I stepped away from the Kilmore brothers and leaned against the wall. They shared a look before all of them got up and left me in the living room by myself. The next three minutes felt like an eternity.
“I’m outside,” he announced, and I pushed off the wall and made my way to the back door. The second I saw Amethyst, those same tears from earlier came back tenfold. I pulled the door open and fell into his arms. “Aye, I got you.”
“I thought something happened to you,” I said into his chest. His arms went around my waist, and he kissed the top of my head. “I fucked up, Am.”
“Nah, man, that was me,” he said as he pulled me back to look down at me. “That shit won’t happen again.” He pulled me back to him and kissed my forehead. “That was your last drive. It ain’t happening again.”
The sound of cars approaching made Amethyst pull away from me and pushed me behind him. I stepped to the side to see Joshua Franklin getting out of a car. He looked around, as if unimpressed with his surroundings, before his eyes landed on us. He barely gave Amethyst a second glance before his eyes went to me. He licked his plump lips, smirked, then turned to say something to the man beside him.
The door opened behind us, and I watched Quincy and his brother step out of the house. My eyes met Quincy’s, and I gave him a single nod; he smiled before turning to Grant, who stepped back into the house and returned with three duffel bags. I couldn’t let anything happen to Amethyst.
“You made the right decision,” he said, low enough for only me to hear as he passed me. “Say goodbye to that nigga and be back here in the morning.”
“The fuck is going on?” Amethyst asked as he watched Quincy and Joshua talk.
“Business,” I answered softly. Amethyst turned to look at me and lifted his brow in question. “It was already set up before all this happened.” I was lying, but it didn’t matter. Amethyst didn’t need to know what was going on as long as he was safe. I’d deal with the Kilmores for the rest of my life. I already had love for Grant; being stuck in a marriage to him wouldn’t be too bad.
Chapter three
Amethyst
“Say that shit again,” I said, mugging Quincy Kilmore. The fact that I was discussing this with Quincy, not Grant, had me side-eyeing all this shit. From my understanding, there was no reason for Quincy even to be having this conversation. I didn’t do business with him. “What the fuck do you mean the debt is paid?” I shook my head, not believing the shit he was saying right now.
“Exactly what was said,” Quincy shrugged as he sat on the couch. “I paid the slips off and am letting you walk away.”
“Why?” I questioned him. I knew niggas like him; they didn’t do shit without a reason. If he was letting us walk away, it was for a reason, and it wasn’t on good faith either. He wanted something or would cash in on it later.
“Because that race was for my entertainment,” he answered with a laugh, then crossed his legs and sat back. “Not that I owe you an explanation, especially since you didn’t win, but I’dheard about it a while back and thought, why the fuck not.” He shrugged. “Lil bro had y’all stealing them simple ass cars, and I wanted to bring in some real money. Don’t get me wrong, what y’all do is nice, but I wanted better.” He dropped his leg and sat forward. “This race could’ve been that, but it wasn’t, so I’m letting the loss go.” He smiled and shook his head. “Look, Amethyst, I appreciate all the work you’ve done for us. You’ve made us a lot of money, and so has Yale. Take this as an act of kindness. Your debt is cleared.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth and continued to stare him down. This shit sounded too good to be true, which meant it was. Instead of going back and forth with him, I nodded and turned to walk away. If he wanted to play this game, then we could, but I needed to get Yale out of here first. If shit went left, the last thing I needed was for her to get caught up in the crossfire.
I got back to my car, threw it in drive, and drove away. Yale sat in the passenger seat with her eyes locked on whatever she could see outside. She’d been moving funny since I got to the Kilmores’, and I needed to get to the bottom of why.
“What did he say?” Yale asked.
“Nothing.” I shook my head but didn’t take my eyes off the road. “Which means I need to talk to my people. Niggas like them just don’t let shit go.”
“Let it go, Amethyst,” she sighed.
“I can't do that,” I denied. “This shit is on me. I didn’t see the car until it was too late.”
“I should’ve seen it,” she replied. “I was the driver, that’s on me.”
“Nah,” I said, shaking my head. “If I-”
“Let it go, Amethyst,” she cut me off.
“Yale-”
“I’m asking you to let it go,” she interjected. “I’m telling you to let it go because it’s not worth the fight you are going to have. If Quincy said it’s taken care of, then let it be.”
I quickly looked over at Yale to see her attention on the road in front of her. She had a cut above her right eye that was swollen and looked like it hurt. It stopped bleeding, but I knew in the morning it was going to look a million times worse.
I wanted to argue with her and let her know that this shit was far from over, but there was no reason to waste my breath. Yale needed this peace; I would let her have it, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t get to the bottom of it.
“What did you hit your head on?” I asked. When she didn’t answer me, I tapped her leg with my right hand. “Sunshine, what happened to your head?”
“I hit it on the steering wheel when I crashed,” she answered, and I nodded. “I’m good, though. It stopped bleeding a while ago.”
