Page 71 of Twist Me

“I know Goliath…and neither will I.”

Never again did I imagine myself in a squad car with Micah Landon Quinn, but here I was. It was for a good cause. Zee came through with getting Micah to get that paperwork for Pharoah, and now Roe and I were playing convict in the back of the black-and-blue. Ezello sneakily arranged a meeting for Roe and Tiffany, Xenia’s guardian and aunt.

Looking at my brother now and seeing his huge form, which was usually solid as a rock, hunched over, looking like he was going to puke on the floor made my heart bleed for the man.

“Hey, my brother. It’s okay,” I said, clapping him on the back of the neck and giving it a squeeze. He looked at me and gave me a tight smile.

“Can I just…I need to maybe say something to her. On the phone, before she sees me. I just…”

I tapped on the metal cage separating the big bad detective and us. “Quinn, give Roe your phone.”

Micah started to pop off, but he quickly shut up when he turned around and saw how ill Pharoah looked.

“Uh, sure. Let me pull over.”

It didn’t take long to find an abandoned gas station and swing into the vacant lot. Quinn got out and opened the door to Roe’s side. As suspected, the fresh air hit my triplet’s face, and he hurled his cookies all over the asphalt, maybe even hitting Micah’s expensive ass loafers.

After he puked up last week’s lunch and then some, Pharoah took a shaky breath and grabbed the phone handed to him by the very miffed Quinn. Any other time, I’d be laughing my ass off, but I kept my mouth shut because of how much my brother was hurting.

The phone rang a few times, and then Tiffany’s voice came on the line. Pharaoh was too shaky to hold the phone, so he put it on speaker and sat it on his lap.

“Hey, Tiff. I, uh…can I talk to Xeny?”

Tiffany sounded surprised and hesitant. I was sure the news of Pharoah’s exoneration was still a shock to her system.

“I thought you were coming to see her, Pharoah,” she said, not accusatory exactly, more of a ‘strongly worded’ warning. It was hard to keep my mouth shut for the woman knocking on mybrother, who was already on the ground.“She has a friend over right now. I didn’t expect you until a few hours from now.”

Pharoah didn’t speak. He just looked around aimlessly at the surroundings. This was one of the only times we hadn’t needed to sneak around or keep hidden from regular people.

To be fair, it was a shock to the system for even me just seeing people walking dogs and normal shit we took for granted until it was gone. I was even jealous of a man hiding in the bushes to take a leak.

It was crazy how a person could live their life but not realize what freedom truly meant.

Quinn walked around, opened my door, and gave me a nod. He knew Roe needed me. Not bothering to be flowery about it, I walked my ass over to Roe and put my arm around his shoulder, lifting him up and taking the phone.

“Hey, Tiff, Goliath here. Yes, we’re all well aware we were coming there, but you can drive the five minutes it takes to get here. This father—this very innocent father, who’s been serving a sentence wrongfully wants to talk to his daughter and see her at a park. Anyone with a heart that isn’t a coldhearted bitch stuck in the past would understand that and not cause any drama about it, right?”

The woman shuffled around, and then the phone was quiet for a moment.

Then, a small little voice sounded on the other line. My brother sagged in my arms the minute we heard Xenia’s voice.She sounded so pure and so sweet. She was everything good about Pharoah’s past. This little girl would be Roe’s future and bring him back. She had to be. Without her, I feared he would turn into a true monster.

“Daddy?”

Pharoah stared at the phone for such a long time that Xeny said the word again, and he finally snapped back to reality.

“Yeah. Hi there, Xeny bug. It’s…your dad.”

I had rarely seen my brother cry, and right now, Quinn and I were both trying to look away to give him the privacy to do so.

I motioned for Quinn to follow, stepping around my brother, who was talking about horses and her favorite color with his daughter. Continuing, I walked to the sidewalk where a park was lively with people.

“I had almost forgotten how different people can be. So many shapes and sizes and all their expressions are something else.”

Micah followed my gaze, catching the gluttonous dude scarfing down a hot dog, the blonde walking her baby in a cart, and the businessman arguing to himself with earbuds shoved in.

“What does a hotdog taste like now, Mickey,” I wondered aloud, the thought catching us both off guard.

Micah frowned and straightened his collar. “Uh, like exploding feet?”

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