Page 23

Tayla

I decided that I needed to see my babies. I’d grown attached to the kids at the center and desperately wanted to see them. Devin was going to have to be pissed because there would be nothing he could do to keep me away. After I made this visit, I would call Jourdan because I had told her I would.

As I traveled closer to the center with Breezy in tow, I took several errant turns down streets I wouldn’t normally travel.

With each turn and car I passed, I remained vigilant that I wasn’t being followed.

Although I didn’t think I ever was, things were different now because Nina knew I wasn’t dead and would be coming for her ass.

I pulled into the lot of the brightly colored building and smiled.

This was one of my happy places. I parked in the first available spot and exited the car excitedly.

I didn’t even bother to take Bryson’s seat inside; I carried him instead.

I knew he wouldn’t remain in it once I got inside anyway.

I stopped at the glass door and swiped my fob, eagerly heading through the doors.

As soon as I stepped inside, my phone rang. I looked down to see that it was Devin.

Shit!

“Hello,” I answered as I stood inside the vestibule.

“Tayla, what in the hell are you doing?”

“I’m visiting my babies,” I said flatly. I heard him sigh on the phone. I wasn’t about to leave, so I laid it on thick.

“Look, I was careful and ensured no one was following me. Do you want me to leave?” I said, dropping my voice into a sisterly pout.

“Damnit, Tay, you are definitely a part of the damn family because your ass is hardheaded as hell. I’ll call Steph and have him come over and sit until you leave.

As a precaution, I’ll also have him put someone on watch at the center.

Take your ass on inside Tay. My mother is the only one who knows what went down.

The other staff were told that your appendix ruptured and that you would return after you were fully healed,” he said.

I smiled because once again I’d gotten my way with these men.

“Thank you, Devin,” I said. He grunted into the line before hanging up.

Sucker!

I walked through the center, smiling as I approached the little voices that rang throughout the halls.

Right on cue, I heard a door slam as it hit the wall.

I looked up expecting to find Drue but it was his little bad ass sidekick Dez still running a damn muck throughout the halls of A Child’s Haven.

He ran full speed until he skidded to a stop before me.

He gasped when he looked up at the person he had nearly run into.

“Ms. Tay, you’re back!” He yelled. Desmond was Dorien’s almost four-year-old son.

“Hey, Bryson,” he said, playing with his foot. Before I could respond to his first statement, it was like déjà vu: Ms. Denise rounded the corner, looking down at a clipboard.

“Boy, why are you always running your little behind out of class? Between you and your cousin, I swear. I can hear you all over the building. Why are you out here yelling? My gosh, you two are just like your fathers,” she said.

When she finally looked up, she sped up her stride.

She came to me, and I expectantly thought she would hug me, but instead took Bryson from my arms.

“Hey, Baby, I missed you,” she said as she snuggled into Bryson’s fat cheeks. His giggles echoed through the hall. I stood with my hands crossed, giving Ms. Denise a silent piece of my mind.

“Oh hey, Tay,” she finally said.

“Oh. Hey. Tay,” I repeated back to her. She laughed and finally gave me the warm, motherly embrace I had missed.

“Girl, bye. You know how this goes. Once you give us grandkids, we no longer care about you.”

“Tsk, shame on you. You just saw him the other day. When’s the last time you’ve seen me?”

“No, shame on you. You should have kept your legs closed,” she said and laughed .

“How have you been? Are you ready to come back to work? Lord knows I’m ready for you to come back. Please tell me it’s today,” she continued.

“Naw, Ms. Denise, what happened to all that ‘once you give us grandkids’ mess you were just talking about?” I laughed, and she waved me off.

“Why are you living in the past? I’m talking about the future right now. Come on, walk with me while I do these rounds. Here,” she said as she handed me the clipboard. As we walked around and caught up, I took out my secured line to text Jourdan.

Meet me at Cypress Brew in an hour.

JoJo

Girl, hell no. Stephon owns that, and you saw how he popped up at the diner.

Is there anywhere that we can hide from their ass?

JoJo

Do you really want me to answer that because the answer is no, girl.

Well, let’s meet on the other side of the city then. At least we will have time to talk before either of them can pop up.

Fuck these niggas we shouldn’t have to do all this.

JoJo

That would be how we got here, use your brain, Tay.

LMAO I’ll text you an address when I leave here.

JoJo

See you then.

I walked around, practically working for an hour, before Bryson and I decided to head out. I didn’t know who Ms. Denise thought she was fooling, but I didn’t mind because I was ready to return. I discreetly scanned around the parking lot and as far as the eye could see in every direction.

There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary until I spotted him while I placed Breezy back in his car seat.

As Devin had promised, Stephon was sitting in a car I’d never seen before, a block away.

To the untrained eye, you would never know that he was there, but spying was my specialty, and I would have chosen a similar spot.

I smiled at the fact that we were so much alike.

Jourdan hated recon and stakeouts, but I enjoyed the solitude of it all.

While she was on my mind, I took out my phone and texted her a meeting location.

Hopefully Stephon stayed his ass on this side of the city.

I pulled into the lot of the small sandwich bar, Panini Grille, that I’d found online.

It was Italian. I hadn’t explored much of Cypress, but I was a sucker for good food, and I hope this one delivered, because I was starving.

I searched around the lot until I spotted Jourdan’s car, which was parked beside it.

Before I could cut the engine, she and Angel were already hopping out.

Damn! Is Stephon really that bad?

“Tay, please hurry up and get your ass out of that car,” I laughed because she was serious.

“Ok, damn,” I said. We both hurriedly gathered the kids and our bags and headed inside.

The bar was quaint and was reminiscent of a traditional diner.

Dark wooden booths lined with black leather lined the edge of the room’s windows and exposed brick walls.

Small matching wooden tables sat in the interior and surrounded the order counter in the center.

Jourdan and I headed to place our orders.

We briefly reviewed the menu, made our selections, and were informed that our sandwiches and drinks would be brought to the table we had chosen.

We chose a booth near the front window and door, sliding the car seats in before we did.

We wanted to see the parking lot in case Stephon decided to make an appearance.

“What did you find out? Did you check that ho?”

“Damn, jump right in, then,” I said as I pulled my laptop from my bag. Jourdan sat on the other side, her attitude very much unamused. I unlocked and began typing as I continued the conversation .

“As soon as I walked into the hospital, I was politely told that Brice was with a patient, and that I would need to be escorted back by him once he was available. I mean it’s a hospital and I wasn’t expecting to be granted access anyway but the moment I told them I was Brice’s wife it was like a damn switch flipped. ”

“Hold up, wife, did I miss something?”

“Girl, no, we are not married, but Brice has told everyone we meet that I’m his wife, including the ho I went to check.

So I just ran with it. Anyways they were all acting like they’d fucked him at some point with the microaggression they were dishing out before a doctor named Derek Clinton came and started flirting.

Of course, he hadn’t heard that I was Brice’s wife, or maybe he did, but he didn’t give a damn.

Nonetheless, he called himself taking me to find him.

I was playing along, you know how we do.

Then Brice pops up out of nowhere, and Derek has his hand on my elbow. I thought Brice would lose it.”

“Yeah, that checks out he acted an ass about you before you two got together,” Jourdan said and laughed.

“Mind you, while all this was happening, I hadn’t seen Ivy; that’s her name. Brice takes me to the locker room and locks the door.”

“Locks the door? Tay, y’all were getting busy in them people’s hospital?”

“Damn it JoJo stay focused!” I said and laughed.

“Apparently, if the door is locked, no one is supposed to enter; however, someone uses a key, and guess who it was. Ivy’s ass.

Before she could come in, she was stopped by Dr. Clinton.

It pissed me off because she didn’t even know I was there but somehow knew Brice was in there with the door locked and she was going to go in behind him and do what?

” The server brought our sandwiches and drinks in the middle of my spiel.

We both said grace and took several bites.

“Damn, this is good,” I said, inspecting the sandwich like it would magically tell me why it tasted like Italian chef Mario Batali had made it himself.

“Right! But we’re getting off task,” Jourdan said as she took several more bites. I did the same before I continued.

“Then I remembered that someone had drugged me and started to put two and two together, and so did Brice. So, now we’re turned up.

We had to calm down because there were just too many eyes.

I was introduced to one last person before I decided to leave.

There was nothing I could do there anyway,” I said, taking a deep breath.

Then I turned my laptop around and showed her a picture and an address.

“Now this is the fun I like to have. When can we make a move?” she asked.

“I don’t know, because you know they aren’t going to let us go without them, and there are the kids.”

“Well, Stephon’s mother is holding dinner tomorrow night. Let’s see if she will keep them. We can say that we want some alone time or something like that. Then once we put their ass to bed we can sneak out,” she said with her tongue hanging out of her mouth and shimming from side to side .

“Sounds like I plan,” I said jovially and shimmied with her.

Then I saw her out of the corner of my eye.

I nodded to Jourdan, letting her know to turn around and look.

It was Ivy. She was having a heated conversation with a man whose voice I would never forget.

I couldn’t see him, but I knew it was Costa.

Luckily, she hadn’t looked this way when she stormed out.

“JoJo, when she leaves the parking lot, we need to get the fuck out of here. That voice belongs to Costa,” I whispered.

Once we saw her car pull off the lot, we took one last sip of our drinks and left a hefty tip on the table.

We gathered our babies and made our way to our cars, quickly getting the kids in.

“Tay, what in the hell is going on?” JoJo gritted out.

“I don’t know, but we’re going to figure it out!”