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I realized I said too much for his ass. “In passing conversations, Mens.”

“She Moss’s cousin, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t go fucking with that girl if you not ready for what comes with her,” he answered his vibrating phone, ‘cause he hated to hear his phone ring. “Wonder, I’m on my way to you now… uh huh… why? He needed a new car, the fuck?”

“You bought the baby a car?” I shook my head, exiting out the elevator and toward our trucks.

Jeffie and Duke exited from the other elevator, and all of them fell in line with Menace, as he made sure he held the door opened for Jeffie, making sure she got into the truck first. Even with them both being in different relationships and never looking at each other in that way, Jeffie was his soulmate.

Menace couldn’t do life without her, and it was clear that she couldn’t do it without him.

She didn’t have a relationship with her own mother because of Menace, and I was still trying to figure out what was the reason for her cutting her mother off.

I could almost bet it was the same reason Angie ended up leaving.

He nodded at me before he got in, and his truck pulled away. I felt proud because the Caselli family now owned a basketball team, and my baby was co-owner of that shit.

“Why in the hell are we here, Landon?” Zoya questioned, as she followed behind me. We bypassed dozens of barking dogs, some laying on their cots and others trying to jump up on the gate to get some love, or bite you.

Either way, it was a shit ton of them, and I was becoming overstimulated with all this damn barking. However, I was on a mission, and I was looking for one particular dog.

“Navy always wanted a dog, and there’s a particular dog that she wanted.”

Zoya sighed. “I would shoot a nigga if he bought me a dog… that’s like giving her a baby. Responsibilities that she has to deal with, not you.”

“She pregnant right now, too,” I nonchalantly revealed, and Zoya held onto one of the dog gates, then backed up once she realized there was an actual dog standing there.

He was calm and chill, as he looked up at her. It was like he was admiring her, as he stood there. “Landon… shit. Let me lean here… sit down,” she searched for his name. “Bando…sit.”

“Who the fuck named that dog Bando?”

When he sat down, Zoya clapped her hands. “Good boy.” Slowly, she stuck her hand near the gate and put his face in her hand. “Oh, he’s so damn big, but cute. You wanna come live with me? Protect Mommy?”

“Zoya, you getting a damn dog?”

She shrugged. “I live alone with no man or kids, so it would be nice to have a little companion. I can hire a dog walker when I’m working and board him when I travel.” She was trying to convince herself, and from what I knew about my sister, she wasn’t impulsive.

“He been here for a minute too… just like Mink-Mink.” I looked at the girl Pitbull that rested on the cot in the back of the cage.

“Pregnant, Landon.” It was like she remembered what we were talking about before she got caught up in Bando.

“She’s not keeping the baby.”

“Thank God… she would have hit a lick if she kept that baby. You need to be more careful when you taking down these women, fucking freak.”

“I’m just saying… I’m relaxed and chilled because I like to fuck. You over here tense and shit… don’t wanna know what you do, Zoy, but you might need to get done, too.” I broke out laughing, holding onto the cage because the shit was so funny to me.

“Mind your business. I don’t need any man. The men I’ve chosen in the past are bad enough and a damn lesson for sure.”

“Goon? I got a meeting with him sometime in the next few weeks.”

“Me and Gerald are friends,” her delusional ass convinced herself, because she wasn’t convincing me that she and Goon were friends.

Damn man had made it clear that she was end game for him, and he was gonna love her the way she deserved to be loved. “Keep telling yourself that at night, Zoy.”

“This is the same girl? The one that has you all smiling and in love.” She leaned on the gate, and Bando positioned himself to sit right up against her.

“Yeah… I love her, Zoya.”

She smiled. “And she doesn’t want to keep the baby?”

“Doesn’t want kids.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yeah… made it clear to me and gave me the chance to walk away if I wanted to,” I explained, as I continued to read Mink-Mink’s paperwork.

“And you want to stay? Don, you never really expressed if you wanted kids. Then again, Menace didn’t want kids until it was something that needed to happen.”

“I’m cool with not having kids. I’m young, not trying to be nobody’s father.”

“Hmm?”

“What?”

“Nothing. I just find it very interesting that she is willing to give up a meal ticket. Aborting a billionaire’s baby is very unheard of.”

“Pooh ain’t like the rest… question.”

“Shoot.”

“Think Menace would come with me to get a vasectomy?”

Zoya closed her eyes. “And why are you doing this?”

“She has an appointment to get her tubes tied when she gets the abortion. Not trying to let her go through with that, not when it’s easier for me to prevent us having babies.”

Zoya looked up at me and reached up to rub my face. “Landon, that is the sweetest thing a man could do for a woman. The fact that you care that much for her, not wanting her to go through another procedure, is sweet.”

“I love her, Zoy… I want you to meet her, too. I’m having dinner at my house this weekend, and Menace and Stevie have said they’re going to come. I want you to meet her and her parents… her family is dope, Zoya.”

I couldn’t sing enough praises when it came to Navy and her family. The way they accepted and welcomed me and Bean’s ass was what made me want to introduce her parents to my sisters and brother. We weren’t as close knit as them, but they were my family.

“Can see that love is there. You made her a co-owner of a multi-billion-dollar basketball team. Are you sure about that, Don? I know she hasn’t signed the papers, and I can fix it.”

“It’s her parents, Zoy,” I lowered my voice, thinking about how her mother hugged me whenever she saw me.

How Ro was always so laid back and referred to me as his guy. The shit wasn’t forced or fake because this was how they were. They took care of their people, and it didn’t matter what that person brought to the table.

“Feels nice, huh?”

“Never had that. We never had that before… Other than Skyler, Stevie didn’t come to Menace with family. They’ve made peace with it being just them and their son.”

“Yeah. I love that for you. A family that protects and loves you like we do. I know being the youngest you haven’t always felt the love.”

“Shit is life. None of you asked to be without parents… can’t be the main focus.”

She took hold of my face. “That doesn’t mean we couldn’t have been more present with you. You moved out on your own at nineteen, Don. That’s a baby and you had to figure out life on your own. Menace taught you some things, but everything you’ve had to learn was on your own.”

“Could say the same about you, too.”

She shrugged. “Well, yeah, we all can’t have everything that we want. If it’s meant for me to be in love and have that life, then I’ll wait for God to tell me.”

“Or Allah.”

She smirked. “Stop talking to Gerald.”

“Would you convert for him?” I questioned, curious on where her head was at. She was fighting hard, trying to convince herself that she and Gerald would never be together. Zoya was a woman that self-sabotaged shit when it was going good for her.

She couldn’t fathom that life was being kind to her, and she always had to fuck something up. I loved my sister, but she battled a lot of shit internally that I prayed she eventually spoke about.

“Probably. Gerald is a good man, so I know he would be a good boyfriend or husband. I’ve been big dawg for so long that I’m ready to retire. Have a man lead me… let me be soft. Never experienced that before.”

I could see she was tired, and this was something she desired so much. She wanted a man that would lead without her ever having to say a word. Goon was that nigga, and she just needed to let him in.

“Oh, I see you met Bando… he’s set to be put down next week. He’s such a good dog,” the volunteer at the shelter said, as she kneeled down and rubbed his nose through the cage. “Oh, you jealous one, Mink-Mink.” She reached over and started to pet Mink-Mink.

“What about Mink-Mink?”

She stood up and folded her arms, looking down the long corridor of dog kennels we had passed. “You’re standing in death row… all these dogs are going to be killed next week. I hate they even call it that, but facts are facts.”

“Why are they running around here killing dogs?” Zoya was horrified, as she looked down at Bando.

“Can’t afford to take care of them. We get little donations, and we don’t have the space to feed and keep the dogs.”

I looked down at my phone. “What is needed?”

“Let’s start with a bigger facility and more funding to feed them.” She reached to pet Bando.

“I’m taking Bando with me,” Zoya blurted.

“Really?” the volunteer went to hug her, and Zoya shot her a look that told her to back the hell away. “That’s amazing. There is no adoption fee for either of them… let me go tell the front.”

“Where’s the owner?”

“Jordan? She’s in her office… probably pleading with any or everybody to help us out. She literally sold her car to afford the next two month’s rent,” the volunteer continued to tell us her boss’s business.

I nodded down the hall. “Her office is this way?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Get my baby up out this cage while I’m talking to her,” I told her, and she was all too excited to give Mink-Mink her freedom.

I walked down the hallway to the small office at the end of the hall. On the other side of the door, I could hear someone venting and what I assumed was a hand slapping a desk. I knocked on the door and waited for them to answer.