by Rhonda Shaw
“Why? I didn’t mean to intrude on your night out with your friends. I didn’t know you’d be here since you told me you would be recording.” I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering why he would lie to me.
“No, baby, that’s not it.” He gave a quick shake of his head. “It isn’t safe here. The crowd here isn’t one you should be around.”
“But it’s okay for you to be here?”
“This is my crowd!”
I took a step back. “Are you ashamed of me? Do I embarrass you?”
His eyes widened and then he gave a sharp shake of his head. “What? No, baby. God, no. It’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it?”
“Just like I said, it’s not safe here for you. Shit always goes down at these parties.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know...shit.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “It doesn’t take much for people to start beating on each other, or for guns to be pulled.”
“Oh,” I said, catching on. I was quiet again, studying him. He looked…odd. “What’s wrong with your eyes, Danny? Why are they so red?”
He averted them and waved his hand. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Are you on something? Are you doing drugs?”
He sighed. “It’s only pot. It’s nothing.”
I stumbled in surprise, for some reason believing he stayed away from drugs. I thought he understood what was best for him, and would do whatever to keep his reputation clean if he wanted to make it big in the music industry; which was ridiculous, given the environment in which he lived, but I’d held onto that confidence in him.
Now, to have my belief shattered in my face, left me uncertain. Danny was a good person at heart, but sometimes made the wrong decisions. I would never tell him how to live his life, but perhaps I could steer him in the right direction.
“You shouldn’t—”
“I don’t need a fucking lecture, G.” He pinned me with a sharp glare. “It’s just weed, that’s all.”
My chin came up at his tone. “It may be nothing to you, but it’s something to me. I don’t want to be around you when you’re on it.”
I turned, and his hand shot out and grabbed me, pulling me back in front of him.
“Don’t do that. Don’t walk away.”
“Then don’t get snippy with me. I’m only worried about you.”
“I know, and I appreciate it, but it’s not a big deal.”
“Then you won’t mind not doing it, if it isn’t a big deal,” I pressed, holding my ground.
He paused before shaking his head, a slight curve playing at his lips. “Fine. I won’t do it, if it means that much to you.”
Surprise filled me at his quick concession. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He put his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. “You’re way more important than that stuff.”
A warm glow radiated within me at his words. “That’s nice to hear. Thank you.”
“It’s the truth.” He moved in, his mouth mere inches from mine, making my heart trip in my chest from anticipation. “You’re my girl, G, and I’d do anything for you. Anything.”
My arms circled around his neck as his lips settled on mine. The malt, almost gasoline-like flavor of his drink filled my mouth, but I didn’t mind. However, when Danny jerked away, I tensed. “What?”
He grimaced. “You taste like Kool-Aid, girl. It’s awful.”
I smacked my lips against his. “You don’t taste too hot yourself.”
He smiled before pulling me back to him. His mouth caused me to melt under his touch, as I always did when he kissed me this way, his tongue sliding against mine. Our breathing hardened as we deepened the kiss and tightened our hold on each other before a purposeful cough interrupted us.
Danny broke away, but kept me tight against him, and spotted Big T standing on the small porch watching us.
“You comin’ back in, D?”
“Yeah, we’re coming. One sec.” When Big T remained where he was with a grin, Danny raised his brow. “You mind?”
“Oh, sorry, my man.” He winked at me before he walked back through the door.
I giggled and ducked my head as my face flamed in embarrassment.
Danny smiled. “I love the way you blush.”
I scowled, still humiliated at being caught making out. “I hate it. I blush at everything.”
“That’s what I love about you. My little innocent GE.”
“I can’t keep up with all the names you call me.”
“I go with what I feel and right then, you were my light again.”
I shook my head, but continued grinning. “You’re crazy.”
“About you.” He leaned down and kissed me again. “Come on, let’s go back.”
I followed him into the house and to the corner where he and his friends were hanging out.
“Hey, girl,” they murmured as I waved.
Danny moved across the room toward the couch and sat, pulling me onto his lap, causing Dollar to raise a brow, but neither said anything. I worried I was coming between them, but he had assured me they worked out whatever disagreement they had. Noticing the disgust on Dollar’s face, however, I wasn’t so sure.
The guy manning the DJ station stepped into the room. “How about giving us a little something, D?”
“Nah, man. Not tonight.”
“Come on, D. You need to do this, get your name out there,” Dollar encouraged.
“Yeah, I want to see you do your thing,” I added.
Everyone around, overhearing this exchange, joined in, pushing and urging, and he sighed in concession. “Okay! All right, all right. Calm the fuck down.” He took me with him into the front room and, letting go of my hand, grabbed a microphone.
“Hit me with bass, Kev.”
He was amazing, freestyling and throwing out words in what seemed like impossible rhymes. He spit them without hesitation, and I marveled at the speed in which he relayed them, bending the verses to fit the beat, lyric and music becoming one, and the clarity in which he whipped through them. Back and forth, he moved with confidence, in sync with the heavy bass as he laid it all down, and the crowd cheered and swayed with him.
I had never seen him perform in front of others, and it was natural for him; nothing forced or uncomfortable. He pulled the audience into the song with him, even though they didn’t know the words, but it didn’t matter. This was what he was destined to do.
His language was colorful—more than usual—using slanderous terms that made me flinch, but I understood it was part of the hip-hop culture. I tried not to let the sexual innuendoes bother me, but my cheeks flamed, exposing my discomfort. They were not words I would ever utter, but I couldn’t fault him. In his music as he told a story was one thing; toward me was another, which he would never do.
When he finished, he kept his face neutral despite the loud cheers as he pushed his way through the crowd. I beamed and clapped my hands as he crossed the room, people patting his back as he passed.
I threw my arms around his neck. “You were unbelievable!”
He broke into a crooked grin and kissed me. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“Liked it? Danny, you were amazing!”
We returned to where Big T and Dollar waited for us, but then Danny turned and gave me a quick kiss. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get a drink.” He looked toward Dollar and Big T, hitching his chin in my direction, and they both nodded.
My gaze followed him as he crossed the room, disappearing into the kitchen, before catching Dollar observing me, mistrust clear in his eyes.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
He continued to eye me before shaking his head and smiling, but the smile was anything but friendly. “I’m wondering what a girl like you sees in a guy like him.”
Despite my unease, his insinuation irked me. “And what exactly is a ‘girl like me’?”
“Nice and sweet. Refined. You refi
ned. He ain’t.”
“Refined? You make it sound like I’m stuck up.”
He raised a brow, but he didn’t expand.
“Like I told Danny, I’ll tell you. It’s dangerous to make assumptions about people because of how they look. Would you like me to do the same with you?”
Big T laughed and shook his head. “She got you there, Dollar.”
He continued to eye me, but then his gaze sharpened at something over my shoulder. A hand gave my behind a friendly slap, and I jerked.
“There’s my girl. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I turned and gazed up into the leering smile of Terrell.
Chapter 19
~ Gabrielle ~
Six Years Earlier
I jumped back and bumped into the wall, the breath in my lungs clogging. My heart rate skyrocketed, and shivers of fear slithered through me when the immediate room quieted, everyone focused on Terrell and me. The way he eyed me, a lion ready to pounce on its prey, triggered chills to course through me, commanding me to turn away, but I remained fixated; a deer in headlights, frozen and unable to escape.
His gaze took its time traveling over the full length of me before he broke into a wicked grin and licked his lips. “Girl, you can clean up. I can’t wait to taste you all over.”
Dollar stepped up with Big T, creating a human barrier in front of me.
“Hey now, Terrell, that ain’t cool, man," Dollar said in a placid tone.
“No, what ain’t cool is you interrupting us.” Two of Terrell’s crew flanked him. The group eyed each other, waiting for someone to make the next move.
I cowered behind Big T, thankful his size kept me out of view, but still longing to disappear. The tension oozed throughout the house and everyone stopped to witness the exchange. Kat stood across the room, the color drained from her face and her eyes bright with fear, and I tried to figure out a way to get to her side without being noticed, but then turned back when Terrell spoke again, his tone indicating he was losing patience.
“Why don’t you two move the fuck out and let me talk to the lady.”
“The lady’s not interested.” Big T refused to budge.
“Not interested?” Terrell repeated with a snicker. “Why don’t you let her speak for herself?” He peered over the meaty shoulder of Big T to leer at me, and I shrunk away.
Danny’s voice entered the mix. “Back off, Terrell.”
A new fear, this time for his safety, had my skin flushing hot then cold. “Danny, don’t!” I reached out to stop him, forgetting my wish to stay out of Terrell’s field of vision, because all I cared about now was keeping Danny out of the situation. But Dollar grabbed my arm and pulled me back, his eyes warning me to keep silent.
Terrell spotted Danny and clapped his hands. “My good friend, D. I was wondering where your white ass was.”
Danny situated himself in front of Big T and Dollar, eyeing Terrell and ignoring the two thugs behind him. “This is between you and me. Keep her out of this.”
“Out of this?” He stepped closer, reducing the gap between them. “She right smack in the middle of this shit.”
Danny didn’t back down. “Stay away from her.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
“I think she should decide for herself.” Terrell flicked his head in a signal, and hands yanked me out from behind Big T, who reached for me at the same time. I gasped as they stretched my arms like a scarecrow.
Danny grabbed my waist and pulled me away from everyone, wrapping his arms around me. His head whipped around as his gaze bounced from face to face in the small house until he spotted Kat. He hitched his head, and she hesitated, debating, before pushing her way through the crowd. When she was close, he shoved me at her. “Get her the fuck out of here!”
“Wait!” I attempted to wrench out of Kat’s tight grasp. “No, Danny—”
“Go!” he shouted at me before he turned back to Terrell, stopping him in mid-pursuit after me by grabbing him by the collar, which prompted Terrell’s crew to jump on Danny. Big T and Dollar entered the fray, and fists flew while bodies slammed together as people parted, giving them room to brawl.
Just as Kat shoved me out the front door, a gunshot rang out. We both screamed and flinched at the sound before scampering out of the way of the stampede.
“Oh my God!” Stone cold terror flowed through me as I imagined Danny sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood with a bullet lodged in him. “I’ve got to go back in there!” I tried to push through the swarm, but got nowhere.
Kat pulled on me. “No, Gabby! No!”
“I have to make sure Danny’s okay,” I wailed, jerking out of her hold.
She yelled at me to come back, but I pushed forward, my blind efforts fruitless as the emerging wave of people crashed against me, preventing any forward progress. Frustrated, scared out of my mind, and exhausted, I refused to give up, convinced Danny was in trouble and needed me.
The wail of police sirens caught my attention as two squad cars pulled up on the street. They shone their spotlights on everyone milling in front, and everybody ran. One officer emerged from his cruiser and trotted toward the house as he yelled into the radio on his shoulder, but his presence didn’t stop my determination to find Danny first.
The surrounding crowd dissipated, allowing me room to move, but a hand grabbed my upper arm and forced me in the opposite direction.
“Let’s go.” Danny led us through the bushes separating the house from its neighbor, and over to the next street.
Relief washed through me. “Danny! Are you all right?”
“Just move, G.”
We got into his car parked down the block, and he pulled away from the curb. I studied his profile as he drove, and apart from a bloody cut above his eye and another on his chin, he didn’t appear to have any life-threatening wounds. It was then I remembered the pistol he carried.
“Was that you who fired the gun?” I was uncertain if I wanted the answer.
He glanced at me, but didn’t respond and kept driving, the streetlights passing his face in and out of darkness. We rode in silence until he pulled into the park we frequented and turned off the car. He slouched in his seat and exhaled deep before turning in my direction.
“Are you okay?”
“Me?” My voice was thin and rose with the fear tremoring throughout my body. “I’m not the one who got jumped!”
He shrugged as he fingered the cut on his head and peered at the blood left on his fingers. “That wasn’t anything.”
I gaped at him. “That wasn’t anything? Danny, you could have been killed!”
He said nothing and continued to probe around his face, taking inventory of his wounds. I grabbed his hand, stopping him, and forced him to look at me. “Did you fire the gun, Danny?”
“And if I did?”
“Someone could have been hurt. You could have been hurt, or worse.”
“I didn’t aim at anyone. It was the only way to stop everything. It was the only way, G,” he repeated, seeing my skepticism.
Danny, lying on the floor, surrounded by blood, with a gunshot wound to his head flashed in my mind and I rested against the headrest with my eyes closed. I shuddered at the terror of the mental image, horrified how close it had become to being real. “I thought you were dead.”
“Hey.” He reached out and pulled me into his arms. “I’m not dead. I’m right here, baby.”
“I’m not built for this. I was scared out of my mind.”
“That’s what I keep trying to tell you. That’s why I didn’t want you at the party. Shit like this always breaks out.” He leaned back and forced me to make eye contact. “This is the way things are around here. It’s the way things are with me. I keep trying to tell you that.”
“I don’t know how you handle it—”
“It doesn’t matter about me. What matters is you, and if you want to stick around or not. It’s not going to change.”
The
back of my throat burned and my heart ached at the notion of not seeing Danny anymore, not being with him. Even with the tiny voice of reason insisting I remove myself from the situation, arguing everything would only get worse from here, I rebuffed any suggestion to being without him.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Frustration etched his face and panic flooded me. “Do you want me to go away?”
“What? No,” he claimed, and I heard the truth in his voice. “The last thing I want is to not be with you, but it worries me having you around this. What if I’m not around to protect you, you know?”
“I don’t understand why I would need protection. Why would anyone care about me? I’m nobody. Unless…” I paused and eyed him. “Is there a reason Terrell keeps bugging me?”
A curtain dropped over his eyes and he hesitated, as if weighing what to say. He gave me a smile, which failed at genuineness. “Because you’re hot as shit, baby. He’s jealous he can’t have you all to himself.”
“Danny, I’m serious. What’s going on?”
“Don’t worry about it. There’s nothing going on.”
“Danny…”
“I’m serious.” He dropped a quick peck on my nose. “He’s just an ass who needs to be reminded of that. He’ll leave you alone now.”
I attempted to read between the lines, but couldn’t decipher any meaning from what he let me see. I trusted him with my life and believed he would do anything in his power to protect me; so, if the situation with Terrell were critical, he wouldn’t hide it from me.
I sagged against him, exhaustion replacing my dropping stress level. “I’m glad you’re okay, and I’m glad you were there.”
~ Danny ~
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the headrest, grateful she wasn’t pushing things further. My heart raced, and fear mixed with hot adrenaline pounded through me, making something basic like breathing difficult. I was thankful I’d been there too because I didn’t want to think about what Terrell would have done to her if I hadn’t been. I didn’t want to know what Terrell was planning to do to her, now that he knew she was with me.