6. Bleek #2
Neither one of them answered me right away.
Before they could, small footsteps appeared behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and found Maylee standing there.
Her hair was a mess, and she had her phone in her hand.
More than likely, she was probably playing Roblox with her friends, although it was early as fuck.
She looked at our parents and then at me.
“What happened?” she asked.
My father looked over immediately.
“Baby girl, go back to your room.”
“Why?” Maylee frowned
“Because your mother and I need to talk to your brother.”
The answer earned him an even bigger frown.
“Y’all always tell me to go to my room.”
Despite everything, I saw my mother’s lips twitch. Even my father looked like he was trying not to smile. Maylee folded her arms.
“I’m not a baby anymore,” she said with a little attitude.
“No one said you were,” my mother jumped in.
“Yes, y’all do.”
She pointed directly at my father.
“He does.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. Maylee sighed dramatically.
“Maybe having a little brother or sister won’t be so bad.”
The room went quiet. Even she seemed surprised she said it out loud, then she shrugged.
“Then y’all can baby them instead,” she added.
She was on a roll this morning. Her little foot was on both our parents’ necks and the shit was hilarious. This time I couldn’t help laughing. Neither could my mother. For a second, the tension in the room eased, just a little. Then reality settled back in. My father looked at Maylee.
“Baby girl, I need you to go back to your room. It’s important.”
Maylee frowned.
“What’s going on?”
Nobody answered right away, and that only made her more suspicious.
“Mama?”
My mother forced a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“We just need to talk for a minute,” she said softly.
Maylee folded her arms.
“About what?”
I already knew she wasn’t about to let this go easily.
Not because she was a kid but because she was nosy, the whole family was.
My father let out a breath. He was annoyed, and I could tell.
Patience wasn’t something that my father had, and my little sister was riding at the end of his nerves this morning.
“Maylee.”
The warning in his voice finally got her attention. She looked at him for a second before rolling her eyes dramatically.
“Fine,” then she paused. “Is this about Maliah?”
The room went quiet, and that was all the answer she needed. Her expression immediately changed. The attitude disappeared and was replaced with worry.
“What happened?”
My mother looked away while my father’s jaw tightened, and suddenly even Maylee could tell something wasn’t right.
“We’re handling it,” my father said.
The words sounded calm, too calm for whatever the fuck was going on. Maylee looked like she wanted to ask more questions. Instead, she nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
She turned toward the hallway and then stopped.
“Don’t forget y’all still gotta tell Maliah about the baby.”
The comment caught everybody off guard. For a second, nobody said anything.
Then she disappeared down the hallway. And the second she was gone, the room felt heavy again.
The excitement from earlier vanished completely.
Now it was just me, my mother, my father, and Maliah’s empty bedroom.
The second Maylee disappeared down the hallway, the room fell quiet again.
Not the comfortable kind of quiet either.
I looked between my parents, waiting for somebody to explain what was going on.
Instead, my father rubbed his hand across his face and stared out the window for a second.
When he finally started talking, I realized almost immediately why neither one of them wanted Maylee standing in the room.
By the time he finished explaining that Tahari was responsible for both robberies at the auto shop, I was staring at him.
By the time he admitted he shot him, I wasn’t even trying to hide my shock anymore.
“Damn.”
The word slipped out before I could stop it. My mother sat quietly on the edge of the bed while my father paced near the window. The whole thing sounded crazy. Not because I thought he was lying but because I knew he wasn’t. The story was just that wild.
“So, Maliah knows?” I asked.
My father shook his head.
“No.”
That made me frown.
“What do you mean no?”
“I just told her she couldn’t see him anymore.”
I stared at him.
“And that was it?”
His eyes met mine, and inside of them I could read the regret.
For a second, neither one of us said anything.
Then he looked away. I let out a slow breath.
That sounded like something Maliah would’ve ignored.
Especially if she thought somebody was keeping information from her.
My eyes drifted toward her empty bed. She went somewhere.
And there was only one place that made sense.
“If she left because of Tahari,” I said slowly, “then she probably went looking for him.”
My mother immediately nodded.
“I think so too.”
The room fell quiet again. I’m sure we were all thinking the same thing.
The problem was nobody knew where to start.
Then a thought crossed my mind. I frowned slightly.
There was a dude I used to play basketball with.
We weren’t close, and we hadn’t talked in months, but I was pretty sure he knew Tahari.
At least enough to know where he hung out and maybe where he stayed.
I looked up at both my parents because what I was about to say was a long shot, but it was worth a try. At least it would be a start.
“I might be able to find out where he lives.”
Both of my parents looked at me immediately. My father’s expression changed first.
“How?”
“There’s this dude I used to hoop with,” my mind searched for his name, but now I couldn’t pull it together, “he knows Tahari.”
My father stopped pacing.
“You think he knows where he stays?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly as I pulled my phone from my pocket, “but if anybody I know would know, it’d probably be him.”
My father nodded his head because I possibly had handed him a possible answer to this crazy ass situation.
Not a good one, and it wasn’t a guaranteed one, but it was something.
And right now? Something was better than nothing.
I stepped out into the hallway and pulled my phone from my pocket.
For a second, I stared down at the screen before finding the number I was looking for.
I barely saved contacts, but one thing I was good at was memorizing numbers.
I got that from dad. It had been months since Tiq and I had talked.
Shit, maybe even longer. Still, I hit call.
The phone rang a few times before he finally picked up.
“Yo.”
“What’s good?”
There was a brief pause before recognition settled in.
“MJ?”
“Yeah,” I smirked slightly.
“Damn. I ain’t heard from you in forever.”
“Yeah, well, I need something.”
I got straight to the point, and that got his attention. The joking tone disappeared almost immediately.
“What do you need?” he asked.
I glanced back toward Maliah’s room. My parents were still inside, probably driving themselves crazy trying to figure out where Tahari lives and where Mali could be.
“You know Tahari?”
The line went quiet for a second. It wasn’t long enough to be awkward, but it was just long enough for me to notice.
“Yeah.”
“You still talk to him?”
“Every now and then. Why?”
I could hear the curiosity in his tone. I leaned against the wall and rubbed the back of my neck.
“I’m trying to find him.”
There was a little pause on the phone.
“For what?”
“For my sister.”
The answer wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
“Oh.”
He sounded less suspicious after that. For a few seconds, neither one of us said anything. I needed this information like yesterday, so I got to it.
“You know where he stays?”
“I mean…” He trailed off. “Last place I knew he was staying was over there off Biscayne.”
Immediately I straightened.
“Biscayne?”
“Yeah.”
My heart started beating a little faster.
“Where at?”
He gave me the apartment complex name, and I recognized it immediately.
It wasn’t far either.
“You know the unit number?”
“Yeah.”
I grabbed the notepad sitting on the table in the hallway and pulled the pen clipped to the side.
The second he started talking, I wrote everything down.
The building number, apartment number, everything.
When he finished, I stared down at the paper for a second.
For the first time all morning, it felt like we were getting somewhere.
“You sure that’s where he stays?”
“As sure as I can be.”
I nodded to myself because that was good enough for me. This was a start.
“You helping your sister out?”
“If only it was that simple,” a small laugh escaped me.
The words were out before I could stop them. Immediately, his curiosity kicked in.
“What happened?”
I looked back toward Maliah’s room, toward my parents, toward the mess waiting on the other side of that doorway.
“A whole lot. I appreciate the info, bruh.”
A few seconds later, I ended the call. The piece of paper remained clenched in my hand as I made my way back to Maliah’s room. The second I stepped inside, both of my parents looked up. I didn’t make them ask twice.
“I got an address.”
For the first time since this whole thing started, the room went completely silent. Then I saw a shift in my father. It was like he had changed right before my eyes.
“Eternity, go and get dressed. MJ, stay here just in case she comes back home.”
My father did not have to repeat himself, my mother headed toward their bedroom, and he followed her out.
I wanted to go, but the look that my father had in his eyes was the same look he had when he was sitting by my bedside after I got jumped.
Malik Browne had left the building, and Bleek was here.