“You didn’t say anything, but you look like you’re upset,” she said softly, adjusting her weight while she stared at me.
“You just caught me off guard. I mean, have you been sick or feeling like you were pregnant? Those tests aren’t always right.”
“No, I haven’t, but I’m not sick, and food never had that effect on me. I took three tests, Trooper, and they all say the same thing. But don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”
I watched the disappointed look on her face as she marched past me and left the room. I should have gone after her, butI couldn’t move. Something had me stuck and my mind went blank until I heard my front door slam.
“Fuck,” I mumbled before my hand moved down my face.
I was feeling Sophie, no question about that, but I didn’t know shit about being a parent. I never had parents. Parents were supposed to love their children, mold and protect them. I didn’t know shit about any of that except protecting.How do you love when you’ve never been loved? Can I be a parent and love a child if I don’t know what that shit is?
“Fuck!” I yelled.
I needed to find Sophie and talk to her but I just couldn’t right now. I had a lot of shit to process and I couldn’t do that if I was around her.
Chapter 33
Carlos
“Ay, why the fuck you just sitting here? You need to be leaving to deliver all this.” I glanced around my spot and noticed my guys all in limbo. Our van should have been on the road already.
“Los, something ain’t right. That’s why I called you.” Thomas looked at me nervously before his eyes moved around the room.
Thomas was in charge for a reason. He was a lot like me. In fact, when I decided to be totally done, I would hand things over to him. There wasn’t much that fazed him, so if he was nervous, something major had to be up.
“Fuck you mean something ain’t right? The product came in today like it was supposed to, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it did, but it isn’t pure, Los. I swear I checked it over and over again and it ain’t pure. I think they switched up on us.”
I felt the muscles in my jaw tighten before I stepped toward him. He didn’t flinch or break eye contact, but I wasn’t coming for him like that. Thomas was honest and loyal. I trusted him. I stepped around him and made my way to the table where everything waited.
After I inspected the powder on the table, I knew right away something was off. It was thick as hell and clumpy.
“This is what Chavez sent? It came like this?” I asked with my eyes on the table and the product.
Thomas answered, “Yeah, just like that.”
“Package it back up and take it to my car,” I said, then left them there to go to my office.
Chavez had somthing going on and I was in the process of finding a new connect. His family was beefing internally, which meant they dropped the ball with business. If this muthafucker thought he was about to cheat me, he had a bullet coming.
I paid good money for pure shit. I wasn’t about to fuck my name up by putting out a half ass product.
As soon as I made it to my office, Trooper was on my line. I almost didn’t answer because I had business to handle, but this muthafucker was really going through somthing. After Sophie told him she was pregnant, he lost his damn mind. He hadn’t talked to her or dealt with the situation and it was going on two weeks.
Maddie was in my ear about it, but I couldn’t make him accept something if he didn’t want to. From what she said, Sophie was devastated and back and forth about whether she would keep that baby. She was hurt, for good reason.
I knew why Trooper was tripping, but that didn’t make it right. I felt for both of them. Trooper wasn’t the emotional type, which was why the entire situation with Sophie and him surprised me.
Trooper’s head was all fucked up from his past. He grew up alone and raised himself. Until he crossed paths with Story, he never had anyone who gave a fuck about whether he lived or died.
As messed up as it was, Trooper was haunted by parents he’d never laid eyes on. I honestly didn’t think he didn’t want a baby with Sophie, but he was afraid of fucking up that kid’s or Sophie’s life if he couldn’t handle it.
His answer to that situation was to not deal with it at all, but he was miserable in the process. He missed Sophie and was just too stubborn to admit it. He was my people, though, so I had to ride with him for whatever he needed. It didn’t mean I wasn’t in his shit about how he handled it, but at the end of the day, he was a grown ass man who had to make and live with his own choices.
“Ay, we chilling or what?” Troop said as soon as I answered.
“Maybe later. I need to handle somthing first. Chavez is fucking with my money.”
