London
Oct. 4th
Nora looked out of the car window at the streets of London. Next to her, Dushane sat at the wheel of the car, wearing a black jacket and looking serious and focused as always.
It was Nora's lunch break and they were driving to the prison so Nora could finally visit Jamal and Omar.
After yesterday, Nora didn't know where her thoughts were. She had gotten carried away, she knew that. She just couldn't stand Sully calling all the shots and her getting him his money just like that. She wanted him to know how much power she had. And how little she was afraid of him. She just had to be in control.
Having grown up in Summerhouse, she knew exactly what made these men tick. And what reputation they enjoyed.
Her gaze broke away from the window and swung over to Dushane. He seemed to hold the highest position in the small group, next to Sully. There were a few youngers who sporadically entered the house during the day and picked up drugs to peddle in the streets. Jaq and Dris were also there sometimes, they seemed to be in charge of the youngers.
Dushane rarely spoke to the youngers. He and Sully often spoke only in private, they seemed to run the whole thing together. He also barely spoke to Nora, never even looked at her. Just like Sully, Jaq, Dris, and everyone else she had met over the past few days. No one payed attention to her.
But ever since she'd smashed a metal bar over his head, she'd felt Dushane respected her a little bit more.
"Here it is," Dushane finally said, pointing out the window to the right. He pulled over to the left at the road and let Nora out. She said a brief goodbye before he drove away.
Nora went through security, dropped off her bag and signed the visitor's list. She had to wait a few minutes before her name was called and, after another security check, she was led into a small room. It was separated by a pane of glass from another identical room where Jamal was sitting. He looked at her with a hesitant smile and reached for the phone.
Nora sat down and reached for the receiver on her side.
"Wagwan, Nor," she heard her brother's familiar voice. She was incredibly angry with him, and yet it felt good to hear his voice.
"Hello," she replied guardedly.
"I'm so sorry man," Jamal said, seeking eye contact with his sister, but Nora kept her head down. She just couldn't look at him.
"How are you doing? Whats going on outside" he asked.
Nora paused for a moment. She felt like shit. She had thought about yelling at Jamal, telling him about her predicament and blaming him. But she just couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him that Sully had kept her with him and was now blackmailing her. Not when Jamal was stuck in here where he couldn't do anything about that. That would kill him.
"I'm fine, Jamal," she finally replied with a sigh. "How are you doing in there? Are you going to be okay?"
"Of course I'll be fine, them fuckers can't tell me nothing," he said confidently. Nora had to grin. Even in prison, there was no shaking off arrogance.
"And how is Omar?" she inquired. She often worried at night; Omar was the youngest of the three of them. He was still inexperienced and did everything his older brother did. This was his fate, as he listened to Jamal rather than Nora.
"He's fine, he'll take this all well," Jamal reassured her. Nora didn't know whether to believe him or not.
"Good. What happens now?" she asked through the telephone, trying to interpret her younger brother's emotions.
"We have to wait until those dickheads in court finally hear us out," Jamal said, shaking his head.
He leaned forward and looked deep into Nora's eyes.
"Nora, I swear to you, we didn't kill anyone," he said, and his tone sounded really sincere.
"I couldn't even do anything like that. Someone planted something on us, I don't even know what the evidence is about, but they found some hair or skin scraps or something of ours somewhere."
Nora looked at Jamal scrutinizingly, but his desperate look and desire for her confirmation told her that he really was telling the truth.
"All right, I believe you," she countered, and he breathed a visible sigh of relief. "And the cocaine?"
"What can I say," he laughed. "Don't ask me about that."
"You idiot," Nora replied disapprovingly, but then had to laugh. Her brother was keeping cocaine in his car. Amazing.
"So how's it going with you? Were you able to work things out with Sully?"
Her heart slipped into her pants.
Now was the moment to tell him a lie.
"Yes, I met with him and we were able to work everything out," she said crisply.
Jamal nodded in satisfaction, but still looked a little surprised.
"He's not as bad as I thought," she added, inwardly rolling her eyes.
"I told you, you'd handle it easy," Jamal said happily, smiling at her. "You're ten times smarter than him."
'That's not difficult', Nora thought to herself.
For a moment they looked at each other, smiling. As much as Nora's brothers got on her nerves with their lifestyle and idiotic ideas, blood was still thicker than water. And Nora would do anything to protect Jamal and Omar.
"Thank you," Jamal said suddenly.
"Of course," she replied and stood up. "Take care"
"You take care of yourself," Jamal replied from behind the glass and stood up as well. "And good luck out there."
He had no idea how much Nora would actually need that luck.
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The workday went by as usual. Dris picked her up and drove her to her apartment afterwards, where she packed a new bag of clothes.
When they arrived back at the house, there was a tense atmosphere. Several people who Nora didn't know were sitting on the couches downstairs when Nora walked in. They were stuffing small plastic packets into empty drinking cans.
Nora couldn't begin to list how many of her duties as an attorney she had already violated in the last few days. Underage stuffing cocaine into cans - just another item on the never-ending long list of her sins.
But to survive all this, she had to overlook it. She had to forget her job and just pretend that none of this mattered to her. As if this didn't go completely against her moral beliefs.
Across from the sofa stood Sully. He was laughing with Jaq when Dris and Nora entered the room. When his gaze brushed Nora, his expression immediately turned serious.
Dris walked up to him and muttered a few sentences to him. Sully nodded absentmindedly.
Then their eyes crossed.
Nora tried to keep her eyes lifted to meet his flashing ones.
"Did everything work out?" he asked from a far.
"Yes," she replied, heading for the stairs.
He stepped closer in front of her.
"Did you tell on me to your brothers?" he asked a little more quietly, tilting his head.
Nora rolled her eyes and he raised his eyebrows.
"Maybe," she replied.
"Hm?", he murmured, stepping closer to her.
"No, of course not."