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“You saw him yesterday?”

“When I came outside after the shots, I saw his Camry pulling off.”

“But did you see him?”

“Yeah.”

Another silence fell over the room. Then Mr. Browne asked the question I had been thinking about since sunrise.

“Does he know you saw him?”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t have to think about that one. Our eyes had connected. It was a brief moment, but when I was debating airing his damn car out in return before Maliah had screamed, we made eye contact. Mr. Browne leaned his head back against the pillow.

“He got a phone?” he asked.

“He probably ditched it by now if he got any sense.”

“And you said the feds looking for him?”

“Yeah.”

Sha leaned back in his chair.

“So, everybody is looking for a nigga that don’t wanna be found.”

Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Ty held up Ryan’s card.

“I’ll handle this part.”

Mr. Browne looked toward him, and in return Ty nodded reassuringly. Mr. Browne’s attention returned to me.

“What about Maliah?”

I knew what he was asking.

“She knows,” I confirmed.

His face hardened, which I knew it would. But between me and him, we had kept enough from her.

“I told her this morning.”

He released a breath as he stared toward the end of his bed for a moment. I didn’t have to tell him the part that probably mattered most. His daughter had been the target. His family in general had been a target.

The muscles in his jaw flexed. When he looked at me again, there wasn’t any confusion left in his face. Just the same calm expression I’d seen on him plenty of times before. The one that usually meant somebody was about to have a very bad fucking day.

“Listen to me.”

My eyes stayed on him.

“Nobody touches that nigga yet.”

“Bleek…”

“We got the feds involved now. We don’t know what they know, what he told them, or what they’re watching.”

That shut the room up. Mr. Browne looked toward Ty.