CHAPTER TEN
NOLA
Keem’s girlfriend’s name was Alisha, and unlike Keem, Alisha had no problem telling the truth if it meant getting herself out of somebody else’s mess.
“I told his ass not to call me for no suspicious shit,” she said before Nola had even sat down.
They met at a coffee shop in Blackwood because Alisha refused to come to Vaughn Recovery.
Nola respected that.
Kai did too, though he looked like every public meeting tested his patience.
Alisha slid screenshots across the table.
“That’s everything Dre sent me. I ain’t delete nothing.”
The messages were simple.
KEEM SAID YOU CAN GET ME?
PLEASE DON’T TELL NOLA.
I JUST NEED A RIDE TO THE ATM THEN MOTEL.
Alisha replied with an eye-roll emoji and told him five minutes.
“Did he seem scared?” Nola asked.
“Yeah. He kept checking behind us. Asked me twice if anybody followed.”
“Did he have anything with him?”
“Phone. Wallet. Little grocery bag. No box.”
Kai leaned forward. “Did he say who told him to move the lockbox?”
“Not at first.”
“At first?”
Alisha picked up her phone.
“He called me after I dropped him off. I didn’t answer because I was asleep. He left a voicemail.”
She played it.
Dre’s voice filled the small space between them.
“Yo, if Keem ask, tell him I ain’t say nothing about Rome. I don’t know if that message was really from him. I just know the initials was R.B. and I ain’t trying to put shit on nobody. Tell Nola I’m good. Actually don’t tell her shit. She gonna lose her mind.”
Nola closed her eyes.
“I’m gonna kill him when I find him.”
Alisha laughed. “That’s exactly why he didn’t want you told.”
Kai did not laugh.
“R.B.,” he said.
Nola looked at him.
“Rome Bell?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s his initials.”
“So are other people’s.”
She understood what he was doing.
Refusing to jump.
Normally she appreciated it.
This time she wanted him to jump a little.
“You said you trust him.”
“I do.”
“And Dre specifically named his initials.”
“Dre said he didn’t know if it was really him.”
Alisha lifted both hands. “I’m just playing the voicemail. Leave me out the family meeting.”
Nola almost smiled.
Kai asked Alisha a few more questions, thanked her, and paid for the coffee she hadn’t ordered.
Outside, Nola stopped beside his truck.
“Now what?”
“Now I verify where Rome was Wednesday night and Thursday.”
“You gonna tell him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if it’s him, telling him changes his behavior. If it ain’t, accusing him damages something I don’t need damaged.”
Nola nodded.
That made sense.
Again.
“I hate when you’re reasonable.”
“You say that a lot.”
“Because it keeps happening against my wishes.”
Kai opened her door.
Nola didn’t get in.
“I need to tell my parents something.”
“Everything?”
She gave him a look.
“Don’t start.”
“I’m asking.”
“No. Not everything.”
“Why?”
“Because my mother will call every hospital and jail in the tri-state area, my father will drive over here like Dre is fifteen, and then I’ll be managing them while trying to find him.”
“So you’re deciding what they can handle.”
“I’m deciding what I can handle.”
Kai held her eyes.
“That’s different.”
“Is it?”
Nola’s shoulders tightened.
“You really don’t know when to leave shit alone.”
“No.”
“At least you’re self-aware.”
She got into the truck.
They drove to her parents’ house first.
Denise answered before Nola could use her key.
Her mother had always been small. Five-four, maybe a hundred and five pounds on a good day. People spent Nola’s childhood asking how a woman that tiny gave birth to a daughter built like Nola and a son who hit six feet before graduation.
Denise hated the comments more than Nola did.
“Where is your brother?” she asked immediately.
No hello.
No hug.
Nola stepped inside.
Kai stayed by the door until Denise looked past her.
“And who is this?”
“Ma, this is Kai. Kai, my mother.”
Denise’s eyebrows climbed.
“Kai what?”
“Vaughn.”
Her face changed with recognition.
“Vaughn Recovery?”
Kai nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Why is Dre’s boss at my house?”
Nola answered before Kai could.
“Because Dre got involved in something at work.”
Her mother went still.
“What something?”
“Money is missing.”
“How much?”
Nola hesitated.
Denise pointed at her. “Don’t you lie to me.”
Kai looked at Nola.
She wanted to kick him.
“Eighty-seven thousand.”
Denise sat down hard on the hall bench.
“Jesus Christ.”
“We don’t know that he took it.”
“Where is he?”
“I’m working on that.”
“Nola.”
“He is safe as far as I know.”
That was a lie by omission and everybody in the entryway knew it.
Her father came downstairs buttoning a shirt.
“What’s going on?”
Curtis James still had the same broad shoulders Dre inherited, though age had softened his middle and put gray at both temples. He looked from Nola to Kai and frowned.
Denise told him.
Curtis’s face darkened.
“I knew we shouldn’t have let that boy move out.”
Nola’s irritation rose instantly.
“He’s not a boy.”
“Exactly. So why you still cleaning up behind him?”
That hit harder because Kai had said almost the same thing.
“I’m not cleaning up. I’m finding him.”
“You promised us—”
“I know what I promised.”
Curtis stopped.
The room changed.
Nola rarely raised her voice at her father.
Not because she was scared of him. Because Curtis and Denise had been good parents, even when they got on her nerves. Family arguments usually stayed within a familiar lane.
Dre had knocked everybody out of it.
Kai spoke for the first time.
“Mr. James, Dre may have been used to move the money without knowing what was in play. We have evidence suggesting somebody inside my company gave him instructions. I’m trying to verify that before police are involved.”
Curtis looked at him.
“You believe my son?”
“I believe the evidence doesn’t support a simple theft.”
Curtis nodded slowly.
Denise asked, “Why isn’t he here then?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Nola sat beside her mother.
“Because he panicked.”
Denise closed her eyes.
“That damn child.”
“Ma.”
“He’s my child even if he’s fifty.”
Nola almost laughed.
There it was.
The exact same disease.
Before they left, Curtis took Nola aside.
“You call me the minute you know where he is.”
“I will.”
“Don’t protect him from me.”
Nola looked at her father.
“I’m not.”
“You do that.”
“Do what?”
“Decide everybody needs protecting before they even ask.”
She hated that two men had diagnosed her in the same week.
“I’m going home.”
Curtis kissed her forehead.
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Outside, Kai waited until they were in the truck before speaking.
“You didn’t tell them Dre is being threatened.”
Nola turned toward the window.
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to.”
“That’s not a reason.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
Kai was quiet for a few blocks.
Then his phone rang.
He answered through the truck speakers.
“Yeah.”
Dez’s voice came through.
“I got Rome’s Wednesday. He was at Silo Lounge from seven forty-eight to ten sixteen. Cameras got him.”
Nola looked at Kai.
Kai’s face gave nothing away.
“Vehicle?”
“Valet ticket says Tahoe. Camera shows it never left.”
“So he wasn’t the man at Whitman.”
“Not unless he got a twin with access to his truck and valet found Jesus.”
Kai ended the call.
Nola sat back.
“Well.”
“Yeah.”
“I was ready to convict his ass.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t enjoy it.”
“I’m not.”
“Your face is.”
“That’s my face.”
She looked at him.
He looked at her.
And despite everything, Nola laughed.
Kai reached across the console and put his hand on her bare knee.
Not sexual.
Not possessive.
Just there.
Nola left it.
For the first time since Dre disappeared, she let somebody else carry a little of the weight without immediately reaching to take it back.