“I-I…I just…”
“Just what?” I demand.
She shakes her head.
I’ve seen enough.
I put my car in park and cut the engine, jumping in her passenger side before she has a chance to lock me out.
“You always ride around with your doors unlocked?”
She shakes her head again.
“What’s goin’ on, Raya?”
She takes a deep breath, sighs loudly, then finally loosens the death grip her fingers have on the steering wheel.
“Look at me.” I wait until her eyes are on me. “It ain’t a damn thing you can’t tell me. I knew who I was marrying. I’m not here to judge you, but I can’t help you or protect you if you don’t let me in.”
“You don’t wanna help me with this.”
I stare at my wife’s trembling lips. “Try me.”
She swallows hard.
“Alright then,” I say. “Let’s start with; who the fuck is Sisco?”
The pause stretches long enough that I start to feel a familiar pinch in my stomach. A nagging twinge that reminds me, almost every day now, that Raya is a precarious kind of woman. Ain’t no resting on my laurels with her. I’ma be on my toes for the rest of my goddamn life.
“Okay,” she finally says. “There’s this little girl.”
“Stop,” I say, holding up a hand. “I hope you aren’t about to tell me you’re fixated on some little girl. Because there’s a lot I can overlook, but—“
“It’s not like that,” she interrupts. “She used to be my student. Honestly, I don’t even like her. As a person, I mean. But…” she trails off, shrugging slightly. “I check on her from time to time just to make sure she’s okay.”
“Why?”
She shrugs. “I guess…in some ways…she reminds me of me. Only, I didn’t really have anybody who checked on me when I needed it.”
“What about Tori?”
“Well, yeah, Tori, but she was always on the go. It wasn’t…enough.”
I turn, angling my body toward her as that settles in. “Is this little girl being abused?”
“No,” she rushes out. “Nothing like that. But she’s a lot. Just like I was. And I guess I don’t want anything to break her like it broke me.”
I nod. “And her name is Sisco?”
She smiles for the first time. “Sisco’s her father. And I think he’s cheating on her mother. So I’m here scoping him out, that’s all.”
I scrub a hand down my face, then shake my head in disbelief. “So I just pulled up on my wife doin’ a fuckin’ stakeout? That’s what you’re saying?”
“I guess so.”
“And what were you planning on doing once you got proof?”
She shrugs again, and I feel like she's too nonchalant about this. “I hadn’t worked that out yet. But it was gonna start with this.”
