2. Chapter 2
King Damini
My heart was going berserk as I ducked my head. Another round tore into the drywall right above my shoulder.
Drywall dust exploded everywhere and rained down on my clothes. I yelled at the top of my lungs because I was at my absolute limit. "You need to cut that shit the fuck out woman! I’m not playing with your ass no more!"
“Who said this was a game?”
I peeked up when the shooting stopped.
For the first time in my damn life, I felt scared as shit. I wasn't scared to die; I’ve had loaded barrels pressed against my forehead plenty of times. I was scared because I looked into my wife's dead, empty eyes and realized she actually believed I could be that foul.
My mind flashed back through everything we’d built—the soft moments nobody else on this island ever got to see.
The late nights in our bed when the mask dropped and she’d pull my head down to her chest. She had a habit of waiting until I was sleep before she curled her soft, oiled body into mine.
She had given me her virginity. She had trusted me with her body, her money, and her heart in her own way.
And she really thought I’d throw all of that divine shit away for some sloppy, desperate bottom bitch who couldn't even stand in the same room as her?!
Brooklyn wasn't even a fraction of the woman Adanna was. She wasn't on her level, wasn't on her tier, and couldn't hold a candle to the bond me and Danni shared.
I wiped the dust off my face, staring straight into her eyes through the haze.
"You really think I would fucking play you like that, Adanna? Baby, just stop and really think… You know how much you mean to me." I whispered.
She didn't lower her iron. Her face resembled stone, but as we locked eyes, I saw the unthinkable happen.
A single, thick tear welled up in her eyes, spilled over her lashes, and tracked slowly down her flushed cheek. My heart damn near stopped in my chest.
In all the time I had known Adanna, I had never seen her shed a tear.
Adanna cursed loudly under her breath, "Fuck!" The word cut through her teeth. She snapped her head away, breaking our eye contact, and shoved the back of her wrist against her face. She wiped the tear away like it was a physical stain.
"Danni..." I murmured, my heart breaking in my chest as I reached out, desperate to pull her into me and hold her together.
"Get the fuck off me, Dame!" she spat, slapping my hands away.
She shoved my shoulders back, quickly spinning on her heel to turn her back on me. Her head dropped low as she clamped her free hand over her face to hide her eyes.
I stood there, paralyzed. I watched her shoulders start to shudder. She was fighting herself with everything inside her, straining every single muscle in her body just to stop the tremors, to strangle the tears before they could escape. It was a violent, silent war happening in front of me.
Seeing her break like that brought tears to my own eyes. I had never seen her vulnerable. I had never seen her hurt. Seeing her like that was fucking me up.
I gave her time to go through it.
She stood there in the quiet room for what felt like an eternity, her back to me, taking deep gulps of air through her nose.
When she finally whipped back around to face me, the tears were gone.
She snapped the barrel of her gun right back into my chest, digging the steel so hard into my ribs I felt the pressure.
However, the illusion was already broken; I saw her foundation crumbling from the inside out, and all I wanted in this world was to protect my wife—even if it meant protecting her from herself.
"I don’t know what the fuck to believe..." Danni whispered. "...because me and you sat down and said we were gonna try this marriage and be real with each other."
"I am being real!" I barked back. My voice cracked from frustration as I pressed my forehead directly against hers. Her gun was resting between our chests. "I’m telling you I don't know what the fuck that girl is talking about! You think I'd throw away everything we built for her?!"
Danni didn't answer.
Instead, her eyes closed as she fought to regain her breath.
I stood there quietly. She let my words echo through the quiet darkness of her mind.
She knew me. She knew how I moved, how I talked, and how I looked at her.
Deep down, under the haze of humiliation, she began to realize I was telling the truth.
Which meant something far worse had taken place.
She opened her eyes slowly. The iron in her hand lowered.
"Okay..." Danni murmured. "If you didn't touch her... why the fuck would she make a public accusation like that at my uncle's funeral?"
"I don’t know," I said, pausing as my own brain started racing back through the last few weeks. I rubbed the back of my neck, swallowing hard against the knot in my throat. "I don’t know, Danni... but I think something weird happened that night."
The second those words left my mouth, Danni focused on my eyes.
"You better keep talking," she growled softly, "before I start throwing shit again."
I wrapped my arms straight around her waist, and pinned her against my chest so there was zero space between us.
"Don't fucking touch me—" she snarled.
"I'm holding my wife," I grunted out, wrapping my palm around my wrist to keep the gun pointed at the floor, forcing her to look me dead in my eyes. "You need to hear me with your head, not your anger."
Danni stayed locked in my hold, refusing to lean into me.
Her face remained a stone-cold mask, but her heart was hammering.
I could hear the gears turning in her head.
Her mind was breaking down every single detail.
The timeline. The reckless confidence Brooklyn had walking into a crowded graveyard full of armed men.
"The other night I was smoking my blunt on our couch... you know that night you told me not to leave the house?"
She gave a tight nod.
"So... I don’t really know how to explain it," I started, and I hated the way I was stuttering. My head felt foggy just thinking about that night and my chest felt heavy. "Like... I was already going to sleep in the chair but I don't know man... it was just... I felt very weird when I woke up."
Danni paused and her eyes narrowed as she processed that. "When I came in the house later that night…I asked you to come up to bed with me."
I nodded and my stomach turned upside down. "Yeah... and I can’t really explain it all to you... but I can tell you that it felt like..."
The whole thought made me feel violated and sick to my stomach.
I kept looking deep into her eyes and Danni cocked her head and stared right through my soul.
"You had sex," she said. "But you don’t remember having sex?"
I felt a cold sweat break out on the back of my neck as I nodded. "Yes."
The second that word cleared my lips Danni’s eyes went pitch black like all the light in the room just got sucked out. A wave of dark energy rolled off her and I almost let her go since I got scared all over again. I forced myself to hold on tight and kept looking into her eyes.
"Did anybody else come in the house besides me?" she asked.
"Not that I know of," I answered. "And I know I didn’t let anybody inside the house... all the guards were posted up outside."
She froze completely at that word. "The guards."
"Yeah," I said while trying to keep my grip on her. "All the tribal guards were watching the house all night."
Danni nodded, but the black tint in her eyes stayed heavy. "Baby... when have you ever had a feeling like that?"
I paused and took a deep breath because the reality of what she was hinting at was starting to hit me like a ton of bricks. "I don’t think I ever have."
Her eyes stayed locked on mine, but the longer we breathed the same air, the more that rigid, glare began to melt.
Without taking her gaze off me, her fingers uncoiled. The gun slid from her hand, and hit the floorboards.
Her hands slowly came up, sliding over my shoulders, until her arms wrapped around my neck. Then she pulled me down into her.
It was a tight, desperate hug that took the air right out of my lungs.
Danni didn't hug people. She didn't seek comfort, and she sure as hell didn't cling to anybody.
But right now, her body was pressed against mine.
Her fingers dug through the fabric at the back of my neck like she was drowning and I was the only thing keeping her afloat.
She buried her face into the crook of my neck.
I felt the heat of her breath against my collarbone.
She didn't know what to do with the ache in her chest, so she held onto me.
"Dame..."
Her voice came out stripped of all the anger she had before. "...I think something bad happened to you."
My heart dropped.
She held me tighter into her embrace.
"I think they set you up," she whispered into my skin. "They touched what's mine. But you don’t have to worry about a damn thing, baby... because I’m gonna handle it."
I tried to ease back, desperate to look into her face, to see her eyes and understand the terrifying truth forming in her mind, but her arms locked firm around my neck. She pressed her cheek harder into my shoulder, refusing to let me push away.
“The only thing you need to do right now is trust me."
I stood in the middle of our wrecked room as I realized what she was saying. The sick, horrifying reality of it hit me all at once.
The disrespect of it made my blood boil hot enough to burn the house down. But holding Adanna, I knew whoever played with my life was already marked for death.
Danni finally pulled back and reached her hand up to push the hair out of my face. She pressed a warm kiss against my lips.
"I’m sorry for coming at you the way I did," she said. "I should’ve asked more questions before I pulled my gun out."
I just nodded because for some reason I felt so fucking weird and numb inside.
"I think somebody touched what was mine," Danni whispered and her jaw clenched tight. "And I need to go rectify it... but at the same time I need to make sure that you’re right by my side until all this shit is resolved... Okay?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked at my wife. "Okay."
"I’m gonna call Nana and the Chief over," she instructed while smoothing down my shirt. "And we’re gonna have a serious conversation in my office... what I need for you to do is to go into the guest bedroom and keep your gun right next to you and put on a game to watch from beginning to end."
"I don’t understand any of this shit Danni," I muttered.
"But you will," she promised. "I just need you to trust me right now... I’m so sorry Dame... I’ll find a way to make all this up to you."
I stared at her and I just nodded my head.
She gently caressed my back with her hand while I got lost in my own thoughts...
wondering how the fuck a woman could have the audacity to claim she was having my baby after taking advantage of me while I was knocked out on who knows what...
and wondering just how bloody Danni was about to make this house once she got her hands on whoever let that snake inside.