By the timeI pulled up to the safehouse, everyone, and I do mean everyone, was already there. Groaning, I looked over at Heir. The last thing I wanted to do was overwhelm her. While I appreciated everyone pulling up, if she was in shock, the less people that were around… the better. I called Pops as I pulled into the garage, and he answered on the first ring.
“Y’all good?” Pops asked.
“Yeah. I’m assuming Winston called everyone?”
“Yeah. We got your car. By the time Nep pulled up with your spare key, the police hadn’t arrived, so whoever owns that place knew what he was doing by picking that location. We swept the scene and took pictures. Beethoven got a cleanup crew on it. I’ma let you lead this, but tell me what you need.”
“Right now, I need space to talk to her and figure out what’s going on. I don’t want to overwhelm her with a lot of people she doesn’t know.”
“Alright. I’ll pull everyone. We’ll wait in the guest house out back. If you need us, we’ll be there for you to delegate. If not, I’ll send everyone home in a couple of hours.”
“’Preciate you, Pops.”
“Always.”
I waited until about five minutes had passed to give them time to get out the safehouse. Heir was rocking in her seat, staring out into the distance. When we first left, she was coherent. It seemed like the more time she had to get in her head, the more she shut down.
“Who did you know in that building?” I asked. When she didn’t respond, I gently rested my hand on her thigh. “Heir?”
“Hmm?” she called, head jerking in my direction. She looked at me with wide, teary eyes, and that shit broke my heart.
“Who did you know in that building? What were you doing there?”
“My… boyfriend.” Sniffling, she hung her head.
“Do you share your location with him?” She nodded. “I need you to cut it off, aight?” As I opened the door, I told her in a gentler tone, “Right now, Heir.”
Nodding, she wiped her face and pulled her phone out of her purse. I got out of the car and walked over to her side. With my arm wrapped around her, I led her into the house through the kitchen. Falling back or not, it didn’t surprise me to see Pops had left a guard by the front and back doors.
I didn’t bother showing Heir around. Honestly, I wasn’t sure she’d be able to even process what she was seeing right now. Remembering from our night together that she liked vodka, I grabbed a bottle out of the kitchen along with a cup and took her to the living room. I sat close enough for her to remember she wasn’t alone but far enough away to give her space. After pouring her a double shot of the vodka, I handed her the cup.
As she gulped it down, I took the time to refamiliarize myself with her. The jet black pixie cut accentuated her beautiful face. You had to be a certain kind of fine with no imperfections to pull off a short haircut, and Heir was doing that effortlessly. Her slanted, honey brown eyes were puffy and red, and so was the tip of her small nose and pouty lips.
“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.
“Do you work for him?”
“Iman?” Heir nodded, avoiding my eyes as she tightened her grip on the cup. “Hell nah. Do you?”
Her head shook as she finally looked at me. “He wants me to.” Sighing, she ran her hand down the back of her neck. “My boyfriend, Jay, works for him. Long story short, I’m a CFA and CPA, and Jay asked me to be Iman’s accountant. Before today, I thought Iman was his broker and that Jay was a real estate agent.
“When I took on Iman’s account, he expressed that he was looking for someone to handle his personal expenses and taxes, so I agreed off the strength of Jay. He’s laundering money and hiding money from the IRS. And I’m talking millions. I prescheduled an email to my boss before making copies of Iman’s file, then I left the office to go and talk to them. When I told Jay about my findings, he basically admitted to knowing what Iman was into.
“That’s when I found out that he is a real estate agent but that’s not how he makes his money.” She laughed bitterly before drinking the last of the vodka. “They were testing me. Iman wanted to see if he could trust me. He wants me to fix his books, help him run a new scheme, and hide his money from the IRS. I told him I wouldn’t do that, and he said I would either do it or die. When we were leaving out, he told Jay to kill me if I didn’t…” Her eyes blinked rapidly as she fought back her tears. “My own boyfriend agreed that he’d kill me if I didn’t work for him.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” I corrected. “That nigga ain’t ya nigga no more.”
Her smile was soft as she cupped my cheek. “Marz...”
“I missed you.”
She scooted closer and wrapped her arms around my neck. When I hugged her back, her body relaxed against me. “I missed you too. I can’t even process being here with you but…”
“We’ll talk about us later. Right now, my main concern is your safety.” Cupping her cheeks, I looked her face over. “Iman wants you dead because of your disobedience and what you know about his business. That won’t just change. If he wants your ex to kill you, he’s going to try. I need you to stay here so I can keep you safe while I try to fix this shit. For me to do that, I need to know how much of a threat he is.”
“Why do you want to help me?”
My face covered with confusion before I chuckled and released her. “Why wouldn’t I help my wife?”