Zaria
“Z! Wait up!” June called out.
Seeing my baby go off on her own tugged at me more than it did when we dropped her off in Covana.
Samara coming into our lives had a big effect on me, one I didn’t think would happen.
She grew on me so much that no one could tell me that wasn’t my child.
However, the truth was she wasn’t. Although she didn’t love June or me any less, it was still her choice whether she wanted to return to her handpicked family.
My fear was her birth mother’s hold on her. Something about the lady was off, and it wasn’t that she was in a cult. It was merely her trying to step in now that someone else was doing all the things she didn’t do.
By the time June caught up with me, I had made it back to the car. He grabbed my arm, turning me to him. “Damn, Z, you could have said goodbye.”
A tear trickled down my cheek. “I know, but June, I don’t want her to go,” I sobbed. “It doesn’t feel right.”
He pulled me into his arms, giving Peace time to play in my hair. “I know, but we cannot hold her hostage. She’s grown, and she needs space. Dio got it under control. She’ll be tracked,” he muttered.
Tracked? My head lifted as I glanced at him. “He has a tracker on her?”
I could tell he knew he fucked up when he said it, but the bigger part of me felt a little relief. That was when it clicked. “Wait, how is he tracking her, June?”
“Shit,” he mumbled.
He looked down at me, then at my necklace.
The very same necklace he had Dio give me on Christmas.
The same necklace I had snatched off my neck on more than one occasion, thinking it just meant a lot to him, so taking it off was a way for me to strip June out of my life.
This nigga put a tracker on me, and Dio followed behind him.
I shook my head. “Let’s go,” I hissed.
“Z, listen to—”
“Nigga, I said let’s go!” I snapped.
We placed the boys in their car seats, then got in. Before June started the car, he turned to me.
“Zaria, chill yo ass out. That tracker has been around your neck for over a year. Yo ass kept getting snatched up, so I did what needed to be done. I can’t even tell you the last time I looked at that muhfucka. Relax.”
“Since you and Dio want to be on some sneaky shit, y’all better keep track of my baby. Otherwise, my foot is going in both y’all’s asses.”
He burst out laughing. “Oh, so you’re the big bad wolf now?”
“I’m whatever you want me to be. I just know what I feel, and something isn’t right.”
He rubbed my leg. “She’ll be fine. We have a dinner date with Bishop and Indigo. You down?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I muttered.
At this point, my instincts were on high alert. I trusted nobody outside my tribe, and everyone was guilty until proven innocent, but in the meantime, I wanted to know more about Samara’s birth mother because the bitch was off and I didn’t trust her.