Page 15 of Judgments of Fire and Desire

“I don’t like this, son. They are after you, and I feel like it may include people you know and interact with. Keep your eyes open at all times. I cannot lose you. It would kill me.”

I pulled her in my embrace and held her tightly. Hell, I didn’t want her to lose me either. However, I couldn’t let fear keep me from doing what was right. Darlene shouldn’t go down by herself if she had help, and I truly believed someone else was the mastermind. My gut didn’t steer me wrong, and I took an oath that I planned to live by. I would always seek justice, no matter who was involved. I’d sentence my damn mother if she messed up.

“I’m not going anywhere, Mama. I’m going to be careful, and I’m sure the city is going to provide me with protection in light of these occurrences. It’s obviously personal.”

She still had no clue about the blatant death threats. Whenever I spoke to the detectives, I would update them on the messages I received by text while I was gone. She didn’t need to know all that information. My phone buzzed in my pocket as I held her, so I pulled away slightly to see a text message from Genesis. I opened it to see a picture of her and her mom, smiling with the sky as their background.

How are you sending me pictures while you’re flying?

She was one of the rebels that refused to do what they were told. She responded immediately.I took it off airplane mode to send you the picture. We have another hour before we land. Talk to you soon.

I slowly shook my head as my mama smiled at me. “The two of you look good together. I can tell that y’all both thought so, too, since you had to go explore even more at your hotel room.”

My eyebrows lifted slightly as she chuckled. “Umm…”

“Don’t ‘umm’ me. We could all tell. You both had that after-sex glow going on. We aren’t idiots, Kyrie. I’m pretty sure that was why Samuel was mean mugging you when the two of you arrived at the restaurant. Although he’s younger than Genesis, I can tell he’s extremely protective of her.”

I rolled my eyes. “Genesis is a grown woman and very capable of making her own decisions. It was her decision for us to go there. Hold on! I will not discuss my sex life with you, woman!”

She chuckled as I slightly rolled my eyes at how I let her bait me. She knew she would get me. It seemed I was on guard for that type of behavior from everyone else but her. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now. This wasn’t the first time she’d done that to get me to talk, and I was more than sure it wouldn’t be the last.

“Well, do you at least see a future with her, baby?”

I looked away from her for a moment, analyzing my thoughts like I didn’t already know. Turning back to my mother, I said, “I really do, but time will tell. We are still getting to know each other. We will see for sure once the newness wears off.”

“Newness? So you’re a couple?”

“Yes, we are.”

She squealed like a little piglet as she grabbed my arm, leaning into me. I chuckled, knowing she was ready for me to start a family. I just hoped I was as ready as she was.

“My God. This was definitely personal,” Genesis said as she looked around my house.

I had been here for a couple of hours, then went to eat breakfast with my mom. After taking her home, I’d come back to meet the insurance adjuster. As he surveyed the damage, Genesis had asked for my address. She got here a few minutes later.

“It was. I have to meet with the detectives in a little while. They are supposed to be meeting me here. You won’t be able to sit in on that, but you’re welcome to sit out by the pool.”

“Okay. So the police that came earlier?”

“They were just doing preliminary investigating since the detectives have been all over the Darlene Doll case.”

“I wonder why this person is targeting you instead of the DA. It just seems weird.”

“Genesis, I don’t have a lot of friends, but I surely have a lot of enemies. When I was a cop, I testified in a trial that put three officers in prison for murder. I didn’t back the blue. I was about right and wrong. They wrongly killed two young boys in Beaumont’s north end because they ‘fit’ the profile of two black guys that had robbed a convenience store. Those boys didn’t have a weapon. The reason I was able to testify was because the boys were from a neighborhood I patrolled regularly. I had justleft from playing basketball with them. There was no way they could have robbed a store.”

She grabbed my hand and gently caressed it between hers. “My God. Do you remember if anyone was excessively angry with you about it?”

I shook my head, not wanting to have the conversation. I’d spent years in that neighborhood, getting to know the people and the kids, trying to get them to trust the police. With that incident, all my time and hard work had gone down the drain. It didn’t help that those teenagers’ mothers blamed me at first, saying I should have made sure they made it home safely. My mental took a severe hit.

I had to go to therapy sessions weekly for nearly a year. I lost my love for being a cop after that. It felt like I was fighting a losing battle. How could I convince people to trust the police when the police didn’t trust them? After the cops got sentenced, they were only given a couple of years each. That was the main reason I wanted to be a judge. That wasn’t good cop work. Hell, that wasn’t good common sense work.

I pulled Genesis outside to the patio and sat on a lounger, pulling her in my lap. She giggled softly. “You know… if you wanna stay with me until your house is put back together, I won’t mind.”

“Damn. I already told my mother I would stay with her. She’s cooking dinner as we speak. I’m sure she won’t mind if you come over for dinner,” I replied as I wrapped my arms around her.

I rested my chin on her head and soaked up as much of her spirit as I possibly could. She put my soul at ease. I took a deep breath, inhaling peace and doing my best to exhale the turmoil. “How was your flight?”

“It was okay. Samuel was on my last nerve, but other than that, it was fine. After a while, I put my earbuds in and let him talk to himself. When he got close enough to me and heard whatwas going on in the audiobook I was listening to, he quickly found him some other business to tend to.”

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