Page 48 of City of Gods

“Idon’t know about meeting with these uppity motherfuckers, Bakari.” Hakim’s jaw flexed as he stared at nothing in particular in front of him. I rolled my shoulders and then reclined in my armchair.

“Hakim, no disrespect, but I don’t give a fuck what you think about meeting with them. They have information about their mother. The same woman trying to take our family business down.” My voice boomed and Hakim glared at me silently. Maasai stood to his feet, pacing off energy.

“Look, we don’t usually mesh well with these motherfuckers but this is an extraordinary circumstance.” He spread a look between me and Hakim. My chest ached with heaviness. Rob should have been in the living room with us. Instead, he was in the fucking morgue.

Tears stung my eyes and I sniffed, rubbing my knees.

“We’re going to hear them out. I talked to Sanai about it and…”

“Sanai…” Hakim scoffed and a ripple of anger flared through my core.

“Tread lightly, Hakim,” I warned, lifting an eyebrow.

“Oh, shit. Are we in tread-lightly territory? Are we sure she didn’t know about this fucking hit? The one that was supposed to beyou?” His voice was a growl. “Do you know what the fuck my life would have been like if you got hit, Bakari? I’m torn the fuck up because…Rob was like a little brother to me.” He stared at me, raw and open as pain radiated through my chest.

Hakim, Maasai, and I all stared at each other, the weight of losing Rob pressing down on us like a fucking heatwave. “Look, I know Sanai didn’t have anything to with that shit, okay?” I said, finally breaking the thick silent tension.

“How?” Maasai wondered out loud.

“Because I trust her. She wouldn’t be going through rallying her family to come over here and talk to us if she was involved. You both can draw your own conclusions, though. I’m exhausted. I lost my best friend and I’m not about to convince y'all of shit.”

“Where the hell is Sanai, anyway?” Maasai asked, looking around the living room.

“Getting dressed,” I answered, tipping my chin up. Both of my older brothers looked at me wearing matching unreadable expressions. I felt the judgment, though. “I don’t give a fuck what y'all think about it, for real. It is what it is.”

Footfalls moving down the steps and then into the living room were right on time. Like she heard me call her. She had on the sweats and T-shirt I gave her. The shirt was knotted at her hip and the waistband of the pants were rolled down exposing a perfect caramel strip of skin. I rubbed my hand along the arm of the chair to quell the urge I had to reach out to slide my fingers along that strip.

She looked so young like that. No makeup, her thick hair pulled up into a puff of wild curls. Her skin was so smooth and goddammit, I wanted to touch her. She’d been the anchor that I needed and touching her pulled me back down to the ground. I wanted to float away somewhere in the atmosphere with Rob but Sanai kept my feet on the ground.

“Hey, y'all.” She offered Maasai and Hakim a short smile then sat on the arm of my chair. The soap from our shower lingered on her golden skin.

“What’s up?” Maasai nodded at her. “You’ll understand if I’m not exactly happy to see you since Rob got killed.”

“Yeah. I get it but I didn’t have shit to do with that and that’s exactly why we all need to sit down and talk.” She held her hands out in front of her.

“Let’s do this shit before I lose my warm and friendly vibes,” Hakim grumbled.

“Like you ever had any,” Sanai scoffed. Hakim shot a look full of anger at her. I watched the interaction, not sure if I should allow the side of me that wanted to protect her to come through or if I should keep quiet.

“What time is everyone showing up?” I asked her, reaching out to skim the bare skin at her hip.

“In about five minutes,” she responded, glancing down at her phone. She inched over on the arm of the chair so that she was halfway in my lap and halfway on the chair. Maasai’s attentive eyes didn’t miss a beat.

“Sanai, before your family comes in here, I need to know if there’s any possible way they could be in on this plot.” Maasai watched her for an answer.

“No. I’ll tell you guys like I told Bakari, we don’t do secrets in my family and it’s a fate worse than death if we find out. That’s why everyone wants to meet. We’ve never dealt with my mother keeping secrets.”

“Your mother. Man…get the fuck out of here,” Hakim sighed. “I’m supposed to believe you’re choosing our side over your mom?”

“You don’t have to believe shit, Hakim. Also, nobody said I was taking y'all side over my own fucking family. I’m taking the Temple’s side. I’m taking the side of what’s right and honest.”

“Right and honest?” Hakim grumbled. “What the fuck do you know about right and honest? You kill niggas for a living.”

“Alright,” I snapped, tightening my grip on Sanai’s thigh. “Let’s cut his shit out right now. We don’t have time for it. We need to hear them out and they need to hear us out. Otherwise, we have a big problem on our hands. A problem with resources and deadly skill.” That seemed to settle my brothers down, but I saw the look of hostility in Hakim’s eyes. He was always the loose cannon. Maasai was the voice of reason and I was the overachieving playboy.

When the doorbell rang, Sanai hopped up and I followed behind her. As much as I was feeling her, I wasn’t about to just let her open the door to my house.

“Man, fuck all this shit. I need something to eat.” I heard Hakim mutter before he walked into the kitchen ready to raid me for whatever food I had on hand.

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