Page 69 of Memphis

Well, if the press didn’t already know my name, they did now, or at least the abbreviated version of it.

I told myself not to snap at my baby sister. It wasn’t her fault I was craving blood like a damn vampire. So, I took a deep breath and unlocked the door, turning to wait for her.

As soon as she reached me, she pulled me into a hug that I involuntarily leaned into.

“Lil told me what happened! Daddy is a wreck; you gotta call him! Are you okay? How is Bo?” she babbled.

By then, Ray was standing a few feet behind Umber, giving me an admonishing look.

Rolling my eyes at him, I told my sister, “I’m fine. Bo is doing okay. Come on inside,” before backing out of her embrace.

I stepped into the mess the police had made of the house and wanted to scream. Then, I was reminded of the blood in our bedroom doorway.

I didn’t realize I had blanked out until Umber spoke. “You shouldn’t stay here.”

Frowning, I focused on her. “What?”

“You don’t need to stay here with the press and this being a crime scene and all.”

I shook my head, trying to rid it of the cobwebs. “No, I mean, yeah. I’ll…I still have the apartment.”

My tall-ass little sister moved closer to me. “I don’t think you should be alone right now. You can stay with me.”

My eyebrows flew up. “Um, I ain’t pissing and shitting in no outhouse, Umber.”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “It’s a composting toilet, and it’sinsidethe house!”

“Nah, I’m good. There’s security at my building, and the reporters won’t be able to get in.”

“What the fuck is a composting toilet?” Ray asked.

“So, it’s a dry toilet. The waste is broken down by microorganisms into compost!” Umber excitedly explained.

“Yeah, you don’t need to be alone, but you ain’t gotta use one of them dry shitters, either. You can stay with me and Lilith. We won’t ask you to babysit,” Ray offered.

I started to protest but realized that was actually a good idea. It made for great logistics. So, I said, “Okay, I’ll stay at the Nation house.”

Umber threw up her hands. “Y’allstayhating on my place!”

“Damn,this was the shortest retirement in modern history,” Jerryn quipped. “I saw that text saying you need me and damn near fainted. Management ain’t working for you?”

Holding my phone to my ear with my shoulder, I activated the VPN on my laptop and logged into The Agency’s database. “You seen the news?” I asked.

“You know I don’t watch the news unless I’m on an assignment. I recently became unemployed, Raja. Remember?”

“Then that explains it. Someone entered me and Bo’s house and shot him. I’m okay, before you ask. I pursued the shooter but couldn’t stop them. Don’t know who it was. They had on a ski mask and dark clothes. He or she shot him in the chest, but I think that’s because they didn’t expect him to be at the bedroom door. Probably planned on headshots while we were asleep. All our surveillance was disabled. Two of our security guards were shot dead. One is missing.”

“Okay, you got a name for the missing one?”

“Yep. I already gave it to Montana. She’s also going to hack into some of the doorbell cams and shit in the area. I need you to look into a list of people. Check out their bank transactions, text messages, phone calls. I need to see who set us up.”

“But—”

“I know this is Montana’s thing, but I need more than one person on this digital stuff, and you have resources that specialize in chatter.”

“Raja, I love you, but I can’t ask her to do this. We made a deal…”

“Jerryn, I wouldn’t ask if I could avoid it. Someone shot my husband.”

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