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I nod.
“Did you get her last name?”
“If I had, finding her mother would have been easy.” I glare at Jamal for asking such an obvious question.
“Okay, but the girl is black. We should be able to narrow…our…search.”
I glance away instead of acknowledging the actual difficulty in doing as Jamal suggests.
“Fuck, man! How many have there been?” His stare is full of judgment but also a hint of something else.
“Enough to make the search difficult.”
Jamal not knowing the kind of women I’ve spent time with is by design. I don’t do relationships. Not since the last real one I had as a teenager. Giulio made sure I learned never to get close to women he didn’t approve of. Since no one I liked met his standards, I learned fast never to get attached and never to parade my interests in public. The only people who know my history are Valentino and Aurelio. Given the love of my brother’s life, I’ve never had to hide this part of myself from him.
“Wow! I never would have guessed you were a regular Bobby DeNiro up in here.”
“Jamal…” I growl. I’ll never defend who I’m attracted to, not to anyone. Neither will I deny myself.
“Okay, okay.” He holds his hands up. “What about women you didn’t wrap up with?”
“I always use protection.”
Jamal pinches his lips, halting the question I’ve asked myself.
“Obviously it failed. Regardless, I always wrap up so can’t pinpoint one woman over the others I’ve slept with. And honestly, I don’t always exchange names and numbers if we don’t intend to see each other after.”
He nods in understanding, probably because he’s had his fair share of one-nighters, too. “Since narrowing down the pool of potential mothers is a no-go, we can still search hospital recordsfor births from five to seven years ago, in case we have the age wrong.”
“Yes… yes, and don’t narrow your scope to Douglas. Search the entire state. If that fails, widen it to others until you find my daughter.” And once I have the daughter, I’ll have the mother who’ll point me to Zakiya.
CHAPTER 5
Zakiya
“You genuinely care about her, I can tell.” My neighbor, Elaine, holds a glass of lemonade out to me.
I take the offering without responding.
Like Mr. Murphy, she doesn’t take offense at my lack of social skills, but I swear she’s a witch. What else explains why I’m in her backyard observing Jinx on a play date with her son and daughter when for years, my only knowledge of her house is the view from the street?
“I think my Leo has a crush on Jinx, but he’s so shy he doesn’t know how to talk to her.” Elaine smiles with a wealth of warmth toward the kids.
“Aren’t they kind of young for that?” I frown at the boy, ready to warn him away from Jinx.
My experience with the opposite sex is… complicated. And although Leo is a boy and not a man, I don’t want to expose Jinx to certain traits that begin to show in boyhood. The need to protect her is so strong, I don’t want her in situations that make her uncomfortable to the point she feels she can’t trust me to save her.
But as I observe them, Jinx doesn’t flinch, clutch the stuffed animal Mr. Murphy gave her closer, or give off other signs of fear when Leo brushes against her. The act is innocent and she must realize that because she doesn’t shy away as he nears her again. And because I’m an adult, I remind myself, I won’t go over there and snatch his hand away with a death glare that’ll rival some overprotective fathers.
“They are, but drawing the wrong attention to what they’re feeling might be detrimental to how they interact in the future. Let’s see how things go.”
Hmm. I still don’t like it.
“Is that your phone?” Elaine says, pointing toward the purse I left resting on a wicker chair.
A buzzing is coming from my bag, but it stops the moment I take it out. Seconds later, a text freezes me in place. Then my heart begins to pound in earnest, and not out of fear. The text is from Omari.
Tech Bro: You do something to Sansone DeLuca that has him searching everywhere for you?
