Tiara heard him spit. She knew what was about to happen. She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined being anywhere but there. She decided to focus on what Mario was saying to her to keep herself distracted from what was physically happening.
“Anyway,” Mario said, “he thought that place would kill you, but it didn’t. Without a legit death certificate, your mother and Vincent’s money started running short. And that’s where I come in. You have $ 2 million on your head. I plan on bringing it in and cashing out. I’ve been tailing you for months. You’re so wrapped up in your own shit you didn’t even notice.”
Without warning, he thrust his dick so forcefully into her ass that she screamed. He pushed her head into the comforter so hard that she couldn’t breathe. Then he pumped relentlessly and moaned in pleasure. Flashbacks of Doctor Pierce, Brandy’s death, and how disappointed her father would be if he were to see her now plagued Tiara’s mind. She had never done anything but cause people sorrow. Maybe her destiny was to live painfully and die the same way. Maybe it was time to accept her fate. Right before he was about to climax, Tiara felt the pressure lessen on her neck and heard the sound of a gun cock behind her.
“I gave your father the choice of having last words,” he hissed and pulled his dick out of her ass, panting heavily. His nut blew everywhere, but he didn’t care while he aimed the gun at the back of her head. “But you won’t get that pleasure.”
Bang!
When the shot rang out, Tiara tensed up, waiting for the pain to come . . . but it never came. Instead, she felt the weight of Mario’s body fall on top of her. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the back of Mario’s head had been blown off. She squealed and pushed him off of her as best as she could. Her body felt completely limp, and she was weak.
“Are you all right, ma?”
The voice caught her off guard, but she was relieved when she saw Stevelle standing there, holding a smoking gun. She smiled through her tears and nodded her head. She had never been happier to see Stevelle in her life. He was an absolute godsend. She felt in her heart he was meant to save her in that moment and in that exact situation.
“I saw a man sitting in his car and scoping you out outside of the baby shower. I was about to pull off, but something about him gave me a bad vibe, so I stayed back and decided to wait and watch for a little bit. I knew you were still waiting for your Uber, so I figured I’d sit around and make sure everything was all right with you. I saw when your ride got there. You got into a car, and as soon as you pulled off, so did he.” He walked over to where she was lying on the ground so that he could help her up. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get up here. The man downstairs wasn’t trying to let me through.”
He pulled Tiara away from Mario’s corpse, and without warning, she staggered to her feet and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, not caring that she didn’t have clothes on.
“Thank you,” she barely could whisper. “Thank you so much.”
He gently put his strong arms around her too and spoke into her hair. “I think we need to get you to a hospital, baby girl. We should have you looked at and make sure you’re okay.”
“No, thank you,” Tiara said as she lowered her head and looked toward the ground, “I’m OK. I’ve been through a lot worse.”
Stevelle helped Tiara walk to the living room. He turned on a lamp and sat her down gently on the plush couch. He sat beside her and examined her bruised face. He tried to keep his face as expressionless as possible, not wanting to make her feel any worse than she already did. Unknown to her, he knew all about her past. He and Clarence had been boys for a long time, and Clarence had told him what Elaya and Tiara had gone through while they were in the juvenile facility. When Clarence started dating Elaya, she always seemed to flinch and tense up whenever they would start kissing or if he tried to cop a feel. At first, he tried to ignore it, but eventually, he couldn’t help but to take it personal. One day, he finally confronted Elaya and asked her why she acted like that, and Elaya spilled her heart out to him and revealed everything that had happened to her and Tiara.
When Stevelle saw Tiara, he immediately remembered her from when they were back in high school. He had always like her and felt there was something special about her, but back then, he didn’t have the guts to approach her. After Stevelle told his boy Clarence about liking Tiara, Clarence told him everything he knew about the girls. He didn’t tell him as a way to talk shit about their issues or to make it seem like a girl like Tiara was damaged goods, but because he knew it wasn’t easy being with a girl with a past like that. Any other man would run the other way after hearing all of that, but not Stevelle. He looked at Tiara and still saw something special in her. Even with her being as broken as she was, he knew she wasn’t like the rest of the girls out here. When he approached her at the baby shower and they started talking, he felt a spark that he had been missing out on with every other girl he’d messed around with.
Now, as she sat there before him all battered and bruised, he felt a
