“It ain’t petty if it gets results, baby brother.” He grinned and took another sip. “But when you heading back to LA?”
“Tomorrow morning. I’ve been away too long.”
“Yeah you gotta go look after my future sister in law. Make sure she healthy and eating well. So my new niece don’t come out lookin’ how Storie did,” he laughed while looking at Justice.
Storie wasa lil funny looking at birth but most babies were. She filled out within a few weeks.
“Fuck you, man. My baby girls are both beautiful,” Justice cracked a smile.
“Yeah they are,now.”
“Storie’s head was a lil lopsided,” Justice finally laughed.
I knew that’s why Quest teased him. To get that nigga to crack a smile. It was hard to get him out of his head. The stress he was under raising two girls alone weighed on him. I knew that he missed Monica, but he had to learn to brighten up for the sake of those girls.
The flat screen above the bar caught my eye. CNN was running some story about a federal investigation and it was the RICO case against the estate of Rashid Ali. They showed footage of the compound in Virginia, federal agents carrying out boxes ofevidence. A photo of Rashid flashed on screen. It was an old one, from years ago, before the sickness hollowed him out.
I felt something twist in my chest.
“You good?” Justice’s voice was low.
“Yeah.” I took a slow sip of my drink. “Just… thinking.”
“About him?”
I nodded.
Quest leaned back in his chair, watching me. “How you feel about all that? Losing your mentor after everything that went down?”
I thought about it for a minute. Really thought about it.
“Bittersweet,” I finally said. “He taught me a lot. Made me who I am, for better or worse. And in a sick, twisted way…” I stared at the amber liquid in my glass. “If it wasn’t for him, I never would’ve met Zainab. She was connected to him, and I was working for him, and somehow we found each other in the middle of all that chaos.”
“God works in mysterious ways,” Justice murmured.
“Something like that.”
“You feel bad about what happened to his daughter?” Quest asked. “Farah?”
I was quiet for a moment. The ear. The message. The blood. Sometimes I wondered if I’d gone too far. If there was a line I’d crossed that I couldn’t come back from.
But then I remembered why I did it. Farah was collateral when we were trying to get Yusef back. Yusef was in hell while he was with Rashid.
“I did what I had to do to protect my family,” I said. “Same thing I’ll always do.”
Quest nodded. Justice said nothing, but I saw the understanding in his eyes. He’d do the same. We all would.
The news anchor’s voice cut through the low murmurs of the bar.
“Breaking news out of Washington D.C. tonight. Mayor Vivica Banks has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and suspected murder of her assistant, India Coleman.”
Everything stopped.
Quest sat up straight. Justice went still. I turned to face the screen fully, watching as they showed footage of our mother—OUR MOTHER—being led out of her row house in handcuffs. She was trying to keep her face composed, but I could see the cracks. The shock. The humiliation.
“Sources say Coleman was reported missing last week after neighbors heard a disturbance at her Navy Yard apartment. When police arrived, they found significant amounts of blood at the scene but no body. Mayor Banks was taken into custody this evening after forensic evidence linked her to the crime scene, including fingerprints found on the suspected murder weapon.”
The anchor paused,shuffling papers like she couldn’t believe what she was about to say next.
