Page 88 of Omar

I closed the door quietly and went back down to the car where James was waiting.

"We good?" he asked.

"We're good."

I got in the passenger seat and leaned my head back. My hands were steady. My breathing was normal. The adrenaline was already fading, replaced by something quieter and more permanent.

Asha was upstairs with her best friend and Supreme had lost his leverage and tomorrow Kadeem would present the full case to the Associates and the operation would begin.

I closed my eyes for a second. Then I opened them, told James to drive me to Kadeem's, and we pulled into the night.

Chapter 34

Asha

The door opened and Nene walked through it.

She was wearing the same clothes she'd been grabbed in, wrinkled, dirt on one knee, her hair matted on one side from hours pressed against a wall. Her wrists were red and raw from the zip ties. Her eyes were swollen. She looked exhausted, furious, and alive.

I was across the room before I knew I was moving. My arms went around her and I pulled her in so hard we both stumbled, my hands grabbing fistfuls of her shirt, her face pressing into my neck, her body shaking against mine.

"Girl." Nene's voice came out muffled against my shoulder. "Girl, I'm here. I'm right here."

"Let me see you." I pulled back, held her at arm's length, turned her wrists over in my hands. The zip-tie marks were deep, angry red lines cutting across both forearms. Her left wrist was worse than her right, the skin rubbed raw where she'd been pulling against the ties. "Did they hurt you anywhere else?"

"No. They didn't touch me. They grabbed me off the street but once I was in the room they just... left me there." She looked down at her wrists. "The ties were tight. I tried to get out of them for the first hour but all I did was make it worse."

I touched the marks gently, running my fingers over the raw skin. Nene flinched but didn't pull away.

"I'll get ice," I told her. "Sit down."

"Ash, I'm fine."

"Sit down, Nene."

She sat on the couch. I went to Omar's kitchen, found ice in the freezer, wrapped it in a dish towel, brought it back. I sat beside her and pressed the ice against her left wrist, holding it there while she hissed through her teeth.

"They knew where I lived," Nene said quietly. "They were waiting outside my building when I came back from the store. Two of them. Big dudes, professional. Didn't say nothing at first, just opened the car door and told me to get in."

"You don't have to tell me right now."

"Yeah I do. Cos if I don't say it now I'm gonna keep it inside and it'll turn into something worse." She adjusted the ice on her wrist. "They drove me to Crown Heights. Some ground-floor spot with nothing in it except a chair. They tied me to the chair, left me there, came back every couple hours to check on me. Real polite about the whole thing. 'You need water, Miss Denise? You need the bathroom?' Like we were at a hotel."

Her voice was steady but her hands weren't. The one that wasn't holding ice was gripping the couch cushion.

"They told me it was about you," she continued. "Said Supreme wanted his girl back. Said I was the incentive." She looked at me. "They left my phone on the table in the hallway with the screen facing up. They wanted you to find it. They wanted you to come running."

"Omar figured that out."

"Good. Cos I was sitting in that chair praying you wouldn't."

I put the ice down and pulled her against me. She came willingly, tucking into my side, her head on my shoulder. We sat there breathing together, not talking, just being in the same room at the same time.

"I was so scared, Ash." Her voice cracked on my name. "I kept thinking about what would happen if nobody came. If they just left me there. If Supreme decided I wasn't useful anymore."

"Omar came. He took down three guards to get to you."

"Three?" She lifted her head. "That man is insane."