Page 39

Titan

H ours after Bailey stormed out I managed to pick myself up off the floor and stumbled toward the staircase that went down to the lower level of my home.

I left the glass, roses, and blood on the floor in the foyer as a reminder of my fuck up.

After I got downstairs I went across the room to my massive bar and grabbed the first bottle of brown liquor I saw and plopped down on the large sectional in front of my TV.

Then I opened the bottle and drank from it until I could no longer feel the hole in my chest or until I passed out, I was good with either option.

C runch.

I slowly felt my body become alert as my body started to wake up.

Although I still felt sluggish from the liquor and the stress from Bailey walking out on me, my first thought was I needed to make sure she was ok.

The look in her eyes before she left flashed across my mind like it was on a projection screen, and I felt like shit all over again. I had to make this right.

Crunch.

My eyes felt heavy but when I managed to open them, everything was blurry, but my ears were working perfectly fine. A strange noise woke me up, but maybe I was hearing shit because I was drunk.

Crunch.

Ok, I’m not that drunk. What the fuck is that noise?

I slowly turned my head toward the sound.

It sounded like someone was eating chips or an apple but that couldn’t be right because I was the only one here.

I narrowed my eyes so I could focus my vision on the dark shadow I thought I was seeing across from me.

Although it was dark, the glow from the television offered just enough light for me to see that there was a stranger in my house—no not a stranger—Anthony. How the fuck did he get in here? Did Bailey send him here and gave him the door code? And why the fuck was he just casually eating an apple?

“How the fuck you get in here? Do you know breaking and entering is a crime?” I said to him as I grunted while I sat up on my couch. I laid my head on the headrest and closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to stop the slight dizziness I felt from the movement.

“So is murder but if I cared about crime, I wouldn’t be here now would I?

Which reminds me, I looked around and you should keep a gun down here, you never know what crazy person can break into your house and eat apples,” he said with a shrug as he stood up and walked over to the wall to hit the switch to turn the overhead lights on.

When the room lit up I had to shield my eyes against the sudden brightness.

“You came here to kill me?” For some odd reason the thought didn’t scare the shit out of me.

Now that the room was better lit, I saw Anthony looked like an Assassin.

He was dressed in black camo pants tucked into a pair of black military boots.

I saw he had two big ass guns in a shoulder holster and a big ass knife on his thigh.

His black short sleeved shirt showcased his fully tattooed arms. Since he wasn’t dressed in a suit like when I first met him, Anthony was much bigger and more muscular than I expected. He was truly a G.I. Joe.

“Eh, it’s not entirely off the table,” Anthony said, throwing his apple core into the waste basket next to him.

“I just left my sister’s house after taking her to the ER.

I was on my way home when I decided to take a detour.

I had every intention of killing you, especially after I saw the mess upstairs with my sister’s blood.

And out of respect for her, I was going to make it quick.

Then I came down here and smelled the liquor and looking at you now…

nigga you look like death.” He stood up and came to sit in the recliner across from me.

“Is Bailey ok? You said you took her to the ER?” I leaned up, ignoring the pain in my head. I felt like shit, but I wanted to see her for myself.

“Why the fuck do you care? You the reason she was in that bitch.” Anthony’s voice was chilling, and I tracked his hand when he moved it to rest on the handle of the knife he had strapped to his thigh.

“It was a mistake; I threw a vase after getting roses from my ex-wife and her husband and I blacked out and lost my fucking temper. Bailey got hit with the shards and stepped on some glass. I feel fucking terrible.” I dropped my head in my hands, I felt like shit, and it wasn’t even from the liquor.

The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt Bailey.

“I love your sister with every piece of me and if I could take it back I would. Is she home? I need to see her.”

“You need to get your shit together and handle that shit with your ex first before you step to my sister again. What did Olivia Pope yell to Fitz on Scandal ? ‘EARN ME!’ That’s what you need to do with my sister, you need to earn her.

I didn’t raise her to be no fool. You say you love her so handle that shit.

” I nodded my head in agreement and then scoffed after it hit me that this big scary looking muthafucka just admitted that he watched Scandal.

When I realized he was still quiet, I looked up and saw that his face twisted up in disgust and he was looking down at the bottle of liquor.

“Didn’t you have a stroke or some shit? Should you be drinking?”

“Probably not, but I needed something to ease how I was feeling.” I sat back and exhaled. “The shit with Eva is really not that complicated but I do need to handle it. I just wasn’t expecting to see her when she showed up to my office.” I was about to explain, and he raised his hand to stop me.

“Nigga I ain’t come here to be your fuckin’ therapist because I’m not the one you have to convince; I came here to deliver on a promise I made you when we met.

I came here to make you hurt,” he said standing up.

“But if it makes you feel better I did speak with Bailey and offered my two cents but if she wants to work it out with you, she will.”

I was getting whiplash from Anthony’s mood.

One minute he was going to kill me then the next he was quoting Scandal and sounding a little concerned about me, he was definitely a little off.

My head was starting to hurt, so I rested my head on the head rest of my couch again and closed my eyes.

I was starting to relax a little and get comfortable when I suddenly felt a burning pain so bad, it felt like someone put a flame against my cheek.

When I jumped up from the couch my feet were a little clumsy because I was disoriented, but my reflexes were good enough to throw a jab, and it landed hard against Anthony’s jaw.

Instead of stumbling like I thought he would, his crazy ass just smiled and laughed when he licked the corner of his bleeding lip like he enjoyed the pain.

The blood on his teeth made him look unhinged and maybe he was but I still squared up with his big ass and got my feet together so I could bang with his big ass.

When I adjusted my stance that’s when I realized he had that long ass knife out and there was blood on the blade.

I reached up and touched my cheek when I felt wetness on it and that’s when I knew that the pain I felt was from this son of bitch cutting me.

When I swung again, Anthony moved fast as lightning and dodged my punch at the same time he hit me on the same exact spot he just cut me, making the cut bigger.

I clenched my teeth and held my cheek. I was shocked by the pain that lit up my body and he used my moment of distraction to tackle me with his shoulder.

As soon as my back hit the floor I swung again and hit him in his eye.

This time I hit him so hard I cut his eyebrow and again, this maniac smiled brightly at me before he took his hand and gripped a spot on my neck that shot intense pain down my left arm.

I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming.

I brought my knee up to hit him in his nuts, but he blocked it by moving his hips.

Still I swung at his ass twice, and he moved too damn fast and dodged them.

Next thing I knew he grabbed my right leg and put it in some sort of leg lock and bent it so that I felt pain shooting into my hip.

The pain was so intense I had to roll on my side just to relieve some of the pressure.

As soon as I was on my side, I tried to sit up and punch his ass in his ribs and kick him with my free leg, but he bent my leg more, and I bit down on my lip as I writhed in pain because it felt like he was about to break my leg.

When I tried to kick him away again he held my foot tighter My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw him pick up that big ass knife.

I started bucking and trying to throw him off of me, but his grip tightened and the pain in my leg almost had me crying.

My heart was racing because this muthafucka was about to kill me.

“You know, Titan, I appreciate the fight you’re putting up; you hit hard as fuck. I think my sister will be in good hands if she comes back to you,” he said chuckling and my eyes widened when I saw him pick up that long ass knife and swipe it across the bottom of my right foot.

“Fuckkkkk!” I yelled out when I felt the burning pain from his knife.

But this shit hurt much worse than the cut on my face.

He finally let my leg go, and I felt a split second of relief when I felt the pressure in my leg and hip dissipate.

I quickly sat up and grabbed my foot looking at the blood oozing from the cut.

“What the fuck?!” I yelled at Anthony’s crazy ass while I grabbed a napkin off the table in front of me to put pressure on my foot.

He chuckled as he used his pants to wipe my blood off his knife, not caring that his own blood was running down his face from the cuts in his eyebrow and mouth.

Then he picked up his gun holster off the coffee table and put it back on his shoulders.