Faheem chuckled at me. “That’s cute, but if I was a serial killer, wouldn’t it make more sense to run instead of standing here holding a conversation?” he asked with his brow raised.
“I told you I have a gun. If anything, you need to be scared of me,” I bluffed, darting my eyes over to my car, debating if I could out run Faheem and make it inside my car. With them long ass legs of his, I doubted I would make it far.
“Oh, yeah?” Faheem asked with amusement in his voice. Using his hand, he gently pulled me by my chin, redirecting my attention to his onyx black eyes. “The boogeyman isn’t scared of anything.” His eerie, cold, emotionless tone told me two things. One, Faheem wasn’t to be fucked with. Two, he wasn’t here because he wanted to ask me on a date.
Gulping hard as fear slowly began settling over my body, I began to understand the severity of my situation. No, I had no idea who Faheem really was outside of his looks and a few IG posts. Seeing him on my parents’ porch should have been a red flag for me. My daddy had never had a legal job my entire life. He’d always had money. I just never fully knew how he’d gotten it. Let my dad tell it, he was a hustler, and he’d get it by any means. Whatever the hell that meant. But seeing Faheem even associating with my dad meant he was into illegal shit like my dad. Honestly, that was common sense when it came to Faheem, with his looks, demeanor, and all the money his girl showed on IG. The difference between my dad and Faheem was simple; my dad was prey pretending to be the predator. Faheem, though, he was the real deal, the predator… the one people like my dad bowed down to. Needless to say, I was scared shitless coming up with logical reasons Faheem was here looking for me.
With my head held high, I looked Faheem in the eyes, refusing to show him my fear. “I know you aren’t here because you missed me. What is it that you want?”
Faheem grinned at me widely. “I like this fire in you.” He flicked me on my chin, releasing me, and he stepped back, giving me a once over that made me uneasy for reasons I wasn’t ready to address. “You talked to yo’ pops?” He clasped his hands behind his back while giving me a menacing expression.
I shook my head “No”rapidly. My nerves were getting the best of me.
Cupping his ear, Faheem turned his head to the side. “Ion comprehend head gestures, and with a head as big as yours, you need to be careful swinging that shit around. Use that mouth for what it was made for.” His cockiness pissed me off. I wanted to say some slick shit back to him when he mentioned my head, but he had the upper hand, and I didn’t know what his motives were right now.
“No. I haven’t talked to either one of my parents since I dropped my mom off last week.” My attitude was loud, and I couldn’t resist the urge to roll my eyes at him.
“Careful, you don’t want them pretty eyes to get stuck up there.” Faheem winked at me.
The flutters in my stomach annoyed me because why was I excited hearing he thought I was pretty when he was damn near holding me hostage? I mean, he hadn’t said I couldn’t leave, but I could read the damn room. Faheem wasn’t letting me leave until he got what he came here for.
“I’ll be fine,” I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest.
“You tryna take a ride with me?” He smiled, but it wasn’t a genuine smile. More like he was nicely threatening me.
“Do I have a choice?” I sarcastically asked.
“Nope,” he replied, still smiling at me. “Let's go, Juniper.” He nodded towards his white Jaguar that flashed its light when he unlocked the door.
***
“What do you want with my dad?” I asked, breaking the silence we’d been driving in for the last fifteen minutes.
Faheem cut his eyes at me. “He owes me and my dad a lot of money.”
Smacking my lips at him, I frowned. “Why would y’all loan him any amount of money when he doesn’t have a job to pay y’all back?”
“Never stopped him from payin’ us back before.” Faheem chuckled. “I ain’t running no buy here, pay here business. Ion need a proof of income. As long as I get my bread back.”
Before I had the chance to respond, Faheem came to a screeching halt in front of my parents’ house. Oddly, their house was pitch black, and that wasn’t like my parents. They didn’t go to sleep until the early morning, and it was about to be the weekend. They normally would have a porch full of people running in and out of their house. The first thing that ran through my head was Faheem had done something to my parents and wanted to finish the job with me. Peering over at Faheem, I tried to read his body language, but he was void of any emotion.
“It don’t look like anybody is home,” Faheem spoke, getting out of the car. In a daze, I tried to plot my escape for it quickly to be thwarted when my door was snatched open. “Let’s go,” Faheem demanded.
Cautiously getting out of his car, I was nudged forward toward the stairs. With no other option, I led us onto the porch, looking back at him when we got to their door that was slightly cracked.
“Did you do something to my parents?” There was no sound coming from their house, and that was even more alarming. If Faheem was going to do something to me, there was no need for me to mince my words.
“Not yet, but if ya bitch ass daddy don’t appear soon, I won’t be able to say that.” He snarled at me, frowning for the first time. “Open that door,” Faheem commanded as I watched him pull out a big black gun from the waistband of his jeans.
Doing as he said, I slowly pushed the door open and was greeted by darkness. “Mama, Daddy?” I called out with no response.
Faheem flipped on the light switch, and confusion filled me as I took in what I was seeing. My parents' house was never the cleanest. Neither of them had any sense of cleanliness. The house in front of me looked as if it had been halfway robbed and ransacked. Stuff was thrown all around the living room. The couch overturned, TV on the floor, and pictures missing from the walls. The only reason I knew my parents hadn’t been robbed was because they didn’t have anything worth robbing someone in their house. The TV they had was old as hell, and they didn’t care about keeping up with technology. My daddy didn’t own any real jewelry. He was the type to buy knockoff jewelry and try to pass it off as real. Needless to say, they didn’t have anything with value in their house.
“They’re not here,” I absentmindedly stated the obvious.
“Nope… and that’s a problem for me.” Faheem stood right behind me. His presence sent a feeling of dread over me.
“I-I-I w-w-wish I could help,” I stuttered, turning around to look at Faheem. “But I don’t know where they could be.”
