Page 82 of Hart of Darkness
“The neighborhood sucks,” Duke said, not bothering to turn around.
I could also do without his insults and his pissy attitude. “Where’s Grace?” I leaned against the opposite column of the porch.
His expensive blue Navigator with dark-tinted windows didn’t fit against the backdrop of low-income homes.
He swiveled his head toward me. “You shouldn’t care so fucking much.”
My eyebrows cinched. “Who gave you the black eye?” I’d punched him but not in the nose or the eyes.
“None of your business.” He was talking to me as if I were one of his thugs.
“Why don’t you care, Duke?” I regulated my breathing to keep my anger under wraps.
He set his jaw. “The minute I care for anyone or anything is the minute they’ll find a way to screw me from here to hell.”
I didn’t know whotheywere, and honestly, I didn’t want to know unless he meant Grace. The less I knew about Duke’s personal or professional life, the better it was for him more than me. With all his illegal shit, I didn’t want to be the one to throw him in jail. My ultimatum had only been a scare tactic.
He walked down the steps and kept going until he got to his car.
Steam came out of my nose.
I was beginning to see my old man in Duke—the drinking and the rudeness.
Duke opened the back door of his Navigator, his attention far away, as though he were a robot doing what he’d been told.
I saw army boots first then skinny-jean-covered legs. When the girl was upright and in full view, I gripped the railing to prevent me from collapsing.
My pulse shot out of my body and straight to the moon like a rocket taking off at Cape Canaveral. I swore my heart would burst mid-flight and drizzle down into tiny pieces over the earth.
The girl tossed her bangs out of her eyes with a quick jerk of her head, reminding me of a celebrity walking the red carpet.
Duke said something to her that I couldn’t make out. Then again, the only thing I could hear was a pounding sound, as if someone were banging a hammer on a nail that wouldn’t cooperate.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Breathe, man.
Smiling at Duke, she angled her head slightly, and I spied her hummingbird tattoo. It wasn’t hard to see with her short hair.
Grace Hart, sister to Denim, Duke, and Dillon Hart, born to Jerome and Emily Hart, found after four years.
I always thought I would run to her if I ever saw her again, or that I would break down and cry like a baby who was hungry and needed his diaper changed. All the anger I’d built up over knowing she didn’t want me to know she was alive wasn’t even there. I was numb from head to toe. I pinched myself for good measure.
She glided toward me, almost as if she were skating on ice, something she’d loved to do as a kid. Her legs were long, her brown eyes wide and slightly slanted, her curves defined, and her black T-shirt stretched across her breasts. My baby sister was a woman. Gone was the innocence I remembered. Gone were the chubby cheeks and baby fat.
I was looking at a woman who had been through some kind of hell—hell worse than my father could dish out. I only knew that because that bright spark she’d always had had been snuffed out.
I open and closed my fists, not at Grace but at whoever had had the fucking nerve to touch her and change her. The anger I’d held toward Grace was now directed at someone else, stronger, meaner, and fiercer, jolting my adrenaline.
I descended the steps and met her halfway.
We sized each other up, not saying a word. Up close, she was out-of-this-world beautiful. Her eyelashes were long and her heart-shaped lips were still pink like they had been when she was a little girl. Even though I remembered her with long hair, the Halle Berry hairstyle suited her even better and brought out her round face.
A tear escaped down her cheek.
I wasn’t a crier. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d shed any tears. But there I was ready to wail.
I wanted to touch her, throw my arms around her, hold her tight, and not let go, but I wasn’t sure if I should. We were blood yet strangers to one another. I reached out with my hand, and as if that were all she needed, she flew into my arms.
