The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

In less time than it took to blink, she had the knife held up to Meena’s throat and it didn’t even matter that Caleb and Tyler were standing there.  Tyler knew he could easily take her out, but what if Bella hurt Meena in the process?  If she somehow managed to injure her or worse, to kill her, Tyler knew he wouldn’t be able to live with it.  It would destroy him, utterly and completely.  He felt paralyzed and he could see when he glanced at Caleb’s face that his friend was grappling with the same problem.  They couldn’t move, couldn’t think.  How had everything gone so quickly from a light hearted good time to this?

“Bella!”

“No, don’t worry.  I’ve got this.  I can do this, Daddy, I can take care of this little problem.”

“Bella, you will listen to your father or you will pay the consequences.”

The knife in Bella’s hand wavered and the look in her eyes became less certain.  Good, that had to be a good development.  Even a girl as crazy as Bella knew that when her father spoke, you listened.  When he gave an order, you obeyed.  She had already tested the limits of that once and it had gotten her banished for almost three years.  What would he do if she disobeyed him now?

“But Daddy-”

“No.  I believe you’ve made enough of a fool out of yourself for one evening, don’t you?  I can see now that I allowed you out amongst my people much earlier than I should have.  I caved to your requests because you’re my daughter and I want you to be happy.  I will not make a mistake like that again.  Now, drop the knife and step away from that girl.”

“What do you care about this little bi*ch?”

“I’ll thank you not to call her that.  Her name is Meena, and I’m quite fond of her.  Sometimes I think she’s the daughter I should have had.  You could learn something from her.  You could learn how to control yourself.”

Bella’s mouth hung open, just hung there, and her eyes opened so wide it looked like they were about to pop out of her head.  Tyler had a pretty good feeling that nobody had ever spoken to her that way, not in her whole entire life.  Everyone was watching her, including Tyler, who was trying to figure out whether she was smart enough to put her weapon down or if her need to save face would override any common sense she might have had. 

“Fine.  That’s just fine.  You know what?  You guys ain’t worth it, not worth my time.  A bunch of freaks, that’s what you are.  A bunch of freaks and you deserve each other.  I don’t want a thing to do with you.  You deserve each other.”

Bella let the knife drop to the floor, her hand held up in the air in the shape of a claw.  She looked like she was about to pounce on all three of them for a moment but then her body sagged, all of the anger that had been energizing her seemingly gone, and she turned abruptly away from the three of them.  Jesus, Tyler had never been so happy to see a woman walk away from him.  He glanced over at Meena and Caleb and received a reassuring smile from both of them. 

It looked like they had survived the attack, as Bella was currently blowing past all of the stunned people in the restaurant and through the front door, barreling straight into some poor bas*ard who just happened to be walking past the storefront at the wrong time.  Geno made his way through the now very loud throng of people, a look of deep regret lining his face.

“Christ, I’m sorry about that, boys.  And good god, to you Miss Meena.  I don’t know how to apologize enough for the way my daughter treated you.  She’s my blood and I love her, but there’s no denying that she’s an unholy mess.  I’ll see that she doesn’t trouble you again.  Believe me, if she does, it’ll be the last thing she ever does.”

“Please, Geno.  It isn’t anything.  Women get like that, don’t we?  It’s in our nature, maybe.  Look at it this way.  Your daughter has a passionate heart.  That’ll serve her well someday, I would be willing to bet money that it will.”

“You really are one hell of a woman,” Geno laughed and shook his head, “only a hell of a woman could say a thing like that.  Can I get you anything?  I want you to enjoy the evening, don’t want my brat of a daughter to ruin it all.”

“She didn’t ruin anything.  Let’s just call it lively entertainment.  But no, I don’t need anything.  I was actually thinking of heading home, if that’s alright.  I’m feeling a bit like being a homebody at this point.”

“I don’t blame you.  I’m sorry to see you go, but I don’t blame you one bit.  Are your men going to accompany you or should I send you an escort?  I don’t want to overstate things, but just in case my daughter got it into her head to wait and exercise some kind of revenge, I want to be sure that you’re taken care of.”

“I’m going with her, don’t worry about that.”

“Me too,” Tyler interjected quickly, wanting to make sure he wasn’t let out or forgotten.  Meena looked back and forth between the both of them and began to laugh.  It really was a contagious sound, like happy little bells all ringing together in perfect harmony.  Tyler and Caleb’s eyes met and they couldn’t help it; they started laughing too, great big booming laughter that felt like a cleanse after the tension they had just dealt with.  When Geno joined in as well, Tyler knew everything was going to be just fine.  Geno nodded, gave him a wink, and turned to mingle with his other guests. 

Tyler linked arms with Meena as Caleb linked his arm through her other one and they made their way towards the same door Bella had shot through in such a rage.  It struck Tyler as funny how people could walk through the same places, pass through the same doors, like nothing was different.  It was the experiences going on inside a person that made him different.  It was the mind of a person that made all of the difference in his experience of the world and that was something nobody else could even see.