Chapter 28
“I can’t believe y’all niggas are in here talkin’ bout love when it’s all this ass getting thrown around.”
Mark laughed at his brother under the low, thumping bassline vibrating through the speakers.
Micah wasn’t wrong about the ass being thrown, but Mark was just fine sitting in the red velvet booth smoking a cigar and sipping top-shelf whiskey while an increasingly tipsy Orion poured his heart out.
“I’m just sayin’,” he slurred. “Where is the love? Where’s the fuckin’ love for the nigga who gave you three sons?”
Mark frowned. “Ain’t it the other way around?”
Orion shrugged a shoulder. “Point is, I ain’t just a random nigga off the street.”
Mark watched Inferno do her famous fire twerk, laughing to himself as the guys clowned Drew. The dance must have triggered a flashback for him.
“She’s with me, now. Let it go.”
Mark looked at Luke, stifling a smile. He needed to be in front of somebody’s camera. Mans was on par with Denzel at this point.
“Her being with you…that don’t mean shit,” Orion said. “You fuckin’ her?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mark cautioned, his eyes going straight to Davion at the table near the stage. “Watch out. That ain’t none of your business.”
“Yes the fuck it is,” Orion snapped. “I still love her and she still loves me. I was her first. That means something to a woman.”
“Did it mean something to you ?” Mark asked. Pure curiosity.
“Of course.” Orion downed another shot.
“Not enough to keep you from fuckin’ another woman though, right?”
Luke looked over at Mark, his eyebrows lifting.
Orion stared hard. “You be actin’ all high and mighty. Walkin’ around like your shit don’t stink.”
Mark shrugged.
“You ain’t perfect, nigga.”
“Didn’t say I was. I ain’t cheat on my wife, though.”
Luke’s looked back and forth between them as the tension rose.
“You more offended than she is,” Orion said. “If she’s such a victim, why she keep letting me hit?”
Mark’s blood ran cold, his teeth gritting so hard, his temples bulged.
The first time was questionable, but this time?
Mark knew there had to be some truth to it.
“That’s why I’m telling you,” he pointed at Luke. “You can sit next to her all you want to. Fetch her little drinks. Whatever the fuck. But you not up in them guts like I am.”
Luke blinked.
“I had her first, and I had her last. Checkmate, nigga.”
Orion’s smirk made Mark’s fist clench at his sides, but before Kez could make an appearance, two of the ladies approached the table offering lap dances.
Mark waved them away, but Orion and Luke were happy to oblige.
Davion and his brothers were laughing it up at their table, something that calmed Mark for some reason. He was leaving his daughter in the hands of a young man who wasn’t into the silly boys will be boys shit. Nothing wrong with being here, but he wasn’t acting a fool about it. He knew what he had waiting for him at home.
So did Mark.
He blew out a breath at the thought of her. If what Orion said was true…he didn’t wanna go there. It would mean she lied. Disregarded what he thought they were building together. And he couldn’t handle that. They were too old for the bullshit. If she was still fucking around with Orion at all, this shit between them was dead and buried.
“Calm down,” Micah told his brother. “It ain’t worth it.”
Mark waved that off as he glared at Orion. They were three seats apart on the party bus. All Mark had to do was hop over the seats and he could be on his ass.
“Look, whatever’s going on, you too goddamn old to be fighting.”
“Who said I wanna fight?”
“I see that look, nigga. I know you.”
“Then you should know you’re pissing me off right now.”
“I’m your little brother. That’s my job.”
“Not tonight it ain’t. I got shit coming at me from all sides. I ain’t in the fuckin’ mood.”
“Aight.” Micah sat back and stared out the window. “I’ll mind my business.”
“Please.”
“I’ll let you crash out.”
“Whatever.”
The whole ride back to the villa, all he could think about was her, which made him angrier and angrier. He hadn’t been this mad at her since right before he left for law school.
As they approached the villa, Amari perked up at something outside his window.
“Aye, look. They’re on the beach dancing.”
The younger guys all moved to the right side of the bus to gawk at the bridesmaids.
On the beach, just outside the villa, the women danced barefoot in the moonlight, their dresses clinging to their curves, laughter catching the wind. The music from a Bluetooth speaker drifted toward the road like a cloud.
“Oh, shit,” Drew said, doing the Birdman handrub. “I know where I’ll be.”
Mark squared his shoulders, telling himself to keep cool. Because he knew where he’d be, too, and it just might get ugly.