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I smiled to myself. “Got yo' ass now, beautiful.”

I checked the time.

7:54.

Good timing.

I figured I’d get to Lakelyn sooner than I expected.

Most of my men had already gone home for the night. It was Halloween, some of them had kids, families, women waiting on them, and I didn’t have shit going on that required everybody to stand around my property looking tough. I had told them to handle whatever needed handling and enjoy their night.

Two of my men had stayed behind. That was more than enough.

Or so I thought.

I was reaching for my wallet when the first gunshot exploded from downstairs.

My hand stopped.

A second shot followed almost immediately, then several more in rapid succession.

Every trace of nervousness I had felt about that proposal vanished.

“What the fuck?”

I didn’t panic. I didn’t freeze long enough to wonder whether I had really heard what the fuck I knew I had heard.

I grabbed the gun lying on the bed and moved toward the bedroom door.

Another shot cracked through the lower level.

Now I was pissed.

Some mothafucka had come onto my property shooting?

That was either the bravest shit I had ever heard or the dumbest.

I didn’t run blindly into the hallway. I checked my weapon as I moved, chambered a round, and listened. The house had gone eerily quiet beneath me after that burst of gunfire, which told me whatever had happened had happened fast… too fucking fast.

I reached the upstairs landing and caught movement through the tall windows near the foyer. There was a vehicle in my driveway that I hadn’t been expecting, and when I looked toward the front entrance, one of my men was sprawled near the steps.

He wasn’t moving.

My jaw clenched. “What the hell?”

I started down the staircase with my gun raised.

By the time I reached the foyer, the front doors were opening… and the mothafucka walking through them wasn’t anybody I had invited to my house.

It was Chalis.

Two niggas came in behind him. One had his gun raised, while the other stayed close to the entrance, taking in my foyer like his ass had never seen a house that big before.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked, looking directly at Chalis.

He smiled. “What’s up, Caspian?”

I didn’t return the smile. “Nigga, don’t what’s up, me.”