I knocked again louder.
The door shifted under my hand. It wasn’t latched all the way. I pushed it open and stepped inside.
“Sandra.”
Dark. Quiet. The kind of quiet that made your skin crawl.
“Sandra.” I stepped further in and let the door close behind me.
The lights came on.
A young nigga stepped from behind the door with a gun pressed to the side of my head before I could turn around.
And Tavarus was sitting on the couch across the room with his gun aimed directly at my chest.
I stood completely still.
I ran my hand over my head and let out a slow breath because I already knew exactly what this was and exactly how stupid I had been to walk through that door. When I got that text, I wasn’t thinking about a trap, all I was thinking of was my daughter needing me right now.
Tavarus looked at me with something on his face that wasn’t anger. It was past anger. It was a look that said he’d been waiting a very long time for this moment and was now sitting inside it.
“You really thought I was slow,” he said. Not a question. “I sat back and watched you move for years. Watched your cousin fight his way up. Watched you corner man your way into legitimate money after you stole mine. Watched you and that little real estate bitch looking at houses.” He tilted his head. “You thought I just forgot what you did? Or that I was too dumb to figure it out?”
I didn’t say anything.
“I would’ve let it go,” he said. “The kidnapping. The money. I would’ve eventually let that go because business is business. I got jacked, you made your point and Street paid his debt. I didn’tsuspect him, we moved on. I was willing to close that chapter.” He paused. “Until my daughter was born.”
The room was still.
“She came out, I looked at her and I already knew. Nothing about that baby looked like me. Not her complexion. Not her features. Nothing of mine.” He leaned forward slightly. “But I’m a patient man. I waited. Watched her grow. And the older she got the more I kept seeing a face I recognized but couldn’t place. Then I thought back, Street came by that one time and you were with him. Your face kept popping up in my head the older my baby got. I looked at you and looked at her and the whole thing clicked into place like a puzzle piece.” He sat back. “Same time Street owed me thirty thousand dollars my wife got snatched. Hundred thousand dollar ransom. I paid it.” He looked at me steady. “That was you.”
Still nothing from me.
“Answer me something,” he said. “And since this is the last conversation you’re ever going to have, answer me honest. Did you take it from her? Did you take the pussy? Or did Sandra give it up willingly.”
I looked at him across that room.
“Since I’m dying today anyway,” I said. “Sandra begged for it. All ten inches of it. Multiple times. She didn’t want to stop. That was a freaky ass old hoe, hell, she was my first old bitch and I won’t lie like she ain’t put it on me. You know how she is.” I taunted this nigga.
Tavarus was quiet for a moment.
Then he laughed. Low and genuine and that was somehow worse than everything else.
“Yeah,” he said. “That sounds about right.” He shook his head once. “I’ll make sure I keep taking care of your daughter the way I been doing. She’ll never know her real father died a fuck nigga.” He looked at the man behind me. “And I might send her mama to meet you too when I’m done thinking about it.” He raised his chin toward the man holding the gun to my head. “Monte. Handle this.”
“I don’t think that’s happening today.”
The voice came from the back of the house.
Mazi walked out of the hallway with his gun up and aimed at Tavarus and his eyes were cold and steady in a way I had never seen on my little cousin before in my life.
Tavarus looked at him with shock and fear mixed together.
“You set me up,” Mazi said. He kept walking forward until he was in the middle of the room. “Let me in your operation knowing exactly who I was. Had me moving your product thinking I was getting close to something when the whole time you were using me to send messages to my brother and my cousin.” He kept the gun level. “Your people killed my father. You played with my family. And now that Veteran is gone and facing everything he’s got coming — you don’t have anybody above you to hide behind now!”
Tavarus looked at him for a long moment.
“Monte,” he said again. Quieter this time. He wanted Monte to kill me and Mazi now.
