Intrigued by Danger (The Danger Family, #3)

by Endiya Carter

In my peripheral view, Diesel once again signaled for me not to engage. “Vivian, Diesel, give me a moment alone with my son.” My mom walked away, leaving Diesel standing firm. “Diesel. Do as I ask,” my father commanded. “No. I’m good right here, Pop.” Some of the air released from my chest, knowing Diesel’s presence meant he wouldn’t go too far. Diesel was my biggest bully, but he’d never let anyone else, including our father, bully me.

“You don’t love me. You don’t respect me. You don’t⁠—” He’d grabbed my jaws and squeezed so tight that my lips nearly pursed off my face. Out of the corner of my eye, Mom stood at the window with her fingers to her lips, probably silently praying. According to my father, she babied me too much, which caused me to be so scary, as he called it. “I don’t love you? I make sure you have a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out of. Everywhere you’ve needed me to be, I’ve been there and never missed a goddamn day if I didn’t have a pressing matter out of the city. Any time you’ve needed me, I’ve been there. The only person who has drawn an imaginary line in the sand is you. You’ve busied yourself with what your mother and I have going on so much that you’ve forgotten your place. You are our child. I will love you until the day my eyes close for the last time. Do I have to like every decision you make, no, and I don’t. The stupid decisions you make piss me off far more than anything you could ever tell your mother about what you think you know about me.”

“Yes, let’s keep it down so we might be able to hear them fuck,” she whisper-shouted. “Sometimes, I sit out here just to hear Dymon put Quinci through the wall so I can get off.”

“Declan, I have now finished hour six of doing everything you asked me to do. I know this thing you’re doing is a part of your sadistic game and I am willing to play. Very willing, but I am ready to get cracked… like an egg. Plowed… like a garden. Back broken… like Humpty. I don’t know what kind of video you’re going to get at 8:59, but whatever it is will be blamed on this wine.”

“What a stupid, idiotic thing to say to somebody you claim you love. I’m going to say this and please tell me if I’m overstepping, but you two ain’t gon’ ever get whatever both of y’all think y’all need from each other. Basically, y’all just staying together assumedly for Lil’ D, because ain’t no way she had something like that queued up without ever having thought about it before. I would rather you tell her it’s me, before you let her continue to mock you. I really don’t like that.”

Him intervening into my life was going to end today.

Do you see how you got niggas riding for you, and you think you in this shit by yourself? That we are against you.”

Since last night, the air between us had been different. Different in a good way. Different like I never wanted to lose her. Different like I’d probably choke somebody else about her. Different like I’d do whatever she told me to do. If reckless and impulsive were emotions, it would be appropriate to describe what I felt for her.

“Exactly. Sure, she can still do whatever it is that she wants, and I’m sure that means it will apply to you too, but that means nothing to me if at the end of the day, y’all are still together. None of your figuring things out included breaking up with her, so…”

As I watched her converse with them, I couldn’t stop smiling. The way I was feeling about her was so different that it had me wondering if I’d ever felt that way about Winter. I loved Winter, no doubt, but just looking at Elle took me to another realm of high that neither drugs nor alcohol could give me. The feeling was indescribable and scary at the same time.

Diesel started tapping on his screen. “She just posted her feet on her Instagram story.” “Fucking liar,” I snapped, trying to reach for his phone. “Let me see.” “Freak ass nigga. Nah, she didn’t post anything, but I’ll call. Don’t say anything.”

“Exactly, so it’s like…” she shook her head, and pulled on her blunt. “I really don’t know what to say, really. I’m very disappointed in you, that you didn’t trust me, one, and two, you had all these preconceived notions about what you thought I would think about you. All you had to do was say, x, y, z, me and Declan are fucking. I wouldn’t have done or said anything, but gon’ head girl, or tell me what it’s like. Our regular girl chat shit. Because what you don’t realize is, I know you. You are a very meticulous person. I’m not going to even lie; my first thought would have been that Winter may have paid you turn him out. That’s all. That’s at the top of the list. Way down, on a non-existent list, in an envelope, to never be opened, is me thinking that you fucked Declan because you’re attracted to Diesel.”

“Oh God. Did you feel left out? I told Diesel that is what I thought caused a shift and if I should mention it, and he said, not until you do, and it turns out, you were never going to mention it. You were just going to let yourself stew until we had a blow up that would take a long time for us to come back from.

“Look, I got to go get him. Try to get some rest and I’m going to try and forget that I learned way too much about you tonight. Night, Bro.” I laughed. “Night, Bro.”

“What are you looking for me to say? That he’s dying to talk to you but is trying to respect your space. That he’s in love with you and every day he wishes he was with you. That nothing is going on with the mother of his child. I could tell you all that, but you know that already.”

“Aye, look. Not tonight. Everybody knows y’all together, so stop with the shit,” Kemba said at the other end of the table.

“Uh-huh. His ugly self gave me twenty-four hours to tell you, or he was going to tell you. Crazy how he was going to keep your secret from his wife but wasn’t going to keep my secret from you. Men.”