Behind me, Chase muttered, amused, “Listen to him, whole R&B monologue,” and Jacory coughed like he was trying not to laugh.
I continued. “I can’t let you keep walking this Earth with malice in your chest toward my girl,” I said, voice leveled, eyes cold like steel left outside in winter. “You mistook her softness for permission and her kindness for weakness, so you got bold.”
Tears ran down his chubby cheeks, but they didn’t move me an inch. I’d seen tears in my baby’s eyes, real fear, and he kept closing in like she was prey, trying to use his size and pressure to make her shrink.
“And let me be clear. I’m not the kind of man who waits on the system tomaybedo right by her. I document, I file, I escalate. I build a case so tight it leaves no room forinterpretation. Justice doesn’t get to arrive late just because you’re comfortable moving unchecked. I’m treating her peace like a protected interest, and I’m moving like counsel who refuses to let the court postpone what’s due.”
Chase handed me a weapon, and I didn’t even realize what it was until I looked down at my hand at the syringe. I took it and injected it into his neck. He twitched for a while before he foamed at the mouth like a rabid dog being put down.
“What was that?”
“He’ll look like he had an allergic reaction to something he ate at a private party and then died from a heart attack. Help me get this big nigga down,” Jacory replied.
Chase unhooked the chains, and Henderson damn near toppled onto Jacory, and I had to stifle my laughter at how Jacory jumped back. I could only imagine the stories I heard of him chasing dudes in New Orleans behind his wife when they were younger.
“My bad, bro.” Chase said it with that smirk of his, and I lost it. The next thing I knew, all of us were laughing. One of their people pulled up, and they loaded Hungry Hippo Henderson into the back of a van like unfinished business.
Chase made a quick call. “It’s done,” he said. “Give it two hours, then do the wellness check.” Whoever he spoke to, I didn’t ask.
Afterward, Jacory and I changed and burned our clothes. Chase packed up his hazmat suit, and we cleared out.
On the way out, Chase clapped my shoulder. “Let it roll off your back, Free Willy. You don’t know anything if she asks. Just love her and protect her. You got her, and we got you.”
Then he tried to pull us into some dramatic group-breath moment like they did onMartinand we just laughed at him again.
I drove home quietly and steadily, satisfied with one thing: my baby’s peace wasn’t up for debate anymore. If anyone ever tried to disturb it again, I already knew what I’d do—calm, strategic, and without hesitation.
I got home to a house gone quiet. The girls’ rooms were empty, and Solè wasn’t in ours either. I turned on the shower and let the water do what it did, which was clean me down to the spirit. I felt no guilt about removing a man who found pleasure in frightening a woman who’d give him the shirt off her back.
Solè caught me fresh out the steam, towel sitting low on my hips, heat still clinging to my skin like it wasn’t ready to release me.
“Well, isn’t this a beautiful sight,” Solè said from the bathroom doorway.
I turned and took her in slowly. That sundress hugged her like it had intentions, and just her voice had my body waking up.
“Come here, baby.”
She shook her head playfully. “I don’t know about this.”
I dropped my tone, low and steady. “Come here.”
That did it. She walked over like gravity claimed her, and I caught her at the nape, gentle but sure, pulling her into a kiss that made the room go quiet. I drew her close, eyes roaming her like reverence.
I led her toward my bed. “Lay down,” I murmured.
She laughed, then stepped in with that shine in her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “You lie back, sexy.”
The night shifted.
I grinned. “Alright then, Pretty Little Dipper. I like where this is headed.”
I leaned back, and she straddled me like she belonged there because she did. I started to praise her, and she pressed a finger to my lips, shushing me like I was one of her students.
“Shhh,” she whispered, eyes bold. “This my show. I’m the captain now.”
I laughed, hands settling at her hips. “Do your thing, baby.”
She moved with intention, kisses trailing my chest, her touch slow and sure, like she wanted me present for every second. My mind went quiet; my body listened.
