“You don’t need to apologize for anybody’s actions but your own and this isn’t about you. This is him.”
He nodded without arguing and got out, coming around to my side to open my door. We walked inside hand and hand. The building was pretty much empty aside from the security guard who acknowledged us with a nod. We took the elevator to the sixth floor and Vanessa was standing not far from the doorway with a phone pressed to her ear. She waved us in then addressed whoever she was on the phone with.
“Omiri just got here, let me call you back.” She ended the call and extended her arm to the side. “He’s in the back.”
“How bad did he fuck up this time?” Omiri asked, locking his arms over his chest.
“It’s pretty bad. I was able to get him out of there before things got really complicated but not before there was video. Some of the clips are already circulating.”
“Fuck.” Omiri walked away, heading through a door to the back. I followed him and stopped in the doorway of an office where a man was sitting on the sofa with his face in his hands until Omiri walked in the room.
“Why the fuck are you here?” he mumbled, clearly drunk. When he lifted his head I couldn’t miss the resemblance. He had the same face, build, and eyes as Omiri, even though his were bloodshot. The man was older but still very handsome. “Nobody called the superstar.”
Vanessa moved past me. “Peeks called me but this time after his guys made him leave.”
“The fuck did he do this time?” Omiri glared at his father then cut his eyes to Vanessa.
“Drank too much and got into a fight with a customer. He threw a stool at the guy which hit him and two other customers. Then he went on a rampage, demanding that they call you.”
“My son knows how to handle them muthafuckers,” he mumbled and dropped his face into his hands again.
“When I got there he was belligerent and threatening to call the cops if they didn’t let him back inside. I tried to get him away quietly but…” She glanced at me and Omiri frowned.
“Say what the fuck you gotta say, Van.”
“He started yelling at me. Saying I wasn’t going to cover this up like I covered up what you did to O’Rion.”
Omiri’s body tensed and his eyes shot over to me then moved back to Van when she spoke again.
“Several people recorded it and your father looked at one of the guys and asked him if he knew that you killed your brother.”
The way Omiri’s expression turned to rage had me reaching for him but he moved so quickly I couldn’t get my hands on him fast enough. He rushed across the room and fisted his father’s shirt, jerking his frame from the sofa with so much force his head snapped back and his feet left the floor. Omiri handled him like he weighed nothing and his father was a big man.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? You really hate me so much that you want to ruin my life? My daughter and her mother depend on me. I have a muthafucking daughter.”
His father’s body went limp and Omiri was the only thing holding him up. “You don’t have a daughter. You don’t have anybody but me.”
“I don’t even have you. This shit has to stop. The fuck you think this is. You want my money then do dumb shit that could ruin my career.”
“Fuck you, son. Don’t nobody give a shit about you throwing a gotdamn football. Not me, not your mother. The only person who cared is gone and that’s on you.”
“Nah, fuck you.” Omiri shoved him away and his father slumped back on the sofa after landing awkwardly. “I’m done with this. Y’all want to blame me for something that was out of my control. You don’t think I know you wanted it to be me and not Rion that night. I know, trust me, I fucking know and I live with that every day. I’m done. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
Omiri stormed out and it took my mind a minute to process and catch up, which gave Van an opportunity to stop me before I could leave too. She grabbed my arm and my eyes shot up to hers.
“Do you care about him?”
“Yes,” I said with no hesitation.
“This is what caring about Omiri looks like. He says he’s done but he’s not. Their relationship is complicated. Very fucking complicated. This is his life, Makari. Can you handle that?” She looked me right in the eyes and I didn’t look away.
“I’m here.”
“You are, but that’s not what I asked. I asked if you can handle this. Omiri has a lot of demons. Shit, some I don’t even know about and this…” She pointed at his father. “Is what you can expect if you stay. Omiri has enough on his plate and doesn’t need anyone else adding checks in the problem column. If you aren’t here to be a solution that means you’ll be a problem. Also, if you can’t handle this, then please don’t hang around. Right now things are good but the true test of being solid in someone’s life is not how you hold them down when the good shit happens. It’s how you hold them up when things get dark. It’s how youshow up for them when things are falling apart and shit isn’t sweet.”
She still had her hand on my arm so I jerked away, feeling a kind of anger that I wasn’t expecting. Who the hell was she to question me or act like I would bail when things got tough? She didn’t know me so I made myself very fucking clear.
“I’m here because I love him and he loves me. I’m in this because as much as I enjoy when things are sweet, I’m more than capable of handling the hard stuff. I’m a solution, not a complication. So yes, I can handle this.”
