Chapter 5 #2
“You said we were going to the house and then to my spot, Minx. Let’s focus,” he said, squinting at the road as he hit a quick left to get on the highway.
About twenty minutes later, they arrived in the driveway of the house that Minx grew up in.
She didn’t feel the same when she came here anymore.
Knowing that her father would never be inside hit her hard every time she pulled up.
Rose kept his truck running. Minx saw her mother’s car parked, and Jonah sitting on the bench in back, smoking while talking on his phone.
She hopped out and traipsed over to him as the night air swept around her.
“What’s up, Unc?” she greeted him, and he waved as she let herself inside.
Rose wasn’t far in the rear, but he remained on the back porch to speak with Jonah.
“I heard the blast all the way over here.” Jonah teased, taking a long pull from the blunt before he handed it off for Rose to partake in.
“Just waiting on the word.” Rose took a drag and held the smoke before exhaling. “How’s Mila?”
“She’s good. We can count Galena out. Which means they’re about to set up to retaliate. You and Minx need to take Mille for a couple of days while we secure some shit,” Jonah noted.
Rose nodded while he hit the weed again and stared off into the backyard. When it came to war, everyone had a role to play. Protecting the camp was number one. Those were Max’s words. He told him that at a very young age, and it always stuck.
“Mil! Where you at?” Minx asked, coming up the back stairs of their home.
His bedroom door was a few steps away, and she could hear voices and rustling around inside.
Minx texted him on the way to let him know she would come to check on him.
When she appeared in the doorway, she saw her mother moving quickly around her brother’s room while he sat on the foot of his bed watching her toss items of his into a big luggage bag with wheels.
“What’s going on?” Minx asked, lingering in the doorway with a frown.
“Oh, um… I need you to take your brother with you to Rose’s place. Just for a few days until things cool off around here.” Mila was eager as she stuffed some of his video games into the bag and zipped it.
With her hands on her hips, she took in her daughter and then her son.
The last couple of weeks were rough, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
Minx looked into her mother’s eyes, and felt the shift between them almost immediately.
She no longer held her in this perfect, flawless light.
Most people looked up to celebrities and shit like that, but Minx admired her mother the most. She was the epitome of strength, and that used to be what she saw when she looked at her. However, that image was different.
“Okay, we can have a sleepover.” Minx perked up with enthusiasm, but the way Mille eyed her faltered the grin she had plastered across her face. She was faking, and he knew it. She and her baby brother were very in tune.
“I have to get back to school,” Mille chimed in.
“And we will get you there. It’s the weekend. You can start Monday.” Minx walked over to the bed and snatched up his bag. “Come on. I need a distraction anyway.” She and Mila soaked in the other. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay here? You can’t survive off frozen pizza and Uber Eats, Ma.”
Mila smirked, and her eyes dropped to her feet. When she brought them back up, there were tears and shame clouding her face. Minx softened, and stood in front of her mother.
“Take care of yourself,” she insisted, gently touching her arm. “Come on, Mil.” She urged her brother to his feet, and they marched to the door together.
“Minx—” her mother called out to her.
“Yeah?” She paused, spinning so that they were facing one another.
“I love you.” Mila’s voice cracked as the tears broke through.
She quickly pushed them back and sucked in a deep breath.
“I love you too, Ma. To the moon and back,” Minx recited like she had a few times before in her childhood.
Mila knew in that one moment that she and Minx would heal. It would take some time, but they were all each other had now other than Mille.
“You know I got him.” She nodded to her mute brother while ushering him out of his room and into the hallway. The dynamics of their relationship were surely altered, but it wasn’t unrepairable.
Minx guided Mille out of the house and down the steps.
Pretty soon, they were taking off to Rose’s place.
Mille looked around at first, standing in the front entry with Rose and Minx.
He saw Rose slide up behind his sister in a way that a man did when he was with a woman.
He’d seen his father do it on many occasions with his mother.
Frowning, Mille’s stare bounced from Minx to Rose and back again.
“So y’all like… together now?” he asked, and Minx actually blushed.
“Stay out my business, kid.” She laughed and shook her head. “Are you hungry?”
“Nah. Where am I sleeping? I just want to lay down,” Mille told her.
“Up the stairs, first door on the left.” Rose nodded toward the staircase behind him.
“Thanks.” He carried his bag up the steps, and Minx watched after him as Rose held her from behind.
“He’s going to be okay. Just give him some time,” he said in her ear.
“What happened tonight, Rose? And don’t tell me nothing. Between you and my mama, I know something is up.” She swung around so that they were face-to-face.
He grabbed her face with both hands and brought her in for a kiss.
Moving a hand on her lower back, drawing her into his strong body, he slipped his tongue into her mouth.
Minx melted in his embrace. He kissed her like he needed her, like a lung to breathe, and she reveled in it.
Too long they hadn’t been like this, so she was taking every ounce of affection that he dished out.
“This ain’t for you to worry about. The less you know, the better. Just keep your eyes and ears to everything around you, at all times,” Rose reminded her.
“Did you see Nadia today?” Minx rested her hands on his shoulders and stared into his hooded eyes.
“Yeah, I saw her.” Rose ran his hand down his face and backed up.
Minx wasn’t oblivious to how he tensed up at the mention of her name, and that made her nervous.
Everything about Rose’s relationship with the bitch twisted her up inside, and made her insecure.
There was something about her that always pulled him back to her.
Little did Minx know, the exact reservations she had about Nadia, the girl had about her.
“And how did that go?” She prodded, face scrunching up as she watched him run his hand over the waves on top of his head.
He only did that when he had something else on his mind. He was preoccupied, and Minx was curious.
“It went. I’ll deal with her when the time comes.” Rose tried to walk around her, but Minx stepped right into his path and tilted her head.
“What the hell is that, Rose? Is she pregnant or not?” she questioned, brows dipping in irritation.
“She says she is,” he responded, shrugging helplessly.
“You haven’t been back in town a month. How the hell would she know if she was pregnant or not by you?” Minx asked, hands falling on her hips.
She watched his eyes fall on the ground. He was keeping something from her, and her heart raced at the thought of him lying to her or another bitch knowing some shit about him that she didn’t. Minx didn’t want Nadia or any other hoe to have that kind of power.
“She came to see me... about two months ago… when I was still in Miami,” Rose conveyed, and Minx felt like someone had uppercut her in the gut.
She let out a shaky breath and looked him up and down.
“Right, of course she did. She’s Nadia. She gets access to you whenever, wherever.” Attitude seeped into her tone as she thought about what all this meant.
“Aye, don’t be like that.” Rose shook his head, both thick brows furrowing at her shift in mood. “That’s why I didn’t want to say shit.”
“You didn’t want to say shit because you know you fucked up!” Minx called him out.
“This shit happened before shit between us even became what it is, Minx,” he argued.
“I don’t care! You were just going to come up in here and try to finesse me into forgetting about it though, right?” She sneered , rage bubbling in her veins, making her hot all over.
“You overreacting,” he pointed out, backing away and retreating to his kitchen.
Minx wasn’t about to let him off. He had her fucked up. The shit wasn’t going away, but she would if things didn’t sway in her favor. She wasn’t about to play the background to Rose, Nadia, and a fucking baby. She had to draw the line somewhere, whether she loved him or not.
“I’m not fucking overreacting. Nadia ain’t some random bitch. She’s been in your life since you were fifteen fucking years old. How the fuck am I supposed to feel about you possibly having a baby with her?” Minx was heated, and it was all in the way her warm eyes turned cold when she spoke.
Rose sighed and paused at his fridge after pulling out a cold brew.
He needed something else to ease his mind since she was determined to be turned up right now.
Was she wrong to feel how she felt? Not at all.
He had enough on his plate right now, and he didn’t want to get caught up in some argument with her that took away from the place they were in.
“Minx, ain’t shit between me and Nadia but sex,” he revealed, and she paused with her jaw parted and gaped back at him.
That wasn’t exactly what she wanted to fucking hear.
“That makes me feel so much better, Rose. Thank you!”
“And that’s all that is there.” He insisted, growing exasperated with her. “And that shit ain’t even true anymore. She was familiar, and… I let her in. I did. I talked to her about shit here and there,” he explained.
“Like you talk about stuff with me?” Minx asked, eyes misting and heart cracking a little at his words.