Page 36 of Strangers No More
“Mmhmm. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way. He was so controlling and needed to know Delilah’s whereabouts at all times, but he was her first love. She was blind to all of the red flags, but me and her daddy wasn’t and good thing we weren’t. We found out years later that he murdered his wife and then himself.”
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Right, but Delilah’s ass was still pissed at us for forbidding her to speak to him years prior. She became so disrespectful, Ruthie. It was so bad that Ernest cut her off from the Reapers.” Grandma exhaled a heavy sigh. “I tried to stick up for her, but she got so out of hand. Stealing, sleeping with her father’s clients, exessive spending - we had had enough.”
“What did she do?”
“When we stopped paying for her destructive habits, she got pregnant by some wannabe rap producer. Unfortunately, he died from an overdoes. Delilah having Addison was the best thing that could have happened for her, but she didn’t care about that baby. She only cared about the next man that would take care of her.”
A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. “That explains why she doesn’t want to come around.”
“Unfortunately. I mean, Ernest reached out to her with an offer to come back into the Reapers, but she’d have to work her way back up in order to take over, but she refused. I’ve been meaning to talk to Addison about that.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Talk to me, I mean, talk to Addison about what?”
“Hmm?”
“You said you need to talk to Addison about something.”
“Did I?”
My shoulders slumped with realization that her memory was slipping again.
“Anyway, Ruth, it’s time for Yolanda to take me to my crochet club and then we are having a dance party after supper at Paul’s.”
“Oop! Ma’am who is Paul? Let me find out you about to get your groove on.”
“I don’t want another husband, but I don’t mind stepping my toes in the pool if you know what I mean.”
I burst out laughing. “I didn’t need to hear that. Okay, I’ll let you go get your freak on. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I sat my phone back down and smiled. It felt nice talking to my grandma, even though she didn’t recognize me. I couldn’t help but wonder what she had to tell me. I shook it off with a shrug. I guess it didn’t really matter. Besides, after speaking to her, I felt a surge of confidence to handle whatever it was that Mr. Adalyn and Seojun were going to throw my way tonight.
Chapter 20
Seojun
“It was hard, but I found Arnez. He’s been traveling back and forth between Cali and Vegas under the name Dr. Ralph Johnston. I spotted his ass last night going into a hotel. He had bags with him, so he must’ve just flown in.” Ayzo said, sitting down in the recliner I had in my underground office.
I discovered this gem when I got to Philly and absolutely loved it. There were tunnels that led me throughout Philly and kept me undetected. Ashlynn, Nicholas, Ayzo and Denice were the only other people who knew about the tunnels. The agreement was that during the day, they kept up with their usual routine and only change it up just a bit. That way if T and his goons were watching, which we knew they were, they’d be under the impression that they knew our routines. Meanwhile, Ayzo and I would use the tunnels to keep an eyeon everyone during the day. As soon as we got a whiff of suspicious activity, we’d be already on it. Of course, Ayzo was much better and faster, since staying hidden was planted in his core.
“That man was in my backyard the whole time,” I scoffed, shaking my head.
Arnez or now known as Dr. Ralph Johnston, was not only a former jaguar, but my personal OBGYN for the group homes and massage parlors. He had a private practice and regularly did checkups for all of my workers. I had to fire him for trying to get with one of my girls. I didn’t tolerate that bullshit. My girls were off limits.
“To be fair, we didn’t know what we know now back then.”
“True.”
“So, what’s the plan? I know that T is getting ready to strike because the hotel that Arnez checked into is barely two blocks away from Denice’s shop. I doubt it was a coincidence.”
“Definitely no coincidence, if we strike too soon, we’d be back at square one. As soon as Jackie, June, Manny, and Tiny hear that we got Arnez and are close to finding their locations, they’ll disappear. Hell, they were trained to stay out of sight.”
Ayzo nodded in agreement before he scratched the side of his face. “Don’t be mad, but I don’t remember a June or Tiny. I remembered Arnez, Jackie, and Manny, but them other two don’t ring a bell. Did they start after I left the Jaguars?”
I nodded my head. “They were initiated into the Jaguars a few months before all hell broke loose which made me believe they are the ring leaders in this grand betrayal. I met them once, but I was too preoccupied to really pay attention to them because if I had, I would have caught the red flags.”
