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By the time I pulled through my gate, my mind had gone right back to Rah’s office. I parked, went inside, and headed right back to the office. This time the smell of his cologne didn’t slow me down. I sat at the desk, powered the computer back on, and opened the pages I had bookmarked before Shameek called. There were a few investments, real estate buildings, and transportation businesses. The typical shit most of these niggas did to clean their money. He had a few community events he showed up at. Then I dug deeper. I searched WR Capital against every company name I could make out from the old King records.

That took me longer than I wanted. Most of it led nowhere. There was at least one company that kept coming up. Legacy Transportation Holdings. I clicked through the filing history. WR Capital had been one of the investors. King Family Holdings had been another. There were two more LLCs I didn’t recognize. I opened the first one, and there was nothing. As I clicked the second one and the name popped up, D12 Entertainment, I paused, trying to figure out where I knew the name from. I clicked the registered owner to see Quincey Harris. I leaned closer to the screen like the name was going to change.

“Muthafucka.”

I printed all the pages. D12 Entertainment had invested in Legacy Transportation years ago, back when King’s distribution structure was being reorganized. That didn’t mean that Q killed Rah. I had to keep telling myself that. It meant Q had money tied into the same operation Rah was trying to pull himself out of. That was enough to make me uncomfortable. I grabbed some paper from the printer and started writing down the connections. After I finished, I sat back. Averie crossed my mind.

Averie had finally started allowing herself to live outside of work and motherhood. Now, Q’s name was sitting in front of me, connected to old King distribution money. I didn’t want this for her. Hell, I didn’t even know if there was anything to want yet. An investment was not murder. Q owning a piece of some old transportation company didn’t mean he knew what happened to Rah. I grabbed my phone and thought about calling Averie. What the hell was I going to say?

I opened Rah’s email and typed in D12; the only thing that came up was a promotional flyer and a receipt. When I typed in Q’s last name, a lot of emails popped up. One email I opened caught my attention. D12 money clears Friday. Once it does, east route is fully funded. This wasn’t some passive investment into a transportation company. D12 money was connected to a route. I printed that email out. I typed in east route, and more emails popped up. I printed them all.

“Rah, you really left shit in a mess. You always leave something for me to clean up,” I said as I shut the computer down.

I was no longer chasing a ghost. I had some direction, and the direction was leading straight towards a man sleeping with Averie. Tomorrow, I planned to find out exactly how deep Q’s money ran through the King’s distribution. Until I knew more, nobody was getting a warning.

CHAPTER 34

AVERIE

For the first time in a long time, my Saturday did not start with me having somewhere to be. I didn’t even wake up to an alarm. I woke up because somebody downstairs was laughing too damn loud. I rolled over and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. It was a little after nine, which was late for me. Usually, my body had me up before seven, whether I had somewhere to be or not. I sat on the edge of the bed for a minute, trying to figure out who the hell was in my house making all that noise. Then I remembered that Q stayed over. I slid into my robe and headed downstairs. The closer I got to the kitchen, the louder Kaiden got.

“I’m telling you, Coach is only doing that because Malik’s daddy donated money to the team,” Kaiden said.

“Boy, everything ain't a conspiracy,” Q told him, laughing.

“It is when Malik is trash.”

“Damn, that’s your teammate.”

“He’s still trash.”

I stopped near the kitchen entrance. Q was standing at my stove in basketball shorts and a T-shirt. I don’t know how Kaiden got him to cook, but he was turning bacon while Kaiden was watching football highlights on his phone. Khari was on the other end, coloring with markers she was absolutely not supposed to have on my white countertops.

“When did my house become a barbershop where you gossip about sports?” I asked.

“Ma, Q said Malik wasn’t trash,” Kaiden said.

“I said the boy probably got something Coach sees in practice that you don’t,” Q said.

“He ain’t got nothing,” Kaiden said, looking up from his phone.

“Anyway, good morning,” Q said.

“Good morning. Why are you feeding them like you live here?”

“Q is making me some pancakes,” Khari said.

There she goes with those pancakes. At least she wasn’t begging for Kyenna’s pancakes. I grabbed my coffee and leaned against the counter. This was the shit I had been scared of. A man fitting into my house too easily. Kaiden had gone from interviewing Q every time he walked through the door to arguing about football with him like they’d known each other for years. Khari didn’t even ask if Q was coming over anymore. If he wasn’t there, she asked where he was.

At first, I worried that meant everything was moving too fast. Then I realized my kids weren’t stupid. They knew Q wasn’t their daddy. They just liked him. That didn’t have to be a bad thing. I had to find a way to get out of my head. Right now, I needed to enjoy the moment because, just like Rah, this could all fade away at any moment. I took a sip of my coffee as Q fixed the kids’ plates. I sat at the table with them and just took in how all three of them interacted with one another.

Kaiden had practice at noon, and Q had volunteered to take him before I could open my mouth. I wasn’t mad about it. I had been driving to practices, games, camps, and workouts for a while now. Shameek would take it off my hands too, but it still was a lot because he wasn’t obligated to do anything for us. Sitting home for a few hours while somebody else handled one ride wasn’t going to kill me. Still, I gave him instructions while they ate.

“Make sure he has both water bottles because he’ll drink one and act like hydration is optional. His cleats are in the mudroom. He needs the black compression shirt under his pads, not the white one, because apparently the white one is uncomfortable now.”

“Ma,” Kaiden groaned.

“What?”