Page 43 of Judgments of Fire and Desire

“She’s worried about you. She wants to come up here so bad.”

“Yeah, I know. Can you call her so I can talk to her?”

“Yeah.”

I dialed her number, and she answered immediately, not bothering to say hello. “Is everything okay? How’s my baby?”

“He’s in recovery and doing fine, Miss Carolyn.”

I put the phone on speaker just as she said, “Kyrie wanted me to leave, but he has to be out of his mind if he thinks I’m going to abandon him. He’ll just have to get over it and accept that he has some strong, loyal women who will tear this raggedy ass city up when it comes to him.”

I laughed as Kyrie extended his hand so I could give him the phone. “Woman, tone all that down.”

“Oh, thank God. Baby, I was so worried. To hell with what you say. I’m coming up there.”

“Mama, there are seriously people trying to get at me. You don’t think they may try to get to you to get me?”

“Absolutely not. To hell with those people. You’re my baby. You are not the boss of me. I’m the boss, Kyrie Jameel Patrick. Do you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah. I hear you.”

“Excuse me? Don’t play with me, boy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said as I snickered.

He side-eyed me as I did my best to hold in my laughter.

“That’s better. Don’t have me whupping your butt in front of my daughter-in-law.”

I had to be red because my face heated up tremendously. Kyrie turned to me, staring at me. There wasn’t a smile in sight. “Never that, Ma. I wouldn’t dare let you embarrass me in front of your daughter-in-law.”

That did nothing for my emotions. My eyes watered as my body trembled. Kyrie was mine again. I wasn’t for the back and forth, so I hoped he would take the time to talk to me before acting. I was only allowing one comeback.Yeah right.

There wasno way I could take another day of soup. Day one, tomato soup. Day two, beef soup. Day three, chicken noodle soup. Day four, potato soup. Day five, taco soup. Day six, broccoli cheddar soup. Day seven, vegetable soup.

I was in the hospital for two days for observation. There was no internal bleeding or any other complications, so they sent me home. My mama had been cooking a different soup every day and freezing what I didn’t eat to rotate it again next week. If I saw another bowl of soup, I was going to throw a temper tantrum like a kid. There was no way she could think that was helping. Granted, the first day, I was still a little nauseated from the pain meds. However, after that, I was ready for a real meal.

Genesis seemed to think the shit was funny. The only thing that saved me was the daily breakfast from Grandma Jean. Genesis brought it over every morning before going to work. The past week had gone by in a blur. It wasn’t much different frombeing confined to Grandma Jean’s place. Genesis had gotten my things from her house and brought them here my second day back. I started back with where I left off in my investigation yesterday.

After Gamble questioned me about why I left Grandma Jean’s house, I believed he knew that I knew something. I wouldn’t give him straight answers. That wasn’t a good thing. One thing that I wasn’t good at was lying. I was a horrible liar, which was why I was always in trouble as a kid. My mama would stare at me after I told her a lie, and I would end up fessing up before she could even verbalize that she already knew I was lying.

Johnson had been texting me daily to see how I was doing, letting me know she was still digging to try to find something that would stick. I was looking over paperwork to see if I could somehow connect Samuel to all of this. I was hoping I couldn’t. Genesis looked to be on the verge of tears just verbalizing what she thought may have been going on. Johnson had access to camera footage, though, so hopefully, she would find something questionable that led us in the right direction.

Lieutenant Gamble was pissed that I’d gone home. He was playing his role well. That was clearly his handwriting on those documents. According to other business documents, Darlene Doll’s signature was bigger and was sort of like bubble letters in a way. This was noticeably different, and I wasn’t sure how it went through as many hands as it did without anyone questioning it.

As I sat in the bed, propped up on pillows, I decided to let my mind rest for a moment. I’d been at this nearly all day, stopping only to eat, and we were approaching dinnertime. I hadn’t heard from Genesis since lunchtime, but she’d been busy this week, asserting her authority. One guy at work was giving her problems because he was trying to get the appointment. He’dalready tried to start mess about the mayor pro tem being biased because he and Genesis went to the same church.

He had a few people following his stance, but for the most part, the people that could make a difference didn’t care to listen to his outrage. So, basically, he was having a meltdown because he couldn’t have his way.

“You ready for some more soup?”

I rolled my eyes as my mama stepped inside my bedroom. “Mama, I cannot tolerate another bowl of soup. I need some food. I’m going to go get it myself in just a minute.”

“Kyrie, you know I’m not letting you leave this house. Don’t say I can’t stop you either. You’re wounded, and I have a belt that I will swing like a whip. You gon’ eat what I fix you. I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

She walked out of the room and slammed the door, leaving me with my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t believe she was treating me like this. I literally wanted to call for help. I grabbed my pill bottles from the nightstand, preparing to take them and be sick because I didn’t have enough substance on my stomach, when the door reopened.

I wanted to have an attitude, but I checked myself before she came into the room. Something smelled like barbeque though. If she’d found a way to make a damn barbeque soup, I was gonna go off. When Genesis walked in with a brown bag, instead of my mama, I wanted to hop up from the bed and pick her up and spin her around in joyful jubilation. Apparently, my relief was evident on my face because she laughed.

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