Page 27 of All Out of Love

Grayson nodded. “Yes, Latoya, she could take you back into custody.”

“But that’s illegal, isn’t it?”

“It’s not illegal, no. Is it ethical? It’s not ethical either. But she’ll always claim that she uncovered new evidence, or decided that she had enough evidence to make the charges stick. She’ll always be able to justify it.”

“But the truth isn’t about the evidence. She’s tying my freedom to that endorsement. And that’s just wrong.”

Grayson exhaled. It was a fact weighing heavily on him. “Yes, I know it is. But she’s going to take a lot of flak because she released somebody involved with a very serious case. Without making a deal with her, you would still be locked up.”

“So it all comes down to your father’s endorsement?”

Grayson nodded. “Yes it does.”

Toya decided to go there. She hadn’t lived in Maryland for thirteen years. And hadn’t been home in almost that many years. She knew nothing about his father’s governorship or anything like that. She had no idea about his relationship with his father. That was why she needed to know. “But if you ask him to support her, he will. Right?”

Grayson wished to God he could say yes. He wished he and his father were like that. But the truth of the matter was that they were the exact opposite of that.

He looked at her. “Let me worry about my father,” he said to her in that voice that reminded her that he was still, ultimately, her boss.

She slowly nodded her head. “Yes sir.”

And then they drove the rest of the way, to her mother’s house, in silence.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When the limousine stopped in front of her mother’s rundown rowhouse and they saw her sister Keisha sitting on the steps with two other men drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, Toya felt ashamed. Not of her sister. Not even of the poverty-stricken neighborhood or her mother’s dilapidated house.

She felt ashamed of herself. All her life she worked hard to achieve things. To break free of that poverty, that always smelled like cheap liquor to Toya, and to be somebody. To establish herself. Only to be forced to return back home because she had nowhere else to go, and to rely on a family that didn’t want to be relied on. Watching where Mr. Carrington was about to drop her off made her feel as if she had come full circle. As if she had gone around the world just to get around the corner. She was right back where she started from. But only this time, she was no kid rebooting. She was a thirty-one-year-old woman trying to get back on her feet.

Grayson was amazed at her environment too. The peeling paint on most of the house. The beer cans and other trash thrown all over the devoid-of-grass dirt yard. The stray dogs lounging around. The prostitutes on the corner and the drug dealers in the alleyways. The loud music from a group of young people in the open field. And it was eleven o’clock at night. It looked and felt dangerous to him. And to his shock, he was immediately worried about her. And not in any superficial way either. He was very worried about her. He leaned forward looking around. He could not believe it.

But it also underscored to him that he knew absolutely nothing about this woman.

When the limo came to a stop, Keisha and the two men seated on the steps kept drinking and smoking and staring at that limousine.

“Who that is, Keisha?” one of them asked her.

“My sister look like.”

“The one locked up?”

“That’s the only sister I got nut-brain.”

“Who’s the white guy? That her public defender?”

“Hell no,” Keisha said with a frown. “What public defender you know driving around in a limousine? That bitch wouldn’t even have no public defender this fast. Bam ain’t got none yet and he’s the main target. They’ll give him one before they give her one.”

“Then who is he?”

“Hell if I know shit. How should I know?”

“But how she get out of jail without no attorney?” her other drinking partner wanted to know. “Bam ain’t out.”

“Facts,” Keisha said as she nodded her head and batted the ash off of her cigarette. “That bitch out. Why Bam ain’t?”

Inside the limo, Toya knew she was the hot topic of conversation. She always was when it came to her sister, and never in a good way. She could only hope Keisha would behave long enough for Grayson to drop her off and leave.

She removed her seatbelt and looked at him. She suspected he was a good man from the moment she laid eyes on him. Now she knew he was. Who else would have, not only come down to the jail house to see what was going on, but to use his power to get the charges dropped? There was nobody on the face of this earth who would have done that for her. Not family if they could. Not any friends if they could. Toya just was never a priority for anybody. Grayson made her his priority that night. And that touched her deeply.