Chapter 9
“I’m happy for you to come with us, baby girl, but if you come, ride with Dima.”
My father told me to ride with Dima like it wasn’t a big deal, as if getting in the car with a man who looked as good as Dima was in my best interest. If he wanted me to focus on school instead of men, he was going about this the wrong way.
“Do I have to?”
I whispered because I didn’t want Dima to be offended. I just couldn’t be trapped in a car with him that long. I knew it would be torture.
“Yes. I want you to be safe. And the only way I can make sure you are safe is if you are with either me, Guard, or Dima. Guard has something to take care of, and my truck is packed down with gear. I need you to ride with Dima. Is that okay?”
I knew better than to tell my father that I disagreed with him. I had been the model daughter my whole life, and whatever Bishop said always went. There was no room to negotiate with him. His word was law, and I followed it.
“Okay, Daddy.”
I kissed my father’s cheek and trekked toward Dima’s truck.
He looked so good as he stood talking to some of the men.
He wore Levi’s jeans, cowboy boots, and his Durty Boyz colors.
He had a cross earring dangling from his left ear, and damn did that earring look good on him.
It made his one dimple on the same side more prominent than it usually was.
“My father said I have to ride with you.”
I folded my arms across my chest and rested my weight on my left side. My foot tapped against the ground on its own. I was impatient as I waited for what I hoped was a refusal. Maybe if he refused, I would be free to ride with someone else.
“Okay.”
Of course, he wouldn’t refuse. He ended his conversation and came around from the driver’s side and opened the door for me. He held his hand out to take my bags, and I gave them to him.
Dima had been a perfect gentleman, but it was something about him that I still didn’t trust, even after he saved my life.
There was so much about him that I questioned.
I didn’t know all the men in Durty Boyz, but a lot of them grew up in the same neighborhood as my father.
I even went to school with some of them.
But it was like Dima had dropped out of nowhere and made the biggest splash in my life.
“Thank you,” I said, taking his hand.
Dima helped me into the truck and closed the door behind me. Being alone with him made my whole body heat up. My every thought bent to his will, and now we were getting ready to ride in the car together for over six hours to the border meet.
I forced myself to settle into the ride, despite my apprehension. My mind coached me on how to relax, but my body wouldn’t loosen up.
I sat straight in my seat with both hands in my lap. Dima looked straight ahead with only one hand on the steering wheel. J. Cole’s newest album filled the silence between us as we drove.
Dima broke the silence with a chuckle rather than words.
“What’s funny?”
I was instantly annoyed. He hadn’t said a thing to me the whole ride but found something to laugh about.
“You know you don’t have to be so stiff around me, right?”
“Stiff? I’ve never been stiff.”
“You are right now. Look at you sitting at attention and shit. Why you scared of me?”
“I’ve been around a lot scarier men than you. I’m not scared of you, Dima.”
“Good, because I don’t want you to be.”
“Just because I’m not like the hos you’re used to, that doesn’t mean I’m scared or afraid.”
“You are a funny girl, Maeve. Always trying to win when I haven’t even set a challenge.”
“As long as you know I’ll win.”
I didn’t know why I was always snappy around Dima. It seemed like I had to put up this attitude to keep me from wanting to be close to him.
Dima brought out something in me that I wasn’t ready for. The way he made me feel made me want to know him. I changed the subject to salvage the little conversation we were having.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from Jackson. I grew up in the Queens.”
“How come I never seen you around?”
“I guess we never ran in the same circles. I mean, you didn’t technically grow up in the hood now, did you?”
“Something tells me you didn’t grow up in the hood either.”
“You don’t know nothing about me.”
“Which is why I’m asking you these questions. I need to know where you come from before I can fully trust you because, right now, it feels like you’re hiding something, and that’s fishy.”
“I’m not hiding anything, Maeve. If I was, don’t you think Guard would have found out by now?”
He had me there. If he was hiding something, Guard would have definitely been on top of that. It wasn’t much he missed when it came to protecting this family.
“I guess you’re right about that.”
“I know I am. Where is your mom?”
Instead of telling me the first thing about him, Dima caught me off guard with a question of his own. It was something that I thought he knew because everybody else in the city did.
“She passed,” I said, looking down into my lap.
I hoped not looking at him would make wherever this conversation was going easier. I could see the sympathy in his eyes when I looked up. That sympathy told me he really had no idea what happened to my mother. It told me he regretted asking the question, but it was too late to take it back.
“I’m sorry, Maeve. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah. I guess you didn’t.”
I adjusted myself in the seat before letting my body fully relax. I knew this wouldn’t be the end, and if I was going to talk about my mama, I at least needed to be relaxed. I wouldn’t be able to open up in that way without loosening up.
“You want to talk about her?”
“It’s not much I could talk about. I never got to meet her. She died giving birth to me.”
“Damn, I’m sorry to hear that.”
I could tell his apology was genuine. I had been hearing those words all my life, and I could always tell when they were said as a formality. This wasn’t a formality for Dima, so I went on.
“Yeah, me too. I wish I could have met her. I wish I could have got to see the side of my father that I’ve heard about when he was with her. Everybody tells me what a wonderful man he was, a man of the people, of the community.
“Everyone loved him, they still do, and I have to think that it was my mama who brought that side out of him. Without her, it seems that love turned more into fear. The type of love that he was able to give when he had my mom is different than what he gives now.”
“Why you say that?”
“Take you, for instance. Would you ever have saved me from that club the other night if my father wasn’t Bishop Moore and you weren’t afraid of what he would do if you didn’t?”
“First of all, I’m not afraid of your pops. Not even in the slightest. But if your father wasn’t Bishop Moore, we probably would have never met. I don’t get out much, so I damn sure wouldn’t have been in a club to save anyone.
“But if for some reason we did meet outside of the clubhouse, outside of the compound, I like to think that I’d still have this magnetic pull to be wherever you are. And yes, I would save you in any lifetime.”
My heart danced in my chest at the thought of him saving me, no matter the situation. This was the first time Dima let me in on how he felt about me, and he spoke in such a finite way, like whatever was happening between us was destiny.
I knew everything he told me was not only real but unshakable. I wanted to deny it, but I understood the pull he felt. I felt it too.
As the daughter of Bishop Moore, I’d always felt protected, but I knew most of the men did it out of obligation to my father. Hearing Dima explicitly say he saved my life because it was what he wanted felt so good.
Dima’s openness made the conversation flow easily as we pushed further into traffic and headed to our destination.