“I saw in the paper about your mama. Figured you were the only one who cared enough to bury her like this. It’s real nice. Real nice. More than she deserved. I wanted to come see you, maybe talk to you since you were in town.”
The only one who cared enough about her…
No matter how I felt about Felicia, hearing his words about her struck a nerve. This muthafucker had two kids with the woman he was speaking ill of.Heshould have cared enough. I had never seen him enough in my life to recognize his face, so that said a lot.
“What you need to talk to me about?”
He smiled lazily and brushed a hand over his head. “Shit, I don’t know. You’re my son. I just thought?—”
“You thought what? We could kick it over beers, talk about my season, how much you hated you missed every fucking thing about mine or my sister’s life? Tell me what you want to hollerat me about because I’m confused on why you felt like pulling up on me after thirty-four years was a good idea.”
His expression dropped and his eyes darted around to everyone watching this exchange. “We can talk about that, yeah.”
I moved closer to him, getting right in his face. “We don’t have shit to talk about but I need something from you.”
“From me?” His expression shifted from uncomfortable to surprised.
“Yeah, from you.”
“What do you need, son? If I got it, it’s yours?”
“My sister?”
His eyes narrowed for a minute. “The one that can’t hear? She ain’t with me. Your mama had her. I don’t know where she is.”
My jaw clenched. “So you don’t care where she is?”
Des walked past me with Makari at his side, taking her back to the rental she and Omiri arrived in. In my periphery I noticed Rich open the back door of our SUV for Somee.
“I mean… I care but there wasn’t anything I could do for her. She isn’t right, you know, with her not being able to hear and all.”
My composure snapped and I swung, landing a blow with everything I had in me. I hit him so hard he spun and dropped to his knees. I took a step forward but a body blocked my path. When I lifted my eyes, I realized it was Des. He held his hand up like he was prepared to push me back if I kept moving.
“Not a good idea, Land,” he said, shaking his head.
“The fuck he gon’ do, sue me? Let him, I’ll pay that shit. That’s why he’s here anyway. In thirty-four fucking years I have never seen this man but he’s here now. Whatever number he asks for, he got it. It will be worth every penny to beat his ass.”
“I don’t want money. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why the fuck are you?” Omiri stepped beside me. If I was with the shits, he was too.
“That’s my son…” he answered Omiri first and turned his focus to me, lifting from the ground, massaging his chin. “You’re my son, Ryland. I want to get to know you.”
My eyes narrowed in hate. “You want to know me but not your daughter?”
His nervous gaze bounced around before he stepped back. The look on his face had my fist balled up again because he was about to say something to piss me off. I felt that shit before the words left his mouth.
“How am I supposed to get to know her? She can’t?—”
I was moving again and Des shoved me back, blocking my path, and Rich stepped beside him, caging me in.
“How much?” I growled.
“I told you I’m not here for money.”
“And I told you I need something from you. Name a price and it’s yours. You want to get to know me, I’m gonna need you to sign away your parental rights to my sister. I’ll pay you whatever you want for your signature on the paperwork. Soon as I have that, we can kick it. My people are gonna pull up on you in the morning.”
This muthafucker would never in his life know me. I put that on God, but if that’s what I needed him to believe to get what I wanted, I was more than willing to play that game.
