Who the fuck leaked it to the media?
Who the fuck am I going to check first?
Kill…
Murder…
Kill…
Murder…
The first person on that list was Mase Davidson. Asao recognized him. Hated that he was granted the ability to dimSamari’s light. Asao checked those feelings, because now that Asao was her keeper, Mase wouldn’t touch Samari again. Asao was fucking pissed because he had been wrong. Mase was touching her. His hands didn’t have access but her character was being assassinated in the media so that muthafucker had access.
The video was out there. Samari was with Mase and another woman whose face was blurred in sexually explicit scenes that didn’t fit. He knew her faces, her reactions when he was exploring her body. What he was watching didn’t match.
Asao handed Niles his phone just as Dom stepped onto the bus with his eyes darting between his two most trusted friends.
“What you wanna do?” Niles asked. Dom waited.
“Call Raaj. See what he can do about that.” Asao motioned toward the phone before digging his out of his pocket. “Y’all got this?” he asked, dialing Samari’s number which went straight to voicemail seconds before he was dialing again.
The festival…
“Yeah, we’ve got it,” Dom responded. “Go do what you need to do.”
Even if Asao no longer gave a fuck about the festival, there were people counting on him who did. He wouldn’t let them down but he couldn’t give them his attention. His boys could. With a toss of his chin, he sent a text to Samari.
Asao: I’m gonna fix it. We have a deal. You have a problem, I’m the solution.
She needed to know he didn’t give a fuck about any of what was happening beyond making sure she was good. Right now he needed to find her.
20
Tuckedunder the bedding in the guest room of her best friend’s house, Samari did the best she could to settle her racing mind and soothe her aching heart. Her pride was destroyed. Betrayal and embarrassment flooded her system. She hadn’t done anything wrong but no one cared about her story. They wouldn’t give a damn that consent wasn’t given for the clip they were granted access to.
Sheree was with her. Their foreheads touched and Samari felt comfort from her best friend’s presence. She kept hereyes closed because she was embarrassed and couldn’t face the judgement.
“What did he do, Mari?” Sheree asked quietly because she knew her best friend. There was no doubt in her mind Samari had been played. Everything about that video contradicted the behavior of the person she knew and loved.
“I don’t know…” Samari said quietly. Her voice was small because that was how she felt.
“Did you know he was recording you?” Sheree asked, well aware that there was no denying Samari’s presence in the video. Her face, hair, and tattoos were signature and unmistakable, but she needed to know how Samari had ended up there.
“No. I don’t remember all the details from that night. I only have bits and pieces of it, and even watching that video, the memories still are there but I didn’t agree to any of that.”
“He drugged you?” Sheree attempted to hide her anger when she spoke but it came through.
Samari squeezed her eyes tighter, remembering the video she’d found in her deleted files. Mase and Nefatari together in the room at the party they’d attended. She’d taken ecstasy but it wasn’t their first time. She and Mase had taken the drug before but this time she had trouble remembering why she didn’t have control of her actions. Samari couldn’t lock down the details of that night. She never would have agreed to a sexual interaction with Nefatari nor being recorded but it happened. It’d fucking happened. The proof was there.
“We took ecstasy.”
Sheree didn’t flinch, because again, she wouldn’t judge. “Was that the first time?”
“No, but it’s the first time I don’t remember what happened.”
“Are you sure that’s what it was, ecstasy?”
“I had the pills. They were from my purse. He always pushed limits but that was my way of making sure I was safe.” Samarishook her head. “It doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t fucking matter. No one will care because the only thing that they know is what they saw on that video.”
