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The room went quiet, but I didn’t give him the reaction for which he was waiting.

I looked down at the weapon, then slowly brought my eyes back to his face. “Well, look at you.”

His hand tightened around the grip. “I told you to stop fucking playing with me!”

I slowly shook my head. “Nah, my nigga. I told you to get the fuck out my house.”

He stepped closer. “Keep talking.”

I smiled. “Or what?”

He raised the gun slightly. “You think I won’t?”

I stared directly into his eyes, and right then, I knew this wasn’t some bullshit argument that had gotten out of hand. Chalis had come to my house planning to kill me. My men were already dead, his friends had covered the entrances, and he had brought a gun he never intended to put down.

All over Lakelyn.

All because that woman had moved on with her life and his weak ass couldn’t stand knowing she was happier without him.

I could’ve turned around and gone for my gun, but with a scary-ass nigga like Chalis, that would’ve been damn near asking to die. The second I gave him my back, he probably would’ve used the opportunity to shoot me before I ever got my hand on the weapon, then probably told everybody later how he caught me slipping like that made him some kind of killer.

So I stayed right where I was and took my chances on one thing: whether he was really bold enough to kill me while I was standing directly in his face, looking him in the eyes, and daring his ass to do it. If he wanted to prove he was that nigga so damn bad, he was going to have to do it without the luxury of shooting me with my back turned.

I shook my head. “You a pathetic mothafucka. I just wanted you to know that in case nobody around you ever had the balls to say it to yo’ face. And what’s even sadder, or funnier, hell, I don’t know, is I don’t even think you really want Lakelyn back. Then again, maybe you do, but that ain’t the biggest problem.”

I took a slow step closer, keeping my eyes locked on his.

“What you really want is control. You want Lakelyn to still want you because yo’ ego can’t handle the fact that she walked away, got over your ass, and found somebody who treats her better. You don’t miss her, nigga; you miss having access to her. You miss thinking you could fuck up, come back when you felt like it, and she’d still be sitting there waiting on you. And now you standing in my house with a gun because she ain’t yours to control no more. That’s the part eating your ass alive, and you’re too much of a pussy-ass nigga to admit you lost something you never had the right to own in the first place.”

Chalis’s jaw tightened. “You think you so fucking tough.”

I stepped closer until the barrel pressed harder against my chest. “You got a gun pointed at my chest, and you still talking instead of doing whatever the fuck you came here to do.”

He pressed the gun closer, but I still didn’t move.

“Go ahead, mothafucka. Do it. Just know, though, if you shoot me, yo’ ass better kill me.” I stared directly into his eyes. “You hear me? Because if I walk away from this shit, I’m coming for yo’ ass.” I pointed toward the men behind him. “All y’all asses.”

One of them shifted.

I cut my eyes toward the nigga who shifted behind him.

“Nah, don’t look away now. You wanted to come over here with him, so stand on that shit. Don’t get nervous because you finally realizing the nigga you followed over here might’ve just signed all y’all death certificates.”

I let my hand drop and brought my attention back to Chalis, who was still standing there with that gun trained on me like he needed another thirty minutes to convince himself he was really about that life.

“So if this is really what you came here to do, stop all that breathing hard and putting on a show for your boys. Pull the trigger but make damn sure I don’t get back up. ’Cause if I do, I’m coming for you, and I won’t miss or take thirty minutes trying to explain why I came. I won’t need a speech, an audience, or extra niggas standing behind me to make me feel tough. I’m pulling up to handle business, and by the time you realize I found you, it’ll already be too fucking late.”

I stepped a little closer, keeping my eyes locked on his.

“And I don’t give a fuck where you run, what city you hide in, or how many mothafuckas you put between me and you. You’re gonna spend the rest of your life looking over your fucking shoulder, because every time you hear footsteps behind you, every time a car sits outside your house too long, every time your phone rings from a number you don’t recognize, you’re gonna wonder if that’s me coming to finish this shit. So if you’re gonna do it, Chalis, quit acting like a nigga who needs permission and do it.”

Chalis’s hand started shaking.

I smiled. “But you want to know what is the funniest part about all this shit?” I leaned closer. “Even if you kill me, Lakelyn still ain’t gon’ want yo’ ass.”

Chalis snapped, and the gun went off.

A sharp pain ripped through my chest and knocked me backward. I caught myself against the console table before dropping my eyes toward my shirt, where blood was already spreading across the fabric.