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My eyes landed on one of my guys lying motionless near the steps, a dark pool of blood spreading across the ground beneath him.

Chalis took sight at what I was looking at, then glanced toward the open door as though the nigga lying there was nothing more than something inconvenient he had stepped over on his way inside.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry about your lil’ security. The other one is laid out front.”

I glared at him.

He shrugged. “They would’ve been in the way. Besides, if they dead, they probably wasn’t no good security anyway.”

One of his boys snickered.

I slowly nodded as my attention shifted to him. “Oh, that’s funny?”

Chalis’s smile weakened.

I swept my eyes over the men standing behind him. “Y’all think that shit funny?”

Nobody answered, which was probably the smartest decision any of them had made since stepping onto my property.

I turned my attention back to Chalis. “You came onto my fucking property, killed two of my men, then walked into my house trying to brag about what you did to my security.”

Chalis folded his arms. “It is what it is.”

I laughed once, but there wasn’t a damn thing funny about it. Then I raised my gun and pointed it directly at his chest. “Well, let me tell you what the fuck it is.”

The two men beside him immediately raised their weapons higher, but I didn’t move, flinch, or even bother looking at their asses.

If either one of them had really wanted to shoot me, they would’ve done it already. All that waving guns around was supposed to scare me, and that shit might’ve worked on somebody who hadn’t spent most of his adult life dealing with men who thought holding a weapon made them dangerous.

“Nigga, you standing in my shit uninvited,” I reminded Chalis, keeping my gun trained on him. “So how about you tell your lil’ posse to put their fucking guns down, and maybe we can have a conversation about why you had the balls to come into my crib like this.”

Chalis studied my gun before meeting my eyes again. “Put yours down first.”

I smiled. “Nigga, you must think I’m one of these lil’ flunkies you run around with who do what the fuck you say when you say it.” He said nothing, so I stepped closer. “You came to me. I ain’t come looking for yo’ ass. So don’t walk into my mothafuckin’ house giving me instructions. You already crossed the line when you touched my men. Don’t keep testing how much patience I got left.”

The men behind him shifted, and I finally cut my eyes toward them.

“And y’all better stop moving around with them mothafuckin’ guns before somebody else end up on the floor tonight. I don’t give a fuck how many of y’all came through that door. Bullets don’t start feeling different because you brought company.”

The one nearest Chalis looked at him.

Chalis hesitated before finally raising his hand. “Lower your weapons.”

They slowly lowered their guns.

I shook my head. “Nah. Put that shit to the side.”

One of them frowned.

I turned my attention directly to him. “Did I fucking stutter?”

He shook his head.

“Then put that mothafucka down somewhere away from you. All that tough shit y’all was doing when you came through the door is over. You already killed two men who weren’t expecting your asses. Don’t confuse an ambush with being dangerous.”

Both men reluctantly placed their weapons on a console table several feet away.

I watched until their hands were clear before looking toward the third one standing near the entrance.