Intrigued By Danger (The Danger Family #3)

19. Declan

19

DECLAN

A Few Days Later…

Since I was back with Elle, I’d been staying with her and was back to my old schedule, showing up to wake my son up and take him to school, and helping him with homework and putting him to bed before going back to Elle’s. It was a little after six in the morning when I let myself into the house and went to Donovan’s room to wake him up for school. His door was already opened, and I walked in to see him and his mom standing his mirror while she brushed his hair.

Donovan looked at me and perked up. “Dad! What’s up?”

“You up early. You must have known that I was going to ask if you wanted to stop and get some donuts before school.”

His eyes lit up. “Yes! Mom said you weren’t here.”

Me and Winter exchanged glares, before I looked at my watch.

“That means, we have to be out of the door in ten minutes or less, if we want to be on time,” I said, and left out of the room.

Winter was up on my heels before I made it to the living room.

“I guess you don’t live here anymore,” she hissed.

I turned and looked at her before I sat on the couch.

“If you don’t live here, then you cannot come up in here as you please!”

“Winter, you already know I am not doing this with my son here. I’ve been trying to meet with you while he wasn’t here for the last few days, and you’ve been flat out ignoring me. So, please continue to do that right now.”

She stood in front of me and put her hands on her hips.

“Why don’t you want to talk about it now? You don’t want your son to think you’re a piece of shit.”

“He would never think that, because you would never make him think that. At least you shouldn’t want to make him think that. I would never tell him you’re a bad mother. When you and I are happy, that little boy in there is going to be happy. So, I am going to force myself to believe that you only woke him up earlier than I normally do, because you wanted to go over some things before he went to school.”

She didn’t respond.

“Winter. I don’t want this to get ugly, okay.”

“You’re threatening me?”

“Absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head. “Did you not just hear what I said? When me and you are happy, he will be happy. Both of us still have to raise him. Be here later, so we can talk.”

“And if I don’t be here?”

“If you don’t, then, you just don’t. The longer we wait to have this conversation, the harder it’s going to be. My suggestion to you is to think about where you want to live, the reasonable amount of money you want monthly for the support of my son, and I guess… alimony—I don’t know the correct term for a long-term girlfriend.”

“Excuse me? You think you can just pay me off and things will be well? You think you’re going to stop me from taking my son back to New York?”

I was getting ready to respond when I heard Donovan’s door close.

I stood up. “Winter, I’m advising you to think this through. You really don’t want this to get dirty.”

“Dad, I’m ready.”

“See you later, Winter,” I said and walked away from her.

I walked toward him, mirroring his smile. The last thing I wanted to do was upset him before school. I grabbed his backpack off the hook in the foyer.

“Where is your lunch?”

“Today is pizza day.”

“Okay, come on.”

I opened the door for him, and he gasped.

“Dad, I forgot you had this car!”

He took off running toward my Mercedes Roadster. I’d had my car shipped here from New York, since I wasn’t going to be using Winter’s car anymore.

I turned and looked at Winter who was standing at the end of the foyer with her arms folded across her chest.

“Later, Winter,” I said, before shutting the door behind me.

When I got in the car, Donovan already had his seatbelt on, ready to go.

“You want to hang out this weekend?” I asked, as I pulled away from the house.

“Why? So, you can tell me why you don’t live with us anymore?”

I looked at him. “Whoa. What, now?”

He looked at me, and raise his eyebrows, like I would do him when I knew he wasn’t being honest with me.

“I’m just a kid, but I’m not dumb.”

“You’re right, Son. You’re not,” I responded, trying to think of something to say.

For the last few days, I’d been trying to figure out how to start the conversation with him while keeping kid-friendly, while also being respectful of his mom.

“I don’t know why I didn’t expect you to notice. You’re a smart kid.”

He nodded.

“Uh…”

I couldn’t remember anything those divorcing articles said, and it was throwing me off.

Donovan turned and grabbed onto my arm with both his hands. “Dad, do you need one of your pills?”

“No, I don’t, Son. Thank you for asking.” I cleared my throat. “You know I love your mom, right?”

“Yes.”

“Your mom and I love each other, but we stopped liking each other a very long time ago.”

I glanced at him, and his little eyes darted around like he was trying to understand what I meant.

“What I mean by that is, your mom and I, stopped making each other happy, and we decided that it’s best that we break-up, so we can be happier, and better parents for you, meaning we might not be living together anymore.”

“Are you breaking up with Mom for Aunt Elle?”

“What?” I looked at him and then back at the road.

“My friend at school said he saw your Wolverine in her yard when he got up for school.”

At this point, I knew it didn’t make sense to lie to him about Elle, but that whole truth was something that wouldn’t get told until he was twenty-one, if ever.

“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than just breaking up with Mom for Aunt Elle.”

“Is this about Mom’s friend at the beach?”

“What friend?”

“Um… um…”

“Hey, hey… if Mom asked you to keep a secret, then that’s fine. I won’t pry.”

“But Uncle Dymon said it’s bad to keep secrets.”

“Yes, only if someone is hurting you or touching you inappropriately.”

“Oh, yeah. He said that too. Are you going to be living with Aunt Elle?”

“For now, yes.”

“Okay.”

I turned into the drive through and looked at the menu. When I pulled up to the speaker, I looked at Donovan and noticed his lips quivering, and water filling his eyes.

“Hey, hey.”

Instead of ordering, I pulled off and into a parking space. I got out and went around to his side of the car and opened the door.

I kneeled next to him. “Donovan, talk to me. What’s wrong. Your mother and I love each other, still. We both love you. That is never going to change. You do know that, right?”

“This morning, Mom told me that you were gone, and we were probably going to have to move back to New York. Dad, I don’t wanna go back. Not without you.” He started sobbing.

I unbuckled his seat belt and pulled him into my arms.

“Son, you will not have to move back. I promise.”

I rubbed his back while he sobbed into my shoulder. I had to blink back my own tears, because the last thing I wanted to do was lie to him, because I didn’t know what Winter was going to try and pull.

I released him and grabbed some napkins out of the glove compartment and wiped his face.

“Sorry, this might feel like sandpaper, because ain’t no telling how long these been in here.”

“Dang, it do,” he said, laughing and moving his face back.

“We can go inside and get some out of the bathroom and then order donuts. How’s that?”

“That sounds good to me, Dad.”

He jumped out the car and I shut the door for him. We went inside and got his face cleaned up, before getting in line.

“Dad, can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah.”

“Does Aunt Elle listen to you?”

I looked down at him and then did a double take. “What you mean by that?”

“I mean… you used to get real mad when Mom didn’t listen to you.”

“Huh? How do you do know that?” I queried, shockingly, trying not to laugh, because he was just too damn smart for his own good.

“Well, you do this…” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “And this…” He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them slowly. “That’s the main thing you do when you get mad, and you make that face a lot after you ask her something. That’s why I asked. Plus, Uncle Dymon and Uncle Diesel said Pretty Quinci and Aunt Greysen listen to them. And I know Mom didn’t listen to you, so that’s why I asked.”

“Okay… Donovan. God, I hate your uncles, uh. Okay, yes, Aunt Elle listens to me, but I also listen to her too. Same as your uncles. They listen to your aunts. Your mom and I, both, stopped listening to each other.”

I was so glad it was our turn in line, so we could steer away from that conversation. I was going to have to, once again, tell my big head ass brothers to taper their conversations in front of their sponge of a nephew. It was a blessing and a curse that he was smarter than the average child.

After we got our order, I drove him to school, listening to and singing our favorite songs. I knew his mind was settled for right now, but I knew there would be more questions soon. When I stopped in front of the school, I put the car in park and looked at him.

“Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I’ll take the rest of the day to think about it.”

I smiled. “That’s fine. If you think of any questions, write them down, and we can talk about them.”

He opened the door just as the person behind me tapped the horn. After he grabbed his backpack, and extra donuts, he was about to rush out of the car.

“Bye Dad!”

“Whoaa, I can’t kiss your head no more.”

He leaned back in the car, so I could kiss the top of his head.

“We holding up the line,” he huffed. “You know people say we are rich and think we can do what we want. I don’t like that. Bye!”

He shut the door and jogged to catch up with his friend. I waved at the teacher before pulling off. After that conversation with my son, I was feeling good, so I decided to swing back by the house to talk to Winter. I really didn’t want to wait until I was off from work because she would try to disappear to avoid having to talk to me.

Turning on the street, I looked ahead and saw Winter standing in the yard pouring out a bottle of liquor on a large pile of what had to be my clothes. When she saw my car, she dropped the bottle and held the candle lighter against my clothes. I threw the car in park and jumped out just as a big pile of my clothes went up in flames.

“For real Winter!

“Yeah, for real, bitch ass nigga!”

I started for her, and she circled around the fire, and bolted in the house. Instead of going after her, I rushed around the house to the water hose, and drug it back to the front yard to try and contain the fire. Knowing that it was alcohol, I was going to need the fire extinguisher that was in the house. While I was containing the fire, Winter burst out the house with another big arm full of my clothes.

“Winter, what the fuck is wrong with you! Do you know you can burn this whole fucking town down, idiot! Stop! Go get the fire extinguisher!”

“I don’t give a fuck! Fuck this town!”

She charged the flame and was getting ready to throw the clothes, when I turned the hose on her, hitting her in the face. She screamed and dropped the clothes to protect her face. As soon as I turned back to the fire, she tried to run up again, but I turned the hose on her again.

“Stop stupid girl!”

She kept charging through the water stream, trying to swing on me, but I kept dodging them, pissing her off even more. While she was trying to fight me, the fire had jumped to the grass.

“Winter stop! Didn’t you say you was pregnant? Exactly, because yo’ ass ain’t.”

“Yes, I am!”

We’d circled the fire three before she tripped over the water hose and fell. The side of her hand landed on the fire, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. She jumped up and started looking at her wound.

“See! Stop being stupid!”

“Fuck you!”

She’d started to cry while she looked at her wound.

I looked up to see Quinci running over with her fire extinguisher.

“What the hell is going on! It’s a fucking burn ban! Stop with the water, it’s making it worse!”

“I know. Dumbass poured liquor on my clothes.”

I stopped the water so she could spray the pile of clothes. It took her a few minutes to get it under control, while I stomped and dug my foot into any spare embers that I’d noticed. The fire had produced a cloud of black smoke that was blowing into the sky.

“Winter, I am done being nice to you,” I told her.

She was looking at her hand, crying.

“I’ve tried to have this conversation with you, many times.” Quinci tried to leave, but I grabbed her arm stopping her. “We may need a witness.”

“I don’t want to talk in front of her.”

“Well, too late.”

Before she could think to run in the house, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and locked the doors from my security app.

“No need to go over how we got here, you already know that.”

She cut her eyes to me. “No one told you to go out and fall in love! We were just supposed to be having fun!”

“Correct. However, you were going to have fun whether I agreed or not. You were already having fun before I even agreed to do this. Before this moment, you were going to have a choice on how you wanted to proceed with—”

“I want us to be together! I’m sorry, Declan! Please!”

The look on her face told me that this was the first real apology that I’d gotten from her. I opened my mouth to respond, but the sirens blaring in the distance cut me off. I was thankful for because I was about to speak before I could process what I wanted to say.

I shook my head.

“Is there anything that I can do, please? I’m so sorry.”

“Winter, the time for you to do all this was when I was squatting down our wall, crying, begging you to not to want this, or to tell me what I could do to be better. You said that I should know. I didn’t know then, but I know now. I do not want this anymore. It’s not healthy for you, nor me, because we can’t be who we really are.”

“And who are you now? Elle’s bitch!”

I chuckled because I knew that sincerity was going to go out the window the second it didn’t get her what she wanted. I thought about answering her honestly, because hell yeah, I was Elle’s bitch, but I didn’t want to antagonize her.

“Let’s not bring her into this. Before this psychotic moment, you were going to have a choice whether to stay here or not, a say in the yearly price for you to live a comfortable life for however long you wanted, basically anything you wanted, you would have gotten, but now that’s over.”

“My son—”

“Our son stays here with me. Look what you did, you think any judge would give you custody? You look crazy right now. I told you I didn’t want this to get nasty.”

“Who am I looking at right now? Duncan or Declan.”

“You know who—you know what, let’s nip this in the bud, so I won’t have to hear it again as an insult. You can’t hurt me with that anymore. During this break, I came to terms with me being like him in many ways, and one of those ways is having the work ethic that allowed you to live a very comfortable life for the last twenty years. Never asked anything of you, but to be a good mom to Donovan. That’s all!”

Tears welled up in her eyes and slipped down her face. “You never loved me, Declan.”

That pissed me off.

“Maybe. Maybe not, but I’ve never hurt you, physically, mentally, nor emotionally. Anything you’ve asked me to do, I’ve done it. Change this, Declan. Change that, Declan. I don’t like how you do this, Declan. I don’t like how you do that, Declan. I never tried to make you be something that you’re not. I accepted the fact that you didn’t want to marry me or give me another child, but I was still here, never had a fucking desire to be with another woman. Never, ever.”

The sirens were getting closer, and I was thankful for the distraction because I felt myself getting worked up, but I couldn’t run from this conversation.

“Glad you’re finally being honest. Let me give you some honesty, twenty years ago, I got with the wrong twin. Didn’t know I was getting the weird one.”

Quinci gasped and covered her mouth. The firetruck and police car had kicked up rocks speeding down our street.

“You know Winter, I’ve been waiting for you to say that for years, because that’s actually what I felt. There was no way that a girl as beautiful as you could really like me for real. I thought I was just in my head, so to hear you affirm my thoughts is a good thing, because you know…” I paused, quickly deciding on if I wanted to antagonize her how she’d done me but thought against it. “Now, I know what discernment feels like.”

“Declan.”

The fire chief hopped out and rushed over to us.

“Is everything okay here? We followed the smoke?”

I ignored him, but Quinci pulled him to the side.

“Winter, I want you out of my house, by the end of the week, or before. It doesn’t matter. I want you out so bad that I am willing to fire up the jet and fly you out of here myself. You keep the 800 grand that you’ve stolen from me, and we’ll discuss your future payments when you’ve gotten your mind right. There will be no talks of a custody agreement. After you’ve gotten your mind right, you will be free to come and go as you please, because you know I would never ruin the relationship that you have with our son. You can play with my name in the public all you want but leave my family out of it. I’m willing to put all of this right here behind us, should you agree to those terms right now.”

“Declannn,” She dropped down to her knees started to sob again.

She crawled over to me and wrapped her arms around my legs.

“Winter, please stop.”

She ignored that and tightened her grip on my legs. The police chief eased his way over to us.

I maneuvered away from her and leaned over, getting in her face. “Agree to those terms, right now, or it gets nasty, Winter.”

I saw her gathering spit in her mouth and jumped back just time for the lob of spit to land on the bottom of my jeans.

“Oh, hell no, I’m calling Elle,” Quinci snapped.

I looked at Quinci. “No, don’t. She can’t be fighting with my baby inside of her.”

“Wait, really!” Quinci squealed.

Winter lunged at my legs, but I dodged her. The police chief grabbed her arms.

“Ma’am,” he said, as he struggled to hold her.

“She’s okay, Percy. She’ll calm down.”

“You got that bitch pregnant! It’s not yours! It’s Johnny’s!”

“Winter, are you going to agree to those terms or not?”

“Fuck you!”

“Oh well,” I said, and headed to my car.

She broke free just as I shut the door, and ran up, and started banging on my window.

“I hate you! I hate you!”

I let the window down a little. “Bye Winter.”

I started the car and pulled off slowly from her, careful not to run over her feet. When I turned off the road, I pulled over, and leaned against the steering wheel and cried. I never thought I would see the day that me and Winter end this way.

I was driving to Elle’s house, wondering what she wanted when she’d texted me and told me to come home for lunch. I hadn’t told her about my fight with Winter yet, because I didn’t want her to be worrying all day or out trying to go fight Winter. I wondered if she knew and just hadn’t told me, because I was sure it was all over town by now. She’d said home in the text messages, so I knew she wasn’t mad at me. I pulled in behind her truck and got out.

Walking in her house, the smell of food immediately grabbed my attention. I walked in the kitchen and Elle was standing at her sink, looking out the window. There were two plates of food on the stove.

“Hey baby,” I spoke.

She turned and looked at me, smiling. “Hi.”

I noticed she was in her robe.

“Are you okay? You didn’t leave after me this morning. I thought you had a last minute appointment.”

I was starting to get nervous because of how calm she was.

“I did. Not at my shop though.”

“Oh…” I processed what she said. “Oh! What did they say?”

I walked to her and wrapped her in my arms. The way she squeezed me, I didn’t know if she was about to give me good news or bad news.

“Baby, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

She looked up at me, wiping her eyes.

“Quinci told me what happened.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t call you, Ella. I didn’t want to worry you. I said everything I needed to say, and I’m done with her. Are you mad at me?”

She shook her head.

“Then tell me why you’re crying.”

“I don’t want to cause you any stress or your son.”

“Ain’t no damn way you trying to run from me right now. Girl, I will cuff your ass in this house by the ankle. Put you a lil’ camper or something back there for your shop.”

“Oh my God. You just got it all planned out.”

“Hell yeah. I been plotting since you left me sleep in San Francisco.”

I leaned against the counter, pulling her with me.

“Now, tell me what’s up, baby.”

“I’m just happy you are the man I fell in love with, and…” She pulled an ultrasound out of her pocket and showed it to me. “We are going to have the best daddy in the world.”

I looked from her to the ultrasound. “It’s confirmed.”

She nodded. “Look at it.”

“Della Thomas. I need to change that. Can I change that?” I looked at her, and her mouth was wide open.

“No… wait, yes, but you just keep looking at the ultrasound.”

I looked at it again before my eyes widened at the two dots on the paper.

“There’s two of them in there.”

She nodded slowly.

“Oh my God.” I pulled her into me. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have come. Please don’t leave me out, please.”

“Greysen came with me. I just wanted her there in case it wasn’t confirmed, and she could be there for me. I will never leave you out, baby.”

I looked at the ultrasound again, smiling. “Told your ass it was twins.”

“You ain’t told me shit,” she said, moving the paper out of my view. “Now, let’s get to the most intriguing part of this story, do I have a fight lined up after I drop? Let me know what’s up. I’m kidding, however, if we didn’t have your son to raise would I consider knocking her out. I don’t need him looking at me differently.”

“I’m glad you’re kidding, because the only fight you’re going to have is the one waiting for you in the bedroom, after you go cuff yourself to the bar.”

She looked up at me. “Wait, what did I do?”

“What did you do? Question, how many times do I want to teach a lesson?”

Her eyes roamed around. “Once.”

“Correct. So, how else would I correct you from calling Greysen before you call me when it comes to my kids.”

“But I made you lunch.”

“To the room, Ella.”

She dropped her head. “Yes, Master…”