Page 11 of Out of Bounds (Atlanta Demon Series #4)

Swiping the phone off the nightstand, I looked at the screen and groaned before answering the call. “I’m guessing the news has spread by now.”

“Yeah, fuck nigga! It has. Now come open the door,” Deuce replied in a harsh, raspy tone before banging on my ass.

Dropping my head, I sighed. I hated that I even shared locations with this nigga.

I wasn’t in the mood to hear no fucking lecture ’bout shit I’d done because if anybody knew how fucked up the situation was, it was me.

Sliding out of the bed, I shuffled to the front of my hotel suite and unlocked the door.

When I pulled it open, I was met with an immediate fist to the jaw.

Rubbing my shit, I rotated my jaw. “I deserved that.”

“Nawl, you deserve this!” he barked before punching me in the stomach.

That gut punch caused me to fold over. “Aight, Deuce,” I mumbled while holding my stomach. Deuce pushed past me and entered the room while I stood there for a few seconds trying to get myself together.

Shutting the door, I meandered behind him and dropped down on the sofa. A few minutes later, Deuce came from the back, holding a towel.

“Yo’ ass lucky I ain’t tryna cause a fucking scene!” he fussed and tossed the towel in my lap. Taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch, he looked at me and shook his head. “Fuck was you even thinking?”

“I wasn’t…” I groaned.

“Nigga, if you and Sai was having issues, you could’ve hit me up to talk. We don’t cheat, my nigga. Ain’t a bitch out there bad enough for you to dog Masai out like that. Years, nigga. Y’all been together since college. You forty-two, my nigga.”

“I know.”

“And a fucking six-month-old. I thought you and Masai was shooting for baby number six?”

“We were.”

“Then what the fuck was you doing?”

I tossed my hands in the air. “I fucked up, aight, Deuce.”

“You definitely fucked up. My wife is looking for divorce attorneys.”

The fact that he was saying that shit didn’t even shock me. I knew my wife more than she knew herself. “I figured she would go to the extreme…” I drawled. “She gone take my kids, man.”

“Nawl, she not. Them muthafuckas bad as hell! Sis ain’t tryna deal with ’em on her own.” He chuckled before getting serious again. “My nigga, before I got married… what yo’ bitch ass tell me?”

“If you stand before God and take vows, don’t cheat ’cause if you can’t be faithful to the woman you lay beside every night, then you can’t be trusted.”

“So, I no longer can trust you, dog.” Deuce shrugged and then scoffed.

“You ’posed to be the blueprint. You preach to them niggas every single fucking day.

You preaching ’bout integrity and shit… and the whole time you fucking off.

You the muthafucking captain, Dolla. How somebody ’posed to trust yo’ lead now? ”

“On my soul… I wasn’t fucking off. I wasn’t cheating … I cheated.”

Deuce cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “Nigga… you got an outside baby. Fuck you mean you wasn’t fucking off? Koya told me ’bout the messages the bitch sent to sis.”

“I put it on my kids, Deuce; I fucked that girl once, and yeah, I shouldn’t have done that, but she kicked it to Masai like we were having an affair. I slipped once on some drunk shit, and now, I got a fucking baby by that girl.”

He scoffed. “Drunk shit… When yo’ ass got drunk and I wasn’t around?”

“Remember the night we went to Copper Cove?”

“Talm ’bout the night we went out with Jordan’s young, dumb ass.”

“That fucking night. You and Jrue left, and I stayed back with Jordan. Ashton was one of the girls in the section that night.”

“Okay, nigga… that ain’t telling me how she caught you slipping.”

“I remember going to the bathroom ’cause I was fucked up, and I was trying to sober up before I took that drive home. The bitch followed me into the bathroom, and I didn’t even notice. I’m ’bout to whip my shit out to piss, and next thing I know, I’m fucking her in the bathroom.”

“So it only happened once?” he quizzed.

“Once,” I reiterated. “And next thing I know, she hitting me on Instagram, showing me a pregnancy test.”

“Damn…”

“Damn, is right. Done fucked around and lost my wife and my kids. I’on regret my son ’cause he ain’t ask to be born into this mess, but I hate that I even went out that night, man. I swear, I do.”

“How you know the lil’ nigga even yours? Please don’t tell me you just going off what she says.”

“Now, you know I’m smarter than that, Deuce. I had him tested. He’s mine… lil’ nigga look just like the rest of my kids.”

“You done got yo’self in some serious shit. Sai ain’t never gone take yo’ ass back.”

“I’m already knowing.” I shook my head. “She put me out the crib, done blocked my number, and changed the cameras’ passwords. The kids been blowing me up left and right, but I’m too ashamed to face them.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t hide out and neglect them kids. They need you the most right now ’cause you know Sai over there thinking she’s masking this shit, but them kids know something ain’t right.”

“Man… how I’mma face my kids and tell them I cheated on their moms. My girls gone be hurt.”

“They already hurt. Them kids ain’t dumb, Dolla. Masai done took ’em back to the crib, and you ain’t been there at all. Hell, the only reason I pulled up on yo’ ass is ’cause Charleigh Anne called me looking for you.”

Leaning my head back, I covered my eyes with my hands.

I knew my kids wanted answers; I knew I needed to sit down with them and tell them the truth, but my doing that honestly felt like I was putting the nail in the coffin for my marriage.

And right now, I wasn’t ready to do so. Still and yet, that wasn’t a good enough reason not to talk to my kids. “What she say, bruh?”

“Wanted to know why you wasn’t at the crib. And you know the one person I can’t lie to is her.”

“What you tell her?”

“Shit… I told her to ask yo’ ass.” He laughed, and I shook my head. “Nawl, on the real… I told her you was taking some time for yourself, and that I would make sure you hit her up.”

“I need to go by the crib.”

“You do,” Deuce confirmed with a quick nod of his head.

“Sai don’t wanna see my ass, though.”

“She don’t.” He quipped before adding, “But she also don’t wanna be the one to have to break the news to the kids. So, there’s that.”

“Let me get my ass up,” I replied.

“Want me to take that ride with you?”

“Nawl.” I shook my head. “I need to do this on my own.”

“Aight,” he acknowledged and got up from the couch. “Me and Jrue gon’ kick it at the crib later if you want to stop by.”

“It depends on how everything goes. I’ll hit you up when I leave the crib, and let you know what I’mma do.”

“Say less.”

Deuce and I slapped hands, and before he walked out of the hotel suite, he made me promise that I would make this shit right. I told him I would try. My skeletons were out now, and the only thing I could do was pray that Masai let me tell my side of the story.

As I pulled into the driveway of the house that I could no longer call home, tears welled up, temporarily blocking my vision.

To know that the family I’d built was behind those doors and that I was officially an outsider would never sit right with me.

I didn’t blame Masai for putting me out.

I didn’t blame her for wanting to divorce me either.

Hell, I don’t blame her for any of the actions she’s taken since discovering my other child.

I was to blame for everything, and that was a burden I’d have to carry for the rest of my life.

I had to live with the fact that I’d scorned the love of my life.

Back when we were in college, and I saw her for the very first time, I knew I had to have her.

Sai had this aura surrounding her that made the darkest of days bright.

She was sassy but smart, and I could tell she was going to make something of herself by the way she spoke to those around her.

Masai was dealing with a nigga who played baseball for the university when we met—some ole country-ass nigga from Alabama.

That nigga ain’t have shit on me, so I went after his girl, confident she would see I was the better man for her fine ass.

When I approached her, though, spitting my game, she ain’t pay my ass no attention.

That didn’t deter me; if anything, I became more persistent in receiving her time.

I had this little shorty in the administration office that I knocked down for fun, and I used her to my advantage and got Sai’s schedule.

When time permitted, I started to randomly show up in places where I knew she would be.

If I ain’t have class, best believe I was sitting in on one of hers.

I felt like the more I showed myself, the better chance I had of getting her to give in.

My behaviors may have been stalkerish, but she was worth it, and I knew that way back then.

Her nigga ain’t have the mouthpiece I had, so after months of chasing her, I finally got her to pay my ass some attention.

It started out with us talking on the phone, and eventually, I convinced her to start having lunch with me at the quad.

On our first date, Masai told me that if I wanted her, I had to stop being so friendly with the hoes on campus.

I was cool with letting them go because I knew Masai was something special.

The only problem was that her ass was still in a relationship with baseball buddy.

Folks around campus used to big her up because she had me on the side while still in a relationship with her nigga.

In my eyes, he was a buster because ain’t no way he let me just slide in and take his girl like that.

If Masai was my girl, there wasn’t going to be any side niggas.

I didn’t give a fuck if the nigga was just offering to tie her shoes—she wasn’t going to be acting as she had been when she officially became mine.