As I sat there plotting my next move, I thought to myself that I needed to do something to get my damn privileges back. Every week, I had somewhere that I needed to be on Fridays. This was something important to me and I didn’t want to make a habit of not showing up. Just as I was about to give up, I thought about how much Kaseem needed me and didn’t even know it.
Not saying the nigga was green, but since he was clearly using me, I was about to use him too. If I was gone he held hostage, the least I could do was leave the prison sometime. I knew exactly how I was about to win him over.
I put on a silk robe, and prepared to head to his room.
Iwas back in my office when I heard the knock.
Not security. Security didn't knock like that. It was just two taps, not too hard, not too soft. Like somebody who wasn't sure they were welcome but came anyway.
I already knew who it was before I said anything. I just didn’t know what she wanted. Our lil talk didn’t go too good and I knew that when I walked out.
“Come in."
Tatti pushed the door open and stood in the frame for a second like she was deciding whether walking all the way in was something she was ready to do. She had changed into somethingcomfortable, a silk robe that hugged all her curves. She had her hair pulled back, face clean. No extra shit. Just her natural state
"I need to talk to you," she said.
“Okay, talk.”
She came in and closed the door behind her. Didn't sit down. Stood in the middle of my room with her arms at her sides and looked at me straight. "I'm not going to keep fighting this," she said. "If I have no choice in the matter, all I can do is make the best of it. That's why I'm here."
I leaned back in my chair and looked at her. "Okay. I’m lost. Why are you here?"
“Because I can help you."
I didn't say anything. Just watched her. I ain’t know what the hell she could have possibly thought she was gone help me with. Was she trying to give me the pussy already? All I did was gave her a forehead kiss. Now her tough ass was caving in?
"Outside today," she said. "When everything happened at the gate. You have cameras everywhere on this property. I saw them when we pulled in this morning, on the ride over to your parents house, coming back. They're everywhere." She paused. "The man who walked away from that car — he had to have come in from somewhere and walked out somewhere. If your cameras caught any part of his face, even a partial, I can work with that."
I looked at her for a long moment. Trying to find the angle. There was always an angle.
“Why?" I asked.
“I was gone tell you a lie that sounded good but I don’t have the energy to lie. I need you to trust me enough to give me privilegesback," she said. Straight. No dressing the shit up. "I'm not stupid. I know how this works. I'm not getting out of this house on good behavior alone. I need to show you something worth trusting." She held my gaze. "Let me show you something worth trusting. And I have enough sense to not try and run. You know too much about me and my family for that. I have no doubt that you’d kill me or someone I love.”
I studied her face. She wasn’t running a game she thought was slick. She was standing in my room at night after the day she'd had and offering me something benefits to us both because she was smart enough to know that was her best move.
I stood up. Not fully believing she could do what she said, but the shit was worth a shot.
"Come on," I said.
—
I walked her to the media room at the end of the east wing. Three walls of monitors, every feed from every camera on the property running in real time. I pulled up the north gate footage from earlier and rewound it to the window I needed. Tatti stood beside me and watched the screen.
"Stop it there," she said.
I stopped it.
She leaned forward toward the monitor. "Can you zoom in on the left side? Right there — when he turns to check behind him before he starts back walking."
I zoomed in.
The image was grainy at that distance but there was a frame — maybe two seconds — where the man turned his head justenough that the camera caught the left side of his face. Jaw, cheekbone, the edge of his eye. Partial. Most people would have said it wasn't enough.
“That's it. That’s enough," Tatti said.
I looked at her. "For what."
