“I can’t do this over the phone.” Danica stood up, feeling completely panicked, but she did pick up her phone. “I was going to stay here tonight. But depending on how this goes, I may stay there tonight. Oh my God.” She gasped, feeling completely choked up again, and clutched her chest as she hit speed dial.
Orlando
They were getting ready to wrap it up. But since tonight was Dani’s night at her sister’s, Orlando had been in no hurry to get home. His mother had told him to take his time picking up the baby, so he’d worked a little later than normal. It’d been just him and Nine, but he figured Nine had to be anxious to get home to his pregnant wife, so Orlando told him he’d get everything closed down on his own and Nine left. Just as he was making his rounds shutting things down, his phone rang. He smiled when he saw the photo of Dani on the screen and hit the answer button.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey,” she said, sounding a little off. “I know I said I’d be spending the night at my sister’s, but is it okay if I come over to your place instead?”
“Are you kidding me?” he said, smiling and speeding up what he was doing. “Of course, it’s okay. I’m still at the shop though. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just . . .” She was quiet for a moment and it slowed him down. “I just need to talk to you about a few things.”
“What things?” He stopped altogether. He heard her exhale.
“Ted was here. Well, not here,” she added quickly as Orlando felt his insides instantly ignite. “I went to the corner store to get sweet bread, and he was outside standing by his car waiting when I got out.”
“You’re getting a restraining order on his ass.” Orlando worked to turn off everything faster, slamming a few things in the process. “The fuck did he want?”
“Same thing as last time, Orlando. It’s no big deal—”
“Yes, it is. It’s a very big deal and it’s gonna stop.”
“It is. I told him I’d get a restraining order if he showed up or called me again.”
“No, you’re getting one regardless. This is bullshit.”
“Okay, we can talk about it all when I get to your place. Should I make you something to eat when I get there?”
“Uh,” Orlando slowed, scrunching his nose at the thought of what he might come home to. Last thing he wanted was to delay their talk if there were any fires to put out, and he was hungry for something good. “I’ll just pick us up something.”
“Don’t get anything for me. I’ve already had dinner.”
He got off the phone with her and finished shutting everything down. Locking the door outside, he turned around and came to a screeching halt when he saw him. Ted leaned against a car in the parking lot, palms up in front of his chest. “I come in peace.”
“You’re not just stalking Dani anymore? You’re stalking me now too?” Orlando started toward him. “You know she’s getting a restraining order against you. I’d get one too, but I’d rather leave the opportunity open to kick your ass myself.”
“Relax.” Ted smirked. “No need for violence. I’m just here to talk to you, man to man.”
“Dude. What’s there to talk about? She wants nothing to do with you, and she’s with me now. What’s so hard to understand about that?”
“You probably won’t believe this, but I’m here because I wish someone had given me a heads-up when I was with her. She’s a master manipulator.”
Orlando rolled his eyes. “Because she doesn’t wanna be with a control freak that put his hands on her?”
Ted shook his head. “That was one time, and it was only because I was pissed that, once she’d gotten what she wanted from me, she walked out. She’s doing the same to you.”
Waving his hand at him and shaking his head, Orlando started to his truck, chuckling humorlessly. “Get the fuck out. If you think coming down here to talk shit about her is gonna convince me to drop her, you’re pathetic. What you need to do is get your ass off my property before you get a beat down and then arrested.”
“Who’s paying for her attorney fees now that I’m not?”
“That’s none of your concern anymore.” Orlando stopped to look at him. “She’s not your concern anymore. Hasn’t been for months.”
“She needed a place to stay, she couldn’t afford to pay any utilities or an attorney, so she moved in with me. Sound familiar?”
Swallowing hard, Orlando glared at him. “She has a place to stay. Her sister’s. But she chooses to be with me.” Orlando started up again, pissed he was giving this fucker the time of day.
“You really think she got over me that fast? What was it a month after we broke up before she was in your bed? We were in love, you know.”
The phone call Orlando overheard when Dani had been talking to Ted, just a little over a week before he had her under him, assaulted him as he reached his truck. But he was done listening to this asshole’s drivel. “Yeah, well she’s in love with me now.”
“Is she?” Ted was quick to retort. “With you or the baby?”
Orlando spun around, charging Ted. “What the fuck did you just say? You don’t bring my son into this shit, asshole. I will—”
“She’s the one who left him at your door.” Ted held his hands up in front of him. Slowing down before reaching Ted, Orlando peered at him as his heart walloped. “It’s true,” Ted said even as Orlando shook his head. “The kid’s mother was her friend from her jailbird days, and she died of an overdose. The junkie had no family, and Danica was the one who’d been helping her friend since day one. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—give him up until I convinced her she could be in a lot of trouble if she didn’t. So, she did, and it tore her apart. She was miserable for months. She’d made me think she’d driven the baby to his father, explained it all, and everything had been worked out. It wasn’t until today, when I met and spoke with Felicia down at the courthouse and she told me about the kid being mysteriously left at your doorstep, that I put it all together. I guess once she managed to manipulate her way back into his life, she dropped me and was willing to do whatever it took to keep him in her life.”
Shaking his head, Orlando refused to believe it. “She would’ve told me.”
“Well, she didn’t because she’s a liar and a manipulator. It’s what she does.”
Orlando grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. “One more time,” he said through his teeth. “Talk shit about her one more time, and I’ll fucking end you.”
Ted brought both his hands up, pulling at Orlando’s hand and broke away coughing. “Believe what you want.” He coughed some more bending over next to his car. “But I’m telling you. She’d been telling me she loved me for months, and then that kid was born and took over her life. What Danica wants Danica gets. Saps like you and me are at her mercy, and she wanted that baby more than anything in the world. She sobbed entire nights after giving him up. I know you don’t wanna hear or believe it, but he’s who she’s really there for, not you. Why do you think she never told you it was her who left him at your door?”