“It wasn’t an accident,” December said, coming from around the door. He whistled twice, and the dogs walked into the house. He looked at Mirror, then at me, and shook his head. “If the Franklins were involved, it wasn’t an accident.”
“How do you know?” Mirror asked.
“Because they don’t leave shit to chance,” he answered. “Who do you want to know about?”
“Whoever’s in charge,” I said. Asking for help was tricky as fuck. December’s priority was his wife and brother. Having him deal with his father’s side could put their lives in danger, and I knew that wasn’t something he was willing to risk. “You got a second?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Come on, I gotta feed the dogs. We can discuss business while I do that.” He turned to Six, who was watching us. “We’ll be in the back. Call me if you need me.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, shaking her head. “I have some stuff to finish, so I’ll be in my office.” She kissed him, then went into the house. A white dog came from behind the door, looked at us, and then followed Six.
“Alright, let’s go,” December said, closing the door once Six was gone. He looked at Mirror, then at me. “She’s only going to give us so long before she shows up back there. So ask what you want to know and make it quick.”
“Which one of your uncles is in charge?” I asked as we made our way to the side of the house.
“None,” December answered. “The last I heard, it was my cousin Joshua. He stepped up after his pop stepped down.”
“Why did he step down?” Mirror asked before I could.
“He went missing,” December smirked. We rounded the house, then he entered a code into the gate, and we walked through the backyard.
“Missing?” I asked, and December nodded. “What the fuck happened to him?”
“Psalms DeCorte cried,” December said, and I stopped walking. He looked over his shoulder and lifted his brow. “You didn’t know?”
“Nah,” I sighed and wiped my hands over my face. “Fuck!” I threw my hands in the air, then let them drop to my side. This was the last thing I wanted to fucking deal with. “Are you sure?”
“Positive, I was there when it happened.”
“Umm, can y’all fill me in on what happened? And why is it a big deal that Psalms cried?” Mirror interjected.
“Was he the one who did that to them?” I asked, ignoring Mirror.
“One of them,” December nodded.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded. “Okay,” I said more to myself than to December. “Okay. So now I have to involve the DeCortes. I can do that.”
“You have to involve the sisters,” December clarified. I would rather deal with the boy cousins or even Cross’s short-tempered ass than to have to deal with them. “Because we both know that Corinthians isn’t going to let her do shit alone. Which means Uri is going to be involved.”
“Your entire family is going to die,” I said as I dropped my hand.
“My family is safe inside that house,” December said, pointing to his house. “Anyone else, I couldn’t care less about. If they gotta die, then that’s on them. If they were involved in his sister’s death, which I bet you they were, then they decided their own fate.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Yale
“Tragedy has struck the Legendary Kilmore family. In less than a week, two prominent members of the family have died. Pastor Luther Kilmore, age 68, died of a heart attack, and his son, meteorologist Grant Kilmore, age 32, died of a stroke-”
“Stroke?” Consonance interjected, and I nodded. “They are saying that his ass died of a stroke?”
I set my phone down and looked up at her. Her attention was on her phone; more than likely, she was working. It’d been almost a week since I found Grant’s body, and my life had flipped upside down. I stopped trying to get in contact with Amethyst after the first night. When I came back to his house to find all his things missing, I knew what time it was. He was gone, and more than likely wasn’t coming back.
“According to the ME and death certificate,” I answered as I sat back. We were waiting for the funeral car to pick us up. I traced the cup that sat in front of me and sighed. “I didn’t evenask questions when they told me. I just sat there, next to Quincy, while he handled it all.”
The last week had been a blur that I was becoming accustomed to. Quincy was barking orders at everyone who would listen while I was just around. I was numb to it all, but I had a feeling that the funeral was going to break something in me. It wasn’t that I was still in love with Grant because I wasn’t, but I did have love for him. Even at the end, when I realized he wasn’t the man I thought he was, we still had history. There was love there at one point, and I couldn’t just let it go because he was dead and I was in love with Amethyst.
“So, he planned the funeral?” she asked, and I nodded. “Do you have any idea who’s going to do the eulogy since Luther is dead too?”
