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“Yeah, it would,” he agreed. “That’s why Idon’t. I’m connected to her because of history, and family, but I give it distance. Alicia called me because it was you. I helped with that Kev shit because it wasyou. Other than that? I’m just Coach Zay to the kids here.” He chuckled. “I even got my tats covered ’cause I don’t need any potential trouble.”
“What do you mean,potential trouble?”
He leaned in to speak as a group came into the gym. “Think about it. I’ve got these kids at a game and somebody sees it. Somebody who knows what it means. Maybe they think something is gonna pop off, so they hit first, and now all of a sudden there’s a shootout at a kids’ basketball game. I don’t need that. And neither do they.”
I nodded, taking in his words as something I hadn’t considered—mostly because a regular life wasn’t something I’d considered. Yeah, there werePredatorswho had good corporate jobs, graduations to attend, cakes to bake, shit like that. And apparently some formerRosesandThornswere on that too.
But whatIgravitated to was the gritty shit—maybe because it was all I’d known.
“Before I reconnected with Dacia, I was doing mercenary work,” Isaiah continued. “It was… familiar. It’s a relief to not have to be on that shit anymore, to just be me, figure out who the fuck that is, you know?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “But I gotta ask, why mercenary?”
“’Cause what else did I know? What better talent did I have?” He shrugged. “I’d been separated from Tamra—”
“Wait, do I know Tamra?”
He laughed, then scrubbed a hand over his mouth, trying to cover it. “Uhh…yeah. You know Tamra.”
I frowned. “Why you say it like… oh. Oh.That’s the one y’all sent to approach me at the bar?” I guessed, thinking back weeks ago to when they’d snatched me fromBottoms.
“Yeah.” Isaiah chuckled. “She was my partner I guess; before the takedown. Which, speaking of takedowns—”
I sucked my teeth. “Nigga, you used that word specifically so you could bring this shit up, I ain’t dumb.”
“I definitely did but listen…” He laughed. “You should be proud of yourself. She said you went down hard and they had to pull out thebigvoltage on you.”
Just the memory of it made me twitch. “Don’t joke about that, I still feel a little electromagneticright now.”
Still cackling, he put a hand to his chest. “Been awhilesince somebody hit you with one of those, huh?”
“I don’t miss it,” I countered, rubbing my head as I remembered theacclamation trainingwe’d had to go through inThe Garden. In context, it was probably the least traumatic “training” we’d faced there, but that didn’t make it an easy memory. Pepper spray, kicks to the nuts, taser, stabs, you name it, we’d been subjected to it so we would know what it felt like, and could, theoretically, shake it off.
“We knew Tamra would get your attention.” Isaiah chuckled. “Thick, brown skin… you always had a type.”
I nodded. “I can’t dispute that. But I can say, the shit never would have gone very far.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Because you’ve only got eyes for Tatiana Tate,” he said, with this look on his face like he knewexactlywhere I was coming from with that.
Shit.
Was it that obvious to others, or was it because he was one of the few people in the world who could claim to know me pretty well?
Not that it mattered.
I couldn’t let myself settle into anything with her, knowing I needed to be bouncing at any moment. Instead, here I was hanging around being part of the team, only making the shitmorecomplicated for when I inevitably regathered my common sense and left.
As if I’d thought thePredatorsup, my cell phone rang.
Blue.
“Give me a second,” I told Isaiah and he nodded.
“I need to check in with Dacia anyway,” he said, hopping up from the bench to make a call of his own while I answered mine.
“What happened? Everything good?”I spoke as soon as I had my device up to my ear.
On the other end of the line, Blue laughed. “Why do you always answer the phone like I’m about to tell you to suit up for war?”
