“She should’ve called.”
“She called the people she knew who would show up.”
“I show up!”
“You disappeared on her,” he replied coolly. I opened my mouth to correct him, but Citrine held up his hand to stop me. “You’re trying to protect her, but going about it the wrong way. I don’t care how you feel about me saying it because it’s the truth. You left her wide open. There’s only so much that we can dobecause she isn’t with us all the time. That’s the part of your plan that you didn’t think about. She’s out there alone. Fix it.”
I stopped pacing and stared out the window. He was right. I’d left her open to be touched, which wasn’t smart. I needed to take care of an unknown enemy, and she was left standing in the middle of possible crossfire. Irritation swept through me, and I dropped my head. I knew what the fuck I needed to do, and it was going to kill me, but it was my only choice.
Me: We need to talk.
**
Three hours later, I was standing at the airstrip watching as Tulane walked down the stairs. This shit was getting redundant and pissing me off. Three women followed him, each damn near a replica of the woman in front of her. The only difference was their height and the shades of brown covering their skin. There was no denying their beauty.
“Back again, huh?” Tulane chuckled as he dapped me up. I stepped back, stuffed my hands into my pockets, and nodded. My eyes went to the women behind him, and my heart slammed into my chest. “What’s so important that I needed to drop everything and come here?”
“Yale’s shop was broken into,” I answered. “It wasn’t what we planned.” My gaze went back to him, and I saw the little twitch in his left eye.
“Young blood.” Tulane shook his head, then glanced back at his daughters. “You had an agreement. You protect her, and I played my role. You asked, no, demanded that I step back and let you handle this, but now you’re telling me that her shop was broken into?” He shook his head. “I’m not liking what I’m hearing, which is going to have me start making moves.”
“I’m already on it,” I said, then licked my lips. “Shit is already in motion, and that’s why I called.”
“I’m tired of your motion shit,” Tulane grunted. He looked back at the women behind him and sighed. “These are Yale’s sisters. You’ve already met Spelman.” He pointed to the shortest woman. Spelman Forrester was a big-time sports agent and was on Pyrite’s radar. Spelman had a few players on her team that he wanted to connect with. “That’s Clarke.” I knew of her, too. She was the architect who’d designed her beach house. “Berkeley.” The sister who was with the shits. Berkeley looked like she didn’t give a fuck and would try every nigga that stepped to her wrong.
“Ladies,” I said, then gave them a quick nod. “Now, for the reason I called you.”
“Listen, Young Buck, I’m going to have Mirror start making some moves-”
“Yale is in the car, sleep,” I cut him off. Tulane looked over my shoulder to the black Jag still running, parked behind me. “She’s going to be pissed when she wakes, but that’s to be expected.”
“Why?” Spelman asked. Her dark eyes were locked on the car. “What did you do to her?” I watched as all three of them turned their attention to me. Berkeley’s hand went behind her, and I knew what type of time she was about to be on.
“She’s alright,” I said, trying to ease any fear she or her sisters were having.
“Then why is she going to be upset?” Spelman asked again. This time her voice held a hint of annoyance, and it took everything in me not to smile. The façade of proper control she liked to show was slipping. Out of all Tulane’s daughters, Spelman was the quietest. There was little to no information about her life, except for her career. Which told me she held the biggest secrets. “What did you do?”
“I gave her something to help her sleep,” I answered with a shrug. The sisters exchanged looks, and I turned to Tulane. “Figure out how you are going to explain who you are to her when she wakes up.”
I left them standing where they were and approached my car. This shit was a big ass gamble, one that I didn’t have a choice but to do. I needed her gone, safe, because now I was about to fuck some shit up. Believe it or not, I was sending her away because I wanted her home. I wanted to spend every night lying under her. I wanted to wake up every morning knowing that I get to see her smile. I wanted forever with her, but I needed her fucking safe to do that. I needed a clear head; I needed my attention on finding out who the fuck this boss of Grant’s was so that I could kill him. And I knew I couldn’t do that with her being here. I couldn’t concentrate on making some fucked up decisions with her next to me because my focus was going to be on protecting her. My eyes couldn’t see her, my brain couldn’t think about her safety. Tulane was my only fucking option because nobody knew who she was to him. His secret was my only fucking option.
I stood outside the car, hands on the roof, head resting on my forearm, a small part of me telling myself that this shit wasn’t going to work. That what I was thinking, hoping, fuck it---praying for wasn’t going to work because I wasn’t strong enough for it to work. I was playing a fucked-up ass game because of my pride.
“Stop questioning what the fuck you are doing and get it done,” I said to myself, then nodded. “She deserves a life of happiness and peace. Find out who the fuck this nigga is, kill him and the rest of the fucking Kimores and then go get your damn woman back.”
I opened the passenger-side door and stared down at her. Even asleep, she looked sad, as if she were disappointed in me for not showing up after I texted her that we needed to talk. Her sunrise pendant necklace sparkled against the car’s interior light. Sighing, I bent down, picked her up bridal style, and carried her to Tulane’s plane. We didn’t have shit to discuss.
One hour prior …
I left Citrine’s office and made my way through the city to my house. When I pulled up, I cut the lights and parked in the driveway. I pulled up the security cameras and watched as Yale sat in the middle of the bed, her phone still in her hand, and my text right on the screen. I knew her; she was waiting for me to say something, give her something else to go on, but I didn’t have shit. She wanted to talk; I wanted to protect her.
A slight tap on my window made me look up to see Nine and Krude standing there. I knew they were here since I passed them on my drive up the driveway. I got out, not even caring enough to turn off my car and put my hand out.
“You sure about this?” Nine asked, looking me up and down. “I've been in your shoes before. This shit ain’t gonna go how you plan.”
“What other choice do I have?” I replied as I leaned against my car.
“Tell her the truth, let her make her own decisions,” he replied with a shrug. “Taking this away from her is going to piss her off.”
