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“Tahari.”

“I heard you.” I sat forward. “Why the fuck was he at your house?”

“He was looking for you.”

My jaw tightened. Now I know I had done some shit, but I would have thought that coming to my mother would have been off the table.

“He came to you looking for me?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“A while ago.”

I stood and started pacing without even realizing I was doing it.

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“I told him I didn’t know where you were.”

“And?”

“And I gave him my sister’s old address in North Carolina.”

I stopped.

“You did what?”

“It was the only place I could think of.”

“Ma, I ain’t talked to Auntie in years.”

“I know that. I had to give him something to get him the fuck out of my house.”

I dragged my hand over my head and then smiled. Momma Love was looking out for me. The fact that Tahari had gone to Ma in the first place bothered the shit out of me. That was my mother. Whatever the fuck was between me and him should’ve stayed between me and him.

“What else did he say to you?”

“He just asked if I knew where you were. That was it. He didn’t come here angry, and he didn’t disrespect me.”

“I don’t care how he came.”

“Giovanni—”

“I don’t,” I cut her off.

“He’s your brother.”

Her comment made me stop speaking. Wasn’t this the bigger problem? I was his brother, and he played me out for muthafuckas that wasn’t even his blood. Ma sighed when I was silent for too long.

“What are you about to do?”

She knew me well, and when I went silent, it was because I was thinking.

“Talk to my brother,” I said with a straight face.

“Giovanni, listen to me. He didn’t come over here looking for a fight.”