Stevelle, who was closest to Mook, dapped him up and said, “Straight up.”
It was set. While the others prepared, Stevelle nodded his head for Tiara to follow him. She glanced back at the others, but they were too busy checking their weapons and sorting out whose mask was whose. She snuck away checking the clock and seeing that it read almost ten o’clock.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, but he just put his finger to her mouth in response.
He led her out of the front door. When they were in the bright hallway of the building she thought that maybe he wanted to talk to her in private there, he did not stop.
“I wanna show you something,” he told her when they were down the hall. He opened a heavy-looking door that was under a big red Exit sign and let her go through first. “Go all the way up.”
She did as she was told and trudged up three flights of stairs before she got to a door that said “Rooftop.”
“Are we supposed to be up here?”
“Nope,” he grinned at her and opened that door too. “But I don’t give a fuck.”
The chilly breeze hit her face, and she welcomed it, stepping foot on the roof. She panted, trying to catch her breath from walking up all those steps. When they finally reached the top, she lost her breath again when she took in the scenery. The view of Dallas was so beautiful, she felt like she could see everything from where she was standing. She walked until she got close enough to the ledge to look down. From where she stood, she could see dozens of people on the street below her, walking around and enjoying the beginning of Saturday’s night life. Cars were driving fast, and the aroma in the air was . . . well . .. Dallas.
“It’s beautiful up here.
“Hell, yeah,” he agreed with her. He took his place beside her and looked over the city as well. “Whenever I need to clear my head, I just come up here, spark a blunt, and chill. By the time I go back down to the crib, I usually be cool. There’s just something about seeing the city move, you know?”
“So what?” she raised her eyebrow up at him. “You brought me up here ’cause you needed to clear your mind?”
“Kind of,” he said with a clenched jaw. “What we’re about to do, Tiara, it ain’t for play. I just wanna make sure you’re ready for what you might have to do.”
“I’m ready for whatever.”
“Even killing your mother?”
“She practically killed me when she signed her rights over and sent me to that facility. And she tried to have me killed two nights ago,” Tiara replied.
“That doesn’t answer my question. Will you be able to kill her?” Stevelle asked the question again.
“I have to do what I have to do,” Tiara responded, but she didn’t sound as confident as she had sounded downstairs. Stevelle grabbed her by the hands and walked her closer to the edge of the building.
“Look around you. What do you see?”
“I can see everything from here.”
“Look down,” Stevelle instructed. “What do you see? What do you smell?”
Tiara put her hands in her hoodie and leaned a little bit over the edge of the building. “I see Dallas,” she shrugged her shoulder. “I see people, and I smell . . . everything.”
“What are those people doing?”
She studied the people moving around carefree like they didn’t have any worries in the world. Their laughter carried in the wind, and she was even able to pick up a few snatches of their conversations.
“Living their lives, I guess,” Tiara finally answered.
“Exactly,” Stevelle turned to Tiara and stared at her deeply in the eyes. “They don’t know or care that people like us even exist. They don’t give a fuck, Tiara. They’re living their lives, just like you’re trying to do. You’re trying to live a life that your mom has tried to take away from you twice. She don’t care about you, especially if she can put a dollar on your head. She showed you no mercy. Mario didn’t rape you. Your mother did. He was just following orders. So now, what you gonna do about it? When you’re put in that position when it’s either them or you, what are you going to do?”
“I’m-I’m going to have to kill her,” Tiara whispered.
“Say it again, Tiara,” Stevelle instructed her.
“I’m going to kill that bitch! I put that on my father’s grave.” She repeated it louder this time.
“Good.”
“Yeah, good. I’m still alive, right? After this, I refuse to succumb to that self-loathing feeling again,” Tiara said and then got quiet.
Stevelle used that as a window of opportunity to grab her by the waist and brought her to him. “When all of this is over, you won’t have to feel that way ever again because I will be here. Right by your side.”
“How do you know that? You don’t even know me.”
“The crazy thing is, I know more about you in two days than I cared to know about girls that I fucked around with for months. I’m not saying I love you or nothing, but I’m saying I think I will one day. There’s something about you that seems to have a hold on me.”
Tiara couldn’t hold his gaze, so she looked at his chest.
“No,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t want you to love me. You’re a good man, Stevelle, regardless of what you gotta do in the streets to survive. You deserve a woman just as good as you. I’m used goods.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to self-loathe anymore,” he said and placed a finger under her chin. He didn’t force her to look at
