Chapter 53
Chapter fifty-three
Amethyst
Two weeks later…
Pastor DeCorte finished his eulogy, and I felt myself getting emotional again.
Yale squeezed my hand, and I looked down at her.
Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she gave me a small smile.
I kissed her forehead, grateful that she was standing next to me but hating where we were.
I never imagined that we’d be burying Yeti.
My boy didn’t deserve this; he was a good nigga.
I watched as the casket lowered to the ground and searched the crowd of people here, my eyes only stopping at Rage as she sat on the ground next to the hole her brother had been lowered into. My heart broke for her.
“I need to talk to my brothers, then we can go, alright?” I said to Yale, and she nodded. “You good over here by yourself?”
“I’m going to speak to your parents,” she said, then lifted to her tiptoes and kissed me before letting my hand go and going over to my parents.
My pop locked eyes with me, nodded, then turned back to whatever conversation he was having with Mama and now Yale.
Once I was good with who she was with, I went to find my brothers.
Just as I was about to approach them, the sound of sirens echoed through the cemetery.
When the last car stopped, and the doors opened, we all lifted our hands in surrender.
Gift got out of the last car, grilling the fuck out of every cop as he passed them until he was standing in front of Xoey.
I stood there watching as they exchanged words, then Gift arrested her.
Xoey looked so damn tickled that it took everything in me not to laugh at her.
Gift whispered something into her ear, and she immediately stopped playing and glared at him.
She said something under her breath, and Gift smirked before shaking his head and hauling her away.
Nobody moved until after Gift put Xoey into the back of his car.
The police who showed up with him grilled us all before piling back into their cars and driving away.
“Somebody’s gotta call Xayne and Xia and tell them their daughter was arrested,” I said as I came to stand next to Pyrite. Citrine stood on his other side with an amused expression. This shit had to work.
“I’ll do it,” he said, nodding. “Xia is going to wreak havoc on the police station, and Xayne is going to kill anyone who says the wrong thing.”
“That nigga is going to want blood for his daughter being in cuffs,” I said, nodding. I looked forward to Xia and Xayne showing up. We needed the distraction.
“She’s safe, though,” Pyrite said, watching Gift drive away. “She’s with Gift.”
“I hope you’re right because I got a feeling none of us are as safe as we think,” I reminded him. My eyes went back to Yeti’s grave.
“We aren’t, but we aren’t blind to shit anymore either,” Pyrite sighed. He put his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “I hate that it came down to this, but it’s gotta happen.”
“It puts us in control of the situation for the first time,” Citrine said. “Now we gotta make shit shake before they realize that it’s a problem on their end.”
“Nine found out where the meeting is being held?” I asked, and Citrine nodded. “And…” My voice trailed off as I watched the DeCortes walk past us. They barely glanced in our direction as they made their way across the grounds and to their cars. “Where are they going?”
“Where do you think?” Pyrite chuckled. I quickly turned to him and lifted my brow. “Corinthians has a meeting.”
“Ain’t no way,” I said, shaking my head. Pyrite smirked and nodded. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” Pyrite answered. “They talked about it last night. Four knows he can’t stop her, and nobody else is bold enough to try and stop her.”
“I thought letting Psalms out of her garden was the worst thing we could do.” I rubbed my hand over my face. “This isn’t what I was expecting you to say.”
“Who did you think was going as a representative?” Pyrite asked, and I shrugged. “It was always going to be her, baby bro.”
“Did you ever see a fucking body?” I looked up to see Tulane yelling as Mirror held him back.
I looked around, confused about what he was talking about and who he was talking to.
“Huh? Did you ever see a fucking body?” He pulled away from Mirror and got in my face.
“Did you ever see a fucking body, Amethyst!”
“The fuck are you talking about?” I grilled him. I felt my brothers step to my sides, but I wasn’t worried about Tulane. I’d given him a pass before because he was Yale’s daddy, but that shit didn’t mean nothing to me now.
“That’s my fucking daughter!” He threw a manila folder at me. It hit my chest and fell to the ground.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Tulane?” I said, shaking my head. We were in the middle of the damn cemetery. Yeti’s body wasn’t even in the ground completely, and this nigga was talking about his daughter? I looked at the Forrester sisters; they were all accounted for.
“You had Morning look into what I told you about Doreen! Xavier was mentioned in the file!”
“She would’ve been because of the wreck,” I said, shaking my head. “You knew she had ties to the Kilmores. Why the fuck are you playing stupid for?”
“Because there are pictures in there!” Tulane yelled. “Pictures of Xavier from two weeks ago!” Mirror let him go and quickly bent down to pick up the folder. “My daughter is supposed to be dead! How is she in those pictures?”
“What?” I questioned him. “What the fuck do you mean Xavier is in those pictures? That’s impossible!”
“Apparently not!” Tulane snatched the folder from Mirror and put it in my face. “That’s my fucking daughter right there!”
“That’s Xavier?” I took the folder from Tulane and stared down at the picture. I’d never seen a picture of Xavier before. But now I was looking at a grainy photo of a woman’s back as she sat on the foot of Destyn’s bed. Diara was asleep in the bed holding Destyn.
“How do you know that’s her? You can’t even see her face,” I said, looking up from the picture. “That could be anyone.”
“Her tattoo!” Tulane tapped the picture. “That stupid ass pineapple tattoo on the back of her neck. She got it as a teenager with one of her stupid ass friends!”
“Wait, Xavier has this tattoo?” I asked, looking from him to Mirror. “Xavier has a pineapple tattoo!”
“This whole fucking time she’s been alive!
” His voice cracked, and I saw, for the first time, the scared father in him start to show.
He loved his girls, and that wasn’t ever up for debate, and I know that guilt ate away at him for not being there like he wanted to.
“This whole fucking time! All these damn years, I never knew what happened to her, then you tell me that fuck ass story about a crash and finding out it was her in the car.”
“I saw the car blow up!” I yelled back. “I saw it with my own fucking eyes!”
“And now you’re holding a picture of my daughter from two weeks ago!
” Tulane yelled, and Mirror stepped back up and pulled him back out of my space.
“You saw what them niggas wanted you to see, Amethyst!” Tulane pushed away from Mirror and shook his head.
“You saw what the fuck they wanted you to see to have this fucking guilt hanging over your head! Xavier isn’t fucking dead! ”
“You don’t know that.”
“She’s not,” Diara said, approaching us.
We turned and looked at her, confused as fuck about how or even why she would say that.
Morning and his brothers stood behind her, ready if shit popped off.
If he gave me the file and it had Diara and Destyn in it, then I knew that shit couldn’t be what I thought.
Nah, Diara couldn’t be somebody we couldn’t trust. There was no way she was working for the enemy this entire time. “She’s not dead.”
“How do you know?” I asked her. “Huh, Diara, how do you know?”
“Because we were friends once upon a time,” she answered. “We met when I was with Theo. She’s his boss’s wife.”
“His boss’s wife?” I asked, and she nodded. “Who the fuck is she married to?”
“Robert Strong,” she answered.