5. Turk #2
‘Cause foreal, whether they stay broken up or not, Pay not going nowhere where I don’t have access to her and my seed. Whether she wanna admit that’s my baby or not. And shit, if it’s really not my kid, that’s my kid anyway, so tough titty.
I ring the doorbell this time instead of barging in. A minute later, Pay opens the door, looking exactly how she feels. Eyes red, hair in a bun, wearing an oversized shirt. She forces a smile when Deuce hugs her before running into the house.
Her eyes stay on our feet, and I can’t stop the scoff. This ain’t the same Pay that would hand my ass to me any chance she got.
“Ay, go shower, bro.”
“Fuck you, Royce,” she hisses, and walks back into the house.
I don’t let her get far, though. Before she takes her third step I wrap my arm around her expanding waist and bring her close.
With my free hand, I pinch her chin, making those pretty eyes of hers land on mine.
It’s so much pain in them, shit makes me wanna knock some sense into both her and Autumn.
It makes me wanna go back to the first time she felt pain and lay out whoever was the cause.
Patience isn’t meant to be sad. She damn sure isn’t meant to hold her head down.
“Shit’s gone be back on track, aight? Ion know why y’all beefed out, but I know Auty, and she loves you like crazy. This is just a minor speed bump, okay?”
Something flashes through her eyes so fast I think I’m hallucinating, but she blinks and they’re clear again. She nods, and gently twists out my embrace. I let her, and she scurries up them steps like she’s on fire.
I go into the living room and turn on the tv.
Wynter’s supposed to be picking up Deuce to take him to see Autumn, since she’s the one who hooked Autumn up with the crib she’s staying at right now anyway.
The details on that are still murky, but no matter how tough Autumn tries to act, I know she wants to be close with her twin.
So even though Wynter is bullshit and fucking on that East Kenton nigga, Autumn wouldn’t have Deuce around nothing crazy.
Still, I’m sticking around to put the fear of God in her nigga. I don’t care about no fucking rap beef. I’ll lay them both out over Autumn and Deuce and have no trouble looking them in the eyes after.
Cocoa butter and cinnamon caresses my nose as soft footfalls come into the living room behind me.
I turn to see Pay, in clean clothes, hair wet and curly and wild, looking way better than I’ve seen her.
A small smile fights to stay off her lips as she takes the seat to the side of me and pulls her legs up.
“Feel better?” I rasp. My heart’s doing some dumb shit in my chest like I haven’t spent the last four years seeing and ragging on this girl.
She nods and her teeth rake over that full bottom lip.
Shorty always been bad, but this vulnerable look on her, this almost the most open she’s ever been with me. And the way my dick is pushing on the zipper of my jeans, I think I like this contrite look on her.
“Why y’all on the outs?”
Her eyebrows kiss. “She didn’t tell you?”
“Nope. That’s why I’m asking you.”
Something akin to relief lights in her eyes before she raises that chin and I know the old Pay is back. “It’s really none of your business, Royce.”
I think she wants to come off condescending, or disgusted, but really, there’s no real heat in her words. I pull one corner of my mouth up and shake my head at her ass.
“Yo attitude is out of this world. I got something for that, though.”
She folds her little arms over her chest, and her little belly comes out to play under her shirt. “You can’t give me shit but a headache.”
“Oh, I’ve given yo ass way more than just a headache, princess.” My eyelids lower when she draws a quick breath. Her nipples are hard as fuck, peeking out of her shirt, and she starts to squirm.
Interesting.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispers.
I’m up and on her in seconds, leaning with my hands on the armrests, caging her in. “Nah, I think I will.”
“Royce–”
“You like that shit,” I growl, leaning in. I feel myself getting drunk on her scent. Her gaze keeps switching from either of my eyes down to my mouth, and when I lick my lips, she tracks the movement.
“I–”
I open my mouth to interrupt her ass again when the doorbell sounds off.
I look back toward the door, eyes furrowed, but that gives Pay a way to get from under my arms. I try to call her back, since she going to the door blind.
I done distracted her fine ass so bad she didn’t even check the camera from her phone.
I’m hot on her heels as she makes it to the door. She opens it and swings it wide, and even from the back I can tell her whole body goes stiff.
“Hey, Pay!” Wynter, oblivious to Pay freezing, gives her an air kiss before coming into the house. She notices me and smiles. “Hey, Turk. Where’s the bathroom?”
I point her to the guest bath but she rushes up the stairs, and I don’t take my eyes off the scene unfolding in front of me.
Pay’s backing up slowly, shaking her head back and forth. Cochise, Wynter’s boyfriend, looks like he’s seen a ghost. His mouth is parted, and while Pay’s backing up, he’s slowly walking into the foyer.
Pay backs all the way up to my chest, and I place my hand at the small of her back for support. I don’t like how this nigga is looking at her, and I damn sure don’t fuck with how she’s acting like this nigga finna kill her.
“Fox? Is it really?” Cochise sounds like he about to have a heart attack. Chest heaving and all that. “How? W-when?”
Pay’s just staring at him, tears running down her face, mouth pursed. She’s vibrating so bad I’m ready to body this nigga for even getting this reaction out of her.
“Say something!” he grits when she stays quiet. “I thought… we thought…”
“You know this nigga, Pay?”
Cochise's face hardens as he shifts from Pay to me, as if he’s just now realizing I’m here. Nigga stands up straight and all, putting his weight on his feet and not that cane he walk around with.
“This got nothing to do with you, cuz.”
I smirk, wrapping my arm around Patience’s chest. She melts into the embrace immediately, and that makes my own chest swell. “Anything involving this one got everything to do with me, foe. Find you something safe to do.”
I bring my lips to Pay’s earlobe and kiss it. “Go upstairs,” I whisper to her. She obeys me, and his weird ass watches her go up the stairs and disappear down the hall. When he finally looks at me, I’m already mugging his ass.
“Ain’t you Autumn’s baby daddy?” he cocks his head to the side like he’s tryna figure me out.
“Ima be yo worst nightmare if you step to Patience again. Stick to rapping, nigga.”
Wynter and Deuce come down the stairs right then. I hug and kiss Deuce, while Wynter goes to Cochise and rubs his chest. She playfully rolls her eyes at me and twists her lips. “Turk, what you say to my man?”
“Be safe, Wyn.” I look her over, noticing the new phoenix tattoo covering her scarred forearm. The vibrant colors on her butterscotch skin minimize their visibility. “Nice tatt.”
She beams and rubs the top of Deuce’s head before they finally leave.
As soon as the door locks automatically I’m taking the stairs two at a time and damn near sprint to the bedroom Pay and Autumn share. She’s not in the bed, nor the bathroom when I check. I go into the walk-in closet, and she’s in the middle, bawling so hard she’s holding her belly.
All the years I’ve known Pay, I’ve never seen her cry like this. Ever. Shit’s breaking my heart, and it’s making me wish I laid his ass out, consequences be damned.
I walk over to her slowly until I’m right there, and then I kneel next to her. When I rub her back, she flinches like I hit her, and doesn't stop crying.
“Do I need to go get my son from them?”
She shakes her head no, and I sigh in relief. Regardless on how she knows the nigga, he not a danger to our family, so I settle onto the floor and pull her in my lap and let her cry.
After a while, she settles down, and traces her finger on my forearm.
We haven’t spoken about anything, and I’ve been trying to go through all the information I know about Patience before she got with Autumn.
I know she’s from Kenton, but she’s an orphan, and no living relatives.
Cochise could be an ex, even if he is closer to my age than hers, but I highly doubt that.
Patience would never fuck with a thug ass nigga, and besides being a First Nation Prince, Cochise lets that blue flag fly.
“Who is he to you, Pay?”
“Someone I never thought I’d see again.”
That wasn’t even an answer, and before I can tell her that, she shifts in my arms and those eyes are swimming in vulnerability again.
“I can’t stay here,” she whispers.
My brows furrow. “You just said–”
“Deuce is safe. Autumn is safe. I’m not. And not because of him… just–please, Royce. There’s so much I need to tell you, and I will, but please just don’t push me.”
Fuck. So many fucking red flags are glaring at me. Shit’s not adding up at all, and the right part of my brain is telling me she’s been lying to me, to us, since we met her.
The left part of my brain, though, is telling me I know this girl. I know her inside and out, and I know whatever she’s running from, that’s got her like this, isn’t too big for me to solve. And regardless of whatever she’s holding back, she’s family, and that trumps everything.