She looked up at the front like she was trying to see if someone was listening.
“Girl that nigga big as shit. He look like he about to hulk out any minute now. Tase his big ass and run. Sorry, I mean wabble.” She said, looking at my stomach and grinning.
“Girl fuck you. I’m not tasing my damn husband.”
“Ok well. You better throw that pregnant pussy on him and hope it makes him forgive you for our little adventure.” She chuckled, scooting back to her seat.
She wasn’t wrong, I was gonna have to pull out every trick in my bag to get Crew to forgive me for tonight. I was gonna be on punishment forever. The minute we pulled through the black gate around the compound the tension around us became heavy and thick.
“Get out. I’ll meet you four in the living room in twenty.” Crew said, too calm, getting out of the van and heading to the SUV that held our captive.
“Nova, I love you but if that nigga murder me, I’m gonna haunt ya’ll ass forever.” Tyra said.
I rolled my eyes at Tyra’s antics and waddled into the building behind Kema and Mecca. Once we got inside Tyra and I went to find the kids to make sure they were alright. We headed down the corridor that led to the room Timberly and DJ had been sharing since we got here. They both argued that they could protect each other better if they were in the same room. When we entered the room, they were sitting on the ottoman in front of the television playing a game of Roblox, until they noticed us and dropped their controllers.
“Y’all in trouble ain’t you?” DJ asked.
“Why would you ask that?”
“No reason.” Timber said with a suspicious look to DJ.
I couldn’t believe it; my own child snitched on me. I couldn’t win for losing. Instead of calling them on their bullshit I helped Tyra get them to bed and tucked in before heading to the living room to face the music. When we arrived Mecca and Kema were dismantling and cleaning their guns, while eating cheese puffs and lemon heads, my favorites.
“Don’t say anything when he comes in, just look innocent.” Mecca said, never taking her eyes off her gun.
“What?” I asked.
“Play innocent and look as pitiful as you can. Try droppin’ a few tears if you can swing it.” Kema said.
“Girl, it's not gonna take all that.” I laughed.
“Bitch yes, the fuck it is. Ya niggas crazy.” Tyra said with a straight face.
“He’s not…” I started but our conversation was cut off by the garage door locks engaging.
The guys entered the living room moments later without a word, just mean mugs and attitude. They sat down on the other side of the sectional facing us. Instead of saying anything I sat there biting my bottom lip and waited like the girls were doing. The way Crew looked at us and pinched the bridge of his nose I knew it was about to be some shit. So, when he looked at me and said.
“I clearly remembered tell all of you that ya’ll were not going anywhere near that fuckin’ drop.” He said calmly with a deep sigh.
All three women looked at me with wide eyes and expressions that screamed, “Bitch you better cry.” So, with the best acting skills I could channel, I broke out into the ugliest cry I could muster, fat tears, snot bubbles and all. As I wasputting on the performance of my life, I peeked over and my girls were sitting there like the perfect angels as if we just hadn’t been involved in a gunfight. The sight almost made me break character and laugh. That was until I looked up and saw the look on Crew's face.
“Since I know that no matter what we say, you and the three stooges ain't gon’ listen. So how about you make yourselves useful and help us interrogate Sabrina. I know all of you are trained for this. Not you Tyra,” he said, making her happy dance turn into a frown. “You could have been hurt, all of y’all. We have no problem letting y'all be a part of things that won’t put you in immediate danger. But to do that we have to know that we can trust ya’ll and tonight ya’ll showed us that if we turn our back ya’ll are gonna go buck wild. We want to trust ya’ll so we decided to give y'all another chance by letting you help extract the information we need from Sabrina. If I go in there with just Black and Blue, she’s gon’ try use our past to manipulate the situation but with ya’ll there we should be able to control the flow and hopefully the outcome of her interrogation.”
“So, you not mad?” I said sniffling for greater effect.
“Damn right I’m mad. And if your ass wasn’t pregnant I would have you tied to the bed face down ass up while I spanked that ass red,” he said, making me blush and my cheeks turn crimson. “So, think about that next time you decide not to listen to me. You are my family and I would never be the same if something happened to ya’ll. You too Tyra.”
He looked around at all of us and this time the girls had the nerve to look genuinely guilty and full of regret.
“Sorry Crew. We did everything we could think of to keep ourselves safe, but we get it. It won’t happen again. We promise.” Kema said with sincerity.
And I believed her. She wouldn’t allow us to put ourselves in danger again.
“Lies.” Blue grumbled.
I smirked, trying not to giggle when I saw Tyra and Kema giving him the finger, since I was trying to pretend like I was taking his reprimand seriously. But of course, Crew caught me and winked.
“Good, now that that’s all out of the way. It’s time for bed. All of us had a long day and we thought we should give Sabrina time to think before we start tomorrow. So, get some rest and we’ll see you in the morning.” Crew said and then he got up and held out his hand for me. I placed my hand in his and he gently helped me to my feet before kissing me on my forehead.
