Page 15 of The Prodigy

7

Jakari

Istoodunderthesteaming water with my eyes closed, glad to let it wash the day off me. So much bullshit. So much drama. And it was only my first day home. That’s what was blowing me. I hadn’t even scratched the surface of what I needed to do while I was here.

I soaped up and scrubbed down. It was only when I was washing my dick that I remembered Malika.

That was a whole other issue.

When Joe suggested marrying her as the solution to that problem, I laughed in his face.

I love Joe like a brother, but that nigga’s a whole ass attorney. Surely he coulda came up with a better plan than that. But I’d always trusted Joe. He was sharp, and he knew the law as well as he knew the ins and outs of my family. My daddy put him through law school and kept him around like he was kin. So I valued his opinion, and given the options I had—murder being one of them—it didn’t seem like I had any other choice.

Come tomorrow, I’d be a married man.

That shit wouldn’t be a real marriage, but that ain’t the point. I’d always planned to get married one day. My daddy said a man ain’t grown til he got his own family. Cool. But not like this. This shit was a disaster, and Malika seemed like she felt the same way.

I couldn’t blame her. She watched me kill somebody. She didn’t know the whole story, so she thought I was a cold-blooded murderer. She was scared of me.

Which meant she probably wasn’t gonna let me fuck.

I turned off the water and dried myself before knotting the towel around my waist. I brushed my teeth, moisturized, and threw my clothes into a trash bag before making my exit from the bathroom.

The house was quiet as I eased down the hallway toward my old bedroom. With my fiancée in it.

Fuck.

She was laying on her side when I came in, her back to the door. She was probably playing sleep to avoid having to talk to me. Or anything else. But she didn’t need to worry about that. I ain’t have much to say.

I stashed the trash bag at the top of the closet behind my safe. My gun was in there, too. Come tomorrow, all that shit would be gone forever.

Malika stirred at the noise but didn’t turn over. I needed her attention though, because I had some information she needed to know.

I dropped my towel and slipped into bed next to her.

“Malika.”

She didn’t move.

“I know you ain’t sleep.”

Still, nothing.

“Aight, be like that. It’s two things you need to know, though. First off, you’re on my side. I gotta sleep closest to the door or I won’t be able to rest. And two, I sleep naked.”

She sat straight up.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. And then I turned my head to look at her.

I don’t know if it was the way the moonlight was hitting her face or if I was just horny, but she looked…good. In a way I hadn’t noticed at the bar.

She’d washed all the makeup off her face and put her hair up in a bun on top of her head. It was the cute, laidback look I tended to like at home, and it looked good on her. What didn’t look good was the fear in her eyes.

“Yo, chill,” I said. “Me sleeping naked ain’t got nothin’ to do with you. And I’m not gonna touch you. I ain’t that kinda nigga.”

She nodded, and her shoulders dropped. “You wanna switch sides?”

“Yeah.”

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