Page 21 of Nothing Without You

“Mommy!” KJ yelled. He ran toward the pretty, light-skinned woman with a big booty.

“Hey, Junior. How’s my baby—” She stopped talking as her eyes narrowed on me. “Keegan, who is she?”

“My wife.”

Her eyes bucked. “Wife?”

“And who is you?” Damien asked as he walked up behind Stephanie, who still stood in the doorway. He peeked over her head and looked all into the house. When his eyes landed on me, they narrowed. That seemed to be the thing to do today. “Chyna, what the hell is goin’ on? Why you tell me to meet you here instead of your place?”

I sighed. “Hi, Damien.”

“Hi hell. What’s goin’ on?” he barked.

Keegan chuckled. It was a low, vibrational growl that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand at attention. Flashbacks of Mr. Chang filled my mind.

I looked between Keegan, Stephanie, and Damien and knew nothing good would come out of this. Why the hell did both of our headaches have to arrive at the same damn time?

“Boys, Ninja Turtle mode,” Keegan said.

“No, no! Boys, stop.” I lifted both KJ and Liam up by the backs of their shirts as they tried to crouch down on the floor. Keegan had done this little trick on them the other day when he wanted to go for a quickie. I watched in amazement as the boys crouched down and covered their ears. I remembered how they were crouched down in the car during the confrontation with Mr. Chang and knew that was when Keegan had taught them this little trick. Needless to say, I wasn’t really amused by this little game because it was clear to me that he only played it when he was about to act up. He didn’t get his quickie that day, and he wasn’t about to beat on my stupid-ass baby daddy today. “Keegan, cut it out.”

Somewhere within the last few days, I had become comfortable putting Keegan in his place because Chyna from over a week ago would have never. Maybe it was the fact that Keegan couldn’t go to sleep without putting my pussy in his mouth. Whatever it was, in this moment, I was thankful for the confidence.

“Fuck I do?”

“Fuck Daddy do?” KJ asked as he craned his neck to look up at me as I still held onto the back of his shirt in one hand and Liam’s in the other.

I cut my eyes at Keegan, and he put his hands up. “Language, I know. My bad. KJ, don’t say fuck.”

“I not say fuck. I say fuck Daddy do,” KJ reasoned.

I sighed deeply and shook my head, but before I could speak, Stephanie did. “I know like hell that bitch better let go of my son.”

“Bitch?” I asked with my brows pulled in as I glared at her.

I had worked hard as hell to get out of the hood, but that shit was still in me. Stephanie really needed to tread lightly. I never had any intentions of disrespecting her at any point. My love for KJ wouldn’t allow it, but her disrespect definitely could override that notion.

“Hey, not too much on my baby mama,” Damien said as he looked down at the top of Stephanie’s head.

My nose wrinkled when he called me that. I really couldn’t stand his ass, and it was such a shame because he had taken up so many beautiful years. The man that he was today, though, erased all the good we experienced back in the day.

“Yeah. We not about to do this. Boys, go to your room,” Keegan snapped.

I let go of their shirts, and the boys scurried up the stairs. Once we heard their bedroom door close, I looked at Keegan. His jaw clenched and unclenched, and I could tell he tried hard to keep the crazy thoughts inside his mind and not act on them. I walked over to him slowly and put my hand on his arm. “You good?”

He looked at me, and his expression softened slightly. He nodded. “You?”

I shrugged. I felt a headache coming on, and that was the last thing I needed. Icelynn would be here soon, and she would definitely be bullying everyone to take shots. All I wanted to do was get these kids out of the house and focus on setting up for this party.

“Yeah.”

Keegan peered at me for a second longer, as if he could sense my headache, but he finally seemed to accept my response because he turned to the two people we had procreated with.

“I’m Keegan, and this is Chyna.” Keegan dragged his words out as if he was explaining technology to old people who had no chance of grasping his teachings. “We go together now. Y’all niggas”—He pointed his finger between them—“need to understand that, accept it, and respect it. Any questions?”

There was a moment of silence before Stephanie and Damien spoke at once.

“I don’t know her and she been around my son⁠—”