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I didn’t even know how I got there. I stumbled into the house in a daze. It took me a minute to realize all the lights were already on. When I did, I reached for my gun for a second time that night and clicked the safety off.
“It’s me, Bakari.” Sanai stepped out of the living room with her hands up. She spun around slowly and then stood still until I put the safety back on and put the gun down on a nearby console table.
“How the fuck did you get in here?” I asked. I was so worn out that I barely managed to get my words out.
“I can get in where I need to. Nobody saw me come in, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“That’s usually your thing to worry about. I don’t give a fuck who saw you come here.” I headed for the steps and went straight to my room.
“Did you get a look at the tag number of the truck that shot Rob?” I looked at Sanai over my shoulder and scoffed.
“I was busy trying to shoot out their tires. I didn’t get a good look.” I tugged my shirt from my pants and began unbuttoning it from the neck down. “Whoever did that shit was a hitter.” I stared into her eyes and saw the uncertainty and unspoken words. I wanted to pull them from her brain one after the other like they were spools of thread. “They shot him right between the fucking eyes, Sanai.”
I sniffed back burning tears.
“He was full of life seconds before that…fuckingseconds!” My lips buckled under the pressure of trying not to drown in my grief.
“I know.” She flinched at my tone and took a timid step forward. She wasn’t wearing the dress from her date anymore. She was in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and her face had been scrubbed bare. The tip of her nose was red and so were the rims of her eyes. She’d been crying.
“I need to tell you something, Bakari, but I need you to trust me.” She spoke slowly with measured words like she was talking to a wild animal.
“Say what you gotta say, Sanai.” I finished unbuttoning my shirt and let it hang open. She wet her lips and stepped forward, reaching her hand out to place it flat against my chest.
“I found five kilos of coke in my mother’s private office today.” Her slender throat dipped when she swallowed. “Eli was there with me, and he had no idea where the hell it came from either. We went to our father, and he didn’t know about it. None of my siblings knew either.
I don’t think the takeover is coming from Junior. I think it’s coming from my mother.”
Ten
Istood in Bakari’s bedroom, the neutral-toned walls seeming to close in on me as he stared, disbelief peppering his handsome face. There were so many emotions and thoughts scrawled across his mahogany skin.
So many questions.
So much anger.
So much pain.
I had to talk faster because anger was becoming more prevalent than any other expression. His thick dark brows had crashed together on his forehead, creating a storm cloud over his face.
“After talking to Daniel tonight, I realized that he just wanted to take me out on a date. He doesn’t have anything extra going on. Him and Junior are doing what they always do. They’re pushing coke and pills. He even talked highly about you and your brothers. Told me that you specifically helped Junior even though he wouldn’t go into detail. I’m a good read on people and I didn’t read any insincerities from Daniel.
I started thinking about how adamant Mother was about me taking Junior out and how she fed me the story about them trying to destabilize the Temple. She never showed me any footage of talks between Junior and his men. She never let me hear any recorded phone calls. No pictures of meetings. Nothing. That’s not how things usually go when there’s a mission.” I wet my lips and clutched Bakari’s green satin shirt in my fist, hoping that he was listening with logic and not grief.
“I think I was just so excited that my mother asked me to personally handle a mission that I didn’t ask questions. Then I found out it was to help the Temple and I was all in.” I stopped rambling and chewed on the inside of my cheek, waiting to hear his response and praying he didn’t flip the hell out and kick me out of his house.
Finally, the long silence was broken. Bakari said, “And you expect me to believe you didn’t know anything about the coke or the bullshit-ass mission?” His voice was stone.
“I don’t know what I expect. I know you think I’m a snake, but I’d never go along with a plan to take the Temple down.” More silence. So much that it pressed down on our heads, suffocating me with each quiet second that ticked by.
“I believe you, Sanai.” His large hand curved around the back of my neck and I became undone with relief. My shoulders sagged immediately, and I felt a flood of tears pushing their way to my eyes and begging to skate down my hot cheeks. I was startled by my reaction to his trust and his touch but both things were like shelter to a refugee.
He pulled me into his strong arms and I felt weightless. His fingers dug into my sides and were the only things anchoring me from floating away.
“I needed you to believe me, Bakari,” I confessed quietly. “After everything you just went through, I want you to know you can trust everything I say to you. I don’t know exactly what the fuck my mother is doing but…”
“Sanai, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Not right now. I’m not okay.” Hearing the jagged break of his voice crushed me. I wrapped my arms around him so tightly I felt my heartbeat pulsing in my fingertips.
I wasn’t sure how or when we ended up on the bed but we laid there with his head on my stomach and my hands rubbing his shoulders until the soft sniffles stopped and the rhythmic breathing began. My phone vibrated in my pocket but I didn’t move to check it. I didn’t care what was going on.
