“Wait?” Her tone changed, turned desperate. She grabbed my arm. “Please don’t go. Can we talk about it? Finish what we started?”
Not only was Tabatha a liar, she was crazy as hell. Or a narcissist. Or both. “Let’s not do this,” I said, keeping my voice even.
Once again, she switched up. Now, she was baring teeth. “Fuck you,” she yelled, smacking the wall with her palm. “Punk-ass b—”
A door opened behind me, and I wasn’t surprised that Tabatha’s rage-filled rant had drawn the attention of a neighbor or two. An older man poked his head out. “Is everything alright out here?”
Before I could answer, a flip-flop whizzed by my head, nearly hitting me. “Fine.” I ducked when the other shoe flew over my head.
“Go back in your apartment, Daddy. I’m handling this.”
Daddy?
“You better handle it, because I have to get up to go to work in the morning,” the man said. “I told you about having male company, anyway. I’m paying for you to live there.”
“Please!” she shouted, pointing at his door. “I’ll come see you in a few minutes.”
“Bring some food.” The man slammed his door.
There was so much wrong with this situation, but I didn’t have it in me to ask any questions. Whether the man was her biological father or her sugar daddy, I’d never know.
“Preston?” she called.
I stared at the closed door of her neighbor, then back at her. Without another word, I left her standing there, fury in her eyes.
My phone buzzed yet again when I finally made it to my truck. “What’s up, bruh?” I answered.
“Work,” Cooper said. “What’s the word?”
“Shit. You all packed?” Cooper and I owned Prescott-Hayes Construction. We’d been in business for years and had amassed a small fortune and earned a stellar reputation in Southeast Michigan. Recently, he’d decided to move to his hometown of Rosewood Heights, South Carolina to help run his family company and be with the woman he loved. While it wasn’t an optimal choice, considering our business was busier than ever, I understood his decision. For the first time since I’d known Coop, he was happy. And I was happy for him.
“Almost. Did you see the email from the city? They sent it a few minutes ago.”
After I started my car and it connected to Bluetooth, I checked my work account. The approval email was a welcome surprise after the day I’d had. We’d finally received the approval for the condominiums. Construction would start soon. “Just read it,” I told him. “Good news.”
“Definitely,” Coop agreed. “I figure I’ll fly back before we break ground.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I finally pulled out of my parking spot and headed toward I-94. “Remember that woman you met in that bar in Thailand?”
He groaned. “Hell yeah. I still wonder how I got out of that unscathed and injury-free.”
I laughed, grateful for the calm before the upcoming storm. “Barely.”
Joining the Marine Corps saved my life in many ways. Aside from the occasional field trip or family reunion, my world had pretty much consisted of my block, my school, and my job. While I hadn’t been thrilled about enlisting, I’d done it to escape the environment that had once—and sometimes still did—felt like a chokehold around my neck. Spending my late teenage years overseas had changed everything for me.
Building a strong brotherhood had played a major role in my transformation from boy to man. Cooper and I had met while we’d both been stationed in Germany. Our backgrounds weren’t that similar. He’d grown up the second oldest son of the richest black family in his hometown, and I was the only child of a father who’d died too soon and a mother who’d…lived. But we had one thing in common: anger. Him at his father, and me at mostly everything. Over the years, we’d shared a lot about our lives, from childhood crises to busted relationships. I’d even taken a bullet for him. But he’d saved my life on more than one occasion.
“I just told Angel about that a couple of weeks ago,” Coop said.
“I hope you told her the whole truth.”
“Every fucked-up part, man. Had her cracking up. Why you thinking about that shit?”
Tabatha’s outburst earlier had immediately made me think back to Thailand. Until he’d met Angel and her son Mehki, Coop had consistently made bad choices in women. But LaLa had been the worst. She’d terrorized him from the time we’d landed in Nam Phong to the time we’d departed. “Let’s just say, I could’ve suffered the same fate,” I confessed.
“Whoa, bruh. I don’t wish that on anyone. I’m telling you…run.”
“You know I’m not playin’ no games. Had to get the hell up out of her apartment.”
