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“Call my connect at the police station. We need access to Flock. I want every camera from the time she left that family’s property, if you can get it. I need every camera we have around this building. Find the vehicle, get the plate, and find out every time that man has been on or near one of my properties.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And if he’s still anywhere near this building, I want him found.”

Marcus stepped away to make the calls. Daddy turned back to me.

For years, I’d complained about his security. His questions. His insistence that I call when I got somewhere. The locks he had added to my apartment even though the building itself was already secure. I had spent most of my adult life reminding him that what happened to me when I was five didn’t mean something bad was always waiting around the corner. Looking at him now, I could tell neither one of us was thinking about breakfast anymore. He was staring at me like he was trying to study me.

“I’m okay,” I said.

“I know.”

But his face said something different. I reached for his hand, and he closed his fingers around mine immediately.

“I didn’t know he was following me, Daddy.”

“I know you didn’t.”

“I would’ve called somebody if I knew.”

“I know that too.”

I started to blame myself. His thumb moved over the back of my hand while his eyes returned to the monitor. The man who had followed me home was frozen on the screen. Daddy stared at him for a long moment before looking at me again.

“I already know what it feels like not to know where my daughter is,” he said quietly. “I’m never living through that again.”

This time, I didn’t tell him he worried too much.

Chapter 22

MJ

Iended the call, but I couldn’t put my phone down. Ghost’s face was still on the screen, and the longer I looked at the picture, the harder it became to ignore what I was looking at. He had been that close to Penelope. Close enough to reach out and touch her. That was the thought that fucked with me. Not where he had been before she got home or how long he’d been watching anything. None of that mattered to me at that moment. All I could see was the picture of them standing inside that elevator together and think about how easily that shit could’ve gone differently.

Penelope didn’t know who he was. She wouldn’t have known to be afraid of him. If Ghost had smiled at her, she probably would’ve smiled back because that was the kind of person she was. If he’d asked her something innocent, she would’ve answered. She had stood beside a nigga who had already shown all of us exactly how far he was willing to go, and she hadn’t had a reason in the world to think she was in danger. My chest tightened. I thought about her voice changing when I finally told her who he was. You scared? Yes. That one word stayed with me. I didn’t like Penelope scared. I damn sure didn’t like knowing somebody connected to me had put that fear in her.

For months, Ghost had been a name attached to everything that happened to my family. He was the reason Pops was in a wheelchair. The reason Maliah had almost lost her father right in front of her. The reason that every strange car or unfamiliar face had everybody paying a little more attention than they used to. I hated him for all of that, but this hatred building in my chest felt different. This was Penelope. Pops didn’t deserve shit that happened to him, Mali either, but Penelope was the sweetest person in the world, and anyone would tell you that. She was the same woman who had been in my arms a few hours earlier and was now standing beside her father, looking at security footage because some nigga connected to my family had followed her home.

That shit felt personal in a way I hadn’t been prepared for. I finally locked my phone and lifted my head. Pops was inside Ma’s room. I could hear his voice from where I stood in the hallway, although I couldn’t make out everything he was saying. A second later, Ma laughed, and something about hearing it stopped me from walking in there. Normally, that would’ve been my first move. Pops would’ve known what to do. He always knew what to do. But I didn’t want to see his face change when I showed him that picture. I didn’t want to watch him go from sitting beside his wife and newborn son to trying to figure out how to protect everybody all over again.

Ghost had already taken enough from him. I put my phone in my pocket and went looking for Tahari. He was sitting with Maliah in the waiting area. She had her head against his shoulder with her eyes closed, and his arm was around her. I didn’t know if she was asleep or just exhausted enough to stop talking for five minutes, but either way, I wasn’t waking her up for this shit. Tahari noticed me before I reached them. I motioned toward the elevators.

“Come with me,” I said lowly.

Something on my face must’ve told him it wasn’t the time for questions because he carefully moved from beneath Maliah and stood. Her eyes opened anyway, but Tahari told her he’d be right back before following me. We didn’t say anything until the elevator doors closed. Then I pulled out my phone. I opened the picture and handed it to him.

Tahari stared at the screen, and his whole face changed.

“He followed Penelope home.”

Tahari looked at me.

“What?”

“Yeah… last night.”

That was all I gave him. His eyes went back to the picture. For several seconds, he didn’t say anything. Then his jaw tightened.