Page 16 of Read the Room

I wasn’t worried about her ass talking. She’d rather die or go to jail than become a snitch or get killed for becoming a snitch. As I walked out of the room, I heard Sully’s order to put a bullet in Carlos’s mother’s head. She could meet her son in hell.

Back in Charlotte…

I was tired as hell. Jet lag was not a fuckin’ joke. I had to go to this damn house to see what was up with this bottle girl. Although Sully and I co-owned Glitter Girls, I rarely went to the establishment during business hours. If I went in, it was in the middle of the day for a necessary reason. I could check the books from my home office. Simone was the manager of the club, so Sully dealt with the club. Simone knew exactly who Reya was and spoke highly of her.

I got back to town a few days ago. My ass needed those days to get myself back together on this side of the damn world. I told Joey’s ass that I would link up with him soon and to keep ole girl chillin’.

When I walked into the house, Joey was in the kitchen cooking. I wasn’t sure what he was cooking, but it smelled good.

“What you cooking, man?”

“What’s up, boss? I’m cooking some chicken alfredo for Reya and her boy.” He said that shit like he was cooking for his girl and his kid.

I tittered. “Oh, she getting good ass treatment, I see. You had any problems getting her?”

“Nah, not really. When I got to her house, her ass had packed up her truck, and she was about to get out of dodge. I’on think you have to worry about her talking. She was scared, but she told me she would come with me as long as I didn’t scare her lil boy.I respected that, and she did what she said,” Joey said before he lifted his shoulders.

I took in what he said. “That’s what’s up. Make me a damn plate while I go see about this girl.”

I walked down the hallway to the room that she was in. I heard the television from the outside of the room. I wasn’t worried about her trying to escape with the bars over the windows. Unless she had the code to open the bars, her ass was stuck. My hand lifted to knock on the door. Like Joey said, it’s not like she did some shady shit. There was no need for me to be on some savage shit right now.

After the soft voice told me to come in, I opened the door. When I entered the room, my eyes fell on a beautiful girl that sat in the middle of the bed. A little boy sat between her legs. His eyes were on the television until I spoke.

“Jedi?”

His head snapped in my direction.

“Lo!”

His cheeks rose as he tried to climb off the bed to come to me. His mother stopped him. He glared back at his mother with tight eyes and jaw.

“Lo! Tell her read the room.”

Snatched Up…

I didn’t knowwhat the hell was going on. What I did know was that I was getting the hell out of here because I didn’t want to know. That shit was none of my business, and I didn’t want it to become any of my business. All I did was my job and look at this shit!

I thanked God that Lucas was a deep sleeper. He could sleep in the middle of being sucked into a tornado. You couldn’t convince me otherwise. While he slept, I moved around my house and packed our shit. Normally, he’d be awake by now, but God knew I needed him asleep. I had no idea where thehell I would go. I literally had nowhere to go, but I would find somewhere.

It was my third trip to my truck with bags. When I got home from Mama Bee’s house, I sat down with Lucas in my arms to gather myself. I messed around and fell asleep, which put me behind schedule. I wanted to be out of here before the sun came up. Maybe God felt I needed the nap because I was exhausted.

After a final sweep of my house, I felt like I had everything of importance for now. I would be able to potentially slip back in at some point if I left anything. Lucas sat up in his bed when I came into his room to get him.Shit!I wanted him to still be asleep.

“Mama, we go to Grammie Bee?”

All of the kids referred to Mama Bee as Grammie Bee. My baby had no sense of time, Lord.

“No, baby. We’re going to go on a lil trip. You wanna go on a road trip?”

“Yay! We going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship!” He loved that damn show. Anytime someone mentioned a trip, that was his response.

I scooped him up into my arms to put him on my hip. With a final look in each room, I prayed that I would be able to come back. My house wasn’t much, but I worked hard to turn it into a home. I strapped my baby into his car seat, turned on his tablet that hung from the back of the seat, then got myself into my truck. I pressed the garage opener button at the same time that the vehicle turned over. My face tightened, and my heart dropped at the sight of a car parked in my driveway.Who the hell is this?I didn’t want my baby to be scared. I turned to him.

“Baby, you want to wear your big boy headphones?” I bought him a pair of Beats headphones that he deemed big boy headphones.

His eyes lit up like I knew they would. “Yes! I been a good boy at Grammie Bee.”

I took the headphones out of the center console and turned them on. Once it connected to the tablet, I made sure the volume was good, then put them on his ears. I stepped out of my truck, took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, then walked back to the car.

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