“I mean not right now.”
“The fuck else we got to do?”
“Get to dry land.”
We hit the third floor again, and Jaylen stopped me with a hand on the chest while Lyrius was still behind us with Dakoda.
“Real quick,” he said, dropping his voice. “What’s going on?”
I sighed. His ass wasn’t going to drop it unless I told him something. I looked over my shoulder to make sure Lyrius wasn’t close enough to hear me.
“She showed up yesterday in the storm, seeking shelter. She says the kid is mine.”
“What?” Jaylen blinked, looking past me at Dakoda.
“I need you to pull some strings and get me a rapid DNA test today.”
“Wait. Nigga, what?” He looked at me like I’d skipped about ten steps.
“I need a rapid DNA test today.”
He dragged a hand over his face. “You really think the kid yours? How long has it been since you’ve seen Lyrius?”
“Shit adding up,” I said quietly. “Look at him.” I looked back at Dakoda. At his face. His eyes. The shape of his mouth. The timeline. Everything.
Jaylen stopped walking long enough to really look. Then he let out a low breath. “Damn.”
“Can you get the test or not?”
“Yeah. I know somebody.” He pulled his phone out.
“Bet.” That was all I needed to hear. We made our way down the hallway to the busted-out window, and the water was cold enough to piss me off all over again. Jaylen climbed through the window and got into the boat first. Then Lyrius handed Dakoda over. Jaylen took him with one arm and set him down carefully in the middle.
“Damn,” he said, looking at all of us. “If I’d known this was a whole family rescue mission, I would’ve brought a bigger boat.”
“Shut up,” I muttered.
Lyrius climbed in next, moving carefully. I passed the bags over and got in last. Jaylen pushed off from the window with one hand and started guiding us out. My eyes immediately turned to the city. It looked crazy. The storm was over, but the mess it left behind was another story. Everything around us was underwater, like some shit out of a movie. Azalea had gotten hit by a lot of hurricanes, but nothing like this. Cars were floating in flooded streets. Store signs were bent. There were pieces of roofs and whole-ass tree trunks floating past us.
I gasped. “Damn!” This was crazy.
“Shit’s crazy right?” Jaylen asked, reading my mind as a couple of rescue boats moved a few blocks ahead. My eyes wentto Lyrius and Dakoda, who were sitting there quietly, looking at it all. This was a lot for the kid to be taking in. I hoped this shit wouldn’t cause him too much trauma or any shit like that. My eyes focused in on Lyrius, and for a second, my mind went back to what Lyrius had said before Jaylen interrupted us. She was a fifteen-year-old runaway, just trying to survive. I understood that kind of shit more than I wanted to.
I knew what it felt like to be a kid with grown-up circumstances and no grown-up guidance. I knew what it was like to get failed by every adult around you and still be expected to come out perfect. I got it. I’d been there, doing what I thought I had to do for survival. But understanding it didn’t mean I had to forgive it. I looked at her sitting across from me, her arms wrapped around Dakoda while he pointed at random shit floating in the water and asking questions every thirty seconds. She looked tired, like somebody who had lived through too much too early.
Jaylen’s phone rang in his hand, and he answered it quickly while he steered the boat around the debris in the water.
“Yeah, I need that favor. Right now,” he said to whoever was on the other end.
“I know what time it is. Make it happen anyway.” He paused for a minute before continuing. “Yeah. We’re en route, about ten black people minutes out.” He hung up the phone and then glanced at me.
“You good to go on the DNA test.”
“DNA Test?” Lyrius looked up.
“Yeah. Jaylen found us somebody who can do a rapid today.”
“Right now?” I watched as Lyrius’s whole face changed.
