Page 105 of The Prodigy

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Malika

Jakariwassittingupin bed when I got home. I smiled at him when I saw him, but he didn’t return the expression.

I set my purse on the dresser. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

“I’m straight,” was his short, clipped answer.

“You need anything?”

He chuckled, but not because something was funny. He was clearly pissed. “How bout the fucking truth?”

“What do you mean?”

His face creased into a frown. “I mean your boyfriend hanging out at your job all fucking night.”

It took me a minute to put it all together.

“Youstillhave people watching me?”

“Ain’t nostill. After I got shot, I had McGrady put a man on you, that’s all. It wasn’t about watching you. It was me trying to keep you safe.”

I crossed my arms in front of me. “Is that why you looked through my stuff?”

“Fuck you talkin about? What stuff?”

His confusion seemed sincere, but then again, I didn’t really know him well enough to say for sure.

“My papers and stuff that I put on top of your safe.”

“Nah, I ain’t go through your shit. If I wanted to know something, I’d ask. Or I’d have somebody pull all your shit. I didn’t do none of that.”

“Well, somebody went through my papers.”

“We ain’t talkin about that right now. Focus on my question.” His lips tightened into a thin line. “Why the fuck was that nigga hanging around your job all night?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Then what the fuck is it? I told you I don’t like secrets, Malika.”

“It’s…” I sighed, my shoulders dropping in defeat. “I never wanted to tell you this. I never wanted to tellanybody.”

He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

I sat on the bed and closed my eyes. “Brett Hightower came into the bar tonight.”

“And?”

“I have…history with him.” I looked over at him. “It was a long time ago.”

His jaw clenched. “What kinda history?”

“Okay. Do you remember Badger season?”

Jakari nodded, because of course he remembered. Every kid in Midling had not so fond memories of the lazy ass Midling police slacking off all year, eating and gossiping like bitches until prom and graduation season rolled around. That’s when they’d assemble like the Avengers and stalk us, using us kids to meet their arrest and ticket quotas for the year. We called them badgers because they wore badges, and because they wouldn’t leave us the hell alone.

“Well, I got a ticket in one of their sweeps senior year and had to take one of those traffic school classes. Brett got caught with drugs in his car, but his daddy called somebody and got him off the hook for it, as long as he took the traffic school class. So that’s how we met. I mean, I knew of him because of his name, but he went to private school.”

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