to leave me. He rolled down the window, and Angel stuck her hand out.
“Tasha, come on. The kids are out back, and Kaylin needs to talk to Trae.”
This was real. I fucked up. If I lose Trae, Charli will have gotten the last laugh.
ANGEL
My girls’ lives seemed to be crumbling all around me. Kaylin and I traveled from New York to Georgia, Georgia to Cali, back to New York, back to Cali, handling one crisis after the next. Trae called, and I was thankful that Kaylin and I could be there to offer support. The only bright spot was my excitement for Kyra, who was now pregnant by Rick. She actually seemed happy. And no one has seen her out preaching with her Bible. But now this.
In regards to Jaz and Faheem, since Jaz went out on some rah-rah shit killing spree, they now had to up and move. Faheem said that she had to find a new house, a new school, the whole nine. But come to find out, she wasn’t the hitman she thought she was. Faheem was like the puppet master, handling his business, using Jaz to set it all up. She was high up there with her drama, but I still thought Tasha and Trae outdid everyone else. Tasha putting the pit bulls on Trae’s Chinese mistress. Now that shit was . . . priceless. And those unmarked cars that were out there all day parked in front of Trae’s house, they were for him. I believed that he was about to do some real time. From what I was able to gather, he wanted Don Carlos to step in, but since he switched teams, I didn’t know if that was going to happen.
And Kyron committing rape? He had lost his fuckin’ mind. But I could say this, it was good that they were picking Trae up, because according to Kaylin, he was at the point of no return. He was going to get Kyron. Hell, I wanted to get him my damn self.
“Baby, we’re gonna be all right. Trust me,” Trae was telling Tasha. I had to make her get out of the car, because Trae and Kaylin still had to talk while they had the chance. Even though it was almost eighty degrees, she was shivering.
After about twenty minutes, the detectives were getting out of their cars, with their guns and badges drawn.
20
KAYLIN
We finally were back home in New York after spending almost a week out there in Cali making sure that Tasha was all right. We knew all of the particulars in regards to them holding Trae without a bond. He really pissed off the Li organization and now wanted me to go talk to Don Carlos. I had no idea how that would go, because I didn’t know the relationship between the two organizations, the Li organization being Asian and Don Carlos being Latino. For real, I couldn’t imagine them having anything in common or anything to beef about for that matter. However, Trae was my nigga, and we went hard for each other all of the time. But for now, he was going to have to sit tight.
My first order of business was to catch up with my brother Kyron. Of course, I went to his apartment, and he wasn’t there. I slid by Kendrick’s; no one was there, either. En route to Kendra’s, I changed my mind. I knew he wouldn’t be there, and she would only alert him that I was looking for him. Then it hit me. Swing by Mari’s. She lived all the way up near Poughkeepsie, New York, in this suburb called Cooperstown. I didn’t care. My gut was telling me that’s where he was. Plus, I needed the drive so that I could clear my head.
I drove for about an hour and a half before pulling into Mari’s driveway. I didn’t see Kyron’s car, but that didn’t mean anything. She had a four-car garage in the back of her beautiful two-story brick home perched up on a hill. A perfect place to hide.
I deaded the engine and got out. Even the air was different up top. I made my way up the winding cement stairs and rang the doorbell. When I rang it again, the curtains moved, and then I heard the locks being opened.
“Kaylin! What a surprise.” Mari gleamed as she opened the screen door. Then she frowned. “Is everything all right?”