Читать книгу The Nightmare on Trap Street - C. N. Phillips - Страница 8

Chapter 4

Ding-dong!

The doorbell ringing caught Sadie off guard. She wasn’t expecting company, especially not that late. She and the girls had just gotten back home from their meeting, and she was about to turn in after having a glass of D’Usse. Rhonnie and Ahli were all the way on their side of the house, and the security around the mansion was supposed to make sure nobody who wasn’t invited ever got to the front door.

At the time the bell rang, Sadie had been pouring what was left in her glass of alcohol down the sink in the kitchen’s center island. Before going to see who was at her house, she reached under the marble island top and pulled a Beretta from its concealment plate. The foyer was dark as she walked to the front door and cocked the gun. She peered through the peephole.

“I should have known,” she sighed when she saw who it was. Swinging the door open, she let the hand holding the gun fall to her side while she put her other hand on her hip. “How did you find me, Legacy?”

He took one look at the weapon in her hand and grinned. “Easy.” He shrugged in his suit. “I called Ray. Now, are you going to invite me in or what?”

Sadie glared at him briefly before stepping aside so he could step inside. “I was in the kitchen,” she said, gesturing with the gun for him to follow her.

“Nice place,” he said, looking around when they got to their destination. “I bet it looks even better during the daytime.”

“It does,” Sadie said tersely and put her weapon back where she got it from. “Now, do you care to tell me why you’re popping up at my house instead of on your way back to Miami?”

Legacy didn’t answer. In fact, he downright ignored her. He grabbed the bottle of D’Usse and walked to her cabinet of glasses like he owned the place. After grabbing one and getting some ice from the freezer, he poured himself a glass and sat down on a stool by the island.

Sadie stared at him with disbelief as he sipped the drink like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Excuse me.”

“You’re excused,” he told her, taking another sip of his drink before setting his eyes on the astounded look on her face. “How about you tell me the real reason I haven’t heard from you?”

“I’m always around if you ever needed me.”

“I call bullshit,” Legacy scoffed. “I used to re-up directly from you, and now you got some Italian motherfucka I don’t know dropping off my supply. What’s up with that? And then you changed your number and didn’t give it out. What’s up with that? Out of respect for you, I’ve respected your space. In the beginning, you and I were so close that Lace thought something was going on between us. Now she’s asking every day when you and me are going to catch up, and I never have an answer. So what the fuck is up with that? After all I’ve done for you and The Last Kings, you owe me, if nobody else, an explanation. I thought we were family.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Sadie said, trying to keep all emotion from showing on her face. “I’ve been developing VEM. I got busy. I’m sorry.”

“I call bullshit again. If it were that simple, you wouldn’t have changed your number. You would have shot me a simple text and said, ‘Hey, bro, I’m going off the radar for a few. I’ll hit you when I resurface.’ That’s what you’ve done in the past.”

“This time was different.”

“The only thing different is that you’re running from something,” his deep voice said in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s obvious. The only question is, what exactly have you been trying to get away from?”

She had to look away from his piercing gaze. It was like he was analyzing her every movement, and she didn’t like it. If he looked deep enough, he would find something that he wasn’t supposed to.

“You of all people should know I don’t run from anything,” she said, turning away from him. She went to grab her glass from the sink. Suddenly she needed another drink.

“I thought you didn’t run away from anything. There’s a difference. In the wake of a drug like what you’ve created, I’d think that you would want everyone who has had a part in the success of this operation present and by your side. Unless the one who matters the most is missing,” Legacy stated, and Sadie’s face dropped.

She wished she had just kept her poker face, because when she and Legacy connected eyes again, it was like a light bulb had turned on above his head. She snatched the bottle from him and filled the small glass to the top.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” he asked and then let out a heavy breath. “This has nothing to do with you being busy. This has everything to do with that nigga Tyler. You still aren’t over him, huh? How long has it been, six months?”

Sadie didn’t say anything at first. Instead, she took a gulp of the alcohol and let it burn her throat until it hit her chest. She needed that uncomfortable slight pain to focus on at the moment. If she didn’t have it, she feared that tears would well up in her eyes. Tyler’s face popped up in her head, and suddenly she was angry.

“Do you know he made a Facebook page?” Sadie said out of nowhere. “When we were together, he never wanted to do the social media thing. He said that with everything we had at stake, it wouldn’t be smart to be all over the internet, even though I told him it was weirder that we weren’t on the internet. I mean, who isn’t active online? But now, get this, he’s on every social app with her. They’ve traveled all over the world, to almost as many places as he’s taken me, and in six months, half a year, he proposed to her. We never even talked about marriage. And even though I know I’m the one who asked him for a break, that didn’t mean go fall in love with somebody else. Now in any free time I have, I’m torturing myself watching him give her the life we had and the life we never will.”

“Sadie—”

“I have to keep myself busy,” she continued, interrupting him. “Because if I don’t, I constantly ask myself, did he ever really love me if he moved on so fast? Were all these years nothing? Did they mean nothing? And until I stop asking myself those questions, it’s just hard for me to be around anyone who reminds me of the time I spent with him. Including you. So there’s your answer, Legacy, and I hope you’re happy with it. Cheers.”

She raised her glass in the air before downing the remainder of the liquid. She made a sour face as she swallowed, but the numbing sensation that came after made it worth it. Across the island, Legacy didn’t say anything, but when she went to pour herself another glass, he took the bottle away from her.

“What, now I can’t drink either?”

“Not if you’re trying to numb emotions that you need to feel,” Legacy said.

“Why do I need to feel emotions that hurt me?”

“Because they’re a part of the motions you need to go through to get to where you need to be.”

“Well, I don’t want any part of them.”

“Why do you think you constantly watch what he’s doing with his new woman? Why do you think you care? It’s because you haven’t processed that it’s over between the two of you. I think it is, anyway, since you haven’t made a move to get him back. I’m assuming that you haven’t talked to him?”

Sadie shook her head.

“Why not?”

“Because he seems happy.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Legacy said casually, but the tone of his voice suggested he was hinting at something.

“You’ve seen him,” Sadie said, studying his face. “Haven’t you?”

“Maybe,” Legacy told her, and when she cut her eyes at him, he nodded.

“Was she there?”

“Yes.”

“What . . . what was she like?”

“Do you really want to know?” Legacy asked, looking her in the eyes. It was her turn to nod. “Jada is beautiful, kind, sweet, and she makes him laugh.”

Sadie had never had a knife in her chest before, but it had to be like what Legacy’s words made her feel like. Sadie knew the woman was pretty, but hearing her name out loud broke her. Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes, but Legacy wiped them away before they could completely fall down her cheeks.

“Even seeing all that, she still isn’t you,” he told her, placing his hand under her chin.

“What does that mean?”

“Go see for yourself... before it’s too late.” Legacy stood up and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Now I love you, sis, but if you ever go ghost like this again, I’ll kill you. I’m about to go see about catching a flight home to my wife. And do me a favor? Take it easy on Ray. Truth be told, he wanted me to come check on you when he found out I would be in Detroit.”

He threw the half-empty bottle of liquor away on his way out of the kitchen. When he got to the entranceway, Sadie called his name.

“What’s up, sis?” He stopped to look at her over his shoulder.

“Give Lace my love,” she said, and he flashed his straight, white teeth.

“Always.”

And with that, he was gone.