Page 13 of Fire

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My eyes remained on both of them as Patton entered the apartment while Axe waited to close the door behind him. Before Patton reached me, he pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket and held it out. I stared at his hand, unable to react. My instinct was to take the folded sheet of paper from him, but was I ready to find the truth about Dice?

I looked up as I slowly began unfolding the paper with shaky hands. I wasn’t sure what I was so nervous about. Whatever information I was about to learn wouldn’t change the fact that I killed a man. When the contents came into view, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Just like I suspected, Dice wasn’t the name of the man I stabbed. His real name was Niles Harris. So what? He was still dead. As I continued reading, I learned illegal gambling wasn’t the only thing this guy had his hands in.

I looked up to find Axe and Patton gauging my reaction. Handing the sheet of paper back to Patton, I said, “I don’t see what this has to do with me killing Dice, or rather, Niles Harris.”

“It has everything to do with it,” Patton said. “Niles Harris’s death was never reported in the papers because he didn’t die. You didn’t kill him, Kenzi. If you noticed the dates, his illegal activity continued well after you stabbed him.”

“How can that be? Levi checked him for a pulse before the police arrived. He told me he was dead.”

“I’m not sure what motive Levi had, but he lied,” Patton replied, folding the piece of paper and tucking it back in his pocket.

Nothing made sense. Levi spent close to six years in jail for my mistake. “Why would Levi lie? He had nothing to gain. He went to prison.”

Axe pulled me close and held me tight. “We all know that Levi didn’t go to prison because of Harris’s death, but I have a hunch that he knew he was going to jail. There is a reason he is using Harris’s so-called death against you. We just need to find out why. There is no reason for you to meet with Levi tomorrow. We know the truth. He can’t use it against you anymore. I think it is better that I go and see what his deal is.”

“I think that is a good idea, Axe. We don’t know how stable Levi McBride is, and once he finds out that we know the truth, there is no telling what he will do,” Patton said, making me realize that it would be better for Axe to meet with Levi even if meant that he would scare Levi off.

Looking back on everything that Levi and I shared, I couldn’t understand why he did what he did. All along, I thought it was because he loved me. Knowing the truth about why he went to prison made me want to scream. I was beyond pissed. Not only because he lied, but because I lived with the guilt of killing Dice all these years. I had no one to blame but myself. If I had come clean years ago, instead of hiding what I had done, none of this would be happening.

By the time Patton left the apartment, we were all on the same page on what would happen tomorrow during the meeting with Levi. Even though I wanted to be the one to meet Levi, I had to admit it would be better for Axe to go instead. No sooner than we got everything sorted out, Levi texted me confirming our meeting tomorrow. I didn’t trust him, even if we were meeting at a public place, but Axe reassured me that Patton would have his back.

I hadn’t seen Levi in five years, but like it was yesterday, I gave Axe a detailed description of Levi down to the small tattoo he had on his upper arm. If only I had a picture of him, then Axe would know exactly what he looked like instead of trying to picture his face in his mind. Thinking about what Levi looked like made me remember that I still had the yearbook from Ridgeway High School, where Levi and I went to school.

Jumping to my feet, I started heading to the bedroom when Axe grabbed my arm. “Where are you going, baby?”

“I think I might still have my high school yearbook. I think there might be a picture of Levi in it.”

~10~

Axe

It was strange how looking through Kenzi's yearbook brought back memories of my own. Looking back, I wondered whether my life would have gone a different way if I didn’t have an asshole for a dad. There wasn’t a day I could remember that I wasn’t fighting another kid or getting suspended from school. I knew things had to change. I thought that seeing Van Wilkerson would save me, but all it did was take me closer to hell.

We were getting close to the end of the book when Kenzi stopped turning the pages and pointed to a scrawny-looking kid with long hair. Kenzi had mentioned that all the girls were googly-eyed over him. I was clueless about what they saw in him.

“That's him, Axe,” she stated confidently. “I’m sure he looks different now, but at least you have an idea what he’ll look like when you meet him tomorrow.”

Taking the book from Kenzi’s lap, I took a closer look at Levi’s picture. “You know, baby, he kind of looks like a dumbass.” There wasn’t anything special about him. Maybe it was his dynamic personality that made the girls cream their panties.

“That isn’t very nice, Axe,” Kenzi said defensively. “For your information, he was very smart.”

Pulling my phone from my back pocket, I snapped a picture of Levi for no other reason than to ease her mind. Little did she know that when Marcus printed his rap sheet, he also printed Levi’s mug shot from prison. I guess the only reason I agreed to look at her yearbook was to see for myself what the big deal was with him.

Shutting the book, I placed it on the coffee table and stood up from the couch. Holding my hand out to Kenzi, I said. “Let’s get out of here. Are you up for pizza?”

Kenzi took my hand and rose to her feet. “Let me grab my purse, and then we can go.”

When she left the room, I pulled up my photos and took another look at Levi’s picture. I wasn’t sure what his home life was like growing up, but I had a funny feeling that something was dysfunctional about it to turn him into a lawbreaker. In a way, we were alike. The only difference was that I never got caught.

~

The Pizza Barn was packed, but it didn’t surprise me. The small restaurant had the best pizza in Atlanta. Sure, I could have taken Kenzi across town to Papa Joe’s, but why settle for mediocre when you can have the best? Even the atmosphere was better than Papa Joe’s.

After waiting twenty minutes to be seated, the hostess finally led us to a booth for two toward the back of the restaurant. I wasn’t too keen on where she sat us, but I was hungry and ready to sink my teeth in the best pizza ever.

As we took our seats, the hostess went over the specials for the day and handed us each a menu before she asked, “What would you like to drink?”

Knowing that beer and pizza went hand in hand, I replied, “Can you bring us a pitcher of Bud Light?” Kenzi wasn’t much of a beer person, but even she loved beer and pizza together.