Page 69 of Breeze and Melodie

“I don’t care about that. I missed you.” She kissed me a few more times before she allowed me to lower her back to the ground.

“I missed you, too, but I don’t want to get you and the babies sick.” I kept her at my side with my arm around her waist.

“Hey, big bro,” Raine said as she approached me on the other side for a hug.

“Wassup, baby sis? I’m surprised you two didn’t team up and bust me out.”

“Oh, if I hadn’t stopped Raine, she would’ve been up here raising hell, right along with Mel.”

“Yeah, Mr. Lincoln told me you were ready to go off on the lady at the desk last night.”

“She had an attitude for no reason, and had Mr. Lincoln and Harmonee not been there, I was prepared to adjust it.”

“See, all that wasn’t even necessary. You would’ve ended up in a cell just like mine and they would’ve had cause for locking your ass up.”

I shook my head while Melodie pouted. I had enough on my mind last night, and the last thing I needed was to find out my woman had been locked up.

“Thank goodness the crisis was averted because you look good in everything but county jail orange,” Raine joked. “Where’s Mr. Lincoln? I thought he was meeting us here.”

“Me too. I wanted to ask him what he found out that got me released so soon.”

“He was delayed with another client and will reach out later. I can tell y’all everything you need to know,” Melodie said.

“Let’s hear it.”

Without responding, she led us down the stairs and to the sidewalk. She began playing a recording, and I recognized Tia’s voice right away, but I didn’t recognize the man. The longer I listened, the more pissed I became. I couldn’t believe she would go this far to set me up just because I ended things with her.

“After Mr. Lincoln heard the recording, he asked Harmonee to send it to him and assured us you’d be out this morning. I’m not sure who let listen to it, but it did what it was supposed to do.”

“This is wild,” Shyne commented.

“Yeah, she has to be mentally unstable to go to this extent to ‘punish’ you. Isn’t she a teacher?” Raine questioned, and I offered a nod. “Ain’t no way a person who took the time to plan something like this should be teaching people’s kids.”

“When I talked to Mr. Lincoln this morning, he gave me the name of an attorney you can use if you want to press charges.”

“Who’s the man?” I asked, unintentionally dismissing what Melodie shared.

“Did she ever mention that her brother was a cop?”

My brows narrowed at Melodie’s question because in the six months Tia and I were together, she’d never mentioned a brother, only a younger sister.

“No. Is that him?”

“Yeah. Somehow, she convinced him to go along with this dumb ass plan.”

“He’s right to be worried about his job,” Raine said. “Breeze, you should sue the police department or something.”

“That don’t sound like a bad idea, . . . but I’d rather kill them both,” I said in a low, serious voice.

“Breeze,” Melodie and Raine said simultaneously.

“I get it, bruh, but killing a cop, dirty or not, ain’t the move,” Shyne reasoned.

I agreed with Shyne, but the desire to take their lives was strong. I looked in Melodie’s concerned eyes, then down at her stomach where my seeds were growing. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t risk my freedom.

“I’ll let the courts handle it.” Melodie and Raine both sighed with relief. “I’ll hit y’all up later. Let’s go home.”

“I assume you’re not coming in today,” Raine said to Melodie.

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