Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“He would be here if he felt he could.”
Liam looked out the window again, but this time, when he did it, I felt my small hairs stand on end.
Because this time, it wasn’t avoidance.
It was cagey.
And what I’d said begged the question, why couldn’t his father be here?
But Liam didn’t ask that question.
“Liam?”
He straightened up again and looked at me.
I spoke. “I can’t explain why he can’t be here because I don’t understand it myself. But it’s something important to him. He gives us money. We wouldn’t have,” I threw out a hand lamely, “pretty much most of what we have if he didn’t look out for us.”
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” he muttered.
I stared at him.
Was that it?
A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
“He doesn’t know I know he gives us the money,” I persevered. “I mean, I think he knows, but he doesn’t want us to know.”
Liam was again silent.
“But he, um…gives us a lot of money.”
“Good. Everybody needs money.”
“Do you want me to try to contact him, tell him you want to meet him?” I offered.
He shrugged and said, “Naw, I’m good.”
Something wasn’t right here, and it wasn’t what seemed to be wrong on the face of it.
“Fathers are kinda important to little boys,” I said carefully.
He forked into his pancakes. “Then it’s good I got a daddy who takes care of us with money. I got friends whose daddies don’t do anything.”
I knew that to be sad, but very true.
“Do you have any questions?” I asked.
He shook his head and stuffed pancakes into his mouth.
This was too easy.
“Liam, honey, look at me.”
He looked at me.
“If you ever have any questions—”
“I’ll ask,” he said with his mouth full.
“Don’t talk with food in your mouth, baby,” I admonished gently.
He nodded and turned back to his plate.
I guessed it was that easy.
Even so, I didn’t like it.
I’d have to keep an eye.
Something I did for a long time.
And as I did that, it seemed it was what it was.
Just that easy.
* * * *
“No, you got to taste. Don’t just throw the salt in. You gotta see how much it needs first,” I heard Toni say to Liam.
They were in the kitchen, cooking.
I didn’t know what they were making, it was a surprise.
I just knew it was going to be good.
Tony strolled to where I was sitting on their couch in their living room and handed me a fresh glass of wine.
“Thanks,” I murmured, taking it.
He then sat down beside me in the couch.
Right beside me.
I froze, seeing as Tony had never done anything like this in all the years I’d known him, and I’d be very disappointed if this was what it seemed like it was going to be.
I gave him the side eye.
“Been piecin’ shit together for years,” he said low.
Hovering on the precipice of disappointment was gone, now I was confused.
“Toni doesn’t want me to tell you. But I disagree,” he declared. “You should know.”
Right.
Now I was bracing.
“Know what?” I asked.
“Gonna preface this by saying, the war on drugs is bullshit, and we both know why.”
We sure did.
What I didn’t know was what he had to preface by saying that.
“Alcohol can fuck a family up. Chocolate and trans-fat can fuck a body up. The weight loss industry is making billions by fucking with people’s heads. No one’s locking anyone up for pushing that shit.”
“Agreed,” I said slowly.
“This is not to say I condone breaking the law. Condone doing the shit you gotta do to live that life.”
I turned to him and started, “Tony—”
“What I can say is, my wife, my daughter, I’d do anything not only to keep them covered, but to give them more. To give them a leg up in life. To zero out the needs list and keep the want list low, so they know their man and their daddy worked his ass off to give them a good life.”
Oh God.
My heart started hammering in my chest.
“Leon Jackson, he’s an Ike,” he announced.
Leon Jackson, Shirleen’s husband, Darius’s uncle.
“An Ike?” I whispered.
“As in Ike and Tina.”
My stomach sunk.
“Oh God.” I said it out loud this time.
“Darius Tucker is serious business. Leon, he’s the kingpin, but even he’s piss-scared of his nephew. I don’t think it stops it for Leon’s wife, but I know he doesn’t put her in the hospital anymore.”
I closed my eyes and dropped my head.
Yes, even in whatever he was involved in, Darius was Darius.
Protector.
Champion.
Good guy.
“Leon doesn’t know about you and Liam.”
I opened my eyes and looked back to him.
“If he did, he’d have something to use to control Darius.”
Darius had said this same thing.
“But it’s more,” Tony went on. “You two would be targets if he let it be known you were who you are. I know it’s been a while since he broke things off with you.”