Pawns & Kings Read online

  “And how far did it go after that?”

  “It went no further than the kiss. We haven’t even talked to each other since then,” I told him. “We both feel really bad about what we did which is why I’m begging you not to tell Darius. All it will do is hurt him and I don’t want to do that.”

  I hoped that I had done a good enough job of convincing him that there never was and never will be anything going on between Derek and I. As long as Mike knew that I wasn’t trying to two-time Darius with his best friend, then he should understand why there was no reason to tell him anything.

  “I’ll think about it,” was all that he said. Before walking away from me.

  Just then, one of the security guards opened the basement door and told us that it was safe to come up. We all headed upstairs but I stayed behind so that I could try to talk to Derek. I pulled him to the side while everyone else went upstairs.

  “Derek, we need to talk,” I told him.

  He was still so ashamed of what we did that he could hardly look me in the eyes.

  “I know. But not right now.”

  He began climbing the stairs but halted when I said, “Mike saw us kissing.” He turned and looked at me from over his shoulder and I knew that this was his first time hearing this. “He’s thinking about telling Darius.”

  Derek sighed as he came back down the stairs and faced me. “Natalie, I don’t even know why I allowed the kiss to happen in the first place. You and I are just friends, and that’s the way it’s always been. I guess we both just got a little caught up. But I’ll talk to Mike, okay. Don’t worry about it.”

  We left the basement and went through the kitchen together. Once we arrived in the foyer where everyone else had congregated, Detective Willis came through the front door carrying a fire extinguisher. He looked pretty dejected and I’m sure it was because his precious Camaro was no more.

  “What happened?” Donna asked him.

  He sighed as he looked at all of us before looking back at her. “Someone planted a bomb on my car.”

  “What?! Oh my god,” Donna said as she reached over and touched his arm.

  “Do you need me to get you anything, sir?” Phillip offered.

  “No, thank you Phillip, I’m fine. I just need to make a few calls,” he said. “We put the fire out, but I’m going to call the bomb squad in to take a look at it. I’m pretty sure that whoever planted the bomb didn’t want it to go off until I turned on my ignition.”

  “Well thank God that they didn’t know what they were doing,” Donna said as they hugged one another. It was a pretty scary thought to think that someone tried to kill Detective Willis.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Phillip asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he replied solemnly.

  “Look, this has been a crazy night so I think that we should all just go back to bed,” Donna told all of us.

  “Yeah I agree,” Leah said. She looked like she had just rolled out of bed since all she was wearing was one of Terry’s oversized t-shirts over her bra and panties.

  Chatter echoed throughout the foyer as we all turned and headed toward the staircase. But our conversations came to an abrupt halt when we heard the front door open and shut. We all stopped and turned to see who had come in. Standing by the door was none other than Darius… and he had that chick from Paris with him.

  Chapter XXX- Darius

  Since we got back to Atlanta in the middle of the night, I thought I’d be able to sneak Janelle in and hide her in one of the guest rooms until I was able to explain to Natalie and my mother why she was going to be staying there. But to my surprise, the whole house was wide awake so there would be no hiding her now.

  “Darius, we’ve been worried sick,” my mother said she came over to me. She hugged me tightly and I knew that she had missed me as much as I missed her. But when she released me I didn’t appreciate the nasty glare that she gave Janelle.

  “What’s going on?” I asked to pull my mother’s attention back to me. “Why is everyone up, and what happened outside?” It was then that I noticed Detective Willis standing a few feet away from my mother. My whole demeanor changed then, showing my displeasure. My mother noticed and tried to keep me focused.

  “Uh, son, a lot has been going on,” she said.

  “Yeah, obviously,” I said raising my voice a bit.

  “I can’t fucking believe this,” Natalie mumbled under her breath. We all watched as she marched up the stairs. Once she disappeared down the hallway, my mother looked at me with disappointment written all over her face.

  “I told you that you should have just taken me to a hotel,” Janelle said. Even though she whispered in my ear, my mother still heard it and the expression that came across her face told me that she was in total agreement with what Janelle said. Clearly my mother already didn’t like her, nor did she like what was being implied by me bringing her home.

  “Just wait down here, I’ll be right back,” I told Janelle. “Phillip, can you please take Janelle into the kitchen and make her some coffee?”

  “Sure, sir,” Phillip replied before guiding Janelle to the kitchen. I knew that I could rely on Phillip to not pass judgment and to help me make this situation less awkward.

  I moved past my mother and was about to go upstairs to find Natalie when Mike stopped me in my tracks.

  “Darius hold up,” he said and then looked at the rest of the guys who were standing near us. I looked at all of them too before turning my full attention back to Mike.

  “What’s up?”

  “I need to talk to you right quick.”

  Mike and I went into the dining room where no one would be able to hear us. Mike closed the dining room doors behind us and then sighed as he looked at me. I knew that whatever he was about to tell me was something that I wasn’t going to want to hear.

  “Spill it,” I told him.

  “Okay, listen. I didn’t want to tell you this, but I can’t keep it from you,” he said. “The other night I saw Derek and Natalie kissing in the hallway.”

  “What the hell do you mean you saw them kissing?” I said as I folded my arms. My body had suddenly become very tense. This was not at all what I expected to hear when I came home.

  “I mean that he was tonguing her down, dawg. What the hell you think I mean?”

  I took a moment and let Mike’s words sink in. Out of all the lies and betrayal that I had endured over the past few weeks, this one hurt the most. Here I was thinking that I was going to come home to the loving arms of my woman only to find out that she’s been cheating on me with my best friend. I still had her engagement ring in my pocket. And Derek had a lot of nerve. He crossed a line that friends should never cross with one another. Now he was dead to me.

  Without saying anything else I attempted to walk past Mike. Since he was much bigger than me he was able to block my path to the door.

  “Darius don’t do anything stupid,” he told me. “I don’t even think it’s that serious. The only reason I told you is because you said that you didn’t want us keeping anything from you.”

  “And I appreciate that,” I said. “Now move.”

  “What are you about to do?” he asked.

  “I’m going to talk to that bitch!” I blurted out, unable to control my anger any longer.

  “Which one? The one that’s upstairs packing her bags or the one that you brought back with you from Miami?”

  Once again, Mike’s words gave me pause. To say that this situation was complicated and needed to be handled delicately was an understatement. But that didn’t change the fact that both Natalie and Derek needed to be dealt with.

  “You’re really going to march up those stairs and grill your woman about a kiss when we all know that you been doing more than that with Janelle,” Mike said.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, trying to play dumb.

  “Come on, D, I know you,” he said. “You never could resist the sexy ones. And I hope that the pussy
was worth it because there’s no way that Natalie is going to stay.”

  “After she was kissing my best friend, there’s no way that I’m gonna let her ass stay.” With that, I walked past Mike and found my way back into the foyer. I expected to find my boys still there, but they had all dispersed. It was probably for the best because I didn’t want to get into with Derek before I talked to Natalie.

  I climbed the stairs at a steady pace. I made long strides down the hallway, but I stopped once I was standing outside of Natalie’s door. What I was about to do was breaking my heart, and I knew that it would break hers too. But we were in a war, and the last thing I needed were traitors on my team. The thing that made this difficult was that I loved Natalie, and I still loved her even though she had betrayed me. And when you love somebody that much they become your weakness. I didn’t have time to be weak, so I had to do what I had to do.

  I walked into Natalie’s room and closed the door behind me. She was stuffing clothes into a duffle bag that was sitting on the bed. She went into the large walk-in closet and came back out with an armful of her shoes, some of which I had purchased for her while we were in Paris. She dropped the shoes on the duffle and most of them spilled onto the bed since it was clear that they weren’t going to fit in the bag. It wasn’t until then that she stopped and just stood there with her back to me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice a deadly calm.

  She didn’t respond. She simply turned around and sat on the bed. She looked exhausted and I understood why she would be. She had probably spent the last five days worrying about me, and then to have to deal with all of the drama that I had brought home was probably too much for her. But that didn’t mean that I was going to take it easy on her.

  “Why are you packing your bags, Natalie?”

  “Because one thing is very clear to me; you obviously brought that slut here because you felt that you needed a replacement. I mean, damn Darius. You went all the way to Miami to meet up with her so that you could cheat on me.” Her voice bore a strength and intensity that the rest of her was lacking. As a matter of fact, Natalie had never spoken to me quite like this.

  “No, I went to Miami for the same reason that I told you I was going. But let’s cut the crap. You’re not packing your bags because you think I cheated on you. You’re packing them because you feel guilty.”

  She stared at me long and hard before dropping her head in defeat.

  “Mike told me about you and Derek,” I said as I continued to stare at her. “How could you do this to me?”

  “I didn’t do anything, Darius,” she said as she stood and walked over to me. “It was just a kiss, nothing more. I was just lonely and I missed you…” Her words trailed off as she tried to run her hands across my chest in that way that she knew I liked. But I quickly stopped her hands and pushed them away from me.

  “Just stop it, Natalie. You wasn’t that damn lonely,” I said, frustrated.

  “Don’t make this bigger than what it is.”

  “No, this is way bigger than you’re trying to make it out to be,” I told her. “You been fooling around with my best friend…”

  “You know what, don’t try to make this all about what I did,” she said, cutting me off. “I only kissed him. But you fucked that hoe, and I know you did.”

  “You don’t know shit!”

  “Then why the hell did you bring her here?”

  “That’s none of your business,” I said. “You cheated on me with my friend behind my back in my house. I’m not letting that shit go.”

  “Well fine don’t let it go,” she said before stomping off into the closet again. She came out with a suitcase and started filling it with shoes. When it was about halfway full she stopped and turned to look at me.

  “You know what, I tried to tell you that this would never work,” she told me. “Even if we hadn’t betrayed each other, something else would have torn us apart.” She tried to hold them in, but she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. I tried not to let her tears get to me, but they did. Suddenly I was beginning to rethink letting her walk out of my life.

  “And it’s unfortunate because I really do love you Darius,” she said. “But I can’t stay with you.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she just shook her head and continued packing. Once both the duffle and suit case were zipped shut, she turned to walk out of the room.

  “I have a few other things that I need to get out of your room,” she said, still crying. She walked by me without even looking at me. “Just give me thirty minutes and I’ll be gone.”

  She flung the door open and it knocked against the wall after she walked out of the room. I stood there not knowing what I should do. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the box that held the engagement ring. I flipped it open and gazed at the impressive diamond. Just a couple of days ago I was anticipating what her reaction would be when I got down on one knee and professed my love for her. If she loved me as much as she said she did then I’m sure she would have accepted my proposal. Then I would have given her the biggest, most beautiful wedding that anyone had ever seen. We were going to get married and have as many kids as we could. But now, none of that was going to happen, and I would always have to live with knowing that it was all my fault.

  *******

  My boys had congregated in the library downstairs. When I came in they were all there standing around quietly. I didn’t look at any of them, only Derek. He could tell that I was looking at him but he refused to look at me. Mike, Terry, and Kenny just watched and waited to see what was about to go down.

  “You ain’t got nothin’ to say for yo’self, nigga?” I said to Derek.

  Finally looking at me, he said, “Darius, it’s not what you think.”

  “It’s not what I think,” I said as I walked toward him. “What I think is that you are one foul motherfucker.” Now in his face, I took a swing at him. He ducked and my fist collided with the bookshelf. He tackled me to the floor and the fight was on. We wrestled and threw punches at one another until Kenny and Mike decided to come break us apart. Terry just shook his head at us as he remained in his spot over by the window.

  “Nigga I will kill you! Don’t you ever put yo’ hands on what’s mine!” I shouted at him. Mike was restraining me since I was the more aggressive one in this fight. All Derek did was stand there next to Kenny and watch me trying to get free from Mike.

  “Calm down and let him explain,” Mike said. I stopped trying to get free because I wanted to hear what Derek had to say.

  He paused for a few seconds and then finally began to talk.

  “Look man, Natalie is a great girl,” he said. “But I don’t have feelings for her. I only kissed her, and as soon as I did it I knew that it was a mistake. I was only trying to comfort her.”

  “Trying to comfort her?” I repeated. “I was out of town, not dead.”

  “Have you even been listening to your woman, man?” Derek said. “Do you even know how hard all of this has been for her? You left her when she needed you and then you got the nerve to come back here with another woman. Oh, but I get it. Because you’re rich and you got this big ass house, you think that means that you can do no wrong, right?” He huffed his frustration as he shook his head at me. “See that’s your problem, Darius; you never want to take responsibility for the shit that you do.”

  “No, my only problem right now is you,” I barked at him. “If you want to sit up here and talk about how I was a bad boyfriend then go right ahead. As far as I’m concerned, you and Natalie can have each other. Now get your shit and get out of my house.”

  Derek stood there and stared at me for a moment, but I could tell that he knew that this was coming. He looked at the rest of the guys, probably wanting them to come to his defense, but nobody said anything. Finally, he left the room.

  Once he was gone I said, “Mike, I want you to take Natalie home. Terry and Kenny, I want you to make sure that Derek is out of here within the hour.”
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  “Fine,” Terry said. “We’ll do whatever you want us to do, but you know that he was right.”

  I turned around and looked at Terry. When I saw the way that the three of them were looking at me I knew that they all must have agreed with him.

  “What the hell is this supposed to be, an intervention?” I said.

  “I think that’s what you need since you seem to be addicted to power,” Kenny said boldly.

  “What?” I said, shocked by his audacity.

  “You think that you can do whatever the hell you want to do, and then you get mad at everybody else when things don’t go your way. But all of this is your fault,” Kenny said. “You lost your girl and one of your closest friends all because of your bullshit.”

  “I don’t need a lecture from you, Kenny!”

  “You might not want to hear this, but you need to,” Terry chimed in. “You’re doing everything all wrong. You’re fucking up everything good in your life all because you’re desperate for control.”

  “Well, you know what, I wouldn’t expect you all to understand,” I said. “Y’all ain’t the ones who have had to go through the shit that I been through.”

  “What the hell you mean?” Terry said.

  “We been right here with you the whole time, D,” Mike said. “You pushed us away. You’re the one who decided to go to Miami by yourself and now shit is falling apart.”

  “Yeah,” Kenny said. “And if you don’t get your shit together then sooner or later you ain’t gon’ have nobody and nothing left.”

  With that, they each walked out of the library, one by one, leaving me there alone. I sat down in the chair behind the desk and put my head down. I thought about everything that happened and everything that my boys said. They were right. I didn’t want to admit it, but that didn’t change the fact that they were absolutely right. My need for control was ruining my relationships. But letting go was hard for me. I didn’t think that I’d ever be able to trust that things would work out just the way they should without any help from me.