Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
A WEEK LATER
Rolani was twenty minutes early.
He parked near the front of the facility, cut the engine, and reclined the seat back. He’d been waiting for this day for almost two years and didn’t know what else to do with his hands now that it was here.
Robin, his baby brother, would be released today, two weeks ahead of schedule. He didn't know why it had him anxious. This was his brother, his right hand, the person he'd ride for without question. But two years locked up changed a man.
He wasn’t going to come home the same, and Rolani knew that. He prayed he could welcome him back easily. Help him readjust. Be there the way he’d always been there for him.
Robin had been sitting down for some bullshit Monshay engineered from inside a relationship that had been rotten since the jump.
Rolani had seen it coming. Had tried to tell Robin without telling him directly, the way you did when a man was in love and you knew the truth would only push him further in.
Robin hadn’t listened. Robin never listened when it came to Monshay, and it had cost him his freedom, his daughter’s childhood, and two years he wasn’t getting back.
“I hope the nigga learned his lesson,” he said to no one as he pulled up his playlist. Tee Grizzley’s First Day Out knocked through the speakers, bass vibrating through the truck, and he nodded his head to the beat until a call from Kennedi flashed across the screen.
He smiled despite himself and answered. “Hey, baby.”
“Did you get him?” Her voice was bright, already excited.
“Not yet. Still waiting.” He leaned back further. “I think you may be more excited than I am.”
“Because I am. We’re basically besties.”
He laughed. “Besties, huh?”
“Yup. He’s a good person who got caught up in some bad ish. I can tell.” She paused. “You do what I asked you?”
“Yes, baby daddy.” He could hear her moving around in the background. “Dr. Khalifa said she’ll call you this afternoon.”
“Aight. The last of your stuff made it over?”
“The movers just left. Your place is officially our place.” A beat. “And the apartment is ready for Robin. The lease is already transferred. He can walk in and breathe.”
He shook his head slowly. This woman. She’d set this into motion without him even asking. Just cleared out her place and handed it over so his brother had somewhere to land and some privacy to get his shit together.
“You didn’t have to do that, Ken.”
“I know. But I wanted to. Monroe needs stability.” A beat. “Now go get your brother. Call me when y’all leave.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He set the phone down and sat with it for a moment. Robin was coming home. Kennedi had moved in. Monroe was thriving. The baby was due in a few months. Life was moving fast, but for the first time in years, it felt like it was moving right.
His phone buzzed. A text from the facility.
Release processed. Robin Pracher is ready for pickup.
Rolani’s heart jumped. He sat up and turned the music back up, letting it knock while he waited.
A few minutes later, the doors opened.
Robin stepped out into the sunlight, and Rolani felt his stomach drop to his feet.
He looked different. Bigger, harder around the edges. His locs were longer, pulled back in a ponytail. The beard was fuller. But it was the eyes that got Rolani, like Robin had learned to look at everything twice before deciding it was safe.
Hazel eyes scanned the parking lot. When he spotted the Silverado, he stopped walking. One second, maybe two. Then the grin came, wide and genuine, the brother Rolani grew up with showing his face for the first time since he stepped out those doors.
Rolani was out of the truck before he realized he’d moved.
They met in the middle, arms wrapping tight, holding on. No words needed.
“Missed you, man.” Robin’s voice was thick.
“Missed you too, li’l bro.” Rolani pulled back and gripped him by the shoulders, looking him over the way you looked at someone you needed to confirm was real and standing in front of you. Then his eyes dropped to the clothes.
Robin was standing in the same fit he’d been wearing the day Rolani got that call.
He’d been at the first SLV location showing Grim around when his phone blew up.
He remembered driving to Luther’s with his heart already hammering, remembered seeing Robin being walked out in his chef coat — that white coat he wore every time he worked — looking confused and small in a way Rolani had never seen his brother look before.
He’d stood in that parking lot and become a father, a lawyer, and a fixer all at once because that’s what the moment required.
Robin hadn’t seen any of that. Hadn’t seen Rolani hold Monroe while she went stone silent for a week.
Hadn’t seen Rolani drive home that night and sit in his car for thirty minutes before going inside because he didn’t know how to walk through a door without his brother somewhere in the world being okay.
Two years of that. Two years of carrying what Robin couldn’t see from inside.
He wasn’t going to say any of it. Not today.
“You good?”
“I’m free. So yeah, I’m good.” Robin laughed, shaking his head. “Man, I can’t believe this shit. I’m really out.”
“Come on,” Rolani said. “I have something for you before we do anything else.”
Robin climbed into the truck and immediately leaned back, eyes closing for a moment, letting the leather seat hold him. Rolani pulled out of the lot without a word, turned First Day Out back up, and let it play.
Robin rolled the window down and stuck his arm out. “Yo, this feels crazy. Like, I forgot what real wind felt like. Not that stale air in there. Musty ass niggas.”
“Take your time with it.”
Rolani got on the highway and let Robin exist for a few miles. No questions, no conversation. The music, the open road, his brother breathing free air. He was still wrapping his head around that.
After a while, Robin spoke. “So what you got planned? Party? Strippers? Food? Shopping?”
“Nah, not yet, and hell no on the strippers. Ken ain’t playing that.” Rolani glanced at him. “I got a surprise for you. And then I’ll take you to the first place you wanted to go.”
Robin went quiet. The playfulness faded from his face, eyes moving back to the window. “I hate that I didn’t get to say goodbye. That’s always gonna fuck with me.”
“You can now. We do this, and then we party and kick it.”
Rolani turned the music back up, and they drove in silence. The mood shifted, but not heavily. Brothers together again, leaving the past behind.
“Bro, thank you,” Robin said finally, voice quiet, looking straight ahead.
“Don’t start that shit. No thanks needed. You my family. If not me, who?”
“I hear you. But accept your flowers, nigga. I appreciate you for stepping up for Monroe, handling my business, all of it. You looked out. If you ever need anything from me, don’t hesitate. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Aight. Just stay out of the way. We got moves and money to make. Lots of money, nigga.”
“And a nigga about to be an uncle.”
“Definitely that. I need you here for that because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“Aight, sap ass nigga. Why my bestie ain’t come?”
“Because she’s slick. But you’ll see.”
They drove for a while before Robin noticed they weren’t heading toward the house. “Where we going?”
“Kennedi’s old apartment.”
Robin looked at him. “What for?”
“So you can shower and shit at your own spot.”
Robin didn’t say anything for a beat. He looked out the window, jaw working. “What you mean my own spot, Ro?”
“Ken moved in with me, so you’d have somewhere to lay your head, spend time with Monroe.” Rolani kept his eyes on the road. “And I got you some things. Yo big swole ass can’t fit shit from two years ago.”
“Ro.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m just saying—”
“I said don’t.” His voice wasn’t hard. “You’re home. That’s it. Let me…us do this.”
Robin nodded and went quiet.
The apartment was exactly how Kennedi had left it — clean, furnished, ready. Rolani had dropped off two bags the night before. New everything. Jeans, shirts, sweats, fresh kicks, toiletries lined up on the bathroom counter.
He unlocked the door and stepped back to let Robin in first.
Robin walked through slowly, taking it in. His hand trailed along the back of the couch. He looked at the light coming in through the kitchen window. He looked at the bags on the couch and stood there for a moment before turning around.
“This is why she is my bestie. Don’t fuck this up, Rolani. We fuck with Ken.”
“Nigga, please. Go wash yo ass, moisturize, and get fresh. Notice how minding my business was nowhere in that.”
“Yeah, aight, you heard what I said.”
Robin looked at the bags again. “Give me twenty minutes.”
“Take thirty.”
Rolani stepped outside and leaned against the truck’s hood. The sun was out, the neighborhood quiet, nothing to do but wait. He pulled out his phone, scrolled without seeing anything, and put it back.
He thought about Pearl. About her not making it long enough to see this day, and how that was the part he still hadn’t fully put down.
He wondered sometimes if the heartbreak of Robin going in had taken something out of her that she couldn’t get back.
He’d never say that out loud. But he thought it, and thinking it made him angrier at Monshay than anything else she’d ever done.
He hadn’t acted on his need for blood because he cared about Monroe; that was the only reason he wasn’t playing reaper.
Thirty minutes later, the door opened, and Robin stepped out looking like himself.
Fresh clothes, locs tied back, standing taller than he had in that parking lot.
The guardedness in his eyes was still there — that wasn't going to leave in a shower — but underneath it, Robin was still in there. The one who remembered who he was.
Rolani looked at him and nodded once.
Robin looked back and nodded.
That was enough.
They went to Pearl’s grave after that. Rolani waited by the truck, giving his brother the space that moment required. Robin was gone longer than expected. When he came back, his eyes were red, but his shoulders were down in a way they hadn’t been all day.
They drove to Rolani’s, making small talk and catching up.
“You ready for this?” Rolani asked as they got closer to his place, where Monroe was waiting on pins and needles.
“Hell yeah, it’s been two years since I laid eyes on my baby.”
“She barely got any sleep last night.”
When they pulled up, Monroe was sitting on the front steps with her backpack still on, like she’d gotten home from school and hadn’t been able to make herself go inside. She’d known he was coming home today. Rolani had told her that morning.
She saw the truck and stood up slow.
Robin got out first. Monroe looked at him for a second, like she was making sure he was real.
Two years of phone calls and Robin’s voice telling her he was fine when she knew he wasn’t.
Two years of growing up without him in the house, no visits because he couldn’t stand for her to see him like that.
“Daddy.” It came out high and cracked, not the composed teenager she’d been performing all day, just his little girl.
She crossed the yard fast and ran straight into his arms. Robin caught her before she even reached him, pulling her in, one hand cradling the back of her head, his eyes squeezing shut.
He held on like he was making up for every day at once.
He said something into her hair that Rolani couldn’t hear. Monroe nodded against his chest, her shoulders shaking.
Rolani stepped out of the truck and let them have their moment.
“Ken, baby, I’m home.”
Inside, Kennedi had the house smelling like Luther’s. Robin deserved his own restaurant’s food on his first day home, and nobody was going to argue with that logic. So, he let her have it.
“Did he like the place?”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. “He loved it. Nigga tried to threaten me to not fuck this up.”
“I hope you listened.”
“You happy, Ken?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Me too.”
She turned in his arms and kissed him until they heard a throat clear behind them.
Robin stood in the doorway with Monroe tucked under his arm. Neither of them said anything at first.
“Told you they were hugged up,” Monroe said with her hand out.
Robin groaned and slapped twenty dollars into her palm.
But something settled over his face that looked a lot like relief.
In all the years Robin had known his brother, Rolani had never had anyone he looked at like that.
Never had anyone to come home to, anyone who took care of him the way Kennedi clearly did. His brother was in good hands.
“Bruh, really. Y’all tonguing each other down over the food.”
“My bad,” Rolani said, not sorry at all.
Robin looked past him directly at Kennedi. “Sup, bestie.”
Kennedi stepped around Rolani and opened her arms. “Finally.”
Robin hugged her and looked at his brother over her shoulder. “I like her.”
“Yeah, aight,” Rolani said.
The evening settled into a relaxed mood after that. Dre showed up and got Robin straight with a lineup. Robin went into the kitchen after dinner anyway because he couldn’t help himself, cooking something small to see if he still had it.
Later, when the house had gone quiet and Monroe and Robin had gone home to their own place for the first time, Rolani sat on the couch with Kennedi curled into his side, her hand over his on her stomach, RJ moving because he loved showing off for his dad.
He wouldn’t trade this for anything.