Page 54 of Memphis

Bo hopped up and was around the table in what felt like a literal flash, his gun pressed to the side of Zaccai’s head.

“I told you to keep your mouth off her, didn’t I? The first two bullets didn’t get my point across?” Bo bit out.

Zaccai lifted his hands. “Okay, okay! My bad, man. I’m just…I’m shocked.”

“Anybody else got some shit to say about her? Please speak up but know that she’s the only one in here who’s safe from death,” Bo announced.

“All I have to say is…welcome to the family, Memphis,” his mother offered.

“Um…thanks?” I replied.

I hadmy chef prepare a bunch of meals and bring them to Memphis’s high-rise instead of him cooking them here. Now that she was my wife, I didn’t want to share space with anyone but her. We were sitting at her modern-looking glass dining room table, eating blackened chicken with asparagus when she finally broke a silence she’d settled into when we left The Agency’s compound earlier.

“Your mother threatened to kill me. That’s why you married that woman. You made some kind of deal with your mother to keep me safe,” she stated, her voice bearing the certainty of a new revelation.

I stopped mid-chew and looked up at her to find her pretty eyes on me. Swallowing my food, I nodded and confirmed, “Yes.”

“That’s why you’ve been keeping tabs on me all these years, having me followed and I didn’t even know it.”

“It is. You’ve had the best security money can buy.”

“So…you made the deal but didn’t trust her to keep up her end of it?”

“Correct. I…” Falling against the back of my chair, I shook my head. “I adored my mother for a long time despite her overbearing personality, but the thing with me and you, the way she acted, it opened my eyes to a lot of shit about her I’d been blind to.”

“Like what?”

I bit my bottom lip and stared down at the table. This was some uncomfortable shit, but I owed so much to Memphis, especially the truth. “She doesn’t like me. Never has.”

“You think that why? Because she fucked us up or because she gave you that horrific name?”

I chuckled. “Both, and other things. You know me and Zaccai don’t have the same father, right?”

“You don’t?!” Her voice had risen about three octaves.

“We don’t. My dad raised him as his own, but she was already pregnant with him when they met. She always coddled Zaccai, protected him. When my pop passed, she threw me into running The Agency, hoping I’d fail. She actually said that shit. She said she knew my dad would want hisrealson to run things, so she was gonna let me fuck up and then give it to Zaccai. Now, she tries to act like she chose me because she knew I’d succeed.”

“Bo…”

“She pushed me into that marriage, and I had to leverage some shit to get out of it.”

“Leverage what?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Okay.”

“Anyway, I refused to give her a biological grandchild. Pulled Tavares off the streets instead. That kinda backfired, though. She loves his ass more than I do.”

“He hurt you. I’m sorry about that.”

I shrugged. “I ain’t no angel, either. It’s all part of the game.”

“Yeah.”

“I got you back. That’s all that matters. It’s all I ever wanted.”

She stared at me for a moment before standing and walking around the table to me.

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