The memory of the words smeared on my wall—in blood—still scares me, and that pisses me off more than anything. I don’t let men bully or intimidate me anymore, and the fact some nameless, faceless asshole disrupted my life and put me on edge is driving me crazy.
There’s no two ways about it. He’s gotta go, and I hope he rots in hell.
Moses leaves my side and crosses to Trey and Jules. He claps his hands together. “All right, boys. Let’s do this. Time to piece together every goddamned thing about this bastard so we can find out who the fuck would care that he died.”
Trey grabs the phone first. “I’ll take this. There’s gotta be something useful on it.”
He strolls over to the end of the table and unearths a cord from the laptop bag on the floor. After he finishes untangling the knot it’s tied in, he plugs the cord into the phone and then into a little silver box connected to the laptop.
He grins immediately. “She’s dead, but she won’t be for long, and soon, we’ll have a hell of a lot more answers about ol’ Ricardo.”
Moses nods in his direction. “Good. We fucking need them.”
Jules studies receipt after receipt. “Dude, this guy loved him some Popeye’s and drive-through daiquiris. He ordered the same damn thing every time.”
“Which locations?” Moses asks, reaching for a pocketknife on the pile. “Could be near where he lives.”
Jules squints at the fading print on the paper. “They’re from a couple different ones. I’ll sort them out and see if there’s a pattern.” He moves to the other side of the table to start individual piles.
I stand beside Moses as he flips open the pocketknife. The handle is silver and set with what looks like wood or bone. Immediately, my brain flashes back to that asshole Ricardo coming toward me in the elevator with the knife that sliced me open.
This whole situation is beginning to wear on me more than I thought.
Moses must feel me tense beside him, because he looks at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just ... remembering.”
He follows my gaze down to the knife. “He ain’t ever gonna hurt you again, mama. He’s long dead now, and whoever the fuck is out there? I won’t let him get you either. Not even over my dead body.”
I shake my head. “Don’t say that.”
His stare narrows. “Say what?”
“Over your dead body. That’s not happening, and we’re not talking about it.”
The corners of his mouth curl up with the easy, soft smile that Moses gives me every so often. The smile I love seeing on his face, because it makes him feel like ...mine.
“All right, mama. I won’t say shit like that if it bothers you.”
“Thank you.” I gesture to the weapon. “That’s a pretty fancy-looking knife.”
Moses raises it between us, testing the balance of it in his hand. “Definitely decorative, but still lethal.” He pauses and flips it over to the other side. “Andit was a fucking gift. That’s good.”
“What do you mean?” I lean closer, and he taps the blade under his thumb.
“It’s engraved.”
I lean in closer to read the barely legible markings.
Ricky, Always be sharp. Tony
“Who is Tony?” I wonder out loud.
“No idea, but Trey’ll find out for us.” Moses turns to his friend, who is messing with the phone at the end of the table. “Won’t you, T?”
“Yeah. Give me a few minutes to break into this phone. It uses one of those patterns to unlock it. I gotta run a program that’ll give it to me.”
“A few minutes?” Jules asks with a huff. “Losing your touch, man?”