“Good.” I was itching to get back home and put this shit behind us. Jasmine still hadn’t given me an answer about staying after her contract ended, but we’d cross that bridge eventually. After tying up a few more loose ends, we headed back to the living room. Jasmine was sitting on the couch, flipping through TV channels. Her face lit up when she spotted Nairobi.
“You look like you can handle guns,” Jasmine said, throwing an arm around Nai’s shoulder.
I snickered as Nai looked at Jas like she had three heads. “I can…”
Jasmine perked up. “Think you can teach me how to shoot when we get back to Atlanta?”
“I could teach you just fine,” I offered.
Jasmine put a hand up. “Uh, no thanks,” she shook her head. “You probably gonna be too extra with it and piss me off. I wanna learn from the Black Lara Croft.”
I sucked my teeth. “You don’t even know what she does forreal.”
Nairobi glanced at Fontaine. He had an amused look as he waited for her response. She cleared her throat and chuckled nervously.
“We’ll see,” she said. “Depends on my next contract.”
Jasmine was oblivious to the shift in energy and handed Nai her phone. “Here, give me your number so we can keep in touch.”
Nai quickly entered it and passed the phone back. Jasmine turned her attention to Jelani and smacked him upside the head as he plopped down next to her.
“You think Monica knows how to use a gun?” she asked.
“Fuck if I know. Ain’t that your friend?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Ain’t that your girl?”
Nairobi used their bickering as an opportunity to slip out of the room. Fontaine’s eyes tracked her, and after a beat, he pushed off the wall and followed.
Slim nodded toward the hallway. “So that’s a thing, huh?”
“Been a thing, but I guess they’re done hiding it,” I mused.
Slim snorted. “Well, good luck to that man. Nairobi is a runner.”
I cut my eyes at him. “How you know so much about her?”
Slim shrugged. “You work with someone long enough, you figure out their habits. That woman’s all about her bag and nothing else. Fontaine might complicate things, but shorty finna hit the bricks on that nigga.”
He had a point. Nai’s ability to slip in and out of lives made her an asset, but a liability for someone like Fontaine.
“They’re grown, they’ll sort it out. Ain’t got shit to do with us unless it affects business,” I said.
“True,” Slim replied. “But you already know that nigga’s in for a rude awakening if he hasn’t prepped himself.”
He was right. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t our business, and it was another reason why I never mixed business with pleasure. There was too much potential for mess.
“Ay, Money!” Jelani called from the couch. “Get your girl, she doing too much!”
CHAPTER31
JASMINE MILLER
The daywe were set to leave, a detective named Murdock finally called.
“Ms. Miller,” he started. “I’d like you to come in for questioning regarding Councilman Dorsey’s gala and anything you may know about the murder of Marcus Stokes.”
“I’d be happy to answer any questions you have—with a lawyer present,” I replied evenly. I didn’t have a lawyer, but I’d watched enough true crime documentaries to know the first rule: keep your mouth shut when talking to the police.
