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.”