Page 46 of Forced Into Your Arms
My attention moved to the security guard I had spoken to on the phone—Marcus. I knew it was him because of his name tag. “How the fuck somebody get upstairs?”
His face tightened. “We’re trying to figure that out now.”
“Fuck you mean, ya’ll trying to figure it out now?”
“Vice,” Milan called my name in a whisper. I looked at her. “They don’t know yet.”
I didn’t like that answer, but getting into it with security wasn’t going to change what had already happened.
One of the officers approached us a few minutes later and told Milan they were going upstairs. She immediately moved to follow then but I grabbed her arm.
“Where you going?” I asked her.
“To my apartment…”
“No.”
Her eyes dropped to my hand before coming back to my face. I let her go.
“I need to see if anything is missing,” she said.
“Let them clear it first.”
“I wasn’t planning on walking in before them or anything like that, Vice.” I didn’t even say shit. Lil’ Mama just didn’t get it. She wasn’t taking this shit for what it really was, and it was starting to piss me off. She stared at me for a second. “You know, I managed to stay alive for twenty-eight years before I met you.”
“And somebody got into your apartment less than a week after you did.”
The words came out before I thought about how they sounded, causing her expression to change… so did mine.
I didn’t know who these people were yet, but there was one thing I couldn’t ignore. Whatever was happening to her had started because of my family.
She’d gone to work that night expecting nothing more than a regular shift. Sam had brought this shit to her without meaningto, and now somebody had walked into her home because she’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“That came out wrong,” I said.
“A little…”
“I ain’t blaming you.”
“I know…”
The fact that she said it without hesitation surprised me.
Before I could respond, one of the officers called her name and told her the apartment was clear. Milan looked toward the elevators, but I saw the hesitation she tried to hide.
“I’m coming with you.”
She looked back at me. “I didn’t ask you to.”
“I know you didn’t.”
“Then why are you coming?”
“Because I’m not letting you walk back into that apartment by yourself.”
“Um… the police are right there.”
“And I’m right here too.”
