The Game Never Ends. Zaire Crown

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СКАЧАТЬ to using “Tabitha” really stung Tuesday. Worse was that Danielle was smart enough to know this.

      To Tuesday, the room reflected the struggle of an immature little girl dealing with an adult-sized intellect. Above the plush toys and Barbie dolls were shelves holding books on Newtonian physics and college-level algebra.

      Pride wouldn’t allow Tuesday to show any pain. “Well congratulations on your win. I’m really proud of you.”

      When Danielle didn’t respond, Tuesday just slipped out of the room thinking perhaps that Marcus was right and she should’ve waited.

      Tuesday still couldn’t believe that in such a short period she had gone from never wanting children to not being able to imagine her life without them. It was Danielle who had changed Tuesday’s opinions about kids. At six, she had been so much more mature than her years, and the dedication Marcus showed her as a single parent was a big reason why Tuesday had fallen for him. The girl had made such an impression that Tuesday risked her own life to get Danielle back when she was kidnapped.

      It wasn’t long ago that she and Danielle were tight, but their relationship had slowly changed over the previous year. Danielle’s attitude had become more hostile, snapping at everybody, even her little sister. When her face wasn’t buried in a book, it was hard to get three words out of her.

      Tuesday noticed she changed around the same time Marcus put her in those advanced classes and didn’t think it was a coincidence. Danielle started coming home with more homework than Tuesday thought was suitable for a girl her age, and the shit was so complicated that Tuesday couldn’t help with it. She believed the pressure was too much. She shared her theory with Marcus, but he dismissed it as a phase.

      Tuesday often wondered about Danielle’s real parents and how she came to be with Marcus. She knew her husband well enough to know he didn’t adopt her through any legal means. Tuesday had heard a rumor involving the murder of his former friend, but Marcus never confirmed this and she never asked. Her husband was better than most at keeping secrets.

      Tuesday spent a half hour in the shower waiting for Marcus to join her but he never did. She left the master bathroom attached to their room expecting him to be on the bed waiting for her. When he wasn’t, Tuesday figured he was still downstairs pretending to read while dealing with whatever was on his mind.

      She started to put on something sexy for him then decided he didn’t deserve it. She shed her bathrobe, and after taking a minute to lotion up, slipped into an oversized Detroit Tigers T-shirt.

      If he was going to preoccupy himself with a book, Tuesday decided to do the same. A few months back, Marcus had gifted her a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It was the small abridged version with only thirteen short chapters, but Tuesday hadn’t been able to get past the second. Each time she tried to attack it her attention wandered. It wasn’t that Tuesday couldn’t read, she just didn’t enjoy it that much.

      The paperback was on her nightstand where it sat untouched for three weeks. She picked it up and stretched across the bed to get comfortable. Tuesday couldn’t understand why Marcus thought this was so great that she needed to read it. Some Chinese man who had been dead for thousands of years discussing war strategy with horses and chariots when niggas had AK’s now. It didn’t seem relevant. She forced herself to concentrate on the page, on the words no matter how badly her mind wanted to jump to other things.

      Tuesday only made it through six pages before she traded the book for the TV remote. She switched on their monstrous ninety-two inch Samsung, more interested in the wars fought between the ladies on the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

      Marcus had obviously been watching CNN, and Tuesday was about to change the channel when a news report caught her attention. The caption read: “One of the Largest Drug Busts in History,” and curiosity made Tuesday turn up the volume.

      Thanks to a joint task force between Mexican and US agencies, the number of seizures along the Texas border had quadrupled in the past eleven months, culminating in this record breaker. A shipment containing twelve tons of cocaine had been intercepted. The product was concealed within the filth of three sewage-treatment tanker trucks. On the screen, two uniformed officials wearing proud smiles stood behind a pallet stacked with bundled kilos. A Republican senator credited the President’s new wall, saying that it had plugged all the cracks in the border, forcing illegal immigrants and drug smugglers into riskier methods. Several law enforcement experts patted themselves on the back and speculated about the damage this latest blow had done to the Mexican and South American cartels.

      Tuesday only gave CNN forty-five seconds of her attention before she switched to Bravo and caught up with the petty drama between NeNe Leaks and Candi Burress.

      At the time, she couldn’t imagine how that news story was about to change the lives of her entire family.

      Chapter Five

      Tuesday was thirty-five minutes into her favorite reality show when she heard Marcus approaching from the hall. She quickly shut off the TV and killed the lamp on her nightstand.

      He entered their two-thousand-square foot master bedroom to find all the lights out. Tuesday was curled up on their custom ultra-king-sized bed with her back to him.

      She ignored him when he called her name. Tuesday knew it was a childish game. It was just like the one Danielle had just played with her, but still, she was mad at him. As a woman she felt she had the God-given right to aggravate her man.

      Marcus slid beneath the sheets and closed the distance between them. Tuesday didn’t respond to the feel of his warm body against hers. When he draped his big muscular arm around her, Tuesday didn’t move.

      “Baby listen,” his voice was a bass-filled whisper right at her ear. “Don’t insult my intelligence by faking like you sleep and I won’t keep insulting yours by faking like nothing’s wrong.”

      Tuesday sucked her teeth. It was the only acknowledgement she was willing to give.

      He said, “I been trippin’ lately because I gotta meeting coming up and I’m really not looking forward to it.”

      Tuesday had expected something much worse than some boring meeting like the one she skipped out on. “Just send Brandon in your place.”

      “Can’t. It’s something I have to deal with in person.”

      Tuesday turned on him. Even in the gloom the worry could be seen in her gray-green eyes. Without needing to be told, she already knew what type of meeting this was and why he had been sweating it. He was not being called to attend as Marcus King; this was a meeting for Sebastian Caine.

      “Who’s calling this sit-down?”

      “The type of people you can’t say no to.” He didn’t elaborate and Tuesday didn’t need him to. As a rule, he had never done business in person, so anyone who could demand the presence of Sebastian Caine was definitely somebody to be feared.

      “But I still don’t know why they want you. You’ve been through with that life.” Her last statement had the ring of a question just in case there was something Marcus wasn’t telling her.

      “I’ve been completely legit for years but I’m also connected to shit you’re never really out of. I still have dues I have to pay and obligations I have to meet.”

      She asked, “Everything gone be okay?”

      “Yeah. СКАЧАТЬ