She went to rub her face but then remembered she couldn’t, a horrible twist of a smile forming.
“Of course, now I’ve got a baby to look after and Yasmin. Can’t go running home to Mama anymore. I need this place, the only home Yasmin’s known.” Her forehead knotted into a frown.
“We can make it so that Izaiah doesn’t come back. A restraining order…” Mark’s voice trailed away as Duke gave a tiny shake of his head.
“Restraining order?” Lucy snorted at that. “You’re not from around here. That accent… Maybe black people in your country can rely on the police, but not here. Like Millie’s son’s a good man and same with Jolene’s brother, but the rest? There’ll be social workers here, and Yasmin and Noah will become case files. They’ll want to look over me and the kids, walk into my house like they’ve a right to. Look at the way I raise my children… Some women, they go to the police because that’s all they have, but not me. We deal with things within this community.” Her eyes flicked to Duke and stayed there.
He reached across the table, took one of her hands in his, and just held it, minutes of silence going by. I heard the crunch of Yasmin’s cookies, the far-off wail of a police car, and the quiet. When I looked back, tears had formed in her eyes, welling but unspilt.
“You want to keep us safe? Check out that bar. There’s something going on there. Men are going in good men and coming out violent. Men I’d never think would raise their hands against anyone. I know… If it was me sitting beside someone with this on their face, I’d be thinking they was on crack. Blaming the bar or drink or whatever, but…there’s something not right. When he came inside this house, when he…” Her jaw quivered as it locked down tight, holding it, all of it back. “His eyes glowed red like the devil. He said shit that don’t even make sense. I…”
Her voice was choked off as Yasmin put her milk down and turned to look at her mother. She licked the milk moustache she’d created off carefully, so carefully. I felt a chill go up my spine as I watched the child struggle not to reinjure her swollen lip, and I remembered the red smoke coming from the Rutherglen as he whispered shit to the police.
“We’ve gotta go,” I said, getting to my feet. “We’ll follow up on what you said, and any time you need, we have a place that you can make your own, away from here and from him. You wouldn’t have to worry about food, rent, house payments, health insurance, or anything.”
“Yeah? And where’s that place then? Heaven?”
Lucy was maintaining a brave front, but even I saw the hope flare in her eyes before it was quickly smothered.
“Close.” I frowned. Lucy, Yasmin, their family needed a way to get in contact with us, to get out of here at a moment’s notice if Izaiah was gonna keep acting like this. She might not be ready yet, but… I forced my hand into a fist, clenching it tight until I felt it form. Like a piece of smoky quartz, I held the small power stone out to Lucy. “If you need us, need Duke or Ashanti, need out of here, just squeeze this.” She looked at me like I was insane. “Please.”
“It’ll work.” Duke plucked the stone from my palm and put it in hers, closing her fingers around it. “If he comes home swinging or with the red eyes again, you squeeze it, call my name. We’ll be here. Now, we’ll go up to the bar, take a look. Are there other women worried about what’s going on?” She nodded. “Then we’ll let you know how we go with it. Stay safe.”
Which was how we ended up outside a bar, blaring music coming out of the windows, listening to the low rumble of many masculine voices inside.
“You’re not coming in.”
Mark’s jaw set hard at Duke’s assertion.
“Marlow and I can swing bringing a white girl in between us. People are gonna assume how that goes, but a white dude? Particularly a big white dude with a fucking gun? You’d be a target as soon as you walk in here.”
“Kira…” Mark growled.
“What’s up, D?” Rey said, ambling up with Billy and Lucas in tow. “You got the same message.”
“Something’s going down here,” Duke replied with a nod. “Collect the others and take ’em back to Aragide, make sure Ashanti knows what’s goin’ on. Kira and Marlow are with me.”
“Got it, boss.”
“Hang on. You’re gonna take Kira in there?” Lucas asked, shouldering forward, his eyes flicking between the bar and us.
“She’ll be safe with Duke and Mar,” Billy said, but the big man didn’t hear it.
“She can come back with us. Go back to Aragide if something’s going down. That’s what you said.”
“She wants to be a part of this and find out what’s going on,” I retorted. I stared him down, watched the lightning crackle in his eyes before I put my hand on his arm. “I’ll be OK.”
“And we need to get out of here so our cover isn’t blown. I’ll get the others, boss, and meet ya back at the palace,” Rey said. “C’mon, let’s go.”
Chapter 25
So there we were, striding into the bar, heads turning around the minute we walked in, but if that wasn’t uncomfortable enough, Duke’s arm went around me, tugging me into his side. His arm was a heavy weight, reminding me of the muscle packed there, and as I forced myself to relax into him, his smoky scent of leather and amber filled my nose. He held me like he had a right to, like I was supposed to be there, obviously putting on an impenetrable front for the men in the bar. He pulled us to a stop, dropping his lips down to my neck and whispered, “Just go with it for now.” When I turned to face him, those dark eyes burned with a fire I didn’t understand and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Heavily lidded, completely relaxed, he smiled slow, then steered us up to the bar.
“D, man…” A very tall man stood up from his stool and held out a hand to Duke, the other man taking it and performing an intricate handshake. “Haven’t seen you around. And who might this be?”
“She ain’t important. Looking for Izaiah. He here?”
“Out back with Leroy and his crew. What you want? It’s on the house for big Mr Rockstar and his entourage.”
“Beer for me, and she’ll have the same. What’re you having, Marlow?”
“Beer’s fine…” My love waited for the other man to introduce himself.
“Mike. Big Mike.” The eyes of the man in question slid to me, winking once before turning to the barkeep. “Four beers, thanks, Murphy.” The bartender lined the bottles up, removing the bottle caps.
“Izaiah, he’s running with a new crew now. Well, an old one really. They play things pretty rough out the back. You sure you wanna take your girl in there? You can always leave her here with me.”
He was as flash as a rat with a gold tooth, leaning on the bar, beer held loose between his fingers with the kind of confidence only someone that big and tall can muster. He could watch the world burn and not even raise a sweat. As he leaned back, the thin gold chain around his neck slipped free of his shirt, a small red stone swinging on the end of it.