Juelz glanced over at me as the paramedics moved him toward the ambulance.
“Make sure you tell your girl I jumped in front of that bullet like Martin in Bad Boys. I want her to know that.”
I rolled my eyes as they loaded him in.
I turned back to Duke and pressed my face into his chest as the coroner’s team came out next with Henderson’s body bagged on a gurney, moving past us without ceremony.
I watched until they had him in the van. Then I exhaled.
“I hope this is finally over,” I said.
Duke wrapped both arms around me from behind, his chin coming to rest on top of my head.
“It’s over, love. I got you.”
I’d heard him say those words before. He had said them in moments of comfort and moments of heat and moments somewhere in between. But standing on the sidewalk in front of the place that had become my home, with the chaos settling around us and the night finally going quiet, those three words felt like something different entirely.
They felt like the ending of one story and the very first breath of another.
And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid of what came next.
2 MONTHS LATER…
It had beensome time since everything with Solana's old manager. I knew something was off about that man from the beginning. I just hated that she had to find out the way she did.
In the aftermath of it all, I had convinced Solana to start therapy. She turned right around and suggested I do the same. And honestly, she wasn't wrong. I needed it too.
I was still working through everything with my parents. It wasn't an overnight fix, and I never expected it to be. There were layers to what their absence had left behind that I was only just beginning to sort through. But the few sessions I had gone to had already shifted something in me, and I could feel the difference.
I had even started talking to Colby a little more. I still didn't call him dad. I wasn't there yet and might never be. But I hadenough in me now to acknowledge that he was part of how I got here, and that was worth something.
Heiress was getting herself together too. She had found a place of her own. At least, that was how she told it. I had paid a good portion of the rent quietly, working it out with the owner so the number stayed in her range. I didn't need her to know all of that. I just needed her to have a foundation.
My grandparents and I had been keeping our distance since the last time I came by and said what needed to be said. But Solana was finally ready to meet them, so we decided to host a barbecue at my house. I didn't throw events here often, but I was turning over a new leaf.
Solana wanted to invite Jessa, Miss Lottie, and Aubree. I invited my grandparents, Colby and Heiress, Juelz, Money, Rico, and Benny. Benny sent his apologies since Willow wasn't feeling well.
We also extended an invite to Vinny and his mother Marissa. Over the past couple of months we had helped her get back on her feet. She was working at the bar now, and Vinny had taken to coming by the shop after school to help Solana out. Juelz offered to pick them up since he had gone ahead and bought himself a car while his shoulder was still healing and his bike was off limits.
I stood in my closet trying to figure out what to put on, still damp from the shower with my towel around my waist. Then I smelled her.
Her scent reached me before she did. Solana wrapped her arms around me from behind and pressed a kiss against my back. I glanced over my shoulder and down at her.
"How are you feeling, Sweets?"
Same question I had asked her every single day since that night.
"I'm fine, sir."
I raised a brow and smirked.
"You need me to do something about that, Ms. Wright?" I reached behind me and gripped her ass.
She yelped and tried to step back out of reach.
"Duke, your grandparents are downstairs."
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her back into my chest, pressing kisses down the length of her neck.
