I stepped forward, slow and deliberate. My voice calm but laced in death.
“Dre…” I called. “Come out and play.”
Silence. I knew he heard me. I knew his pulse jumped. He wasn't built for this. He’d been playing chess with the devil thinking it was checkers.
“Get the fuck outta my mother’s house!” he screamed. He sounded like a little boy trying to scare off a shadow with a flashlight.
“Come get me out,” I said, cocking my head, eyes locked on his mama like she was already gone.
“If you touch her?—”
She screamed before he could finish his thought. I pulled the 9mm and with no hesitation.
BANG.
One shot and one soul gone forever. She slumped over on the couch, body now still. I stepped forward, picked up the phone from her lap, and brought it to my ear. Dre was still on the line, breathing heavy. He heard it all.
“You started the Untouchable War,” I growled. “But I’m the motherfuckin’ reaper, Dre. And I’m gonna finish it.”
He didn’t speak.
I smiled. “Meet me in hell, my nigga… because I will find you.”
“Seth, you a?—”
Click.
I hung up. When I turned around, Ma was standing in the doorway, eyes wide, hands trembling. She didn’t speak, but her face said it all. I wasn’t her baby boy anymore. I was a ghost in his skin. She’d seen the devil in me. And she knew he wasn’t going nowhere.
She looked like her heart cracked into pieces she couldn’t glue back together. But she had to know the houses, the diamonds, the vacations, the protection, it all came with this side of me too. You don’t get to sip champagne and not taste the blood it took to pour it.
I walked up to her, kissed her cheek, and whispered: “This ain’t on you. It’s on me. I love you.”
Then I looked over my shoulder. “Southside, get my mama home safe.”
I didn’t wait for his answer. I just walked out. My mind was focus on one thing and one thing only… the next time I saw Dre… I wasn’t bringing a gun. I was bringing hell.
Chapter
Ten
STORMI
“God damn, Shiloh. You smell like a grown ass man.”
I could hear Jo talking to Shiloh from down the hall as she changed his pamper. Her voice was half disgusted, half amused, but all love. She had been heaven sent through this whole journey. I don’t even know how I would’ve made it through without her every long night, every breakdown, every pain that came with healing. Her being here was everything I didn’t know I needed until I had it.
“I’m bathing him,” Jo called out again. “These wipes not gon’ cut it. This boy shit like he eats ribs and wash it down with beer on the weekend.”
I laughed out loud because I knew she was so serious and I could picture her face when she said it.
“Okay, I’m finishing up dinner!” I yelled back from the kitchen, wiping my hands on a towel.
Serena had been out most of the day, and I wanted to surprise her with dinner. She’d been holding it down so heavy lately with breakfast, lunch, dinner, diaper duty, everything. It was time Idid something to show her we appreciated her. Still loved her through the chaos.
“Mommy Stormi! I finished my homework!”
S3 came running into the kitchen, hair wild, one shoe on, one sock covered foot sliding across the tile, no shirt, just some basketball shorts two sizes too big. Lord, he looked so much like Seth it was scary sometimes. The way he moved, talked, even the way he made messes was all his father.
