TOTAL ECLIPSE: The Evolution (Sin City Heat Series Book 7)

by S. K. Hardy

  “Something came up where she needed to leave right away. She told me to tell you she loves you, though, and to be good for Mommy and Daddy.”

  “When can we go see her?”

  Darrell took a deep breath. “Tell ya’ what. Why don’t we talk about that later after you tell me how your sleepover went? Where’s your mom, by the way?”

  “She’s downstairs talking to a man.”

  Darrell frowned. “Who?”

  D.J. hunched his shoulders. “I dunno. She said they had to talk about some homework for grownups.”

  “Hmph.” Still frowning, Darrell stood up. “Come on. Let’s go and find her and see what’s up. Wanna ride on my back?”

  “Yeah!”

  Darrell bent down so that D.J. could jump on his back then headed out the room. “You hungry?”

  “A little.”

  “Okay. Let’s find Mommy, then we’ll see about getting something to eat.”

  “Pizza?”

  Darrell turned to look over his shoulder at D.J. once they got to the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t you ever get tired of pizza?”

  “Uh uh.” D.J. shook his head emphatically to drive his point home.

  Darrell laughed as they headed towards the study. “We’ll see what your mom says.”

  “Ah, Daddy. She’s gonna say no and make me eat vegetables.”

  “What did I say about that? Vegetables help you, what?”

  “Grow up to be big and strong,” D.J. automatically parroted the answer.

  “That’s right. But Daddy will see what he can do about talking your mom into pizza for one more night.”

  “Yeah!”

  Darrell smiled at D.J.’s excitement. He nodded in all the appropriate places as D.J. told him about his sleepover. When D.J. asked him about his hand that still had the splint on it, Darrell explained that he’d had an accident but it wasn’t that serious. Once they got to the study, he pulled up short when he saw Jerra sitting closely on the couch next to a man with dark hair dressed in an expensive suit. She seemed to be paying rapt attention to something he was pointing out in a stack of papers. Neither of them was aware that Darrell had walked in until D.J. called out to her.

  “Mommy, Mommy, Daddy’s home!”

  Jerra lifted her head in surprise and stared at Darrell. Her lips parted as she stood up. “Hi. I…you’re home,” she said, repeating D.J.’s statement.

  “Yeah, I decided to cut my visit short and fly back.”

  Darrell’s warm eyes ran over the casual outfit she had on. The black pants, white button down silk shirt, and black pumps may have looked simple and basic on anyone else, but Jerra had accessorized it with gold earrings, a long gold chain, and several gold bangle bracelets. With her hair pulled back in a twisted chignon that rested on the nape of her neck, her overall look was fashionable and effortlessly chic.

  Darrell’s gaze shifted pointedly to the man who was now standing beside her and eyeing him with intense curiosity.

  Jerra quickly got over her shock and made the introductions. “Excuse my manners. Justin, this is my husband, Darrell Monroe. Darrell, this is Justin Sullivan of Sullivan, Baker & Lewis. I’m sure you remember me telling you about him. We were in law school together.”

  Darrell let D.J. slide down then stepped forward to shake Justin’s hand, careful of the splint he still wore. Darrell observed Justin curiously as Justin stared at him. The man looked more like a model than a lawyer at a stuffy law firm like Sullivan, Baker & Lewis. Young to be the head of one of the largest law firms in the country, Darrell remembered Jerra telling him that Justin’s grandfather and father had been well-known lawyers who’d defended a lot of high profile clients. Tall, tan, and lean with dark hair and piercing blue eyes, Justin looked to be in his mid-thirties.

  “Of course I remember. Nice to finally meet you, Justin,” Darrell said.

  “Likewise, Darrell. I’ve heard a lot about you. Very nice to meet you as well. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. To say that I’m extremely excited to finally have Jerra on board would be a vast understatement. I’m sure you know how long I’ve been after her to join our firm. I wanted to personally drop off a copy of her contract to look over before she changed her mind. ”

  “I don’t mind at all and I completely understand.” Darrell smiled as his eyes caressed Jerra’s face. “I’m very proud of her.”

  Jerra tried not to beam at all of the praise. “Okay, I suggest you both ease up on the compliments before my ego takes over the room.”

  “It’s very much deserved, Jerra, believe me,” Justin said. “A lawyer with your talent is a welcome addition to Sullivan, Baker & Lewis. I don’t know what changed your mind because you seemed so adamant when we had lunch a couple of months ago, but I’ll be damned if I look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  While Justin was talking, Darrell’s eyes had remained on Jerra, his expression one of inordinate pride. However, when he heard Justin’s comment about the two of them having lunch, his eyes flew with lightning quick swiftness from his wife to Justin. When they finally swung back to Jerra, she silently implored him not to make a scene.

  Justin appeared oblivious to the tension as he continued. “We’re looking forward to adding your name to the letterhead as partner,” he smiled. “But we can talk about that later. I think I’ve monopolized enough of your time. I’ll let you get back to your family. If you have any questions about the contract, don’t hesitate to call me.” He switched his attention back to Darrell. “Again, it was nice to meet you. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of one another in the future.”

  Darrell nodded. “I’m sure. Take care, Justin.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Jerra said. Her eyes met Darrell’s for a brief moment as she passed by him and left out the room with Justin following behind her.

  Several minutes later, she came back and found Darrell and D.J. in the family room watching television. When Darrell saw her, he stood up and met her halfway before she made it to them.

  Jerra looked at the splint on his hand. “Is it broken?”

  “Nah, just fractured.”

  An awkward silence fell between them before Darrell commented, “So that’s Justin Sullivan. Seems like a pretty cool guy.”

  “He is.”

  “I didn’t realize you and he were still such good friends.”

  “I...we…we’re not. Not anymore.” Jerra stumbled a bit over her words, squirming slightly under Darrell’s dissecting stare. “I mean, I told you I knew him from law school, but that was a long time ago.”

  Darrell continued to take note of her reaction. “You and he had lunch a couple of months ago?”

  “Yes.” Impatience seeped into Jerra’s tone. “It was a chance encounter so you can stop looking at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like I intentionally kept it a secret for some reason,” she murmured in a hushed tone so as not to attract D.J.’s attention.

  Darrell laughed, but his eyes never lost their intensity. “Did you?”

  CHAPTER 24

  Jerra delivered her next words with deliberate precision. “Stop right there. I know what you’re doing. Don’t you dare try to compare that to what you did. It’s not even remotely the same thing. For your information, Angela and I were having lunch. Justin happened to be in the restaurant eating alone. After we exchanged a few words, I extended an invitation for him to join us. End of story.”

  Darrell wanted to press her further and ask if the guy made it a point of going to all of his new employees’ homes to personally welcome them to the firm, but decided against it. Things were bad enough without him deliberately escalating the situation and making it worse. He’d let the subject drop…for now.

  “Well, congratulations again. I really am proud of you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Maybe once things settle down, we can go out for a celebratory drink or something.” Darrell knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as he saw Jerra shut down.
/>   “We’ll see,” was her only response. Peeking around Darrell to look at D.J., she sighed in regret. He appeared so happy and carefree, but Jerra knew that was about to change. “This is going to be hard. Telling him…about us, I mean.”

  Darrell followed her gaze to their son and nodded.

  Jerra folded her arms. “He’s already asked about Tina.”

  “I know. He asked me too.” Darrell glanced back at D.J. to make sure he wasn’t listening then added, “I called her after I got off the phone with you.”

  “What did she say?” Jerra asked tentatively.

  “Just what I expected. Went through her repertoire of tactics: tears, accusations, playing the victim,” Darrell grimaced. “When she saw none of that was goin’ to work, shit got real very quickly.”

  “Did she admit to what happened?”

  “She didn’t deny it, tried to make excuses. After that, there was no need to continue the conversation. I told her I was through and to stay away from my family. Tina was dead to me for a long time, Jerra. I never should’ve resurrected and resuscitated her ghost. I thought that maybe she’d changed, but…” Darrell shook his head. “She’s the same person she’s always been. Just a better actress.”

  “I’m sorry, Darrell,” Jerra said softly.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  He stared at their son, whose attention was captured by the television and blissfully unaware that Tina leaving was only the beginning of his world turning upside down on its axis. Darrell felt sick to his stomach at the thought of what they were getting ready to do. The thought briefly crossed his mind again to ask Jerra to reconsider their separation, but her next statement told him that she hadn’t budged in her decision.

  “We may as well get this over with. The longer we wait, the harder it’s going to be.”

  Jerra looked at him with eyes full of tears that threatened to drop, but she took a deep breath and walked to the couch and sat down beside D.J. Darrell reached for the remote and turned the television off before sitting down on his other side.

  The conversation with D.J. was just as bad as they guessed it would be. D.J. didn’t take it well at all. Darrell and Jerra answered all of his questions, and there were quite a few.

  No, this wasn’t happening because he’d been bad. Yes, Mommy and Daddy still loved each other. Yes, they still loved him. No, Darrell was not going to do what Tony Walker’s dad did and find a new mommy and baby sister for D.J. Yes, for now, he would have two homes, one here with Mommy and one with Daddy.

  By the time they finished, everyone was exhausted, especially D.J. He was so upset that even the offer of pizza didn’t cheer him up at first. It took Jerra several attempts to coax him with reminders of how much he absolutely loved playing the games at his favorite pizzeria.

  Finally, he gave in. After Jerra went up to her bedroom and changed clothes, the three of them drove to get pizza the same exact way they’d done on numerous occasions, but this time, instead of going as a family unit, they were broken.

  Jerra and Darrell didn’t verbalize their thoughts, but as they kept up the cheerful façade for D.J.’s sake, their eyes met several times. Each could read the other’s thoughts: Was it even possible to put their family back together again?

  Once they got home, D.J. could barely keep his eyes open. He fought sleep like a true champ, but after taking a bath, and insisting his father read him a story that he already knew word for word, he’d begged Darrell around his huge yawns to lie down with him until he went to sleep. Darrell recognized that he was being shamelessly manipulated, but in all honesty, there was no other place he wanted to be.

  After D.J. finally dozed off, Darrell’s thoughts turned to his situation and how fucked up everything was. It was hard to believe it had to come to this point. That Jerra was actually insisting they live separately.

  Darrell looked down at his son, relieved to see him curled up on his side and sleeping peacefully. Carefully getting out of the bed, he slipped his boots on before closing the door softly behind him. Without giving himself time to think, Darrell went to the master bedroom, pulled out a suitcase, and started packing. There was no use in putting it off any longer.

  He grabbed several days’ worth of clothes and dumped them in the suitcase. He was coming out of the bathroom with the essential toiletries he’d need when he spotted Jerra standing in the doorway watching him.

  Darrell didn’t even pause. “I’m almost finished. Tomorrow or this weekend would probably be a good time to take D.J. out somewhere while I come back and get a few more things.”

  Jerra nodded, but Darrell was focused on what he was doing. She quietly turned to leave in order to let him finish when his voice stopped her.

  “I wanna ask you somethin’.”

  “O-okay.” Jerra’s tone was hesitant and cautious.

  Darrell zipped his suitcase before looking up at her. “Exactly how close were you and Justin in law school?”

  “Oh God, not this again,” Jerra muttered before glaring at him. “Why?”

  Darrell shrugged. “I wanna know. What’s the big deal about giving me an answer?”

  “Because it’s not relevant, that’s why.”

  Darrell caught the corner of his inner lip between his teeth as he studied her. “Humor me.”

  “So you can punch the wall again when you don’t get the answer you want?” Jerra wasn’t fooled for one moment by his pleasant tone. He was as tense as a coil of wire that had been stretched out to its limit. The slightest tug would make him snap.

  She gestured to the damage he’d done a couple of days ago. “By the way, I’d appreciate you fixing that as soon as possible. It looks horrible.”

  Darrell squinted, his eyes never leaving her. She was stalling. That alone gave him his answer.

  Jerra was silent for a few moments before she went on the defensive and came out swinging. “Like I said earlier, you are trying to compare this to you sneaking around, calling your ex-girlfriend and lying about it, aren’t you?”

  Although her snide tone was slowly pissing him off, Darrell didn’t bother to address that statement. He had been married to Jerra long enough to recognize her tactics. If he came back at her and denied the fact that he had been “sneaking around” she would move in for the attack and stay on him with stubborn persistence until they ended up in an argument about what each felt constituted a lie. By the time everything was said and done, he still wouldn’t have his answer, so instead of falling into that trap, he brought them back around to the subject at hand.

  “Were you involved with Sullivan?” he asked again. “Did you have a relationship with him?”

  Jerra’s eyes flickered away from his before being drawn back like a defiant moth to a burning hot flame. He could almost see her mind working and weighing her options.

  Finally, she said, “The possibility of a relationship was…explored. But we decided we were better off as friends.”

  “Who decided?”

  “Who decided what?” she asked, looking at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

  Darrell was aware that she knew exactly what he meant, but he remained patient and expanded his question. “Which one of you decided not to pursue a relationship? You or him?”

  Huffing impatiently, Jerra seemed as if she would ignore his question altogether, but Darrell waited stubbornly, his expression telling her he wouldn’t drop the subject until he was good and ready.

  “Not that it matters, but it was my decision.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Darrell’s mouth curved into a tight smile. He picked up his suitcase and glanced around one last time before stopping in front of Jerra.

  His eyes still burning intensely, Darrell leaned down towards her. “With you working so closely with Justin, is it gon’ cause a problem between us somewhere down the line?”

  “Why should it? I told you he and I weren’t involved like that. Justin and I are both professionals.”

  “I’m not worried about his profess
ionalism, I’m more concerned about the way he looked at you earlier. With it being your decision not to have a relationship with him back then, more than likely that means he wouldn’t be opposed to that happening now if he felt like he had a chance. So I’ll ask you again: do you think it’ll be a problem working with him? No, wait,” he cautioned when he saw her readying herself to argue. “I’m just trying to get things clear and out in the open here. If you think working with him is goin’ to complicate things, you need to tear up that contract he so graciously took the time to bring all the way over here, and look at other law firms.”

  “What?” Jerra looked confused.

  “You heard me. We have enough problems facing us without inviting more into the equation. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Their eyes engaged in an intense duel, Darrell’s steady and calm, Jerra’s outraged and so angry tears sprang to her eyes. Darrell knew she was furious with him, but he wasn’t letting it go until it was settled.

  Jerra clenched her teeth. “There’s not going to be a problem with me working with Justin.”

  “Good. I trust that there won’t be, because Jerra...” He moved closer until she had to crane her neck back to look him in the eye. “If I get the slightest inkling that somethin’ ain’t right, or that Sullivan crossed the line in any way, I won’t hesitate to whip his fuckin’ ass and teach him a much needed lesson on respect. We understand each other?”

  Jerra remained stubbornly silent. She glared at him in defiance before finally lowering her eyes. It was a small gesture, but one that signified Darrell the victor of this particular battle, and they both knew it.

  “I’ll have the wall taken care of tomorrow.” He paused when she refused to acknowledge him. “Look at me. Please,” he added softly.

  The air in the room suddenly changed from tense and frigid to sweltering and alluring. His possessive gaze burned a trail over the curves of her body, reminding her that he didn’t share what was his. And Jerra St. James-Monroe? She was most definitely his.