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“I heard you.”
“I mean it.”
“And I said I heard you.”
There was a short silence. And while I listened to her breathing on the phone, I grabbed my backpack from the chair.
“I’ma call you back. I gotta go,” I said.
“When?”
“Soon.”
“You better.”
I smiled despite how irritated I was.
“I love you,” she said softly.
“Love you too, Ma.”
“And Giovanni?”
“Yeah?”
“Think before you do anything.”
My smile disappeared.
“I got you,” I said before ending the line.
For a few seconds, I stood in the middle of the motel room staring at the prepaid phone.
Tahari had gone to Ma. Then I’m sure that he had driven all the way to North Carolina looking for me. I didn’t need to wonder anymore about whether my brother wanted to find me. He did. The only thing I wondered was what he planned to do with me once he did. I knew Tahari’s number the same way I knew Ma’s. Some shit stayed in your head no matter how long it had been since you used it.
I punched the number into the burner, hit call, and it started ringing. Once. Twice. Then…
“Hello?”
I recognized his voice immediately. I grabbed my bag from the bed.
“We need to talk, little brother.”
There was silence on the other end before Tahari spoke.
“Where you at?”
I smiled slightly.
“I’m surprised you haven’t found me yet.”
“You called me, Ghost… You needed something?”
I could tell that he was annoyed by the tone. Shit, the only reason why he probably didn’t hang up on me yet was because he really wanted to find me.
“Yeah. I’m tired of this shit,” I admitted.
“So am I.”
