Page 121 of Taeja

“I know I’m right,” Liyah said. “And let me know when you want me to put the account in your name. Just remember me when you get richer.”

“Even if I had nothing, I couldn’t forget you. I’m going to do something for you and I’m not going to tell you what. This is a heads up, so you know you can’tdecline it.”

Liyah sighed. “Tae—”

Taeja covered her ears. “Mi nuh waa hear it.”

“You’re so childish— A wa deh vibrate mi batty?”

“My phone,” Taeja laughed as she placed the envelope aside and grabbed her phone, which was buried between the sofa cushions. “Hello?”

“Are you ready?” asked the caller.

Taeja bit into her bottom lip. How his voice sounded much deeper over the phone always did many things to her… It made her clit throb. Her heart race. Her mind full of things that would’ve made a nun blush.

“Yes, I’m ready.” She looked at the clock. It’d been an hour already since he dropped her off from the hair salon.

“I’ll be there in twenty.”

“Okay.” The call ended, and she tossed the phone aside.

“A the madman dat?” Liyah whispered, and Taeja glared.

“He’s not mad.”

“He kicked down my door and told your other man how fi beat up yu fadda. Some screws are loose somewhere, and if you nuh see dat, then mi nuh know how fi help yu.”

Taeja pursed her lips. Circumstances made Zain who he was. She wouldn’t dare to judge him.

“Mi deevn ago answer yu,” Taeja said. “Nowshh,so we can continue watching the rom-com.”

Liyah smiled and threw an arm around Taeja’s waist, laying her head on her shoulder. “Okay, but I’m changing the movie from this. Let’s watch a cartoon.”

Amused, Taeja smiled. “Okay,” she said, nuzzling closer to Liyah and relishing in the comforting warmth.

“Yeah… I’m just happyto see you,” Taeja said.

“Doesn’t sound or look like you’re happy to see me.”

Taeja laughed, shaking her head with a smile while looking at Zain. “I am! It’s just something I was talking about with my best friend. It’s making me feel… a way.”

Raising a brow, Zain drove off. “A way?”

Taeja nodded. “It’s a feeling I don’t know how to describe.”

“Do you… wanna talk about it?”

She didn’t have to think. Of course, she wanted to talk about it. As intimidating as Zain portrayed himself to be, she liked talking to him. She didn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t, because, just like Liyah, Zain knew both her good and bad sides. Maybe even more than Liyah because he was as messed up as her.

“Yes.” She nodded.

“Okay,” he said, then made a detour. He drove for twenty minutes until he parked at a grey-painted warehouse with no windows and a single door. A sign made of black paint in a Gothic font was above the door. It said, ‘WRECK IT!’

“What is this place?” Taeja asked. She couldn’t recall ever being on this side of town.

“A rage room.”

Her brows furrowed as she looked at Zain. “I don’t get it.”

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