“Yeah, I bet. Probably over there telling her all the family history, secrets, and enemies. You way more sensitive than you like to let on. You act like you forgot that I know yo’ ass.”
I shoved him away from me while he laughed. “Shut the fuck up.”
When Lema, PJ’s twin sister, walked in, we stood. She smiled at us, then came and hugged us both.
“Any changes?” she asked.
We both shook our heads. She nodded, then went to the ICU entrance. Once she’d walked through the door, we both sat, remaining quiet. I knew more family would be coming later, so I came early to have some time with him. I needed him to hear my voice, knowing that I was praying for him to make it. I was pretty sure he was hearing all of our voices. He had brain activity. We thanked God for that, because things were looking grim for a couple of days. They didn’t think he would make it this long.
He was going to be in so much pain whenever he woke up. His rotator cuff and collar bone were practically shattered. Thankfully, that chest wound wasn’t near his heart. He wasn’t out of the woods. As far as the abdominal wound was concerned, I knew he had lost a kidney, and he would have to have a colostomy bag for a while. That was going to kill him, but I would much rather that than him dying because he got shit backed up inside of him.
As I sat in my thoughts, my phone vibrated. There was a text from Iesha. I opened it to see she was just telling me she loved me. I loved that. She typically did that twice a day, depending onhow long I was gone. She seemed totally relaxed in us, and that was what I always wanted.
I love you more.
Right after, police came into the waiting area and walked right up to me. I handed my belongings to Royal. “My code to unlock my phone is zero-five-one-six-two-seven. Text everybody and let them know what’s up, so they can get ahold of Mrs. Sidney and Mr. Shy. Text Iesha first, man.”
He nodded as I stood, and they turned me around to cuff me. I knew this shit would eventually come.Punk ass agents.After they read the Miranda rights, I said, “You never said what I’m being arrested for.”
“Unfortunately, sir, you will have to take that up with the FBI agents we’re taking you to.”
“Come on, Seven.”
I sat up on the cot to see Mrs. Sidney standing there with a deep frown on her face. It had to be the next morning, and those muthafuckas didn’t give me a phone call. They never even explained why I was here . . . not that I remembered anyway.
I stood and walked to the door as the correctional officer unlocked it. When I walked through it, I heard Mrs. Sidney mumble, “I don’t know who the fuck they think they playing with.”
My eyebrows lifted slightly as we walked out of the jailhouse, heading to her car. My dad was standing near it, looking pissed.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I was in Baltimore. Shy is out of town, consulting on another case as well.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s nine the next morning.”
“I’ve been asleep almost the entire time.”
She stopped walking and frowned. “You don’t remember anything from when they picked you up?”
I shook my head, and that shit hurt like hell. I frowned and grabbed it. Felt like my fucking brain was swishing around in there.
“We going to a fucking lab. Did you have anything to eat or drink?”
“They gave me some water. That was about it. At least, that’s all I remember having. I remember them doing my mugshots and all that. They never told me what I was being arrested for.”
She slowly shook her head as we finally got to my dad. She reiterated to him everything that was said, and I could feel the winds pick up speed the longer she talked. His face was getting redder by the second. From what she was saying, they were trying to charge me with murder.
“Murder of who?” I asked.
“Seven counts of murder for the seven dead bodies in that house in Liberty, one of which was the undercover. One count of attempted murder for PJ. Which we all know is bogus as fuck.”
“Well, they proving how fucked up they are, because?—”
“Tell me later,” she said, cutting me off.
I slid my hand down my face and shook my head. They just wanted to pin shit on me now. A cleanup crew came in after us. There were no bodies in that house. Plus, there was at least twelve muthafuckas in the house that day. There was no way I would start naming names to get me out of a hot spot either, so we were going to court.
They knew good and got damn well I didn’t do shit to PJ. I told their asses to arrest me, because I refused to set my people up. There was no amount of money that would have me turning on family. Mrs. Sidney could get that convo from Apple; I wasmore than sure of it. All they were doing was fucking up and making it easy for Mr. Shy to go after their asses.
