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I hung up and dialed his number again. Nothing. I dialed it again. Nothing. Then I went to texting his ass.

Me: Babe

Me: Where tf you at?

Me: Rah don’t make me leave out of this house

Me: Rah quit playing

Even if Rah was busy, I never went unanswered. He would send a thumbs up on text if he wasn’t able to text me right back. My stomach was starting to knot up. He had never gotten home this late. I was starting to get irritated at this point. Going to his closet, I threw on one of his hoodies over my silk pajama set. I slipped on a pair of slides and grabbed my gun. He hated for me to go out late without him or security. I didn’t grab anything else but my keys and hopped in my car. I punched the gate code and waited as the gate slowly opened. Our driveway was long. He built it like this to give us time to set up all our security measures before any enemy had the time to make it to our front door.

I made the left turn because that led to the main road that was almost five miles away. Had I turned right, I would’ve been heading to my in-law’s estate, which was another three miles away from our house. Headlights were the first thing I saw when I got a few feet up the road. I smiled when I realized it was Rah’s truck.

“He’s so fucking stubborn,” I said as I pulled over.

I hit my horn and flashed my lights, but I didn’t get anything back. His driver side door was open so maybe his stupid ass had got out to piss. No, that would be dumb as fuck. My stomach was uneasy. I hopped out my car with my gun and slowly walked towards his truck. As I got closer, something was telling me to prepare myself. Then I saw the blood running and what appeared to be one of Rah’s custom guns he had made.

“Rah!” I screamed, seeing his head slumped.

I dropped to my knees and touched his face.

“Rah, please! Get the fuck up.”

He was cold, and his body was riddled with bullets. His eyes were still open.

“Baby, don’t do this. Please, I’m begging you.”

I looked for a pulse, knowing damn well he was gone. All I wanted was this to be a fucking dream. I started pressing on his wounds as if that would help. It wasn’t until I took a minute to look at his blood on my hands. Reality started hitting me hard. I ran back to my car and grabbed my phone. In this life, there were rules that we went by. I dialed one number.

“Pops,” I said.

“Kyenna?”

I started hyperventilating so I couldn’t talk.

“Come,” I said, breaking down. “Please come.”

“Where you at?”

“Down the road from our house.”

Within minutes, three SUVs pulled up as I sat with my head resting on my husband’s shoulder. My father-in-law walked right up to Rah and fell to his knees. I leaned my head back and rested on the truck as Pops leaned in and placed his forehead on Rah’s. A few minutes later, Shameek, Rah’s brother, pulled up with his mama and sister. Shameek stood there frozen. It was like he was trying to take it all in. His sister instantly broke down, which only made me start back crying.

“Call Doc,” Shameek said. “Lock the muthafuckin’ road down and nobody touch shit else.”

My mother-in-law and Jaharee grabbed me.

“No! I’m not leaving,” I told them. “I’m staying with my husband.”

She pulled me in close.

“Baby…you got to let him go.”

That shit broke me. I didn’t want to ever hear that. I collapsed in her arms. Rah and I had been together for years. His family was like my family. My daddy loved him. Hell, his sister Jaharee and I became best friends. Because I had married Rah, I was disliked by a lot of women. Shameek, who was the middle child, was also very protective of me. I don’t even want to mention Pops, who the city knew as Rod. He was once one of the biggest drug lords in the city. He had since passed it down to Shameek. My mother-in-law, Ms. Lorraine, had seen it all while being with Rod. Nothing was new to her under the sun.

I sat on the floor in my master bathroom just looking at my husband’s blood on my hands. We had just texted and he said he was on his way. If I hadn’t rushed him home, maybe he would still be alive. Then I thought about his security. Why the fuck weren’t they with him? I hid my hands inside of his big hoodie and leaned my head back against the wall. It had been hours now and I didn’t have it in me to clean myself up. I needed this last moment to come back to reality. His mama had come in and ran me a bath and I still hadn’t gotten in. The water was probably freezing by now.

“Kyenna, you got to get cleaned up. It’s been hours, and I need you to be presentable. I know how hard this is because I just lost my fuckin’ son. I’m hurting too, but I’m here for you right now because I know the love y’all had for each other. Can you please just take a shower and you can slip on whatever you want? The longer you sit with this blood on you, the longer it’s going to take you to grieve.”