Page 12

11

B ully

Thursday

“She ain’t even acknowledging the phone. It must be in the house, or she don’t care about feeling it vibrate,” Merc said.

I didn’t bother responding. It didn’t matter to me whether she answered his call to warn her or not. I’d specifically told her to wait for me to go back to her house, but she insisted on going by herself. We were supposed to be meeting with Mr. Rogers to get access to his camera footage. I wanted to see if we could spot the license plate for the car Jo was in.

Since Asylum had installed cameras at her house and spa, I was able to pull up the live feed when I saw her friendly ass neighbor walk over. Now, Asylum was trying to convince me not to crash out, and Merc was trying to call Innvy and have her get him away. My speed accelerated as I turned onto the main street of her neighborhood.

“I’m just saying, Innvy. Things in your life and the neighborhood were peaceful until he came around. Is that really the kind of man you want to be with?” Moore asked.

“I appreciate you letting us see the camera footage, but my personal life isn’t any of your business, Moore,” she said in a calm tone. I could tell she was trying not to anger him for whatever reason.

“You’re right, and I’m not trying to disrespect what you have going on. I just want you to know there are better options.”

Innvy smiled and rubbed her palms together with a shake of her head as I swerved into the cove.

“And what better option is that, Moore? You?”

He may have thought she was entertaining the idea, but I knew my girl. The flaring nostrils, straight spine, syrupy smile—all were indications that her anger was brewing.

“I mean… yeah.” Moore took her hands into his and kissed them.

“Fuck,” Asylum groaned, taking off his seat belt.

“Shit,” Merc muttered, tossing his phone into the cupholder.

“I can treat you and Innah so much better if you’ll let me.”

“Let me make this clear—” Innvy started, yanking her hands from his.

But she didn’t have to make shit clear. I was about to be her glass cleaner in this bitch. Not even bothering to cut the car off, I put it in park and grabbed my Revolver. I loved an old school Revolver for unexpected issues instead of my Glock because I didn’t have to worry about shell casings. Merc grabbed the Glock from the glove compartment as I hopped out of the car. I appreciated the backup, but it wouldn’t be needed.

“B-bae,” Innvy whispered with wide eyes, stepping in front of Moore and trying to push him into the house for safety.

“Move,” I commanded, tugging her toward Asylum with one hand and using the other to slam the butt of the revolver into Moore’s mouth. “Didn’t. I. Tell. You. To. Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. My. Wife?” I gritted, enunciating each word with a hit to his face and mouth. His teeth were flying every which way, but I didn’t give a fuck.

“Bully, stop!” Innvy yelled, clawing at Asylum’s hands as she tried to get out of his grasp.

“He sleep,” Merc announced as I cocked the gun and put it on his temple. “That’s enough, brother.” His hand wrapped around my wrist, lowering it slowly as I stared at an unconscious Moore.

As he removed the gun from my grasp, I turned to face Innvy. “Didn’t I tell you to wait for me?”

“I didn’t want to hold him up! He’s been working a lot of night shifts.”

Chuckling, I ran my fingers down the corners of my mouth as Asylum released her. “So you care more about him than what I told you to do?”

Her eyes rolled as she released a hard breath. “I was just trying to be considerate since he was helping us out with the footage, Gabriel. Please don’t turn this into something it’s not.”

“You wanna be with this nigga?” I confirmed, pointing at his still body.

“No!” she yelled, pushing me. “I don’t even know why in the fuck I want to be with you ! Look at the shit you do.”

“I’m not going to let you make me feel bad about handling a man who chooses to disrespect me by going after what’s mine. I warned him.”

“I don’t care about that!” Her tears finally started to fall. “If he decides to press charges on you, you’re going to leave us again. You promised me you wouldn’t abandon us again! If you go to jail over this…” When she started to shake and hyperventilate, the weight of the moment finally hit me. She wasn’t mad at me for beating his ass—she didn’t want me to risk my freedom over it.

That instantly made me feel like shit.

I didn’t care about being sat down… at all.

I did, however, care about being away from my girls.

Pulling her into my arms, I closed my eyes as she cried. Merc told me he’d handle Moore, which I appreciated, while Asylum went through his phone to see if he could access the footage. I held Innvy until her sobs turned into sniffles. When they did, I pulled her face from my chest and cupped her cheeks.

“Baby, I am so sorry I scared you,” I told her, remorse dripping from my tone. “When I saw him touching you and trying to convince you to leave me, I saw red. I wasn’t thinking about catching a charge because you know that don’t put no fear in me. I also wasn’t thinking about how that would trigger you. That wasn’t my intention.”

As I wiped the tears from her cheeks, I kissed the center of her forehead.

“I told you I would never do anything to intentionally leave you again, and I meant that,” I continued before kissing her nose, lips, and cheeks. “I won’t go to jail behind this, I promise you. I’m so sorry for scaring you.”

Sniffling, she nodded and wrapped her arms around me tightly.

“I just got you back, Bully. I’m not going to lose you again.”

For some reason, her declaration made me smile. I held her close and kissed her neck. “You won’t, baby. I’m not going anywhere .”

I held her for a little while longer and made sure she was straight before going to get several stacks of cash out of my trunk. It was enough to take care of his mouth plus some extra to make sure he didn’t snitch. If he did, my connections within the Memphis Police Department would keep me from being charged.

Asylum was able to pull up the camera footage from the other night, so after I wrote the license plate number down, I gave it to Merc so his team could track it. Ideally, I wanted to take care of Jo before Innvy left for Dallas tomorrow so she could be at peace and not have to worry about any threats at home.

* * *

2:00 AM

I sat in the darkness, waiting for Jo. His brother had already been taken care of in Nashville by the team Rocco had left behind. Apparently, Jo was from Memphis and was in Nashville handling business with his brother. I doubted my intuition when we saw him out and gave grace, when I should have handled him right then and there. This wasn’t anything new to me, and I knew I should have handled him before he had the chance to follow or touch me. Being with Innvy softened me and knocked me off my square. I didn’t want to handle that kind of business around her, but I would never make that mistake again.

The moment he stepped into his apartment and cut the light on, he jumped at the sight of me. Had I not been irritated from waiting three hours for him to arrive it would have amused me.

“How did you get in here?” he asked, looking around. Almost as if he expected me not to be alone.

“Is that what you want to be your last words?”

Jo chuckled as he took a step back. I had a feeling he was going to try and make a run for it, so I stood from the recliner I’d been waiting in. I’d already searched the apartment and moved all of his weapons… including the shotgun that was under his entertainment center.

“Are you really going to kill me because of what I did to your car?”

“I’m going to kill you because you went where my family feels safe and took that away from them,” I clarified, stepping in his direction.

Everything happened so fast. Two steps toward him, and he reached for his gun. Thankfully, I was faster. After sending three to his chest and two to his head, I stood over him so he wouldn’t be alone as his spirit left his body. Once it was gone, I wiped the chair and door down then went home.