Page 7 of Addicted

Stone’s eyes shifted to me, and I felt the temperature in the room drop about ten degrees.

“I said shut the fuck up. Both of you. I don’t wanna hear shit unless I ask you a question.”

“Nigga, fuck you,” I said before I could stop myself. “You can’t just—”

“Indie, chill,” Ish begged, his voice desperate. “Please just listen.”

Stone smiled, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. It was the kind of smile a predator gives right before it strikes.

“You know who I am?” he asked, walking closer to me.

“No, and I don’t give a fuck either.”

The smile widened. “I’m Stone. And I don’t know who the fuck you think you talking to, but I ain’t the one. You in my city, on my corner, pulling guns on my people. That’s a problem.”

“Your people grabbed my brother.That’sthe problem.”

“Yo’ brother,” Stone said, turning his attention to Ish, “was tryna work my corner. Selling shit I ain’t give him. Shit I ain’t authorize. That’s a violation. A serious one.”

“He’s sixteen,” I said. “He’s a kid who made a stupid mistake.”

“He old enough to know better.” Stone walked over to Ish, looking down at him. “Ain’t that right, Ishmael?”

Ish’s eyes went even wider. “You—you know my name?”

“I know everything that happen in my city. I know you tried to get put on a few weeks ago, too. You remember that?”

Ish nodded slowly.

“And what they told you?”

“That... that I was too young. That I should stay in school.”

“Exactly. But you just don’t give a fuck, right?” Stone’s voice was calm, almost conversational, which somehow made it more terrifying. “So, tell me why I shouldn’t kill you and your sister right now, Ishmael?”

Ish didn’t answer.

“Talk nigga!” Stone said fiercely, going from zero to one hundred in an instant. “Tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in both y’all heads.”

“No!” I shouted, struggling against the ropes. “No, you can’t—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Stone turned on me, his voice like a whip crack. “I ain’t talking to yo’ ass right now.”

“I don’t give a fuck! You ain’t killing my brother!”

Stone walked over to me, moving so fast I didn’t have time to react. He grabbed my jaw roughly in one large hand, forcing me to look up at him.

“You got a real problem with following directions, don’t you? Must run in the family.”

I tried to jerk my head away, but his grip was too strong. So instead, I did the only thing I could think of. I stared right back at him, and that’s when I saw it.

In his eyes, underneath all that cold calculation and danger, there was something else. Something I recognized immediately because I’d seen it a thousandtimes before.

Lust.

This nigga wanted to fuck me.

The realization hit me like a lightning bolt, and my mind immediately shifted gears. I’d been operating on pure emotion. Anger, fear, protectiveness. But now I saw an opening. A way to maybe, possibly, get us out of this alive.