Page 17

PRESENT DAY

“A’ight, I have to go,” I say, hearing a knock at my door that propels me from my feet and to the partially open office door.

I open it and smile brightly at the face on the other side.

“Yeah, baby. I’ll be home late tonight. I’m meeting with the Fab Five,” I say, chuckling.

“Okay, Z. Just be safe on your way home. Tell them I said hi.”

“I will. Love you, babe.”

“Love you too,” she professes before we end the call.

“Good to see you, beautiful.” I wrap Cheyenne in my arms and kiss her.

“But of course it is. You know it’s always good to see my gorgeous face whenever I step on the premises.”

I chuckle and check out her tan pantsuit.

“You’re looking good in that suit.”

“You’re not looking too bad yourself. So, what are we eating tonight?”

“Your favorite, baby girl. Shrimp marinara, antipasto salad with bocconcini and green-olive tapenade, and garlic bread.”

“Mm. My stomach is growling already. I haven’t eaten since lunch, and it’s already after eight.”

“Why’d you wait so long?”

“Because you’re feeding me. A girl has to keep her curves and figure in check.”

“You sound like Bayleigh.”

“Speaking of, we have brunch this Saturday. Savannah, Lei-Lei, and I,” Cheyenne states.

“Don’t get my woman in trouble, you hear me?” I say, wagging my finger at her.

“If you’d give her your last name, that wouldn’t be a problem.”

Groaning, I ask, “Are we back at that? You know why I won’t marry her. She knows, and she’s accepted it, so why’s it a thing with you?”

“Are we talking about you marrying Bayleigh again?” Savannah asks, stepping through the door at the same time as Damascus.

“Yep,” Cheyenne replies, popping her “p.”

“Don’t know why you don’t go ahead and tie the knot, bro,” Damascus asserts.

Rolling my eyes, I reply, “You too?”

“Might as well go ahead and make an honest man out of yourself. It’s not like you’re eyeballing anyone else anyway. You’ve been out of the game since you laid eyes on her. Am I right? Tell me I’m wrong,” he challenges.

“Just speaking facts, bro.”

“Speaking of facts,” Denver states, walking in the door, “Aspen is running five minutes late.”

“A’ight.” I eyeball him, not wanting to start without him, but not wanting to keep the focus on myself either.

“What’s been going on with you guys?” Denver asks the girls, changing the subject effectively for me, sensing that I feel like I’m on the hot seat.

“Getting ready for this case against Dante Knotts. It’s a headache already, and we’re still in the jury selection process,” Savannah, who’s the D.A. for the city of Chicora Falls, groans.

“Why’s that?” Cheyenne asks.

“You know that they’re challenging everyone who we want on the jury, which is to be expected, but it’s getting petty now.”

“Well, what do you expect from a city whose high-profile running back is on trial for murdering his wife?” Denver asks.

“It should be an open and shut case. We found him in the house with his hands covered with blood, holding the gun,” Damascus, who’s a detective, states.

“He committed the crime; his ass needs to go away forever. It doesn’t matter how much money he has or the power he yields over this city. They act as if he’s the messiah.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not going to be an easy trial, I can tell you that now. With the media circus that has come to town,” Savannah declares.

“Sorry, folks. I’m here,” Aspen announces, sweeping through the door. “Our board meeting ran over a little bit, no matter how hard I tried to keep it on track. Trying to buy up the property the old airport sits on isn’t quite as simple as we thought it might be.”

He joins the rest of us at the table, loosening the knot in his tie.

“Well, let’s get right down to business so that I can let y’all get back to your lives, figuring out the problems of the world,” I say.

I click the remote in my hand and turn on the six monitors on the screen to our left. All eyes turn that way as an image of Essence Hamilton fills the first screen, and details fill the other five.

“What the hell?” There are variations of that from all around the table.

“You all should have heard about this by now, but for some reason, she’s not announcing it until Monday. I wanted you to get ahead of the game, and I would have filled you in by now, but you all weren’t available yet,” I explain.

“She’s running for mayor?” Cheyenne, the city planner, asks.

“Yeah.”

“The timing is a little suspect to me,” Damascus mutters.

“To me too. Which is why I want to jump on it before it gets out of hand. Together, we have the power to stop her advancement in the city,” I state.

Savannah looks as if she is going to be sick to her stomach, as she should be. She was appointed to her position as D.A. by the current mayor, but if Essence Hamilton wins the mayoral race, she knows that she’ll be out of a job.

Essence was the former D.A. and was replaced by Savannah when the new mayor took office four years ago. She’s taken a hard look at most of Essence’s cases since then and retried and won several that Essence lost.

I see the strain around Savannah’s eyes. I knew that it was going to hit her hard. She hasn’t been available; otherwise, I would have told her before the others.

“What do you need from us?” Damascus asks.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but—”

“Then don’t,” he grunts through gritted teeth.

“And I probably shouldn’t be hearing this either,” Savannah asserts, finally speaking up.

“The rest of us are free and clear to hear,” Aspen declares, looking from Cheyenne to his twin brother, Denver.

“I’ll just say this to protect Damascus and Savannah if it should ever arise, though I know that it won’t. We’re looking into her background from every angle. And I do mean every angle, scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

“You’re going back thirty years ago,” Denver comments.

“Even before then.”

Savannah eyes me closely and rubs my back. “Are you sure that you can handle it?”

I look around at the five people sitting around the table with me.

“I can handle whatever the fuck that I need to handle as long as I’m fighting for you five.”

Everyone grows silent for a minute.

“Essence is the only one who knows us. She’s the only one who can come close to identifying our secret.

She might not remember you, Savannah, because she never babysat you.

You were already in school, and she didn’t come around when you weren’t.

I doubt she’d remember the twins much and what they looked like because she didn’t have to watch them. They were at school.

“Most importantly, all of you have different last names now since you were adopted. But she knows me, and she babysat Cheyenne and Damascus on a few occasions. I’ve had conversations with Pops, and he’s confirmed that he never talked to her about you all.

Never said your names, Savannah, Denver, and Aspen.

He says they never talked about his family other than her trying to get him to leave Mama. ”

“Yeah, I’m sure his mind was on other things while he was with her,” Savannah mutters bitterly.

“Listen, we have to take her down. With Pops getting out of jail, she’s going to try to do everything that she can to stop him. We can’t let that happen.”

My five siblings nod in agreement. We talk a little longer before we get up, say our “I love you’s,” and hug each other goodbye before they leave my office.

There’s nothing that I won’t do to protect them because they are my world. I’ve sacrificed a lot to get them to where they are today. These five help me run our little portion of the world underground. No one knows this, and it’s best if it remains this way.