Page 64 of Double

He was muttering to himself in the background. “This nigga kept tryna entice her to come to Iredia. What’s this dude’s play? Where’s Royalty? If she’s there, put her on the phone.”

“Royalty’s eating breakfast, but here’s Journey.” I held the phone out to Journey.

She shook her head and backed away.

“Journey!” I shout-whispered.

She took the phone. I stood there, listening to her side of the conversation, feeling like I was going to get in trouble when I got home. After a few minutes of back and forth, she handed me back the phone.

“Hello?”

“Don’t act all demure and compliant now. You willfully ignored my attempt to keep you safe. You recklessly carried your ass to Iredia. Now I gotta be on pins and needles until I can put my eyes on you. Do you know how much shit will get destroyed, how many bodies I’m gonna lay down, if something happens to you over there? Do you have a clue?”

“No,” I admitted pitifully. “But Shaun’s gonna take us back to Miami right after breakfast.”

“Fuck Shaun and his breakfast,” he spat.

“Double,” I whined.

“Nah, don’t try that, Sweetheart. I’m pissed with you right now, and you need to sit in that shit.”

I’d never met a man who could be so pissed but so unemotional in my life. It really made me want to suck his dick to see if that would get a reaction out of him. “Sorry.”

“I don’t want you on old boy’s jet. I don’t know the mechanical integrity of his shit. For all I know, he could be flying through the skies in a loc’d out soup can. You and my cousins need to get your asses to the airport now and fly back to Miami on Eastern Airlines flight #1031. The tickets are already booked.”

“Okay.” There went my appetite.

Journey and I walked into the dining room.

I cleared my throat. “Uh, Double called.”

“Double called?” Royalty practically screeched.

Even Treasure had the nerve to look sheepish.

“Oh no,” Lyric moaned.

“You mean, oh shit,” Angel said.

“Uh,” I continued as Shaun entered the room. “He said we need to get to the airport . . . now. He already booked the tickets.”

Angel shoveled one more forkful of food into her mouth before standing. “Thanks for the hospitality, Shaun. It’s been real, but we need to head on out. Can you and your security drive us to the airport?”

He looked confused. “That’s not necessary. We’re taking my private jet. It’s being fueled up now. It’ll be ready in a little more than an hour.” He looked at Lyric and gave her a wink. “After breakfast and before lunch.”

“Yeah, about that,” she told him. “Something’s come up, and we really have to get back. Like we have tickets on a commercial flight that’s leaving . . .” She waited for me to fill in the blank.

I swiped into my text messages. “Two hours and five minutes.”

Charity jumped up from the table. “We’ll grab our things and meet you outside,” Charity told him. When he didn’t move, she frowned her face. “Chop, chop, King Cobra. If we miss this flight, all of our asses will be grass.”

Five of us climbed out of the truck that Shaun provided and made our way into the airport. Royalty and Treasure had stayed behind with Shaun because they needed to fly back to Miami on the private jet. Royalty had weapons on her, and she knew she would never make it through airport security. I wished I could have ridden back on the private jet with them. Being in the airport was making the hair on my arms stand up. I couldn’t wait to board the plane and head back to Chicago.

I forwarded the text from Double with the ticket information to everybody, and each of us went to a kiosk to check in. Since none of us had luggage, we skipped the counter and headed straight for the security checkpoint.

“What’s the plan once we get back to Miami?” Charity asked Lyric.

“Sleep?” Lyric responded.