Chapter Three
"You wanna come home with me?" Alona asked seriously as Alexa pulled her purse onto her shoulder and stared at the time clock ominously, preparing to punch out.
"What’s the use?" Alexa shrugged. "I’d only be putting off the inevitable."
"How long are you gonna let him do this to you, Lex?" Alona pleaded with her softly yet forcefully. "What’s it gonna take to finally push you over the edge?"
"Lona, please, not today. I don’t need this speech from you right now. I don’t have the time…"
"You never have the time," she interrupted. "But I’m tired of watching you come in here every morning with a new bruise or a limp or a sprained wrist. You have to do something about Tyrell, Alexa. You just have to."
Aggravated to her breaking point, Alexa turned her back on her friend, punched out and headed for the back door of the restaurant. "You don’t know anything about Tyrell. He loves me. And I love him. He just let’s his temper get away with him sometimes."
The door slammed behind Alexa and Alona could do nothing but shake her head. She had no doubt that Alexa did love Tyrell, that was the problem. Her love for him was making it impossible for her to get out of a very dangerous situation. Alexa honestly thought she could change him. But Alona knew that she never would. Tyrell wasn’t the type of man who changed for anyone. You either changed for him, or he made sure that you were eliminated from his life forever.
~*~
Tyrell was sitting ominously on the black leather couch just inside the living room as Alexa walked in. He didn’t say anything to her at first, just stared at the television that was playing in front of him. Alexa didn’t want it to seem like she was brushing him off, so she just stood silently in the middle of the room. After several strained moments, he looked up.
"What you standing there staring at me for?" he questioned gruffly.
"You said you wanted to talk," she replied meekly, trying to meet his gaze. He shut off the television set and stood up, walking towards her. It took a lot to make Tyrell control his temper, but at the moment he was trying. After leaving the restaurant that morning his day had gone fairly well. Three of his associates had brought him the money they owed him, as well as the money that Matthew had tried to cheat him out of. He didn’t want to ruin it all by fighting with Alexa.
"Look," Tyrell said calmly, reaching out and bringing Alexa to him, "I know I got pissed this morning. I’m sorry, boo. But when I came in there to see you and you were flirting with that white guy…I just lost it. You know how jealous I get, Lex. And after the way you acted last night…all I could picture was his hands all over you." He leaned down and kissed her neck. "Touching you…" he whispered into her ear, "tasting you…" his tongue ran back down her neck, "doing the things that I’m supposed to do."
Alexa felt her knees go weak as Tyrell pushed his growing erection into her thigh. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck. "I don’t let anybody but you have this, baby," she purred, rubbing her body against his. "That guy was nobody, I promise. You believe me, don’t you?"
"Yeah, I believe you," Tyrell answered, starting to unbutton her blouse. "But you just make me so mad sometimes, Lex. You gotta stop doing that."
"I know, baby," she responded breathlessly as her blouse fell open and Tyrell bent down, placing soft kisses, ironically, over the bruises he had made. "I’m sorry. I’ll try harder. I just want to make you happy." And she did. Despite the horrors that he put her through, Alexa desperately wanted to be pleasing to Tyrell. And when he beat her, it was her perception that he was only trying to teach her how to please him. She honestly believed that most of the time she deserved what he did to her. A warped perception it most definitely was, but it worked for Alexa.
"You wanna make daddy happy?" he questioned. Alexa nodded slowly, biting her bottom lip. Tyrell's hands came to rest upon her shoulders and he applied a small amount of pressure. "You know what I like."
Without asking any questions, Alexa lowered herself to her knees.
~*~
The driving dance music was getting under Alexa’s skin. It was hard for her to be surrounded by such powerful beats and be completely unable to do anything about it. She wanted to dance. But she couldn’t. Tyrell was working tonight and he had asked her to come to the club with him. But until he could take a break and dance with her, she was only supposed to sit at the bar. It wasn’t exactly her idea of fun, but she knew if she followed Tyrell’s instructions she would stay out of trouble. And the conversation she was having with the bartender, Damian, was at least a little stimulating.
Alexa had just finished her third Screwdriver when she felt the presence of someone standing behind her. She turned around on her barstool and nearly spilt her drink all over herself. What was he doing here? This would mean nothing but trouble if he didn’t leave soon.
"Hey," JC greeted Alexa seriously, looking her up and down. She was more than pleasing to the eye in her short black miniskirt and tight silver tank top. But he wasn’t looking for pleasure. He was checking for any bruises. Bruises he was afraid he might have caused. Surprisingly, he didn't see any. ‘She must be an excellent makeup artist,’ he thought to himself.
"Uhh…hi," Alexa replied warily, looking around nervously. "What are you doing here?" She didn’t mean to be rude, but if Tyrell caught the two of them talking it would be over for her.
JC looked around and then turned his eyes back to Alexa. "I’ve heard good things about this place," he replied, confused. "Thought I’d check it out." He couldn’t help but notice that she was still glancing around the room quickly. "Hey…you okay? You look a little…disturbed."
"Yeah…well, you shouldn’t be here," she told him seriously. "At least not here talking to me."
"What are you talking…oh," he said softly, looking down at the floor as realization hit him. "I see. You want me to leave? I guess meeting new people isn’t something you’re allowed to do." JC couldn’t stop the sarcastic tone of his voice. He hardly knew this woman, but he couldn't stand to think of someone ordering her around like her boyfriend obviously did.
"Look," Alexa snapped, "you don’t understand. I made a mistake by flirting with you this morning. I shouldn’t have…"
"You didn’t flirt with me," JC replied sharply. "You just talked to me. The last time I checked, that wasn’t illegal. But ya know what? I don’t want you to get into any trouble because of me, so I’ll leave. I’ll do my best not to see you around."
JC turned to go but Alexa’s hand on his arm stopped him dead in his tracks. His eyes met hers hesitantly. "JC, I’m sorry. You don’t know me and I don’t know you," she just barely whispered. It was a miracle that he could hear her over the music. "Trust me, if the circumstances were different…if I wasn’t with Tyrell…I would love to get to know you…" her sentence faded away. What was she doing? This was crazy. Tyrell would kill her if he knew the thoughts she was having. But there was just something about JC. She truly wished that she could get to know him. If only…
"You don’t have to apologize to me," JC responded, interrupting her thoughts, his tone sympathetic now. "Wrong place, wrong time. But it was nice meeting you, Alexa. Like I said, I’ll do my best to not see you around." Again he turned to go but this time he ran into something very solid and nearly fell flat on his rear end.
"You just don’t learn, do ya Lex?" a deep voice growled.
JC swallowed hard. This was the absolute last place he needed to be.
"Tyrell, sweetheart, I swear this is nothing. I told you earlier…" her voice was shaking and it made JC sick to his stomach. The woman he had met that morning was not the woman she turned into when this Tyrell was around.
"Shut up," Tyrell demanded, pushing JC out of his way and grabbing Alexa strongly by her upper arm. "Let’s go." He pulled her up from the barstool and began to drag her away.
JC’s entire body was tingling. He couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. It was against everything he believed in. "Let her go," he spat out forcefully, praying to whatever god would listen that Tyrell didn’t just turn around and snap him in two. He cursed under his breath for going out without security this one time.
"Excuse me?" Tyrell barked, spinning around, his grip still tight on Alexa.
Alexa pleaded to JC with her eyes. He would only make things worse if he kept talking. But JC was in it now. It would be impossible for him to simply turn around and walk away. "I said, ‘let her go,’" he repeated, glaring at the tall black man who was now mere inches from him.
"Or what?" Tyrell laughed. "You gonna do something about it?"
"JC…please…" Alexa hissed, shaking her head quickly. The look of complete horror on her face made JC rethink his original plan. He put his hands in the air and turned around sadly. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but Alexa’s sad green eyes left him no choice.
~*~
"Stupid bitch!" Tyrell screamed, shoving Alexa across their living room. They had been home only five minutes but he had wasted no time. He had to teach her a lesson. She would never cheat on him again.
Alexa slammed into the wall and intense pain shot down her already tender back. "Tyrell, please baby, let me explain."
"Explain?" he shouted. "I let you fucking explain this morning and look where it got me! You ain’t gonna be out whoring around any more."
The tears came quickly and forcefully as his left hand collided with her right cheek. He grabbed a handful of her hair and forced her to look at him as he hit her again. After the fifth blow to her face, she crumpled to the floor, coughing on the blood from her own nose. "Please…" she begged him pathetically. "Please."
"Shut the hell up!" Tyrell demanded, yanking her back to her feet. His hands went around her neck as he backed her up to the wall again, banging her head against the hard plaster. "You deserve this, bitch! You hear me? You deserve this!"
On instinct alone, Alexa’s nails clawed at Tyrell’s hands. She had to get air. She couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred as his fingers tightened and her head hit the wall again. "I’m…sorry…" she attempted to choke out. She couldn’t even cry anymore. It seemed as though lack of oxygen made it impossible to form tears.
Tyrell held his hands firmly around her neck a while longer. Only when one of Alexa’s nails drew blood on his hand did he let her go. And then it was only so he could hit her again for scratching him. That final blow sent her reeling and she wound up sprawled on the floor. She attempted to get up but Tyrell kicked her swiftly in the stomach. The pain was too much. Her world went black as she fell back down to the cold and unwelcoming wood.
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