The graduation gown feel like a lie. A heavy, satin lie.
Amara fix the mortarboard pon her head, her fingers trembling small-as she look down at the heavy gold ring pon her thumb—the Sterling family crest. Outside the auditorium, the air did thick with the scent of expensive perfume and success, but to Amara, it just smell like a funeral.
Rick-Stone was suppose to deh inna the front row. Instead, he did lock down inna a cell a GP, and him absence feel like a weight pon her chest that did a try stifle her.
"You look like you ready fi cry or ready fi start a war, Mara. Pick one."
The voice low, a rough baritone that vibrate inna her bones. Amara never even look roun' fi know a who. The crowd of graduates and parents naturally part, giving a wide berth to the man standing by the hibiscus hedge.
Kaelen "Killa" Vance look like him neva belong inna the quiet sanctuary of Mona. He was deck out inna a crisp black button-down, sleeve roll up fi show the "Loyalty" tattoo etch deep inna him dark forearm. Him eyes, sharp like a hawk, scan the rooftop and the crowd before them finally settle pon her.
"I not crying, Kaelen," Amara seh, her "Uptown" accent slipping, replaced by the grit of the lane she try so hard fi leave behind. "And I too tired fi no war."
"Tough luck," Kaelen step closer, the scent of him—cedarwood and the faint, metallic tang of gun oil—hit her like a wave. "Spirit restless inna the ends, Mara. Dagger already a make move. The yung-boys inna the lane feel like because Rick-Stone deh 'hind bar, the Sterling name is a memory. Them feel like the throne empty."
He reach out, him rough thumb grazing the gold ring pon her hand. The touch send a jolt through her, a dangerous heat she been a try fight since she was sweet sixteen.
"Your bredda send me fi fetch him Queen," he whisper, him eyes darkening until them look like midnight. "But you haffi decide right now if you a go lead them, or if you a go let them bury you. Graduation over, Mara. School tie cut."
Amara look at her degree, then at the black SUV idling at the gate with the dark tint and the "shottas" inside. The girl who did want a 9-to-5 inna New Kingston dead.
"Drive the car, Kaelen," she command, her voice turning cold as ice. "Make we go show them seh the Shadow darker than the man who cast it. We a go home."
YOU ARE READING
The Don's Shadow
Romance"In Kingston, you don't choose the crown. The crown chooses you-and usually, it's dripping in blood." Amara Sterling (Tanaania) had a plan: finish her degree at UWI, move Uptown, and never look back at the zinc fences of the community that raised he...
