Page 8 of Smoke

“I’m not doing shit!”

He reached across the desk and grabbed me by my shirt. “You heard what the fuck I said, Romi. I’m not playing with you. Get on board, or you’re gonna wish you had.” He shoved me away and walked to the door. Looking back at me, he said, “I’ll be back to pick that up.”

The whole thing shook me up so bad that I closed the shop down for the rest of the day. That bag sat in my office until he came back. Of course, he was livid when I told him this shit wasn’t going to continue. For weeks after that, he tried to make me stash his product, but I refused. He went from threatening me to using scare tactics to get me to comply.

I’d been followed.

My tires had been flattened.

My shop window had bricks thrown through it before it was broken into. Nothing was taken, but the place was ransacked. My house was broken into, and again, nothing was taken, but the place was all fucked up. I called the police, and every time, the video surveillance footage was mysteriously lost during the investigation after I gave his name.

Patrick’s father was a city official, the chief administrative officer, to be exact. I’d met him three times, and they had an estranged relationship, but apparently, he loved his son enough to cover up his transgressions. It was clear that Patrick simply wanted me to know that he could have me touched whenever he wanted, and there was nothing I could do about it.

That was the nightmare I’d been living for months now.

When I found out I was pregnant, I’d been doing my best to keep it from him because I knew he would use our child to finally force me into compliance. I couldn’t do it… Iwouldn’tdo it.

“Mommy, did you hear me?” Korri asked, breaking my thoughts.

I snapped out of my trancelike state. “I’m sorry, baby. What did you say?”

“I asked if you could read me two bedtime stories tonight.”

I smiled and kissed her temple. “Of course.”

I knew that was her way of getting me to stay longer, and I didn’t mind. I was ready to have her back home. Hopefully, this would all be over soon, and we could go back to regular life.

No running.

No being scared.

No. Fucking. Patrick LaStrange.

“You clean as a muthafucka, my nigga!”I said, dapping my brother.

Maceo’s ass was grinning from ear to ear. It was his official wedding ceremony, but looking at him, you would never know that this man was already married and hadbeenmarried for six months. He and Shar had originally planned for this ceremony to be a few months out, but then she found out she was expecting, so they moved it up. She said she wasn’t walking down the aisle with a baby bump, and she wasn’t pushing the wedding back any further, so here we are.

“Thanks, man. You clean up nice as my best man.”

I pretended to dust my shoulders off. “You know I do what I can.”

The door to the dressing room opened, and in walked our mother. She was already dabbing her eyes, and I knew she was about to start with the dramatics.

“Look at my babies!” she exclaimed with open arms.

She came with hugs and kisses, per usual, then she started fixing our ties like we hadn’t done this a million times before. We just let her have it because she was so happy right now.

“You both look so handsome,” she said, cupping our faces. “I just saw Sharina. Oh, Maceo, she looks beautiful.”

He grinned. “She’s glowing, isn’t she?”

“She is. My grandbaby has her radiant.”

“I can’t believe we’re having a baby?—”

Immediate laughter broke out in the room. Maceo and Shar were two of the horniest people I’d ever met, so I didn’t know how he let those words come out of his mouth.

“You said what?” Deuce asked. “Like y’all ain’t humping on each other from sunup to sundown.”

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