Chapter 6 Farrah
What the hell just happened? One minute, I was avoiding Mekhi Venzant and the next, he was on top of me, his hard body shielding me as bullets rained around us.
I was completely unprepared, both for the shooting and for the fact that Mekhi was the one who protected me.
He had never made any secret of the fact that he didn’t like me.
I didn’t know why—I’d never done anything to him.
He didn’t have to say a word, though. Just the way he looked at me—either with cold eyes or with a smirk like he was laughing at me—said all that needed to be said.
Even now, after he had probably saved my life, the cold eyes were back.
I buried my face in Kera’s shoulder to avoid his gaze.
He was probably regretting saving me right now.
“Hey,” Kera whispered. “Calm down, boo. We all right. We made it.”
“Deep breaths,” her Aunt Janine said, rubbing my back.
Following her advice, I sucked in some air and exhaled it slowly.
After a minute of that, I was calm enough to step out of Kera’s embrace and try to fix my clothes and hair.
I moved stiffly because it felt like I was hurting everywhere.
Mekhi had pushed me down hard. Probably on purpose, I thought, but that made me feel ungrateful.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured to them.
“Don’t be. I almost peed on my damn self!” Kera said.
I laughed at her silly ass before giving her another quick hug. I looked around the yard where people were starting to gather. I knew enough from TV to recognize that this was a crime scene, and we probably should preserve it.
“Should we… should we call the police?”
Aunt Janine shook her head. “Trust me. Either someone already has or them niggas don’t want you to.”
“But… if no one calls, how they gon’ find the guys who—”
“Mekhi and Seth gon’ handle it,” Kera cut me off.
I looked at her, but I knew better than to ask any questions.
I wasn’t sure of all the shit Mekhi and Seth did, and something told me it was safer not to know.
Kera linked her arm through mine and started pulling me in the direction of her brother and Mekhi.
People were already surrounding them. I stalled. Kera turned to look at me.
“Girl, you didn’t see the way Mekhi grabbed your ass and got you out of the way. I know you don’t like him, but you gotta thank him for saving your life, Farrah.”
I scoffed. “He called me a bitch.”
She frowned. “Really? He’s never come at me like that—”
Clearing my throat, I admitted the rest of the story. “I may have hit him and told him to get off me.”
“Farrah, why—”
“I was freaked out. I wanted to move and get away. I didn’t mean it,” I defended myself.
“Well, come on. You can apologize and say thank you.”
I let her drag me over to him. This close to him, I was reminded of why he always had me tongue-tied. Mekhi was damn near perfect.
“What you want us to do first?” I heard a guy named Luca ask him.
Before he could answer, Kera tapped him on the shoulder.
“Kera, now is not the time for any bullshit,” Seth warned her.
She waved him off. “Farrah got something she wanna say to Mekhi before y’all get busy.”
All eyes turned to me, and I swallowed. I wanted to turn and run, especially since Mekhi was basically glaring at me. But fuck that. I wasn’t a coward. I pulled myself up straight and met his frigid chocolate eyes.
“I just want to tell you thank you, Mekhi. You probably saved my life, and I apologize for the way I acted.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, before turning his head. “We need to look for the car,” he said to Luca.
I felt my face flame at the way he had just ignored me. I mean, I may have deserved it, but I wasn’t used to anyone being that rude.
“Excuse me. I was talking to you!” I snapped at him, yanking free of Kera’s hold.
He shrugged. “And I was talking to somebody else. Wait your turn, shorty.”
I gasped at his audacity. “Who do you—”
I stopped as he stepped away from his crew and into my face. “Look, your highness, I’m sure you used to the world revolving around your stuck-up ass, but I told you I was busy. Get the fuck away from here.”
My jaw dropped. No one had ever talked to me like that.
“Fuck you, Mekhi,” I hissed.
He looked me up and down before smirking. “No, thank you. Too much work for me.”
I was way past the point that insults about my weight bothered me but, for some reason, his words stung. I opened my mouth to tell his ass off, but Kera was pulling on me again, leading me away.
“See, that’s why I didn’t want to say anything!” I complained.
“You did the right thing. He just got other shit on his mind, Farrah.”
I wanted to tell her not to make excuses for him, but Kera damn near worshipped Mekhi. Anything negative I said about him was going to go in one ear and out the other.
“Can you just take me home?” I asked her.
She nodded, but it took us a minute to find the key fob she had dropped during the shooting. Finally, we were strapped into her Challenger. Before we could pull off, though, Seth was calling her name. She let down the window as he stalked toward the car.
“Fuck you think you going by yourself? You just got shot at!”
Kera sucked her teeth. “You know they weren’t shooting at me, Seth.”
“You’re my sister, Se’Kera. They might have been.”
Her eyes got wide like she’d never thought of that. I definitely hadn’t. Seth’s eyes moved to me.
“Farrah, I’ma get one of my niggas to take you home, okay?”
I nodded, climbing out of the car. I watched as Seth arranged for a guy named Steel to take me home.
Chancing another glance at Mekhi, I was surprised to find his eyes on me.
Stubbornly, I stared right back. Only the approaching sound of sirens took my attention away from him.
Ugh! I really didn’t want to deal with the police.
As if he could read my face, Mekhi turned to Steel and said, “Hurry up and get her ass out of here.”
Steel nodded once before taking off down the street.
I followed him, anxious to get away. He opened the door to an old school box Chevy for me, and I got in.
As he walked over to the driver’s side, I peeked out the back window.
Mekhi and Seth stood at the foot of the driveway as cars pulled up.
Two were patrol cars. The other two were unmarked.
For one minute, I felt bad for leaving them to face the music by themselves.
My hand was actually on the door handle when Steel got in. His eyebrow raised.
“Maybe I should—”
“They got it, shorty,” he cut me off.
I was still for a minute before finally nodding. They wanted to handle it. Who was I to stop them?