Page 15 of Mafia Kings & Wedding Rings 2: The Finale
“No. Absolutely not,” I insisted.
“So who gon’ check me around here?” Rogue held up his arms in surrender, which made me laugh.
The tears building in my eyes were blinding as I sniffled and bowed my head.
“I already told you, you need to learn how to check yourself!” I poked at his little belly playfully.
“That ain’t no fun.” Rogue waved me off.
“I know that Tavi and Saga are happy they mama is here, but I don’t think she likes me and Rogue because we not her kids,” Piaget observed.
“Why would you say that?”
“I don’t know.” Piaget shrugged. “She don’t talk to us the same or look at us the same. Not like you. It don’t matter who our mamas are when you with us. You like all of our mamas.”
I didn’t know how to take that. Kids were honest if nothing else, and if she had peeped that about Nadia, it was a problem. My next breath was caught in my chest when I glimpsed past them at the large figure in the doorway. His familiar scent floated into the room with his signature cologne and the faint weed aroma.
“Daddy!” Piaget and Rogue pivoted and ran to him for an embrace.
Smiling, I brought myself to my feet as he hugged them back, but his eyes never wavered from mine.
“Shh, your brother and sister still sleep?”
“Yeah, but we hungry,” Rogue voiced.
“Go grab a cereal bar from the pantry while I talk to Cambrie.”
“Okay!” they cheered together and rushed off.
When they were gone, those dark, coal eyes drifted to my luggage near the bed first before fixating on me. Draped in all black, Staten seemed weary and drained. With his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, he canvassed me carefully. Whatever was behind his stare was unreadable.
“You was just gon’ slide in and get your shit and leave?” he asked, a tinge of hostility in his tone.
“I don’t know what I was going to do. I mean, when I got here, yeah . . . that was the intent.”
“So we can’t talk?” Both of his shoulders raised, making him rigid.
“I didn’t know what there was to talk about. I thought this was easier.”
“Ain’t shit about this easy, Cambrie.” He moved closer to me. “I fucked up not telling you what I suspected, but none of that shit was done to hurt you. I fuck with you. I want what’s best for you. I’ll body any muhfucka coming behind you incorrect, that’s what this is.”
Looking into his eyes, I believed him. God, I wanted nothing more than to take him at his word. Part of me also understood it. I thought about something my daddy told me when we were planning the funeral.
“When my mama died, they said an anonymous donor paid for everything. Do you know anything about that?”
“No, but it sounds like something my parents would do,” he admitted. “I was young. That accident almost killed me. Rossi was paralyzed. Knowing that someone innocent also died during that whole thing always fucked with me. For weeks I visited her fresh grave before they placed a headstone. I reduced it to sending flowers to her grave every year on that day.” He lowered himself to the edge of my bed and rested his hands in his lap. “I still wake up in a cold sweat every now and then.”
Gasping with tears filling the brims of my eyes, I did my best not to fall apart. I visited her grave every year myself and always wondered how fresh flowers arrived before I did to see her. White lilies, her favorite.
“That was you?” My lip quivered as his dark, somber gaze found me. “I go there every year and just assumed it was my daddy since he could never bare to visit.”
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about your mother, Cambrie,” Staten confessed.
I blew out a slow breath, hoping it would take my emotions with it.
“How’s Brick . . . and Six?” I queried, wanting to change the subject as my eyes lowered to the ground.
“They’re fine. I just dropped them off at the big house.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, and it was obvious that he was exhausted. “Six is a little shaken up, but she’ll be good.”
