Page 139 of Own It

“Um, yeah, if you don’t mind.” Daylin grinned.

“Can you be without her for like twenty minutes?” Shardaya jested.

“To be honest, not really, so make the shit quicker than that,” I half joked. I could be without Daylin, but low-key, a nigga really couldn’t. The ladies giggled before Daylin stepped up for a kiss to which I happily obliged her. “Where my cousin?”

“He’s in the backyard under the cabana,” Shardaya answered before leading my girl off.

Making my way to the back, I spotted Talid lying back on a lounge chair, smoking a cigar. He didn’t look as feeble, which brought about a warmth in my fucking chest. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a healthy glow in the nigga’s face. Made me actually like Dr. Conrad a little.

“You ’posed to be smoking, nigga?” I asked, startling him from whatever the fuck he was in deep thought about and making him rise up with a grin.

“I don’t even care. I feel good, and I wanna enjoy the shit for as long as it’ll last,” he said as I slapped hands with him before sitting in the lounge chair beside him. “Thought you was bringing somebody.” He looked around his vast backyard.

“I did, but yo’ wife stole her already to show off the house.” I shook my head as he chuckled. “While Shar ain’t back here, I wanna tell you some shit. You know we don’t keep no secrets.”

“We don’t.” His brows kissed in anticipation.

“Yo’ neurologist, Dr. Conrad—the only reason he started doing what the fuck he should’ve been doing is because I forced his hand.”

This revelation made Talid sit back up completely, angling his body to face me. We were so close, our knees almost touched.

“Forced his hand? How the fuck you go about doing that? Nigga look like he got twelve on speed dial.”

Laughing somewhat mirthlessly, I confessed, “Kidnapped his daughter.”

“You bullshitting.” His eyes bulged damn near out of his head, cigar hovering his mouth.

“Swear to God, nigga. Soon as you went into that coma, I had somebody pull his information for me and snatched her ass up. Told that muthafucka if you died, she died.”

“Fuck.” He glanced off, eyes oscillating between me and the ground as he processed my disclosure. “You couldn’t just put a gun to his head and threaten his life?”

“So he could tell me okay then run to the police all while letting you die? Nah.” I shook my head. “I needed something long term to hold over his fucking head.”

Talid squinted at the sun, again silent as he perpended my words. “Aight, so, where she at now?”

I quieted down as Shardaya’s and Daylin’s laughs sounded off near the sliding door leading to the backyard.

“Get ready to meet her, nigga.” I almost cackled at the sight of this nigga’s look of pure astonishment.

“Nigga, you a got damn lie. The girl you fucking with is the one you kidnapped?” he whispered harshly, even though the women were still in the distance, taking their sweet time making it over here.

“Swear. Now I gotta tell her pops who I am for real. I met the nigga, and we hit it off, but I kept the fact that I was the one who took his daughter from his ass.” I looked off briefly. “I know he probably looked into it to try and find who the fuck I was to you, but he ain’t find shit.”

“I say don’t tell him.”

“Nah.” I grunted. “I wanna build something with her. She special. I can’t be around her family for decades harboring no fucking secrets. Not to mention, we spoke on the phone so it’s possible he may remember my voice at one point and I would hate for that recollection to be at our wedding or some shit.”

“Well, clearly she special, nigga.” He chuckled. “You fell for her while holding her ass hostage. That ain’t even like you. You keep business separate.”

“Facts.”

“Also, you ain’t introduced nobody since LaMia.” He took a puff on his cigar. “I just hope this shit don’t ruin what y’all got.”

“It won’t. She’s her own person. She don’t let her people dictate who she fuck with or what she do. Same time, I don’t want her at odds with her people. She been dealing with that for years with her last nigga, but I gotta be honest.”

“Good luck.” He blew out smoke, eyeing me pensively. “Nigga, I can’t believe yo’ crazy ass kidnapped that girl.” Reaching his hand across to dap me up, he said, “Good looking out though, my nigga.”

I slapped hands with him, smirking as Daylin and Shardaya approached, the former sliding into my lap.