“Shadow,” she sighs. “I don’t wanna do this with you right now, please?”

Her voice is sad. I don’t like it.

“I just wanna know if you’re alright, babe. That’s all.”

T exhales and leans up against the wall beside me. She’s quiet for what seems like forever before she starts talking.

“I don’t get it Shadow. I just don’t. I know the kinda shit you’re into, and I’m okay with that. Really I am. So what the hell is the problem? Don’t bullshit me either.”

She’s just so honest when she’s talking to me. But it pisses me off that she doesn’t get it.

“Jesus, T! What the f**k is it that you want from me? Huh? I ain’t anyone special, darlin. You think you know me, baby. But I can’t stress this enough. You. Know. Nothing. About. Me!”

I watch as my harsh words sink in. Her fingers dig into the concrete wall before her palms smack it hard and she flings her body away, practically running inside.

“Fuck! Dammit, T, get back here,” I yell, running after her.

***

ZZ

I watch my daughter run inside the damn building. I know Shadow probably just told her how it is. My ass is staying the f**k outta of it. He hasn’t hurt her. My daughter can be a little sensitive to the truth of things. It woulda been nice to hear that conversation though if this music wasn’t being blasted so f**kin loud.

I light a smoke and look for Storm, my juicy Apple. Where the hell did she go? I push outta my seat and start looking for her. I get stopped several times by friends shooting the shit, and I find myself so damn frustrated because I want to find Storm.

When their attention is focused on another conversation having nothing to do with me, I bail out. I head inside. I search the entire first floor and have no luck finding her. When I start heading up the stairs, I hear her giggling. I find her standing by one of the windows overlooking the courtyard with none other than our f**kin lawyer. Who f**kin invited this prick? I turn around before she can see me and head downstairs for a bottle of whiskey. After I snag one, I head back up the steps, taking a seat a few steps from the top of the stairwell, light a smoke, and start drinking. Their voices are murmurs. I wish Tatiana would cut their conversation with one of her rants at Shadow, but I didn’t see them. So I have to sit here and wait, wondering what the f**k their talking about.

“You okay, man?”

I look up to find Rap.

“Yep. Fuckin peachy or whatever,” I shrug, taking another draw of my cigarette.

“You know what’s nice about being fresh to the patch, ZZ? When I was just a little ol’ prospect, I saw things. Anything you might wanna shoot across me?”

I nod my head in the direction up the stairwell. Rap takes a few steps up, crooking his head around the corner, and backs up. His hand lands on my shoulder and he squeezes. “You’re good.” And he leaves just like that. What the f**k?

What to do?

I don’t know how much time passes, but most of the whiskey is gone and I have a pile of cigarettes snuffed out on the label I peeled off of the damn bottle. I’m half past gone when Storm and Randy make their way down the steps. I hear her mumble that she’ll talk to him later, and she takes a seat next to me.

“Mason?”

I bang my head against the wall and close my eyes. Why the hell does she do that? Say my name like that?

She leans her head on my shoulder. My eyes fly open, and I look down at her. She’s so small. I sit up straight and pick her up, forcing her legs to straddle my waist, her dress rising with the move. We say nothing. We just sit there on the steps, my hands trailing up and down her smooth thighs, our eyes locked.

The look in her blue eyes mirrors how I feel. Confused.

Her small hands move to my tuxedo jacket and she starts unbuttoning it. I’m speechless, stunned, and afraid to move because she might change her mind. My breathing picks up as she slides it back, forcing it to fall on the step behind me. Storm unclips my tie from my white shirt, and she runs her fingers up my suspenders to the top of my shoulders, dropping them so that they hang on my sides. She snatches up my white button up shirt, dragging it outta my pants, but when her fingers graze my skin, it’s all I can stand, and I slowly flip her around so that she’s lying on the steps. I bunch her dress in my hands and slide it up gently, exposing her silk black panties. She looks like a f**kin dream right now. Some of her curls hanging in her face, her red poufy dress wrapped around her waist, her feet clad in the sexiest black f**k me heels propped up on the step next to my knees.

She watches me as I roam her body with my eyes, I barely notice her jerk my tie until I start falling down on top of her. I let my mouth fall to hers. Her kisses start out slow until I run my arm under her body and jerk her into me, arching her back. She moans into my mouth, and that small beautiful f**kin sound is my undoing. I free my c**k from my pants, never letting her go as I nudge her panties to the side and slide into her. I groan, and she whimpers. Fuck! I forgot to warn her about my Jacobs ladder. I break my mouth away from hers, and I pull out just enough so that she can see it.

“It’s okay. I’m okay,” she whispers.

“You sure?” I croak. Fuck! I hope she’s sure.

Just to prove it, she grabs my c**k and forces it into her pu**y. She’s so tight and warm.

***

Storm

Mason nudges my panties to the side and slides into me without giving me a warning of his size. He groans, and I whimper. He stiffens and pulls out, showing me the cause of my whimpers. Oh my! It’s a f**kin Jacobs’s ladder. But I don’t want him to stop.