Chapter 9
Tammy
Elaine called me before Rico made it back.
Unknown number.
Damian reached for my phone.
I stepped away.
"No."
He looked at me like every protective instinct in him had stood up at once.
I answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
A woman breathed softly, then said, "Hello, Savannah."
The room went cold.
"My name is Tammy."
"That is what Evelyn wanted you to believe."
Damian stepped closer. I lifted my hand. Not yet.
"Elaine," I said.
"So you know me now."
"I know enough."
"No, baby. You know pieces."
Baby from her mouth made my skin crawl.
She told me to bring the queen, the flash drive, and the birth certificate to an old church on Halsted at midnight. Then she said the thing that opened another door inside me.
"Come if you want to know which mother is still alive."
I stopped breathing.
"My mother is dead."
"Evelyn is."
The call ended.
Rico said she was lying too fast. Too desperate.
Maybe she was.
Maybe she knew exactly which lie would pull us in.
Then the television in Maya's room turned on by itself.
Static cleared to Jalen tied to a chair, blood on his shirt, head hanging forward. Bishop's voice came through the speaker.
"Midnight, Tammy."
Jalen lifted his face barely enough to speak.
"Don't bring Damian. He wants him dead."
The screen went black.
Nobody said anything.
Because everybody understood the trap.
And everybody understood we were going anyway.
? ? ?
St. Agnes sat at the end of Halsted like God had moved out and left the keys with sinners.
Boarded windows. Stone steps. A bell tower with no bell.
Damian put an earpiece in my hand two blocks away.
"I know how an earpiece works," I said.
"Then put it in."
He checked the tracker sewn into my jacket, the mic, the small blade in my sleeve, and the gun at my waist.
"You done?"
"No."
"Damian."
He touched my face. "Now I am."
I walked to the church alone because I had to look like the kind of woman who came alone.
I was not alone.
That mattered.
The doors opened before I touched them.
Elaine stood near the altar in a cream coat, elegant as sin.
"Come in, baby."
"My name is Tammy."
"Your mothers were stubborn too."
Mothers.
Plural.
Before I could answer, the lights went out.
The doors slammed shut behind me.
My earpiece filled with static.
Then Elaine's voice came close enough to touch.
"Your father is here."
A man stepped from the front pew.
Tall. Lean. Dark coat. Eyes that looked familiar in a way I did not want.
He smiled.
"Hello, Savannah."
I lifted my gun.
"My name is Tammy."
"So I heard."
"Are you Bishop?"
"Some people call me that. Father would be accurate."
The church doors shook under Damian's first hit.
Bishop looked toward the sound and smiled.
"He really does love you."
"That should worry you."
"It does not. Love makes men useful."
"Then you have been around the wrong kind of love."
He threw a folded document at my feet. I did not bend for it.
"Proof," he said. "Your bloodline."
Then the doors burst open and Damian came through with Rico and Tone behind him.
For one second, all the lies in the room had witnesses.