Dance with the Devil

Marcellus stood looking out of his office window. He could see Canada from this view. He had been standing in this very spot every day for the last three months. Darien had not called; she had not come by. No one had heard from her. Marcellus was no fool. He knew Rya knew where Darien was, but she would never tell him. He admired her will power. He had offered her everything he could think of to get her to release the info on Darien's whereabouts. She was not having it. Devin only knew that she was ok. She would only call him from her cell phone and it was always after nine at night. Darien knew Marcellus would contact Devin to get information. She also knew Devin would not be able to keep a secret, so she never told him where she was. Marcellus turned around when heard Church enter followed by Rya.

"What's up with the two of you?" Church motioned for Rya to say something. She bit her lip nervously. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Rya inhaled deeply then sat up straight. She reached into her purse and handed Marcellus a piece of paper. "This is Darien's flight information. She will be arriving in an hour. I wouldn't share this info with you if I didn't think you had a right to know."

"A right to know, I have been asking you for information for three months, Rya."

"And you have it now, so go take care of your business." Rya stood and walked out of his office.

Church just looked at him. "Be easy, doc." Church left.

Darien walked toward the baggage claim. She saw a uniformed driver holding a sign with her name. She walked over to him and smiled. "I believe you are looking for me." The driver smiled and took her suitcase from her hands. He led her to the limo waiting outside. He placed her luggage into the trunk then opened the door for her. Darien got into the car and right away knew she was not alone. Marcellus sat on the seat facing her. She heard the doors lock and the car was in motion. "Hello, Darien." His voice was deceptively calm.

"How did you know I would be here today?" She was calm.

Marcellus did not answer her. He just sat and looked at her face. This was the face that had eluded him and his men for the last three months. This slip of a girl had managed to hide in plain sight. He knew she was still working for the same advertising agency. He knew she still leased her loft downtown. Where had she been? No one had seen or heard from her in the last three months. No one except Devin and Rya.

"Marcellus, I asked you a question. How did you know I would be here?" Still he did not answer. "Can you take me back to my apartment, at least?" Silence. Darien gave up trying to get him to answer her. She saw the way his eyes raked over her from head to toe. It made her nervous. She turned and looked out of the window and watched the scenery pass her by as they made their way to his home.

They came to a stop in front of his home. As always, it astounded her. She had always liked coming here. A few months ago, she had felt safe here, now she was apprehensive and unsure of what to expect. She hesitated before exiting the car. "Get out." Marcellus barked. Darien was startled by his tone. She got out of the limo and Marcellus roughly jerked her close to him.

"Be careful you ass, I'm pregnant." Darien had not meant to blurt out her condition to him, but he had grabbed her so roughly that she had almost lost her balance.

Marcellus was stunned. He loosened his hold on her and then led her into the house. His housekeeper appeared at the door and he told her to show Darien to her room and to make sure she had everything she needed. Marcellus could not talk to her right now. He just wanted her as far away from him as he could possibly get her. Pregnant. Now what was he going to do? He had told her that he did not want a wife or kids. Why had he not known this? This is why Rya said he had a right to know. How long had this been a secret?

Darien sat on the bed in the room. She looked around and remembered. She remembered making love to Marcellus on this bed, and then she corrected herself it was never love; just fucking for fun. Darien knew that Marcellus did not love her. When she thought about it, she had always known nothing would come of this relationship. Yet, she had dreamt that it would. Darien had wanted Marcellus to love her. But, could she say she loved him? Most of their time had been spent sexually. A real relationship could never be based on a beginning such as theirs. Now, she was pregnant. She had never meant to tell Marcellus of this pregnancy. She and Rya had argued their respective points repeatedly. She knew how Rya felt; therefore, she was not mad that Rya had snitched her out to Marcellus. She just had to figure out what to do. Darien knew she was trapped. Marcellus would never let her go now that he knew about the baby she was carrying.

Marcellus was in his office pacing. Darien was pregnant. He would not be able to do this. A wife and kids did not fit into his lifestyle. Once your enemies find out that you have a family or anything that you care about they did what they could to take it away from you. He could not subject Darien and his child to that type of danger. Why did he feel connected to this girl? Yes, she was smart. Yes, she was beautiful. Yes he could admit he cared for her, but love he would never admit that. He wondered how far along was her pregnancy. Marcellus had told the housekeeper to make a tray of fruit, cheese and some yogurt for Darien. Marcellus took the tray to Darien's room. She was asleep.

Marcellus placed the tray next to the bed. He watched her sleep, snoring lightly. He had read somewhere that one of the symptoms of pregnancy was exhaustion. Marcellus continued to watch her in this unguarded moment. God, she was beautiful, he thought. He wanted to touch her, but did not want to wake her. Eventually, he could not resist any longer and he lay next to her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. He encountered her small bump and moved his hand over her belly. His baby was growing right underneath his hands. Marcellus was in awe of the creation process of babies. He had never been this close to any pregnant woman. There had been women over the years that had told him they wanted his baby. Those women had just wanted a free ride in life. He never fell for it. Darien stirred. One soft tendril of her hair fell across her forehead; Marcellus tucked it back into place. He inhaled her scent. He remembered the scent. It was Donna Karan Cashmere. He remembered when he gave it to her. She had tried to give it back, but he would not hear it.

What was it about Darien that made him want to give up his underground life, he thought to himself. There was clearly no future for them. He would want her to quit working and she would want to continue. He did not see marriage as an option for him, and she deserved better. Marcellus fell asleep with Darien in his arms.

It was dark when Darien awoke and found the tray of food next to the bed. She ate some of the fruit and drank the juice that was now room temperature. Before she could think of where Marcellus may be he was coming through the door. "You could knock." Her statement was bold.

"You've got nothing I haven't seen before." He looked at her as if to challenge her to argue the point. She only turned towards the window and continued to look out.

"What do you want from me Marcellus?" She had asked the questions without turning to look at him.

"I should be asking you that question. You are the one carrying my child. The same child that I told you from the beginning I never wanted." His words were like ice water splashed in her face.

Darien turned to look at him. He was right, she reasoned. He had been honest and told her from the beginning that marriage and children were not a part of his plan. That had been why she never thought to tell him about the baby. She had deliberately rearranged her life so that she did not have to worry about Marcellus having any contact with her or her baby. Yes, it was her baby. She had known from the first day of the test results that this baby was hers and hers alone. Darien just looked into Marcellus' eyes. She could not read into them. She gave up trying. "I'm not the one who kidnapped you from an airport. I'm not the one that has been asking your friends where you are and what you have been doing."

"Darien, wait-"

"No, you wait." She cut him off. "I'm tired. We both know that we can't go any further than where we are right now." She saw him flinch. "I don't understand your need to track me down. I never understood this thing between us, but it drew me to you. I fell into the trap that I am sure so many others have before me. It has to end, now."

"I guess there's nothing else to say." Marcellus turned to walk out of the room.

"So, you will have your driver take me home?" She asked to his back.

Marcellus turned to see the look of hope in her eyes. "No." That one word, said so low and full of angry heat, caused her to take a step back. Marcellus took note of her slight retreat and remembered the day of their first date. She had done the same thing that night. She had stepped away from him. She had not known him then. She had a right to be afraid then. They had shared so much since that time, so she should know he would not hurt her, but she had stepped away from him anyway. She was afraid of him.

Darien was afraid of him. He knew, in that moment, that they did not have a future together. Darien did not fit into his world. Oh, she could function, but not without turning into one of those women that he hated. Marcellus did not want to hate her. He did not want to let her go, but knew there was no way to keep her. So, why was he sitting at this desk thinking of ways to do just that? The thought of not being with her bothered him. He had never wanted a committed relationship; Darien made him want to commit himself to her. As he struggled within himself on what to do with her, the only thing he knew with extreme clarity is that he could not let her go until he decided what to do.

Darien was in the kitchen. She had decided to do what she always did when she was upset, bake. As she kneaded the dough for the piecrust, she thought of what she could do to get out of here. She thought of ways to get Marcellus to let her go. Short of strangling him to death, she had no idea of how to get out of this house.

Darien had always been an independent person. When her parents died, she had learned to depend on herself. Devin was not really a big help. The relatives that they had lived with were great, but she knew eventually that she would have to depend on herself. She had started working in her teens and had saved all of her money, only buying necessities. She had planned a comfortable life for herself and here she was pregnant and alone. She placed the peaches she had found in the refrigerator and prepared in the shell she had made, covered the sweet gooey mixture with the strips of crust in a crisscross fashion and put the completed cobbler in the oven to bake. She then began pouring batter into cake pans for the mocha chocolate cake she was making. Her mind raced with millions of thoughts as she moved around the kitchen.

Marcellus stood in the doorway watching her. He had no idea she could cook let alone bake from scratch. The he remembered he never really got the chance to know her before he was forcing her to go on dates with him and manipulating her into doing what he wanted her to do. He watched as she moved around the kitchen. He smiled when he saw her lick the chocolate batter from the mixing utensils before placing it all in the sink. Darien then placed her hand on her small bump and giggled. "You like chocolate, huh." Marcellus assumed the baby must have moved. He watched with fascination as she gently rubbed her belly and smiled. Marcellus watched her for what seemed like hours before he went back to his office without Darien knowing he had been standing there.

Marcellus sat at his desk. The only light was the small lamp on his desk. He reflected on how Darien reacted to feeling the baby move. He remembered how she smiled at the joy of feeling the baby's movement. She had touched her stomach in awe, and communicated with the small miracle by rubbing her belly. Marcellus envied his unborn child. The child had one thing he would never be able to possess, the love of its mother. The child had done what Marcellus had failed to do. He was not capable of bringing joy to Darien. His cell phone rang. The caller ID let him know it was Church.

"What's up?" Marcellus said into the phone.

"I hadn't heard from you since earlier. I was just making sure you were still alive."

Marcellus laughed a little. He and Church both knew how angry Darien would be. "Thanks, for getting Rya to give me the info."

"That was all Rya. She has been trying to get Darien to tell you she was pregnant every since she found out about the baby three months ago."

"You mean to tell me that Darien was pregnant when she left that night after finding out about Devin?" Marcellus did not want to believe that she was that far along, but that would explain the bump.

"She's almost five months pregnant, Marcellus. From what Rya says, she was going to tell you about the baby that night, but she found out about Devin first." Church continued, "After she found out about Devin, she decided not to tell you about the baby."

Marcellus was angry. How could she not want to tell him about his child, their child? "I gotta go, man." He hung up the phone without waiting for Church to respond. He went back to the kitchen to find Darien.

Darien was taking the cake out of the oven when she noticed his entrance. "Have you changed your mind about taking me to my apartment?"

"No." Marcellus moved closer to her. "You weren't going to tell me about the baby, were you?"

Darien placed the warm cake on the counter to cool, took off the oven mitts and looked up at Marcellus. "No. I had no intentions of telling you about the baby once I found out you were the one responsible for Devin's attack."

Coldness set in Marcellus' eyes. He felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He appreciated her honesty, but wondered how they had gotten to this place. "Why? Why would you not tell me about my child?"

Darien prepared herself for the confrontation that she knew would come. "Why would I tell you about a baby that you don't want? Explain to me how am I to tell my child that daddy is a gangster and broke Uncle Devin's legs over some money."

"Darien, you knew who I was before this started. You knew what I was capable of doing. Hell, we began because Uncle Devin, as you put it, owed me money. How are you going to explain that to our child?"

"You're right. I do know who you are, and I never asked you to change for me. I knew we only existed in the bedroom, and I accepted that, but I will not force my child to accept that you never wanted her."

"Her? It's a girl?"

"Yes, I'm having a girl." Darien took a step closer to Marcellus. "I know you didn't want commitments in the form of wife and child. I can handle that, but my daughter didn't make that choice. So I did not see a need to tell you, and I won't apologize for that." Darien wanted to offer him some type of comfort when she saw the realization in his eyes that had he not taken her from the airport he would have never known that his child existed. She busied her needy hands by beginning to mix frosting for the cake she had just removed from the oven.

Marcellus took note of her need to be defensive. He understood it, but did not like it. He met this Darien the night he offered her one date to clear Devin's debt. This was protective Darien. The Darien that stared him in the face and told him she would not go on a date with him. She was protecting Devin then, now she was protecting her child, their child. This fearlessness drew him to her in a new way. Other women he had met would back down to him. They would always give him his way. He was always first. Darien was not like that. She had decided that if there was no future for them, she had to protect her future without him. Everything led back to them not being together, and the more thought he gave to the idea, the more he did not like it.

"Stay with me." His request was simple.

Darien looked into his eyes for some type of clue as to what he was asking. Was this for the night? Did he mean forever? What was he asking her to do? "I can't stay with you, Marcellus."

Marcellus walked over to her. His dark brown eyes showing emotions he could no longer hide. His tall muscular frame so close to her she could feel the heat. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. "I want to start over." He leaned his forehead against hers. This was harder than he thought it would be. He took several deep breaths before he continued, "I want us to try to be together. I want you to stay here with me until the baby is born. If you don't feel any different about our situation by then, I will let you leave and I will never bother you again."

Darien gently touched the hands that framed her face and leaned into him. "Marcellus we both know this is not going to work. We can't stay on an even keel five minutes. We are too up and down." She stepped away from him.

Marcellus reached for her hand. He just felt the need to touch any part of her. "Darien, listen to me. Besides my father, you and this baby are the only thing that can prove I exist. I never understood my attraction to you, but it was always more than sex. I had watched you for weeks before we met at your apartment." Marcellus saw the indecision in her eyes. "I saw you talking to Devin one day. I had Church find out who you were and I watched. It started out as me just trying to make sure Devin was not stealing from me and had you as a partner, but then you began to intrigue me. I had to know about you." He took her hand in his again. "Something about you was different. It made me want to be near you."

Darien stepped away from him. She had dreamt of this moment for so long and here he was presenting her with what she had always wanted, but what was he offering? "Marcellus, I can't." She watched as the determination entered his eyes.

Marcellus was not used to losing. He made a vow to himself to not start now. As he stood and listened to her rejection of him, he just kept thinking there had to be some way to convince her to stay with him. "What is it that you want from me?"

Darien knew this was hard for Marcellus. Not many women would turn him down, none that she knew would. Yet here she was doing that very thing. "Nothing." The cake was complete. The cobbler was cooling; the two people in the room had come to an impasse. Darien went about cleaning the kitchen as Marcellus watched her in silence.

"Darien, for the welfare of our daughter-,"

"MY daughter," she said through gritted teeth. She took in a deep breath and turned away from him. She wanted to get away from him. She went towards the door, and Marcellus called out to her.

"We're not done, Darien."

She laughed. A frustrating sound came from deep in her gut. "Believe me, Marcellus, we're done." She took the back stairs to the room she had been assigned. She locked the door, so there would be no unexpected visitors during the night.

Marcellus remembered his father telling him that when women are fed up, it took a force of nature or a favor from God to get them to come around. He could only hope that God was on his side this time. He hoped Darien would eventually realize that they had to try, for the sake of their daughter. He wanted them to start over; get to know each other they way couples should.

Darien called Rya to let her know she was ok, and then called Minka to check in with Devin. "What's going on with you and Marcellus?" Devin asked.