“Good! You should've left me the fuck alone. And I’m not paying for this shit either. Have your mama do it.”
He headed for the front door. Noble was so incensed that he couldn’t think a complete thought.
“Noble! I wanted to apologize!” Bernard coughed, holding his neck. “That’s all I wanted with this meeting. Your mama is hurting. She wants her son back.”
“At thirty-three?” Noble questioned. “Lyra, you wanna know why I can’t respect you? ‘Cause you don't have no backbone. You avoid the hard conversations then try to act like everything is all good. We ain't been good since I was sixteen. Since you chose this pussy over me!”
“I didn’t choose him over you!” she shouted. “He paid for what he did, Noble. You act like he didn’t suffer any consequences.”
“It wasn’t enough. Do you know how that man tried to ruin my life? And you just took him back like he didn’t do shit!”
Noble could’ve killed his mother in this moment. She was such a letdown. He didn’t think she’d grasped how her actions had affected the way he loved her. Once upon a time, Lyra had been the light of his life. Noble was a daddy’s boy when his father was alive but he adored his mother in ways that was so sacred to him. He was her first child so their celestial bond had been solidified.
When his father suddenly passed away, Lyra changed. She became anxious, feeling this need to have a man around. She stumbled across Bernard and allowed him to swoon her into a relationship that Noble felt was too fast. She’d made decisions that fucked up his entire way of thinking. Noble was more than disappointed with Lyra; she had let him down.
“I’m done with this shit! Don't fucking call me and that includes you, Kaliste.”
He headed toward the front, snatching the door open.
“Noble, I was only trying to—”
Her words were silenced by the slamming of the door. Stalking to the truck, Noble got inside and inhaled a few deep breaths. Willing himself to calm down had been a bust since he wanted to go back and end Bernard’s life.
As soon as he cranked the engine, his phone rang.
“What the fuck,” he mumbled, answering right away.
Everyone in TLM knew he didn’t take calls. Text only. So when the jit, he sent to look after Irish called him, he was confused.
“Yeah?”
“Aye gang, some shit went down,” Zavier informed him.
Immediately, Noble’s chest tightened. “Where you at?”
“I’m ‘bout to send my location.”
Knowing not to go into detail over the phone, Noble hung up and checked the text for the location. When he saw it, he put it in his GPS system and drove away. It was a fifteen-minute ride when he arrived at a vacant parking lot. Zavier got out the car and approached Noble’s window.
“Man, bruh, some shit went down at the park.”
“Is my lady good?” Noble asked straightaway.
“I mean”—he shook his head, planting his hands on top of his head—“yeah and no.”
“Fuck you mean?” Noble barked, getting out the car. “I told you to look after her, nigga.”
“I did, gang,” he professed. “But somebody came out the cut and murked Jovanis’ ass, then they started shooting at Irish. That shit happened so fast that I was confused. But I hopped out and started bussin’ at the nigga. He got away. I was able to save Irish but fuck, I couldn’t do nothing for Van. That nigga gone.”
Noble was astonished and confused while processing the update. He didn’t have to think very hard on who had murdered Jovanis. It was clear to him that Tuck had made a call but what he couldn’t understand was why he would play with him by shooting at Irish.
“So, they popped Jovanis then started shooting at her?” he asked once more to be sure.
Zavier nodded. “Yeah, they was chasing her down and shit. She hid under a bench but soon as I started shooting, they got the fuck on. I think I hit him but I ain't sure.”
The fire that started at Kaliste’s home had spread into an inferno. Irish witnessing her best friend’s murder was devastating but turning the gun on her was a death wish.
“Where she at?”
