“It’s in the way you look at me, Rim. It has been since the day you met me at the pool party. No matter how hard you are, those expressive ass eyes say everything. The thing is, I’m damaged and a woman like you should stay as far away from me as possible because you deserve better, even if you don’t see it.”
“You’re damaged. I’m damaged. In the grand scheme of things everybody is carrying some sort of trauma that makes them damaged. Nobody is without damage. I mean, unless you’re a Caucasian male raised in the suburbs with a stay-at-home mom who drove a Mazda and a dad who worked enough to put food on the table and make it home every night before six. Either way, no person is more damaged than the other.”
He laughed between tracing kisses up to my chest. “Where the fuck do you get these analogies from?”
I shrugged. “I watch a lot of biographies and all the other informational TV. It’s interesting.”
“Animal Channel and shit like that, huh?” His face was hovering over mine as he waited for a response.
“Yes.”
He dipped his head, so his lips were less than a centimeter from mine. “Okay.” He kissed me.
A knock at my front door interrupted my thoughts. I blinked a few times, residing in the present before I was on my feet. I moved to my monitor in the cut of my living room where I saw my brothers Aro and Bry standing on my porch. Only God knew why these niggas were on my porch unannounced, knowing damn well I hated it. Aro didn’t care though. He neverhad, which was why I made a habit of popping up at his place unannounced as well. It was the least I could do.
I opened the door a few minutes later, immediately noticing the scowl on Aro’s face. I loved my brother but every single time I laid eyes on him he looked like someone had pissed him off. He was never not mugged up.
“Yo, you took too long to come to the fucking door. It’s cold out there.”
I waved him off. “Uh, first of all, you should have let me know you were coming. Both of you.” My eyes went from him to Brysheer.
Bry immediately threw his hands up in surrender. “I was minding my motherfucking business and this nigga dropped by my place of business talking about come take a ride with me.”
With my arms crossed over my chest, I mugged up my mugged-up brother. “How can I help your grouchy ass, so you can take that energy elsewhere? Be walking around acting like you need a hug all the fucking time.”
That earned a laugh from both him and Bry.
“I’ont need no fucking hug. I just don’t like being cold. I need you to look up a name for me though.”
“Lead with that then.” I turned around and moved back to my computer.
“Ol’ boy you’re messing with must’ve pissed you off or something, ’cause you’re definitely taking that shit out on us.”
“I don’t even know who you’re referring to, and no, I’m not taking out anything on you, Aroyal. I’m just returning your same energy from when you walked your rude behind in the door.”
Bry laughed. “You know he gives everybody attitude except Ma and Kay. Ol’ dramatic ass nigga.”
I laughed. “That you’re right about. Maybe I should be calling Kay to translate this fool’s moods.”
“Yo, fuck both of y’all.” He finally cracked a smile, following me to my computer.
“What’s the name, grouchy goober?” I looked from my software to Aroyal.
“Detective Jordan Oaks,” Bry responded, making me look in his direction as well.
“Isn’t the detective Unc had me look up?” I asked, looking between the two of them.
“That name sounded familiar.” I looked from him to Brysheer before back at my computer. “She’s cold case. What did she come to one of you about?”
“She came by the restaurant talking about Bryden and his disappearance. I had no ties to that, but she started talking about how people just don’t disappear, that the shit was fishy,” Bry responded.
Aro shook his head. “Shorty is bored as fuck, ever since I had that lil conversation with her for Unc. I’ma have another one with her soon. She’s gonna fuck around and become a cold case sniffing around cold cases.
I shook my head. “Be careful.”
Aroyal laughed. “Ain’t I always?”
I nodded. “Nope. You have moments. As a matter of fact, I’ll go with, just let me know when you go.”
