“Uhh…Dragon I’m bringing him home with me….to Dancer and Carrie’s.”
Dragon’s face goes solid, like I’m watching and it turns to stone—granite even. You can just see this mask of hardness come over him.
“Let’s go. We’ll talk in the car.”
“Dragon, I drove here.”
He walks to me and pulls me from the chair I’m sitting in so I am standing in front of him. He leans in and whispers into my ear, and I get chills. These, however, have nothing to do with sexual awareness. He’s mad—really mad.
“I’m not fighting in front of my child. Dom will not hear his parents going at each other. But listen to me, Mama, and listen well. We will have this out. We will be talking about this and there is no motherfucking way my son is going to another man’s house when he leaves here. Now get your shit and let’s get out of here.”
I get my stuff and think I might be in shock, because I should be ready to cut his balls off, but instead, I’m aroused as hell. It has to be hormones still running amuck. Surely, that’s it? I mean, I haven’t had sex in like over three months, hell maybe four, the time is starting to blur. I follow Dragon down to the parking garage. I say follow, because there’s no way I can keep up with this stomping-mad, long-legged, jackass. I’m about out of breath just trying.
When we get down there, I start to go to my car and Dragon grabs my arm and steers me to his instead.
“Dragon, you can’t just tell me what to do!” I gasp, but he has the passenger door open and is lifting me up and sitting me in the seat, before I can even blink. He reaches around, buckles me in and I sputter trying to form coherent words when he slams the door—in my face.
He climbs in on his side, starts up the car and heads out on the main road.
“Dragon! I can’t just leave my car there! Besides, I have things to do to make sure Dom’s room is ready.”
He doesn’t answer, instead he reaches for his phone.
“Yo, Bull? Can you have one of the boys pick up Nicole’s car at the hospital? Yeah man. We’ll vote on it at Friday’s church. Later.”
“What did you do?”
Silence.
“Damn it, Dragon! You answer me right now or I’ll…”
“Shut it, Mama.”
“Shut…listen, I’ve had enough. You can’t just…”
He swerves the car, pulling over to the side of the road and slams it into park. It comes to a stop with a groan, and he cuts the engine.
“You want to have this out here, Mama? Fine, we’ll have it out here. How about the fact that I’ve let you lead me around by my dick long enough, and you are going to get this fucking knot out of your ass once and for all!”
I look at him like he’s insane, because I think he is. I unlatch my seat belt then open the door and jump out. Screw this, I’ll walk home.
I don’t get but just a few steps before he’s pulling me back to him. I try to fight him, to break free, but it’s impossible.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He barks.
“Walking home!”
“Fuck, woman, you haven’t been home in months!”
I stop fighting him and go still. He doesn’t let me go, but his hold loosens.
“You took that from me.”
He lets go and turns me around to face him. It’s dark and I can barely make out his face. A car goes by and its headlights highlight his features, briefly. I can see nothing but the confusion etched there.
“Nicole…”
“You took it all. You took safety. You took my heart and crushed it. You took happiness. You took my fucking air, Dragon. You cut my chest open, yanked my heart out and threw it on the ground! All I could do was stand there, looking at it and bleed. Alone! You did that! Now you think I can just put that away and everything will be fine! Gee! Wow! Look here! I’m not dead! Just kidding! I had to do it honey! I had to do what was best for you and the club! It’s all better now! You know what Dragon? Fuck you!”
I’ve lost it. Tears are pouring down my face and it pisses me off even more because I don’t want to cry more over this man. I’ve cried fucking rivers, and he thinks I’ve just got a knot in my ass?
“What the fuck did you expect me to do, Nicole? The bastard had me by the balls. He was taking pot-shots at us. I just lost a man. A man I liked. A man I respected. My woman left me standing at the fucking altar with a fucking monkey suit on. My best friend had flown the coop. I had to make a quick decision. I had to take control and be the fucking man I was before you. The fucking man I still am, Nicole. I had to go on the attack or he was going to hurt you, hurt our baby. I didn’t have much of a fucking choice. I did what I’m trained to do, damn it. I went to war. Hit him, when he didn’t think I could.”
“You left me alone, Dragon. You took…you took my world,” I whisper brokenly.
Chapter 35
Dragon