Chapter 24
P eeling myself out of bed, I threw on some clothes and walked down the hall where Rayven was kicked back on the couch with her laptop on her stomach.
“Morning.”
“Hey, Tre.”
“I’m under strict orders to take care of you. Are you hungry?”
“No. How is she?”
“Managing. I spoke to her last night.”
Rayven nodded, my response igniting her appetite.
“I want pancakes.”
“Order it,” I replied, digging in my wallet and tossing her my card.
She held the weight in her hand, “Heavy. I like it.”
“I have some business to handle, but I need you here until I get back.”
“When will you be back?”
“I don’t know, but hit me if you need me. Not Sloane, because if something happens to you, I’m a dead man. Do you want your brother dead?”
Rayven shook her head, wearing a childlike smile.
“Well, isn’t this déjà vu?” Rylo stepped off the elevator, waving. “Hey, boo! You look just like Navie.”
“Thanks,” Rayven replied, slowly.
“This is Rylo. He’s gonna keep you company.”
“For a fee. Where’s my money?”
“Nigga you don’t get the check before the job is done.”
“A deposit is required for my time,” Rylo insisted, holding his hand out.
Shaking my head, I picked up my wallet and grabbed the spare bills left.
“You let something happen to her and I’m fuckin’ you up,” I warned.
“Did I let anything happen to Navie?” Rylo asked, angling his neck to the side, “How’s my girl?”
“Trying to make today better and bring her home.”
“Then why are you standing here looking at us?” Rylo shooed with his hands. “And when my girl comes home, we’re celebrating. First day out will be litty!”
“I’m down!” Rayven chimed in.
“Keep your ass here or you won’t be going anywhere.”
Rayven frowned, “Brothers are bossy.”
“Girl, they wanna run shit so bad,” Rylo sighed, “What you in here doing?”
I left the two of them to get acquainted while I got ready for the day. Sleep evaded me again last night, but when my burner vibrated, I got a second wind.
Unknown: It’s done.
Winston wanted to play fast and loose with Blue, soon enough he’d know what it felt like. I got dressed and gave Rylo another warning before climbing into the car to meet Fallon at the campaign office. It was the last thing on my mind right now, but the first on hers.
When I walked in, everybody tried to busy themselves, not expecting to see me. I stopped by Milaya’s desk to request the tea order Navie switched me to. I was determined to get my baby home today, and the last thing I wanted her to sniff out was coffee.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.” Fallon sat quietly watching me get settled. “It’s that bad?”
“Victor is capitalizing on Navie’s arrest, and it’s working. Your approval rating has plummeted. We have to act fast, Tre, or there might not be a campaign to save. It might be time to cut the cord. I promise it’s not personal, but you may have to choose between Navie and the election.”
“Leaving Navie isn’t an option.”
“Why not?”
Looking at the ground, my gaze drifted up to Fallon’s face.
She froze, eyes wide, struggling to comprehend, then it clicked.
Suddenly, we were back in my dorm room. Fallon came over to drag me to a Kappa Nu Theta party, but my face looked like it did right now.
It turned out Courtney was just late and not actually pregnant, unlike Navie.
“Jesus, Tre,” she sighed, falling on the sofa.
“I can’t abandon her. Not now, so we have to work with what we’ve got. Spin this shit somehow to point out the corruption we’re trying to protect the city from.”
“That’s a good angle. Leverage the people’s support in Navie’s favor. If this can happen to her, it can happen to them,” Fallon nodded, agreeing with her thoughts, “I’ll see if I can get you on Straight To The Pointe tonight.”
“Thanks, Fallon. I have a meeting with Mayor Abbott in an hour.”
“You might not need it. What is Sloane doing on TV?” she asked, grabbing the remote to turn the volume up.
She sat on the couch, in a crimson wrap dress, dabbing her face with a tissue while the host, Ashley, watched. Sloane Bishop could command a room with her presence alone, and right now she had the entire city in the palm of her hand.
“It’s hard watching your child sit in jail for something they didn’t do. Navie isn’t a murderer. If anything, she’s a victim of politics and powerful families trying to protect their own.”
“Which family is trying to protect their own?”
“Which one isn’t?” Sloane retorted, and Fallon cut her eyes at me.
The reporter leaned in, too eager. “Ms. Bishop, there have been questions raised about your own past—accusations of fraud, manipulation, and using wealthy men for financial gain. How do you respond to people who say your daughter learned from you?”
Sloane’s smile didn’t falter. If anything, it brightened. “Isn’t it interesting how when a woman is strong, resourceful, and refuses to be a victim, she’s called a con artist? Men make a fortune on charm, and they’re celebrated. A woman does the same, and suddenly she’s a criminal.”
I leaned back, jaw tight. This wasn’t about Navie’s defense, this was Sloane auditioning for sympathy and control.
“What matters now is my daughter. She’s being painted as a villain because the son of Madison Pointe’s golden family is missing .” Sloane smirked, trying to create doubt.
The reporter pressed, “Why has the nature of Navie’s past relationship with Lorenzo Strathmore Jr been such a guarded secret?”
The camera zoomed in on her face, every angle calculated, every word a dagger dipped in sugar. I wanted to snatch her ass through the screen, wanted to silence her smirk, “That was a very dark time in Navie’s life that she’d prefer to keep separate from her future.”
It was the last thing I heard, rushing out of my office. Every performance had a price, and the bill always came due. On the way to the Mayor’s office, my burner rang, and it wasn’t June or Ward. They were the only people who had the number, which only meant one thing.
“It didn’t have to come to this!” Winston erupted the minute I answered, “I offered you a one-way ticket into office after Victor’s term, instead you kidnap your fuckin’ sister.”
I laughed at him, desperately trying to leverage a relationship I didn’t give a fuck about.
“I’m my father’s son. I’ll do whatever to get what I want.”
“Don’t force my hand, son. Let Selah go.”
“Selah isn’t coming home until Navie does, so make the call and stop wasting my fuckin’ time.”
“Where is she? How do I know she’s okay?”
“She’s aight for now, but she’s with some real trench babies that love to shoot. Might wanna get off my line and make some calls.”
“You’re hatred for me is going to get someone you love hurt,” Winston sneered.
“Whatever nigga, call me back when you’re ready to talk business.” I hung up because he wasn’t talking about shit I wanted to hear.
The plan wasn’t to hurt Selah, and it wasn't because we shared the same paternal DNA. I just wanted Navie home, and I was willing to use whoever to make that happen. Unfortunately for Selah, I wasn’t cruel enough to take a fourteen-year-old child, so she had to pay for our father’s sins.
I pulled up at the Mayor’s office, greeted with smiles that quickly faded. He wanted to play Switzerland and let things play out until I asked why he didn’t do the same for his son’s DUI that killed a single mother.
For once, Miss. Dot’s nagging paid off. The chop shop on Wexler, she asked me to look into, got rid of the car.
Nigga’s loved coming to the hood, throwing money at their problems. Most didn’t have any, so for the right price, the secret would remain buried, but I knew where to look.
Mayor Abbott was eager to make some calls criticizing how my client was being wrongfully detained.
“You good, Mama?” I asked, holding the phone with my shoulder, as I climbed back in the car.
“Treason let that girl go.”
Her firm tone, using my government name, reminded me Winston was a bitch. Now I was more irritated that he called my mother because he was losing at his own game.
“If he wants his daughter, he knows what he has to do.”
“I get it. I promise I do, but this isn’t right. She’s innocent, caught up in somebody else’s shit just like Navie. How would you feel if someone took your child?” She ranted.
“He already did! Why are you yelling at me?”
“Tre, I just want you and Navie home safe! That’s it!” she fussed, as I switched lanes.
“I gotta go, Mama,” I hung up before I said something I couldn’t take back.
When I reached the hotel, I took the elevator to Sloane’s floor, beating on the door with my fist. Jaleb opened the door, surprised to see me, like he wasn’t married to another woman.
“What are you doing here?”
“ He was invited. What are you doing here?” Sloane asked, walking up behind Jaleb.
“I know it reminds you of the only thing you know how to wrap your lips around, but stop opening your mouth for every mic that’s put in your face.”
Jaleb snarled at my jab, while Sloane found it funny.
“You can’t even get Navie home, and you think your little insult hurts my feelings? I’m not sitting around waiting while you railroad my daughter into a life sentence.”
Mercury had to be in retrograde today. Too many half assed parents gassing themselves up.
“I call the shots because I’m not scared to take ‘em either. If you fuck this up, you have a bullet with your name on it,” I warned, shouldering my way inside.
“Tre calm down,” Jaleb tried to reason with me but we were beyond that staring back at Sloane.
“Don’t tell him shit! He’ll learn just like the rest of ‘em. I’m not to be fucked with, and neither are my kids.”
“You’re the only one allowed to fuck them up. Sorry ass excuse for a mother.”
Jaleb stepped in between us, defending Sloane with a look I’d never seen before. Not even with Chelle, “You need to calm the fuck down! That’s still her mother, and everybody wants the same thing! That’s getting Navie home.”
“Nigga shouldn’t you be home with your wife?
What the fuck are you even doing here?” I gritted my teeth at Jaleb.
“If she wants someone to blame for where Navie is, look in the fuckin’ mirror.
She got her in that shit with Lorenzo! All this smoke for me, but not the nigga that used her daughter’s head as a bowling ball. ”
Oxygen fled Sloane’s brain, leaving her looking up at me, chest heaving with anger.
“I love your daughter in a way you never did, so I know it’s hard for you to understand. It would actually bring me joy knowing you can’t hurt her again, so stay the fuck out of my way before I start spilling secrets.”
Jaleb flipped between my satisfied grin and Sloane’s annoyance. It was incredible watching her control his strings in real-time. The idea of me knowing something about his beloved that he didn’t made Jaleb snatch the door open.
“Outside now!” Jaleb ordered, walking out first.
“Don’t say a word to him, or I promise you’ll regret it,” she snarled, as I opened my stride.
“Then stay out of my way.”
I joined him in the hallway, hands tucked inside his pockets like he was ready to use them, “I know you’re worried about Navie, but Sloane is too, and she’s trying to help.”
“That pussy has you delirious. Sloane is trying to help herself.”
“Watch your mouth!”
“Does Chelle know you’re here?” I asked, leaning against the wall before saying the quiet part out loud
“Don’t you have bigger problems to solve than worrying about my marriage?”
“No problem bigger than the alimony you’ll be paying Chelle if she finds out.”
“How will she find out?”
I shook my head. “You’re wildin’ for real.”
“I know,” Jaleb sighed, his hand washing over his face, looking as stressed as I felt.
“I love my wife and the life we’ve built, but Sloane is addictive, a high that leaves you chasing more even when you knew it could ruin you.
I know I shouldn’t be here, but I am here risking everything to feel it again.
I didn’t want that for you. I have my family’s name to fall back on if things go wrong. You don’t Treason.”
“I’m out, and if you were smart, you’d leave with me.”
Jaleb didn’t care about being smart. Sloane had a hold on him, making even the reddest flags look green as he strolled in the opposite direction. There was nothing you could do for a man who didn’t want help, so I left.
Inside my car, the phone vibrated with an incoming call from Winston asking to meet.
I agreed, after making sure June still had Selah.
I hoped he wouldn’t be stupid enough to try me when I still had his daughter.
To make sure, when I arrived at the old baseball field, where I played Little League, I observed him, waiting for ten minutes before I climbed out.
“You’re late, and what did you have on the Mayor?”
“Calling my mama almost got your daughter clapped. Don’t do that shit again,” I warned, ignoring his question.
He had a lot of balls calling my mother about the child he raised after neglecting hers.
“I know she’s the only person that can talk you out of making a bad situation worse,” he said, his tone clipped, as though I’d come to him begging, “I’m actually impressed how far you were willing to take this.”
“That past tense can turn present real quick. Make the fuckin’ call.”
Winston’s jaw flexed, a smirk tugging at his mouth. “For better or worse, you are my son. That’s the only reason you’re still breathing, but that only gets you one pass.”
“Don’t ever call my mother again. Shouldn’t be hard, since you’re good at leaving her.”
There was a silence between us, thick enough to choke on.
He studied me, like he was staring into a mirror he hadn’t asked to look at.
The same sharp edges, venom, and willingness to scorch everything in our path.
But the truth sat heavy in my chest, even as he reached for the phone.
Deep down, I knew I was more like him than I wanted to be.
“You can go pick her up,” he announced. “Now I want Selah home.”
“When I have Navie, I’ll send you an address.”
I didn’t trust him, and he didn’t trust me either, kissing his teeth as I climbed in the car.