Love Thy Neighbor (11 page)

Ghost rocks me gently and kisses my cheek
softly. He states, “No one’s gonna hurt you ever again. I promise,
pretty girl.” And even though I shouldn’t, I believe him. Some of
the tension in me fades as I take in the warmth of his body.

I beg on a childlike whisper, “Don’t leave
me, okay?”

Silence. Then, “I won’t leave you,
baby.”

***

The next morning, I’m surprised as fuck when
I actually don’t feel too bad.

I slide out of my empty bed to find Ghost on
the sofa sound asleep. He looks angelic in a devilish way.

God, the man is a hottie. I’ll give him
that.

Smiling, I walk over to the sofa, reach down
to the ground and pick up the blanket. I unfold it and gently place
it over him. My heart swells thinking about how gentle he was last
night and how protective he was over me. Without thinking, I lower
my face to his to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. Just as my
lips are about to touch his forehead, he opens his eyes wide and
lifts his head suddenly, head-butting me.

We both groan and I hold my forehead in my
hands.

At the same time we both say through our
groans, “What the fuck?”

Still groaning, I open my good eye and look
over at him. He glances around my apartment looking so damn
confused, his face holds a
where am I
expression. I can’t
help it, I burst out laughing. His lips twitch as he says, “Well,
good morning to you too.”

Still chuckling, I catch his cheeks in my
hands and lower my face to his. Smacking his forehead, cheeks and
nose with kisses, saying sarcastically, “Here’s your good
morning!”

Ghost leans his head back and belly laughs.
He catches my hands, careful of my sore wrist, and pulls me to sit
on his belly. His eyes search me for a moment. His smiling face
darkens a little. “Your face isn’t so swollen today. There’s a
little bruising on your cheeks and your eye is still semi-closed
over, but your lip isn’t puffy anymore. How are you feeling
today?”

Sick of feeling like a victim, I smile big
and joke, “Good enough to fuck your mother.”

He lifts his brow and stares at me. I roll
my eyes and yell, “Oh, come on! You’ve never seen Super Troopers?”
He doesn’t reply, just lifts his brow further. I tell him, “Now
you’ve done it. That’s next on our to-watch list. You’ll laugh your
ass off.”

Still holding my hands, he snaps, “Stop it.
Tell me how you feel. It’s important.”

Biting my bottom lip, I nod and utter
quietly, “You wanna know how I feel, Ash? I feel like some guy I
was dating beat the shit outta me.” I look him right in the eye and
see his face soften. He reaches up and brushes his thumb over my
bruised cheek. “I won’t be a victim. If I let this run my life, I
become a victim. Nuh uh. Not happening. My parents taught me and my
sisters better than that.”

When I mention my sisters, Ghost’s body
stiffens and his face morphs into an expression of shock. He sits
up and rubs his hands down his face saying, “Oh fuck! Fuck me! Oh
shit! I forgot!”

I move to stand but he pulls his arms around
my waist and looks me in the eye. His face is almost apologetic and
he rambles, “I fucking forgot! And it’s today! Fuck, Nat! Oh
God…”

Ding Dong

Confused as hell, I look from Ghost to the
front door then back to Ghost as he continues to ramble. “I did it
because I thought you needed it! You missed ‘em! Just remember this
came from a good place and- and don’t punch me!”

I stand, walk over to my front door and
check the peephole. My mouth rounds in shock and I look over at
Ghost giving him my best
what the fuck
expression. He
stands, shrugs and shoots me a remorseful look.

Not given a choice, I open the door to my
sisters. Helena and Nina stand there with open arms and matching
wide smiles as they yell excitedly, “Surprise!”

When they both see my face they gasp in
shock.

Not surprising.

Just as I begin to explain what happened
Helena runs past me over to Ghost yelling, “I’ll fucking kill you!”
Before I have a chance to tell her to stop, Nina runs past me and
Helena to a now wide-eyed Ghost. She pushes him so hard he falls
back onto my coffee table with an
Ooomph
!

Crack-Snap-Smash

Wood splinters fly everywhere. Like watching
an episode of WWE wrestling, the table breaks into small pieces
with Ghost lying in the middle of it. Nina straddles his waist,
punching his face and shrieking, “No one touches my sister!” Ghost
does his best to cover his face, but she gets a few good ones
in.

Well, this day just turned to shit.
Surprise, indeed!

Helena, not being one to let Nina have all
the fun, looks around for a weapon. She spots my purse on the
kitchen counter, grabs it and walks around the pieces of coffee
table to Ghost’s head. She lifts my large and heavy purse as high
as she can and slams it into his face. Ghost’s arms fall to his
sides and his legs stop moving. I gasp, and for a moment, I’m
worried she killed him until he groans long and low.

Well, that escalated quickly.

This has gone too far. I screech, “Stop it!
It wasn’t him! Stop it!”

Running around the pieces of my coffee table
to Ghost, I push my older sister off him, kneel by his face and
lift my purse off him. I cringe at the sight of his bleeding nose.
I cup his cheek and ask quietly, “Are you okay?”

Ghost smiles, his teeth stained with blood,
and chuckles, “That was fucking awesome.”

My shoulders slump in relief, and I puff out
the breath I hadn’t even known I was holding. Unable to suppress my
laughter, I chuckle with him. “I told you. My sisters are the
bomb.”

I help him to his feet and admonish my
awesome sisters. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

They stand there like a couple of petulant
kids. Looking to the floor and shuffling their feet, they mutter,
“Sorry.”

Ghost chuckles some more, and limps over to
my refrigerator and opens the freezer. He pulls out a bag of frozen
peas and plops it on his face with a small wince.

Nina and Helena’s faces drop and Nina asks,
“So, what the fuck happened?”

I roll my eyes and run my hands down my
still-sore face.

Here we go again.

***

I spend about half hour explaining to my
sisters what happened with Cole. And, not surprisingly, they went
from hating Ghost to loving him in a matter of seconds. They both
hugged his rigid body, completely ignoring his wide eyes and
obvious discomfort, and then did what Croats do best.

They apologized with food.

I informed my two would-be bodyguards that
beating the fuck out of my hero was somewhat of a faux pas and they
needed to make it right. So they cooked and baked all day and told
Ghost that morning that if he didn’t come to dinner, they would
find him. Realizing this was not an empty threat, a wide-eyed Ghost
told them he’d be back around six.

I sit on the sofa resting while they
redecorate my kitchen in the worst kind of way and we chat.

Nina starts, “So this Cole guy just lost it
over a goddamn note?”

I nod slowly. With a scrunched face she goes
on, “Totally cuckoo bananas? Like, Boom! Shit flying everywhere
psycho?”

I nod again and she shakes her head slowly,
her blonde hair bobbing, and mutters, “Figures.”

Helena stills before jumping to my defense.
“What the heck is that supposed to mean, ho?”

Nina turns to Helena with her hands raised
and explains, “I’m just saying that Nat doesn’t have the best taste
in men.”

Helena pokes her in the shoulder and
retorts, “Well, hell! That’s not her fault. She’s freaking awesome.
It’s the guys that are nuts, not her.”

Nina’s face becomes heated and she begins to
say something but stops and touches Helena’s black hair. She tuts
and says, “How long has it been since you colored?”

Helena attempts to answer, but Nina cuts her
off. “I hate store color. How many times have I told you not to use
store color?” Nina looks over at me. “How many times have I told
her not to use store color?”

I open my mouth to answer, but she cuts me
off with a frustrated, “Too many times!”

Helena and I look at each other and burst
out laughing. Nina is certainly a force. She takes pride in her
work as a hairdresser and hates when Helena and I don’t do our hair
when she deems it’s time to. Nina ignores our laughter and mutters
to herself, “Find a place that sells color.” She looks towards the
pile of wood in the corner of the room. “And a coffee table.”

Blowing out a frustrated breath, I beg, “Can
we please talk about something else? I’m sick of hearing about
asshole Cole.”

Nina smirks and goes back to cooking. Helena
chuckles. “Asshole. Cole. That rhymes!”

I throw a smile her way and ask, “How goes
the studies?”

She pulls her hair out of her face and makes
a gross face. I love my sisters so much. This is exactly what I
needed. I’ll have to thank Ghost later on. She scrunches her nose.
“One more year. Just one more year and I’ll be a physical
therapist.”

Nina and I whoop and clap.

Helena is the smart one out of us girls, but
she’s
school
smart. Nina and I, you could say we’re
street
smart. You see, Nina decided when she was fifteen
that she’d had enough of school. Without telling mom and dad, she
got a job at a local salon sweeping floors and watching the
hairdressers as closely as possible. She fell in love with
everything hair. In total Nina fashion, she came home from school
with permission slips for mom and dad to sign that would allow her
to quit school and basically did a song and dance about the
benefits of hairdressing and how having a hairdresser in the family
would be great for all our relatives. An hour later, she had my
parents, hook, line and sinker. Nina is a go-getter, always has
been. She now owns an extremely popular salon in Cali. So popular,
you have to book a month in advance and there are strictly no
walk-ins. Thinking of their success puts a huge smile on my face.
I’m so proud of them.

“Well?” Helena breaks my thoughts.

My brow scrunches. “Well, what?”

She looks annoyed as she repeats herself,
“Casper. Poltergeist. Ghost. Have you fucked him again?” At this,
Nina stops what she’s doing and looks over at me with a cheeky
grin.

I scoff and put on my best hoochy imitation.
“First things first, sistah, you don’t fuck Ghost.” Both of my
sisters lean closer as if we’re trading inside information. I point
my finger to enunciate each word and go on, “
He
fucks
you
.” I grin at the memory of that steamy night. Bent over a
conference room table, I shudder in delight. We didn’t even see
each other naked. I still had my dress on and he still had his
clothes on, he just ripped my panties and undid his jeans and It.
Was. On.
Yummy
. I sigh dreamily. “And it
is
something
else altogether. It’s like he reaches into your head, takes your
control and sets it alight. Gone.” Still grinning, I finish with,
“It was unbelievable.”

If my sisters were to grin any wider, they’d
both split right down the middle. They go back to cooking and leave
me to my thoughts.

I sigh once more.

I really do have the worst taste in men.

Chapter
Eight
Just dinner with the family

Standing in front of Nat’s apartment door
listening to the sounds of the girls laughing, makes me want to
sneak away like a little bitch. I feel bad, like I’m intruding on
their family time. Unsure whether to knock or run, I stand at the
door, rubbing the back of my neck in restlessness.

Having to go to work today with a swollen
nose was bad enough. Having to tell the guys how my nose got
swollen was even worse. Then having to explain what happened to Nat
last night to them…that was just…not good. I had to make them swear
not to tell the girls. She’ll tell them when she’s good and
ready.

I had a
what the fuck
moment when
Trick took it the worst. He was ready to knock skulls. If I’m being
honest, I think his home situation has him spoiling for a fight.
Nik became very distant and was pretty damn upset. And Max…he was
shattered. So much so that he cancelled his hot date. Nat is his
buddy. They’re good friends. I could do without having to watch ‘em
flirt all the time, but I know their friendship is just that.

A good friendship.

When the girls find out, though…shit is
gonna hit the fan.

Nat told me she doesn’t want to press
charges. That she just wants to move on. And I get it. I do. But
that doesn’t mean I’m not going to make this guy wish he was never
born. Cole Lewis is going to beg for death before I’m through with
him.

The door opens suddenly and I see Helena’s
smiling face. She doesn’t greet me, just grabs my arm and pulls me
in. The conversations between the girls doesn’t dim now that I’m
here, they just talk around me. And it surprises the shit outta me
that I don’t want to leave now that I’m here. Nat’s voice is
already soothing me. Being around Nina and Helena is like being
around Nat, times three.

I like it.

They’re all the same. Their looks, voice
and
personality. It’s cool. I can’t help the smirk that
crosses my face.

Three of Nat. Jeez. One is more than
enough.

Nat catches my smirk, stops talking and
looks over at me. She wears a questioning glance, but I just smirk
and shrug. She narrows her eyes at me but continues her
conversation. Next thing I know, I’m led to the dining table and
being seated. Each of the girls brings over dishes of food. My brow
creases and I look around the apartment for the additional guests I
assume are coming.