Page 98 of When a Soul Cries

“Fuck you, Kai.”

I grinned.

“Love you too.”

I ended the call and leaned back against the seat.

For years, Rome had made sure we never had to become those men again.

If somebody thought they were about to take what my brother had damn near killed himself building, though?

They were about to learn something about me.

Rome believed in doing business the right way.

Me?

I believed in getting shit done.

By all means necessary.

THREE WEEKS LATER……..

Three weeks.

That was all it had taken for me to lose damn near everything.

My apartment was gone. My car was gone. My job was gone. Almost everything Halo and I owned was still sitting behind a locked apartment door I couldn’t get through.

And Zari didn’t know.

That part sat heavy on my chest every time I thought about it.

She’d had to leave Crestmont unexpectedly because of a family situation before the eviction officially went through. She knew I was behind on rent. She knew about the notice.

She didn’t know they’d actually put us out.

I hadn’t told her.

I hadn’t told her that I’d stood outside that apartment with Halo on my hip while somebody else’s key worked in a door that used to be mine.

I hadn’t told her I couldn’t get our things out.

Halo’s clothes were still inside. Her little shoes. Her toys. The blanket she dragged around the apartment even though it was almost as big as she was. The framed picture of her from when she was just a few months old that sat beside my bed.

My clothes were still in there too.

Pictures.

Shoes.

Everything I’d worked to collect after coming to Crestmont with one suitcase and thirty-seven dollars.

Gone.

Not gone because somebody stole it.

Gone because it was sitting right there and I couldn’t touch it.