“You think so?” she laughed, shaking her head.
“He remembers her?” I questioned, and she shrugged. “Oh, come on, I know you know.”
“I do, but I’m not saying,” she replied, then turned her attention to the brothers outside talking. While we were in our own little world, her husband, Nine, had joined them. Cross smiled when he turned his attention to her and gave her a single nod. “I’m taking a page from Krude’s book on this one and watching a few love stories unfold.”
“A few?”
Cross turned her attention to me and smirked. “A few,” she repeated with a nod.
Chapter fifteen
Amethyst
“You killed two of the Franklins?” Pyrite asked, and I nodded. “And they know it was you?”
“I left Charlie alive so that he could tell them it was me,” I answered with a chuckle. “You know his little ass likes to gossip.”
“He does, which means he’s probably running his mouth to his family and a few others,” Pyrite replied with a shrug. He patted me on the shoulder and smiled brightly. “You ready for this?”
I turned back to the house to see Yale talking to Cross through the window and nodded in acknowledgment. Hell, yeah, I was ready for everything that was going to come my way, the most important thing being her. I’d played games too fucking long to think about wasting any more time.
“I’ve been ready,” I replied with a nod.
“I mean, I ain’t mad at you for it, but why not go after the Kilmores first?” Pyrite questioned. “You’re allowing them to see you coming by not going after them.”
“I need some answers that they can’t give me if they’re dead,” I answered as I continued to watch Yale. She looked good as fuck in the black fitted halter dress. Her hair was wild and curly around her face, and her makeup was natural. If I hadn’t known her and didn’t know that she was wearing makeup, I would’ve thought she just wore lipstick. Her million gold bracelets were on her wrists, and, of course, her necklace, which I had bought her, was around her neck.
“How are you getting the answers?” Pyrite asked.
“Psalms is taking care of that for me,” I answered. Everyone stopped moving and stared at me. “What?”
“Psalms is taking care of it for you?” Pyrite repeated what I said as if he didn’t understand what I’d said. “What does that mean?”
“I called Cross-”
“First fucking mistake,” interjected and shook his head. “My wife is always going to support your shit, and you know it.”
“I know,” I chuckled and shrugged. Nine grilled me, and all I could do was smile at him. “I called her because I knew that she was the only person who could get Psalms out of her garden. I need her.”
“She’s itching to go to the warehouse and see what Psalms is up to,” Nine said, shaking his head. “It all makes sense now why she keeps saying she needs to make a few runs and check on her.”
“That’s what you get for marrying a murderer,” I laughed, and Nine grunted in response. He knew what kind of woman he married, and he knew that trying to sit Cross down wasn’t going to last long. She enjoyed killing too much to ever stay down for long. The only thing that was saving Nine some stress was thatshe was pregnant and would never do anything to jeopardize her unborn daughter’s life.
“I know,” he said as he ran his hand over his face. “But now that you gave her to Psalms, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go see her in a minute,” I answered, and he nodded. “I’m just waiting on someone.”
“Who?” questioned.
I lifted my glass to my mouth but didn’t take a drink as I looked around the backyard. There were a lot of people here to celebrate my birthday. I didn’t want a big party or anything like that: just my people, some good food, drinks, and music. The entire night, my attention had been on Yale, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She thought she was slick and was avoiding me, but I let her have her time to herself. Me stepping over the line this morning was going to fuck with her head, I knew that, which is why I was good with just watching for now.
“Nigga, who the fuck are you waiting on?” Citrine asked with annoyance heavy in his tone.
“Uri,” I answered. As if he knew we were talking about him, Uri stepped outside and looked around. When he noticed me, he nodded, and I returned the nod. I downed my drink, handed the glass to Citrine, and left my brother and friend standing there. When I was close enough to Uri, I gave him a dap, and we left the backyard.
We’d already spoken earlier today, so there was no reason to have a conversation. I grabbed my keys from the table by the front door, then left the house. Consonance and Mama were talking, but stopped when they saw me.
“Where are you going?” Mama asked.
