Desired: Loving An Alpha Male (16 page)

I didn’t reply.

How could I? 

I’d never in my life been treated like he’s describing, number one.  Gavin always made me walk, no matter what time of the day or how hot or cold it was outside.  If he parked far from the restaurant, we both walked. If I was meeting him somewhere, he was waiting inside for me. He never opened the car door for me either…
like ever
… So, no, I didn’t know what to expect.

Drake didn’t say another word, he just took my hand in his and walked toward the restaurant.

I finally found my voice and said, which later I regretted, “The things you just said didn’t sound like they would come from a bad boy who is part of a notorious crime family. That sounded like it came from a good guy.”

Drake stopped walking and said to me, “No, baby, that is just how you’re supposed to be treated. It’s what I learned from my father and what’s been drilled and upheld in me by my uncle. Maybe that’s the only thing good in me that I possess.”

The sadness in his eyes made me want to kick myself. He was being a perfect gentlemen and I threw his way of life in his face.

Once we made it into the restaurant, I looked around the place and found it empty, but I could hear loud voices and kids talking and screaming coming from somewhere. I looked at Drake as he led me through the empty dining area and into the back of the restaurant where I got the shock of my life.

The back private area was packed with two very long tables filled with one rather large family. All eyes fell on us as we entered the room and as the chants of his name, “Hey, Cuz,” or “Uncle Drake” rang through the room, I realized that he has brought me to a family dinner.

I squeezed his hand tight, and he looked at me. I know my eyes were wide as saucers, and all he did was grin at me. He kissed my hand and said, “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. I told you when you’re with me, you’re with me.”

Drake spoke to everyone he passed and brought me up to a plump old woman with a little plump baby in her lap.  She smiled at Drake, then at me, and I swear her smile grew like tenfold. She gave someone next to her the baby, and she stood. 

To me, this woman looked like a traditional Italian grandmother, and when Drake leaned in my ear and said, “This is my grandmother, Bella,” all I could do was smile at her.

She didn’t just take my smile though. She cupped my face in her hands and while still smiling kissed both of my cheeks. She then hugged me tight and touched Drake’s face as well.

I didn’t understand that greeting, but I went with it. Next he took me to some of his aunts and uncles and a few of his cousins. Then he brought me to one of the most attractive Italian men I had ever seen. I mean, he looked as if he had just come out of GQ Magazine.  He wore a pair of jeans and a jacket with a button down white shirt.  His hair was thick and dark and laid lazily over his eye, which he had to move back from when he stood to greet me.

“Georgia, this is my cousin, Angel.”

Oh my.

“Angel, this is…”

“Your Georgia…” Angel finished and reached for my hand.  I watched as he brought it to his lips and said softly, “Ciao Bella.” He showed me his perfect teeth and perfect smile.

Oh my indeed.

Drake moved my hand from his cousin’s. “Enough with trying to seduce my date.” He went on to introduce me to others. “Georgia, this is Eddie, Angel’s brother, and this is my Uncle Bruno. Uncle Bruno this is Georgia Sayers, Gregory Sayer’s daughter.”

Okay, can I say that if Angel was classic Italian hottie than his father was the start of the mold because
wow
.  He was tall like Angel and Drake, dark and built like a brick building.  He exuded power in his eyes, his character and just his presence. I felt weak in my knees just standing in front of him as if I should be kneeling or something and kissing his ring.

He smiled at me as he too took my hand and kissed it. Again, if I could blush, I think I’d be as red as the tablecloth.

Drake’s uncle said to me, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Bella. Please have a seat. I hope you’re hungry. We have a lot of food.”

I smiled and stumbled out, “Yes, sir, I am. Thank you.’

Drake moved to the seat across from Angel and next to his Uncle and sat me next to him.  I didn’t see the significance to the seat arrangements until I saw Eddie give Drake an ugly look as he sat down.  I almost wondered if we were sitting in his seat or something.

Now to Eddie.  Okay, can I be honest? Eddie looked adopted almost.  I mean, I could see his father in him, and he had a great head of black wavy hair.  It’s just the bulk of muscle and stature wasn’t there.  It was there in the three men at the head of this table but not in Eddie.  I also found it rather odd that Drake introduced all of his family as “cousin” or his “uncle” but when he introduced Eddie it was “Angel’s brother.” Maybe there was some bad blood between cousins and the seat that Drake was in Eddie felt belonged to him.

Wow, the movies do have it right. There is drama within a crime family.

I have to say dinner was uneventful.  I was waiting for the wisecracking cousin of mine to embarrass me but suffice it  to say he was quiet. He was actually trying to limit the amount of wine his date was putting back. Eddie was cutting his eyes at me and Georgia, but he remained on his side of the table and relatively quiet. The night was actually surprisingly good.  Being with my family like this was the only time I was able to relax around my uncle.  Even when I was staying at his home, I was on alert.  And, to be honest, nothing was stopping someone from taking out our entire family as we ate dinner, but  they would have to be assured the entire family was there. Otherwise, retaliation would be swift, painful and destructive.

I watched Georgia with my family, and I couldn’t help but smile.  It shocked me how my grandmother greeted her, and I had to find out what that was all about.  But I was pleased nonetheless.  My aunts were very nice to her, but of course I couldn’t say that for some of my cousins, but that’s only because they were always trying to fix me up with their friends. 

I leaned back in my seat just as Georgia took my little cousin, Nya, in her arms.  Nya was precious and another person I would undoubtedly kill for without hesitation. There’s not that many people I would do that for and the very people were sitting on either side of me and directly in front of me. Don’t get me wrong, I will protect everyone in this room with my life, but there are only a few that I would leave bodies for. As I looked at Georgia kiss on my cousin, I realized there was one person in this room that had the kind of power over me to drive me completely insane.

Dessert came, and I found myself massaging the back of Georgia’s neck. The slow groan she did woke me up in more ways than I wanted her to in front of my family.  I leaned into her ear, feeling the effects of the many scotches I consumed. “Baby, I would advise you to stop moaning like that. It’s been a long time for me, and you’re going to make me take you in one of the restrooms here and see how loud I can make you scream.”

I didn’t miss the heat in her eyes as she looked at me and clamped her lips shut.  Her lips… Damn, I missed them. I turned and moved closer to her. “Did I tell you how beautiful you looked tonight?” I caressed her cheek softly, wanting to feel her just for a little while. I didn’t remember picking out this dress for her, but I had to say it definitely helped with my imagination on the curves of her body.

“No,” she said, her voice but a whisper.  I knew I was having an effect on her. I could still tell when she wanted me and how bad she wanted it.

Maybe it’s been a long time for her too.

God, I hope so.

“You were too busy fussing at me,” she told me, unfortunately, loud enough for others to hear.

“What?” That was Angel. “Lincoln, I can’t believe you would do such a thing to this beautiful goddess.  You really don’t know how to treat women.  Listen, Georgia, anytime you want to drop that loser and get with a real man, let me know.”

I shook my head at his date… Uh, what was her name again?

Anyway, she didn’t take too kindly to his words and smacked his arm. Angel, ever the lady’s man, just smiled at his date, “Don’t worry, baby. There’s enough of me to go around.”

“Angelo!” I heard my aunt admonish from across the room.

“Sorry, mama,” Angel called back to her and smiled at Georgia. He said, “So what was my brooding cousin fussing about?”

“Nothing,” I replied hoping that Georgia would get the hint.

However, she didn’t and she said, “He was upset because I parked the car around the corner instead of getting it valeted.”

My uncle and Angel looked at her puzzled at first, and then they both frowned at me. “Where were you?” my uncle asked me.

“I was outside waiting for her,” I replied

“Yeah, you must have been late because if you weren’t, you would have seen her pass and stopped her from parking… Damn, Cuz, that’s fucked up,” Angel added.

“I taught you better than that, son,” my uncle said to me. Then told me how real men take care of their own, in Italian. I had to listen to the speech that I heard a thousand times. My aunt must have heard her husband berate me, and I got it from both ends. Angel sat back and grinned… the fucker… and poor Georgia looked lost but I know she could tell I was getting a lecture.  She started to say something, but I squeezed her neck slightly giving her the hint to be quiet.

I took a deep breath, so much for some word foreplay. My erection definitely deflated into nothing.

*****

The ride home was quiet, except for me giving directions to my condo.  Georgia didn’t drink a bit of alcohol, which I thought was very strange. She told me she was too nervous to drink. I caught her biting her nails a few times, so I didn’t press it. But I wanted to know how the night went for her.  I wanted to know if she liked my family… I don’t know why; believe me. But, shit, I really wanted to know.  I started to ask her, but she said, “You have a really good family thing going on.”

“Thanks,” was all I said because I remembered she didn’t have one growing up.
Shit
.

I added though, so I wouldn’t feel like a complete ass, “They seemed to love you. Nya fell asleep in your arms. She doesn’t do that with everyone.”

She laughed. “I can see that.  She doesn’t like your cousin Eddie at all.  I saw him trying to play with her, and she would just cry.”

I grew quiet, not thinking she would catch on, but I couldn’t help it. Yes, I’m going to say it for the umpteenth time; I hate that guy.

“I see you two don’t get along.” she said.

I looked at her. “Why do you say that?” I sat up in the seat. “Did he say something to you?”

“Down boy… No, he didn’t say anything. But he didn’t have to.  The way you introduced me to him and the way he stared at you all night. If looks could kill… wow.”

“If looks could kill, he would’ve been dead a long time ago,” I added, and then regretted it instantly when she looked at me.

“Why do you hate him?” she asked me and I should have expected it. I left myself open for that.

But that story I won’t tell, so I just said, “I think we both are strong-willed individuals that want the same thing; the approval of the boss man.  I’m getting a little more from him than Eddie is, and he’s probably pissed.” That sounded good, didn’t it?  Let’s see if she bought it.

She nodded her head. “I can see that.  He was staring at you so hard that I thought we were sitting in his seat at the table.”

I saw that, but I was hoping Georgia didn’t. Eddie and I try not to show our hatred for one another in family settings for the sake of his mother and our grandmother.  But the way he was looking at me, I could feel the rage pointed directly at me.  He and I would have to have some words about that shit.

“So your family… they call you Lincoln? All except you’re Aunt Angelica, Angel’s mom, and your grandmother?” she asked me.

“Yup, pretty much.  Sometimes my Uncle Bruno or Angel will call me Drake too. They use that name usually when they want me to do something for them, or I’m being chastised for something I’d done or said. But just like everyone else they call me Lincoln.”

She looked over at me. “Do you want me to stop calling you Drake?”

“No,” I said probably too quickly. It seemed to startle her, but instead of answering her questioning look, I just stared out the window.  I didn’t want to answer the question I knew she had because hell I had no way of explaining it. I just preferred to be Drake to her. As I mentioned before, it made me feel normal when she called me Drake. I wished I could be just Drake to her. And I probably could say that to her, and she would undoubtedly understand, but I didn’t.

“Has um…” I looked over at her.  She kept her eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel when she continued, “...Has anyone outside of your family ever called you Drake?”

We came at a stoplight, and she looked over at me. I kept her gaze and answered simply, “No.”

“Oh… Okay,” she said softly, and she fell silent.

I felt something starting to develop in the car, and I needed to change the air.  I couldn’t and didn’t want to deal with what I knew was starting to happen so I said, “Tell me more about what you went through in that foster home you lived at.”

She shrugged. “What do you want to know?”

I noticed her tense up and bring her right hand to her mouth. I took her hand and put it in mine.  “Whatever you want to tell me.”

She looked over at me quickly and said, “So are we sharing?”

I knew that was a loaded question, but I wanted to know what her life was like, so I said, “Yeah, I guess we’re sharing.”

“Then you will tell me about you and Eddie?”

I sighed deeply. I knew she would ask me again someday, but damn I didn’t expect it so soon. “Fine, I’ll tell you about me and Eddie. But you can’t tell me some bullshit and think I’m going to spill my guts afterward. Make it count.”

She moved to take her hand back, and I squeezed it, “No, I’ll keep this with me if you don’t mind.”

She looked over at me and smiled. “Okay. Well, my mother and father were not very nice people.  They were when the social worker would come by, but the moment they left, they were back to their mean rotten selves. They let everyone do pretty much what they wanted, as long as they benefited. Some of the boys that stayed there sold drugs and they had to give a cut to them as payment for staying there.  Mother and Father would threaten them all the time that they would call the cops on them or tell the social worker they didn’t have any more room for them to stay. The boys needed that house.  They were either running from their own home life, or they had no place to go.”

“What were the adult’s names?”

She looked over at me. “You know I haven’t a clue? The first day I got there, they told us to call them Mother and Father.  I was never around anyone that used their first names and they never called each other anything but Mother and Father.”

“So was the living area clean at least? Did they feed you and clothe you? They were getting money from the state to look out for you.”

“We had food there, but most of the kids pretty much ate all the food. Now Mother and Father had their own stash of food locked away in their room. So whatever we had in the main area is what we got.  Of course, they would stock up when the social workers came by but after that we were out of luck.”

“And none of you guys reported them?”

She shook her head. “No. Most of us were scared of Mother and Father.  They were crazy.  We learned to stay out of Mother’s way all the time.  If she told us to do something, we did it, or we wouldn’t eat or have clothes to wear.  She figured out a way of punishing us.  She didn’t put a hand to us, but she did it in other ways. Mother always told us girls that we would be nothing but whores, addicts or someone’s punching bag.  We wouldn’t amount to anything. She would bring suspicious men around us, paraded us around them like she would give us to one of them, stuff like that to keep us girls in line.  And these were very scary men. She was useless. She never taught us how to be girls.  I learned about my period from my teacher and nurse in school.  They knew the situation but in that neighborhood you have to understand; no one really cared, and if they did, it wasn’t received well.”

She pulled into my building, and when she parked, she turned off the car.  She started to get out, but I pulled her hand back. “What about the father?”

“Well, he was the creepiest of them all. We learned, some the hard way, to never be alone with Father and to never bathe when he’s home. He would talk to you crazy or grab himself when he looked at you.  He wouldn’t touch you, and I don’t think he went so far as to rape anyone, but he would do things like walk into the bathroom while you’re there and say things like ‘Oops. My fault. I didn’t know you were in here or bump into you and grab you close to him and say ‘Oh, I didn’t see you’ or ‘Watch where you’re going now.’ Sometimes the guys would watch our backs and stand guard for us, but they weren’t there all the time. And some of them were creepy themselves.”

I closed my eyes and cracked my neck. I couldn’t get a nine-year-old Georgia being in a place like that for as long as she was and go through what she went through. I didn’t want to ask this question, but I know it would bother me if I didn’t so, I asked, “What about the kid that assaulted you? You said you never reported him.  What happened to him?”

She looked over at me and said, “I’m not sure exactly, but I can guess. One time one of Jay Rock’s lieutenants saw Adam bothering me on the playground. He was trying to touch me and pull on me. I managed to get away from him, but not before he ripped my t-shirt.  Dawg, was his name, and he pulled off his t-shirt and gave it to me and told me to go see Jay Rock right now.  So I did and, well, that was the last time I saw Adam. I don’t know what happened to him per se, but the rumor was he owed Jay Rock some money, and he couldn’t pay up, so he had to pay with his life.”

I nodded and breathed out. 
One less person I have to search for,
I thought to myself.  I asked her, “Did any of the other kids mess with you?”

She shook her head. “No, not really.  I told you they all stayed away from me after Jay Rock, and his crew was killed.  And I told you I befriended two big ass dogs, so they became my bodyguards against Father and even Mother.” She shook her head. “Those dogs were mean.”