Page 76 of Quasim II: King Inferno

“I told you to stop saying king like that, Kobe.”

“You right,” He laughed, knowing his ass was going to say it again, and I was going to ignore his ass.

“So, what this meeting about?” Blair asked as she buttered the provided bread and shoved it into her mouth.

Whenever I saw her eating that shit made me fucking happy. There was a time when she used to pick through her food, and I would share my plate with her because she couldn’t eat much. I couldn’t share a plate with her ass now because she was always eating the whole thing and then asking what was wrong.

Seeing her eat, knowing it was going to my baby, had me feeling different these days. Blessed being one of those things. I couldn’t wait for her stomach to grow so I could palm it while giving her kisses.

Berkeley was annoyed that Blair was even here, but she took a deep breath and finally got to why the fuck I was here. “First, I’m sorry about what happened to your house.”

“How do you know about it? You did it?”

I looked at my wife, and she looked away, knowing she needed to settle down. “We have run in the same circles for years.”

“She’s related to Salah.” I explained.

“Yeah, well, I heard about it and I’m sorry. I reached out when it first happened but know you had a lot going on at that time. Anyway, I’ve been investigating this case of this missinggirl for a year now. Nobody knows where she went, but her mother is adamant that Vincent Morgan had something to do with it, and she just wants answers. Lucia Parker was the lead detective on the case, and it went cold, so I had an interview set up with her and ADA Fern… her people haven’t got back to me yet… maybe put a good word in?”

“I’ll see… go on.”

“Well, Lucia was no damn help and kept me going around in circles, which I’m used to when it comes to being a journalist. Usually, the people that I’m interviewing talk in circles, but they give me something… she didn’t give anything. She ended the interview early and rushed me out her office. I was in such a rush that I forgot my voice recorder since she literally rushed me right in the middle of the interview. She refused to answer my calls, so I called her partner, and he allowed me to come pick it up the next day.”

“What you trying to tell me, Berk…Berkeley,” I cleared my throat when Blair stared at me as I was about to call her Berks again.

“Lucia Parker was behind your home burning down and she has plans to set you up on a murder. Be careful, Quasim… I’m going to send you the recordings. I needed to tell this in person so you could understand how serious this is.”

Blair squeezed my hand as she looked at me. “Did she say who?”

Berkeley sighed. “No, but I would be very fucking careful. Whoever Elijah is, you took him from her… and she’s angry about it. She mentioned another woman is apparently missing and she can’t find her.”

Fuck.

Lucia had a target on my back, and although I always moved smart, I had to move ten times smarter to make sure that her ass never slipped up on me.

“How do we know that you aren’t involved in any of this?”

Berkeley laughed, then stopped when she realized my baby was serious. “My cousins are Brooklyn Bullies… we don’t talk to the police, and the loyalty that my cousins have for the Inferno Gods is why I am here. I have been investigating this woman’s disappearance, so I am going undercover… there’s so mu?—”

“Berkeley, you need to be careful digging into this shit.” I warned her, knowing that this was her career and what got her out of bed in the morning.

Aside from us never working, I always admired how dedicated she was to her career. I found myself reading her articles and paying attention to the shit she reported on that wasn’t pop culture.

“All jokes aside, Benihana, you should be careful because the things these men are doing to these women is serious.”

I looked at Blair and shook my head because she said the shit with a straight face. “I’m going to be careful… the date I went on is with a doctor that I think could be involved. He and Vincent Morgan were very close before his disappearance.”

Berkeley stayed for a little while before she left and told me she would send me the recording. I was going to send it to Core the minute she sent it to me. Havoc, Kobe, and Syn’s nosey asses brought their food over to our table.

“Kang…King, you need to take this seriously,” Kobe said.

“How in the fuck did you hear the conversation over there?”

He laughed. “I’ve been this nigga’s ears for years… I have great ears, and she was a little too loud.”

“Yeah, because I heard her, and I have to say I disagree with everything she is trying to do.” Syn answered, sitting on Havoc’s lap because there were only two other seats at the table.

Havoc looked at me. “I don’t like this shit, Sim.”

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