I walked through the lobby like I wished a nigga would try to stop me.
Security didn’t even bother. They knew who I was. Knew whose son I was, even if that woman and I hadn’t been right in years. I took the elevator up, stepped off, and headed straight for her suite.
India was at the front desk.
Same girl I’d caught with her face between my mother’s thighs a year ago. She looked nice in her professional suit, hair pulled back tight, playing the role of dutiful assistant like I ain’t seen her at her most vulnerable.
She looked up when I walked in. Eyes went wide.
“Mr. Banks, she’s in a meeting, you can’t?—”
I kept walking.
“Mr. Banks?—”
I pushed through the door.
Vivica was behind her desk, phone pressed to her ear. She was rockin’ a navy blue designer suit. Hair laid. Pearls at her throat. Every inch the politician.
“—and I told him the budget proposal needs to reflect our priorities as a?—”
I walked up to her desk and pressed the button to end the call.
She stared at me. Then at the phone. Then back at me.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“We need to talk.”
“You just hung up on the Deputy Mayor.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
This bitch had been a pain in my ass since I was a kid. All because I looked like the man she hated. I looked down on her with my face contorted in a scowl.
“Did you do it?”
“Did I do what?”
“Don’t play with me.” I kept my voice even. Flat. “Zainab. Did you have something to do with her arrest?”
Something flickered in her eyes. That little spark she got when she had information somebody else didn’t.
“Your baby mother got arrested for murder and you think I’m behind it?”
“Fiancée.”
“Excuse me?”
“She’s my fiancée. Not my baby mother. Get that shit right.”
Vivica waved her hand like the distinction was beneath her. “Whatever she is, I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t even know the girl was wanted for murder until the police showed up at that little bakery of hers.”
“Then why were you there?”
“Community engagement.” She said it slow, like I was stupid. “A city official supporting a new Black-owned business.It would’ve given your little criminal hoodrat some clout if she hadn’t gotten herself arrested.”
My jaw locked.
