When the Smoke Clears (Interracial Firefighter Romance) (31 page)

Ellis frowned. Water welled in his eyes. “I miss you, Kassie.”

“Oh, Jesus.” I walked off. “Get some rest. Stop being drunk and get ready to see your son in the morning.”

“Kassie, let’s just talk for a minute.”

I didn’t have time to even deal with his mess anymore, as I hurried down the hallway to check in on Lorenzo. How had this night turned so crazy? Why couldn’t Ellis just stay the hell out of my life and be the dad he was supposed to be? Why had I procreated with such a slime ball?

I rushed to my bedroom to find Lorenzo pacing in front of the door and talking to himself. “Are you okay?”

“I want to choke him.” He continued to pace. “I should’ve hit him. He called you a—”

“I’m fine.”

“Nevertheless—”

“I’m fine.” I stopped him from burning a line into my rug. “Really. I’m fine and I really don’t need you to stand up for me to him. Trust me. Ellis is more afraid of me than any other person on this earth. The only reason he’s acting so boldly is because he’s drunk.”

“And did he leave?”

I twisted my lips. Unease rose in my chest. “No, he’s on the couch.”

Lorenzo raised his eyebrows. “He’s spending the night?”

“He’s drunk.”

“Let’s call him a cab.”

“To where, Lorenzo?”

“To a fucking hotel.”

I blew out a long breath. “I’m just going to let him pass out on my couch and sober up. Rich will come in the morning and they’ll see each other. All will return back to normal.”

“He should be in a hotel.”

“He’s already asleep.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Lorenzo, I can’t deal with that right now. And trust me, I have no intentions of sleeping with him, if you’re worried about that.”

Lorenzo said nothing.

I continued, “I’m not going to let Ellis drive drunk. You may not understand this, but he’s the father of my son. I hate him. I despise him. The fact that he’s in my house makes my stomach turn. But if he went out in his car right now and died from some accident, I wouldn’t be able to look my son in the eyes. That very fact is why he’s here and I’m swallowing my pride.” I placed my hands on my hips. “See. I told you I was crazy.”

Instead of a smart remark, Lorenzo’s face relaxed. He came to me and pulled my small body into his huge frame. “I get it. I would probably do the same.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“Of course,” he whispered, but something still didn’t feel right. The tension hadn’t disappeared. If anything, my nerves flared even more “Why don’t you take a shower and relax, Kassie? Would it be weird if I stayed here with you, tonight, like we planned?”

“No weirder than my ex, drunk and sleeping on my couch.”

“Good.” He released me from his arms.

“You want to take a shower with me?” I headed towards my bathroom.

“That sounds good. I’m coming. Give me a minute.” He rubbed his face and watched me shut the bathroom door. “Get it hot for me, Kassie.”

“I will, baby.” I climbed out of his shirt and prayed that everything would return back to normal.

Chapter 22

Lorenzo

I
waited for Kassie to turn on the shower and then I left her room and headed for that asshole of an ex-husband. The rage had built up in my chest since meeting him. I couldn’t keep it down.

Kassie worked hard, hard enough to not be called a bitch and whore on her own property. She’d been used to the way he talked to her too, not even flinching when he said it. How many times had he called her names? How many times had he spent the night tearing her down?

And now he thinks he’s going to just sleep on the couch like a baby, after all of that? It’s a new world order motherfucker.

Ten years of anger sobriety would be wasted tonight. I didn’t know how I would pull it off. Kassie stood in the shower waiting for me to join her, and all I could think about was beating Ellis’s face to a pulp.

I’d learned many ways to calm myself—breathing exercises, counting, removing myself from the unpleasant situation, writing it all down, etc. None of that crap mattered when he called her a bitch. It all went out of the window. There was something about a man treating the woman that I loved badly that made me go crazy like the fucking hulk. It didn’t matter what woman it was—mother, sister, daughter, or now. . .Kassie. I would beat the shit out of someone who harmed them, and tonight Ellis would learn that lesson.

Snoring came from the couch.

“Time to wake up, Ellis.” I charged for his ass, grabbed his neck, lifted his body like it was nothing, and slammed him up against the wall.

Waking up in shock, he pissed himself. “What the. . .”

I kept him up against the wall and looked at the dark, wet line forming in his jeans. “Did you really just piss your pants?”

His mouth shook in fear. “What are you doing?”

I lowered my voice. “I want you out of here. Kassie, is too sweet of a woman to set boundaries with you, but I will.”

He struggled to get out of my hold, but couldn’t. “Who the fuck are you supposed to be?”

Kassie’s voice soared from out of her bedroom. “Lorenzo, are you coming?!”

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure she hadn’t left the shower. “Yes, baby! Give me a minute.”

Ellis decided to use that moment to get help. “Kassie, he’s—!”

I choked him. Squeezed the breath out of his smug face. I almost didn’t let go. He’d become the problem. He stressed her out and neglected his son. He brought conflict to their household, and then walked away to go party somewhere else. But even worse, he’d started to get between Kassie and me. I almost broke his neck, but I thought of Kassie and Richard hearing about his death.

So I released him, but not before shoving him down to the carpet. “You had her, and you let her go.”

“You’re crazy!” He struggled to get up from the ground.

“Shut up.” I swung at his face. My fingers met his jaw. A crack sounded and I knew I’d gotten him good. He fell to the carpet and spit blood out into his hand. “Shut up.”

“Y-you’re crazy,” he mumbled as his lips smeared with red liquid.

“You had her, and instead of being the man you should’ve been and loving her right, you let her go. You fucked up. You threw it all away, and you’ll never get her back.”

“I’m going to press charges.”

“You’ll never get her back.” I fisted my hands, put them next to his face, and wanted to pound into him again. “Never. She’s mine now. You got it, buddy?”

He scrambled to his feet. I punched him in the jaw.

“Ah!” He crashed back into the floor.

This was my breaking point. This was the moment I had to stop. I knew it. Things clinked in my head and I did my best to calm down.

“Let me know right now.” My hands shook. “I’m scared for you and me. We have to fix this. I’m fucking scared because if you continue this way, if you continue to fuck with her and ignore your son, I’m going to kill you.”

I paced in front of him and he slowly rose. I had his attention. “I’m not a hardcore Christian, but I pray. Right now, I’m praying that you’ll figure it out, because I know my temper. I plan to be in Kassie’s life, forever. This is the woman I’m going to try to marry, which means that you and I will be dealing with each other.”

“You’re crazy.”

I paused in front of him and looked into his eyes. “This night could change both of our lives. It could end yours, and put me behind bars.”

He opened his mouth, but said nothing.

“You and I need to figure out a way to coexist.” I pointed to him. “The only other option is your death.”

“I will tell Kassie about this.”

I slammed him into the wall. “You sure you want to mess with me?”

“Lorenzo!” Kassie’s voice came from right behind me. I let go of the asshole and stepped back. She got to my side, wet and wrapped in a towel.

Ellis fell to the floor. “He’s fucking crazy. I was just sleeping and he beat the shit out of me. You’ve finally met someone perfect for you.”

“Shut up,” Kassie said to him and then looked up at me. “His face is bloody. My carpet is bloody.”

With both hands, I rubbed my face, hoping to rid myself of some of the guilt. “The discussion may have gotten a bit heated.”

“May have?”

Ellis groaned in the corner like a baby.

“Did you beat him up?” she asked.

I could’ve been more mature about it, but adrenaline coursed through my veins. I was too pissed that she’d stopped me before I tossed him out the door. “I may have bumped into him as I went to get a glass of water.”

“Did your fist bump into his face?”

“Yes.” I forced a smile. “My fingers are funny that way.”

“This isn’t funny.” A hurt look spread across her face. “Why would you do that? What the hell made you think this was okay?”

“We needed to talk man-to-man.”

She pointed at me. “You’re not my man and neither is he.” She gestured toward the human wreck that now sat drunkenly in his pissy pants. “This is my house, and you’re swinging him around like a rag doll and pounding on your chest. Why would you do this, Lorenzo?”

“I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

“That’s. . .that’s not answering the question. Why did you both fight?”

“I know how this goes, Kassie. You let him get away with little things like this and he’ll continue to walk all over you. Tonight, he shows up out of nowhere and has to pass out on your couch because he’s drunk. The next time, he’s at your place drunkenly screaming out shit as Rich sits in his bedroom scared.”

“And so you punched him so I wouldn’t have to deal with that?”

“Someone had to set a precedence.” I should’ve taken the bass out of my voice, but I didn’t. She had to know that I wasn’t the sort of man to sit back and let someone treat her badly. She had to understand that my package included a possessive maniac that didn’t mind cracking heads from time to time. “If he comes to your house drunk and unannounced like this again, I’m going to beat his ass. And if he calls you a name other than
Kassie
, I’m going to knock his teeth into his throat.”

“I don’t need anyone to stand up for me.”

“Too bad.”

So we had face off.

Ellis went back to sleep in front of us, his head laying in the spots of blood and urine on the carpet. He was a sad sight to behold, but with each bruise my chest swelled with pride.

“I watched you hit him,” she said. “I didn’t like what I saw.”

“Most don’t. I’m calm. It’s just certain assholes push me over the edge.”

“This asshole is going to be in my life for at least ten years, until Rich turns eighteen. I cannot deal with you and him going back and forth with punches.”

“We didn’t go back and forth.”

“You hit him.”

My phone buzzed again. I didn’t have to check it. Rockstar had continuously phoned me since we left the beach. There’d been six missed calls from him and my gut told me that whatever the news would be, it would tear me apart. Maybe, that was why I also beat into her ex’s face, not wanting to deal with whatever new problem might face me tonight.

“Are you going to check your phone?” she asked.

“No, I feel like this is more important.”

“When you told me to get into the shower, you did that so you could go beat him up?”

I’d hoped she hadn’t caught that part. “Yes.”

“Lorenzo. . .” She glanced at him and then turned back to me. “I have to ask you to leave. This is too much. This scares me.”

“I scare you.”

“Yes.” She gestured back to him. “I’ve been around him enough to predict his stupidity. I know what type of douche bag he is, but with you. . .”

“You’re afraid of me.”

“I just need a minute to think about all of this. You have to admit--this is crazy.”

“It is.” I counted over and over. My shoulders relaxed. I hadn’t meant for everything to go this way, but it couldn’t be helped. I wasn’t lying about what I’d said. If this punk said the wrong thing to her again, I would hurt him even more and wouldn’t care if she stopped talking to me or not. It just wasn’t in me to watch her or another woman I loved, go through pain, when a simple blow with my fist could fix it.

Not many things required a fight, but when it came to abusive men, one needed a firm hand.

“Okay. I’ll leave.” I bent down and picked up her disgusting ex, dragging him toward the front of the door and making sure not to get his urine-soaked pants on me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I go and he goes. Don’t worry. I’m taking him outside and then I’m going to call a cab, wait for it to come, and make sure he’s taken to the nearest hotel.” I carried the sack of shit out of her house. “The last thing I need is him waking up with a bruised face and deciding to take it out on you.”

“I can defend myself.” She rushed behind me. “Lorenzo, I don’t know about this.”