Derek was lucky to have his most trusted employee Phil doing the accounting and advising for him, as well as the legal work when needed. They had an easy working relationship and melded well together on big jobs. When necessary, he hired subcontractors trusting their crews to do the hard labor. This gave him time to handle the rest on his own. He’d had every job a contractor could as a business man, with his adamant drive to succeed that meant knowing how to do every job from the crappiest to the best.
Even with his years spent learning, saving and getting a college diploma, he found there were those without degrees who held an insane amount of knowledge no book or university could give. In that aspect he never took advantage of his workers, gave them time they needed, and appreciated the backbreaking work they did as a team to make what he did look effortless. Now he had the girl and his world rocked. Having her made some of the pain from his past ease. Having her made him want to have the finer things in life, hopefully leading to a way to finally move on.
Cohabiting with Deja worked relatively easy. So easy in fact he wanted to broach making having her next to him permanent. Perhaps not asking for her hand just yet, but living together, hell yeah. He knew how he’d propose when the time was right. Until then, he’d ask her to move in and suggest her keeping her apartment, in case she needed some time to herself, not time to run or get flighty but a little space while she got used to the whole permanency idea.
Their first doctor appointment went so well it gave him hope for the future. They’d been given her due date, a slew of advice on nutrition and exercise, and a list of books about caring for newborns up to toddler years.
Her first bout of sickness came at a barbeque restaurant. Her violently ill reaction sealed two things, no summer cookouts for them and no barbeque for him, unless he happened to eat out. The sadness in her face killed him. His girl loved beef brisket soaked in the mild smoky flavor sauce. Heaven help him since she couldn’t have her craving sated. When they got home he’d soothed her and picked up the book, turning to sickness brought by pregnancy. He hoped the book was accurate, and that smells would cease to bother her in her second trimester. Her friends and their boyfriends hosted get-togethers alternating at each other’s homes and in their community firing up the grills and smokers was as natural as breathing.
Thinking of her made his cock swell. Having her underfoot kept him from keeping his mind on his work. He looked at the documents waiting for his signature, needing his riveted attention and he couldn’t give it. Derek’s mind kept returning to the sexy woman not two hundred feet from him. Her scent littered every room in the condo, an article of her clothing decorated the arm of a chair, silk stockings over his bathroom rail, no matter which way he turned traces of her remained.
Did he feel overwhelmed? Not at all but she had a dazed and confused look on her face after they left the doctor’s office. The sonogram sealed the deal for her, gave her certainty. The best part was, somewhere along the way she released the iron grip she had on her independence and let him in, allowed him to take the reins, began to truly trust him.
His cell chimed, the caller identification showing the club’s number. Only one man would call him from there. “Donato.”
“Thought you should know there’s some dude asking about you. Says he’s been in town a few days, saw you here the other night. He asked one of the bouncers if he knew your number or address.”
“Could be an associate or someone I do business with. They know I travel frequently.”
“What do you want me to tell him?”
“Nothing. I’ll be down there in a few.” After emailing Phil, he’d questioned if anyone left a negative response to anyone planning on setting a meeting in town. Knowing Phil’s tight schedule, he opted to shut down his computer and then check on Deja. When she didn’t stir, he jotted a note for her in case she woke to find him gone. Confusion pricked at his brain at how the stranger had followed him and he hadn’t noticed. Traffic moved quickly. He turned on the jams and got lost in old school rhythm and blues, giving him the calm relaxing vibe he needed.
Ten minutes later and after hitting every red light on the way, he pulled into the near empty parking lot of the club, turned off the ignition and headed inside.
Derek grinned at Donato and shook his hand. “How’s things?”
“Goin’ good. You look better than last time I saw you.” They walked into the club together.
“I’m doing much better. Thank you.” He nodded at Tomas, acknowledging the man’s presence. Nadja’s entrancing voice filled the room as she sang for the early evening patrons.
“She’s practicing a new set again. I’m glad she’s working it here and not at home. She gets so stuck on perfection I could sing the songs in my sleep.” Derek craved the love Nadja and Donato shared, the openness. Never was an emotion as destructive as envy.
“Nothing wrong with wanting to do your best. But I’d suggest investing in some of those gel earplugs.”
“That, my friend, is an outstanding idea. Thanks. He’s over there in the corner. Odd that he didn’t pick a front seat.”
Derek followed Donato’s gaze. Fury whiplashed through him. His body stiffened and he couldn’t hear anything but the sound of his heartbeat slamming against his ribcage. Years of honing his indomitable temper failed him.
As Donato braced his hands on the bar to order a drink, Derek took advantage and swiped the man’s 9mm out of the holster. In a few long strides, he stopped at the far corner booth, gun pointed. Concentration honed only on the bastard who had the nerve to show his face. Filled with icy rage, he cocked the hammer. Cold metal met his former best friend’s head. He heard Donato order Nadja to his upstairs office, and the sound of music tapering off told him she’d listened. Tomas and Donato were only a few steps away from him. Donato sounded confused and pissed, the other bouncers moved into his line of view, steadying their guns on him.
“Bro, put the safety back on. We can handle whatever this is a better way.”
The click of a second and third hammer met his ears. “Put the gun down Micah or I’ll blow his fucking head off.” Donato’s second right hand stood to the side of him. Derek stayed his gaze on Patrick.
“Man. Don’t kill me. We were brothers once. I loved you. I never meant for what happened that night to go that far. You were never supposed to get hurt. I didn’t have a fucking choice.” The bastard began to cry thinking his tears meant a damn thing to him.
“Why the fuck are you here? Why now?” Derek tapped the front of the gun on the man’s head. His former friend moved. “Keep your hands up, I don’t trust you,” he snarled, pressing the steel harder into the man’s head. “Donato, clear your club this isn’t going to end pretty.”
“Derek, c’mon man. Whatever this is isn’t worth going to prison for. Trust me, you don’t want blood on your hands.” Micah’s attempts to deescalate the situation came a decade too late.
“Trust me, I won’t go to prison for ending his life. No jury alive would convict me. Get out of the seat Patrick and kneel on the floor.”
“Boss, want me to call the cops?”
“No we’ll keep this in the family. Clear the club like the man says, Tomas. Derek, I’m asking you for a second time to take the gun off his head.”
Derek breathed in and out fighting to clear the haze of blinding hatred. His hand shook with his rage but looked sure and still on Patrick’s head as he moved to the floor, hands in sight.
“I came for forgiveness. Your ma told me where you were. That you’d set up roots here. She agreed to talk to me, forgave me. Man, we had good years together. I just want to go back to when we were tight.”
“My ma’s an upstanding Christian woman. I’m not a forgiving person. Take your I’m sorries elsewhere they’re unwanted here and useless. You were dead to me years ago.” He spoke with a vehement edge of steel hoping to relay a final message.
“I had to try once.”
“Get up slow. Put your hands on the top of your
head and walk out. Contact my mother again and I’ll hunt you down and kill you. Look back at me and I’ll plug a hole in your forehead. Forget I exist.”
Derek kept the gun trained on his foe. Patrick placed his hands to the top of his head and began walking. As the man walked, he shook. The smell of urine hit his nose. He released the hammer, clicked the safety switch, then set the gun on the table the moment Patrick exited the club.
“Nadja love,” Donato called on his intercom. “Come on down babe, the problem’s been contained.” He turned a stone face on Derek. “You get the fuck up to my office now.” Donato took apart his gun, cleared the chamber, placed the lone bullet back in the magazine and inserted it back in place.
Derek followed a few steps behind Donato watching the man click the safety and return the piece in his holster. He met Nadja’s worried gaze as she passed them on the stairs halfway. Guilt filled him for terrifying her, no doubt he’d be read the riot act or worse by her man and then by his pregnant woman once he got home. Every action had an equal reaction, both positive and negative.
Donato poured himself a shot of whiskey and sat down behind his desk.
“Want to tell me what the fuck that was all about before I beat the shit out of you?” He tossed back the drink.
“You could try to beat the shit out of me but you’d fail. What happened was private and between me and Patrick. I apologize for swiping your gun.”
“Cut the bullshit apology out. Your personal issue became my issue the moment you cocked the gun at a man’s head in my place of business.” Donato paused. “I consider you a friend and as a friend you have a minute to talk. Make no mistake, I will get those answers. While you’re at it, I suggest you have a damn good story to tell Deja because I assure you, Nadja will call her.”
The adrenaline rush abated leaving him with a raging headache. He owed Donato, though he didn’t appreciate the way he was being talked to. Talking about the events of that night were like reliving them all over again, without an aide to dull the pain of betrayal. He got comfortable and exhaled a breath. “Patrick was once my best friend. We grew up together in the same neighborhood. We managed to stay out of trouble and out of gangs. He had my back. I had his. We were inseparable, until my mom remarried.
“My step-father is a good man, better than my drunkard of a father who beat her, beat me when I stood in front of him to protect her. She’d left him to give me a better life, knowing he’d kill us if we stayed. The courts made sure he was sent away, never to bother us again.
“We moved out of the barrio to an upscale neighborhood. I hated change, hated sharing my mom, at fourteen who wants to move and start over? School? Everything was so perfect I felt like I was in for a rude awakening, didn’t want to meet people or like them in case we had to move back to the old neighborhood. It took time to find my place there. Sports gave me an outlet for my attitude. Life was finally good.
“I had new friends. They were stupid though. One night they got lost slumming. I borrowed my step-father’s car to go get them before they got hurt. I grew up there, knew what went down. When I found them Patrick had robbed and shot them. He and his new gang buddies killed them in front of me and then turned on me, the traitor who left the barrio.
“Cops didn’t come to my old neck of the woods, least not at night. He made me get down on my knees and shot me in the head. He wasn’t a good shot though. The gun jammed so the bullet didn’t kill me. An ambulance near the scene showed up too late for my friends, almost didn’t save me. The police too. Seemed they had better things to do than their jobs that night.”
“I’m sorry bro. Damn sorry. How is he not in jail still?”
“No witnesses. I was in the hospital for a year. Got a metal plate put in my head. Had to relearn how to do everything from walking to eating, writing, even how to speak. My step-father spared no expense in my rehabilitation, plastic surgery, physical therapy and psychological therapy. When they went to trial, the gang leaders that goaded Patrick into shooting me were put in jail for life. He failed his initiation by not killing me, so he turned against them to put the others away for life. The DA copped a deal, gave him fifteen to twenty since I lived.”
“How’d you start drinking if you don’t mind me asking?”
Derek ran a hand over his head. “Why the hell not, I’ve just told you things I’ve never told a soul since the incident. I drank to keep the nightmares away, until I became a nightmare to others. Not bullying but brawling. I can’t begin to count how many hands, heads and knuckles have been busted against my forehead. Or describe the rage I had a hard time getting a grip on. I don’t think I’m a hundred percent normal. My step-father must’ve realized that and worked to build me stronger in the head. My mother was terrified I’d end up in prison because I couldn’t walk away, had to finish even what I’d never started.”
“I can’t begin to imagine what you went through.”
“Wasn’t pretty.” He exhaled a controlled breath to center himself. “Got into kickboxing and sparring to relieve the aggression that never really left my body, enough to cage the beast in me. The thirst for revenge didn’t really go away. I had that bastard under me and I could’ve shot him downstairs. All these years I promised myself he’d pay by my hand. I had him right there and couldn’t finish him.”
“You’re not a killer, friend. Be thankful.”
“Man, what the hell was my ma thinking of sending him here?”
“Dunno, but mothers have an uncanny way of being smarter than we are. Maybe now you can have some closure. By the looks of him, I can guarantee you he won’t search you out again.”
“Stop Nadja from talking to Deja, the last thing she needs right now is this stress with the baby and all.”
Donato broke out into a grin. “Damn, fucking congrats, man, that’s great. That’s a reason to let your hatred go right there. Your kid will need you in their life.”
Derek leaned his head back. “Yeah, I don’t want that for my family, Deja visiting me behind bars. You know how women are?” He needed a change of subject to formulate what he could tell Deja in case he had no other option.
“Bossy?”
“Yeah and once one is pregnant the others want to be in their circles. You see those sitcoms on television? Watch. Nadja is gonna be in a baby making mood. I give you a month, two tops. Gentleman’s bet?”
“Terms?”
“In less than a month, your girl is going to say she wants a baby in public, with others around. When she does you’re gonna owe me a buck.”
“You’re on. She’s so concerned with her career she won’t ask. She’s all about music right now.” The very devil walked in as they settled with a handshake.
“I don’t even want to know what is wrong with you Derek. I’m too excited about the baby to worry my best friend over some male PMS. Besides, now that one of us is having a baby, I have to reevaluate my goals. Derek, I won’t worry my friend with your spastic issues today. But…you better tell her, she doesn’t forgive secrets and you need someone to talk to.” Nadja turned to Donato and poked him. “Deja and I want to have babies close together so we can have play dates and birthday parties. Baby, you have to plant one in me, like yesterday. Kick his ass out to go home to his honey so we can get to work.”
“Damn dollface.” Donato pulled out his wallet and whipped out a single dollar bill.
Derek held his hand out and accepted, tucking the money in his pocket.
“What? What did I miss?”
“Nothing babe. Just men being men. Derek, go home. Clear your head, and call me if you need to talk. Tell Tomas you’d like to set up sparring lessons with the guys, trust me they’ll be all over it. We haven’t had fresh meat to fight in over a year. Most guys pussy out on us too quick.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks for not calling the cops, see you later.” Derek stood to leave.
“Tell her, Derek. You have to trust someone besides your parents. Everyone needs friends.”
Donato frow
ned at Nadja. “Snooping?”
“A little but just to make sure you didn’t kill him, can’t have my best friend a widow before she’s married and we’re godparents.”
Derek laughed. “I’m not even mad. And for the record, I do consider you and Donato friends. Trusting takes me a bit longer than most folks, even though my gut tells me to.”
Derek shut the door quietly behind him. At the bar, he checked the schedules out with Tomas and set a few dates to get in some practice. After tonight, he needed to lock that part of him back up tight and relieve his issues in a controlled environment.
In the morning he’d sit down over coffee and bagels and tell his story to Deja. She deserved to know the truth about him and his upbringing before he proposed to her. If he didn’t chickenshit out, he’d tell her about tonight and how her friends helped him come to the realization that he wasn’t alone and could trust. His beliefs were rusty but not wholly gone. Now he only needed a way to work out the burden weighing heavy on him.
Chapter Six
Inclement weather struck again, ruining Deja’s plan to make her way to the store. Plows had yet to make their way down the highways. Side streets came last. Underneath the fluffy snow laced ground, the very devil lurked waiting to create havoc and fill the hospitals with victims of happenstance. Black ice wouldn’t get her again. Her energy level was at zero. Between transformers exploding and Derek tossing and turning, she barely got a wink of sleep. The only reason she lay there staring at her boyfriend was her internal clock. Every morning she woke up at the same time, and had since she was a child. Being in a big family had that effect. Her inability to sleep in made no sense now, since she lived alone, no noise factor unless she created the sounds.
Derek wound his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against him. “Hey beautiful, what are you doing up?” His stubble grazed her neck sending shivers down her spine. She turned into his embrace, resting her cheek against his neck, inhaling his scent.
Only Skin Deep Page 12
