She leaned back against the wall and shook her head. “I’m just pissed off for you, that’s all. That nigga dead wrong if he really handling shit like that after everything y’all been through.”
A strange feeling crept over me at the way she said it.
After everything we’ve been through?
I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, but a horn sounded outside, cutting through the quiet. Then again. Then a third time. It was clear that whoever was outside was trying to get someone’s attention.
A minute later, the horn sounded again, and every muscle in my body tensed. Without thinking, I whipped my gun from my waist and crossed the room, heading straight for the window.
“Koko?” Giani asked behind me. “What’s going on?”
I ignored her and cracked the blinds only wide enough to glimpse outside without being seen.
A man leaned against a car parked across the street, shrouded in shadow. His face remained obscured, but the way he stood made it clear he wasn’t just passing through. He was there for a reason. I just didn’t know why.
His gaze swept up the building, studying each window with a predatory calm until it landed on mine. A bone-deep chill slithered up my spine, and the weight of his stare pressed down on my shoulder. The hairs on my neck prickled one by one, each a warning that something was terribly wrong.
The man pushed off the car and stepped into the streetlight. The moment I saw his eyes, I recognized him. He was the same man who had threatened me the day the memory of how Booda and I met clawed its way back into my mind. I wasn’t prepared to confront him then, but this time, I wasn’t unarmed.
And I was tired of living in fear.
“He found me,” I whispered, fingers tightening around my weapon.
“What?” Giani asked, and I didn’t answer her.
I turned and headed straight for the door instead.
“Koko, wait—”
By the time Giani called my name again, I was already outside, adrenaline surging through me. I barreled down the stairs, the cold metal of the gun gripped tightly in my hand, my mindracing as I zeroed in on the man across the street. He leaned against a car, an ominous silhouette in the dim light.
The moment my feet hit the pavement, I noticed him sliding into the driver’s seat and slamming the door shut with a finality that sent a shiver down my spine.
I took off running, each stride fueled by fear and determination. Behind me, I heard Giani’s voice rise in panic.
“Koko, wait!” She screamed again, the urgency in her tone swallowed by the pounding in my chest.
The man’s engine roared to life the second I stepped off the curb. At first, I thought he was trying to get away. Then the headlights flickered on, swinging in my direction instead of toward the street. The tires bit into the asphalt, and the grille filled my entire field of vision as two thousand pounds of steel came straight for me.
My mouth went dry, and I tried to cut to the side, but my body was carrying me forward too fast.
“Koko!” Giani screamed my name as she slammed into me from the side.
My feet left the ground, and my shoulder hit the pavement hard as the car flew past where I’d been standing. I pushed through the pain and rolled onto my side, bringing the gun up at the same time.
I fired.
Aiming low, I tracked the car’s movement, squeezing the trigger again in a desperate bid to hit the tires before he cleared the block. The deafening crack of my gunfire echoed in the night, but even louder was Giani’s voice, laced with urgency as she cursed and raised her weapon, joining the fray as the vehicle tore down the street.
The vehicle swerved, then sped around the corner, its taillights retreating as I pushed myself up off the pavement, my shoulder burning from the impact.
“Fuck!” I screamed, staring at the corner where the car disappeared.
That bastard had just tried to kill me, and he would have had it not been for Giani, who was breathing hard beside me, her gun still raised while anger flashed across her face.
I hadn’t even known she was carrying. That detail lodged itself in my brain as another piece of information about my friend that I didn’t remember.
“We need to get inside. Now,” Giani said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the building.
