Page 6 of The Prodigy

“Nah, just relax. Aight? It’s not what you think. I just need to make sure you don’t try to run.”

Okay, yeah, that didn’t sound very reassuring, but fuck it. I had bigger problems.

“I’ma tie you up for a few minutes, but that’s it.”

She closed her eyes.

“You hear me?”

She opened her eyes and nodded. Tears streamed down her face.

I felt bad, but I pulled her with me anyway, following Joe’s lead to the kitchen. He pointed to a dining chair, and I led her to it and sat her down. I took the ties, secured her ankles to the legs of the chair, and stood back up to examine my handiwork.

She wasn’t going nowhere.

“Aye, where your water at?” I asked Joe.

He waved me off. “I got you.”

He reached in his fridge and pulled out a bottle of Evian. I scanned my immediate area and spotted a bowl with fruit in it. I grabbed an apple and set it in front of her. She didn’t say a word, just stared down at her feet.

“I’ll be right back,” I told her.

Joe led me out of the kitchen. “Yo, who is that, for real?”

“Nobody. Listen, I done got into some shit.”

We entered Joe’s office, and I closed the door behind me.

“Yeah, I figured,” he said as he took a seat behind his desk. “Sorry about Pop.”

“Yeah.”

“You been home yet?”

“Nah. That’s where I was headed when I caught a fucking body.” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “There was an accident, so I pulled off the road…”

I told him the whole story. He nodded occasionally, but otherwise, he didn’t react.

That was Joseph Thomas, though. He’d been working for my family for twenty years now, so there wasn’t much that could surprise him. He’d seen it all. The war with the O’Neal family, our static with the police, buying off the Hightowers, my father’s shooting…Joe had been solid through it all.

“Who was it?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” I pulled my cracked phone out my back pocket and took a seat on the couch. “I was gonna check his pockets for his ID, but then homegirl came outside and threw me off.”

“She saw?”

I nodded.

“Fuck.” He scrubbed a hand down his face and thought for a minute. “She the talking type?”

“Don’t know. I just met her tonight.”

“Well. That’s unfortunate. For her.”

We sat in silence, weighted down by the truth of that.

“Where’s the gun at?”

“Left it in the car.” I made a face at him. “Come on, man. You know I wasn’t gon' bring it up in here.”

“Nah, I ain’t worried about that. You just need to make sure you get rid of it somewhere.”

“Yeah. I will.”

He sighed. “So what you gon’ do with her?”

I flashed him a look, and he nodded.

“Two bodies in one night,” he said. “That’s a hell of a homecoming.”

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