Page 89 of Quasim III: King Inferno

With Cherry, I couldn’t get enough of them, and with this baby, I wanted them far away from me. I closed the container and put it on the desk behind me as I went back to replying to emails. With Mercer in custody and his bail being denied, everything was moving fast. So much shit was coming out and I knew everybody involved was on edge.

The FBI took this case and went running with it. We had a meeting in fifteen minutes, and I had been dragging my feet because I didn’t want to sit and hear everyone’s theory on this case. We were merely assisting the FBI, and that was their way of being nice and saying they didn’t need our help.

Our meeting today wasn’t about Mercer and the egg farming. Although, I lit some fire under Lucia’s captain’s ass, because why had so many cases gone cold when it came to her? Nobody over there was actually doing their job.

The meeting today was about all the art that had been stolen throughout the city. I wasn’t talking little pieces, either. These pieces were worth millions of dollars and older than my mother.They didn’t know who was connected, but this meeting was pretty much spit balling.

Apparently, there were some leads with the local gangs, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Goon told me what he and his brother were into, and I promised to keep them covered. Goon and Khaos were sons of a Jamaican immigrant mother, who could barely put food on the table.

She didn’t have a big hustler like Jean Delgato that made her life somewhat decent before everything fell apart. Their mama had to get it out the mud, and her boys were determined to keep her from having to ever do that again.

I took care of my own and would continue to do so for as long as I was in this position. Keeping my brothers and husband out of prison was my only job. The rest of the things I had been into were side quests.

“Sug?”

I looked up from the computer and saw Meer standing there. He was determined to get around without his crutch, and he did. Physical therapy was hard on his leg and the other night, he tried to tell me that rain was coming because he could feel it in his leg.

Mind you, it never rained.

He heard Gams saying she could feel the rain in her joints and then decided to use it with his phony self.

“What are you doing here, Meer?” I came from around the desk and closed my office door while pulling the blinds closed.

Meer had come to my office a few times, but he hadn’t come up here since everything went down with our home, and then he and Sim were shot.

He patted his pockets before he pulled out a single pregnancy test. I hadn’t told Meer that I was pregnant, and honestly, I was too busy trying to put out all these fires. I wanted to tell him, but I also wanted to make it special, since the last time I freaked out while being worried what my mother would think.

This time, I wanted it to be special for the both of us. Time hadn’t been on my side because I had been so busy.

“Did you take that from under the sink in the bathroom?”

“Yeah… your period been late, Sug.”

I folded my arms. “You came to my job for me to take a pregnancy test. How you know my period late anyway?”

He shoved his phone in my face, and he had the same app that I used on his phone. “Quameer, did you sync my app with yours?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged like it wasn’t nothing and this wasn’t crazy of him.

“Meer, I’m pregnant.”

He stood there and was staring at me. “Sorry, Sug.”

It was now my turn to stare at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“When I be up in yo shit… it be feeling too good, so I don’t be pulling out quick enough.” He spoke and was serious as I stood with my arms folded.

“Robert, be serious.”

“I’m dead serious… but I know you wanted to wait until we had more. Baby, whatever you wanna do, I’m with you… you know that, Sug.”

“We’re married, Meer. As much as we wanted to wait, this baby felt the need to come into our lives at this moment. Let’s pray for a boy so we can be done.”

The door opened and I saw Peach’s head poke in. “Peach!”

She had been spending a lot of time with her mother. So much was going on and Meer wanted to protect her from it. She was still struggling with what happened when our home was broken into, and she witnessed cops holding their guns to her father.

Brandi and Meer decided that therapy was good for her, and it had been helping her a lot. I only wanted the best for that littlegirl, and I hated she even had to witness that. “Hi, Suga mama… I asked daddy to come see you, too.”

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