Page 73 of Dope Boys: Most Wanted
From the shower, the couple ended up back in bed. Reign’s hair was thrown into a messy ponytail while it dried, another one of Markus’ tops on her body. Lazily, she ate the fruit, eggs, bacon, and toast. Her leg draped over his as he frowned at his phone screen.
“What’s that look for?” Reign asked, knowing that this moment between them could end earlier than she anticipated.
“The mayor is dead,” Markus said.
Reign’s eyes shot open, and her core tightened. “D-do they know who did it?”
“They’re reporting a murder-suicide. Apparently, his wife was sleeping with a dealer. The dealer killed her, then him, and then turned the gun on himself.”
Reign’s eyes squinted. “You knew him? The dealer?”
“Yeah, had beef with that nigga. Street shit. But ion think he killed himself,” Markus shared. “He was too selfish for that. If anything, the mayor walked in on him balls deep in his wife and shot them. Luciano probably busted back, hitting the mayor. And then his team made it look like that. Mayor Norman was a muhfucka.”
“Hell of a theory,” Reign spoke, settling back into the pillows, trying to ease her mind. Markus felt her shift, dropped his phone, and moved closer to her.
“What’s that?”
She popped one eye open. “What’s what?”
“That. You pickin’ up weight again,” he replied. “Talk to me.”
Reign pulled in a deep breath.
“There’s nothing you can tell me that’s going to make me withdraw from you. Nothing.”
Her eyes fluttered. She nervously chewed the inside of her lip. Her fingers fidgeted with the bottom of the black tee she wore. “You sure?”
He turned her face to his. “I am sure.”
“You know the rumors of the mayor having girls. Like delivered to him?”
Markus slowly nodded.
Her lip trembled.
“What you sayin, baby?” Markus asked, his eyes going dark as if he could revive Mayor Norman and kill him again.
“KC was my handler. I was supposed to be delivered and used, thrown out. But I ran. That’s how I met Nia. I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. I just ran. Because I knew that if he caught me, I was as good as dead.”
She wanted to tell him more, tell him about Javier, but the tears detoured her from the full truth. Not that she couldn’t trust him with it. But if she just got a piece of something real, she couldn’t let Markus run out and start a war that he couldn’t survive. There was enough happening in the city around him. She wouldn’t be the one to add more to that.
“Hey, hey,” Markus spoke, wiping her face. “That shit is over.”
“Markus, I-”
“It’s over, Reign. Runnin’, hidin’, and livin’ in fear. That’s done, okay? When you ready, you’ll tell me everything. Until then, know the shit is over.” He held her close to him. Her sobs morphed into quiet cries and then whimpers as she slept.
He lay there with her for hours, in and out of sleep. In and out of business. His mind was processing all the information he took in while wondering about the pieces of Reign’s puzzle. When she pulled her puffy eyes open, Markus was standing at the window, phone pressed to his ear.
“Auntie really wants dinner, or is this going to be an ambush?” Markus questioned to who Reign could only assume was Nia. “And don’t lie to me. I know Cyn is your little friend, butthis is family shit and she needs to keep her nose, hands, feet, and whatever else the fuck out of it.”
She was right, he was talking to Nia. It was his tone. When he spoke to Nia, there was sternness and the softness of a father. While Nia could handle the sternness, Markus gave her gentleness disguised in his tone and in his banter with her. Reign was learning that the people he held in high regard, he spoke to in a cadence that told them where they stood with him.
“How Aunt G gon’ demand me somewhere and not want to cook?” he asked. “Nia…just order the shit, I’ll get it on our way over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you hop off dick for a minute, you could do somethin’. Tell that nigga I can hear his ass breathin’…uh, don’t worry about what I’m doing. I’m grown.”
A laugh left his lips. “Nia…go to hell.”
He hung up, blew out a breath, and turned to see if Reign was still sleeping. He found her eyes and smirked. “I wake you up?”
