“I didn’t think she’d be able to get drugs in your care!”
“Nigga, I sell drugs! She ain’t get the shit from me, but how the fuck did you think it was smart, handing your daughter to a fuckin’ coke dealer?Thefuckin’ coke dealer of Jagoda Bay.”
“I wasn’t thinking,” Ines said with blood now staining his teeth and dripping from his nose. “I just needed her safe.”
“Ines, you didn’t tell me she was a young Whitney. That’s an extra ten percent,” Don said nonchalantly, adding to the Ledesma debt.
We’d been here too long, and this wasn’t what I’d come here for. I was aggravated to the max, or so I thought, before Don opened his mouth and said, “She stays… With you. Trust me on this, Shio.”
Pushing Ines, he stumbled over the sofa and landed beside his wife. Solana was rubbing her arm up and down, heels still in hand, her expression blank.
“You’re not mine. You will never fucking be mine. Know that. Understand that. Plant that shit in your fucking brain, Solana.” I snarled toward her. “You got one hundred and eighty seconds to put some shoes on and meet me at the fucking car.”
Blinking, Solana nodded and rushed past me. Before she could get out of reach, I grabbed her arm, halting her steps.
“You’re going to wishlike hellyou stayed here with your people, Solana. I ain’t the nigga you ever want to play with, and you most definitely fuckin’ played. Hurry the fuck up.”
Letting her go, I watched as she ran across the courtyard, ass spilling out of her dress. Not sparing Ines and his whore of a wife another glance, I headed out the same way I came in, leaving Don there too. Once I was seated in the rental, my cell phone in the cup holder beside Solana’s started buzzing. Don had sent me the address, and it was forty minutes away. Once Solana made it to the car, I was aiming to make it in ten.
It still baffled me how they knew I had a kid before I even knew myself. Honestly, that’s what fucks with me the most. I pride myself on thinking through all possible scenarios, but in just forty-eight hours, I had been blindsided by four unexpected twists: The Rodríguezes showing up at the club, Don dropping us in the middle of Egypt, Solana’s drug problem, and me being an absent father. Then, there was the feeling brewing within me that Ines was cooking some shit up. Don could believe he was just this helpless motherfucker, but I didn’t.
Things were spiraling, and I didn’t handle chaos well.If things couldn’t be handled with planning and precision, then I typically resorted to killing whatever thatthingwas—people included.
Chapter 4
Shio Cuppacio
Solana came out of the house different than when she went in. Her hair was now pulled in a big ball on the top of her head. Her makeup had been scrubbed away, leaving her face bare and her nose shiny. The smeared tint on her pouty lips had been replaced with clear gloss, and the green dress she had worn previously had been exchanged for black athletic leggings and a matching jacket that she had zipped up to the neck. On her feet were a pair of black Crocs. The outfit looked like she would have to cut herself out of it. Snapping my head from her fucked up ass, I put the car in reverse before she could hop in since I’d already opened the door.
The softness of her perfume as she closed herself inside the car made me want to tell her to go back in the house and rub it off. I didn’t want her in my fucking head, and there was something about her scent that put her there.I didn’t know what Don had going on and didn’t care; I needed to get to my child.
I had a daughter.
I couldn’t help but wonder what she looked like, what her name was, what her birthday was, or what she was like. Was she more like her mother or me? Bahati and I had some goodtimes, even though I wouldn’t call what we had a relationship. Her father was our connect, and she was convenient pussy. Our arrangement should have never ended with us sharing a child. I wanted to wring Bahati’s neck, but this time, I would succeed in actually killing her ass for hiding my daughter. I’d hear her out, but only because our last encounter didn’t go so well. I couldn’t say I blamed her for hiding our child away. The shit was fucked up, though.
The drive was silent, but internally, my thoughts were loud. I did one hundred miles per hour the entire way there and couldn’t remember most of the drive. I put everything I’d just learned at Ines’ crib in the last hour to the back of my mind. None of that was important right now. By the time we made it to what looked like an abandoned shopping plaza, Solana’s sleepy, tweaking ass had dozed off again. Instead of waking her, I hopped out of the car and grabbed the vests from the duffel bag from the back seat. By the time I rounded the car and tossed the duffel on the hood, Solana was popping her head up from the passenger seat. Her eyes were red, and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how she was tired after sleeping the whole fucking flight. If it had been me that my father admitted to auctioning off, I’d be spitting nails. She exited the car, standing a small distance away from me with her arms folded underneath her breast. Her eyes scanned the parking lot, which was void of cars or pedestrians. There must’ve been nine storefronts connected in the plaza, and all of them had boarded windows and chained doors.
Unzipping the duffel, I removed the Draco resting on top and set it on the warm hood. Underneath the gun were two vests. Turning to Solana, I opened the vest and jutted my chin. I could see the fear in her eyes, but she knew better than to speak. She spread her arms, and I slid the vest on. Once it was secured, I added my own, removing the leather jacket intended for datenight. I checked my gun and rested it on my shoulder. With the duffel in hand, I walked up the cracked concrete of the plaza.
Since my legs were longer, Solana had to skip in order to keep up. The brisk movement stirred her scent, and my aggravation peaked. I needed to be focused on what I was about to do. I started to turn to her and tell her to wait in the car, but she beat me to speaking.
“Umm… Do you know which one to go in?” she asked.
Clenching my jaw, I walked past the first two doors that were chained before cutting my eyes toward her. “The one that doesn’t have chained doors.”
From the plaza’s layout, it was obvious that it was the biggest store, sitting dead in the center of all the surrounding stores. There wasn’t but one light pole in the parking lot, and the stars and moon above guided us.
“So, you don’t have any backup? Just us… Walking in the doors that aren’t chained? We go in there and what? Shio, this is suicide.”
Grinding my teeth together, I let Solana’s words go over my head. I knew this plan wasn’t the wisest, but it was what I had. I could have easily had her father’s guards accompany us, but if they flipped on Ines, they could very well flip on me. The most I used them for was to get me these weapons and the car.
“Stay behind me, Solana.”
“You’re not giving me a gun?”
“Can you shoot?” I asked, keeping my stride, and my head swiveled. “Thought so. Here.”
Sticking my hand into the duffel, I pulled out the tool and handed it to her.
