Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Scrapper

“Did you forget to tell me something?” he asked in that dangerous voice he’d used when things first sparked off between him and Danni weeks ago.

God, in the ten minutes since I talked with Ally, did she call Darius and fill him in on my work situation?

They were tight, but why would she do that?

Cautiously, I moved forward and put my purse on the island.

Then I said, “Ally doesn’t think it’s going to be a big deal.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Ally knows about it too?”

Okay, wait.

What was he talking about?

“What are you talking about?”

“You first,” he retorted. “What are you talking about?”

“The shit hit the fan with my cheating boss today.”

“And why does Ally need to assure you it’s not a big deal?”

“Because he came right to me and asked me questions about that file I found.”

I’d told Darius all about it.

At the time, he seemed unconcerned.

Then again, he’d trained Ally to be the investigator she was, so he would be.

“You think he’s gonna target you?” he asked.

“He came right to me. And he’s a jerk. And a narcissist.”

“And what can he do to you?”

“Fire me.”

“Can he blackball you?”

I shook my head and rested my weight into a hand on the island. “The firm isn’t that big. He doesn’t have that much power. Not even within the firm. The other partners are better liked, well-respected, and thinking on it, more successful attorneys when it comes to winning cases. Though, he thinks he does. Have the power, I mean.”

“Can he act on his own in the position he holds?”

Reflecting on this, I realized I’d panicked too soon.

I worked for attorneys. They knew the law. They also knew what could happen if you did whatever you wanted regardless of it.

Even if Jeffrey wanted to be an asshole, the other two partners would never let him put them in an untenable position.

“I don’t report to him,” I told Darius. “On the cases I work, I report to the attorney who’s handling them. But strictly, I report directly to the HR Director. She does my performance evaluations. And she reports to the partners. He might share with her he has an issue with my work, even if he has to make it up, but it would have to be really bad to terminate me immediately, without warnings or official writeups. There’s office politics and gossip, but it isn’t a toxic environment. They’ve let people go since I’ve been there, but not without cause. I can’t imagine the other partners would allow him to do something maverick, especially in a retaliatory manner when he was in the midst of hiding assets. That’s fraud. He could be disbarred for that. Even serve jail time.”

“So you’re good.”

“I think so.”

“Right, then now I wanna know, what’d you think? That I’d kill him?”

What?

“Who? Jeffrey?”

“No, Malia. Michael.”

All the air went out of me in a whoosh.

So it was breathy when I asked, “How did you know?”

The mood in the room, already not great, deteriorated.

“So you were keeping it from me?”

“No. I just…we were busy and…”

“Bullshit.”

“Darius—”

“I’m not that man. Not anymore.”

Not anymore.

“You’ve killed people before?” I whispered.

“You will never know.” Still seated, he leaned toward me, and his tone was awful when he said, “Never. What I will say is that I made an example of the man who wanted to hurt you, so anyone who might find their way to something they thought they could use to fuck with me, they thought twice. That’s all I’ll say.”

Okay.

I was reading this as the fact there was a good possibility that he’d killed people.

This was not knowledge I wanted, but it also wasn’t surprising. He’d been at the top of his game. Shirleen’s husband had been whacked years before, he was a kingpin, and they took over his kingdom when he was gone.

Darius did it to keep earning until he knew the ones he loved would be taken care of even if he was gone.

Shirleen did it because it was all she knew.

You didn’t get to that place in that world without doing what had to be done.

“Love me still?” Darius asked, but there was snideness to that.

Snideness that was hiding fear.

I stared at him.

Then I said, “Yes.”

He shook his head. “You know the man I am. That shit is gonna haunt us for the rest of our lives.”

“It’s gone. Over,” I returned.

“Really? So why, when Liam always wanted to be a lawyer so he can get into politics, is he now talkin’ about going to work for Lee?”

“He is?”

“Yeah.”

Wow, my boy sure shared a lot with his daddy.

“Well, probably because all you all are badasses, and he thinks that’s cool.”

“No, it’s because he knows he’ll never become a senator when his daddy’s an ex-drug dealer.”

I started toward him. “It’s not that. He’s sixteen. He doesn’t really know what he wants to be. But he’ll go through a lot of things he’s sure he wants to be before he figures out which path to take.” I stopped in front of him, but I didn’t touch him. “He’s proud of you.”

“I’m an ex-thug who fucked his momma when he was asleep and had to sneak around to shoot hoops with him.”

“Stop that,” I hissed.

“It’s true.”

“That’s not who you are. It’s what you had to do.”

“So why didn’t you tell me about Michael?”

“First, how did you know about Michael?”

“You answer.”

“No.” I said firmly, but then shared, “I didn’t keep it from you.” I threw both hands out beside me. “You’ve been around the last three weeks. I’ve been kinda busy.”

“And we’ve been doin’ a lot of catchin’ up, baby, and no mention of Michael.”

“You’re right. Because I didn’t know how to tell you because you’re insanely protective.”

Before he could retort, I held a palm in front of his face and his head jerked back when I did.

I dropped it and continued.

“And that’s not a complaint. I love that about you. Do I love you did what you did? No. Do I love why you felt you had to do it?” It was me who got in his face then. “Yes. One hundred percent.” I leaned back. “I wish you didn’t carry the burden you carry because you made decisions at seventeen years old no seventeen-year-old should have to make in order to take care of your family. But you made those decisions. You carried them through. They weren’t great, but you are far from the first person to make those same decisions, and you won’t be the last. But you’re not Tony Soprano, for goodness sakes, and I’m not Carmella.”

“Malia—”

I shook my head again. “Unh-unh. No. I’m glad we’re talking about this because we need to have this conversation so we can be done with it…forever. And I’m glad Liam is out on a date so we can do it, even though you two are still ganging up on me, and I don’t think he should date on weekdays. But whatever. That’s obviously going to be my lot. I’ve decided just to go with it. Like you two shouting at each other all the time. It drives me nuts. You both have feet. Walk to the other person and say what you have to say like you have manners. You both have phones, if you’re being lazy, text. But all this shouting, Lord. It does my head in.”

“As cute as you are, babe, you might wanna stay on target,” he warned.

Good advice.

“You’re Mister Morris.”

His whole torso shot straight, and his face closed down.

I didn’t care.

I kept at him.

“I know you think you let him down. I know that’s what’s eating at you. That’s the baggage you refuse to let go. I also know I didn’t know him near as long as you did. I still know you’re wrong. He’d be proud of you.”

“Careful, Malia,” he whispered.

“He would,” I pressed. “And he’s all over you. You raking leaves and bringing in the groceries and paying the bills and opening the wine before I get home so it can breathe. Also you taking care of your mother and sisters, your woman and your son, tearing strips off your soul so we wouldn’t do without. Putting yourself out there to work with your brothers, taking their women’s backs. That’s Mister Morris, Darius. That’s you.”

He started to get off the stool.

I moved to get in his way and keep him where he was, and thankfully, succeeded.

“When your mom hugged you, you should have seen the love that washed over her face. That’s because you’re hers. And that’s because you’re what she has left of him.”

“Quiet, woman,” he growled.

I didn’t get quiet.

I put my hands on either side of his neck and kept going.

“I honestly don’t care if you don’t believe me. I have what Mister Morris left for me. Liam has you teaching him the lessons Mister Morris taught you. I’m all good. And to answer your question, no. I did not think you’d whack Michael. Did I think you’d be pissed? Yes. Did I think you’d hunt him down and shoot him? No.” I flipped out a hand then put it right back to his warm skin. “Maybe rough him up a little. But that’s all.”

“Michael got tagged trying to sell a crate of AKs. At that time, he also had a key of coke and five pounds of pot. And this was when pot was illegal. The dumb fuck resisted arrest and broke the nose of a police officer. He’s been in prison the last five years. He tried to play the big man when he got there, ran up against the wrong guy, and now he’s the buttboy for a brick shithouse named Onyx. There’s no doubt he’s the one who told, but he’s broken. He’s learned his lesson. When he gets out, he wouldn’t mess with me, or Lee, if his life depended on it. Because he knows if he did, me, Lee, Eddie and a dozen other men would stop at nothing to give him right back to Onyx, who’s serving life without parole, and reportedly, he really likes his bitch.”

I winced, because…yikes.

I wasn’t a fan of Michael’s, but that was harsh.

Darius kept talking.

“And how I knew you knew about Michael is that Kenneth’s sister is running with the wrong crowd. He’s worried, Lena’s worried, and she came to the offices today to ask me and Lee if we could intervene. And she let it slip, thinking you’d already told me. I didn’t disabuse her of that thought.”

I stepped back. Miffed.

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

“You’re missing the point here, Malia.”

“No,” I said sharply. “I didn’t tell her we were together for years, and she was mad at me. She didn’t tell me about you and Liam, and I was mad at her. I thought we got beyond these lies.”

“None of you have accepted Kenneth. I can’t speak for her, but if I had to guess, she doesn’t want to give you more ammunition for keeping him out of the pack.”

“I like Kenneth!” I exclaimed.

“You think he’s touched.”

“I still like him.”

He dropped his head back and whispered, “Jesus Christ,” to the ceiling.

“Darius,” I called.

He looked at me.

“I love you, heart and soul, and honest to God, I wasn’t keeping the news about Michael from you because I didn’t trust you with it. I’m living in a cloud of happy goodness, and I wanted to just hang here for a while, and I like you being here with me.”

“A cloud of happy goodness?”

“It’s fluffy.”

He stared at me.

I stared at him.

“Fuck, I love you,” he said.

“Are we going to have sex on the kitchen island?” I asked hopefully.

“Absolutely,” he answered.

I could tell he was going to make a move to initiate that.

Except he couldn’t.

The doorbell rang, and when I saythat, I mean someone was leaning on it so it didn’t stop.

Alarm sizzled over the surface of my skin.

“Stay here,” Darius bit, and avoided me standing frozen right in his space as he got off the stool and went straight to the laundry room.

He came out of it with a gun.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked, my eyes rounding.

“Gun safe.”

“There’s a gun safe in the laundry room? I didn’t know that.”

“I know,” he said as he moved into the living room.

By the way, throughall of this, the doorbell didn’t quit going.

I went to my purse, nabbed my phone, and was wondering if I should have 911 ready, or Lee, or alternately Eddie, when I heard Tex boom, “About fuckin’ time. I was out there forever.”

I dropped my phone and went to the doorway between the kitchen and living room to see Tex walking in with a pet carrier in one hand and a massive Petsmart bag that looked heavy hefted over his other shoulder, like he was Santa Clause.

“Yo, woman,” he said to me, shrugged the bag off his shoulder and set it down with a thunk.

He then put the pet carrier down and unlatched the gate.

Tentatively, an utterly adorable, teeny, tiny, black and white tiger striped kitty slunk out of the crate, gazing around curiously.

“Kitty!” I squealed and dashed forward.

The kitty froze at my motions so I caught her (or him) before she (or he) could retreat to the crate.

I picked her (or him) up and cuddled her (or him) to my face.

Her (or his) fur felt just like silk.

Oh my God.

Instant love.

I looked to Darius. “Oh my God, honey. Kitty.”

“See I picked the right one,” Tex said, watching me contentedly.

Darius swung disbelieving eyes to Tex.

“Get over it,” Tex told him when he caught them. “You got a family now. Every family needs a cat.”

“Maybe you’d wanna ask first?” Darius suggested.

“You might say no,” he returned. He then jerked his head to me. “Though, she says yes. Anyway, quit bitchin’. I gave you time to settle in.” He lightly kicked the Petsmart bag with the toe of his boot. “Litter. Kitten food. Kitty pâté.” He turned to me. “They need a little bit a’ wet. Better protein delivery. But it fucks up their teeth. So they also need dry.” Back he went to Darius. “Toys. Treats. I got the litterbox in the car. And a litter mat is in the bag because they track that shit everywhere.”

Darius sighed.

Tex kept talking.

“Got his shots.” So it was a he. “And you’ll have to take him back in to be fixed. Also got a good vet. I’ll get you the number.”

He walked to me and scratched the kitten’s head with his big, rough fingers, and the kitty squinted his eyes with happiness.

God.

I loved him with all my heart.

“Named him Scrapper,” he told me. “’Cause he’s a scrapper. Found him alone in my alley. Scrawny as all get out. Barely alive. Bottle fed him. He pulled through.” He stopped scratching and said, “Also knew I was givin’ him to you, and it’s perfect. Because you and your man are definitely scrappers. Life sucker punched both a’ you, neither of you went down. Even if it kept hitting you, you kept your feet and carried on scrappin’. Found your way back to each other. Got yourself the lives you deserve. That means nothin’ll ever get you down. Because you two are scrappers.”

I stood motionless, staring at him, but even as moved as I was by what he’d said, I realized Darius was doing the same as me.

“Obviously, you can name him whatever you want,” Tex concluded. Then boomed, “Welp! Gotta go get the litter box then I’ll be out of your hair.”

And with no further ado, he lumbered out the front door.

I looked to Darius. “Can we keep him?”

He was looking at me and I knew with the way his face got soft what his answer would be.

“Look at you, woman. What do you think I’m gonna say?”

“The same thing Mister Morris would say.”

He closed his eyes and dropped his head.

I held my breath and waited.

He lifted his head and opened his eyes.

When he did, I knew he saw what I saw when I looked at him, and maybe, just a little (it was a start and I’d take it), he believed what I already knew.

He proved my thoughts correct when finally, finally, he said…

“Exactly.”