“Is this Yale Forrester?” A soft voice asked.
“It is,” I cautiously replied. ‘How can I help you?”
“He told you he wasn’t playing with you anymore. Next time it won’t be your business,” they replied, then the phone went dead. I quickly swiped my screen until I found my security app and logged in. A masked person stood in the middle of the showroom. They slowly turned and faced the camera, gave me a wave, then I watched in horror as they smashed everything inside my building.
I jumped up from the bed. “No, no, no, no.” I quickly put on my shoes, grabbed my purse, and a set of keys from the dresser. I’d driven more in the last week than I have in the previous ten years. Quickly, I rushed downstairs and to the garage. I needed to get to my shop. The shit with Grant and his children wasn’t even on my mind anymore. Let the Kilmores figure it out.
Chapter twenty-nine
Amethyst
“Her building got hit,” Citrine said, and I nodded. The sound of the wind blowing hard as hell outside had my full attention. A storm was coming. Citrine reached across his desk and hit my foot. “Nigga, did you hear me? Her fucking building was hit.”
“It was supposed to be,” I said without looking at him. The sky behind him was getting dark as hell, and to the left, I could see the clouds moving closer. “I already spoke to Xayne about it. He was supposed to have one of his little niggas do it.”
“It wasn’t them,” Citrine replied. I moved my head in his direction so fast I felt like I was going to be sick, but I didn’t care. “I thought that would get your attention.”
“What do you mean it wasn’t them?” I stood, ready to move. This shit sounded like a good idea, but now other niggas were making moves. That wasn’t going to cut it. “Who the fuck was it?”
“I don’t know,” he answered and leaned back in his seat. “I got the call last night around eight.”
“Last night?” I questioned him, and he nodded. Last night she texted me three times, and each time I almost broke down and replied, but I didn’t. I stayed strong because I needed her to stay strong and keep that anger on display. I didn’t want her to find out about his kids just yet, but that shit was going to come out eventually. “And nobody thought to call and let me know?”
“She asked us not to,” Citrine replied, and I reared back, surprised as fuck.
“What?” I let out a humorless laugh. “She said not to tell me? As in those words came out of her mouth?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Said it more than once, shit even yelled it when I was going to go against it and pulled my phone out. Her short ass slapped that shit out of my hand and stomped it.” He pointed to his smashed phone on the desk. His phone was fucked up. “Mama calmed her down and took her back to y’all’s spot. I think she tried to stay the night, but Yale nixed that idea.”
“Why didn’t you call me after she left?”
“My phone is broken,” he said slowly. “I’m waiting on a new one to be delivered now.”
“Other people had a phone!” I yelled. Citrine leaned back in his seat and smirked. “Ain’t shit funny, nigga!”
“You think so?” he swayed. “Because from my side, it is. You walked out on that girl, pulling some Nine ‘I’m protecting her’ bullshit instead of telling her what the fuck was going on and moving together. Now shit is happening, and you don’t know shit about it until it’s too late.”
“She could’ve been hurt!”
“She was at home,” he said, shaking his head, “Called us on her way to the shop. We were there before she pulled up. The place was fucked up. Whoever it was smashed everything they could. One thing I can say is Yale isn’t stupid when it comes to business.Nothing of value was out. Which probably pissed them off more than they already were. Her safe was still locked up.”
“That shit is built to last,” I said as I started to pace. “Wasn’t nobody getting that thing open or out of there.”
“Yeah, she said the same thing,” he replied.
I continued to pace, thinking of who the fuck it was that went after her shop. She’d been there for years, niggas knew not to even think about touching her shit. Whoever this was didn’t give a fuck about their life.
“She texted me yesterday, said she needed to talk to me, that Quincy was basically about to dump Grant’s kids in her lap.”
“What did you say to that?”
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.
Citrine kissed his teeth, but I didn’t stop moving. The sound of him tapping a pen against his desk was the only sound in the room.
“She should’ve called me,” I said more to myself than to him. I nodded, ran my hands through my hair, then licked my lips. “Why didn’t she call me?”
“Probably because your ass is MIA right now,” he replied, and I cut my eyes to him. Citrine threw his hands up in surrender, then smirked. “Don’t be mad at me because it’s the truth, baby bro. You didn’t respond to her text, but you expected her to call you and tell you that her shop got broken into? Nigga, you’re slow as fuck if you thought that was going to happen.”
