Chapter 12
I had it all worked out in my head as I drove down that highway.
I was gonna pull up to Tatti’s aunt house, back in the same city I grew up in, the same streets that raised me and broke me before I left for good. I’d find a way to get Tatti out there to her aunts place, and make my move then. I was gonna use whoever I needed to use to make it happen.
I knew exactly how to get to her. I remembered how much she loved her aunt and how close they were all those years back.
I knew the exact buttons to push. I knew the people around her who’d fold under enough pressure.
This whole night had already gone off track so hard, one more wild move wasn’t about to change the trajectory of nothing.
My phone rang while I was still on that highway.
It was a call from Nisha’s phone.
I answered it fast, figuring it was Kaseem again, calling from her line the same way he’d called from Brit’s phone.
This nigga had to be trying to rattle me one more time before all this shit came to a head.
This whole ride, I had to convince myself not to think about my pregnant girl.
The thought of them taking out both of my kids mothers in the same day, this shit would make me lose my mind.
“Yeah, bitch?” I answered, my voice already hard, already ready for whatever threat was about to come through that speaker.
“Bitch? Nigga, you done lost yo damn mind.” Nisha’s voice snapped back at me, sharp and annoyed. “I missed your call cause I was taking a nap at my aunt’s house. I’m about to head home now.”
My whole body froze up for a second. My mind prepared itself for the bad news of my girl being dead. Hell, I had picture proof that these niggas were outside of her house hours ago. I expected nothing but the worse.
“Wait, Nisha,” I said, forcing myself to slow down, to think straight. “I’m sorry, baby. I thought you was somebody else. You not at home right now? When’s the last time you been there today?”
“Who else could I have been, Demon?” she snapped. “Yo dusty ass baby momma that you won’t stop fuckin? And I ain’t been home since around seven this morning. I been over here doing laundry since my dryer went out and they can’t send nobody to fix it till Tuesday. You forgot already?”
I exhaled hard, part of me wanting to curse her out for that weak ass attitude, but I knew better than to lose my head right now.
“Listen to me,” I said. “Stay right there at your aunt’s house. Don’t go home tonight. Matter fact, don’t go home till I tell you it’s cool to.”
“Nah, that’s not happening,” she said, getting an attitude right back. “I’m exhausted and I need to wash my ass. I’m finna leave here in a minute. Unless you got a real good reason for me not to.”
“The reason,” I said, my voice dropping cold and dead serious, “is that it’s niggas out here that want me dead, and they was just outside yo house not too long ago.
You smart mouth muthafucka! I thought they’d already got to yo ass when I tried calling and you ain’t answer.
So you can be a fool and not listen to me if you want to.
And keep talking slick, bet you gone end up a dead bitch, and I ain’t paying for no funeral behind yo hardheaded ass.
Sit the fuck down and don’t move.” I barked at her.
“Wait, what?” Her whole tone shifted instantly. “Okay, damn. Ima stay put, but—”
I hung up before she could finish, tossing that phone into the passenger seat, and kept driving.
Two hours later, I was pulling up outside Tatti’s aunt house, and it looked exactly the way I remembered it.
Same porch. Same faded paint on the old house.
Same crack running down the side of that driveway that had probably been there since before I even knew this family existed.
Hell, before they even moved into this house.
Seeing it brought back all kind of memories, good and bad, mixed up together. I’d vowed years ago I’d never come back this direction again, especially not after everything I’d gotten away with the last time I stood on this same street.
But here I was, driving right back into it, no plan at all, just the raw understanding that I needed to threaten somebody in this family with my gun and make them do exactly what the fuck I said so that I could get Tatti out here on some kind of emergency excuse.
I looked around the block twice before I got out that car, checking for anything that looked off, any sign somebody had followed me or was already watching.
Once I made it up to that door, I made sure my gun was tucked and concealed at my waist, and I put on a fake ass smile that ain’t have nothing real behind it before I knocked on the door a few times.
After a couple minutes, that door came open.
It was a little girl standing there. She looked to be around eight years old.
The second our eyes locked, something moved through my whole body, something I couldn’t name, something that hit me low in my chest and spread across my body fast before I could even process what it was. I knew this little girl, even though I had never seen her before.
“Hi,” she said, tilting her head at me, unbothered, unafraid. “Are you looking for someone? Or do you have the wrong house?”
I couldn’t get my mouth to work. Out of everything that could’ve possibly happened to me tonight, out of every twist this crazy ass day had already thrown at me, I was not prepared for this.
She looked just like Tatti, but with my eyebrows and my nose. I didn’t need to ask the question that my heart already knew the answer to. I was a father, and I knew my kids. I knew how my heart beat for them. What I was feeling now was the same feeling I got when I was around my son.
“Who’s your mom?” I finally managed to get out. “And where is she at right now?”
“Mommy!” the little girl yelled back into the house, still standing there in that doorway looking up at me curious.
A few seconds later, Tatti’s aunt came around the corner and stepped up behind her.
The second her eyes landed on my face, she froze completely, all the color draining out of her, looking at me like she was staring straight at a ghost standing on her own front porch.
And that right there told me everything I needed to know.
—
The little girl backed away from the doorway when Tatti’s aunt, Shantel came up behind her.
But, before that woman could get a single word out, I put my hand on my waist, letting the print of my gun show clear enough that she caught on immediately.
I walked past her into that house, forcing my way through without waiting on a fuckin invitation.
Anger and betrayal immediately filled me when I realized what was going on.
Her husband was sitting in that same recliner he use to be sitting in that summer that Tatti brought me over here and introduced us all them years ago.
This nigga was a lazy bum. Looked like he’d let himself go even more since I last laid eyes on him.
This nigga gut was hanging over his sweats, remote control resting on his stomach like the world outside that living room didn’t concern him at all.
His face was bruised up like somebody had just beat his ass recently too.
I guess his big, funky ass did get out that chair and leave the house at some point.
Shantel called out to Nariyah, told her to go on back to her room instead of being there in the living room with the rest of us.
I took note of her name and saved it in my memory.
I walked further inside like I owned the whole house, took a seat on their sofa directly across from Ron, and then I told Shantel to sit her ass down too.
“What the fuck do you want?” Ron said, sitting up straighter now, his voice trying for hard but coming out shaky underneath it.
His tone let me know that my presence irritated them.
That was only because these muthafuckas had a secret that belonged to me.
“What you doing here? You know showing yo face in these parts ain’t safe for you.
And we don’t need you making our shit hot, so you need to leave. ”
“You know, I do my research,” I said, keeping my voice level, calm, letting that calm sit heavier than yelling could’ve.
“I got a few detectives in my pocket too. That case been closed cold for years now. I ain’t never even been a suspect.
So I think I’m safe enough.” I leaned back into that sofa cushion.
“But we got bigger fish to fry right now. Tell me what’s going on with that little girl.
And think long and hard before you open your mouth to answer me with a lie.
You two know what I’m capable of, clearly.
And tonight, I’m not in the mood for games. ”
“What about her?” Shantel said, arms crossed tight over her chest. “That’s my child. She ain’t none of your concern.”
“See, let’s not start lying to me after I begged you not to,” I said, tilting my head at her. “It’s funny how your child looks a whole lot like me and Tatti put together. You don’t think that’s a little strange?”
“What you want, Demon?” Shantel said, and I noticed the way she said my street name instead of my government, like she was trying to remind herself exactly what kind of man she thought I was.
“That name says it all right there, don’t it.
Last thing you need to be worried about is raising a kid.
She’s out the question, and like I said, she’s ours!
What can we do to make you leave outta here? ”
“See, that’s where you got it wrong,” I said, my voice going colder now.
“Ain’t nothing in this world that’s gonna keep me away from what’s mine.
I came here tonight on a whole different mission, real talk.
But I think my plans just changed the second that little girl opened this door.
I need to take my daughter with me. And I don’t know why, nor do I give a fuck, why y’all had her in the first place. ”