“What are you going to do?”
“Sit with this shit. Talk to her again. I just can’t shake my gut feeling that she’s Tanjaya and running from that nigga for a reason. If she is, I just want to know so?—”
“So what, Akeem?” Axton asks. He knows his brother too well. Akeem’s thinking about doing some shit with permanent and potentially bad consequences.
“So I can handle that shit and handle that nigga,” Akeem says firmly. “He brought me into shit knowing who I was and what the fuck I do. He said himself that my reputation speaks. I can’t shake my gut feeling about him and I can’t shake it about her. I felt it the minute I saw her eyes on them pictures and I still see it in her eyes.”
“Is that all you’re seeing? I’m not trying to question you and while I can’t see what she looks like, I hear the admiration in your voice. That shit’s about to bust my damn eardrums. Don’t let that cloud your judgement.”
Axton’s words hit Akeem like a sucker punch to his gut.Hell yeah, she’s pretty, gorgeous as fuck.He hadn’t missed that shit. He couldn’t even if he tried but that doesn’t change his instincts and he trusts them more than a beautiful woman.
“It won’t cloud my judgement. I’m straight but I’m definitely not reaching out to that nigga until I settle this shit in my mind. I need to know without a doubt who she is and what that nigga did if I’m right. She’s been missing for over two months, a few more days ain’t gon’ kill him.”
“Facts. He can wait. I’ll lock in with you tomorrow when I have more info.”
“Bet. Thanks, bruh. Love you.”
“Love you too,” Axton says, then ends the call.
Before heading back into the house, he finishes his blunt and gathers his casings from the ground. He never leaves evidence of his gunplay behind, even from stress-relief shooting. As soon as he’s inside the ranch, he bags the casings, ties the bag, andplaces it into his duffle. Then he grabs two bottles of water from the fridge, realizing that not only has he not eaten but he hasn’t given her any food either.
“Fuck,” he grumbles.
It’s late, he’s in this small ass town, and he doesn’t even know if any restaurants are open after nine, much less delivering. He digs through the welcome basket to find the menus. A burger joint is open and still delivering. So he orders two burger meals with fries, a side salad, and drinks.
Between the meat and vegetables, she should be able to eat something.
Firing his guns and smoking the blunt helped center and refocus Akeem but did nothing to clear things up about Sunjiya. Between the few things he found at the apartment and the info Axton gave him, he’s still on the fence about her.
Sunjiya’s adamant about being Tanjaya’s twin. Axton found evidence of two different people, but still, Akeem isn’t sure. As he waits for the food to arrive, he goes to the basement to talk to her. To his surprise, she’s off the sofa and seated at the table looking over the papers and envelopes.
How did she get over here?
Truly astonished to see she’s managed to get from the sofa to this table with her ankles tied together, his words get lost and all he manages to say is, “Did you touch this?” His tone is forceful and sharp, not what he intended.
“Yes,” she fires back. No hesitation, no fear.
If Sunjiya fears him, she hides it well. That makes her even more intriguing. He likes that shit, and although he hates to admit it, he likes her. She ignited a fire in him that he thought had been extinguished when Charis had her affair. Sure, Akeem has dealt with other women. He keeps his bed warm with pretty faces but he hasn’t felt a spark or made any real connection with any woman until now, until her.
“I tried to make sense of it. Hell, of all this shit. Tanjaya did this to me and I don’t know why. I hadn’t heard from her in years and out of the blue she texts and sends me a ticket. Like the loyal sister and apparent idiot I am, I foolishly came. I brought my ass here, only to be drugged, kidnapped, tied up, and stuck with a man threatening to either kill me or call some man I don’t even know to come get me and take me back to Mi-fucking-ami to some man she’s been with. So yes, I got my ass up and came to this table to make sense of this and convince you to let me go,” she says.
Her eyes,those eyes,peer up at him and he relents. He drags a chair closer to her and sits. He decides to give her a real chance to explain herself.
“What did you come up with? Because I look at you and this and see Tanjaya Willis,” he says.
“But I’m not her,” she insists. “I swear.” She reaches for both cells but he places them in front of her. After opening hers and the other, she navigates to the text messages. “Did you look at this? She texted me. She asked me to come here and be her,” she says.
“Be her? What does that mean?” he asks, genuinely curious as he grabs the phones. He doesn’t look at the messages first though because he’s concentrating on her reaction as she explains this shit.
“We are identical twins, really identical. With some identical twins, you can see little differences. One has a thinner face, one has a thicker body. Little things like that. But Tanjaya and me look exactly alike. It’s got you believing I’m her,” she says, then smirks. “The funny thing is, I didn’t even know she existed until I was fifteen.”
“How the fuck?”
“Imagine being fifteen and finding a whole person out there who looks just like you. It’s wild shit but true. We becameinseparable, really one person. We would switch all the time, tricking people and having a time,” she says with a smile. Something he hasn’t seen from her all day.
“I finally had a family and loved everything about that. See, I was born in the system. I don’t have a clue about my parents, who they were or why they didn’t want me. I don’t have many memories as a little child. I don’t know if that’s my brain shielding me from some shit or what. I just remember not having a mommie or daddy and always being with different people I didn’t belong to. It was very clear I wasn’t theirs, wasn’t a true part of their family. All that shit on television with foster kids blending in and becoming part of the families is fake as fuck. I was a check for them and a bother at the facility.
“Shit was far from sweet, but I got used to it and dealt with it. Then one day, I was in my bed, having a bad day, teenage shit, when Tanjaya, the girl with my face, walked into the room. She was not just my sister I knew nothing about but my damn identical twin. She had my face, my voice, and even some of my quirks. It was weird but amazing as hell,” she says, beaming. Akeem locks in on her every word.
