimidated by me and my size. I’m not the lovey-dovey type and I’m set in my ways. She’s so fragile and feminine,” Lucifer added.

“You wouldn’t think she was so fragile if you saw her in the ring with Jerry, Lucifer. She was kicking ass. I think the only reason she was unable to defend herself was the drugs in her system. Otherwise, I’d hate to mess with her and get on her bad side,” Jacque told him.

“She looked that good?” Tye asked.

Jacque nodded his head and sighed. “Fucking hot, too.” He told them what she was wearing and about the conversation he’d had with her.

“She’s blaming herself, but why is she so pissed off at us?” Terrance asked.

“Probably found out about how she acted with you when she was high. All the guys were talking about it in the security booth,” Lucifer told them.

“What the fuck were they talking about?” Tye asked.

“How she was all over Terrance and also how classy and sexy she looked. They wanted to know if she was taken. I kind of said she was off-limits,” Lucifer admitted then leaned against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Terrance smiled. “Well I’m sure hearing that from you, big guy, they wouldn’t question it.”

Lucifer gave a small smirk.

“What about the police investigation? Are they still questioning you guys?” Mike asked Lucifer and Terrance.

“No. We pretty much nipped that in the bud,” Terrance said. “I put a call in to Michael Fromm to see if he could find out more about the missing women case. Eloi and Johnny had limited information and heard that the feds might be getting involved for the simple fact that the women disappear and do not show up anywhere. No bodies, nothing. It’s like they vanish out of thin air.”

“Sounds like a professional operation. Maybe we should monitor this?” Jacque said.

“My concern is Angelina. I can’t sleep. I can’t stop watching the surveillance videos and seeing how scared she was and unaware of what was happening,” Terrance admitted.

“That just fucking pisses me off. I want to find these assholes and especially that one who tried to take her,” Lucifer stated.

“All of us do. I think Tye and I should go into Aubert’s tomorrow and try to talk to Angelina. Angelique said she’s back to work,” Mike stated.

“She’s supposed to go out tonight to see a band and hear them play with some friends in the Quarter,” Jacque told them.