Page 39 of No Gemini Does it Better
My brows heightened. King was our cousin from Atlanta who’d moved to Tampa around three years ago. He’d kept in touch by writing to us every few months, keeping us informed about what was going on and putting money on our books. He was the reason our commissary had made it to commas. Our Nanny was dead, and so was our mother. Wasn’t nobody alive to pray for us.The bigger we got in the game, there seemed to be more niggas praying on our downfall. My brother and I both knew we needed to get to international waters as soon as possible, and King was our best option. He was the only one we’d ever been able to truly rely on when shit got sticky.
“How the fuck you get to call King?”
“I used the phone when I found it on the nigga I robbed. It was between King and my baby mama, Japri. Those are the only two numbers I’ve memorized since we were in our twenties,” Kadeem responded with a shrug.
“That nigga still got that money we let him hold?” I queried.
“If he knows what’s good for him, he does. Family or not.”
He was right about that. A quarter of a million dollars wasn’t a small piece of change. It had been our local emergency fund after our first time getting caught up in the game and going to jail. After that, we got smarter about our retirement plan and started storing money in offshore accounts. Once we got to Havana, we’d cash in on our stashes and start our new lives anywhere in the world.
“Well then, we gotta get to Tampa.”
Kadeem’s brows creased. “Nigga, how the fuck we gettin’ to Tampa?”
“The same way we came out and got you. In her car.”
He grumbled with a shrug. “Guess you better go talk to yo’ girl then.”
“Talk to me about what?” Sawyer questioned, reentering the living room.
I twisted my neck in her direction. “Gas up the whip, shawty. We goin’ on a road trip.”
My brows raisedtoward my forehead. “W-what? Now? A road trip to where?”
“Tampa,” Kadeem answered. “We need to get to our cousin.”
“And then we’ll be out of your life forever,” Kareem vowed.
I didn’t know why hearing the word forever fall off his tongue made me feel some type of way—even more than I already was. Everything about having Kareem and his twin brother in my apartment made my insides a jittery mess. It was strange having them both here. My small home now felt crowded, and not just physically. Kareem's presence alone overflowed the room with so much emotion that I couldn't ignore it. It was like the elephant in the room. My thoughts hummed with what-ifsand could-have-beens if our circumstances weren’t the way they were.
From the jump, his arrival had shaken the foundations of the carefully constructed world I’d built. I didn’t know how to prepare for the upheaval that was bound to come from being so close to someone who was still very much a stranger but knew the most intimate parts of me. I couldn’t stop my thoughts from spiraling, hoping and praying the Feds didn’t bust down my front door and haul all three of us away.
“You think a nigga could take a shower before we go?” Kadeem requested, his query slicing through my thoughts.
I nodded. “Bathroom is the first door on the right. The towels and washcloths are in the linen closet.”
“Bet.”
Once his brother was out of earshot, I turned to Kareem. “He’s . . . different.”
“Sorry. My twin can be aggressive when he doesn’t know you. We might look alike, but sometimes, we can be like night and day,” he acknowledged with a nod.
“I see a lot of similarities.”
He scoffed. “I bet you do.”
“Mmhm.”
An awkward silence hung over us like a dark cloud. I didn’t know what to say next, what to do, or where to move.
“Do you want space or attention right now?” Kareem inquired.
“I don’t know, . . . both?”
“I told you, your energy has been off. You think I haven’t felt the shift since you turned on the news and saw my mugshot on the TV? Now you scared to be alone with a nigga?”
“It’s not that, it’s?—”
