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With the gun pressed into my stomach, we stood there. My palms were sweaty, and my heart was threatening to march right out of my chest. For thirty whole minutes, I stood there while he held me at gunpoint. I was almost relieved when the timer beeped.

Zane passed me the pregnancy test, and suddenly, the power went out.

Eighteen

Liam

I had been calling Divine ever since she dropped that cryptic ass message. How in the world was she going to make things right? Better yet, why the hell wasn’t she answering the phone? She kept asking me not to do anything crazy, but now, I felt like she was doing exactly that.

I knew I should have brought her home with me. My hands were literally shaking as I picked my keys up from the counter and stormed out of my house. I couldn’t just sit on my hands and hope for the best. Something wasn’t right.

“What are you up to, baby?” I mumbled under my breath as I hopped in my truck.

I had no idea where I was going, but I would start with her house and go from there. The locator app showed that her cars were at home. Maybe she was just sleep. I heard pregnancy made you sleepy.

The twenty-minute drive seemed to take forever. I didn’t even bother turning on my radio as I sped toward Divine’s house. I just needed to see her pretty face and make sure she wasOK. This pregnancy was driving me crazy, and my baby wasn’t even showing yet. I was probably going to have to keep her in a bubble for the next few months just to maintain my sanity.

Relief washed over me when I pulled up to Divine’s and saw both of her cars there. Parking next to the truck, I hopped out and marched over to the door. I put my phone to my ear and called her while I knocked on the door. She still wasn’t answering. Then it occurred to me that her night detail wasn’t there either.

Oneal usually worked while I was off. I wasn’t sure if things had changed since her falling out with Syre, but I didn’t want to speculate. I needed to know. Ending the call, I entered the code and let myself in.

“Divine!” I called as I walked in.

Erie silence met my call. There was no one here. Still, I went to her bedroom just to make sure. I remembered her saying that she had to go to an event with Whitmore, but it should have been over long ago. Now, I was even more worried about what the hell she planned to do to fix our situation. Instead of trying to call her for the tenth time, I called Psalm.

“Yeah,” he answered true to fashion.

“Where is she, man?”

“Who?”

“Psalm, come on. Just tell me where she is so I don’t have to rip the city apart piece by piece looking for her. Where was this event she was going to?”

“She’s not there anymore.”

“Well, where is she? I’m at her house. Both of her cars are here, but she’s not.”

“Look, man, I know what you’re thinking, but I can’t do that. She’s out with Whitmore. You know the deal.”

“Fuck the deal. I’m not about to be on no crazy shit. I just need to make sure she’s OK. She sent me this cryptic assmessage talking about she’s going to make things right tonight. Now, I can’t get her on the phone.”

“We’re working on it together. She’s good. I’m keeping an eye on her location.”

“With all due respect, let me make sure of that on my own,” I requested.

Psalm ended the call without saying another word. I knew better than to try him again, so I called Syre.

“Where is she, man?” I said as soon as he answered the phone.

“She’s good. What’s up?”

“Just tell me where she is, Syre. Something ain’t right. I can feel it. She sent me a message, but she hasn’t answered any of my texts or calls ever since. I need to check on her.”

“Psalm has a tracker on her. She’s trying to stay in place until he can disable Whitmore’s system. Maybe she can’t talk right now.”

“I’m going to verify that in person. Where is she, Syre? Where was the event?”

“I can’t let you do anything crazy, my guy.”