Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Yikes!
I decided to change the subject.
“My car—”
“Matt or Bobby will bring it to you.”
“Who are Matt and Bobby?”
“They work for Lee.”
“They don’t have a key.”
He was again silent.
Right.
They didn’t need a key.
Interesting.
Although I wanted to know more about that (and, indeed, everything about the New Darius, though I wouldn’t admit that to myself, and definitely not him), I decided it was time for another change of subject.
Though, the subject I picked was trying to learn something about the New Darius.
“So how is it…working with Lee?”
“You wanna be friends now? Catch up? Get to know one another?”
“I’m just carrying on a conversation.”
“I’m good with silence.”
Hang on a second.
Was he….
Mad at me?
“Are you mad at me?”
“The last time I saw you I was in a hospital bed with holes in my legs and a fractured skull.”
“Yes, and I’d just found out you’d been deceiving me for years.”
“Keeping something from you to keep you safe,” he corrected.
“Toe-may-toes, toe-mah-toes, I guess. Am I right?” I sniped.
He sighed. “Let’s not do this.”
I strained the seatbelt to turn more fully to him.
“No. Let’s.”
“It’s copasetic. You got Liam. I got Liam. It’s working. Let’s not rock that boat.”
I felt like boat rocking.
I felt like tsunami-ing that motherfucker.
“You kept us apart, but you got the best of both worlds,” I accused.
He burst out laughing, but there was zero humor to it.
It was the ugliest sound I’d ever heard.
“Stop it,” I hissed.
“Yeah, walk in the park for me, babe,” he bit. “It was awesome. Most of the time, I slept alone. You got to see him take his first steps. You got to go to the awards dinners at the school.”
“It was your choice to be absent from that.”
“It wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity. This is what you’re not getting.”
“One thing I definitely get, it wasn’t my choice. None of it.”
Suddenly, he swung into a parking spot on the street, the move so unexpected, I automatically reached to the dash to hold on.
And then he turned on me.
“I had someone workin’ for me. He was a pissant. I shook him loose. He didn’t like that. He wanted payback. He asked around, don’t know who talked, still wish I could find that motherfucker, but he found out about you and Liam.”
I sat very still and stared at him.
“It wasn’t to get something out of me. He didn’t want anything from me, except for him to know he put the hurt on me. He was just gonna fuck you two up.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” he said sharply. “I don’t know if he meant to kill you or beat you or rape you or all three. I just know he didn’t get the chance. I also knew I couldn’t let anyone else get the chance. So I crept around…for fuckin’ years…to give the both of you the only things I had to give. A little bit of time and a lot of money. I’m sorry that wasn’t enough for you, Malia, but that was all I had at the time. But when Liam was ready, fate fucked us over yet…fuckin’…again. And after I survived that, it was you who walked away. Suck it up. I lied to see my boy. Suck it up. I couldn’t give you all you needed. You’ve made it clear you can’t live with that, now I gotta suck it up. What I don’t gotta do is like it.”
After delivering that, he turned back to the wheel and pulled into the road.
I had a lot to process as he drove me home, and I didn’t have enough time to do it.
I also hadn’t found the words to say anything after all he’d said before he was in my drive and idling.
I found the words and said them. “I think we need to talk.”
“Done talkin’.”
“Darius—”
He shook his head. “I killed it. I get it. You move on. Our boy’s old enough he can be our go between. It’s working. Let’s not fuck it up.”
“I think…I need to buy him a car.”
“Fine,” he said tersely. “Have him pick what he wants, I’ll go get it for him.”
“Darius, I only said that to demonstrate—”
“Get out of my truck, Malia.”
“Dar—”
His belt zipped back, my belt zipped back (and I didn’t unbuckle it), and then I was crowded into the corner of the seat and door when he was smack in my face.
“Get out…of my…fuckin’ truck…woman,” he growled.
I stared into his cold, dead eyes.
And I didn’t believe in that coldness or deadness for one single second.
“Do I…uh, talk to Ally about, you know, looking into the hinky clients?” I asked.
He sat back in his seat, rested his head against the headrest and said to the roof of the cab, “Jesus.”
I put my hand to the door handle and said, “I’m just gonna…um, go.”
He turned to me. “Yeah. Do that.”
“Thanks for, like, you know, saving me from myself.”