Mama's Boys: The Look Of Love - Mama's Boys: The Look of Love Part 33
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Mama's Boys: The Look of Love Part 33

"Dude, I heard you were shot." T-Lite fidgeted in his spot.

"Don't give me that. You may have been wearing a hood, but I saw your face." Gunnar lifted T-Lite's hand. "I also recognize this crappy homemade tattoo on your hand."

T-Lite snatched his hand away. "What? Plenty of guys have this symbol on the exact same spot on their hands. I ain't the only one. Hell, you have it on your head. You're one of us."

"I told you before, I'm nothing like you or any of the hoodlums you hang out with." Not falling for T-Lite's excuses, he continued asking questions. "Did you do it as some sort of gang initiation? Was that it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, man."

Gunnar pounded his fist into the wall next to T-Lite's head. The boy jumped and got quiet quickly. "Don't play with me. You could have killed me, or is that what you were trying to do?"

"I wasn't trying to."

Gunnar stood up straighter when T-Lite started telling the truth. The throbbing on his side started to subside.

"The guy paid me to mess up the salon. He gave me a gun in case someone showed up to stop me. But I didn't know you were going to be there. I held up the gun to scare you. Then it went off."

"Who paid you?"

"I don't know his real name. He saw the video I uploaded of you yelling at that guy in the salon from a couple of weeks ago. He contacted me and said that he had a job for me. So I met him at a McDonald's. He gave me five thousand dollars and the gun."

Gunnar racked his brain to try and figure out who would want to ruin the salon or hurt him. "What did the guy look like? Was it the guy I was yelling at?"

T-Lite shook his head. "I've never seen him before. He had a shaved head, kind of a crooked smile and a little taller than me."

Shit. Chuck. Gunnar knew his manager wanted him back to work. He hadn't known what lengths Chuck would go to achieve that.

Gunnar stared into T-Lite's eyes. "You are going down a bad path. If someone else had come into the salon instead of me, that person could have shot and killed you. If the police had been there, they could have shot you. You are going to have to change."

"Easy for you to say. You're rich."

Gunnar shook his head. "I started out just like you." To punctuate his claim, he pointed to the back of his head. "I made a lot of bad mistakes. Having great role models around me helped steer me on the right path. That's what you need. I'd be willing to mentor you."

T-Lite looked at him suspiciously. "Serious, man? For real?"

Gunnar nodded. "Boxing classes would give you confidence and discipline. I could teach you."

T-Lite smiled. "All right!"

"That is after I turn you over to the police."

The young man jerked like he wanted to run. Gunnar pulled him back and pressed him against the wall harder.

"You would rat me out?" T-Lite asked.

"Yes. You vandalized my mother's business. You had an illegal firearm. And you shot at me. You can't be rewarded for that. However, I will speak on your behalf. I'm sure as long as you testify against the guy who gave you the money and gun, the judge will go light on you."

The young man snickered. "Great. I'll tell them I have no idea who the guy is or where I can find him."

"But if you saw him again, you could identify him, right?"

T-Lite nodded.

"Good. That's all I need to know. Now let's find Drew and get you to the office."

"Damn."

"Watch your language."

Gunnar led the boy to the Drew, who quickly ushered them both to the office. After hearing what had happened, Drew wasted no time contacting the police.

The next call Gunnar made went to his manager. "Hey, Chuck. Are you still in town or did you already go back to Vegas?"

"Of course I'm in town. I plan to fly back on the same flight with you tomorrow."

Relief and anger washed over Gunnar. "Good. I'm here with the police and they need to question you about possible suspects. Can I meet you in your hotel lobby or something?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Chuck gave Gunnar the name of his hotel.

Gunnar gave that information to the police. The police managed to keep T-Lite, or Terry, as his parents had named him, hidden until Chuck came out to meet Gunnar.

"How are you feeling, champ?" Chuck asked him.

"Sore, but hopefully better soon." Gunnar peered over at the front desk where they had Terry hidden. He saw the boy nodding his head emphatically. "Yeah, I'm going to be feeling great in a minute."

Two uniformed officers approached Chuck.

"Hey, gentlemen. I understand you wanted to question me."

"More like get a confession. You're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder for hire." One of the officers pulled Chuck's arm behind his back to put the handcuffs on him.

"I can't believe the lengths you went to just to get me back into the ring," Gunnar said to his former manager. "That child you gave a loaded gun to could have killed me."

"You don't understand what your little sabbatical is doing to the business. Every day you're out of the ring is costing me money. I had to do something."

If the officers hadn't been there, Gunnar would have decked Chuck.

"I'll be happy to give you all a statement and testify when it comes time." Gunnar shook the detectives' hands and watched them take away a part of his life he wanted to forget.

One part of his life remained broken. He had to find Eboni.

Chapter 20.

"Drew, are you pulling my leg?" Eboni had to lean against the counter at the salon as she pressed the phone to her ear. She could barely hear Drew over the sounds of construction happening around him.

"Nope. We received enough money to fix the pool, redo the basketball courts, and even update the tennis courts. They're starting the work now. Can you hear it?" The glee couldn't be mistaken in Drew's voice. It didn't take him long to get the work started at the center.

"That's amazing. Who made the donations? Was it one business or several?" As soon as Eboni asked the question, she looked up and saw Gunnar walking through the front door of the salon.

Sounds around Eboni drowned out as she watched him stroll toward her. Her mouth went dry, but only her mouth. Her armpits, her palms, and the apex of her thighs all became moist as soon as she caught Gunnar in her sights. She dragged her tongue over her lips in the hopes of being able to say something witty or even intelligible.

Several of the clients gasped. News about Gunnar's shooting had kept some of the business away. Their die-hard customers had remained loyal.

Summoning some strength, Eboni finally spoke. "Uh, Drew, I'm going to have to call you back."

"Hey, Eboni, you know the guy who made the donation. He's that guy you brought here. Gu--"

Eboni disconnected the call and kept her stare on Gunnar, who carried a shopping bag in his hand. She hadn't talked to him since he'd been discharged. She had heard from her cousin that he'd stopped off at the apartment. She'd hoped to see him at the community center, but she'd remained in the activity room helping the smaller kids paint.

"Good to see you up and around, boss," Monica said and winked at him.

"Hey, Monica." Gunnar kept his stare on Eboni.

"Welcome back," Tisha and Tillman said at the same time.

"There's Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet. Almost." Shay laughed.

Eboni found nothing funny about the joke. Gunnar could have been killed.

When Gunnar stood in front of her, she opened her mouth to get out all her feelings. "You still want to sell this place?" Eboni planted her fist on her hip.

Gunnar didn't speak.

Eboni filled the still air. "This place offers these people a job." She scanned the clients seated in the stylists' chairs. "These customers depend on us being here. You can't think you can come in here and decide what's best for them." She halted her speech when she realized how much it reflected back to her.

Gunnar still said nothing. He stared at her. From his stoic expression, Eboni didn't even know if he still harbored some anger toward her or if he'd made the trip to tell her good-bye.

Unable to wait any longer, Eboni crossed her arms over her chest. "Well?"

Gunnar surprised her by kissing her first. He cupped her cheek in his large hand and lowered his head to connect his lips to hers.

Magic. Although she should have been happy, tears ran down Eboni's cheeks. She'd missed the kisses. She missed him.

When Gunnar pulled back, Eboni said, "Oh, my God, I missed you. I should have told you."

Gunnar shook his head. "Let me start and then you can say what you have to say, okay?" He wiped her tears away with his thumb. "You asked me why I never came home after I left. Besides you and my family, there were too many bad memories for me here. I wanted a clean slate, but I didn't want to lose you. You were so set on staying here, I knew I couldn't get you to leave. I didn't want to hear you turn me down. So like a coward, I never asked you to join me. I wanted to." He gripped her shirt and pulled her close to him. "I wish to God I had. Good or bad, I would have known. I could have given you the option. Maybe then we could have talked about what had happened with you." He brushed his finger over her stomach.

Eboni held his hand and kept her stare on his eyes. She started to open her mouth, but he stopped her.

"Please. I'm not finished." He cleared his throat and looked up at the people in the salon. "You should all feel safe to come here. The shooting that happened here was my fault."

Eboni gasped and moved in closer to him.

"My former manager paid a young man to vandalize the salon. I walked in on him and he shot me."

Mouths of everyone in the salon hung open.

"I was able to identify the shooter from a tattoo on the back of his hand. I found T-Lite, or Terry, at the Oceanfront Community Center. He confessed everything and we arranged a sting to get my former manager arrested." Gunnar brought his gaze down to Eboni. "He tried to trap me into doing what he wanted. You've never done that. Thank you."

Eboni smiled. Her insides felt warm the more he spoke.

"I apologize for bringing that kind of element in here. This salon is a good place." He nodded. "Virginia Beach is not a bad place to be. I shouldn't have stayed away so long."

"I don't know about that," Monica began. "I could live in Vegas."

Slight laughter filled the salon that had become deathly quiet when Gunnar had started talking.

"You told me how important the center is to you. I didn't want to help because that place held bad memories for me." He placed the bag he carried on a table next to Eboni. "After I confronted T-Lite, I realized how right you are about wayward kids needing a place off the streets. So"--Gunnar reached into the bag and pulled out a couple of containers--"I decided to take your advice, and I made some of my own hair products." He handed one to her. "That's the deep conditioner I used on you after you did your big chop. This one's a moisturizer." He tapped the bag. "I have shampoos and conditioners in here. I've talked to a product distributor. She wants me to try out the products here in the salon to see how people like it before it's released to the public. Once it is, I've already arranged to have a portion of the proceeds to go to the center. I won't earn a dime from it."

Eboni smiled and wrapped her arms around Gunnar's neck. "Thank you." She pulled back from him. When she glanced at the jars, she gasped. "You're calling the products Eboni's Essence?"

He nodded. "You're the inspiration. What else could I call it? Gunnar's Hair Goop?" He laughed.

"Wow. What a man," Shay said. "He started a product line and named it after you." She fanned her face. "Oh, my God. If he was single"

Eboni thanked her lucky stars Gunnar wanted her and only her.

"Needless to say, that means I'll be around town a whole lot longer. Hope you're okay with that."

Unable to speak, Eboni nodded her head.

"I'm also not going to fight anymore, and not because of the injury. My heart isn't in it anymore. I'm tired. It's time for me to do something else. As champion, I will have to defend my title at least one more time. Win or lose, at the end of the match, I'll turn over my belt."

"Guns, you're giving up the MMA game?" Tillman asked.

Gunnar nodded. "Ten years is enough. Time for me to do something else. I like the idea of training. Plus, I'll have product line and the salon, well, that's if my mom allows me to be a stylist."

"I'm sure she will." Tisha beamed.

"Thanks, Tisha." Gunnar directed his attention back to Eboni. His expression became somber. "I apologize for hurting you. I was upset and I didn't trust you. Thank you for not giving up on me."

She shook her head. "Never. I love you too much."

Gunnar breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Because I believe you still owe me an answer." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black ring box.

"Oh my word!" Monica sprang from her chair.

When Gunnar lowered himself on to one knee in front of her, the patrons and employees rushed to the duo and created a semicircle around them.

"Eboni, I have loved you ever since I first met you. I was a fool to leave to train for my career. You're right. I should have asked you to marry me. So I'm fixing past wrongs. Will you marry me?"