Chapter 5
“Mi, our flight leaves out in three fucking hours. Where are you?”
“I’m on my way, Tray! Damn. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I ended the call without saying goodbye. Mi’Junae was on my last fucking nerve. I knew I was the problem though. I gave her ass way too much freedom. That was simply because I was so fucking busy. She was nineteen, but everyone thought she was older because of how freely she moved. That was dangerous for her. I didn’t know what to do to stop it at this point. She was a grown woman.
Her mind wasn’t mature enough to handle shit though. She was spoiled, and it was my fault. I gave her access to too much too early. At this point, I could take money away from her, but she would still find someone else to fund her activities. That would only make shit worse. She was very irresponsible and took everything like it was a joke. That shit irritated me to no end. All I could do was pray for her and hope God was hearing me.
I sent a text to Kamari, simply saying good morning an hour ago, but she was probably sleeping in. She got home late last night. Although she left LA early, she chilled out with her friends for their last day off and didn’t make it home until early this morning. She’d made time to talk to me for an hour though. I appreciated that.
I couldn’t believe I revealed so much of myself to her at once. It was like I was an open book. Had she had more time, we would have talked for hours. I ordered some flowers yesterday to be delivered to her today. I had to get my manager to go through her manager to get her home address. I wanted to pop up on her in Lafayette, but I didn’t want to have her side-eyeing me.
After I got my shit to the door, Mi’Junae came in looking high as hell. Before I could stop myself, I jacked her ass against the wall. “Mi! What the fuck? This what the fuck we do now? What’chu on?”
“Chill out, bruh! I just smoked weed.”
“You sure? How much did you smoke?”
“Just one joint! Why you tripping?”
“Because we have to get on a fucking flight! We need to be out of here and at the airport in an hour!”
There was no way we were going to make it on time. I was going to have to get our flight rescheduled. She had better be glad I didn’t have anything coming up that I needed to get out of here for. I walked away from her, and she went to the bathroom. When I heard the shower start, I really wanted to go in there and fuck her lil ass up.
I called my manager to tell him of my dilemma. “Is there a flight for later today?”
“Yeah, but I can assure you that you don’t want that shit. I don’t know why you didn’t fly privately. The earliest I see is tomorrow morning. So you gon’ have to get another night where you are.”
“Fuck!”
“Oh, and umm… your sister is all over the internet.”
I closed my eyes. “Tell me.”
“It’s a sex video.”
“I’ma kill her ass.”
“It may be a case for rape though, man. She is clearly high as fuck in the video. You can’t see who the man is in the video, but you can clearly see her face.”
“She in there taking a fucking shower, so we’ll never know. Man, shit! Call me back with the details. I gotta go.”
I ended the call and stepped into the hallway to try to calm down. If Mi was drugged, I was never letting her out of my sight again. If she couldn’t come with me, one of my guards would be babysitting her ass. She was too trusting of niggas. If it was that FAAFO nigga, I would be going to jail. I wouldn’t stop until my hands were wrapped around his fucking neck.
As I paced back and forth, my phone chimed. I lifted it to see a message from Kamari. I stopped pacing, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to calm down for a moment. I unlocked my phone and entered our thread to see her message.
Good morning! You are probably at the airport by now. Be careful! Call me when you land and get situated.
Instead of waiting, I called her now. When she answered, I could hear that she’d just woken up. Her voice was significantly lower, and it was raspy. “Hello?”
“Good morning, beautiful. My flight had to get changed. I won’t leave until tomorrow.”
“Oh wow. Did your flight get canceled?”
“No. Mi’Junae got into some shit that I’m still trying to figure out. She’s high as hell right now. I’m gonna have to wait for her to sober up before I can find out though.”
“Oh my goodness. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. So I’ll be in this room all day with her… fighting, I’m sure. She swears she’s grown, but she’s hella irresponsible. I know that shit is my fault, but damn.”
“You did the best you could raising her. Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, and you got thrown into it with a teenager, not a newborn. So that’s not your fault. I never asked, but I didn’t want to pry.”
“What’s that?”
“Is your father around?”
“Mm hmm. He and my mama divorced when I was eighteen. My mama died four years later. Mi was only thirteen, about to be fourteen when she died. When they divorced, it was like he divorced us too, but I halfway expected him to step up when she died. He didn’t.”
I closed my eyes and slid to the floor, resting against the wall. I didn’t want to go back inside with Mi just yet. Kamari was helping me calm down and didn’t have a clue. I could only imagine the media that would be waiting on us to leave this fucking hotel. Mi had really fucked up this time. I tried to convince myself not to blame her, but that shit was hard to do, especially when I warned her about that nigga.
I didn’t want to see that video, but I needed to see if I could identify anybody if Mi didn’t remember anything when she sobered up. The phone line was quiet for a moment, then Kamari said, “I can tell you’re stressed. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I wish there was. I’d take that deal with the quickness. I just want you to know I enjoyed every minute I was able to spend with you. I know I said it yesterday, but I needed to reiterate that. I can’t wait to see you again.”
“I can’t wait to see you either.”
“I have to go, baby. I’ll call you back later. Okay?”
“Okay. Try to remain calm when you talk to her.”
“Yeah. I’m gon’ try.”
“Okay. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
I ended the call and stood from the floor to go back inside. When I opened the door, Mi was seated on the couch in a terrycloth robe, staring at her phone. She looked sober as hell. I supposed she took a cold shower. She looked up at me, and when I saw the tears in her eyes, the anger dissipated. “Tray, what did I do? I’m so fucking sorry.”
I made my way to her and sat, easing my arm around her shoulders. “Don’t cry, Mi. Do you remember anything that happened?”
She glanced at me and nodded. “I remember everything. It was like I couldn’t stop what was happening. I couldn’t control it. I smoked a joint, but I’ve never been that high from one spliff.”
“Who was it?”
Before she could respond, she broke down in tears. That gave me the answer I needed. FAAFO had done this shit to my sister. These industry niggas thought they were above the fucking law. I stood from my seat and started pacing. I wanted to find that nigga ASAP. He violated my sister, and the price of that could be one of two things: prison time or death… for me and him.
“Tray, I’m so sorry. I should have listened. I should’ve just stayed with you. It wasn’t FAAFO in the video, but he was there.”
I stopped pacing and looked over at her. “What’chu mean?”
“He had sex with me, but then he invited someone else, and he recorded it. I’m so embarrassed.”
“Who gave you the joint?”
“FAAFO.”
“I’m tired of calling that muthafucka that. What’s his real name?”
“Aaron. Aaron Hawkins.”
“You best believe he gon’ pay for this shit. We need to get you examined. I know you took a shower, but we still need to find out what’s in your system besides THC. They also need to do a rape kit, just in case they can find something.”
“I don’t think they will. He strapped up. I can remember both of them putting a condom on. I’ll do it though.”
I nodded then had her go get dressed while I called the hotel’s front desk to request another night. Because it was me, they left the room open for the rest of the week in case I needed it. Fame was something else. It came with all kinds of perks, whether they were deserved or not, but it also came with preferential treatment when it came to the law.
I started searching the internet for where this nigga was headed. Luckily for him, he had a concert in London this week. So I was pretty sure he was about to hop a flight, if he hadn’t already. After making sure I had the shit I needed, I called my security detail to make sure my car was ready. After he informed me that it was out front with plenty of media around it, I ended the call. I was fuming. Before I could sit with my thoughts for too long, Mi’Junae came out with sweats and a T-shirt on.
That only made me think about Kamari and how she showed up to the studio last night. Even in less revealing clothes, she was fine as hell. I just wanted to be around her at all times, but this shit here was taking precedence over everything. I had to make sure my sister was okay and implement some changes in how we proceeded from here.
I grabbed her hand, and when I opened the door, Jerome was standing there, waiting to escort us down. We got to the elevator, and Mi stood close to me, nearly burying herself under my arm. Being that she was small, that was easy for her to do. When the doors opened, we walked on. I pulled her even tighter to me, knowing the vultures would be waiting.
“Don’t let me go, Mi. Keep your head down, baby.”
My anger was dissipating by the second. All I could think about was how she felt in this moment. I wanted to shield her from everything. As an adult, I needed her to make wiser decisions though. The doors opened, and just as I figured, the media was waiting for us. Security guards, who were waiting in the lobby, surrounded us and led us to the car outside.
This was a fucking shit storm. Questions were being hurled one after the other, and it was hard to not answer them. They were asking everything from who she was having sex with to if FAAFO had anything to do with it. I wanted to respond and say that he had every fucking thing to do with it. Clearly, someone had associated Mi’Junae with me for the press to be tracking us down. It didn’t take much, though, since she was everywhere I went.
Once we finally got inside the car and pulled off, Mi lifted her head from my chest. Her tears always crippled me. I wanted to fuss at her, but I knew it wasn’t the time for that. She needed my sensitive side, and that was what she was going to get right now.