CHAPTER 10
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Quay
Weeks had passed since I had seen or heard from Kales, and every last one of them had weighed on me different.
At first, I was angry.
Angry at her for not coming back. Angry at myself for even expecting her to. Angry at the whole world for still moving like my life had not been sitting still ever since them cuffs clicked around my wrists. But after a while, that anger had started settling into something else.
Because the truth was, I knew why Kales had gone quiet.
Hell, I knew why she should have.
I had lied to her. I had kept too much from her. I had let her find out about my child from another woman showing up at the house with my son on her hip like that shit was normal. And on top of all that, I was sitting in county on a murder charge with my name dragged through the dirt.
So yeah, I knew why she was gone.
That didn’t mean I had to like it.
It didn’t mean I had to stop waking up every morning with her still on my mind. It didn’t mean I stopped thinking about her at night either, when the block got loud and the walls felt too close and all I had left was my thoughts.
And if I was being real, that was probably the worst part of being locked up.
Not the cold trays. Not the smell. Not the guards acting like they was running a kingdom.
It was having too much time to think about the woman I had fucked over and still loved like hell.
By the time they called for visitation that afternoon, I wasn’t thinking much of it. I figured maybe it was my lawyer. Maybe Reese had gotten somebody to come pass me information. Maybe it was one of the few people still willing to look me in my face without acting like I was already convicted.
But the minute I stepped into the visitation room and saw Victoria sitting there with that hard look on her face, I knew whatever peace I had scraped together that morning was dead.
I sat down across from her slowly and picked up the phone.
Victoria snatched hers up quick.
She didn’t even wait for me to say nothing.
“You look comfortable,” she snapped.
I frowned. “Comfortable? Bitch, I’m in jail.”
“And I’m out here struggling.”
I leaned back in the chair and looked at her for a second.
Victoria always had this way about her, like every room she stepped into had to feel her attitude before it felt anything else.
She looked good, I wasn’t gone lie, but she always looked like a headache too.
Hair done, lashes on, mouth shiny, and bitterness sitting right there behind all of it.
She had been the kind of mistake that happened fast and lasted too long.
“What you come up here for?” I asked flatly. “Because if this about money, I already told you what it is.”
Her eyes narrowed. “No, what it is you got me out here looking stupid. I got your son, bills piling up, diapers, wipes, formula, daycare, all kind of shit coming at me, and you sitting in here not saying nothing when you know damn well you didn’t kill Markie.”
That made my jaw tighten.
I looked around quick before bringing my eyes back to her.
“You need to watch your mouth.”
She let out a dry laugh. “For what? Everybody in this city already talking.”
“I said watch your mouth.”
But truthfully, what had me so tense wasn’t what she was saying. It was where she was saying it.
Victoria rolled her eyes like she didn’t care. “See, that is your problem now. You still so busy trying to be solid that you letting your whole life go up in flames for people who wouldn’t do the same for you.”
I gripped the phone harder. “You don’t know what the fuck you talking about.”
“Do I not?” she shot back. “Because from where I’m sitting, it look like you got everybody else protected but the people tied to you.”
That one hit. Hard.
Not because I wanted to hear it from her. But because there was truth sitting in it.
I looked away from her for a second, dragging my hand over my jaw.
Victoria kept going, because of course she did.
“You got Kales out there fending for herself. You got me struggling with your son. And you in here still acting like keeping your mouth shut is some noble shit.”
“It is bigger than that,” I mumbled.
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “See, that is exactly why I cannot stand niggas like you. Everything always got to be bigger than what is right in front of your face.”
I looked back at her, my patience thinning. “Then why the fuck are you here?”
She leaned forward in her seat, her expression hard.
“Because I know you didn’t kill Markie.”
The words sat between us for a second.
I didn’t blink. I didn’t give her anything.
But inside, my whole mind shifted.
“How the fuck would you know that?” I asked carefully.
She folded her arms. “Because I know how you move. You got a lot of bad in you, Quay, but you are not sloppy. And you damn sure are not dumb enough to kill somebody with a whole trail leading back to you like that. Not when you already knew people was watching you.”
I stayed quiet.
That was one thing about Victoria. When she wasn’t being loud and extra, she could actually read shit better than most people gave her credit for.
She leaned in closer. “So I’m trying to figure out why you still sitting in here taking this shit when you know something.”
“I don’t know enough,” I said after a beat.
Her face twisted. “That is bullshit.”
“No,” I snapped. “What is bullshit is you coming in here thinking this shit simple. It is not.”
“Simple enough to know you being set up.”
I clenched my jaw so tight I felt it in my temples.
Because again, she wasn’t wrong.
She just didn’t understand that knowing you are being set up and proving who set you up are two different things.
And if I moved wrong, it wasn’t just me that would pay for it.
That was what people kept missing.
This wasn’t some regular shit.
The kind of men tangled up in this didn’t lose and just go home. They took people with them.
Victoria watched my face for a second and then let out a sharp breath. “Whatever. Stay in here and play stupid if you want. But while you doing that, life still moving.”
I frowned. “What the fuck that mean?”
That was when her mouth curled in a way I didn’t like.
“Oh, so you really don’t know.”
A bad feeling hit my chest instantly.
“Know what?”
She sat back in her chair like she had been waiting on this part.
“Kales dealing with Samir now.”
I stared at her.
For a second, I thought maybe I heard her wrong.
Then she kept talking.
“Not just little work shit either. I mean, really dealing with him. People saying he got her with him all the time now. Taking her out. Sending money. Got her riding around with him like she somebody.”
Every muscle in my body locked up.
I could hear the blood rushing in my ears.
“What the fuck you just say?”
Victoria lifted a brow. “You heard me.”
“No,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. “Say that shit again.”
She rolled her eyes, but she did it.
“Kales is with Samir.”
That shit hit me harder than the murder charge had that first morning.
Not because Kales didn’t have every right to move how she wanted. Not because I could blame her for being done with me.
But because it was Samir.
Out of all people, it had to be that nigga.
Samir, who always moved like everything in the room belonged to him.
And now Kales was around him? Really around him?
My grip on the phone tightened so hard my knuckles ached.
Victoria saw my face and shook her head.
“Yeah, now you mad.”
I leaned closer to the glass. “How long?”
She shrugged. “Long enough that people talking. Long enough that even I heard about it.”
That made something ugly rise up in me.
Weeks.
That meant while I had been sitting in this cell thinking about Kales, missing Kales, worrying about Kales, she had been somewhere with Samir.
Laughing with him. Talking to him. Maybe letting that nigga touch her.
My stomach turned so hard I thought I might swing on the glass like that would do anything.
Victoria looked at me with something like satisfaction mixed with irritation.
“See? This is what I mean. You too busy being loyal to everybody else, and all your shit slipping.”
I looked at her sharply. “Don’t sit here and talk to me like Kales owe me something after what I put her through.”
She blinked like she had not expected that.
Then she sucked her teeth. “I didn’t say she owed you anything. I am saying you should have spoke up sooner if you knew you was being played. Maybe then you wouldn’t be in here while another man stepping into your place.”
That last part made me see red.
“My place?” I snapped. “What place? The place where I lied to her? The place where I had a whole child I never told her about? The place where I brought all this shit to her front door?”
Victoria sat back for a second, quiet.
Then she said, softer this time, “At least you know you did her dirty.”
That knocked some of the heat out of me.
Because I did know. Every single day in that cell, I knew.
I wasn’t confused about my part in none of it.
But that didn’t stop the thought of Samir near her from eating me alive.
It didn’t stop the jealousy either. Or the fear. Because that was the part Victoria didn’t understand.
Samir wasn’t just some nigga with money and game. He was dangerous in ways Kales couldn’t even fully see yet. If she was really dealing with him, then she was deeper in that world than she had ever been with me.
And that was saying something.
I leaned back in the chair and scrubbed both hands over my face.
For a second, I forgot Victoria was even sitting there. All I could think about was Kales. What she looked like now. Whether she was okay. Whether she had really moved on, or whether she was just trying to survive and had gotten pulled somewhere she shouldn’t be.
Then another thought hit me.
If Samir was close to her, then he might know things. Or he might have heard things. Or maybe he knew more about Tariq moving funny than he let on.
Victoria’s voice broke through my thoughts.
“You still care about her.”
It wasn’t a question.