Page 265

“I said you did good, too. Good don’t mean perfect.”

“Go shower,” I told him.

Q walked over and wrapped his arms around me.

“Did you miss me?”

“You were only gone for a few hours,” I told him.

“Well, I missed you. Do you and the kids want to come to my place tonight?”

“I told you I’m not bringing my kids over there. We both agreed on that.”

“I was just trying. Are you okay?” Q asked.

“I’m fine.” I walked away to sit on the sofa.

“Is this about earlier? If so, business is business. Every time something suspicious comes up to you, you bring Rah’s name in it. Did our money cross a few times? Yes.”

“How?”

“Investments that I eventually pulled from.”

“Before Rah died?”

His eyes stayed on mine. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“The money stopped making sense. The King’s side was changing. Rah wanted out of certain shit. Shameek was restructuring other parts. Too many people started disagreeing about direction. Whenever too many powerful niggas start arguing about money, I remove myself.”

It was crazy how all this was coming out now. When I asked him earlier how well he knew Rah, he acted like they barely knew each other, but now their money crossed. I was going to leave it alone for now because Q didn’t mind answering questions when I asked. He just better make sure he remembered what he told me.

CHAPTER 35

SHAMEEK

Three days had passed since I’d told Kyenna what happened to Nikki, and she had been moving funny ever since. She wasn’t acting scared. A woman like Kyenna didn’t scare easily. She still answered my calls and responded to my text messages. She hadn't told me to stay away from her, but I also hadn't been invited to her house since Nikki caught my ass coming out of there. Every time I tried to slide the conversation into seeing her, she found some reason she had shit to do. I understood it. Killing Nikki wasn’t something I expected Kyenna to hear and then ask what time I was coming over. Still, I hated the distance.

I was standing in the office of one of my warehouses, staring at my phone when another message came through from my tech guy. I was relieved when he said he couldn’t find any scheduled emails and that he would continue watching the account. That was the first good news I had gotten all morning. Nikki had searched too much shit for me to believe the folder was the end of it. That feeling had been fucking with my sleep more than her death. I hated admitting it. I missed Nikki. There were moments when my phone went off, and I expected to see her name. Moments when something happened and I knew exactly what smart-ass comment she would’ve made about it. Years didn’t disappear because I put a bullet in her. I just had to make sure guilt didn’t make me careless. My office door opened as I sat my phone down.

“Yo’ mama here,” one of my guys said.

“For what?”

“Man, she ain’t gon’ tell me shit. She just walked in askin’ where you were.”

“Walk her back here,” I told him.

I already knew this was about business. My mama didn’t come to my warehouses. She hated them. We tried to keep her ass as far away from the business as we could. Though there was some stuff she knew about, just in case anything happened. We still kept a lot from her. A few minutes later, she walked in my office carrying her purse with the same expression she used to have when I got suspended from school.

“What did I do?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“Why I have to come all the way down here to find my child?”

“Mama, you got my number. Why didn’t you call?”

“And your ass don’t answer.”