“Why are you knocking like you’re the damn police?”
“Because I am.” He smiled, looking me over. “Why you look like you just got out the bed?”
“Because I did.” I leaned against the doorframe. “What do you want?”
“You.”
“Hunh?”
Keyoni laughed, showing off teeth too straight to have occurred naturally. “Jami wants you. She thinks Big Girl’s about to have her puppies.”
I pushed off the wall. “And she sent you to come get me?” It was my turn to look him over, noticing he had all the equipment to make me follow directions: handcuffs, a taser, a gun, and a big ass bulge in the front of his pants. I looked away, feeling guilty about the thoughts running through my head, because the latter was what I couldn’t stop focusing on.
“I volunteered,” he admitted. “It gave me a reason to come up here and see you.”
I eyed him skeptically. “Are you flirting with me, Officer Green?”
“I don’t flirt.”
“And what do you call what you’re doing?”
“Enjoying some small talk with the good doctor.”
“Bullshit.” He was laughing when I stepped back, granting access to the apartment.
Keyoni looked surprised. “You inviting me in?”
I wasn’t trying to be rude, but after he said what he said I wondered if I was being too forward. Nothing was going to happen though, so…
“Yeah. Come on.” He wasted no time stepping inside. Closing the door, I realized he didn’t have his sidekick. “Where’s Kaiser?”
“With Keturah.”
“Is that your daughter?” I asked on the way to my room.
“Yeah,” I heard behind me. “My one and only.”
“One and done?”
“I didn’t say that.” Keyoni didn’t follow me inside. Instead, he stopped in the doorway. “She’s my one for now.” Stuffinghis hands into his pockets, he shrugged. “Who knows what the future holds?”
“Not kids,” I said with confidence. When our gazes met, I couldn’t read his face and wondered if I offended him. “For me at least.”
“What’s wrong with kids?”
“They cost money.” I ventured into the closet, slowly grabbing everything I needed to get dressed. When I exited, Keyoni was still standing in the doorway, looking as if he were indecisive of what to do next. “You don’t have to just stand there,” I told him. “You can come in.”
“It looks so different in here.”
My eyes cut over to him. “You’ve been in here before?”
He nodded. “Yeah. There was a bust a couple months ago. A few of the apartments were hit.” Eyeing him skeptically, he continued. “Nothing was found though.”
“What were y’all looking for?”
His answer stayed generic. “Anything illegal.”
“Illegal as in…”
