Arnessa rolled her eyes, “I knew he was gon’ play me. Did you call B-more and let them know the deal?”

“Yeah, I told him I’ll make the trip tomorrow.”

“That’s what’s up. Let’s get a cab. My day is a wrap now. I just want to lay down.”

“What about Dave?”

“I’ll deal with him when I see him.”

On one of the coldest nights of the winter, Kisa “Kane” Montega was dressed in her pink silk pajamas and a full-length mahogany mink coat. She sat quietly in a chair by her tarp-covered swimming pool drinking Rémy from a whiskey glass. Why am I not happy? she thought to herself while looking at the lavish home where she resided with her husband, Sincere, and two children. There was something about the fifty-five-hundred-square-foot, six-bedroom house with all the works that just didn’t feel like home. Home was the twenty-eight-hundred-square-foot town house she’d sold back in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Home was actually the fast-paced rhythm of Harlem, USA.

Harlem, the very place she’d been robbed and beaten while pregnant. New York City, the place where her child had been kidnapped and she had been shot. Yet it still held millions of wonderful memories. The place shaped her style and formed her attitude. Kisa hated leaving Harlem behind, but it was a move that she couldn’t avoid. All the chaos that preceded her relocation to Charlotte was too much to deal with while she was pregnant with her son. The police suspected her involvement in her sister’s homicide but were never able to prove it.

Shea’s death had been another unavoidable event in Kisa’s past. No one had hated Kisa more than Shea. Her hate for Kisa was born out of pure unadulterated jealousy. Unable to control her envy, Shea set Kisa up to be robbed while Kisa had been pregnant with her first child, her daughter Kai. A year and a half later, Shea had Kai kidnapped and held for ransom. At that point, Shea had signed her own death certificate.

Kisa sat in the back of her modern brick home longing for the city where she’d almost lost it all. She took one last sip from her glass and stood up but fell right back into the chair. I must’ve drank a little too much, she laughed to herself. Once again, she stood, this time slowly, and walked across the backyard with the tail of her coat dragging over the frozen blades of grass behind her.

Sincere watched his wife from the kitchen window as she approached the house. He walked over and opened the back door. “Baby, what are you doing up?” Kisa asked, slightly startled.

“Christen woke me up when he couldn’t find you.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s good. Just wanted some juice. He’s back upstairs in the bed already. What’s up with you, though?”

Kisa turned her back to him and reset the house alarm, “I’m good, sweetie. Come on, let’s go back to bed. The couple walked through the family room into their huge sunken master bedroom. Sincere helped his wife remove her coat and laid it over the loveseat across from their bed. Kisa climbed into the middle of the king-sized bed and slid beneath the covers. Sincere got behind her and spooned her body, wrapping his arms around her. “Kane,” he whispered.