“You mean Abena had her shot down before she could make that meeting,” I say.
“Yeah.” Miriam shrugs.
“Do you have the proof?” Nef quietly asks.
“No. I only have what you see there…” Miriam looks at me. “But you have the proof.”
“The hell are you talking about? If I had proof that Abena was behind my kidnapping, do you think I would’ve sat on it for all these years?” I huff out an abrupt chuckle. “Fuck you playing at?”
Instead of answering, Miriam strides down the hall, before stopping in front of Ma’s bedroom door. We follow her, and when she pushes the door open and walks inside, everyone else files in, but I… don’t.
I hover in the doorway as a flash flood of memories rushes to greet me. It’s been nine years since I’ve stepped foot into this room. And though it’s impossible, I swear, under the dust and stale air, I can still catch Ma’s scent of jasmine and vanilla. That, too, is a ghost. This room is full of them.
Inhaling, I force myself to walk forward, remembering why we’re here. Who we’re here for. Miriam moves across the dirtyfloor to the cobweb- and grime-covered—yet gorgeous—oval-shaped mirror that was Ma’s favorite. It sits above the black marble vanity, its ornate gilded frame a thing of beauty from a long-ago time. When I was a little girl, she’d sit me in her lap while she applied her makeup or fixed her hair and tell me how pretty and strong I was, how I would be a powerful and fair queen one day.
Lifting the furnishing from the wall with a grunt, Miriam lays the mirror on the bed. A dirty cloud puffs up, but I barely pay it any notice. No, all my attention is grabbed by the flash drive taped to the back of it.
“What’s on that drive is enough to hand the Mwuaji throne over to you,” Miriam says.
“Who put this…?” I can’t complete the sentence.
“Zuri did.” Miriam removes the flash drive and hands it to me. “From what I was told, your mother wasn’t able to get the information from the informant the night she died, but what’s on there”—she nods at the drive in my hand—“is more of what she gathered herself. And it’s damning. Aisha gave Zuri that as insurance in case she didn’t make it back from the meeting. And Zuri came back here and hid it before disappearing.”
“All this time, the answers were right here,” I murmur, cradling my future in my hand. “Thank you.” I glance at Miriam. “But we still got beef forever over how you abandoned your brother.”
“Like I said before, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Disrespectfully. My story—our story—is just that: ours. You’ve only been here for the last part and have no idea about the earlier chapters or what went on in between,” Miriam snaps, and this time I don’t have to question what emotion sizzles in her bright eyes.
Anger.
Pain.
I get what she’s saying—I don’t know her. I don’t know what the last almost two decades have been for her. But I also can’thelp but hear the pain in Malachi’s voice, see it etched in his face when he talked about her.
“I don’t know, sis. The loose goat don’t know what the tied goat do.”
Silence falls over the room, and with a frown, I turn and look at Kenya.
“Okay, I’ll volunteer as tribute.” Sienna raises her uninjured arm. “Uh, boo. What the fuck you talking ’bout?”
Kenya shrugs. “All I’m saying is you don’t know what you’d do unless you were in another person’s shoes.”
“Why didn’t she just say that?” Jamari whispers to Doc.
“I hit kids, li’l boy,” Kenya whispers back in that sweet, syrupy voice of hers.
“I don’t really care if you understand or not. What I do understand is my brother’s life is at stake. And I’m going after Abena with or without you. Might as well be with you since you’re down a person.” She glances at Sienna. “And a half.”
“Okay.” I nod. Because, shit, the heffa has a point. We need as much help as we can get, and having a Terminator super-assassin on our side would definitely help even the odds. “Sienna, I’m going to get on your ass later about why you’re not still in the safe house. But right now, we need a plan.”
“I contacted Richter and Moorehead as soon as you called me earlier,” Doc says, leaning against the desk, seemingly uncaring of the years’ worth of grime covering it. It seems appropriate and even fitting that we’re planning a coup in Ma’s bedroom. “Abena already summoned us to the obodo for the… show. It seems she’s calling everyone to the compound to witness your execution. It’ll take them a few hours to gather their people and about seven more to get here, but that should be more than enough time to make the deadline Abena’s given you to turn yourself in. They said they’ll be ready for whatever you need.”
“Same with Bisa and Taraji. They’ve been waiting years for this day. We all have,” Tera adds, a sneer curling her lips.“They’re sending in people ahead of time to stash weapons. But they’ll be there with the numbers you need.”
“Okay, exactly what’s on this?” I hold up the flash drive. “And how is it going to help me bring Abena down?”
Miriam smiles, and I fear no one, but she got me reaching for imaginary rosary beads. “I have ideas.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEENMalachi
