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“My connect. It’s a friend of a friend. He used to be a fight promoter out in Vegas. The Banks Grand is looking for a fight promoter for their upcoming fight. I think it’ll be a good way to get our foot in the door.”

“For real?”

“And you can trust this dude?” I asked him, looking at him skeptically.

“Look, it’s better than whatever you got goin’ on. We need someone with their boots on the ground. That casino is going to be a tough nut to crack but if we have someone on the inside, we can make a big move.”

“Uh huh.”

“You gotta trust me.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice,” I replied.

My plan for Skye failed but we still had other options. I prayed that Will was a true one.

18

Justice

Dream was napping upstairs with her arm set in a cast. After I asked her repeatedly whether Storie pushed her, she maintained that she didn’t. Dream’s not a good liar, so I believed my baby girl.

I still wasn’t sure about Storie. In my heart, I knew that I couldn’t trust her. But I wasn’t sure of the best move to make when it came to her. She was only fifteen, and if she killed that horse, she could get straightened out. Right now I didn’t have any proof that she did.

“If you need to take a couple of months off from work to handle your family, you know you can,” Quest said as he made himself comfortable in my plush cognac leather sofa.

We were in my office having a drink and talking a few things over. He came over to see his niece and bring her a stuffed animal which perked her up. But the pain meds had her groggy.

“I’ll consider it. I just don’t know. I think she was tellin’ the truth about Roman,” I said. I rubbed my chin in contemplation.

“Why? What happened?”

“Met up with Ro the other night and he brought his son with him. The lil nigga had a black eye. The boy lied and said it happened in a fight.”

“How you know he was lyin’?” Quest looked at me quizzically.

I gave him a look that he was able to read in an instant.

“True. We do know how to read people. And kids usually aren’t that good at lying,” he responded.

“Unless, they’re Storie.” I shook my head.

“You still don’t know what to believe with that?”

“Nope. I need to talk to her. I need to speak with Melody. I was so heated when I found out the truth about her that I wasn’t even tryin’ to hear her. But Roman… I don’t feel right about continuing to work with him if he beat her. If he’s the reason her little girl is dead — we gon’ have a problem.”

“You know no matter what you choose we got your back. But you need to talk to her. You felt something real for her.”

“Felt? I feel something. It’s been eating at me the way I ended it. I just put her out. And then work and the girls. I’m gonna talk to her though.”

I thought about where she could be. I hoped she was okay and that I hadn’t thrown her to the wolves. If only she had been real with me. If she had come to me before I found out on my own, we could’ve handled this. I would’ve believed her.

But she waited until I found out. And then in the middle of the shit with the horse. I wanted to believe her but I didn’t want to be a fool.

“Get your girl. You remember how things were with me and Mehar at first.”

“That’s way different. She couldn’t stand yo’ ass. She hated all men. She didn’t lie to you.”

“She did though. She was hiding the fact that she was a dominatrix. Look we got past it. And I think you can too. You just gotta verify that she’s telling the truth. And as far as Storie. You know how Monica was. Maybe that shit rubbed off on her,” Quest said, referring to when Storie was a baby.