“For the last time, I’m not Tanjaya. I’m Sunjiya Daniels and I do…not…know no fucking Marcelin. I’m not her!” she says and her loud voice echoes through the wood.
Her words are loud, clear, and finite. She’s standing on this twin story.And fuck, I’m starting to believe her,Akeem thinks as he stands. The fact that he’s even entertaining this obvious ruse to get him to free her has him livid and aggravated. According to Marcelin and the contents of the envelope, Tanjaya didn’t have a sibling, definitely not a twin. She grew up in the foster system and was an only child. Nothing she’s alleging can be found in the information he has.
“Fuck,” he grits under his breath. “Where’s your ID?” he asks, giving in and hoping at the same damn time he won’t regret entertaining her.
“At the apartment,” she mumbles.
“Where at the apartment?” he asks sternly.
“Considering you obviously drugged me, my memory is a little hazy,” she says while rolling her eyes. When her eyes are forward, she studies his. There’s no reaction to her drugallegation.He clearly did it.“I don’t know. I can find it though,” she adds, praying he frees her other wrist and ankles and takes her with him.
“I’ll find it,” he huffs.
“And leave me here like this? What if I have to pee?” she screams and he sighs.
Fuck!
She has his mind and thoughts so scrambled that he’s not even thinking straight. He’s anxious to get to the bottom of this shit and plan his next move but leaving her here doesn’t make sense. Round trip from here to Crescent Falls is at least three hours.
I can’t leave her here. Fuck!
“We’ll leave in a few when it starts to get dark. If you try anything, any-fucking-thing, I will kill you,” he proclaims. There’s no truth in his final words but he prays she doesn’t pick up on that. She doesn’t. His threat feels real credible considering she hadn’t missed the gun tucked into his back when he stood and turned this time. “You understand?” he asks.
“I do,” she says. At her words, he heads back up the stairs but she stops him. “I still have to use the bathroom,” she admits.
Fuck. I really didn’t think this shit through.
He treks toward the small kitchen, opens and slams a few cabinets, then finds a silver stock pot. When he brings it over to her, she stares at it for a moment then shifts her eyes to his, glaring.
“You’re kidding right?” she scoffs. “What do you expect me to do with a damn pot? I have one arm in a makeshift sling, the other tied to this chair, and my damn legs are tied. How is this shit supposed to work?”
His dark eyebrows knit and the two lines on his forehead wrinkle. After inhaling and exhaling loudly as hell, he drops the pot on the table, pulls his knife from his pocket, and cuts theties on her ankles then her hand. She visibly and audibly relaxes, shifting her body slightly and sighing loudly.
Instead of thanking him, she sarcastically rolls her eyes, then uses her free hand and arm to brace on the table and push herself up. Either the residuals of the drug he gave her or the effects of being tied up have her woozy and unbalanced. When she stumbles a little, Akeem slides his hands into his pockets to curb his natural instinct to assist her. They remain in his pockets as she stumbles to the bathroom, leaning on every piece of furniture she passes for support.
“Fuck,” he utters lowly again. This shit is not going how he planned at all. This was supposed to be simple: she wakes up, looks at the pictures and folds, then he hits Marcelin. Dislocating her shoulder, claiming she has a damn twin, and now, taking her back to the apartment is a thousand fucking miles from simple. This is complicated as shit and he doesn’t like complication at all. Bullets are faster and don’t require all this back and forth with the mark. “Shit!”
When the bathroom door closes, he pulls his cell out of his pocket and shoots Axton a text.
Akeem: I might have a fucking problem.
Axton: What’s up?
Akeem: I need everything you can find on a Sunjiya Daniels. I’m not sure of the spelling.
Axton: Who is she?
Akeem: Tanjaya’s twin
Axton: ???
Akeem: Yeah. Checking on it now but I need what you can find. I’m not really buying it but I can’t contact him if I got the wrong girl.
Axton: Finishing dinner. Give me an hour.
Akeem: Take your time.
Chapter
