CHAPTER FIVE
KAI
Keem was twenty-four and sweating before he sat down.
That didn’t make him guilty.
It did make him terrible at hiding nerves.
Kai chose a booth near the back of the diner where he could see the front door and the reflection of the side entrance in the pie case. Dez sat beside him. Nola took the chair across from Kai before he could suggest anywhere else.
Of course she did.
Keem slid into the remaining seat.
“I ain’t steal no money.”
Kai rested his forearms on the table. “Nobody asked yet.”
“Rome called me talking crazy.”
Nola’s eyes flicked to Kai.
Kai filed that away.
“What’d he ask?”
“If I helped Dre leave.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Your girl’s Altima picked him up.”
Keem’s face changed.
“How you know that?”
“Because I asked a question I already knew the answer to. Try again.”
Keem looked toward the window.
Dez said, “Young blood, don’t make simple shit hard.”
“I didn’t know what was going on. Dre called me panicking. Said he needed a ride. My girl was already near the gas station. I asked her to grab him.”
Nola leaned forward. “Where’d she take him?”
Keem looked at her. “You Dre’s sister?”
“Yeah.”
“He told me don’t tell you.”
“Dre tells me not to do lots of shit. Look how that’s working for him. Where?”
Keem swallowed.
“ATM first. Then a motel off the Pike.”
Kai asked for the name.
Keem gave it.
“Why the ATM?”
“He said he needed cash because he couldn’t use cards.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t say.”
“What did he tell you happened at work?”
Keem rubbed both palms over his jeans. “He said somebody told him to move a box from admin to old dispatch.”
“Who?”
“Wouldn’t say.”
“You ask?”
“Yeah. He said he thought it came from management.”
Kai stayed quiet.
Keem kept talking to fill it.
“He got a message on the work tablet. Said take the gray lockbox out the safe and put it in old dispatch because somebody was coming to audit the admin office in the morning.”
Dez’s expression sharpened.
“Work tablet message from who?”
“He didn’t show me.”
“How he opened the safe?” Kai asked.
“Said it was already open.”
That mattered.
Nola sat back.
“So Dre walked in, saw an open safe, picked up a box because some message told him to, and didn’t think that was weird?”
Keem shrugged helplessly. “It’s Dre.”
Nola closed her eyes. “I hate that this makes sense.”
Kai almost smiled.
“Then what?” he asked.
“He put the box in old dispatch cabinet like it said. Went back fifteen minutes later because somebody messaged that the audit got moved. Box was gone.”
“Why didn’t he come to me?”
Keem looked directly at him.
There was the answer before he gave it.
“He was scared.”
Kai’s jaw set.
“Of what?”
“You. Rome. Losing the job. Police. All of it.”
Nola looked at Kai with an expression too pointed to misunderstand.
He ignored her.
“What made him run?”
Keem hesitated.
“Somebody texted his personal phone.”
“Said what?”
“That they had video of him taking the money and if he stayed around, he’d take the charge. Told him disappear a few days and they’d fix it.”
“Who is they?”
“He didn’t know.”
“And he listened?”
Nola answered before Keem could.
“He’s twenty-two and scared shitless. Of course he listened to the worst possible advice available. That’s his spiritual gift.”
Keem nodded.
Kai looked at him. “You still got your girl’s phone?”
“She got it.”
“I need the messages from Dre and the route history from last night.”
Keem frowned. “Why route history?”
“Because if she took him where you say she took him, it’ll support your story.”
“And if she don’t want to give you her phone?”
“Then she can screenshot it herself. I’m not taking anybody’s phone.”
Nola glanced at him again.
This time the look had less accusation in it.
Good.
Keem agreed.
They left twenty minutes later with a motel address, copies of messages, and enough information to know Dre had not simply walked out with the money.
Outside, Nola stopped beside Kai’s truck.
“You scared my brother.”
Kai unlocked the doors. “Apparently.”
“That don’t bother you?”
“Would it make you feel better if I pretended?”
“No.”
“Then no. Not by itself. People scared of consequences do stupid shit. Dre’s fear didn’t come from me beating employees. It came from him knowing he was involved in something he couldn’t explain.”
“You got a reputation.”
“So do you.”
“For what?”
“Being Dre’s second mother.”
Her face tightened.
Kai knew he’d hit something.
“Don’t.”
“You said your parents let him move with you because you promised to keep him straight. He’s twenty-two.”
“I know how old my brother is.”
“Then stop acting like every bad decision he makes is a failure on your part.”
“You don’t know my family.”
“True.”
That stopped her.
Kai opened her door.
“I’m not telling you how to run your family. I’m telling you I don’t need you trying to protect Dre from every consequence while I’m figuring out who used my company to set him up.”
“If he was set up.”
“Yeah. If.”
She studied him.
“You believe Keem.”
“Parts of it.”
“Which parts?”
“His girlfriend’s location history matches. Dre used his own money. Somebody knew the hall camera was off and the safe was open. That’s enough to verify before I decide.”
Nola got into the truck.
“You know what’s annoying?”
“Probably a long list.”
“You make sense more often than I want you to.”
Kai shut the door.
Dez was coming across the lot with a to-go bag.
“I got breakfast sandwiches.”
“We’re going to the motel,” Kai said.
“And I’m going with food. See how prepared I am?”
Nola looked at the bag. “What kind?”
“Bacon, egg, and cheese. One sausage.”
“Give me bacon.”
Dez handed it over.
Kai got behind the wheel.
“You didn’t ask me.”
Dez looked offended. “You said you had coffee.”
Nola laughed into the sandwich wrapper.
The motel room was empty.
Dre had paid cash for one night under his real first name and fake last name. The clerk remembered him because he asked whether the back stairs had cameras.
They did.
Dre left at 3:12 a.m. carrying a plastic grocery bag.
Alone.
No sign of force.
Kai’s team checked the room after the manager allowed entry.
Nothing valuable.
Empty water bottles. Fast-food bag. Store receipt. Prepaid SIM packaging under the trash liner.
Dre was moving on purpose.
Somebody was communicating with him.
On the way back, Nola fell asleep in the passenger seat.
She didn’t mean to.
One minute she was texting Mani. The next her phone was loose in her hand and her head tipped toward the window.
Kai turned the radio down.
Dez noticed from the back seat.
“Look at you.”
“Say it and walk home.”
“I ain’t say nothing.”
“Your face did.”
Dez smiled and looked out the window.
At a red light, Nola shifted. The cropped sweatshirt had ridden up behind her, exposing a strip of skin above the waistband of her leggings.
Kai remembered exactly how that skin felt under his palm.
Smooth.
Warm.
He looked away.
Dez spoke without turning his head.
“You had one rule.”
“You wanna get out here?”
“Nah. I’m just mourning early.”
“Mourning what?”
“The day your greedy ass realizes you been wrong and starts stealing potential wives.”
Kai stared ahead.
“I had sex with one woman. Relax.”
The silence in the truck lasted half a second.
Nola’s eyes opened.
Dez’s whole face lit up.
Kai realized his mistake.
Nola turned slowly toward him.
“One woman?”
Kai kept his eyes on the road.
“Go back to sleep.”
“Oh no. I’m awake now.”
Dez leaned forward between the seats. “This ride just got excellent.”
Kai considered leaving both of them on the shoulder.
Instead, he drove Nola home.
He waited until she got inside.
Then he called one of his security contractors.
“I need eyes on a townhouse for forty-eight hours. Discreet. No contact unless somebody approaches the property or she leaves with someone we don’t know.”
Dez looked at him.
Kai ignored him.
“Address?” the contractor asked.
Kai gave it.
“She know?”
“No.”
Dez sighed.
Kai ended the call.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s my word.”
“You really think you own everything.”
Kai pulled away from the curb.
He didn’t answer.
Because that was exactly the kind of thing Nola would say.
And he already knew how that argument was going to go.