feels left out. My friends and I promised that we’d never let dating come between us. We made a pact.”
“That’s good.”
I wasn’t about to tell her that dating screwed up a lot of friendships. On the off chance she and her friends would actually manage to make it through school without a guy or girl coming between them, I wouldn’t ruin it by giving her a harsh view of the truth. Besides, it wasn’t like I was some expert on what would or wouldn’t break a friendship.
I’d had friends when I was a kid, but when Art started messing with me, I’d closed myself off, and they’d disappeared. By the time I got locked up, I hadn’t talked to a single one of them in more than a year. Since then, I’d kept everyone but Kaimi and Rose at arm’s length. Sitara would get there eventually. But I’d never experienced what Rose had, and I’d be damned if I burst her bubble because I was jaded as fuck.
“How’s Bradyn?”
I could hear the smirk in her voice and rolled my eyes. “He’s fine, thank you very much.”
“Oh, he definitely is fine.”
“Rose!” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Way too old for you.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t look.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with the little girl who thought Aladdin and Jasmine kissing was gross?”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, Aunt Nyx. I’m not turning into one of those boy-crazy teenagers who doodles hearts on her notebooks.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said wryly.
“So am I.” Kaimi’s voice came from the background. “Rose, take Nyx off speaker and give me my phone.”
“Bye, Aunt Nyx! Love you!”
“I love you too, little bee.”
A few moments of silence while the phone changed hands, and then it was only Kaimi’s voice on the other end.
“I swear, that girl.” Kaimi sighed. “Hey, Nyx.”
“Hey.” I paused, regathering the thoughts that’d scattered when Rose had answered the phone, and Kaimi waited. “Do you have time to talk?”
“One second.”
I heard her say something to Rose about being on the phone for a while, and then a door closed.
“All right. Sitara’s at work ‘til midnight, and Rose just finished her homework, so she’s binging Riverdale until she goes to bed. I’m all yours.”
“I’m drowning here, Kaimi.” My voice shook, and I closed my eyes, the sudden burn of tears surprising me.
“What happened?” The words had an edge to them. “Did Bradyn hurt you?”
“No. No, that’s not…I mean…fuck.” I took a deep breath and tried again. “I didn’t tell you when you and Sitara got back because I refused to ruin your homecoming, but Bradyn and I had a huge fight when he was in New York.”
“I’m gonna castrate him.”
“You’ll want to hear the whole thing before you decide to assault him,” I said.
Kaimi had known most of what’d happened between Bradyn and me before she called to ask him to come to New York. Without going into the details, I told her about finding a connection to Bradyn’s family and the investigation I was doing as well as the argument he and I’d had when he’d overheard me on the phone. She started muttering curses under her breath at that point, and they became threats when I told her about Antoinette answering his door naked. She didn’t actually interrupt, though, which made it easier.
Then I got to today.
“So, I remembered that probate records could help me find out what type of estate the Traylors had left from one generation to the next. From there I realized it could give me the name of their attorney, or at least the law firm they work at.”
If Kaimi thought I’d changed topics, she didn’t mention it. One of the things that made her such a great friend was that she would listen to everything before she started asking questions.
“Turns out, the Traylors use Check & Sons.”
“Shit.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
“Does Bradyn know?”
“No. At least, I didn’t tell him. Not about Art’s family being from Savannah or his last name or his being a lawyer. I guess he could’ve found out if he really wanted to put in the time or money, but I don’t think he did. He has a decent poker face, but he wouldn’t have kept quiet if he knew his family’s lawyer was connected to me.”
“Are you sure? Kinda seems like he’s been an ass.”
“Yeah, well, this is where things get really interesting.”
“You fucked him again, didn’t you?”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Bullshit.”
“Okay, it wasn’t completely like that,” I corrected myself.