“I need phone records,” I said. “From her office. The day of the arrest and the weeks before. I need to know who made that call.”
Quest nodded. “I got you. I know a guy in city IT who owes me a favor. Give me a few days.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Now go get my sister-in-law and my niece out that cage. Whatever it takes.”
We dapped each other up—that grip that said more than words ever could. Then I headed back to my car.
The penthouse was quiet when I got back.
Yusef was back at home with me. I wasn’t about to leave him at Justice’s house while I was running around handling business. He was my responsibility now. Mine and Zainab’s. And until she came home, I was gonna make sure he knew he wasn’t alone.
Mehar holds down the bakery and I hold down everything else.
I found him in the living room, sitting on the couch with his headphones on watching videos on Youtube.
“Yo,” I said, pulling off my jacket.
He looked up. Took off the headphones. Didn’t say nothing, but his eyes tracked me as I sat down across from him.
“How you doing?”
He shrugged. Picked up his pen. Wrote something.
Okay I guess.
“You eating?”
Yes. I made a sandwich.
“Good. That’s good.” I leaned back, trying to figure out how to do this. How to be what he needed. “Listen, Yu. I gotta fly out to California in a couple days. Your aunt’s being transferred out there.”
His face changed. Fear flickered in his eyes.
Are you leaving me?
“Nah. Never.” I leaned forward, made sure he was looking at me. “You’re coming with me. I’m not leaving you behind. We’re gonna be close to her. Both of us. That’s how this works. We’re a family. And family sticks together.”
He stared at me for a long moment. Then he wrote:
Promise?
“Promise.”
Something shifted in his expression. Relief, maybe. Or just the comfort of knowing he wasn’t gonna be abandoned again.
I looked at him sitting at that keyboard. Then at my guitar in the corner. It had been a minute since I played. Life had gotten too heavy for music.
“You know any Stevie Wonder?” I asked.
Yusef nodded slowly.
I got up and grabbed my guitar. Sat back down across from him. “Let’s run it.”
Yusef looked at me like he wasn’t sure I was serious. I raised an eyebrow at him. Waited.
He turned back to the keyboard. Positioned his fingers. Took a breath.
