Duke (5 page)

When Duke realized he’d spent far too much time thinking of Takiyah, he dismissed her from his mind and went about a few errands. By five-thirty, he was ready to pick up Adele to see where the night would lead.

“
Y
ou sit right there
, Keen,” Takiyah commanded her son. “Don’t move. I’m going to get my people settled in with their orders, and then you and I are going to talk.”

“Ma, I told you it’s nothing.”

She glared and looked at his eye, swollen shut. “It is something when fools think they can pick on my baby and get away with it. And for you to think you can hide it from me, oh no, pal, we’re talking. Period. I’ll be right back.”

“Ma,” he called after her, but she ignored him. Keen liked to keep everything bottled inside, and earlier he’d hidden out in his room claiming he wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t falling for it, and she’d barged in to find his eye swollen. The school was going to hear from her tomorrow. She would have gone down there today if Keen hadn’t tried to hide.
First the alley incident and now this.

For a moment, tears welled up, but she swallowed and blinked them away. She would handle it. Keen had said the fight had happened on school grounds. What she wanted to know was where the hell were the teachers? She would get names and phone numbers, and if the principal didn’t fix this the way she wanted, then… Well, she wasn’t sure what she could do yet, but she would find out.

As she laid a white cloth over her arm, she thought about how she could pick Keen up after school. Her shift at the call center ran right into the end of the school day, but she would talk to her boss. If he wasn’t willing to let her leave early, then she would call Ed, her ex. That was the last thing she wanted to do, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

Takiyah headed into the kitchen for an order and ran into a conversation between Shada, who had come in with her baby for the workers to see, and Talicia, who Takiyah believed was the wife of one of the brothers. She didn’t really follow the Marquettes like the Kardashians as some people did.

“What I do has nothing whatsoever to do with you,” Talicia snapped.

“I beg to differ.” Shada handed her baby over to another woman in the Marquette family. “When it comes to Stefan, it does. You are not risking his life for your selfish dreams. We tried to accept you but—”

“Accept me?” Talicia looked Shada up and down. “I don’t give a damn what you accept or don’t accept. We went shopping the other day because Stefan asked me to. The way you and your husband try to rule the whole family isn’t going to wash with me. What I do is between me and mine.”

“Ladies, please don’t fight,” the other woman said, rocking the baby gently. “You’re going to scare the baby.”

Nobody listened to her. Takiyah glanced around the kitchen. Every member of the staff had stopped what they were doing to watch the blowout. Shada moved up close to Talicia and pointed in her face. “What you think you have going with Stefan won’t last. I guarantee it if you keep acting like this.”

Talicia’s eyes narrowed, and her jaw worked. Takiyah had the feeling she held her temper in check. Any second she was going to let go and clock Shada. How a woman as tiny as she was could stand up the heavyset Shada, she didn’t know. Takiyah was jealous because the pounds crept onto her hips and thighs when she wasn’t paying attention. Right now, her weight wasn’t what she worried about. The two women having a slugfest in the restaurant was.

“I’m giving you one warning, Shada,” Talicia said. “After that, I’m swinging, and you’re going to find your ass on the floor. Get out of my face!”

“Bitch, I’m not scared of you. Bring it, and then Stefan can see what kind of woman he married.”

Talicia’s fist came up, and Takiyah braced for impact. The door burst open, and someone brushed by her. Duke knocked Shada aside and deflected Talicia’s fist. He caught her wrist and twirled her around as if they were doing a dance. She jerked on his hold and tried to fight him, but Duke shuffled her along the hall.

“Let me go, Duke. I’m not playing with you.”

“Yes, yes, the usual threats,” he teased as he kept her moving.

Takiyah watched them go and then collected her order to leave the kitchen. Just outside the door, she spotted Stefan hurrying toward the kitchen. Someone must have told him about the fight. Creed was in another corner trying to smooth over an incident with a waiter. No one must have told him, and she didn’t blame them. Creed had a hot head, and she tended to stay out of his way.

Duke reappeared while Takiyah was refreshing a cup of coffee, and she pretended not to notice when he spotted her and started in her direction.

“Duke,” Keen called out, and Takiyah whirled to signal to her son to lower his volume. She froze when she spotted Adele at the table where she had left her son. Adele was dressed in a Herve Leger white bandage dress. One of Adele’s previous boyfriends who loved to spend his money on her had bought the dress. Adele had showed her the price tag when she brought home the spaghetti strapped mini. The dress cost almost a thousand dollars.

Adele’s makeup made her look even more ethereal than usual, and she had piled her hair atop her head in an elegant style that showed off her swanlike neck and accentuated her breasts.

Keen almost bounced in his seat as he waved at Duke. The man had made a huge fan in her son from the incident in the alley. Takiyah looked from her son and Adele to Duke and noticed for the first time that he wasn’t dressed in the restaurant uniform. Rather he’d donned a suit and tie. The jacket fit his broad shoulders to perfection. He looked too damn good.

Takiyah frowned seeing him sit down at her table and begin to chat with Keen and Adele. Her girlfriend touched Duke’s hand with a delicate lily white one of her own. From her expression as she leaned toward Duke while talking to him, Takiyah could just guess what she said.
“I didn’t know you were a Marquette. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Yeah, let Adele smell money, and she was all over him. Takiyah strode over to them to burst her friend’s bubble, but Duke beat her to it.

He gazed almost lovingly into Adele’s eyes and then had the nerve to flick his gaze to Takiyah for an instant. “I’m the genuine article. Feel free to use me for my name.”

Takiyah dropped into a chair, scowling at him. “Would you please take your seduction elsewhere. My son doesn’t need to be exposed to this mess.”

Keen didn’t seem to notice her or Adele. “Duke, where did you learn to fight?”

Duke grinned. “You haven’t seen me fight.”

“And he never will. Go away, Duke.”

“Wouldn’t you rather keep me close?” he said.

“No.”

Adele looked back and forth between them. “Is something going on with you two?”

“
Hell
, no,” Takiyah snapped.

“Yes.” Duke tried to grab her hand, but she smacked him away.

“Ma, why are you so mean to Duke? He saved us, and he’s paying for my dinner tonight.”

She glared at her son. “I thought you weren’t hungry.”

He smiled. “I am if I can eat with Duke.”

She groaned. “When did you start knowing him so well you can throw his name around?”

“Since he became our hero.”

She stood and gestured to her son. “Come on, Keen. We’ll find a different table and let these two have their date.”

Duke reached for her hand and held her in place. “Stay.”

Adele frowned in confusion. “What’s going on, Takiyah? We don’t play in each other’s sand box. If you had told me—”

“Stop right there.” Takiyah jerked her hand from Duke’s. She started to explain, but Duke turned to Keen. The man was completely uncaring that he’d just given the impression that he was seeing them both. If he thought she was playing his game, he had another thought coming.

“So, buddy, what happened to your face? Girlfriend trouble?” Duke bumped Keen’s arm. “I know how angry they can get.”

Takiyah fumed. “Excuse me?”

He didn’t even look her way, and Keen beamed at his hero. “It…uh… I don’t wanna say,” Keen stuttered. “You’ll think I’m lame.”

“Nah, sometimes you get battle scars as a man.”

Keen grinned. “Yeah, I know, but can you teach me how to fight?”

“No,” Takiyah answered for him. “You’re not getting into any more fights, Keen. That’s final. Don’t even say a word, Duke. I don’t want to hear it.”

She walked around the table to get her son on his feet, but Creed appeared out of nowhere. He took in the group, his reproving gaze lingering a second on Duke and then moving on to her.

“Is there a reason why I received a complaint from one of your tables, Takiyah? Something about them not seeing you for a while?”

She swore under her breath. “Sorry, Creed. I’m on it.” She eyed Keen and then Duke. “Don’t talk to him. I mean it.”

Duke spread his hands. “Dinner only. I promise.”

She sighed and stomped off. All she could do was hope Duke would keep his word. She hated violence and didn’t want Keen fighting under any circumstances. Hopefully, Duke would respect that. Otherwise, she’d tell him about himself. As she went back to work, she couldn’t help looking over at Adele and Duke having dinner together with her son. The conversation couldn’t be very intimate with Keen trying his best to dominate Duke’s attention.

Wait, what do I care? He brought her here to prove to me he could get her.

The fact that it was what Duke had done told her what kind of man he was. He’d chase and kiss one woman and flaunt another in her face—worse her best friend. She despised him and wanted nothing else to do with him. At least, she told herself that over and over. Too bad, she couldn’t stop thinking about how it felt for him to kiss her and how her body had come to life with his one touch.

“Whatever,” she whispered as she cleared a table. “He’s toxic, and I’m not fooling with him.”

“Who are you talking about?” Karey had walked over to her without her noticing.

Takiyah straightened. “Nobody.” She hurried off to find something to do to get her mind off Duke.

The restaurant was in full swing that night. Customers came and went, and at any given time, there was a line waiting in the lobby, people who refused to go elsewhere. They were happy just being in the atmosphere, and it might be because drama was on the menu.

Karey whipped back past and grasped Takiyah’s arm. “Watch out. There’s a reporter at table seven. He’s trying to dig up some dirt on the Marquettes. Don’t tell him anything.”

Takiyah narrowed her eyes at the table mentioned. A couple occupied the spot, the woman being at least twenty years the man’s senior. “Maybe she’s a cougar.”

“Nope, he’s media. I guarantee you. I’m surprised Creed let him in, but you can bet he knows.” She pointed with her chin, and Takiyah followed to find that Creed kept a careful watch on the suspected reporter.

“Well, I don’t know anything about the Marquettes, so I’m in the clear.” What she said wasn’t exactly the truth given the performance she had witnessed in the kitchen between Talicia and Shada. No doubt the power struggle would interest those obsessed with the special family. She wouldn’t get into it.

The crowd at the door parted to allow a slender-built black man to make his way inside. Takiyah studied the man wearing a blue shirt with long sleeves styled like the British flag. With this interesting top, he had gone even brighter by wearing bright red pants that clung to his hips and thighs. The attitude rolling off him shocked her as he sashayed across the dining room to where Basil served a couple of twenty-something women. “Hey!”

The man tapped Basil’s shoulder, and when Basil didn’t turn around fast enough, the man snatched his order pad and threw it on the floor. Basil’s mouth fell open. “Bitch, no you didn’t.”

“Bitch, yes I did! I told you to stay away from my man.”

The entire dining room went silent, and Takiyah expected security or someone to come running. No one moved, and the man on the piano quit playing the moment the fireworks started.

“Don’t nobody want your man, Tyjon. But if you can’t keep him, that’s your problem not mine.” Basil rolled his head and pursed his lips while he put a hand on his hip.

Takiyah glanced over at the reporter, and sure enough, he had pulled out a notepad and snapped his fingers to the woman. His partner surreptitiously pulled out a tiny camera and readied it to aim. Takiyah started forward, but out of nowhere, Duke appeared. His massive form blocked the camera view, and her mouth fell open. For a person everyone looked down on, he seemed to be right there in the nick of time. Was that his issue? Sticking his nose in everything?

She shook her head.
No, don’t fall for it, Takiyah, or you’ll be thinking just like Keen, that Duke’s some kind of hero.
She almost laughed at the idea.

Then she chided herself for thinking Duke stepped up just to impress her. His focus was on the arguing men just like everyone else’s. She doubted he knew where she was or that he even thought about her, not with Adele in that dress.

Can you be more jealous?

As if he read her mind, Duke’s gaze slide to her, and he had the nerve to wink. She turned her head, hating that he’d caught her staring at him. Tyjon—the name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place him—and Basil were still arguing.

“Oh, you didn’t tell Ladarrell he should dump me and get with you? That you can make him feel better than I ever could?”

Basil snapped his fingers in the air. “I may have or I might not, but either way it’s true. You’re last week, Tyjon. Get a clue.”

“This heifer.” Tyjon gazed around the room as if he looked for an answer to his confusion. When he turned back to Basil, his hand came up and he smacked Basil across the face. Basil screamed and grabbed Tyjon’s hair, which he had grown out and flat ironed.

Everyone moved at that point. A gigantic man with bulging muscle and a dangerous glint in his eyes flew at the fighting men. Takiyah briefly wondered if this was the boyfriend the two fought over. She wasn’t sure given there were so many big men wandering around Marquette’s at any given time. No wonder the clientele was ninety-five percent women.

In another direction, Creed was heading their way, and behind him Stefan and his wife. Talicia let out a shriek of fear when she spotted the men, and Takiyah figured she either knew Tyjon or she was worried about her husband’s business.