“Kannon! Who the fuck do you have in my house?”
The hostility in Junior’s delivery made my belly become a sinking stone. I had been calling and texting my brother for two days. The last thing I expected was for him to curse me out once I got him on the line.
“Why are you yelling? I did you a favor. Thatniggaowes you money, and I delivered him to your spot on a silver platter.”
“No, you didn’t. He’s a Sinner, but that’s not Levi!”
“Yes, it is! I checked the file. I saw the picture.”
“Kannon.” He breathed out my name, his tone laced with disappointment. “The person who owes me isn’t in the states. That’s the only reason he’s still breathing.”
“Hold on a second. I’m going to share my screen.” My fingers moved a mile a minute, skimming through my photo gallery. When I landed on the picture I wanted, I added it to the screen. “See. Look. That’s him. They have the same birthmark.”
Junior shut his eyes and shook his head. “He has a birthmark like the dude in the picture?”
“Yeah. That’s how I know it’s him.”
“I know who you’re talking about. Their birthmarks are similar, but they’re not the same.” He grimaced. “You’re a dumbass, bro!”
“Boy, mad and all, don’t disrespect me!”
“You started it when you went through my shit. You’re always getting into something I have to bail you out of, but this time, I’m not cleaning it up. Get that crazy muthafucka out of my house, Kannon!”
The confident attitude I sustained over the last two days had shattered into pieces. All the work I had done was pointless, and now I was getting cursed out for having good intentions.
“Okay, I fucked up, but I’m still your little sister. Aren’t you going to call someone to kill him or to come get him?”
“Hell nah. You got it. You’re going to tell Daddy too!”
Of everything Junior said, his speaking of our father triggered my worrisome mind. I was the baby of the bunch, but just like with everybody else, the old man got on my case when he thought I was playing with his business or his money. When I was still in school, he would show up and sit in the back of my class if he thought I was off my square. His presence made me feel like a disobedient student who needed a chaperone. Junior knew there weren’t many people who could sway my reckless ways, but our father always made me second-guess my actions.
“Are you really going to leave me hanging? You act like I did this on purpose.”
“You did! You just didn’t do a good job. You’re hardheaded, and you don’t appreciate being placed on a pedestal. You want to be in the streets; then figure it out.”
I rubbed my hands down the front of my pants, trying to rid myself of my nerves. I had been in the house with the stranger for two days, and I had never felt uneasy about being in his presence, even after my girls left. Once I steadied my breathing, I made a few calls. My first call went unanswered, and thesecond call went straight to voicemail. Yari and Nola weren’t a choice, because I told them Junior would send someone to take over. After I dragged them into my burnt mission, I knew they wouldn’t speak to me for days.
“You can do this, Kannon. You can figure this out,” I muttered. “You’re the big dawg in this bitch.”
Now that I knew I’d screwed up, I felt the need to see the man. I wanted to study his face to see how the hell I confused him with someone else. I pumped myself up to enter the room and swallowed hard when I saw he was up. His eyes were low, and his clothes were damp, but neither stopped the menace from grinning when his gaze latched onto mine.
“So you found out who’s the big dawg, huh?”
“You’restill not running shit.”
His brows raised. “From what I heard, you ain’t either. You fucked up. It sounds like you fuck up all the time.”
“Then you should know one more won’t hurt anyone except you.”
A blunt was calling my name, but something urged me to smoke where I stood instead of going to the living room. Unlike the other times we were together, the captive seemed relaxed. I didn’t know if he no longer had the strength to challenge me, or if he no longer saw me as a threat, but his shoulders were no longer bunched up.
The second a draft of smoke filled my lungs, I felt my tense brows fall. My head fell back as I forced a brass breath from my lips. There were many ways to handle my mistake, yet I couldn’t land on one. Sweet-talking the menace was an idea, but after he expressed his desire to choke me, I figured that approach was pointless. Pussy popping on the big man could have worked, but as fine as he was, I wasn’t naïve enough to believe he needed some coochie.
“Kitty Kat.”
“Kannon,” I corrected him.
“Whatever. Do what your brother told you to do. If you follow directions, I’ll let your family live long enough to bury you.”
