Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It was always raining when things like this needed to happen.
She and Amari had moved out of their little apartment and now own a small house in Northside. The house he was still paying for some reason.
Danger had driven to her house on autopilot, rehearsing what he was going to say, trying to force the chaos in his head into orderly sentences.
But the moment he pulled up across the street from Zena’s house, his mind went blank.
The overthinking hit him like a physical weight, paralyzing him.
In the quiet of the car, his therapist’s voice cut through the noise.
She told him, “Stop trying to think your way out of grief, Danger. Just feel it.”
Through the rain-streaked windshield, he watched her. She sat on the porch swing, her head bent low over a notebook.
The downpour eased to a drizzle. Before his brain could talk him out of it, Danger was out of the car. His Jordan 1s sank into the grass as he crossed the yard, his Nike Tech tracksuit soaking up the mist.
“What are you doing here?”
Zena stood from the swing, dropping her notebook onto the cushions. She stepped toward the edge of the porch, her eyes locking onto his as he climbed the steps and leaned heavily against a porch beam.
“I came...” Danger swallowed, his throat tight. The rehearsed speech vanished.
He choked on the syllables. “I-I-I came to say… I’m sorry.
” He forced out a breath, trying to steady his chest. “I overreacted. When I found out you were involved in what happened to my mom’s…
I just lost it. My mother was my whole world, Zena.
And then you became my world. I couldn't wrap my head around the cruelty of it.”
Zena didn't move. She stood there with her arms tightly crossed over her chest, keeping herself guarded. But her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed. He had done that to her. Knowing he was the source of that pain made him feel like absolute shit.
“I know you probably hate my guts right now.” his voice dropped.
“But I can’t stay away. I tried. God, I tried.
But I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. The worst part is…
I can’t listen to the radio, I can’t open my phone, and I can’t even walk into a damn grocery store without hearing your voice.
Imagine hearing your own heart beating outside your chest, and you’re powerless to put it back in. ”
A tear spilled over Zena’s lashes, trailing down her cheek.
Danger stepped closer, the space between them evaporating. He reached out, his hands gently gripping her forearms. Slowly, he uncrossed her arms, forcing her to lower her guard as he laced his fingers through hers. “Open up for me, baby. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“But you already did,” she whispered.
The words were barely loud enough to clear her lips, yet they hit him like a physical blow.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” Danger muttered, his eyes searching hers, desperate for a lifeline.
She stayed stoic, though her hands were trembling in his.
“I don’t think we can fix it,” Zena said, her voice cracking as more tears slid down her face.
It felt like a suffocating eulogy for what they could have been.
Danger’s eyes grew watery as he stared into her own wet ones. “It was fun while it lasted, right?”
There were no more words left in the vocabulary of their tragedy.
Pulling her into his chest, he held her tightly as she cried, her body shaking against him.
But as her tears soaked into his tracksuit, the grief shifted.
It mutated into a feral need to hold on to each other before everything turned to ash.
One last time, she told herself.
Danger slid his hands beneath her thighs, lifting her effortlessly. Zena wrapped her legs around his waist, burying her face in the crook of his neck. The familiar woodsy scent of his bourbon flooded her senses, leaving her dizzy.
He carried her inside, kicking the front door shut behind them, leaving the outside world behind. He didn't make it to the bed. He laid her down right there on the living room rug. When her head hit the floor, it felt like a sinking ship giving in to the waves.
There was no gentleness left, only the raw hunger of two people trying to drown their pain in each other.
Danger dropped to his knees between her legs, his hands gripping her thighs and pulling them apart.
She was already slick, her body betraying her anger; he had always had that ungodly pull over her.
Throwing caution, guilt, and tomorrow to the wind, Danger leaned down. He dove in headfirst, his tongue finding her clit with precision. He applied the perfect pressure, alternating between long, slow strokes and a bruising suction that made her spine arch.
“Shitttt,” Zena hissed, her fingers rubbed his hair, anchoring him to her.
It was a total eclipse of her senses. The sheer desperation in the way he devoured her felt less like love and more like an exorcism.
He knew exactly how to break her down, stripping away her defenses until nothing remained but the heat spreading beneath her skin.
She unraveled under his mouth, her hips rolling helplessly against him.
When the release finally hit, it was spellbinding. A sob caught in her throat as her body convulsed, her walls clamping down around him.
Danger didn't give her a second to recover. He moved up her body, his chest against hers, smelling of rain. His eyes burned with intensity. He didn't ask for permission. He unbuckled his belt, parted her legs wider, and drove into her in one deep stroke.
Zena gasped, her hands flying to his shoulders.
He moved with a relentless rhythm, each thrust a declaration of everything they couldn't say out loud. It was chaotic, a desperate attempt to burn away the blood and the lies.
Zena met him strike for strike, arching her back, pulling him closer even as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She wanted to disappear into the friction.
Danger buried his face in her neck, a low moan tearing from his throat as he picked up the pace. The air in the room grew hot.
He gripped her hips so hard it would leave bruises, anchoring her to the floor as he hit the deepest part of her, again, until neither of them could breathe.
With a final pump, Danger stiffened against her, spilling inside her with a groan.
Zena cried out, coming all over again as her own second climax crashed through her, pulling them both under the current.
Slowly, their hearts began to settle.
Danger collapsed against her before he rolled onto the rug beside her.
Zena stared up at the ceiling as the adrenaline drained away, leaving her with the weight of her feelings all over again.
“You should leave,” Zena said finally.
He shifted beside her. “You dead ass?”
Zena sat up, pulling her shirt over her chest to shield herself. “Did you really think sex would fix this?”
“Nah,” Danger said. “But I thought we could at least talk.”
“We tried talking,” Zena shot back. “But you ruined it the moment you ate my pussy.”
Danger bit down on his lip. “Zena, I’m being serious.”
“And so am I.” Zena hesitated.
She took a shaky breath, trying to steady her wild thoughts.
“I need time. I need time to sort this out in my head. More than anything, I need to know you’re not going to hold resentment towards me. Just because your dick wanted me, it doesn’t mean your mind has forgiven me.”
Danger didn’t answer. He just got up and began to collect himself.
“I still love you, Zena. I always did and always will.”
Danger walked out the door.
Amari sprinted into Zena’s room.
“Girl! Look at this shit.” Amari gave her the phone.
Zena looked at it. It was a live video of Velvet.
“So like I said. Nigga’s at Royal Reign are grimy as shit.
Lisa is a fucking washed-up ass hoe that pimps out the artists at Royal Reign.
J-Rock a DL ass nigga that was fucking finesse and raping girls.
May he rest in hell. Supreme is a pedophile who preys on girls.
Y’all tell the FBI to check his hard drive.
Royal Reign has been praying on people for years.
I’m finally tired of this shit.” Velvet spoke into the camera.
A comment popped up on the screen. Asking her why she is just now saying something.
“Because I ain’t got no money. I asked for an advance because I gotta feed my damn baby. My baby daddy has been missing for days.” She flashed a baby on the screen that looked a lot like Tate. “I’ve been making music for years. Ain’t no way my royalty check is like 500 dollars.”
Zena stayed quiet. She couldn’t deny that she was a little hurt, but it was water under the bridge now.
“I got proof of everything too. Tell Supreme he’s going to jail next. If anything happens to me…Y’all know he had something to do with it.”
The live ended and Zena gave Amari her phone back.
“So shit about to get real. Apparently, Lisa was arrested a few weeks ago because someone accused her of sexual assault. I got the tea tho, a girl was at one of those parties, and they drugged and raped her. Turns out the girl was connected in Atlanta because her dad was a judge. Tell me why they searched Lisa’s house and found thousands of videos of her, J-Rock, and a few other people from the label raping girls.
She’s snitching on everybody. They’re gonna throw Lisa under the fucking jail. ”
Zena squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t put her emotions into words.
“I know this isn’t how you wanted Justice, but you are getting it. Everyone is. It’s a big ass civil suit coming too. They are signing petitions and everything. Fuck Royal Reign.”
By now, her eyes were open, tears rolling down her cheeks.
She sobbed.
She sobbed for the girls who were taken advantage of by the industry.
She sobbed for herself.
She thought about how she almost gave up on her life because she was stripped of everything.
If she succeeded in the pool that night, she wouldn’t have seen this conclusion.
As Danger had said…things did get better.
Amari wrapped her arms around her and held her. Her face was also full of tears. “I know, friend. It okay..You’re okay now.”