My mood soured when I pulled in front of Kashawn’s house to find Deanthony’s SUV parked outside behind Kashawn’s. Damn twins even drove the same car. It was all good, though. I wasn’t going to trip. I would get Deanthony’s punk ass together if he tried to come for me. I checked in the rearview mirror to see if I had any lipstick on my teeth and made sure my titties were nice and secure in my Michael Kors original. I got out and walked up to the front door. Just as I was about to ring the doorbell with my red, manicured finger, Deanthony answered. Needless to say, he was the last nigga I wanted to see.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“This is my brother’s house. Unlike you, I don’t need an invitation.”
“Tangela?” Kashawn asked.
What the fuck!
“Bree! Oh, my God.” I slipped past Deanthony and wrapped my arms around Bree, giving her a hard hug like I hadn’t seen her in months. Kashawn, Mama Liz, and Yvonne were all sitting in the living room. “Girl, what happened? I just saw you on the news. Are you all right?”
“Oh, Lord, I’m on the news?”
“Yeah, it’s all over the TV.”
“Oh, God, there’s going to be news people all in front of the house.”
Christmas has come early. I am living for this shit.
“I doubt that.” Deanthony grinned. “These people don’t give a damn ’bout no black stripper who lived in the hood being bodied.”
“Baby, don’t worry about all that. I’ll protect you.” I thought I was going to throw up my chicken sandwich when I saw D wrap his arms lovingly around Bree.
“All of us are just glad to have you home, baby,” Mama Liz said. The one woman next to me who couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as Bree, now, all of a sudden, was her biggest supporter? Bitch, please!
“So, Tangela, where are you going all dressed up?” Yvonne asked.
I turned to face her like she had just slashed me across the back with an ice pick.
“Yeah. A little too early for the club, ain’t it?” Deanthony asked.
Fuck was this, Twenty Questions? Why was everyone sweating me? These people don’t feed, fuck, or finance me. Where I go and what I do, was no one’s business but mine. I had no nerves left for Deanthony and would cut his ashy ass to the white meat in due time.
I had to think of something quick, being that I couldn’t come right out and say, “Oh, I’m just here to seduce Kashawn.”
“I was invited to a party that one of the girls from the salon was throwing. I was on my way over there until I had to hear about my best friend being arrested for this craziness. How come no one picked up the phone and called me?”
“Sorry, Tangela,” Kashawn said in his sexy-ass voice. “So much has been going on, I forgot to call you.”
Deanthony started flapping his gums again. “All of us have been busy with Bree being accused of murder.”
“Deanthony, hush,” Mama Liz said, cutting his dumb-ass a grimace like he had just called her out of her name.
“I tried to call you to let you know about what’s been up and about the arraignment, but I couldn’t get you,” Yvonne said.
“Bree, I’m so sorry, girl. I should have been there.”
“It’s all good, girl. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.” I felt dry heaves coming up as she rubbed affectionately on the back side of Kashawn’s hand. “Somebody must have gotten there before me.”
“Before where?” Kashawn asked.
“To Katiesha’s house.”
“Baby girl, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that your friends and family are here to support you.”
“Kashawn, look, baby, I love you, but I could be facing death row. If not, then life in prison.” Bree looked around the living room at all of us. “I don’t think I can survive that.”
“Bree’s got a point,” Deanthony said, like somebody gave a damn what he thought. “What other explanation could it be?”
Ain’t nobody ask you nothin’, Sherlock-fucking-Holmes.
“D, chill, you’re scaring Bree,” Kashawn said.
“No, he’s right,” Bree said. “The cops, the judge, that prosecutor, they don’t care if I rot in prison. To them, I’m just another hood rat. That judge didn’t look at me once the whole time I was in the courthouse. I could get the lethal injection and she couldn’t even take the time to look up to see who was standing up there in front of her uppity-ass.”
“Baby, try to calm down,” Kashawn said.
“You ain’t never lied,” Yvonne added.
“I gotta get proof.”
“What?” I said.
“What are you talking about, get proof?” Kashawn asked.
“I have to prove that I didn’t kill Katiesha.”
“Bree, what are you saying?” Kashawn asked.
“How do you plan on doing that?” I asked.
“The only way is to find the person who did it, who actually had reason to kill Katiesha.”
“Bree, you’re not serious,” Kashawn said.
“Baby, what are you talking about doing?” Mama Liz asked.
“I gotta go back to Pepper Drive, talk to people, and ask if they saw anybody that night.”
“Girl, are you crazy?” I asked.
“No, she’s not, because she’s not going back to that neighborhood,” Kashawn argued.
“Kashawn, I—”
“No!” Everyone quieted down when Kashawn yelled, “Do you know how dangerous that neighborhood is?”
“I know more than anybody sitting in here how dangerous it is.”
“Bree, you need to let Kent handle this. Girl, listen to Kashawn. Going to Pepper Drive is only going to make matters worse,” I said.
“And what if I go to court and a jury finds me guilty, Tangela, what then?”
“I would rather we take our chances in court with a jury, than for you to go back to that neighborhood and risk you ending up like Katiesha,” Kashawn said.
“Somebody saw something that night. Somebody was at Katiesha’s house before I got there. Somebody had to have seen someone enter and leave her house.”
“Even if someone did see something, what do you think they’re going to do? March to the cops and say, ‘Hey, I saw that stripper get killed the other night’?” I asked.
“Tangela’s right,” said Kashawn. “People who live in places like Pepper Drive don’t like strangers snooping around, asking questions.”
“I hear they got a gang in that neighborhood,” Yvonne said.
“More than one, from what I’m told,” I said, attempting to discourage her from going back to Katiesha’s house.
“Y’all are not the ones who could be facing death row. I am. My freedom is on the line, not yours.”
“Okay, so you go back there and start asking people questions about that night and somebody says they saw someone. Your chances of getting them to go to the cops and telling them what or who they saw is slim at best,” Kashawn said.
“I gotta do something. I can’t sit around and wait for them to build a case against me.”
The last thing I needed was for Bree to go poking her ass around, asking a bunch of damn questions. I knew that look in her light-brown eyes all too well. It meant that once she got an idea in that stubborn head of hers to do something, there was no stopping her. And with murder being her case, she was going to keep on digging until some shit came to the surface. I knew then that I would have to get to that house before her. If Bree found something to tie me to being there the night I killed Katiesha, she would no doubt snitch on me to the cops if it meant keeping her ass out of prison.
“Bree, let Kent handle this. He’s the best criminal lawyer in North Florida. Let him do his job. This is what he’s getting paid to do.” Kashawn took Bree’s right hand into his. “I want you to promise me that you won’t do anything crazy.” Bree glanced at Kashawn, speechless. “Baby, I’m serious. I don’t know what I’ll do if something happened to you.”
“Kashawn is right,” I said. “It’s too dangerous and I don’t want to think about what the cops will do to you if you went back to Katiesha’s.”
“Throw you back in jail, that’s what they would do,” said Mama Liz.
“Okay, fine, I won’t go back.”
“Or to Katiesha’s house,” Kashawn said.
“I won’t go back to the house.”
Bree was the kind who would say one thing and do another. There was no way I could risk her finding out what really happened that night, and I damn sho’ wasn’t going to go to jail for her ass. I would do whatever I had to do to keep Bree off my ass. Damn! None of this would be happening if she hadn’t gotten so damn greedy. Trust, I’d take her ass out just like I took out Katiesha. Bree and Deanthony. Fuck a friendship.