Page 15 of Out of Bounds (Atlanta Demon Series #4)

The constant ringing of my phone jarred me from my sleep. Looking over to the opposite side of the bed, I slid out of it and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. Walking out of the room, I closed the door behind me. “Hello.”

“I’m outside!” she blurted out before ending the call.

I sucked in a deep breath and scrubbed my hands down my face before jogging down the steps. When I snatched the door open, her back was to me, but it didn’t take long for her to turn and face me.

She’s drunk.

“Masai, it’s late.”

“No shit,” she retorted and pushed me out of the way.

Entering the crib, she looked around as if it were the first time she’d been here. She’d just dropped the kids off this morning, so her wondering eyes confused me. Pushing the door closed, I palmed it and gave myself a second to calm my racing heart.

When I turned toward her, she was standing there staring at me, almost like she was searching for something. “Is everything okay?”

“No, Kreed, it’s not,” she stammered before walking off. “Is she here?”

“Is who here, Masai?”

“Don’t fuck with me right now! Do you have her here while my kids are here?”

“Masai, no one is here. The kids are upstairs sleeping.”

Her ass ain’t believe me because she narrowed her eyes into slits before continuing to venture further into the house.

Trailing her down the hall, I took note of her disheveled look.

Masai was fucked up and had driven her ass over here in an impaired state.

I was pissed because anything could’ve fucking happened to her.

“You drove here like that?”

“Like what?”

“Drunk. I can smell the liquor on you.”

“Oh.” She shrugged. “Me being drunk is the least of your worries.”

“Masai.”

“Leave me alone, Kreed.”

“Leave you alone?” I repeated in a questioning tone. “Masai…” I grabbed her arm and spun her around. “What you on?”

“I ain’t on shit!” she yelled after snatching away from me.

Clearly, she had gotten drunk and had gotten in her feelings. Whatever it was, I needed her to keep her voice down before she woke my kids up. “Masai, can we please not do this? The kids are upstairs.”

“Do what, honey? What am I doing so wrong?”

“All right. Let’s go sleep this off.” I reached for her hand, but she recoiled.

“I don’t want to sleep.”

“Well, what do you need?” I sighed, knowing her response was going to be another dig at me, yet when I met her gaze, she was no longer angry. She looked at me for a few seconds before slouching her shoulders.

“I need you to tell me why, Kreed. I need you to tell me what was so good about her that it made you want to risk this… Risk me. Risk our family.”

“Masai, you’re drunk and incoherent. I don’t want to have this conversation while you’re in this state.”

“Tell me, Kreed,” she pleaded. “Tell me why. What did she do that I didn’t do?”

Drawing in a shaky breath, I held it in before letting it out in a slow, uneven exhale. “Can I at least make a pot of coffee so you can sober up a bit?”

“Whatever, Kreed. You make all the decisions anyway. I just follow… like a trained puppy, holding onto your every fucking word.” She jabbed.

Reaching for her hand once again, I dragged her to the kitchen and instructed her to take a seat at the island. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and slid it across the counter to her. “Drink that,” I ordered.

Masai mumbled something inaudibly under her breath before untwisting the cap and taking a sip of the water.

For some sick reason, I had visions of her being here, even if only for a moment.

For that reason, I made sure to grab her favorite coffee and everything she would need to make the perfect cup when I was shopping for necessities.

While I moved around the kitchen to make my wife the perfect cup of coffee, I stared at her out of the corner of my eye.

Even in her disheveled, emotional state, Masai was still the most gorgeous woman that I’d ever laid eyes on.

She was sitting at the island with her elbows resting on the counter and her head perched in her hands.

The way her eyes were red and low, I deduced that she had either cried before showing up or was fighting an intense battle with whatever liquor she’d been drinking.

After pouring the cold foam on top of her coffee, I set the mug down and slid it over to her.

“Take a sip, and then we can talk.” I let her know.

Masai scoffed under her breath but picked the mug up and blew it a few times before taking a sip. “You always did know how to make the perfect cup of coffee,” is what she said after a few minutes of silence.

“I learned from the best,” I said, giving her a half smile. “So…” I clasped my hands together and leaned on the island. “Before we get into anything, I first want to say don’t you ever do no shit like that again, Masai.”

“Like what?” she asked and glared at me over the rim of the mug.

“Drive yo’ ass over here drunk. You could’ve gotten into an accident. We don’t play with our lives like that.”

“Oh, but we fuck other people, huh?” she spat out in response.

“No, Masai, we don’t.” I sighed. “Baby… I fucked up.”

“You think.” She scoffed. “Tell me… Tell me what it was. What was soooo good about this one that it had you going against your vows?”

“Nothing. There wasn’t anything special. She isn’t anything special.”

“Then how, Kreed? How did Ms. Nothing Special become your side chick?”

“She was never my side chick, Sai.” Sighing dejectedly, I closed my eyes and replayed the entire thing in my head.

Masai had convinced herself that I was just out here fucking around when that was the furthest thing from the truth.

In my heart, I also knew that no matter what I said or how I explained it, my wife was never going to take me back.

I ruined the sanctity of our marriage. My coming clean was nothing more than me putting her mind at ease.

Shit, to keep it real, I didn’t know if it would even allow her to rest better.

What I did know was that I couldn’t just sit here and let her think that one lapse in judgment was something more than it was. “Masai, you remember the night I met up with the boys at Copper Cove?”

“Yes.”

“Aight, so we got fucked up. Prolly me more than anybody else. But Deuce and Jrue dipped, and I decided to kick it with my rookie a lil’ longer.

My plan was to chill and sober up so I could drive home.

I remember getting up to go take a piss, and everything after that was foggy as shit.

Remember how, when I finally did make it to the crib, you kept asking me if I had a good time, and I couldn’t answer. ”

She huffed. “Yes, I remember, Kreed.”

“That’s because I didn’t. One minute, I’m pissing at the stall, and the next, I’m fucking some random broad in the bathroom stall.

” I stopped talking to give Masai time to process what I’d just said.

The two of us sat there watching each other without breaking eye contact.

A few seconds later, Masai tossed her head back and laughed.

She was laughing like her ass was fucking possessed, and I didn’t know how to respond, so I stayed silent.

When she stopped laughing, she raised her head up and cocked it to the side. “You really think I’m dumb enough to believe that shit?”

“Masai, on my ki?—”

“Don’t put a fucking thing on my kids!” she roared, causing me to stand upright.

Holding my hands up, palm side out, I confessed, “Baby, don’t you think that if I was out here really having an affair that I wouldn’t be careful?

Ain’t no way you think I’mma step out on you and go have a baby with another broad.

Come on, Sai. You know me better than that… I wouldn’t slip like that.”

Dropping her head, she shook it. “I saw the messages, Kreed.”

“Messages that she showed you. Messages where she was begging me to leave you and be a family with her. In those same messages, baby, not once did you see me entertain that bullshit.”

Ripping off a paper towel from the roll sitting on the kitchen island, Masai dabbed the corners of her eyes. “I know what I saw.”

“You saw what she wanted you to see. Ashton’s entire plan was to get you to leave me, baby. And the shit worked.”

“You have a baby, Kreed.”

“Yeah… she DM’d me a few weeks later with a positive pregnancy test. I thought she was playing games, so I asked for a DNA test.”

“Why didn’t you say something when you found out?”

“’Cause I knew you was going to leave.”

“That wasn’t fair to me, though,” she cried.

“I never said it was. It was selfish as shit, but I’on regret it.”

“Just like you don’t regret the baby.”

“Nawl, I don’t. I fucked up, and that’s on me, not him. But, Masai, I promise… it was one time, and she and I have never played house. In fact, the only time I’m ever in the same vicinity as her is when I’m going to see Kreed Jr.”

“You still could’ve told me…”

“I should’ve told you. Me not telling you makes me look like I was trying to hide the shit, and maybe I was. But there was no ill intent behind it other than the fact that I knew you would leave me, and losing you is like losing my life. I’ve been lifeless for two months, Sai.”

“You damaged me, Kreed. Not only am I hurt, but you broke me. You got a baby, and instead of you coming clean, you allowed her to step to me and paint a different narrative. Every day I’ve gotta look at my kids and explain why Mommy and Daddy can’t live together.

“Every day I’ve gotta tell them, ‘No, they’re not getting a new Daddy.

’ Every single day since this shit has come out, I’ve had to put on a brave face when in reality, I’m breaking down inside.

My heart feels like it’s been ripped from my chest and stomped on.

At times, I feel like I can’t breathe. How do I just up and forgive this?

“If it was just sex, I could get past it, possibly. But a baby… one that didn’t come from me is absolutely where I draw the line. Regardless of how he came to be, he’s here. And I can’t get over that.”