Duke (12 page)

D
uke peeled
Takiyah off Keen and raised the boy into his arms. He carried him back to the car with Takiyah at his side sniffling and moaning. A short while later, they arrived at the hospital. Takiyah rushed off with Keen on a stretcher and doctors and nurses at his side. Duke returned to his car for her purse, which she had left. He dug out her phone and dialed Ed.

“Takiyah! Did you find him?” Ed said. Duke’s jaw tightened at the weakness he heard in the man’s voice. Asshole should have been out looking himself, not waiting by the phone, even if Takiyah told him to.

“We found him,” he snapped. “We’re at the hospital.”

A small sob escaped Ed. “Which—”

“She’ll call you when she knows something. Right now, neither of them need you the way you are now.” He disconnected the call. Maybe he was wrong in refusing to tell Ed where to find his son. No doubt he cared about Keen, but sniveling and not being a strong shoulder for Takiyah when she had so much on her was the wrong move.

“Sir!”

Duke spun on his heel at the strident call, and a wave of dizziness hit him. He tried shaking it off, but his mind had gone a little fuzzy. A nurse rushed over to him and grabbed hold of his arm. “Do you realize you’re bleeding?” she said.

He gazed down and noticed he’d left a trail of blood across the floor. “Damn.”

“Let’s go,” she ordered.

Duke was whisked through double doors to the examining area of the emergency room. All the way, the nurse held a towel against his arm to catch the blood. Duke winced in pain. Now that he realized he had been cut, he felt it. That bastard with the knife had gotten through his defenses, all because he had concentrated too much on what Takiyah wanted.

While he sat on a bed, refusing to lie down, he gazed around the area. He spotted Takiyah on the opposite side of the nurse’s station, and when she saw him, she rushed over. “Why are you here? Oh no, you’ve been cut. Duke, I’m so sorry.”

“Shh, hush,” he ordered. “I’ve had worse done to me.”

“I don’t want to think of that.”

He pointed with his chin to the area where he first saw her. “How is Keen?”

She swayed a little, and he put out his injured arm to catch her and grunted in pain. She shoved his hand away. “Keep still. I’m fine, and Keen might have a couple broken ribs. They’re doing x-rays. He protected his head with his hands, so no major damage. He has a couple black eyes and a busted lip. The doctor says he’s confident Keen looks far worse than he is.”

“Good.”

“We were fortunate, but it could have been much worse. If we didn’t get there in time to stop them—”

“But we did.”

A doctor walked over and introduced himself. Duke sat in silence with his jaw clenched while they stitched him up. Seventeen stitches surprised him, but as he told Takiyah, he had had much worse happen to him. The knife was nothing compared to being shot twice.

When Duke was all done, he walked over to where Takiyah and Keen were. He nodded with a bit of pride at the smile on Keen’s face when he saw him. Despite his battered appearance and obvious pain, Keen was putting on a brave face.

“Hey, Duke,” he said. “I was in a fight.”

“You don’t say?” Duke figured he didn’t recall him and his mother breaking up that fight and Duke carrying him to the car. “Looks like you didn’t do so well.”

Takiyah glared at him.

“Yeah.”

Keen blushed. His skin, paler than Takiyah’s because of his mixed heritage, showed bright red. Both eyes were almost swollen shut, but he apparently could see through the slits. Two small cuts split his bottom lip, and the top lip matched the eyes in swelling. Nothing broken there, Duke assessed. He was a strong kid.

“Duke, will you teach me now?” Keen asked.

Takiyah might be rich cocoa brown, but Duke saw the blood drain from her face. “You shut your mouth! No more fighting,
ever!
”

She glared at Duke as if he’d encouraged the boy’s folly. With Keen’s face a reminder of how Takiyah could have lost him, the last thing she wanted to hear was about him going back into senseless battle. Duke, who saw no reason not to handle things with his fists when necessary, got her point. This wasn’t the time.

“You concentrate on getting well, bud,” he said.

Duke reached out to touch Takiyah’s back with his good hand, meaning to give her a little comfort, but she moved to the other side of her son’s bed. She rejected him, but he put it down to the emotional trauma of the night. Tomorrow things would look better for her.

A few hours later, they were released from the hospital, and Duke wheeled Keen out to his car. Duke locked the wheelchair. “Wait a sec. Let me lift you in there.”

“I’m a man. I can do it myself.”

Takiyah tried to help her son anyway, but Duke held her back. She tried to pry his fingers off her arm. “Let me go, Duke.”

“He can do it. Even if it hurts, let him try. You’ll hurt his pride if you help him.”

“I don’t give a damn about his pride. He’s my baby.”

He got the door open and watched as she insisted on helping her son. Nothing he could say would make her listen. Then he thought of the truth she might not have realized yet. When she started to climb in to the front seat, he grabbed hold of her wrist. “Hang on.”

She glared at him while he shut both doors, sealing Keen off from hearing what he had to say. Takiyah folded her arms over her chest. She tried to look strong, but he saw how she trembled a little and the weariness around her eyes.

“You can be pissed at me all you want,” he said, “but you need to know the truth.”

“What truth? That I’m too soft on my son? That’s not your business.”

“No, that he’s been initiated into a gang.”

She looked sick. “What are you talking about?”

“The beating. Blood has to be spilled to get into it, and blood will be spilled to get out. He did this of his own accord. He wanted to join.”

“No, I won’t believe that. He’s been bullied, but I’m going to handle it.”

He ignored the twinge in his arm and dragged her closer by both shoulders. “Listen to me, damn it! You can’t
handle
it. The next thing you know, he’s going to be pressed into committing a crime. I won’t go into detail about what that might be.”

Her knees gave, and he tugged her into his embrace. She fought him, and when he realized she would keep on until she wore herself out, he let her go. Her head hung down, and she shook all over.

“So what’s your solution, huh? More fighting? My son is already looking at you as the one who will fix it for him.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “All I want is for him to be safe. That’s it. Nothing else.”

“Kiyah.”

“No, Duke. Please, just take me home.”

He sighed and opened the door for her. Whether she liked it or not, he helped her into the car and slammed the door a little too hard. Once they were on the road, he did everything he could to keep his mouth shut. Arguing with her would do nothing. He gazed into the rearview mirror to find Keen had dozed off. Takiyah sat rigid in her seat, but her eyes held a haunted expression. He kicked himself for being too honest with her about the gang. She couldn’t handle it.

The sun had risen by the time they pulled in front of Takiyah’s house, and Duke looked on in shock at the damage done to the property. All the windows were broken out. The front door hung by one hinge. Curses had been spray-painted all across the walls, and someone had upended trashcans on the small front porch and the patch of lawn. Duke didn’t have to go inside to know the same or worse had been done there.

“Mama!” Takiyah screamed and ran for the house. Duke moved at top speed to catch her and forced her back into the car.

“Wait there while I check it out.” His voice was rough enough to make her obey. From the backseat, Keen sat with his face pressed close to the glass. Duke caught sight of the guilty tears streaming, and he turned away quickly.

A quick survey of the property inside proved his assessment. All furniture in the house and a computer were destroyed. Dishes were broken, and the refrigerator had been left open for the food to rot. He found no trace of Takiyah’s mother and hoped it meant she had fled or never been home in the first place. What the hell had the neighbors been doing while all this was going on? Someone had to have heard, and yet, he knew they were all too afraid to do anything.

“She’s not here,” Duke said when he walked back outside.

Takiyah jumped on her phone to make a call. While she did that, Duke walked over to the next-door neighbor’s house. He banged on the door and shouted. An older gentleman peeked out the front window, looking fearful. When he spotted Duke, he shrank even more, but Duke pointed to the street. The old man saw Takiyah pacing and unlocked the door.

“Did you see anything?” Duke demanded, not bothering to explain what he meant.

“Those terrible kids?” the old guy grumped. “Of course I did, but I won’t go on record about it, if that’s what you’re expecting. I’ve lived here almost fifty-eight years, and I’ll die in this house. I’m not stirring up any trouble. So you just go on.”

He started to close the door, but Duke put his foot in the gap.

“I’ll call the police,” the old man grumbled. “Mrs. Silver is a good woman, and her daughter seems nice, but I got to look out for me.”

“Tell me about the kids,” Duke insisted.

Round eyes worked back and forth as if the old guy expected spies to be lurking about, waiting to see if he would talk. He hesitated and scratched a scraggly beard. When he looked again at Duke, Duke made sure to stand straighter and look bigger and more threatening than a bunch of stupid teenagers.

The old man gulped. “I heard this, mind, not that I know it’s true. There’s a man, an older man, behind them all. He’s kind of a father to the kids who are neglected by their parents or who never had a father figure. ’Cept he’s teaching them the wrong way. They steal and give him everything. He gives them a portion for themselves and makes them feel like they’re important.”

“Drugs?”

“Not that I know of. Heard tell he doesn’t let the kids get on drugs. Anyone that does gets put out of the gang—
permanently
—if you know what I mean.”

Duke nodded. “Sounds like petty theft, but I’m thinking it’s more serious than that.”

“Oh, yeah. If the victim doesn’t give up their money, they get a knife. Sometimes they do anyway. The gang uses only kids, and they go around forcing others into it. No choice in the matter.”

“Do you have a name?” As Duke asked the question, he glanced out at the street. Keen was climbing painfully from his car, and Takiyah was helping him. Behind Duke’s car, another had just pulled up. He tensed until he saw it was Ed. An unsettling feeling washed over him.

“I don’t know no names,” the old man snapped. “Even if I did, you won’t hear it from me.”

Duke was about to ask another question, but the couple down at the curb distracted him. The old man took the opportunity to slam his door and lock it. Duke wouldn’t get any more information out of him.

He walked back to the curb in time to catch Takiyah as she was about to join Keen in his father’s car. With a nod to Ed, who looked better than he had sounded on the phone, Duke said, “Let’s talk, Kiyah.”

She gave a small tug of her wrist, and he released her. He moved out of earshot of Ed, and she followed, rubbing her arms. “I’m tired, Duke. I found out Mama is at her girlfriend’s house. That’s a weight off my shoulders, but this night has taken it out of me.”

“I know. You can come to my house to rest.”

She blinked at him. “Did you get furniture between three o’clock this morning and now? Because with the condition Keen is in, he can’t sleep on the floor.”

He worked his jaw. “I’ll get some.”

“Not soon enough for him to rest. I’m sorry, Duke. You have nothing to offer me.”

“So you’re going with
him
?” He didn’t mean to sound jealous.

She hesitated and glanced over her shoulder at Ed. Then she faced him, drew in a breath, and blew it out. “I want to be honest with you. I like you a lot. More than I want to really. You’re fun and exciting, but you’re not what we need.”

“You don’t know what you need.”

“Excuse me?”

He mentally kicked himself for letting anger and jealousy get the best of him. In reality, he wasn’t behaving in his usual way, but she couldn’t see that. “I’m sorry. I can…”

He started to say he would take care of her and her son, but he wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted. They were still new. All he had thought seriously about was making love to her. Taking on a ready-made family with issues was a whole other idea.

“Don’t go with him,” he said at last, having no other options.

“He’s my ex-husband, and I told you Ed was never a bad father or a bad husband. He loves Keen, and—” She seemed to choke over her next words. Her focus shifted to the ground between them. “He never stopped loving me. I can’t do this by myself anymore. Plus, Ed lives in a decent neighborhood. We’re going back there. I’m so sorry, Duke.”

He hitched his shoulders and stuffed his hands in his pockets. The grin on his face was hard to form. “Whatever. We were just having fun, weren’t we? Enjoy your life, Takiyah.”

She flinched at his use of her full name, and he spun away and climbed into his car to peel away from the curb. He told himself not to check the rearview mirror, but he did anyway. Of course, he was in time to see Ed wrap his arm around Takiyah’s shoulders and help her into his car. Duke slammed a fist against his steering wheel and pressed harder on the gas. For the first time in his good-for-nothing life, he had fallen in love, and now he had lost the woman.

D
uke dropped
another plate of food. This was his third. He swore and shoved a chair until it overturned, scaring the customers nearby. Creed appeared out of nowhere, his face a thundercloud. “My office,
now.
”

“Fuck off,” Duke spat.

“You can either come yourself, or Pete and I will drag you there. If you want to be humiliated, be my guest.”

“When the hell have I ever cared about being humiliated?”

The two of them faced off, and Creed never blinked. Sighing and hitching his shoulders, Duke gave in. He didn’t want to serve and smile at air-headed women anyway. He followed Creed to his office and dropped into Creed’s chair behind his desk. For the first time, his cousin didn’t rag on him but leaned against the far wall and folded his arms over his chest.

“What’s going on, Duke?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me. You’ve been in a black mood for the last couple of days. I’ve had enough. The only reason why I didn’t throw your ass out and tell you take a break is that some of those women like the angry man persona.”

“You would know.”

“Don’t push me.”

Duke leaned over the desk and slammed a flat palm against it. “I’m having an off week.”

“Because?”

He couldn’t say. No way in the world would he admit in a million years that he missed Takiyah. She had called in saying she had a family emergency and could she take a few days off. Ever since Duke saw Ed’s arm around her, he couldn’t stop imagining that bastard making love to her. The thought slid into his mind now, and he roared in frustration.

“Hold on,” Creed said, and pushed off the wall. Duke sat back as his cousin approached him. Creed narrowed his eyes, studying Duke’s face. Duke turned his head, pretending an interest in the painting over the printer. Creed grinned, and Duke cursed under his breath. “You’re in love.”

“Fuck you!”

A bark of laughter escaped Creed. “I’m right. Well, what do you know? I should get the guys in here. Duke Marquette has fallen in love at last.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“I don’t hear conviction in your voice, cousin.”

Duke flipped him off.

“Let me guess. You’re all angry because she rejected you.”

Duke rushed to his feet and paced. “Would you drop it? Damn, you’ve been there. You know how it is.” He hated himself for admitting the truth. “Can’t you cut me some slack?”

“When did you ever cut anyone else slack?” After a moment, Creed slapped his shoulder. “All right, fine. Tell me all about it. Let your big cousin fix it for you.”

“Idiot. You only make things worse.”

“Who is she?” Creed rubbed his jaw, and then a look of shock came into his gaze. “Don’t tell me it’s Takiyah? Are you the reason she’s run off from work? Dumbass, if you’ve caused me a waitress—”

“No, she didn’t run off because of me. She didn’t run off at all. It’s her son. He’s having some issues.”

Creed tensed. “You know the details?”

“I know some of them.”

“And?”

Again, Duke hesitated. “He got into some gang activity. They destroyed her house and beat her son.”

“Damn!”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I want crush any and everyone involved. There’s a man behind it, not a kid like the others. I think he’s pushing them into the life. Most importantly, they’re trying to do it to Keen, and it’s killing Takiyah.”

“She pushed you out of her life at a time like this?”

Duke ran a hand over the back of his head. He never thought he would hate the man he was. Not in this lifetime. Hell, he’d looked down on others who couldn’t seem to be themselves no matter what anyone thought. Now, he felt ashamed of himself, the cocky attitude and the irresponsibility.

“She said…” He swallowed. What in the hell had she done to him? He was actually getting choked up. No way in the world would he cry like a punk the way that dumbass Ed did. “She said I have nothing to offer her. When her house was destroyed, her ex-husband came to pick her up.”

“I heard from Stefan you bought a house. She didn’t cut you slack over that?”

He winced. “It’s empty. Her son was injured, and he couldn’t sleep on the floor. I get that.”

Creed rubbed his jaw, deep in thought. “Tell me this. If you had everything you needed, would she have come to you?”

Duke wanted to snap out an affirmative, but the truth was he didn’t know. She felt something for him. Maybe it was love, maybe not. Either way, they were new, and he couldn’t ask her to move in with him. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure if her last words to him meant they wouldn’t see each other anymore. Was she planning to remarry that jerk?

“I don’t know,” he admitted after some time. “It doesn’t matter anyway because I’m broke. I’m on instant noodles until my next pay check, and as generous as you are, it’s not going to fill my house with furniture and food.”

“And if I give—”

“Don’t say it. I’m making my own way.” His face burned. “I can’t say I’ve turned over a whole new leaf, but I’m better than I was. I will put furniture in my house, but with my own funds.”

Creed frowned. “Don’t be stubborn. You can’t piss away the opportunity to get her.”

“I’m not.”

“What do you think she’s doing over there with him?”

Duke smashed a fist into the wall. Plaster crumbled all around his hand. Red mingled with the white powder. He’d probably broken something. Creed didn’t flinch once and didn’t appear to be upset about the destruction of his office.

“I didn’t say it to piss you off, Duke. I only want you to realize what you’re risking for your pride.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“So take the money.”

Duke flexed his fingers and found he couldn’t move the ring finger and the baby finger. Definitely broken. He sighed. “I won’t take your money, but I am going to fix this.”

“How are you going to handle it?”

“The Duke Marquette way.”

“What does that mean?”

Duke only grinned and walked toward the door. “I’m going to need time off too, boss. See you in a few days, maybe a week.”

“Idiot,” Creed called after him. “You’re going to need longer than that for broken fingers.”

Duke chuckled, feeling far more cheerful than he had when he walked into the restaurant that morning. “Don’t worry, cuz. When I clear up this mess, the ladies will fall over me, the injured hero.”

Creed rolled his eyes, much like Duke had seen his wife do. He laughed all the way out the door, planning his next move as he went.