“Farrah, do you know who that is, or do I really need to call the police?” he cut me off, looking in Steel's direction.
“No, he’s cool. He’s my... friend.”
My explanation left Ron frowning. He looked at me suspiciously and I smiled at him.
“Tell me what you saw,” I said, trying to change the subject.
He gave Steel one last look before turning toward me.
“I saw a man I didn’t know walk up to your door, but he didn’t knock. Then, he looked in the front windows before walking around to the side of the house. He was out of my sight for only a few minutes, so I don’t think he had a chance to do anything. He pulled off in a blue or black Mercedes,” he rattled off.
My eyes widened. If Ron had seen the car, then maybe...
“Did you get a license plate number?”
He sucked his teeth. “Of course, I got the license plate number.”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and began typing. I felt my phone buzz with a text seconds later. Smiling, I threw my arms around him.
“Thank you, Ron. You just don’t know how important this is.”
He hugged me back for a moment before pulling away to look down at me.
“What are you planning on doing, Farrah? This could be dangerous. You don’t need to do anything crazy?—”
“I'm not! But I do want to check my house to make sure...”
My voice trailed off as another car approached us. I recognized who it was almost instantly. Turning, I glared at Steel. He waved at me through his window. I watched as Mekhiparked and got out of his Audi. His face was blank as usual, but I could tell by how he was moving that he was not happy. He walked up on us, but he didn’t stop at some comfortable distance. Nah, that wouldn’t have been intimidating enough. Instead, he got right up in my face. I swallowed hard, but I refused to back down. Staring up at him, I waited for him to speak.
“Get in your car, Farrah, and drive your ass right back to the house,” he gritted out.
Ron looked at me. “To the house? Farrah, what’s going on? I know you haven’t been here, but–”
“It’s good, Ron. Mekhi’s just looking out?—”
“Your ‘friend’ from the other night, huh? You hanging around a lot of people that aren't usually in your circle,” he said, eyeing Mekhi up and down.
Mekhi crossed his arms over his chest and chuckled.
“What you tryna say, nigga? And how the fuck is it your business who her friends are?”
He sounded calm, but I could see the warning in his eyes. Unfortunately, Ron didn’t know him that well.
“As her boyfriend, it’s definitely my business?—”
Before Ron could say anything else, I started talking, words spilling out of me as I tried to defuse the situation.
“Mekhi, Ron saw someone creeping around my house, and he was concerned enough to call me. I just came over here to--”
“I don’t give a fuck what you came for, shorty. You supposed to be at home, safe, but you wanna come play Ms. Investigator. What were you gon’ do?”
His condescending tone pissed me off. I wasn’t completely helpless, no matter what he might think. And I didn’t need him running interference on everything in my life. My chin lifted defiantly as I scowled at him.
“I was just going to check the house out, make sure everything was okay.”
“So, you thought somebody may have broken in yo’ shit and you were gon’ go in by yourself?”
“No! Nobody broke in because the alarm would’ve gone off and the police would’ve been here by now. They would’ve called me, too. And anyway, Ron was going to come with me!”
