Page 22 of Papa's Beloved

“I feel the same about each of them.”

“I’ll tell them soon.”

“No time like the present. I’ll set up an online meeting and call you back. You have five minutes.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, sweet girl.”

We end the call and I take the time I have to use the bathroom and get some sweet tea. I also raid the fridge. Papa always has sweets in his fridge. Fallon, a friend of the club, is co-owner of Cauldron Cakes, a local bakery.

Papa has a sweet tooth. She likes to indulge him. For a while I thought he would like her and the feeling was mutual, but she told me she sees him like a big brother. And now I know he sees her like a little sister.

I have just enough time to slip off my top and put on one of Papa’s tees before settling on the couch for what will be a long conversation. I settle in with seconds to spare before the meeting app goes off on my laptop. I answer the call and watch it fill with the faces of my family. Micah, Mason, Jada, Lilian, Makalya, Malik, and Imani.

We spend the next few minutes catching up before Lilian asks me to share.

“I’m not even sure how to start this. It started after mom died.”

Chapter 17

Papa

“Who is Linden Danvers, and why is he important?” Boomer asks.

“What I say doesn’t leave this room. I’m telling you everything with Nay’s permission. This is her story, but I’m going to tell the best I can. Nay’s mom died when she was eleven. She was around the age of twelve when her father fell ill. Too ill to take care of her and her siblings.

“Nay didn’t have anyone else, so she turned to her uncle to help her find a job. She dropped out of school to get a full time job.”

“Who hires twelve-year-olds?” Decker asks.

“Fucking sick perverts,” I replied. He flinches.

“Her uncle sold her virginity to the highest bidder, then hired her out to turn tricks. She did it without complaint for three years. Then one night when her twin siblings, Micah and Maya, were a few weeks from turning twelve, she overheard her father and uncle talking. She found out her father wasn’t sick. He and Linden planned the whole thing and they were planning on doing the same on the twins' twelfth birthday.”

A course of mother fucker and other sentiments made its say around the table.

“Nay knew she had to do something. One night, when she was supposed to be working, she snuck her siblings out the window. Told them all they were playing a fun game. She got them to the safety of the local pastor’s house. After the pastor and his wife went to sleep, she slipped out and went back toher house. Earlier that day, she slipped sleeping meds into her father’s whiskey. Nay knew her father and uncle drank it nightly. By the time she arrived, they were passed out on the porch. She dragged them inside and set the place on fire.

“Nay waited outside and watched the house until it burned to the ground. By the time the firemen arrived, the house was too far gone to save. She hid in the bushes and watched them pull two bodies from the ashes.

“It took a few days for the authorities to find a relative. Her Aunt Lilian, who lives in Charlotte. The aunt went to college out East, met a man from a well-to-do family and never looked back. Nay refused to take her aunt or uncle’s money and moved out when she was seventeen. She came back to New Orleans. She made a living dancing before she came to the club as a doll. As you know, she recently finished her Nurse Practitioner’s degree and she’s doing her residency at Mercy General.

“Anyway, a couple nights ago, Wizard spotted Linden on the feed at one of the docks. Now he’s on the docks again and this time with the G’Dawgs. I, for one, want to see this bastard go down; if we can take out a link in the chain of human traffickers. I’m all for that too.”

We spend the next hour going over ideas of how to take out the G’Dawgs and Linden, preferably in one fell swoop.

Chapter 18

Papa

I’m bone tired by the time I take the elevator to my apartment. I can’t remember when I’ve felt this wrung out from emotions. The anger burning inside me for Linden is eating at my energy. Later I’ll go to the gym and blow off steam. Right now, I just want my woman in my arms. Blue is ordering her cut.

As soon as I open the door, I hear her crying. I hurry into the apartment toward the sound and find her in the living room, curled up on the sofa in a ball, crying her eyes out. I cross the room in a few long strides and scoop her up in my arms. I sit down with her on my lap, wrapped in my arms.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

She tries to talk, but can’t get it out through the sobs.

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