“Ay, what Mama always say about speaking shit into existence?” I questioned him. “Huh? What does she say?”
“Speak it into the air so God can hear you--”
“Never mumble your desires because then they seem unsure, and God only gives you what is designed to be yours. Yamari ain’t going nowhere, man. She needs time to rest.” The doorbell rang, and I wiped my face to get myself together. “That’s probably Citrine. Let me get off here. Love you.”
“Love you too,” he said, then hung up.
I set my phone on the counter, then left the kitchen to open the door. When I got to the front door, I didn’t even check before turning the knob. With all the shit going on, it would’ve been smart to do, but my mind wasn’t where it was supposed to be. I pulled it open and came face-to-face with Citrine and two other men.
“Come on,” I said, stepping back. I dapped up my brother, then the two men with him.
“Amethyst, this is Kenbral and Gentle Strong,” Citrine said, pointing to each man as he said their name. “Gentle is Nine’s brother and goes by Eight, and Kenbral is Four’s brother and goes by Trey.”
“Nice to meet y’all,” I said, nodding. “I’m in the kitchen cooking so we can talk in there.” Once we were back in the kitchen, I washed my hands and resumed preparing dinner. “When Pyrite said I was going to meet some folks, I didn’t expect to meet Nine and Four’s little brothers.”
“Older,” Gentle corrected me. His tone reminded me of Nine’s.
I stopped peeling my potatoes to look at him and chuckled. Gentle had the same cocky ass demeanor as Nine. Not only did they look alike, but more than likely, they acted alike too, which meant that the Strongs’ attitude was genetic.
“Older, younger, doesn’t matter, you’re a new Number. One I probably won’t remember by the end of the week, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Amethyst,” Citrine sighed. “They are good people, chill with the attitude.”
“Why are they here?” I asked Citrine as I went back to peeling. “What do they add to the story that I don’t know?”
“Yours?” Kenbral questioned and shook his head. “Not a fucking thing but some excitement. You aren’t on our radar, which is why you didn’t know about us. The ones who mattered did.”
“Muthafucka--”
“Amethyst?” Yale called my name as she came into the kitchen. I looked up to see her and Spelman standing in the doorway. Her eyes went from me to Citrine and then settled on Kenbral, and her eyebrows damn near touched. “Why are you here?”
“You know this nigga?” I asked Yale, and she nodded. “What? How? When did y’all meet?”
“He’s FBI,” she answered, still watching Kenbral. “When Grant died, he investigated his death.”
“A cover,” Kenbral said, shaking his head. He chuckled and then shrugged. “I had to come in since this nigga decided to kill Grant and let his body be found.”
“You killed Grant?” She cut her eyes to me.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Kenbral looked between us, and I was ready to kill this nigga. Yeah, he was a Strong for sure. “Damn, Doc, I thought she knew. My fault.”
“My nigga, I just met you, and I already can’t stand your ass.”
“That’s crazy because everybody else loves me,” he replied. “But then again, that could be because they’ve had years to deal with me.” He smirked. “I told you only the important people knew about me. You weren’t considered important until now.” His fake ass smile dropped. “Time to get you caught up so we can get this shit over with.”
Chapter forty-four
Yale
“Amethyst, you killed Grant?” I asked later that night. The room was pitch-black, but I knew he was in there. I’d known since I woke up earlier to go pee. He sat in the corner on the floor near the door.
“Go to sleep, Sunshine,” he answered with a chuckle. Nothing was funny, but he laughed anyway. “You aren’t going to do anything but yell at me, and I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with that right now.”
“Well, that’s too damn bad,” I said, sitting up. I reached over to the nightstand and turned on the small lamp that sat on it. Amethyst covered his eyes and shook his head.
“I always hated that fucking thing,” he said. “You could’ve given me a heads up.”
“I could say the same thing, but it would’ve fallen on deaf ears, so surprise.” I adjusted the pillow behind me and gotcomfortable. “Now do I have to ask again, or do I need to call your daddy and tell him that you’re stressing me out?”
