I touched the side of my head without thinking. The scar tissue was still tender where my ear used to be. I’d gotten good at styling my hair to cover it, but I knew it was there. Every time I looked in the mirror, I saw what he did to me. What he took.
He thought cutting off my ear would make me disappear. Would make me crawl into a hole and die.
He was wrong.
The rental was a small house in Culver City, nondescript, and forgettable. It was a place no one would look twice at. Vivica had stocked the fridge, left cash on the counter, and set up a laptop with everything I needed. Satellite images of Zainab’s neighborhood. Her court documents. The schedule for her ankle monitor check-ins.
She really had thought of everything.
I spent the first night studying. Learning the layout of the streets. Memorizing the position of every camera, every neighbor’s car, every possible escape route. By morning, I knew that neighborhood better than the people who lived there.
Then I went to see for myself.
I parked three houses down, on the opposite side of the street, hidden behind a delivery van that had been sitting there since yesterday. The house was nice—not just nice, it was a damn castle. Stone archways, turrets, stained glass windows. A BELL TOWER. And a pair of luxury cars in the driveway.
Prime’s cars.
He was in there with her. Playing house. Acting like they were some happy little family while my father rotted in the ground and my brother’s body was dumped in some Panamanian prison.
I watched for hours. Saw movement behind the curtains. Saw her shadow pass by the window once—that pregnant belly unmistakable even from a distance.
She was huge. Ready to pop any day now.
Good.
That meant whatever happened next, she’d be going through it alone. No Prime to hold her hand. No comfortable house to recover in. Just a cold cell and the consequences of stealing a life that was never hers to take.
My phone buzzed.
Vivica:Anything?
Me:She’s home. He’s with her. The boy too.
Vivica:Good. Keep watching. Learn their patterns. We need to find the right moment.
Me:And if the right moment doesn’t come?
Vivica:It will. Just be patient.
Patient. I hated that word. But she was right. Rushing this would only get me caught.
Me:Fine. I’ll keep you posted.
I put the phone down and settled deeper into my seat, eyes fixed on the house.
I could be patient. I’d waited this long. A few more days wouldn’t kill me.
But it might kill her.
27
PRIME
The wheels touched down at Reagan National and I was already in killer mode.
Not literally. Not yet. But my mind was locked in, focused, ready to handle business. Every minute I spent away from Zainab was a minute too long, so I needed this shit done quick and clean.
Quest was waiting for me at arrivals in his Maybach. I spotted his Gucci shades and custom suit through the tinted windows. Looking like money even when he wasn’t trying. But I knew my brother better than anybody, and soon as I got close, I peeped it—that tightness in his jaw, the way his eyes weren’t quite tracking. Something was eating at him.
