Chapter 27
Darius
“What’s wrong with you?” I bark, having had enough of Tariq’s bouncing up and down from the couch, snorting more coke than usual, and not meeting my eyes.
“N-nothing, man. I’m fine.”
Meeting Jermaine’s eye, he’s just as concerned as I am and slides his gaze back to our friend.
“Where’s your girl?” Jermaine asks him.
“She’s… gone to see her dad. He’s in town and…”
He’s lying and we all know it. He disappears into the kitchen and Jermaine shakes his head in despair.
Tariq’s been losing his edge for months now.
I’d like to say it’s because of Clare but I personally feel like they’re as bad as each other.
They bring out the worst in each other and they get off on it.
My phone vibrates across the table, and I contemplate ignoring it when Mr. Haynes’ name fills the screen.
“Why would the father-in-law be calling you?”
“He’s not my father-in-law,” I grind out, then more softly, “Let’s find out.”
Hitting answer, I press the phone to my ear, and I finally find out what it’s like to have your world stop with just a few words.
“Darius?”
“Yeah?”
“I need you to come watch Elsa-Marie.” I’m on my feet before he continues, “Amelia’s been arrested, something to do with drugs, I don’t know, I couldn’t understand her through the crying.”
“I’m leaving now.”
I hang up and race through to the kitchen, finding Tariq sat at the table, head in his hands.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Lifting his head, his eyes meet mine and I see he knows he’s fucked up tonight.
“Why would have Amelia been picked up on drug charges?” I snap.
His brows pull together in a deep frown.
“I have no idea…”
“Did you and that bitch make the drop off?”
He drops his eyes from mine and my stomach drops just as hard. The fucker knows something, but I don’t have the time to fuck about ripping answers from him.
Turning to Jermaine, I instruct, “Do whatever you’ve gotta do to get what he knows from him.”
“With pleasure.”
I’ve never been one to overreact to situations, ones I have the details about and the ones I don’t know much about.
Losing your shit never helps, it’s much better to approach it with a clear head.
Tariq knows something and if he’s the reason Amelia is now in police custody, I’ll put him down with my own hands.
Mr. Haynes is pacing outside his house and storms over and throws open my door the moment I arrive.
“Do you know anything about this?”
“I assure you, Mr. Haynes, I know nothing.”
But I’m hoping that shit changes within the next hour.
“Well, I’ll get going. Elsa is asleep in Amelia’s room.” He hands me the monitor in his hand and leaves without another word.
I close the door behind me and head up to Amelia’s room. I check on Elsa-Marie and she’s sound asleep and resting peacefully.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pull out my phone and stare at the screen waiting for someone to call.
It’s twenty more minutes before Jermaine hits me up and I answer on the first ring.
“Tell me you got something out of him.”
“He’s a little banged up, but he eventually talked. He never made the drop, he and that bitch got into it, and she ran off with the product.”
Fuck me.
“She must’ve called your lamb for a ride. I also called Benson.”
Officer Benson is our bitch, not needing much money to bend to our will. He’s more into coke and pussy and as long as we provide, he pulls through.
“Yeah, what does he know?”
“He looked into it and Amelia’s been arrested on drug charges. She made her call to her father, which you knew that.”
“What about Clare?”
“The only thing he could find out was that she’s in the middle of giving a statement. She’s putting it all on Amelia.”
Clenching my fist, I inhale as deeply as I can and roll the tension out of my neck.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Have Tariq pick her up, act normal, don’t ask many questions and let her think nothing is out of place. For now, we see where this leads. You take him to pick her ass up and then don’t let them out of your sight.”
“You got it.”
I can’t do anything sitting around here. “I’m gonna come back, I’ll meet you at Tariq’s.”
I hang up and get a bag ready with everything Elsa-Marie will need and settle her into her car seat. I send Mr. Haynes a text letting him know I’m taking Elsa to my house.
I don’t hang around for a reply and set off. There are more cops on the streets tonight and I’ve got a bad feeling and I don’t like it when I have a bad feeling.
Handing Elsa over to my mom, I tell her to keep the doors locked and head down the street to Tariq’s.
As I approach, Jermaine’s car rolls up and I slow my pace.
My body thrums with violent desire to pull out my gun and ram it down her throat.
There’s no excuse for turning on your friend, someone you used to claim was your best friend.
Once your mouth opens, there’s no going back.
There’s no chance of redeeming yourself.
It becomes who you are and there’s only one way to deal with people who run their mouths and don’t deserve the air we breathe.
She jumps out of the car, and for a few moments I see she hasn’t got a care in the world, she isn’t worried or concerned.
When she sets eyes on me, her entire demeanour changes.
She starts stepping back, she fucking knows I know.
She manages five steps before Jermaine comes up behind her and she bumps into him with a yelp.
“Where’re you going, Clare?” I ask.
Tariq climbs out of the car and looks between her and me and recognition hits him like a sucker punch to the jaw.
He knows there’s only one way this ends.
“Take her inside,” I instruct Jermaine and ignore Tariq as he jogs over and walks beside me into the house.
“You know I can’t let you hurt her, Dar.”
“And you know, there’s not a fucking thing you can do to stop me.”
He’s tripping if he thinks he gets a say. He knows the rules, unspoken and the ones that are spoken the loudest.
Slamming the door open, Jermaine has already thrown Clare down on the couch. He stands blocking the kitchen doorway and I remain by the end of the couch blocking her way to the front door.
Tariq drops down beside her, throwing his arm around her and she’s all too happy to shrink in beside him as if he can protect her.
At this point, I’d happily rip his head off just to get to her.
“I want the truth,” I say calmly, “What happened?”
Tariq squeezes her deeper into him, letting her know he’s here for her and it irritates me to no end.
“Talk,” I bark out.
“Me and Tar had a fight, when he stopped at the stop light, I got out and left. I wasn’t thinking and kept running, I didn’t realise I was still holding the bag until I got to Dolly’s Diner and that’s when I called Amelia.”
“You haven’t bothered with her in months. With what you were holding, you could’ve called any one of us. Why call her?”
“Because she wasn’t any one of you. I’m not stupid…”
“That’s debatable. Now get to the part where you fucking ratted on the mother of my kid.”
“The cops came up behind us, I told her to keep going but she pulled over.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes. As if someone like Amelia would take the cops on a fucking car chase through the city. This girl truly is pathetic.
“The cop kept asking questions, and then he asked us to get out of the car and that’s when I panicked. Before I knew what I was saying, I was…”
She doesn’t finish but we all know the rest of the story. Her tears come thick and fast, and Tariq hugs her real close. Every tear that streams down her face is another tear that’s fake as fuck.
“In what fucking world did you think you would get away with this?” I bellow.
“Her dad is one of the wealthiest men in this city, he’ll get her out of this and make this all go away.”
“Are you actually trying to justify your actions with some bullshit about her daddy to my face!”
“She’s not from here, Dar, it’s not out of the ordinary for her to believe their daddies can fix this for them.”
I don’t even grace Tariq with a reply or even a glare. He cannot be supporting her and adding to her justifications.
“She’s been around here long enough to know the rules. That shit doesn’t wash here,” Jermaine pipes in.
I’ve never hit a woman, never thought I’d even want to, but the urge to tear Tariq away from her and smash my fist into her hallow sunken face takes over and the only reason I hold back is because my phone rings and it’s Mr. Haynes.
“Please tell me you’ve gotten her out of there.”
“No, unfortunately not. Because of the amount of cocaine found in the car, they’re not releasing her. She’s up in front of the judge in the morning, I’ve got the best lawyer here and they’ll get her bail first thing and then we’ll fight this from home.”
“Sounds like a plan.” The only one we have so far. “I’ll keep Elsa with me so you can focus on Amelia.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, she’s sleeping.”
“Okay. I’ll call when I know more.”
Before he can hang up, I ask, “Did you get to see her? Is she okay?”
“I did for a couple of minutes, she’s scared. I don’t know how she would handle it if she’s not home tomorrow.”
I can’t figure out what to say to that and I don’t need to, he ends the call and I focus on Clare.
“If this doesn’t end well, you’re done.”
It’s not a threat, or even a violently veiled promise, it’s what’s going to happen.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she shrieks.
“It means… you are done.” I move slowly and lean over Tariq to get in her face. “It means, if Amelia isn’t home by lunch tomorrow holding my daughter in her arms, I take my gun and shove it up your ass and pull the trigger.”
Her eyes cut to Tariq, but I move into her line of sight.
“He won’t be able to help you.”
Standing tall, I take a deep breath and dig my teeth into my bottom lip. Turning to Jermaine, I order, “Find out who we have on the inside just in case.”
He nods once and walks out to sit on the porch. Stepping out with him, I pull the door closed behind me.
“Don’t let them leave, neither of them.”
“I’ve got ya.”