Prime’s face stayed neutral. “Yeah.”
“Damn.” Zoo let out a disbelieving laugh. “Prentice Banks. We went to middle school together. MLK Middle. You remember me? Shawn? Shawn Mitchell?”
Prime’s expression didn’t change. “Vaguely.”
“Vaguely?” Zoo laughed again, but there was an edge to it. Disbelief, maybe. Or resentment. “Nah, man, this is crazy. Look at you. You used to be…” He gestured vaguely, and I knew what he wasn’t saying. Fat. Stuttering. A target.
“Things change,” Prime said flatly.
“Yeah. Yeah, they do.” Zoo was looking at Prime differently now. Sizing him up. Recalculating. “Heard you went away for a while. Came back different.”
“Like I said. Things change.”
The tension between them was thick enough to cut. Two men who’d known each other as boys, now standing on opposite sides of something neither of them fully understood.
Zoo shook his head slowly, then turned his attention back to Yusef.
“Look, lil man. I just want to know if Nigel had any beef with anybody. Any problems. Y’all was close. He would’ve told you if somebody was after him, right?”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Just stood there, frozen, watching my nephew’s face for any sign that he was about to crack.
Yusef looked Zoo dead in the eyes.
“No, sir,” he said. “Nigel never mentioned anything like that. We just played video games and stuff. I don’t know who would want to hurt him.”
The lie came out smooth. Natural. Like he’d been practicing it in his head for days.
Which, I realized, he probably had.
Zoo stared at him for a long moment. Searching. Probing. Looking for cracks in the facade.
Yusef didn’t blink.
Finally, Zoo nodded. “Aight. If you think of anything—anything at all—you let me know. Your mama got Brandi’s number, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Zoo’s eyes flicked to me, then to Prime, then back to Yusef. “I’ll be in touch.”
The words hung in the air like a threat. Because that’s exactly what they were.
Zoo stepped aside, giving us room to pass, but his eyes never left Yusef. Tracking him. Studying him. Like he was filing away every detail for later.
“Let’s go,” Prime said quietly, his hand on Yusef’s shoulder, guiding him toward the door.
We walked out of that church as fast as we could without running.
Brandi caughtme at the bottom of the steps.
“Z! Wait up!”
I turned, pasting what I hoped was a sympathetic smile on my face. “Hey, girl. It was a beautiful service. Nigel would’ve been pleased with it.”
Brandi’s eyes were swollen, her makeup long gone, but there was something fierce underneath the grief. Something determined.
“Thank you for coming. For bringing Yusef.” She glanced over at where Prime and Yusef were standing by the car. “I know this is hard on him too.”
“He’s doing okay,” I lied. “Taking it one day at a time.”
