My knees buckle. I glance toward the stairs. Can I make it? She chuckles. “Yuh cyaa run. Mi know this house like mi know mi heartbeat. And your friend dem? Yeah, mi tek care of that. So it’s just me… and you.” She tilts her head, grinning. “And the baby.”
A scream builds in my throat but I can’t let it out. My heart pounding so hard mi feel like it might burst. Please God. Please. “You can bawl all yuh want,” she sneers, stepping closer. Then she lunges. I duck, swing the lamp, it grazes her shoulder. She stumbles but recovers quick, rushing me again. I throw punches. Wild, frantic. She trips me with her foot. I crash to the ground.Get up, Zara!I scramble backwards, belly clutched, but she’s stalking forward. Like a demon. She grabs my hair, yanking me to the side. My head slams the wall. My fingers scream out in pain as she stomps them with her boot. “Please… stop!” I cry, but the tears just make her smile.
She drags my face upward. Thenwham!A hard blow across my cheek. Metal. Blood.
I taste it. She grins like a monster. Then her hand slithers down to my belly. She rubs it. I jerk away. She slaps me again, then presses a gun to my temple.
NICKOI
After wrapping up the conversation with the gang about Monday’s marijuana shipment and the incoming drugs, I fall back into my seat and begin rolling a spliff.
Time fi link Zara…
I reach for my phone, but Scar steps up, flashing a grin that already tells me he has something. Something serious. “Badman, yuh know seh a nigga just tell me seh him spot the bwoy Lennox today,” Scar says, a wicked glint in his eyes.
I smile.
So the coward deh pon the radar again.
Lennox in town?
Wait ‘til mi buck him.
“Eeeh? Which part?” I ask, eyes lighting up. Scar nods, arms crossed like the info sweet him.
“Portmore side.”
I pause, eyebrows twitching. Portmore? A that side him deh now? Maybe him have a woman ova deh… maybe him move. But him cyaa’ hide forever. Not from me. Before I can ask more, my phone buzzes in my hand.
Zara.
I press it to my ear, but I don’t even get the chance to say anything. I hear her sobbing. My heart drops instantly. Then another voice. That voice. Juaqína.
Shit. Shit. SHIT!
I freeze, blood rushing to my ears, trying to listen closely. I mute the call, heart pounding. Gutta walks up, brows furrowed the moment he sees my face.“Suh’m wrong, Mi G?” he asks, I don’t even answer. I already know I lookoff.I can’t let Juaqína hear me. If she knows I’m on the line, she’ll move faster, she’ll do something reckless. I call her phone immediately. No ring. Straight to voicemail. Bl’claat. I toss my phone to Gutta without thinking, and he catches it, eyes wide.
“Wha gwaan, bredda?” he asks. The rest of the room goes still. They feel it now, this nuh regular.
“Dawg, tell Genius fi hold on to deh call info, trace the location and MOVE FAST!”
I’m already sprinting out the door. I hear Gutta shout as he rushes toward Genius, giving orders. I unlock the car before I’m even close, yank the door, and fire up the engine. Gutta runs out after me, throwing up his hand in that wild motion we use when shit is urgent.
“My place. NOW!” I shout as I hit the gas, tires screeching out of the yard.
27
Feel
I ease the front door open, careful not to make a sound. Inside, the house is cloaked in darkness, but I hear her. Juaqína, talking low, venom in every word. Then I hear Zara. Relief hits me like breath after drowning, but I stay focused. I move down the hallway, quiet and cold. My steps silent. Calculated. Juaqína’s back is to me. She doesn’t see me. But Zara does. She meets my eyes, barely blinking through the tears, and I bring a finger to my lips. Don’t speak. Her eyes flick back to Juaqína just as the psycho grips her by the hair again, spewing madness.
“Same thing yuh do Talia enuh gyal!” Juaqína shouts at her, but that’s the last thing she gets to say. I swing the butt of my Glock and crack it clean into the back of her skull. She drops like dead weight, hitting the floor hard. I don’t waste a second, I reach for Zara, grabbing her gently but urgently, pushing her behind me. She’s trembling, holding her belly.
“I knew you’d come,” she whispers. I nod once. Always will. Juaqína looks up at me, voice soft but heavy.
“How yuh know mi deh here?” I cut my glare toward the body on the ground.
“You forget who man be?” I ask her, voice low, deadly serious. This right here? This is exactly why I trained for moments like this. I step over Juaqína’s body, but she starts to move. I spot her hand twitch toward her waist and react fast, kicking the gun across the floor before she can even touch it. She groans, squirming, thinking she’s slick. I step down hard on her ankle, smashing the side of her expensive Prada boots until the blade slides out. She gasps in pain. Then I dip, snatch the second knife from her waistband. I know all her hiding spots. Every single one. I lean closer, looking her dead in her eyes.
