The doors slid open on the first floor. Judge and Minnie Bell waited there with Adir. Minnie’s face was tear-ridden and full of grief. Her husband’s face reflected the anger we all felt. They’d changed out of their party clothes but were so devastated that they looked disheveled. I held the elevator for them, then waited for the doors to close before facing Adir. He stood there, eyes black, and face set in a grim expression.
“Where the fuck you been?” I asked him.
He briefly tilted his head and shrugged. No, this other side of Adir wasn’t anything to fuck with, but unlike most people, I was used to dealing with this side of him. Matter of fact, this side of him was who I preferred in times like this. While everybody else was terrified of this nigga, he was simply misunderstood. I understood him, though. A little too much.
I followed him to his office where Dothan, Alli, Adrian, and Noa waited for us. Adir closed the door behind us, then went and sat behind his desk. The air inside the four walls was quiet and thick with tension. Everybody was on edge.
Before anything could be said, the door opened. Sean stuck his head inside.
“Turn on the news,” he informed us, then closed the door.
Adir flipped to the local station. On the screen was a video of a mangled Seas & Shores Restaurant and Grill.
“Tell her to get that shit off there!” Adir barked, but I was already dialing Katrelle. She answered on the first ring.
“I’m handling it,” she answered, then hung up. A few seconds later, the broadcaster abruptly cut to a commercial. Alli took the remote and flipped to another station. Footage from the restaurant played on the screen.
Something inside of me bubbled intensely seeing Bianca in a nigga’s face. And he was standing too fucking close to her. Within a couple of minutes, the footage showed a dark sedan coming down the block. It didn’t slow or stop. There was noacceleration of the sedan as someone in the passenger seat unloaded. Watching the bullets rip through Bianca turned me into a monster. It was watching Minnie run out of that building to get to her daughter that turned me into raging monster. I wanted blood. A lot of it.
“I spoke to Detective Gunner. The plates are bogus,” Alli said, breaking the silence that came after he pressed pause.
“I got a hit on the nigga Bianca was outside with. Torro was a popular bartender from Atlanta. The city is goin’ crazy behind him,” Noa informed us.
“They want whoever did this just as bad as we do,” Alli added.
Adir chuckled.
“Impossible,” I mumbled. Nobody wanted these niggas as bad as I did.
“What the fuck is a bartender from Atlanta doing in Pensacola… At my family’s event?” Adir questioned.
“His uncle owns the restaurant, and Torro has worked high profile parties for them in the past.”
Dothan cleared his throat and said, “Torro has an open case out of Cobb County, stemming from the summer. He’s on bond for robbery and attempted homicide.”
My eyes snapped to Dothan. “Who was hit?”
“A nigga named, Jarelle Duggins,” Dothan answered.
“Was Torro solo?” Alli questioned.
“Nah,” Dothan replied. “Warrants were issued for brothers, Cliff and Manny Rollins. Neither of which have been detained. I should add that Torro has a prior closed case that was sealed. If I had to take an educated guess, he’s state protected.”
“Do we have a location on the brothers?” Adrian questioned.
“If I had to make another educated guess, they’re already on 75 headed back to Atlanta,” Dothan stated. “The city is protecting them.”
Silence followed for a minute before Adir stated, “We’re lookin’ for the brothers. I’on give a fuck if we gotta dangle their great-granny off the Bay Bridge by her fuckin’ gray edges. Find ‘em and bring them niggas to us.”
Noa, Alli, and Dothan filed out of Adir’s office, leaving me with Adir and Adrian.
Wordlessly, Adir and Adrian watched me leave out of Adir’s office. I made my way back to Bianca’s room. Her parents were by her bedside, doing their best to stay strong. Violence had touched the family before, just not in this way. And out of all people, Bianca.
Minnie spotted me outside her daughter's room and broke away from her husband to come to me. I opened my arms for the woman I considered another mother. She laid her head on my chest and softly uttered, “Thank you.”
I kissed the top of her head. “Now you know that’s not necessary.”
She wiped her eyes and said, “As much as I wanted you to wait for her, I knew you couldn’t wait forever.”
