Page 29 of Forced Into Your Arms
“You heading to your aunt’s?” he asked.
“Yeah. She got Sam’s stuff from the hospital.”
Something moved across his face so quickly I almost missed it.
“What stuff?”
I just looked at him for a while. Then said, “Don’t know yet.”
He nodded, but the question sat with me.
Mace had spent the entire day looking like somebody had taken something from him that he couldn’t get back.Now, for the first time since we’d left my house, he looked nervous.
I didn’t say anything about it.I just headed toward the car.
The ride to my aunt’s house wasn’t much different from the ride to the church. Mace kept his attention on the road while I sat here thinking about the way his expression had changed when I mentioned Sam’s belongings. It could’ve meant nothing. Sam worked with us, so there was a good chance Mace was wondering the same thing I was. If there was anything on Sam’s phone that could tell us why he’d been at Grady or who he’d been dealing with before he died, we needed to find it.
Still, something about Mace had been bothering me all day.
I looked over at him. “You good?”
His hands tightened around the steering wheel before he glanced in my direction. “You already asked me that.”
“And you gave me the same bullshit answer you always give.”
“What you want me to say, Vice? My nigga dead.”
There was enough irritation in his voice to let me know I’d hit a nerve, but I didn’t take it personal. Shit, I had lost my cousin, so I would’ve been the same way. “I know.”
“Then stop asking me if I’m good. I’m not.”
I nodded and looked out the window. That was probably the most honest answer he’d given me since Sam died, so I left it alone. Everybody grieved differently, and Mace had been around long enough to be considered family. If he needed to be pissed off at the world for a while, I understood that better than anybody.
My aunt’s house was already full when we got here. Most of the family had come back after the burial, and judging by the number of cars lining the street, nobody planned on leaving anytime soon. Food covered every inch of the kitchen counters, kids moved through the house while the adults talked over one another, and every few minutes somebody stopped my aunt to ask if she needed anything.
She always said no. That was just her. She could be falling apart and still worry about everybody else before herself.
I found her sitting at the kitchen table with two of my older cousins when I walked in. She looked exhausted, but the second she saw me, she waved me over.
“There you are,” she said.
“Told you I was coming.”
“You tell me a lot of things.”
I bent down and kissed her cheek before pulling out the chair beside her. “You been eating?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t come in my house asking me if I ate like I’m one of your little girlfriends.”
I stared at her for a second before I laughed. “What the hell that got to do with anything?”
“Nothing. I’m just tired of people asking me if I ate.”
One of my cousins laughed from across the table. “I asked her the same thing.”
“And I told you to mind your business too.”
I couldn’t do shit but shake my head at her.
