“Hold up.” Ajani said, his hand out like he was a damn crossing guard. “Wait.” His eyes were sharp, calculating. “What if it’s not Trell? If you take out the tail now, we lose the lead to him.”
My fist tightened on the table. “Ajani?—”
“Let him follow Steel,” Ajani insisted, calm but firm. “Let him think he’s slick. Let him think he made the choice. And when he parks his dumb ass at that wing spot, we can have someone on the way to grab his ass. Take him alive. Farrah ain’t even gotta know.”
Prime nodded. “I like alive. Alive talks.”
“He’s coming on our territory. It’s our spot,” Seth pointer out. “They got Steel and Jarell with them and Bucky and Marbles always there. You know I don’t play about my sister, either.”
“Fuck!” I cussed because they were right… and because I hated that they were right. “Steel.”
“Yeah?”
“Lead Farrah to the wing place.” I paused. I hated even saying this shit. “Let him follow you. We gon’ trap these niggas, beat them at their own game.”
“A’ight,” he said. “I got her. I’ll keep it clean.”
“You better,” I said quietly. “Steel, can’t shit go wrong?—”
“It ain’t,” Steel cut in. “I’ll bring your girl back in one piece.”
The line disconnected. I grabbed the phone, jaw clenched so tight it hurt.
Ajani straightened, his gaze boring into mine. “You know I wouldn’t have said it, if I didn’t think it would work. I get how you feel, but this is a chance?—”
“Yeah,” I cut him off. “I understand that. Can we go now? It takes an hour on the best days. And now this construction on 20…”
Seth smirked. “Chill. We ‘bout to catch a ghost. Think we got time to get some of them fancy Ghostbusters costumes? I wanna have the thing that sucks ‘em up.”
“What?Mekhi really let you out of the house?” Kera asked, faking shock.
“Fuck you, Kera,” I responded, laughing as I pushed her shoulder.
Steel stepped in front of us to open the door to the little wing joint that Mekhi and Seth owned. Jarell was close behind us, but I knew the restaurant had extra protection, as well. That was one of the only reasons Mekhi hadn’t insisted Kera and I have lunch at home. We chatted about nothing in particular as we were seated, Steel and Jarell at a table close to our booth. I had just settled my purse on the seat beside me when Kera squealed. My head jerked up.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I want all the details about what’s going on with you and Khi. Seth says he’s so serious about you that?—”
I waved a hand, stopping her. “I don’t know about all that.”
“Girl, stop playing! He’s been into you. I’m just glad he’s finally showing it.”
Sucking my teeth, I rolled my eyes at her. “He couldn’t stand me. He barely can now.”
“Shut up, Farrah,” she said just as our server walked up with glasses of water.
I flipped Kera off and looked at the menu. We ordered quickly and then Kera was ready to interrogate me.
“So… what’s it like when you two aren’t arguing?” she asked, propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands.
I shrugged. “It’s cool. He’s funny and smart when he’s not mugging me.”
She looked around before leaning closer to me.
“And please tell me you have used this opportunity to get a look at him without clothes? I mean, you right in his house, and he fine as fuck!”
I picked up my glass of water and took a long swallow before pulling out my phone. “Oh, yeah, I’ve definitely seen him without clothes,” I mumbled, pretending to be engrossed in my text messages.
