Chapter 4 #2
I could still remember the disgruntled facial expression that Mr. Luis wore when I told him I didn’t know how to shoot a gun.
If Sneaux would’ve needed my help that day, I couldn’t confidently say I would’ve been of much use.
But things were different now; if Sneaux took the front, I could handle the back.
We were sitting in the third row, and I was positioned behind the driver’s seat.
Without taking my eyes off Sneaux, I lifted the hand holding my small dagger and hurled it across the truck, aiming for the glove compartment.
It sliced cleanly through the narrow space between the driver and passenger seats, embedding itself in the exterior of the glove compartment with a sharp thud.
“Whoa!” Her driver shouted, and I knew from his tone he was glaring at us through the rearview mirror.
“Milani Harris?” Bill’s curious tone snatched my attention away from Sneaux.
He had been her personal security and driver since we were in middle school.
The fact that he still held that position was a true testament of how thorough Mr. Luis was when choosing the security detail for his only child.
“Hi Bill, long time no see,” I waved at him.
“Likewise, you know Sneaux never stopped looking for you. I’m happy she finally found you. Don’t get lost again,” Bill noted.
“Yeah, and don’t tell anybody else. I’ll be the one to make Milani’s presence known,” Sneaux requested, staring back at Bill through the rearview mirror.
“You got it,” he nodded, then glanced over to me. “I’m just happy to see that you’re okay after all of these years.”
“What makes you think I want my presence known to anyone? I have my own life to get back to,” I interrupted their conversation.
“Why do you want to play with me, Milani? This ain’t the same Sneaux from nine years ago.
I’ll be damned if I let you get away again.
I got you now,” she vehemently avowed to protect me.
“You showed up at my lounge, the random night I decided to pop up. The same lounge that I named while thinking of you. This was fate!”
“Was it also fate that I was put in harm’s way thanks to a member of the Black family for a second time?”
“What the fuck is your problem, Milani? What the fuck is up with you? You disappear then pop back up like ain’t shit happened. Like I didn’t ever mean shit to you,” Sneaux raged, pulling her phone out of her purse.
She clicked around to initiate a group FaceTime with Levi and Terrel.
“Yoooooooo!” Terrel yelled into the phone. He was in a strip club, and a thick, brown skinned woman slid down on the pole behind him.
“You better be having an emergency because I was asleep,” Levi’s groggy voice came through, but his background was pitch black.
“Who the fuck did you put on AC?” Sneaux interrogated.
The sound of my new fiancé’s name rolling off her tongue reminded me of my reality. My heart was with Sneaux, but that hadn’t gotten me anywhere in the past. Yet the Claytons promised protection and security, and they hadn’t let us down yet.
“Juno. Why?” Terrel answered.
My eyes and ears were locked in on the cousins’ conversation as Sneaux sat the phone in her lap and finger combed her locs up into a ponytail.
“Somebody just took a shot at me outside of the lounge. I can’t say for sure if it was AC because the shooter had a hoodie pulled low. I shot the nigga in the shin, but when I went to finish the job they were gone,” Sneaux detailed.
“Where the fuck you at? I’mma come out there. I knew I shouldn’t have let yo ass go out there,” Terrel ranted.
“Terrel, shut the fuck up. Since when do I ask you for permission to move?”
“Yeah, you right. I should’ve came out there though,” he paused for a moment. “Aye get the fuck up. I gotta slide,” he shoved a stripper off his lap, and she started going off on him.
“Fuck nigga you could’ve given me a second to get my shit together!”
“I love you too, Peaches,” he blew her a kiss before maneuvering through the strip club. He obnoxiously threw the rest of the money he had in his hands up in the air as he swaggered out. Still the same arrogant asshole I grew up with.
“Terrel, I’m already safely inside the armored truck headed back y’all way. You don’t have to make that drive. I’m good. If that changes, I’ll let you know.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Juno just texted me. It couldn’t have been AC that took that shot at you. He slid through some bitch house to get his dick wet then got on a plane with most of his army to head out of town for a bachelor party.”
“Alright. Bet,” she nodded, then hung up on them.
Sneaux’s jaw twitched as her head swiveled in my direction.
Sitting that close in the back of the black truck with Sneaux, nostalgia crashed into me like a forceful wave I couldn’t outrun, churning up old feelings that I had wrestled with since I landed in Florida.
Thoughts of distance that I’d drilled into my head were replaced by that aching thump between my legs that I always got when Sneaux was around.
She sat on the leather seats, calm and collected like we weren’t just in the middle of a shootout.
I wasn’t surprised, though. The last time I saw Sneaux, she dropped two bodies to ensure our safety.
Sneaux had already finger combed her locs back in place, allowing them to flow past her shoulders.
Her eyes drifted to me, low and steady, with her thick lashes blinking slowly and deliberately like she’d just had an epiphany.
I was staring right back, admiring the hoop and septum piercings that rested comfortably on her nose.
The dress she wore was tight enough for her nipple piercings to poke through the fabric. Yeah, a lot changed over the years.
Her makeup was flawless, and Sneaux’s full, glossed lips were outlined perfectly.
Sneaux’s lips always looked kissable before, and now flashes of me kissing the gloss and liner off were overpowering my thoughts.
Intricate art pieces also covered her warm brown skin now.
They climbed up her chest and left arm, wrapping around her neck.
I reached across the seat to grab her face, just to make sure the moment was real, but Sneaux grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer before I could feel the warmth of her soft skin against my fingertips. “You fucked him?”
“No,” I refuted, especially after hearing how she said AC was a whore. “I told you I don’t know him like that. It’s clearly an arranged marriage.”
“Well, who arranged it when your father is dead, and the last time I checked, the Harris family has been looking for you, too.”
“I bet,” I scoffed, finally pulling my wrist away from her.
Scooting further away from Sneaux, I peered out of the window, wondering what the hell would happen next. I had a million things going on, so seeing my paternal family hadn’t crossed my mind until Sneaux’s comments.
“Bill. Get on 75. I’m not staying out here tonight. Take me home.”
“Sneaux, I have to find Deja and get back home. You already said you think it was my fiancé that was shooting at you.”
“You ain’t going no fuckin’ where that I’m not going. And now that I’m calm, I don’t think it was AC. He wouldn’t have retreated and let his ex-fiancée ride off with me,” she smirked.
I took a deep breath and leaned my head up against the window watching the street lights as we passed by them.
After the day I had, there was no surprise that I fell asleep until I heard a truck door close and Sneaux’s voice on the phone.
The garage door was coming down, and I could only assume she sent Bill off because he was no longer in the front seat.
The last thing I remembered was leaning up against the window, but when my eyes popped open, my head was in Sneaux’s lap, and my body was curled up into hers.
“You up, Sonic?” Sneaux questioned. That was what she always called me when I took naps because I’d curl up into a ball when I slept if I wasn’t comfortably in my bed.
I smiled up at Sneaux, enjoying the feeling of her hands gently running through my hair until I heard what she was saying on the phone.
“My bad. I went back to my primary residence. The nigga that was shooting in the parking lot was likely shooting at me. I’m not sure who it was just yet, so I don’t want you at my spot by yourself.
Get a room somewhere, and I’ll shoot you the cash,” Sneaux explained before repeating okay a few times, saying I love you then finally disconnecting the call.
Jealousy consumed me as I lifted my head from her lap and pushed my limbs out of the ball I’d curled into.
“So you kidnap me just to be on the phone with your little girlfriend when I wake up?” I fumed, purposely bumping into Sneaux on my way out of the truck.
As soon as I assaulted her shoulder, I laughed to myself.
We were picking up right where we left off.
Nothing had changed between us. The angst I felt when someone else was encroaching on my territory was still there.
I stepped out of the truck and went to the front seat to retrieve my dagger that was still lodged in the glove compartment. I paused when my hand landed on the dagger because my ring was gone.
“Where is my ring?” I inquired, stuffing the dagger back into its secret place.
“I threw it out the window on the interstate.”
Rolling my eyes, I stormed towards the door to enter the house, but it was locked.
I’d spent enough time on the Black Family Estate that I knew the ins and outs of every property.
We were in the fourth house across from her late grandparents’ house.
Even if they’d remodeled, I was sure I could find my way to a shower.
Hell, anywhere was better than listening to Sneaux tell another bitch she loved them.
“What happened to all that shit you were talking? You had to get back to that nigga, right? Now you’re trying to beat me inside.” She mocked me before leaning over my shoulder to enter the code.