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I called Merc and got him to track her location through her phone. From the looks of it, she was heading to Eads, which was just outside of Memphis. I knew from a past conversation with Pops that that was where Robert lived. That didn’t fill me with relief. If she was going home, she could have told me. I felt like something was off with her bitch ass brother, and I wouldn’t be able to rest until I laid eyes on my wife.
I was grateful Ike met us in Memphis because that three-hour drive back home from Rose Valley Hills would have drove me crazy. It took me about thirty minutes to get to Whiskee’s location. I hopped out of my Mustang with the quickness and made my way to the front door, not even bothering to check my surroundings. My intuition told me there was no threat here. Not to me at least.
After I rang the doorbell, it took a while before someone answered. When they did, it was Carlos. His eyes damn near popped out of their sockets at the sight of me.
“Wassup, B—”
“Take me to Whiskee,” I ordered, stepping inside the home.
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
We went down a series of halls and up the stairs before getting to the room at the end of the hall that was being guarded by two men. A laugh escaped me as I rubbed my palms together.
“Y’all know who I am?” I checked. They looked at each other then nodded. “Good. Get lost.”
They wasted no time heading down the hall as Carlos yelled, “Aye!”
Ignoring his disbelief, I knocked on the door. Whiskee answered, looking from me to her brother with a smile.
“The fuck you got her locked in this room for?”
“She’s been gone for a week. Your daddy has been on my ass about y’all not making no progress. I figured if she was at home, she would start to take this a bit more seriously.”
“Whiskee is not to be guarded like this anymore. She can have guards while she’s out after we are married, but if I ever hear about you keeping her trapped somewhere, I’ll kill you.” I paused to allow my words time to enter his mind. “And I know about that bitch ass shit you did with her phone. I’m the only person she needs to stay in contact with. I don’t give a fuck if she goes a week or a year not talking to yo’ ass, you come to me with any issues you have with my wife. Not her. Do you fuckin’ understand me?”
His jaw clenched and eyes lowered, but he didn’t buck. Instead, he nodded his agreement.
Directing my attention to Whiskee, I asked her, “Do you want to stay here?”
“No,” she answered quickly, turning slightly away from her brother.
“Then grab your necessities so we can go.”
Her head bobbed and she did as I asked. I waited at the door to make sure her brother didn’t try no shit. Pops was right about this mane. He wasn’t built to be a leader, and he for damn sure wasn’t built to be a boss. At first, I hesitated with the order of killing him. Now, I couldn’t wait to put a bullet in his ass.
14
Whiskee
“I’ll take you back to Mahogany’s place, but I don’t like your brother knowing where you are. I’d prefer to get you an apartment,” Beethoven said.
He’d pulled into the small set of shops just up the street from what no longer felt like my home.
“I um…” Looking out of the window, I rolled my tongue over my teeth. I didn’t talk about what happened to Mama to anyone other than my old therapist and Mahogany. “I’ve never lived alone, Beethoven.”
“By choice or by force?”
His question made me smile. “Believe it or not, my family and I used to have very healthy relationships. Even me and Carlos. He was my first best friend.” My smile wavered. “By choice. I… have a trauma that I’ve kind of worked through, but one of the effects of it is a lack of a desire to be alone at night.”
Beethoven surprised me by taking my hand into his. “You don’t have to talk to me about it, but it might be good for me to know. I never want to do anything to trigger you, Whiskee.”
Looking into those golden-brown eyes hypnotized me like every other time. But this time, there was something else inside his eyes. Something that made me want to lower my walls so he could see me too… just a little.
“Seven years ago, while Daddy and Carlos were out handling business, we were robbed. Mama and I were there alone. It happened in the middle of the night while we were asleep, so we had no time to prepare or try to defend ourselves. They grabbed us out of bed and carried us to Daddy’s office, where his safe was. It was like they knew it was there and had been sent by someone specifically for what was inside.”
Releasing a shaky breath, I looked out of the window. It was easier to detach from the memory that way. “They tied us up by our wrists and ankles and laid us on our bellies. When they were done cleaning out the safe, they took all of our jewelry. Three of them left, but the fourth stayed behind.” Blinking back my tears, I stared down at my hands. “He um… put the gun to the back of my mother’s head. As she looked into my eyes with tears streaming from hers, she told me she loved me. I begged him not to shoot her, but he did. Right in front of me. At that point, I wanted to die too.”
Chuckling, I wiped away a disobedient tear. “I yelled for him to kill me too, but he didn’t. He laughed and said watching her die would be punishment enough for me. So after that, it was hard for me to sleep. And when I could sleep, I didn’t like to be in the house alone. I would have night terrors and see that night over and over again.”
