Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,100
garbage bag, and another round of drinks had been poured, Jordan was leaning forward. Elbows resting on his knees, he was staring into the fire.
He said, “I’m going to go to Roussou tomorrow.” The fire’s reflection was playing over his face, casting him in orange and red dark shadows. It lit up his eyes. They were somber. “I’m going to bring Zellman back.”
And even that made perfect sense.
We needed all of our crew together.
BREN
My phone woke me the next morning.
Cross was curled behind me, one of his hands on my hip and he stiffened, groaning. “Who keeps fucking calling you at—” He looked, and then growled. The phone kept ringing, but I didn’t move. This was a small luxury I indulged. Cross would field it for me, and he did, reaching over me to my nightstand.
“What the hell?” he muttered under his breath, sitting up and hitting accept.
“This is a call from the Potomahmen Correctional Facility. Do you accept the charges from inmate—”
“Yes.”
A second later, I heard my ex’s voice coming from the phone, and Cross was glaring hard at the room. “What do you want?”
A laugh from Drake. “Can I talk to her?”
“Why?”
Even though Cross hadn’t put my phone on speaker, I could hear Drake loud and clear.
“Just let me talk to her. Please.”
He turned to me. “You don’t have to take the call. You can tell him to go to hell.”
I sighed, sitting up. A yawn left me, but we both knew Drake was calling for a reason. I had no doubt that what he wanted to tell me wasn’t what he was going to say at all. But knowing Drake, knowing the games he always played, I still knew I needed to take the call.
Simply put, it was what it was.
I shrugged but held my hand out.
Cross handed it over and slid out of bed. He went to the bathroom, and I watched him the whole walk, enjoying it immensely.
Taking the phone, I hit the speaker button and sat back. “What do you want?”
Another laugh, this one louder and more genuine. “There she is, my old Bren.”
I rolled my eyes. “I ain’t your old anything, except if you’re referencing an old regret, but I do. I truly do. I regret ever dating you, and also, why are you not dead? You snitched. By prison law, you should’ve been gone in the first week.”
Another laugh, but it was lessening. I was getting to him, or the threat had. “That’s cold, even for you.”
Except it wasn’t, because while I had been worried about getting that call, the one stating someone I used to care about had been shanked in prison, it never came. The more time that past, the more confident I became that Drake had somehow escaped certain death. Then again, that was also something he did.
“Let me guess, you had another card to hold over someone?”
An abrupt laugh. This one was short and brief, still genuine. “Something like that, yeah.”
Cross came back, then disappeared into the closet. We were in his room, so it was a larger walk-in than mine upstairs. He came back with sweats pulled on, but nothing else. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms over his chest.
I found myself getting distracted.
Once again.
“Why are you calling?”
He drew in a long breath. “Word is that my baby mama had my baby.”
I frowned. That’d been weeks ago. “Yeah?”
“Sunday’s not letting me see the baby.”
“Why would she? Isn’t that too early?”
“Not for pictures. Not to even be told what she named my kid. Fuck, Bren. I don’t even know if I have a son or a daughter.”
Oh. Whoa. Sunday was being cold, ice cold.
“That’s nothing to do with me.”
“That’s the point of this call. You do me a solid, I’ll do you a solid.”
See. He always had an agenda.
“How could I do you a solid?” I hissed, “And do not make an innuendo about that or I will drive there and shank you myself.”
Another laugh, but his humor was fast fading. “A call from you. If you push her to let me in, get to know my kid. Fuck, just telling me what I have would be big. What do I have, Bren? A daughter? A son?”
I looked up.
Cross was frowning, and some of his normal annoyance had lessened. A brief flare of sympathy was there. I answered, hoping I wasn’t violating some major code with Sunday (I was still learning). “You have a little girl, but I’m not saying anything else.”
He exhaled sharply, sounding loud