“Don’t make me regret this, Nadira.”
“I won’t.” She blinked at me and I gauged her just a little longer before I texted Bishop.
6
BISHOP
Iwasn’t sure why I was anxious when it came to meeting Asante’s family. We weren’t anything definite. Even if everyone in his life hated me, it didn’t matter. I’d be out of their lives and business in a few years anyway.
I looked down at the shower drain while blood pooled off me and down it. I wasn’t sure exactly how much blood had gotten on me but it was enough for me to feel like I was sick which was an insane amount considering what I did for work.
I preferred quick and clean kills but this hadn’t been one of my usual favors.
I scrubbed my skin rougher and spun around so that the spray could get some more of the dirt and blood off my back.
I wasn’t sure how things had gone wrong with the Cortez brothers but I knew that I was wearing half of the older one and the younger was nowhere to be found despite how much the entire family had been looking for him.
They hadn’t done anything to upset our business or cash flow. They’d done something worse. They’d disrespected the family.
I did one more deep scrub to make sure I hadn’t missed any spaces on my body. Then, I went back to focusing on my hands.
When I finished, I went through my routine to get ready, threw some clothes on and put my contacts in. I snatched my gun up on my way out of the room. I tucked it into the waistband of my pants, took the stairs down quickly and did a double take when I saw Rook sitting on the living room couch playing a video game. I had to admit, I was shocked he was inside alone over the weekend. I leaned over the nearest couch.
“You staying in tonight?”
“I’m not too sure yet. Why?” He paused the game and looked up at me. “What’s up?”
“I was just wondering.” I shrugged. “You ain’t going out with Sydney tonight?”
“Nah. I had to cut her ass off.”
I snickered. Rook was ridiculous with the shit he cut women off for just because he had commitment issues.
“For what?”
“I found out she was in a binder.”
“In a binder?” I repeated. “Like trying to get married?”
“Yep. She’s been letting her family keep her in the lineup for marriage.”
“Nigga, did you plan on marrying her ass?”
“Fuck, maybe.” Rook leaned back and threw an arm behind the couch. “Believe it or not, I was fucking with Sydney and I was genuinely relieved about the idea that she could be in my binder when the time came up. We sat together and we talked about that shit, Bishop. We talked about telling our parents we knew each other and we were down with getting pulled only for her to be out here trying to just get pulled by any fucking body.”
“You jealous?” I teased.
“Nah, but she’s not about to play in my face. The bitch don’t care about being with me or potentially getting married to me.She cares about getting married at all and I’m not about to be the clown ass nigga that does it for her.”
“Man, I think that girl really likes you. Maybe she hasn’t had time to ask to get it removed.”
“Honeslty, I don’t care anymore if she does or doesn’t.”
“Alright.” I paused for a beat. “You good?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m straight.”
“I’m serious.” I adjusted on my feet again. “You can act like you’re hard and don’t give a fuck about anything to other motha’fuckas, but you know that ain’t even how we get down. If you didn’t like Sydney you wouldn’t have dealt with her as long as you did. It’s cool to admit you cared and shit didn’t work out.”
