CHAPTER THIRTEEN
KAI
The man following Nola was bad at it.
That was the first thing Kai noticed.
The second was that Nola hadn’t.
She left work at 2:07 p.m. after an overtime shift and walked toward her car with her tote over one shoulder, talking on the phone. Ray was parked across the street, doing exactly what Kai paid him to do: watching without hovering.
A blue Honda pulled out two spaces after Nola.
Normal.
Then it followed her through three turns that did not make sense for through traffic.
Ray called Kai.
“We got company.”
Kai was already five minutes away because he had planned to meet Nola for lunch.
“Plate.”
Ray gave it.
Kai sent it to Malik and changed route.
“Don’t engage unless he approaches her. Keep him moving.”
“Got it.”
Nola stopped at a beauty-supply store.
The Honda stopped across the lot.
Driver stayed inside.
Kai arrived two minutes later and parked where he could block the Honda without trapping Nola’s car.
The driver saw him.
Started the engine.
Kai stepped out.
The Honda reversed hard.
Ray’s SUV moved into the exit lane.
Not hitting him.
Just narrowing the options.
The driver threw the car into park and got out.
Mid-twenties. Thin. Hood up despite the heat.
“Move that truck.”
Kai walked toward him.
“Why you following her?”
“I ain’t following nobody.”
“Then leave.”
The man looked toward the exit.
Ray remained where he was.
“Your boy blocking me.”
“Answer the question and he won’t have to.”
The man took one step closer.
Kai watched his right hand.
Not his face.
Hands told the truth faster.
The hand disappeared toward his waistband.
Kai moved.
One wrist caught. Shoulder turned. The man hit the side of the Honda face-first with enough force to stun, not enough to break anything important.
Kai pinned the wrist behind his back.
“Don’t reach for shit around me.”
“Get the fuck off me!”
“What were you reaching for?”
“My phone!”
Kai patted the waistband with his free hand.
No gun.
Phone in the pocket.
He released some pressure.
“Then use words next time.”
The beauty-supply door opened.
“Kai?”
Nola.
Wrong timing.
He looked over.
She stood three car lengths away holding a small shopping bag, eyes fixed on the man pinned to the vehicle.
“Stay there.”
Her expression changed instantly.
“Don’t tell me—”
“Nola. Stay there for thirty seconds.”
Something in his tone must have landed because she did.
Kai turned back to the man.
“Who sent you?”
“Nobody.”
“You followed her from work.”
“No I didn’t.”
Kai read the plate-return text Malik sent.
Car registered to a woman in Lindenwold.
No obvious company link.
Another text followed.
DRIVER LIKELY DEVIN COLE. COUSIN OF KEEM FLETCHER. TWO PRIOR SIMPLE ASSAULTS. CURRENT PROBATION.
Kai looked at him.
“Devin.”
The man’s body changed.
There it was.
“Keem know you here?”
“Man, fuck Keem.”
“That a no.”
Nola came closer despite instructions.
Of course.
“Devin?”
The man looked at her.
“Dre’s sister?”
Kai tightened his grip.
“Watch how you answer.”
Nola ignored Kai. “You know my brother?”
Devin cursed.
“He owes somebody.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why you following me?”
“I was told to make sure you went home.”
Kai’s voice went flat. “By who?”
Devin laughed nervously. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
Kai pushed him back against the car.
Not harder.
Just enough to remind him the situation had options.
“Try.”
Nola said, “Kai.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t hurt him because you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
Devin laughed once. “Nigga, you look mad.”
Kai looked back at him. “You want to help?”
Devin shut up.
They got one useful thing.
A number.
Devin had been contacted through a burner and offered five hundred dollars to confirm Nola returned home after work. He didn’t know who was paying. Half had arrived through a cash app account under a fake name.
Kai took photos of the messages with Devin’s permission after explaining that refusing would mean Kai called his probation officer and police to explain why he had followed a woman from her workplace.
Devin chose cooperation.
Competence was often just giving people a choice where only one option made sense.
After he left, Nola stood beside Kai’s truck with her arms folded.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Are you?”
“Yeah.”
“You had that man folded against a Honda.”
“He reached.”
“I saw.”
Kai opened her door.
She didn’t move.
“You do that a lot?”
“Do what?”
“Put people against cars.”
“Less than you think.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“Wasn’t meant to be.”
Nola looked at him.
He decided to give her the clean version.
“Don’t make me better in your head because you like me.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Who said I like you?”
“Nola.”
“Fine. Keep going.”
“I’ve hurt people. Some deserved it. Some I convinced myself did at the time. I don’t run around looking for reasons, but I’m not going to act like I got a spotless history because you’re standing here.”
She was quiet.
Kai let her be.
Then Nola said, “I wasn’t planning to make you better.”
“Good.”
“You’d probably get on my nerves less if you were worse in my imagination.”
He almost laughed.
She stepped closer.
“But don’t ever tell me to stay back like I’m a child again.”
“There was an unknown man reaching toward his waistband.”
“Then say that. ‘Nola, he might have a weapon.’ I understand English.”
Kai nodded once.
“Fair.”
“And don’t put your hands on people because they irritate you.”
“I don’t.”
“Good.”
She got into the truck.
They drove to his place because Nola did not want to go home while Ray’s replacement checked her house and Malik traced the burner payment.
Kai lived in a renovated brick rowhome near Haddonfield that was cleaner than Nola expected and less flashy than she expected.
She walked through the living room and looked around.
“Where’s all the giant marble?”
“What?”
“Rich dangerous nigga starter pack. Marble floors. Gold fixtures. A kitchen nobody cooks in.”
“I’m not rich.”
“You own twenty-three tow trucks.”
“And twenty-three truck payments at one point.”
“That’s fair.”
She looked toward the kitchen. “You cook?”
“Enough.”
“What’s enough?”
“I won’t starve.”
“Low bar.”
Normal conversation settled her more than any speech could have.
Kai noticed her shoulders lower.
He made sandwiches.
She ate one and half of his.
Then she stood at the sink drinking water while the afternoon light hit the side of her face.
“You still thinking about the parking lot?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Scared?”
“A little.”
He appreciated the answer.
Not brave for no reason.
Not pretending.
“You want space?”
She looked at him.
Then put the glass down.
“No.”
She walked over and touched the front of his shirt.
Kai covered her hand.
“You sure this ain’t adrenaline?”
“Partly.”
“Nola.”
“I’m not confused. I saw you hurt somebody. I also saw why you moved when you did. Both can be true.”
He searched her face.
“You don’t owe me anything because I showed up.”
“I know.”
Then she kissed him.
This time there was no game in it.
No fight to win.
Nola’s hands were quieter. Kai’s were too.
He undressed her slowly enough to notice when she went still and ask why. She told him when she needed him to stop. Told him when she didn’t.
The sex wasn’t soft exactly. Neither of them seemed built for pretending heat had disappeared because feelings were getting involved.
It was slower than the first two times, though, and that made Nola pay attention to different things. The way Kai checked her face before changing pace. The way he stopped when her body went tense for a reason that had nothing to do with pleasure.
“Too much?” he asked.
“No. My hip.”
He shifted immediately, bracing more of his own weight instead of trying to talk her through discomfort like it was something she needed to overcome.
“Better?”
“Yeah.”
Then he went right back to kissing her like the interruption had not injured his pride.
Nola liked that more than she expected.
She pulled him down, kissed him until his breathing changed, then rolled them because she wanted the control back for a minute. Kai let her. His hands stayed busy, sliding up her sides, over her back, down again, touching the same body he had once filed under a rule and now could not leave alone.
“Don’t start rubbing my back like you at a spa,” she said.
“You complaining?”
“No. I’m observing.”
“Observe quieter.”
She laughed, then stopped laughing when he moved under her in a way that made conversation useless.
Kai looked entirely too pleased with himself.
“Don’t make that face.”
“What face?”
“That I-know-what-I-did face.”
“You just told me not to talk.”
“Now you listening too well.”
He pulled her down and kissed her before she could find another complaint.
Later, when the intensity built again, Nola pressed her forehead to his shoulder and held on. Kai did not turn it into some possessive moment. He just kept one hand firm at her back and the other where she had already shown him she wanted it.
When she said his name, he answered with a quiet “I got you” that did not sound like a promise about the rest of her life. Just this moment.
That was enough.
When they were done, neither rushed to speak.
Nola lay beside him with one hand on his chest.
“You know what I like about you?” she said.
“A lot.”
“See. Ruined already.”
He smiled.
“What?”
“You don’t apologize for being who you are.”
Kai looked at the ceiling.
“That’s not always a good thing.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
He turned toward her.
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“You apologize for everybody else.”
Nola’s face closed a little.
“We’re naked. Don’t start therapy.”
“Wasn’t.”
“Sounded suspicious.”
“Go to sleep.”
“It’s four in the afternoon.”
“Then be quiet.”
She laughed and tucked herself against him.
Kai put his hand on her back.
Of course he did.