Page 28 of When a Soul Cries

I looked at Halo again and tightened my hands around the steering wheel.

I didn’t have many people.

But the two I had?

I would burn the whole damn world down before I let anything happen to them.

My mama had called me three times.

I ignored all three.

Not because I didn’t love her. I loved that woman more than damn near anybody walking this earth, but I knew my mama. When Sugga called back-to-back like that, she wasn’t checking on my well-being. She wanted something.

Groceries.

Technically, she hadn’t even asked me yet. Earlier, she’d sent one simple text.

*What you doing today?*

Anybody with a Black mama knew that wasn’t a fucking question. That was a warning. Whatever you said next determined what errand you were about to get volunteered for.

My phone started vibrating across the nightstand again. I glanced at it, saw **Mama**, and flipped that motherfucker facedown.

“Who keep calling you?”

The sleepy voice beside me made me turn my head. The woman lying underneath the sheets was watching me, one eyebrow raised. Her bonnet had shifted halfway off her head sometime during the night, and for a good three seconds, I stared at her trying to remember her name.

Nothing.

Damn.

“Ma.”

She pulled the sheet higher over her chest. “You not gon’ answer?”

“Nope.”

A laugh slipped out of her. “You scared of your mama?”

“Hell yeah.”

I wasn’t too proud to admit that shit. Sugga was five-foot-something worth of attitude, threats, and hands that still worked like all her children were twelve.

I finally grabbed my phone.

Three missed calls.

Two texts.

**Mama: Call me.**

Then—

**Mama: Kai.**

Yeah. That second one did it.

I sat up, rubbed a hand over my face, and called Rome. I told him Mama wanted him to go get her groceries.