I wasn’t trying to
Namier walked into my office and immediately I knew that something was up with him.
This nigga didn’t announce himself or anything.
Later, I’d make it my business to let him know that from now on, he needed to start knocking and calling first. I had a woman living here so the rules was finna change.
Now, I had to figure out what was going on with him. He looked….different.
"Aye," he said, but his mind clearly wasn't on business. "Who are those girls in your living room?"
I looked at my brother and was unable to control my face. Without him saying shit, I already knew what was going on now.
"That's Tatti's friends," I said. "They tracked her location outside the compound. I had them blindfolded and brought back here to keep down confusion and them from sniffing around our shit. I gave em an hour.”
"The one in the middle," Namier said. "The one with the—"
"Yeah," I said, cutting him off before he could finish that sentence. "That one. What about her?” I knew his type, so I immediately knew who he was talking about.
Namier sat down in the chair across from my desk and ran his hand over his face. "Man, I wasn't expecting that. She different and we only said a few words to each other.”
"I know what cha mean.” I said. And I did know. I'd seen it the second Namier walked in the room. The way his facial expression had changed into something I wasn’t used to seeing.
"I'm serious though," Namier said. "That girl is... I don't even know what that is. But it's something. Shit, what’s up with her?”
I leaned back in my chair. "One name is River, the other name is Nyla. I think you want Nyla. She's Tatti's best friend and that’s all I know. They came here thinking they friend had been kidnapped or some shit, so she's probably not in the headspace to be thinking about niggas."
“I mean, shid, technically she was kidnapped nigga.”
“Shut up and get yo mind off that. We got real shit going on around here. You need to be ready for the day after tomorrow.”
"I wasn't trying to—" Namier started, but I held up my hand.
"I know you weren't," I said. "But I'm just telling you. That situation ain’t the most important thing right now. So whatever you're feeling, whatever just happened in there, pump the brakes for a minute."
Namier nodded, but I could see him already thinking about when he could walk back in that living room and look at Nyla again. I hated when he had a girl, or somebody he fucked with. His tender ass lost focus. He wasn’t nothing like me and Zaire.
“Besides, it’s almost time for them to leave. I'm having them blindfolded and driven back out to where we picked them up."
Namier winced at that. "That rough?"
"Not rough. Just necessary," I said. "They can't know where this house is. You already know how I am. I just made sure Tatti got her hour to be with her girls and feel normal. Today we signed for our marriage license and I know that was hard for her to do. This is me being nice.”
He understood that. He'd seen what I was doing with Tatti — controlled but not cruel. Keeping her contained while giving her just enough freedom to breathe. It was the move.
But Nyla. Damn.
My brother was in trouble and he didn't even know it yet. The way they put their detective hats on, Namier wouldn’t be able to breathe wrong around a chick like that.
---
Later that night, after Nyla and River left, my brother went home too. I sat in the office after the compound had settled back down into quiet, going over numbers and just thinking about life.
I wasn’t husband, nor father material but I was expected to get married and have a child.
Who would raise the baby? What would I do when it’s time to care for it?
All this shit was hitting me and it made me think about Tatti having all her rights stripped from her and being forced to pay her father debt.
As fucked up as it was, she was my ticket to the life I wanted and she had to do what was required of her.
Being around her was making me feel some shit that I ain’t know I could feel.
She was different. Something made me wanna protect her at all cost. Even at the courthouse.
No, she wasn’t my bitch for real, but I wasn’t about to let a muthafucka disrespect her or make her feel a way.
Layla clearly saw that I was with someone and her ass blatantly disrespected that, so I had to get her back in line.
The look on Tattiana‘s face let me know that she respected that and appreciated me doing it. I had never been the type to lie, so I told her what the situation was in the past between me and Layla. I honestly didn’t think Tatti gave a damn.
She didn’t want me or this damn marriage.
Still. I had principles that I stood on.
I wrapped my work up for the night, then went in my room to take my shower.
While I was in my shower, all that I could think about was how I didn’t want to sleep alone after seeing what it felt like to sleep beside her.
She gave me a feeling that I couldn’t even explain if I wanted to.
But what man didn’t want something thick, fine and soft in the bed with him?
Once I dried off, I went into her room and asked if she wanted to sleep with me or if she wanted me to sleep with her.
Her ass jumped up so fast that my head was spinning.
I had to walk out the room first so that she wouldn’t catch me laughing.
This is what I was talking about. She gave me mixed feelings.
I let her get into the bed first, I turned on soft music, and lay behind her with my arms around her.
She didn’t stop me either, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
One thing I never did before was fell asleep before the woman.
This just felt comfortable to me. Like I had done it before and I knew damn well that I hadn’t. I barely even knew her.
—
I woke up before she did.
My body automatically woke me up at 7 every morning. My parents instilled in me that the early bird gets the worm. As a man, I was gone get that damn worm every time. Besides, it’s only 24 hours in a day, and only 12 to really get shit accomplished. I had to be productive.
I didn't move right away. Just laid there with my arm still around her waist, watching her sleep. Listening to her breathing patterns.
She was on her side facing away from me, her breathing deep and even, completely relaxed in a way I'd never seen her be while she’s awake. Her hair was all over the pillow. One arm was tucked under her head. The other was resting on top of mine where it had ended up sometime during the night.
I studied the side of her face for a long moment. The way her jaw wasn't tight anymore. The way her lips were slightly parted. The way she looked like she didn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders for once.
This woman had been forced into my life four days ago. Against her will. Scared out of her mind. And now she was sleeping in my bed like she belonged there. Like this was home.
I didn't move my arm. Didn't want to wake her. I just stayed there, watching her sleep, thinking about something I wasn't ready to even admit yet.
After a few minutes, I carefully slid my arm out from under hers and got out of bed. She stirred slightly but didn't wake up. I watched her for another second, then turned and walked out of the room.
---
I handled my hygiene, got dressed in all black — jeans, fitted shirt, black boots.
The kind of outfit that said I had business to handle.
Because I did. Today we had our own shipment being deliver and I needed to be at my desk, and by my phone to make sure everything went smoothly.
The shipment intercept was happening tomorrow.
I headed to my office and closed the door behind me.
My desk was organized the way I kept it. Phone. Computer. Papers stacked neatly. Everything had its place. Everything was controlled.
Except now there was her phone sitting on the corner of my desk.
I stared at it for a long time.
She'd left it here yesterday when her friends showed up.
I'd had forgotten to lock it back up. It had been sitting there ever since, just..
. there. Accessible. A few taps away from knowing exactly who she was for real, who she was communicating with, what was really going on in her head before all of this.
I sat down at my desk and tried to focus on work.
Pulled up my laptop. Started going through the shipment details, the warehouse locations, the men we had positioned.
Once my job was handled today, I was calling a meeting with our guys for what all was expected tomorrow.
Namier had given them niggas the run down, but they needed to look in my face, hear my voice and see how serious this shit really was.
I had expectations and I was about to make that shit clear.
This shit had to go smooth, and I had to send a clear message to them Brick niggas.
But my eyes kept moving back to that phone.
I told myself it was business. I needed to know if she was communicating with anybody outside the compound when she had phone privileges. Anybody other than who she needed to be. I needed to know if she was planning anything. I needed to know if there were any threats I wasn't aware of.
That was all bullshit.
I wanted to be nosey and get inside her head. I had never been a nigga to go through phones, but here I was trying to convince myself that this was different.
I picked up the phone.
Set it back down.
Picked it up again.