“No fuckin’ tears, Bahati. I know the shit was traumatizing, but you’re safe here. You’ve been in my house and not a single thing has happened since we touched down from Mexico. Talk.”
“The day before… I-I went into the phone store.”
“What phone service?”
“Hunh?”
“Bahati…” She knew how I felt about repeating myself.
“Oh, Spectrum.”
“You had that cheap-ass service?”
She squinted her eyes and puckered her plump lips. “I went into theSpectrumphone store and upgraded my phone and changed my number. Then I went to the grocery store?—”
“How’d you get from Spectrum to the grocery store, and where was Shya?”
“Shya was with me. She’s always with me. I drove.”
“What type of car? What part of town?”
“I drive my father’s old car. The motor went out in mine some time ago, and since a dead man can’t drive and my mother and sister have no need for it in Kenya, I kept it for myself.”
Her father drove a Lincoln Town Car, navy blue. I’d had many memories of him rounding the corner in it as he gave us our pill and drank order late as fuck. I used to be ready to shoot that bitch up every time he let his daughter convince him to delay our shit because I wouldn’t commit to her ass.
I nodded. “Got it.”
“Okay, so, yes. We went to Spectrum, then home?—”
“Old-ass Town car, Spectrum, grocery store, and then home. Keep the sequence right, Bahati.”
“I’m trying to, but you’re looking at me as if I did something wrong.” Her voice rose an octave, and Shya wiggled. Raising my eyebrow as a warning, Bahati sighed.
“Look, a nigga ain’t lookin’ at you no type of ways. I’m tryna put this shit to rest. I’m comin’ up with dead-end after dead-end. I looked you up and ain’t shit come up.”
I watched her closely for a reaction, but all she had was a look of disdain for the conversation.
“I could have told you nothing would come up, Shio. My father, when he was killed… He owed a powerful gang up in New York somewhere. He owed them the product and didn’t come through, though he’d been paid in advance. Little did we know, he had a gambling addiction.”
I’d known her pops had a gambling addiction for a long-ass time. It was the main reason he began stealing from a job that paid him well over six figures to begin with.
“It spooked my mother and sister, so they fled. I’d grown to love Chicago, and I’d hoped that… I was thinking I’d at least be able to run into you again. So I paid good money to essentially become no one. No, I do not have the contact of the person I used. You know how paranoid Chicago men are. I never met the guy or girl. I just paid my fee.
“After that, I moved to the Southside, hoping to blend in. I didn’t get another job because my father had trusts set up for us in the wake of his death. My apartment wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was warm in the brutal winter and cool in the summer. We didn’t have much because I wanted my money to stretch at least until she was old enough to go to elementary school. We lived low maintenance. I even perfected braiding my own hair. I saved every dollar.”
I nodded. “Okay, back to the day. Spectrum, grocery store, drove Lincoln Town Car home. What apartments?”
“Celestial Crest. Apartment 2-9-1.”
I was familiar with them but didn’t really know anyone around that way. I hadn’t been to the hoods of Chicago in years. I could ask Essex if he knew someone from that part of Southside because he still made moves around the city. For that reason alone, I knew it was a high chance that he did, but he’d also been on the road so much that it was hard to link up with my boy.
Chicago hadn’t felt like home for me in the years before we moved. Now that we’d been in Jagoda Bay for some time, I didn’treminisce about Chicago either. When I did go to the city, it was usually just to the graveyard and back to the plane. When we were living there, we Cuppacios kept to ourselves and were only cordial to the people we served. I’d built more connections out here than there, and I knew it was mainly because the money and status had changed. When you were mob-tied, folks treated you differently—or rather, accordingly.
“I went toWright Way grocery—God, it smelled disgusting that day. Shya cried her eyes out. We went home, where I bathed her as the food cooked, and after we ate, we fell asleep on the couch. The next thing I knew, I was kidnapped. They kept us about a week, but I’m not sure of the timing because they took my phone.”
This was new. I hadn’t bothered to question Bahati because I’d felt bad that she’d been kidnapped and had a broken arm. But if I wanted to find these hoe-ass wetbacks, I was going to have to trace her steps. I received the call about Bahati and the baby two days after that stand-off in the club. If they’d had them for one week, that meant I was five steps behind, when I was usually the nigga who was twenty laps ahead.These niggas had already snatched Bahati and Shya when they came to Jagoda Bay.
“Shio, I’m just as confused as you are. If me spending money on the clothing has you upset, then I’m sorry. I won’t waste?—”
