Free The Choir Director 2 by Carl Weber Page B

was ridiculous. I’d told him once that I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to bring women into this pit, but he just laughed. “Shit!” he’d said. “They ain’t coming to see how clean my place is.” And sure enough, that boy kept a steady stream of women, and none of them seemed to care what a pigsty he lived in.
    In spite of the mess, I was desperate to find what I’d come for, so I dove in and started digging through the clutter. I went through his dresser, searched under his bed, and pulled everything out of his closet. Nothing there.
    I stood in the middle of his room, which was now in even worse shape than before, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now. Kicking a pair of sneakers in frustration, I watched them land in the corner. That’s when I remembered the loose floorboard.
    I ran to the corner and dropped to my knees. Slipping my fingers along the edge, I was able to pry up the loose board. I was flooded with relief when I spotted the black box I’d been looking for hidden beneath the floor.
    The metal box required a three-digit combination to open the lock, so I put in the code I’d used to set it the last time I locked the box.
    “What the hell!” I shouted when the lock didn’t budge. Not only had the box been moved, but the combination had been changed. I was about two seconds away from going to find a hammer and busting the damn thing open. The contents inside were way too important to me.
    I leaned back against the wall, racking my brain to think of what Kareem could have changed the combination to. Taking a stab in the dark, I put in 317, and to my great relief, the box unlocked. “Of course he used Momma’s birthday,” I said out loud with a laugh. My brother was a straight-up momma’s boy. That was why he still hadn’t moved out of the last place we’d lived with our mother.
    For a second, I stared at the contents of the box—a .38 handgun my brother had given me a long time ago. Black Beauty. I picked it up and held it in my hand, feeling a sense of power and, even more important, a feeling of safety I hadn’t had ever since the night I saw him . I shoved the gun in my purse then closed the box and put it back under the floor. It was time to put the house back together. The trick would be to leave it no cleaner than I had found it. That would be a dead giveaway.
    I’d torn up the place so bad that cleaning it took longer than I expected. By the time I finished, it was too late to get out of there undetected. I heard keys in the door, and Kareem entered carrying a bag of groceries.
    “Hey!” He sounded happy to see me. “Where the hell you been?” He set the bag on the counter and gave me a hug.
    “I been around.”
    “What? You don’t know how to call?” he scolded. I hated it when he acted like my daddy instead of my brother.
    “I just needed to get away from it all, Kareem.”
    “And that included me.” I could tell by his tone that he was hurt. “I’m not those church people, Tia. I’m your family. Your only real family.”
    As much as I wanted to reassure him, I just couldn’t tell him anything. Not yet. There was nothing he could say or do to make things better for me, so there was no use telling him anything.
    “Kareem, sometimes I have to deal with things by myself. You can’t protect me from everything, you know.”
    “Protect you? Did Aaron put his hands on you?” His eyes flashed with rage.
    “No, of course not,” I said.
    “Then what? He cheated on you?”
    “No, it’s nothing like that. Aaron didn’t do anything. He’s a good man. This is all about me.”
    I could see he wasn’t buying my excuse. “Little sister, what aren’t you telling me?”
    “A lot,” I said truthfully. “But you can’t save me from it. I gotta save myself.”
    He looked like he wanted to say more, and I knew he was frustrated with me, but thankfully he dropped the conversation. I gave him a quick kiss and hug then headed to the door before he could try