24.0: No Face, No Case

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Rhyme sits in the living room of Dareon's home patiently waiting. He taps his foot out of nervousness as Saniye wipes down the coffee table with an attitude. She smacks her lips making Rhyme look at her as she rolls her eyes and walks away. She goes to the kitchen throwing the towel she used to wipe the table into the sink. She leans against the kitchen island looking at the back of Dareon's head burning a hole into it as he smacked on something loudly.

"I can't believe you told Rhyme about Selah bringing the kids." Dareon groans in irritation saying, "They're his kids. You think I was just going to take them into my home and not tell him?" Saniye crosses her arms over her chest saying, "Yes, actually. I told you not to and there was a reason for that."

"What reason besides Lola telling you not to?" Dareon says lowering his voice looking towards the living room at Rhyme who he can tell is a nervous wreck. "Because he's a controlling, crazy lunatic, that's why!" Dareon shakes his head then says, "What the hell is he gonna do? He's out on bail. He just wants to see his kids before getting locked up because he will. Is that so wrong? He's never seen one and the other he hasn't seen since he was a baby. Cut the man some slack." "Whatever," Saniye said throwing her hands up leaving the kitchen and going up the stairs.

About twenty minutes later the doorbell rings making Rhyme's eyes shift towards the door. Dareon gets up from the couch going down the hall to the door. Behind it stands Selah holding baby Diarra while Tafari holds her hand. Her daughter, Sadia stands close behind her seeing as she couldn't find someone to watch her while making the trip. Dareon finally opens the door smiling at Saniye's cousin who he had never met.

"Selah, right? I'm Saniye's fiancรฉ, Dareon. Come in." He opens the door wider then stands to the side as she walks in. "Thank you." She walks behind Dareon who looks down at his nephew who he hasn't seen since he was only some months old. "Is this Lorenzo? He done got big." Dareon says with a smile. "Tafari," Selah corrects. "Huh?" He asks in confusion. "We call him Tafari."

When they turn the corner and Rhyme sees them coming he stands to his feet. When Selah notices him she bugs her eyes then pulls Tafari closer to her. "What is he doing here? He can't be here!" She says looking at Dareon as Saniye comes down the stairs. "And why not? He's their father," Dareon says looking from Selah to Rhyme. "That's debatable. This is a setup. I brought these kids here because Lola told me to. No one said anything about him being here."

"Well, he's here and those are his kids," Dareon said in Rhyme's defense. Selah looked at Saniye hoping she would say something to back her up. Instead Saniye said, "It's fine." Selah looked at Saniye huffing as Saniye went on to say, "Let the man see his kids. After all, he's probably going to jail." Saniye rolls her eyes making her way as Selah sighs. Saniye takes a sleeping Diarra from Selah's arms then takes her over to Rhyme.

Rhyme grabs her into his arms looking at her awe and slight wonder. It was crazy to think that he had actually fathered three children. All by different women like his father. And it was even crazier that he hasn't been truly able to build a bond with any of them. From Marquise to Lorenzo and now her, his first daughter. Rhyme was ashamed to ask, but he had to. "What's her name?" Rhyme had missed the birth because he was in jail and because Karina is in jail too he wasn't able to be in contact with her. Rhyme didn't even get to have a say in the fact that Lola had adopted her.

Selah clears her throat saying, "Diarra...Diarra Reiko Jackson." Rico raised his eyebrows surprised Karina actually gave the baby his last name considering he wasn't there to sign the birth certificate. Or the fact that Karina pretty much hated him after he kicked her to the curb to try to work things out with Lola. When Diarra stirs in her sleep and opens her eyes Rhyme says, "She look Asian as fuck." He laughs, but wasn't surprised because he knew Karina was Japanese and black. Rhyme didn't doubt that she was his because the one thing he did make sure to do was get that DNA test.

"Um, she's waking up. I should probably feed her. Is there somewhere I can prepare her food?" Selah asks. "I'll show you to the kitchen," Saniye answers. Selah steps to Rhyme grabbing Diarra. When Tafari tries to follow her to the kitchen she stops then says, "You stay here with the big boys." Tafari looks up at her, but does as she says. "Come over here, Lorenzo." Rhyme couldn't believe he was so big, let alone that he had missed so much.

When Tafari just stood there looking confused Dareon said, "I think Saniye's cousin said they call him Tafari." Rhyme furrowed his eyebrows saying, "Why?" Dareon just shrugged his shoulders. Rhyme sighed then walked over to the toddler kneeling to his level asking, "What's your name?" "Tafari Mikael!" The boy said proudly and energetically. That definitely wasn't the name Rhyme had given him at birth. Lola had changed his name.

Rhyme scratched his head then said, "Okay. Well, I'm Rico. Your Dad." Tafari looked confused, but said nothing. He just looked at Rhyme. "You want to open the toys I bought you?" he asks so it's not awkward. "Yeah," Tafari says with a smile. Rhyme could definitely see himself in the little boy, but also Lola. He was the perfect mix of the two. He had Rhyme's eyes with Lola's nose and lips. Rhyme smiled then picked him up taking him over to the pile of toys he bought him. Rhyme didn't care if he spent his last dime on them seeing as he has no income right now.

Rhyme put him down then handed him the first gift. He sat on the coffee table watching his son begin to open things. It was like it was Christmas morning. For awhile Rhyme thought he didn't know what true love was, especially after his tumultuous relationship with Lola. But seeing his kids is what true love felt and looked like to him. He said he wanted to be a better father than his own, but he was already off to a bad start. Rhyme made the decision to somehow change that even if he finds himself in prison for a very long time.

After awhile Saniye took the kids upstairs to their new room for a nap. It wasn't much considering the short amount of time they had to prepare. Plus, they didn't know how long they would be staying. There is no telling how long Lola's trial will run or if she'll make bail. And most of all, they didn't know if she would be found guilty and have to spend time in jail. All of a sudden Dareon and Saniye would be makeshift parents. This would put a halt to their wedding plans and their life in general.

Once they were asleep Saniye left the room and went downstairs. She went to the living room where Dareon, Rhyme and Selah sat awkwardly and quietly. Saniye sat on the couch saying, "We need to talk...but there's someone else that needs to be present. After dinner we'll go meet up with this person, so we can have a serious talk." Everyone looked at each other. "Who is this person?" Dareon asks.

"I can't say right now, but you'll see." None of them liked the sound of that. Their curious minds wondered who it could be. Romeo? That was both Dareon and Rhyme's first thought. I guess they'll find out later. Until then they would be anticipating.

Meanwhile...

๐ŸŽถDo re mi fa so la ti do๐ŸŽถ

Royalty sang the scale up then back down at the instruction of her voice lesson teacher. Javonne had her with one of the best. She had been in her lesson for almost an hour and it would soon be coming to an end. The instructor handed Royalty some papers saying, "I want you to practice these." Royalty nodded her head as Javonne walked into the room. Royalty watched as the teacher hugged Javonne. "How did she do?" He asked as they parted.

"She did good. She has a great voice. I'm just here to help her properly use it. The next lesson will be in a week. It was nice working with you, Royalty." Royalty shook her hand then stood up grabbing her purse leaving with Javonne. After leaving there they went to eat. They sat at one of those outside tables under the Vegas heat. "Still having withdrawals?" He asks as Royalty sips her drink.

"Yeah, some days it's hard to get out of bed, but I manage. I'll just be glad when it's over," Royalty says. Ever since she stopped using she was having flu like symptoms, random bursts of energy only to fall back into what seemed like depression. "Was it a choice?" Javonne asks. "Not at first. My first day there they drugged me. Did that for about a week then I got hooked. At that point it was helping me get through the days. It was better to be high then to come to terms with how my life was." Javonne looks at her feeling sympathetic.

"The good thing is that you got away." They both smile as Royalty nods her head saying, "Thanks to you." "Naw, thanks to you running into my damn car. When you become a household name with millions I want a new Maserati courtesy of you." They both laugh as Royalty says, "How is that reasonable? It was just a small dint and you want a whole new car." Javonne shrugs saying, "It isn't reasonable. I just want a new car." Royalty chuckles while shaking her head.

After eating they go back to Javonne's penthouse. They're both in the living room. Royalty's watching the tv laying across the couch while Javonne sits over on the other couch on his phone like usual. Royalty stared at him typing away. She was bored out of her mind. That's when Royalty got up from the couch walking around it. In a swift motion she snatched his phone taking off running. She needed something fun to do even if that meant annoying him. "Hey!" he yelled shooting up from the couch running behind her.

Royalty ran from the downstairs living room through the kitchen / dining room area. "Give it back! I was in the middle of an important email." Royalty laughs as she keeps running. There weren't many places to run and she was not about to go up the stairs. She could see herself tripping and breaking her face on those glass steps.

Royalty finally just gives up going back to the living room. She falls back onto the couch holding his phone in her hands while laughing. She pushed the home button, but there wasn't much she can do when it's locked. Next thing you know Javonne was snatching his phone from her grips. He sits on the couch at the end of Royalty's feet unlocking his phone. Royalty waved her foot in his face saying in a teasing tone, "You mad?" Javonne looks over at her grabbing her foot covered in a sock so she'll stop waving it around. "You play too much."

"And you don't play enough. I'm bored," Royalty says with a sigh. "Can you let go of my foot, kind sir?" She says when he still has her foot in the air. "No one told you to put this thing in my face. I don't what to tell you about being bored. Maybe when I'm done sending these emails we can watch a movie upstairs or something." "Emails," Royalty says putting it in air quotes. "You sure you're not texting your little girly-friend."

Royalty sits up on her knees as Javonne looks at her like she's crazy. "Girly-friend? Ain't got one of those. Have you seen me bring any chicks here since you've been here? Do you see any traces of a female in this house?" Royalty shrugs saying, "You could have one hiding somewhere. You men are good at that." Javonne laughs inwardly saying, "You men? For being 17 you sure do act like you've seen and known every man to walk this earth and that they're all dogs."

"18 and I have," Royalty said in a sure tone. "18? Since when? You were just 17." Royalty nonchalantly says, "My birthday was a couple of days ago." Javonne tilts his head to the side asking, "And why didn't you tell me?" Royalty shrugs saying, "It's not a big deal. Tell you for you to do what? Say happy birthday and act like it's not just a regular ol' day? I'm good."

"So pessimistic to be so young," Javonne says. "Naw, I'm just realistic. I've seen a lot in the last year or two. This world is real and it's bigger than me. Bigger than me celebrating my birth with some meaningless ass presents. I lived with people who had everything as far as material items. Had the mansion with foreign cars, all the designer labels, but everyone was still hurting on the inside. All of them still had unresolved issues. They would rather have money and things over peace of mind. That's not me. I just want to get my life back on track. Hopefully one day I can be a voice through my music for everything I went through."

Javonne smiled at how passionate she looked while speaking. "I can see that." Royalty simply nodded her head. It grew quiet as Royalty fiddled with her fingers. When she looked up Javonne was just staring at her. "What?" Royalty asked laughing inwardly. "I just have a good feeling about this..about you. You're gonna become something." Royalty shyly smiled saying, "Thanks."

When Javonne leaned in Royalty's heart beat sped up. She swerved him so quick she almost fell off of the couch. Of course Royalty could feel an attraction towards him, but that didn't mean a damn thing. "Woah there!" Royalty says getting up from the couch quickly. "What the hell was that? You think because you took me in and you're helping me -You think cause I was prostitute you're gonna get some easy ass outta me?"

"No, I-" Javonne stops in complete confusion. Royalty scoffs saying, "Typical nigga with a dick. Play nice in order to get some pussy. I peep game and that ain't gonna work over here.ย  I can't believe this," Royalty says shaking her head walking away. When Javonne sees she is walking towards the elevator he yells behind her, "Where are you going?" "I need a walk," Royalty says rolling her eyes as she slips into her slides.

"I didn't mean it like that." Royalty doesn't reply as she pushes the elevator button and the doors open. She pushes the button for the lobby then the doors close back. Once she gets to bottom she leaves the building altogether.

Aimlessly walking Royalty ends up at the corner store at the end of the street. She grabs a Sprite and a Twix then walks down the chip aisle trying to find something. She glances up seeing a head sticking over on the other aisle. She looks to see a man with braids in his head like the Sweet wore. It had become a trend, so Royalty wasn't surprised. She grabbed a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos then went to the former line of two other people at the register.

"Sweet!" Royalty heard a girl yell as she entered the corner store. "Come on. It's hot, you know the AC don't work." When she turned to see Sweet coming towards the line she caught eyes with him. Not even thinking Royalty dropped all of her things and took off running out of the store.When she glanced over her shoulder she could see him chasing after her.

Royalty ran straight for the building of Javonne's place. Would it be stupid to run inside? Right when she got to the entrance of the building she ran into someone. The person caught Royalty by the shoulders and that's when she realized it was Javonne. "I was just about to come looking for you. Why are you running?" Out of breath Royalty pushed out, "My old pimp. He's chasing me."

Javonne looked down the street to see a guy rushing in their direction. "I'll handle it," he said pushing Royalty into the building. Royalty went in, but she stayed close enough to the entrance to make sure nothing bad happened. Sweet walked down the block as Javonne pretended to pat himself as if looking for his keys. "Have you seen a girl about this tall," he said holding his hand up. "-with curly hair? Did she pass by?"

"Nope. I've seemed to misplace my keys. If you see some laying around while you're walking let me know and I'll do the same if I see this girl." Javonne says with a fake smile. "Coo," Sweet says as he keeps walking. When Javonne sees he's far enough away he goes back into the building spotting Royalty who's waiting on him. "He's gone." Royalty lets out a breath of relief saying, "Thank you." "You okay?" Javonne asks as she nods her head.

They get onto the elevator where it's quiet except the music playing. "I'm sorry about earlier." Not even looking at Javonne all Royalty says is, "It's okay."

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Dareon and Rhyme sit in the sitting area of Saniye's clothing store waiting on this mystery person she told them about earlier. The two brothers were both growing impatient. That's when the bell went off indicating someone had walked into the store. Both Dareon and Rhyme looked in the direction of the entrance to see a young woman walking in. Dareon scrunched up his face trying to see who it was.

"Bitch, I really need to quit smoking weed." Dareon says rubbing his eyes not believing what he was seeing. He could swear on everything he loved he was seeing Sarita walking into Saniye's clothing store...

But when he just kept seeing her and he saw Rhyme had the same reaction he knew it wasn't a figment of his imagination or the result of some good ass bud. Sarita was there in the flesh and neither Dareon or Rhyme could believe it. "Hello, gentleman," Sarita said with a smile sitting on the couch across from them. Dareon and Rhyme watched in disbelief as Sarita sat her Givenchy purse next to herself on the couch and crossed her legs.

Dareon pointed at Sarita saying, "You're dead." He looked over at Saniye who was fixing clothes on a mannequin like this shit was normal. "Alive and well, baby." Rhyme rubs his temples as his head starts to hurt. "This shit can't be real," he mumbles. Dareon smacks his lips then gets up from the couch walking around the table. He goes over to Sarita then pokes her head. "Ow!" She says pushing him off.

"This bitch is real. I can't believe it. Yo, touch her Rhyme. My hand ain't go through." Dareon says in shock going back over to the other couch. Rhyme looks at Dareon as if he's stupid as Dareon says, "Touch her!" Rhyme glares at his brother saying, "I can clearly see she's real. She breathing ain't she?" Dareon throws his hands up at Rhyme's aggressive tone. "You actin' like you didn't have the same shocked ass expression on your face."

Sarita just stared at them with an amused smile. "This makes no sense. I saw your dead body in a pool. I saw you laying in a casket at your funeral," Rhyme says with knitted brows. "We put on a great show, right? I don't know why I don't become an actor instead of spending years in law school." Rhyme looked at Sarita seeing she found this shit so funny.

It should be a shame how easy it was to find some people on the strip willing to be apart of their show for some money. From the people who came as fake EMT's to the people at the funeral.

"You're over there smiling and we're not. You know what the hell we went through because we thought your ass died...because we thought you killed yourself!" Rhyme slightly shouted. Sarita shrugs her shoulders saying, "Serves you right. Let's not forget what you told Marquise to do to me." Sarita pointed her chest feeling herself get emotional all over again.

"I didn't tell him to rape you, Sarita! How was I supposed

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