Their aunt slammed out of the house and ran toward them. She wasn’t satisfied until she had checked both of them out, patting them down, searching for any injuries.
“Mekhi?” she asked.
I nodded, letting her know I was fine.
“Oh, Farrah.”
She walked toward the silly bitch, who was leaning against Seth’s car, shaking. Kera ran over and hugged her. She looked at me over Kera’s shoulder, then turned her head, like I was something she didn’t want to see. That’s why I didn’t fuck with her.
What the hell just happened?One minute, I was avoiding Mekhi Venzant and the next, he was on top of me, his hard body shielding me as bullets rained around us. I was completely unprepared, both for the shootingandfor the fact that Mekhi was the one who protected me. He had never made any secret of the fact that he didn’t like me. I didn’t know why—I’d never done anything to him. He didn’t have to say a word, though. Just the way he looked at me—either with cold eyes or with a smirk like he was laughing at me—said all that needed to be said. Even now, after he had probably saved my life, the cold eyes were back. I buried my face in Kera’s shoulder to avoid his gaze. He was probably regretting saving me right now.
“Hey,” Kera whispered. “Calm down, boo. We all right. We made it.”
“Deep breaths,” her Aunt Janine said, rubbing my back.
Following her advice, I sucked in some air and exhaled it slowly. After a minute of that, I was calm enough to step out of Kera’s embrace and try to fix my clothes and hair. I moved stiffly because it felt like I was hurting everywhere. Mekhi had pushed me down hard.Probably on purpose, I thought, but that made me feel ungrateful.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured to them.
“Don’t be. I almost peed on my damn self!” Kera said.
I laughed at her silly ass before giving her another quick hug. I looked around the yard where people were starting to gather. I knew enough from TV to recognize that this was a crime scene, and we probably should preserve it.
“Should we… should we call the police?”
Aunt Janine shook her head. “Trust me. Either someone already has or them niggas don’t want you to.”
“But… if no one calls, how they gon’ find the guys who?—”
“Mekhi and Seth gon’ handle it,” Kera cut me off.
I looked at her, but I knew better than to ask any questions. I wasn’t sure of all the shit Mekhi and Seth did, and something told me it was safer not to know. Kera linked her arm through mine and started pulling me in the direction of her brother and Mekhi. People were already surrounding them. I stalled. Kera turned to look at me.
“Girl, you didn’t see the way Mekhi grabbed your ass and got you out of the way. I know you don’t like him, but you gotta thank him for saving your life, Farrah.”
I scoffed. “He called me a bitch.”
She frowned. “Really? He’s never come at me like that?—”
Clearing my throat, I admitted the rest of the story. “I may have hit him and told him to get off me.”
“Farrah, why?—”
“I was freaked out. I wanted to move and get away. I didn’t mean it,” I defended myself.
“Well, come on. You can apologizeandsay thank you.”
I let her drag me over to him. This close to him, I was reminded of why he always had me tongue-tied. Mekhi was damn near perfect.
“What you want us to do first?” I heard a guy named Luca ask him.
Before he could answer, Kera tapped him on the shoulder.
“Kera, now is not the time for any bullshit,” Seth warned her.
She waved him off. “Farrah got something she wanna say to Mekhi before y’all get busy.”
All eyes turned to me, and I swallowed. I wanted to turn and run, especially since Mekhi was basically glaring at me. But fuck that. I wasn’t a coward. I pulled myself up straight and met his frigid chocolate eyes.
