Page 18 of The Hellcat Barbies: Saskia
“But,” her bottom lip trembled, “no, it’s not.”
Licking my lips, I ran my hand down the side of her face and palmed it, lifting it. Her breathing hitched.
“What I say?”
Her round eyes expanded and then settled before she blinked away another tear.
“I better not tell you no.”
“Okay then. If I said it’s gone straight, I mean that.”
“I… I’m tired, Yak.”
“Zodiac.”
“I’m tired, Zodiac.”
“Saskia. I apologize for coming at you wrong earlier. I was just caught off guard and mad at myself for letting you get away. Shit made me feel less of a man knowing that you had to do this on your own. I know you had help, but you didn’t have me.”
My firstborn coming into the world wasn’t supposed to be like this. There wasn’t much I could do about the shit now since he was already here, but I wasn’t letting her do this shit another day without me being there every step of the way.
Saskia snatched her head back.
“I… I can’t move to Jagoda Bay. I can’t. We will just have to figure out some type of coparenting thing from here. Your grandmother lives here, so I’m sure you'll come out here anyway.”
“My granny lives out here, Saskia, and not for long. We’ve been putting things in motion to get her to move to Tennessee. She’s getting older. North Carolina isn’t my home anymore. I’ve got too much business and other shit going on in the bay to be moving back or spending a lot of time here. I gotta have my son with me.”
She shook her head profusely.
“I…I can’t! I can’t go back. That’s too close to home. I told you my daddy tried to marry me off to a rapist! What if he tried to kill-”
“Stop saying that shit, Sass.” My voice rose, making her jump, and I instantly regretted that shit. I didn’t want her scared of me. I wanted her to trust me. I wanted her to lay all of her problems at my fucking feet. I wanted to protect her, and I wasn’t doing that shit in Diamond Cove.
“Diamond Cove is my past. Jagoda Bay is my present and my future. You can come back. I’ll even arrange for your girl to come back. Just know, ain’t no muthafucka gone force you to do nothing you don’t want to do, aite?”
She shook her head, not trying to hear any of the shit I was saying.
“I’ll leave again. I’ll leave for another place where you can’t find us. I’m willing to co-parent, but I just can’t go back there.”
“Baby.”
Sitting carefully so I wouldn't sit on her bare feet, I faced her.
“You gotta stop running away from a nigga.”
“Zodiac. You don’t understand. You’re acting like I’ve been running from you forever. We had a one-night stand, and I needed to put some distance between myself and Sparkling City. So I took your car and ran.”
“But I do. I understand and that’s why I’m tryna explain to you that you gone be straight, baby.”
“How? You don’t know me. I don’t know you. We had a one-night stand, and it resulted in an oops baby. I love my child to death. But, my life is here in Diamond Cove. We are good here.”
“You good here? Living under a fake alias? Or are you even living under a fake one? Your Beetle Brats call you by your first name, and so do ya friend and my granny’s friend. You’re out in the fucking open, racing and shit. Do you think if muthafuckas was really after you, that you’d be able to live your life freely like that? Driving around in a loud ass car? What, cuz yo girl got some paperwork doctored? You think that's what’s been saving you?”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone.
“My name is Zodiac Valor. I’m twenty-nine years old and I was born and raised here. My granny took me in when my parents died in a car accident. My uncle, Hunter, and I came up in the streets because my Granny was forced to retire early due to a bad knee. We hit the ground running because her not having what she needed wasn’t an option.”
She blinked slowly, but continued to listen.
