I took a step back.
“Xavier, I know you may be upset that I’m with this man, and because of everything I’ve done in the past, but this doesn’t make sense. I’ve know him all my life. He’s been around the family since he was born.”
“I know how this sounds, but think about why you’ve just gotten with him a few years ago. If he’s been around that long, he should have been your childhood sweetheart. You’ve said yourself he keeps up with me and my fights. Why is that?”
“You’re telling me that the man I have been with for two years—”
“Was planted. Yes.”
“That’s—” I stopped because I didn’t have the word for what that was. My mind was trying to find a place to put what he was saying and not finding one. “That’s insane Xavier. Marcus is not — he doesn’t — he’s not that kind of person.”
“He knew Mazi got shot before you told him anything. You heard him on that phone call. You came to me because something felt wrong. You already knew something wasn’t right. Listen to what I’m saying, this isn’t a game, and this isn’t small. My father isdead because of his father. Shit is about to get ugly, and I’m here to give you a heads up.”
I looked at the door behind me. Then back at Street.
“I heard a phone call that I didn’t fully understand, but I don’t want to believe that I’ve been used.”
“Brielle.” He said my name and something in his voice made me stop. “I went to Legal. He has been investigating my father’s murder for well over twenty years. He has documentation that shows everything I just told you.”
The words landed on me one at a time and each one hit differently from the one before it.
I put my hand over my mouth.
I thought about Marcus watching every one of Street’s fights. Following his career obsessively. Knowing statistics and records and fight details that went beyond what a casual fan would know. I had thought it was strange. I had told myself it was just admiration.
I thought about him on that phone in his office saying it shook him up, that the graze could have been worse, that was the point. This made me think that the man I’d been with could have a part in hurting an innocent kid because he hated and was obsessed with Street.
I thought about two years of dinners and conversations with a man who had been perfectly positioned in my life from the beginning.
My father had introduced us.
My father had pushed me toward Marcus before I had any attraction to him.
My father had practically celebrated when I told him Marcus and I were serious.
Something cold moved through me. And my mind fell on my father. He hated Street so if what Street was telling me was true, then my father knew that. He was very close to Bernard. They were partners and childhood friends.
“How did BJ know about me and you,” I said slowly. “How did he know our history well enough to use me to get close to you.”
Street looked at me and I could see him deciding something.
“That’s what we’re still figuring out,” he said carefully.
“Don’t do that. Don’t protect me from something I need to know.” I looked at him straight. “How did BJ know?”
Before he could answer the door opened behind me.
Marcus stepped out.
He looked between me and Street and whatever he saw on my face made something change in his. The easy comfortable expression he always wore shifted into almost anger. Something careful and calculating underneath the surface.
“Everything good out here,” he said.
Street looked at him.
And I watched Street look at him in a way that made me fear that Street was about to knock him out. it was terrifying.
“We’re talking,” Street said. Flat.
