Pawn (The Pawn Duet #2) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,43
after she left.”
“And you didn’t buy it?” I ask.
Percy raises his eyebrows. “No, the old man is getting sloppy in his lies. Has been ever since your old man…well, you know. Pike’s around my age, and he’s a bad motherfucker, don’t get me wrong, I know that, but even the baddest motherfuckers among us wasn’t out on the streets murdering women for no fucking reason at all when they’re in second grade. Even if he could have done it, Pike isn’t that kind of guy. He was a dick to me, for sure, but I deserved it, and I respect that he lives by a code. He ain’t no rat and won’t ever be no rat. Besides, half of the shit I told him in juvie when I was running my mouth wasn’t what came up in the FED’s report. That was some inside shit that only a few people knew, but Pike, he wasn’t one of them.”
“Do you know who ratted?” I ask, sheepishly, needing to know exactly how much Percy knows and how much of a surprise what I’m about to tell him is going to be.
“Yeah, and it wasn’t no rat.” Percy chuckles. “Turns out, it was a mouse.”
“A mouse?” I scrunch my nose.
He smiles. “A Mickey Mouse.”
Shit.
“You knew?” I ask, leaping off the bed.
“Of course, I fucking did. You came to visit me in prison. You looked fucking terrified. I never saw you like that before. You were always so strong, so leveled-headed. You were on the other side of that fucking glass thing shaking like you were naked in a snow storm. I could see you didn’t want to be there, and at first, I thought, of course she doesn’t want to be here, neither do I, it’s fucking prison. Not only that, but you asked me about all sorts of shit you would never have asked me about before. Matter of fact, we did more talking that day then we had since we were fucking kids.”
Guilt creeps through my brain causing my body to go cold.
I slowly approach the bed and sit down again, nervously tugging at the hem of my shorts. “What I did, did it have anything to do with why my family is dead?”
Percy takes a drag of his cigarette. “No, Darius never knew it was you. I didn’t tell him after I figured it out. He assumed it was Pike the whole time because Pike was transferred out of the detention center shortly after the FBI submitted their evidence to try me as an adult. And I knew, but you gotta know that even monsters have limits. I would never have touched you or your family. I would rather have rotted in that place than hurt you or your sisters. Your moms was cool as fuck, too, always bringing me that bread she made. What kind was it?” He snaps his fingers while he thinks.
“Banana bread,” I offer.
“That’s it. That was some good shit.”
“Then, why?”
“Your father wanted out. That’s why he was killed. Shit was getting violent, and that’s something your pops never agreed to. Your old man wanted to build a brotherhood to study how loyalty is built outside of a family structure.”
Learned Loyaly. An in-depth analysis of loyalty outside of the family structure.
It makes sense now. It was the title of one of my dad’s papers. I remember reading it when I was about nine years old. “How do you know that?”
“I found it recently in a drawer in Darius’s office. He’s got a bunch of his shit in there.”
“I know. I found them to,” I admit.
“What the fuck did I tell you about poking around?” he says, raising his voice in frustration.
“I know. I know. I couldn’t help it,” I reply. “But, why are my father’s journals in Darius’s office in the first place?”
Percy shrugs. “My guess is that Darius raided your house and your father’s possessions shortly after his death to get rid of any evidence that this was all just a fucking joke. Your dad was in it for the knowledge and Darius wanted an army for his drug operation. When your old man told Darius he wanted out, Darius made a big show of telling him that he was free to go and that he wished him the best of luck, but to Darius, it was a betrayal he couldn’t live with. He wasn’t about to let your father live with it either. He knew too much that could take it all down.” His