Page 20 of Rich and Rotten

“Be careful, Jonah,” I reminded him, as I always did.

“You already know.”

“Take your company with you.”

Jonah looked between me and Nazir. “I take it the past between you two wasn’t the best.”

Ignoring him, I headed upstairs to plow my way through the ice cream Nazira had brought home for me. When I hit the top step, I saw Bloom was at the kitchen counter on her phone. Noticing me, she quickly ended her call and smiled.

“Tati, I know you’re mad at me, but—”

I raised my hand. “Water under the bridge. Just tell me next time.”

She let out a deep sigh. “Thank God you’re not… Wait a minute. This is almost too easy. Who died?”

Jonah came upstairs with Nazir behind him.

“Who’s that?” Bloom asked as I scooted past her to reach the fridge.

Bloom batted her eyelashes but then widened her eyes after getting a better look. Both Bloom and Yaya knew what a younger Nazir looked like from the pictures I showed them. Not much about his appearance had changed, except that he became finer with age and had a few gray hairs.

She cleared her throat and grabbed her tote that was on the counter.

“Um, hey Jonah,” she quickly greeted, then made herself scarce, but not before giving me a confused look once she was behind Nazir.

A Spanish man with a bald head and tattoos covering his muscular arms entered the kitchen. He had a scowl that could send even the meanest man cowering. He nodded to Nazir, then approached the counter and extended one of his tattooed hands.

“Hi, I’m Emilio. I’ll be head of security for you and your daughter. Jonah has given me the rundown, and I can assure you that you and your seed are safe with me.”

My seed? Using that lingo, I could tell this was a man who grew up in the hood, and if I had to put any bets on my safety, it would be with him. The gun tucked in the back of his waistband told me everything I needed to know.

Just then, Bloom peeked her head back into the kitchen. “I can take Zira to school in the morning if she’s going back.”

Emilio looked at Bloom, and I could’ve sworn I saw his cheeks turn red from blushing. His eyes were locked on her, then he glanced over at Nazir, who nodded in response. They both understood what it meant because Emilio left the kitchen and headed down the hall without saying another word.

“She can return to school,” Jonah replied before I could even gather my thoughts.

When it came to Nazira, Jonah didn’t play. I prayed for the day she decided to start dating and for whoever the young man would be, because I knew her godfather would give him hell.

Bloom nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll take her.”

“Security will accompany you two,” he said, never looking up from his phone. “I’m heading out. I’ll walk you out, Nazir.”

Nazir walked past me, his scent wafting through the air and overwhelming my senses.

“It was nice seeing you, Mrs. Sterling.”

I could tell from his tone that he didn’t take my new last name seriously. When we were together, I was Ms. Rich, and had he never abandoned me, I would have been Mrs. Kane. Who knows where our lives would’ve gone together? One thing was certain: we would have been parents.

Jonah looked at both me and Nazir and laughed.

“Was shit really that fucked up to be on a last name basis?”

When neither of us responded, he shrugged his shoulders and left the kitchen with Nazir following behind him. As soon as they were gone, I took a deep breath and leaned on the counter. Bloom spun around the corner and nearly hopped onto the kitchen island to hear what I had to say. We waited a moment, listening to the chime of the front door, before exchanging a “Girl, what the hell” look.

“We cannot wait for Yaya to dig into whatever just happened.”

She was leaning halfway across the island, her eyes trained on me. She followed every move I made.