Just as I grab a cup from the cabinet above me, Eshe pads into the room behind me, nabs the broom and dustpan from the closet—I don’t even bother asking how she knew of it—and starts cleaning up the mess we left last night.
“I’m guessing Derrick told someone he was staying with you,” she murmurs into the silence several moments later.
I nod as the fragrant, strong scent of freshly brewing coffee permeates the air.
“Yeah, his Creed handler and a man he considered his bestfriend. Also the man who took him out when Derrick failed to complete a hit.”
Gutting Noah Lacombe had been a long time coming. I don’t give a fuck that it hadn’t been personal for him when he’d blown the back of Derrick’s head off. Just a Tuesday. The only thing that had saved his life seven years ago was knowing Derrick believed the same thing. But betraying me to Abena? That greenlit my hatred that had never fully disappeared. And when I sliced that tongue from his mouth before putting a bullet between his eyes, I made sure the shit was for old and new.
“I can see you over there just reminiscing.” She snorts, sweeping the last of the soggy vegetables up into the dustpan before dumping them into the garbage can. “I hope you made him hurt.” Switching out the broom and dustpan for the mop and bucket, she glances over at me. “Who’s the other person who knew about the location of your place?”
“Jamari.”
“Yeah, he didn’t betray you,” she says with an abrupt chuckle.
I stare at her as she takes the bucket over to the sink and fills it with hot water and dish detergent.Iknow that, but how does she?
“Why do you say that? You was in his company for a few hours. Not enough time to make that kind of determination.”
She looks up at me from where she’s crouched under the sink, a bottle of bleach in her hand. “And it took all of ten minutes of those hours to know how much that boy looks up to you and worships you. I think he’d throw himself in that river he rowed a whole-ass canoe across before betraying you. When you’re around snakes long enough, recognizing purity of soul isn’t hard to do. It shines like a beacon, and you have two reactions: Dirty it or protect it.”
“Yeah?” I remember my cup of coffee and pick it up. “Which side do you fall on?”
She straightens and looks me dead in the eye, shrugging a shoulder. “Depends. But Jamari? He’s a fucking national treasure. Protect it.”
I snort, handing her the cup. Surprise flashes in her hazel eyes before she hesitantly accepts it. Not caring to see the gratitude in those pretty eyes, I turn around for another cup and pod.
“That national treasure is one of the best hackers on the dark web and at this very moment is either being hunted or recruited by the FBI. At sixteen.”
“All I heard is he’s as brilliant as he is sweet. With very discerning taste in movies.”
“Jesus.”
I pop the lid down on the coffee maker and focus on that while she laughs and mops the floor.
“How did he know to be waiting for us on the river?” she asks, wiping the mop back and forth, and it’s almost as if she’s lost in a trance. And I’m damn near caught up in it, only the hiss and pop of the brewing coffee yanking me out.
“I didn’t know what I was going into, so on my way to the compound, I contacted him and told him to be on standby. Woods surround three sides, and the river borders the other. Escaping by land would’ve been expected, and that’s probably where they’re searching even now. The odds of them thinking we went to the river were slimmer.”
“You just have canoes on hand?” She side-eyes me.
“You don’t?”
“Can’t say I’ve ever needed one. But then again, I’m not a paid assassin.” She tilts her head, studying me when I shrug. “You don’t feel bad involving him in your shit? I had a body count at sixteen. I can just look at Jamari and tell he doesn’t know what it is to look in someone’s eyes and see the life leave them. Not everyone belongs in our world.”
I turn around, taking my time and deliberately picking up the cup of coffee. The seconds afford me time to get my annoyance at the insult she delivered under control.
“You claim to have spent two years stalking me—”
“Studying you.”
“—and yet you still ask me some shit like that.” I lift my cup,sipping the brew. She doesn’t flinch, just steadily meets my hard stare. “You’re the one who ran my shit down. So yeah, I don’t do hits on kids, and I also don’t willfully involve them in my business. But, contrary to what you think, you don’t know Jamari. Yeah, he’s brilliant and loyal, but he’s also stubborn as fuck. And no matter how many times I tell him to leave me alone, he won’t. It’s that same loyalty that won’t let him forget he ever met me. So it’s either I take him under my wing and monitor his activities or let him go off on his own and get killed. That’s what tonight was about. Feel me?”
She nods, her thoughtful scrutiny leaving me feeling splayed wide open, exposed. I’m seconds from telling her to find something safe to do when she resumes mopping. Once she finishes with the floor and empties the bucket in the bathroom—again, not asking how she knew its location in the loft—she returns to the kitchen and scrubs the pan.
“You don’t have to do all that,” I say, sipping my coffee with a scowl. “I don’t need a maid.”
“I don’t mind. I… need it, actually.”
