“I don’t appreciate being ignored!” Apricot started going in as soon as I got off the phone with Doug. “My life is literally in danger, and niggas are still keeping secrets from me.”
“Some African tried to extort your father! Your father refused to pay him, and I don’t know what happened after that, but your pops had a restaurant shot up. The guy’s lady was hit. She was pregnant. Her and the baby died. Now that you know what are you going to do with the information?!”
“Oh, my fuckin’ gosh.” Apricot’s tone was low, and I could tell the information that I’d given her had her at a loss for words. “Wow.”
I glanced in my rearview mirror every few seconds to make sure I wasn’t being followed. When I was sure that I wasn’t, I decided against taking Apricot back to my house. She was giving me a headache, and I didn’t want to hear the bitching and complaining all night. She was pissed at me for breaking into her house. Cool. I wasn’t going to keep trying to get her to see that I wasn’t the bad guy. Or maybe I was, and I just didn’t give a fuck.
The rest of the car ride was silent. I could practically feel steam coming off Apricot’s body. She was pissed. “I’m supposed to be in fear of my life for the rest of my life?” she finally spokeagain. Apricot’s voice cracked, and I could tell she was on the verge of tears.
“That’s not a question I can answer for you. Marlo’s people want the Africans handled. Maybe once that’s taken care of, life will go back to normal.”
Apricot kissed her teeth, but she didn’t give a verbal response. Minutes later, I pulled up in front of her building. I grabbed the handle to open the door.
“You don’t have to walk me to my apartment. I’m fine,” she snapped.
Normally, I would have ignored her and walked her to the door anyway, but Apricot wasn’t my problem, and she wasn’t about to stress me out. If she wanted to walk herself to the door, then that’s what it was. I wasn’t going to beg her or disregard her wishes. When she saw that I wasn’t getting out of the car, she got out. I had to clench my steering wheel tight as fuck when she slammed my door. Apricot was pushing the hell out of my buttons, and I could assure her she wouldn’t like it if I spazzed.
The safest thing for me to do was to get away from her. She was Mr. Jennings problem. There wasn’t enough money in the world he could give me to take on Apricot’s attitude. Shorty was on her own, and I was about to go get some pussy.
CHAPTER 9
APRICOT
I satout on the balcony with one leg folded underneath my bottom and a glass of wine in my hand. Staring out into nature usually calmed me. I loved the water and at the moment, even though I had a beautiful view of the mountains, I was still in a shitty mood. It had been two weeks since I packed some of me and Kiwi’s things and left Diamond Cove. She was out of school for the summer, and I refused to sit around and be a sitting duck. I traveled to a beautiful country town in North Carolina called Stone Ridge, and I rented an Airbnb for a month. It was a beautiful three-bedroom cabin with a view of the mountains, but I was miserable.
I was mainly miserable because Kiwi and I were at odds. I couldn’t tell her the truth about my father’s lifestyle. She was too young to know the gruesome details of the life that he lived. Because of that, I pretended that we didn’t know why he was shot. Apricot was confused about why we couldn’t stay with him until he got better, and she was confused about why my mother was barely answering the phone. My mother was staying at her parents’ house, and she was going through it. There was too much going on at once, and trying to protect my father’s imagehad me looking like the bad guy. All my daughter wanted was to be with her grandfather, and we were an hour and a half away.
My mother of course, had access to my father’s money. I had no idea how much she took when she left him, but she put $45,000 in my account like it was nothing. I was damn sure going to take some time to figure out my life and stay safe. Knowing that I had been in the club only a few feet away from the men that killed Marlo and shot my father made chills run down my spine every time I thought about it.
I tried to do something fun with Kiwi every day, but she moped around with her lips poked out as if she had the worst life ever. I was tired of dealing with it, so we just went back to the Airbnb. I had been out on the balcony for a little over an hour when the doorbell rang. Looking forward to seeing a familiar face had me scrambling to the door to let Shereeka in.
“Hey boo,” she squealed giving me a hug as if she hadn’t seen me in months rather than weeks. “It’s cute in here,” she exclaimed looking around.
“Thank you. Glad someone appreciates it,” I stated dryly. “I was sitting out on the balcony. The sun is on the other side of the cabin, so it’s not too bad out there. But we can sit in here if you want.”
“Outside is cool. That looks like a dope view. I brought snacks and wine,” she held up the bag in her hand.
“Pregnancy test was negative, huh?”
“Girl, yes.” Shereeka rolled her eyes. “I ovulate in three days, and Bryce insisted that we have sex before I came here. We had sex yesterday, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to do it again in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I like sex, but I feel like a bed wench. And then after we do it, he has all these rules. He gets mad if I get up before twenty minutes have passed. We’ve only been trying for a month, and it’s already too much.”
“I definitely think you guys should relax and just let it happen naturally.” I opened a pack of cookies that she’d brought in.
“I think that’s great advice, but you have to tell him that. He’s being so annoying. If he knew I was drinking this wine right now, he’d have a fit. I needed this break away from him.”
I popped a cookie into my mouth followed by three potato chips before refiling my glass of wine and leading Shereeka out onto the balcony.
“Where’s Kiwi?” she asked curiously.
“You thought I was playing when I said she was acting like a brat? She’s holed up in that room on her iPad pouting because she doesn’t want to be here. I’m over it. She can ride back with you. I already asked my mom if Kiwi could stay with her for a few days, and she said yes. Let me know thirty minutes before you’re going to leave, and I’ll pack her a bag.”
“It should be safe for you to come back too. I saw on the news where those Africans were found in a dumpster dismembered.”
A chill made me shiver despite it being more than eighty-five degrees outside. I wasn’t even relieved to know that my father hadn’t committed the crime. In his fragile state that would have been impossible.
“This shit is crazy,” I shook my head and sipped my wine. “I grew up with a gangsta ass father, but this shit will never be normal to me. I feel like I’m trapped in a hood movie.”
Shereeka opened a bag of candied pecans and popped two of them into her mouth. “I feel you. Uncle Devin was that cool uncle that came around bearing gifts and money. I never really gave too much thought about how he actually made his money or what he did out in the streets until you told me why you were distancing yourself from him. You saw it more up close and personal than I did.”
