y’all? Trae, you better get your hands off of that girl. Now!” Marva warned him.
Trae let me go, and I almost tumbled to the floor.
“If I don’t come back, make sure you tell my sons why. I can’t believe how stupid you allow some bitch to make you act. Now I don’t know what the fuck I’m walking into. You told me you trusted me, Tasha.”
“I do. It’s her that I didn’t trust!” I screamed as he walked out the front door. “She sends someone to blow up our home, and it’s fine. I sick some dogs on her, and I’m a dumb, jealous, insecure bitch. Fuck you and her, Trae! Y’all deserve each other.” He didn’t even bother to look back.
I thought about what he’d said, the reality of his words sunk to the pit of my stomach. And what if he didn’t come back? I had promised myself that I wasn’t doing any more bids with another nigga. Trae promised me that he was never going back to jail, that he was going to stay clean. The game was over for him. That’s what he said. Now this.
TRAE
Walking to the limo felt more like treading through quicksand. I had my doubts about it being known that someone in my camp was responsible for Charli’s mishap, so at least I had a little time. I put my game face on as I got into the back of the limo and was thankful that I was back there alone. I didn’t know what I was walking into. My instincts were telling me that this trip wasn’t business . . . it was personal.
After about an hour, I knew it was personal when we pulled up in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. My door came open, and a gentleman I never saw before greeted me.
They know.
“Mr. Macklin, I am Pu Chang. Mr. Li asked me to assist you this evening.”
“Assist me with what?”
“I will be taking you up to visit Miss Charli Li. Come, follow me.”
We went inside, bypassing security, and stepped onto the elevator. As we took the short ride up, I imagined Mr. Li at his daughter’s bedside and also trying to figure out his reasoning for wanting me to see her.
We walked past the nurses’ station, down to the room where one of Li’s henchmen stood. I recognized him from riding with us on the private jet. He nodded at me as I followed Pu Chang into the room.
Flowers were everywhere, on the floor, against the wall, in the window. Hell, I saw the flowers before I saw her. I walked closer to the bed. She had tubes coming out of her mouth and going through her nose, an IV in her left arm, and her right arm, foot and head were bandaged up.
“Is she unconscious?” I asked in a low tone.
“Yes, she is,” Pu Chang answered. “Luckily, they found four inches of Miss Li’s scalp on the ground and gave it to one of the EMS workers. We are hopeful that her scalp can be reattached. She has severe bites on her right hand and arm and on her left leg. There were two dogs, and we are not sure if they had been vaccinated or tested for rabies.” He stood looking down at Charli and then back at me.
I immediately turned and walked out, thinking the worst. Mr. Li was blaming me for what happened to his daughter.
Pu Chang was on my heels. “I will take you back to the car.”
“I can show myself out, but I do need to speak to Mr. Li.”
“There’s a phone in the limo. It’s already being arranged for you to speak to him.”
I left him standing there and decided to take the stairs. Charli was fucked up, so I could only imagine the magnitude of the repercussions I would have to face. Tasha really had my back up against the wall with this one.
As soon as I got situated in the limo, the phone rang. I picked it up.
“Yes.”
“Mr. Macklin, did you see my daughter?”
“Of course, and I offer my deepest condolences. She had called me and told me that she had new and urgent instructions from you. I called you several times to confirm but was unable to reach you. So I decided on meeting her in a public place, just to be on the safe side. Actually, she was the one who suggested the meeting place,” I found myself explaining once again.