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“You are now.”

His ass shut the door in my fucking face. This nigga was hardheaded as fuck, and he didn’t listen.

He walked around to the driver’s side and closed the door. After buckling his seat belt, he pulled out of the parking lot.

As he drove, I finally got a good look at his ass, and that only irritated me more because the motherfucker had no business being this damn fine.

He was tall as hell and stood somewhere around six-five, with a solid build that explained why all my fighting hadn’t done shit. His skin was light caramel-brown, probably from him being mixed, and tattoos covered both of his arms before disappearing under his shirt.

His hair was dark, thick, and neatly styled, but it was his eyes that caught me. They were a deep teal color that didn’t look real at first, especially against his complexion. A neatly trimmed beard covered his jaw, making his already handsome ass face look a little rougher.

And the crazy thing was, I knew this nigga knew he was fine. I could tell by the calm ass way he looked at me while I was damn near ready to knock his head off.

I bit down on my bottom lip, shook my head, and turned my attention toward the window.

“You see something you like, lil’ shorty?”

My head whipped back around so fast that a smirk immediately touched his lips.

“Nope,” I lied.

The way his eyes slid over me told me he knew my ass was lying, but thankfully, he didn’t call me out on it.

“So, tell me something.” He kept one hand on the wheel as he glanced over at me. “What were you doing at my father’s underground auction?”

“Because of my dad.” I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window.

I didn’t want to talk about the shit my father had pulled. Just thinking about it had anger bubbling in my chest all over again.

“What the fuck did your pops have to do with it?”

“I don’t even want to talk about it.” I shook my head.

My throat tightened, and I swallowed hard. I was trying my best not to cry, but not because I was sad. I was angry as fuck.

Angry at my father. Angry at his father. Angry that my entire life had changed in one night because of some fucked up deal I didn’t have shit to do with.

“I understand.” He nodded before going quiet for a few seconds. “Let me ask you one more thing.”

“What?”

“Why you so dressed up?”

“Because today is my birthday, and it was supposed to be a special day.”

His head turned toward me for a second. “Damn. Happy birthday, ma.”

“Thank you,” I sighed.

He nodded, and neither one of us said anything else. With everything that had happened tonight finally catching up with me, I rested my head against the seat and eventually drifted off to sleep.

༺ ♛ ༻

I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep when I felt a tap on my thigh. My eyes slowly opened, and I rubbed them before sitting up and looking around.

“We here,” he said.

I turned toward the window. We had pulled up in front of a big ass house, but it wasn’t one of those huge mansions that looked like you needed a damn map just to get around. It was still big enough to let me know this nigga had money, though.