Part 23 (2/2)
”I can't wait to get out of here,” Bobby said, throwing down his hand of cards. ”Everything's making me jumpy.”
Damali nodded and hoisted the duffel bag up higher. ”Guess 'Nez is out and about 'with Mike?” She glanced around, quietly trying to sense for Juanita without asking her whereabouts.
”Mike does the heavy lifting, both the ladies are buying what we need for the road,” Shabazz said, glaring up from his hand.
”Least that's the story we got.”
Static charge was practically lifting Shabazz's locks off his shoulders. Damali nodded again, trying not to be drawn into the att.i.tudes and vibes that permeated the house. ”Cool. All right. Well, maybe I'll catch up with Krissy just to be sure we have all...” Her voice trailed off as Berkfield's head snapped up at the same time Shabazz's and Dan's did.
Rider was on his feet with Bobby in seconds, one blocking Dan the other Berkfield.
”Where's my daughter?” Berkfield said, looking at Rider hard.
”Relax, dude,” Rider said as calmly as possible. ”Let's me, you, and old Shabazz here take a fatherly walk.”
”f.u.c.k that,” Dan shouted before Berkfield could challenge Rider's reply, making the room go still. ”Where's J.L.?”
Jose stood slowly, mirroring Shabazz's moves in a patient dance-and then grabbed Dan as he was about to bolt. Damali dropped the duffel bag and looked at her teammates.
”Yo, yo, yo, what's up with all this, guys?” Damali held her hands up. ”We're out of here in-”
”Damali, get 'em off of me or I swear I'll-”
”Let him go,” Damali said quickly, going to Dan, watching hot tears rise in his eyes as his face flushed. ”Baby-”
”I knew it!” Dan shouted, looking at Bobby and then Jose. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, and sniffed back tears of frustration as he sputtered his complaint. ”You were supposed to have my back, man! You know good and d.a.m.ned well where she is!”
”Then some-f.u.c.king-body tell me,” Berkfield said, shrugging Rider's grip off his shoulder. ”Wanna enlighten her G.o.dd.a.m.ned father? Huh! Somebody?”
Shabazz shook his head and began walking. ”Berkfield, me and you, we take a walk, we talk, and we let cool heads prevail...
Aw'right? Been there. Very recently.”
Berkfield nodded grudgingly and began to walk. ”I need some answers.”
”It's best this way,” Shabazz said quietly, putting his arm over Berkfield's shoulder. ”Better on the team than... She's young, could get jacked in a-”
Before the other brothers or Damali could react, Dan had cleared the table and was going in the direction of the kitchen, headed for the back door. Instinct kicked in, and every man in the house was on Damali's heels as she tried to catch up with Dan, who was making a mad dash for the shed.
”Daniel!” She screamed, closing the gap across the big backyard, her legs pumping as her stride ate up ground. ”Don't do it, Dan! Don't go in there! J.L.!” Mental prayers came out in fits of breath. Oh, Lord, oh Lord, not on this team, not another one, not today, not this kid! Get dressed y'all. s.h.i.+t!
A shotgun blast made her look over her shoulder and lose ten feet of gain. She saw it in slow motion, skidded to grasp the back of Dan's T-s.h.i.+rt that ripped under her hold. J.L. had stumbled out of the shed, tucking his s.h.i.+rttails into his pants, breathing hard.
Berkfield was beet red in the face, lowering a sawed-off and being tackled to the ground. Krissy was crying and trying to get her blouse untwisted. Jose body-blocked Krissy from her father's scrutiny while she righted her clothes. Bobby slowed down, conflicted, caught in the withered gra.s.s between his father, his sister, and his two best friends. Rider and Shabazz were trying to extricate a weapon from a father who was foaming at the mouth. Dan was about to get his a.s.s kicked by a martial arts pro.
”Stop!” Damali's heart was beating a bruise into her chest.
Nothing Neteru was working. Her legs were lead, time wasn't stopping, the team had snapped its fragile hold on reality. Where was f.u.c.king Juanita when another pair of female hands was needed! Damali flung down the ripped fabric, screaming ”No!” as Dan hurdled headlong into J.L.'s abdomen and was summarily flipped to land with a thud on his back.
Dan was up in seconds, pure rage blazing in his bloodshot blue eyes. Tears and dirt had created mud on his face. J.L. almost snarled as murder flit through his normally kind brown eyes. Krissy was sobbing and looking at her father as Rider finally got the gun out of his clenched fist.
”I'll kill him!” Berkfield shouted. ”In the family house, with me here, I will ma.s.sacre him! Let me up, G.o.ddammit, now!”
Damali dashed between the two warring brothers, her posture centered low, knees bent, as she hopped in a circle to follow their moves. She eye-spotted Jose and Bobby for a.s.sistance. She didn't want anybody hurt, and that was likely if they collided again.
”Everybody chill. One family. One-”
”No!” Dan spat, ”f.u.c.k it. No such thing! She lied to me!”
Damali's attention swung between both younger Guardians as Krissy cried harder. Not sure what to do, she tried to keep them talking. Dan had totally surprised her. The newbie was faster, stronger, and had more heart than she'd given him credit for, and to see him out there all jacked around was breaking her heart.
She glanced at Krissy's disheveled condition and then at J.L.'s. Oh, s.h.i.+t. This man was definitely working before Dan's red alert, and the girl's father was in it now? J.L. was not about to calm down. All right, new plan. She gave Jose the subtle nod and he was on Dan in seconds with Bobby helping to pin him to the exterior shed wall.
”Dan, listen for two seconds. Okay?” She pivoted her attention to J.L. who looked like he was about to break Dan's neck. ”J.L., you can kill him if you two mix it up. He's no black belt, brother. You have got to calm down!””I will kill this motherf.u.c.ker where he stands now, D-let him go! He's been getting on my nerves since Philly, aw'right!” J.L.
spat and rolled his shoulders. ”This is bulls.h.i.+t!”
Guttural roars and a daughter's repeated name amid curses were coming from Berkfield twenty feet away as he wrestled on the dusty ground with Rider and Shabazz and tried to get to J.L.
”There's nothing to listen to, D,” Dan hollered, new tears filling his eyes as his focus went to Krissy. ”Tell him!”
”You need to stop playing games, Kris,” Bobby shouted. ”I told you to just be honest with my boy! Why'd you put him in a position like this, huh?”
”I was not playing games,” she screamed, going to Damali and crying harder. ”I changed my mind, all right! Is that what you wanna hear? I never slept with Dan!”
”So the kisses never mattered? Is that what you're saying? All those nights we talked, and I held you while you cried about being scared didn't mean s.h.i.+t to you, Kris? Is that it?” Veins were standing in Dan's neck as he hollered, ”Answer me!”
Pure shock had loosened Jose and Bobby's hold on Dan, and in a hurt fury he tore his body away from the rusty aluminum shed exterior to walk in a hot circle, raking his hair with dirty fingers. ”I cannot believe you.” He made a lunge, but Jose and Bobby had him.
”Aw, Lawd, Dan, don't get into...” Damali sighed as Krissy covered her face and wailed. The girl's business was all over the yard; her father was about to have a stroke.
”I'll kill 'em both,” Berkfield shouted, sending up plumes of dust as he struggled. ”Rider, lemme up! Shabazz, get the f.u.c.k off me!
They were both on my baby? Oh, s.h.i.+t, where's Mike's cannon!”
Damali couldn't hold Krissy and body block J.L. at the same time. But even with the girl near her, she could feel humiliation rising off Krissy's skin in a thick, pain-filled emulsion. Dan looked like he'd been slapped-better description, gut-punched, but the young fool's pride was putting him at risk for getting his a.s.s beat. Stand down, Damali whispered in her mind. Please, Daniel, oh, man...
”Okay, everybody just stop!” Damali finally shouted, so confused and upset she didn't know what to do. She pointed at Dan.
”She made a choice. How she came to that is between you two. Discuss it later-but one thing is for sure, she shouldn't have to do it out here like this.”
Dan shrugged out of Bobby and Jose's hold and stormed away in the opposite direction from the house toward Carlos's unfinished property.
”Do I still need to body-block you, J.L.? You got your head together, man?” Damali asked, hands on hips.
J.L. raked his sweaty hair and grudgingly nodded. He walked in a distracted circle for a moment, and then looked up for the first time at Berkfield. Rage slowly ebbed and awareness set in as Rider kicked the gun farther away while Shabazz held Berkfield down in a shoulder lock. A visible Oh s.h.i.+t flickered in J.L.'s eyes. Terror replaced awareness as he tried to summon speech.
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