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Brice Washington

T he bourbon in my hand had gotten watered down by the ice cubes that floated inside.

I’d held it so long that the glass’s perspiration ran down my fingertips.

I wasn’t a heavy drinker. The last time I’d gotten drunk was four months ago.

I woke up with a mean ass hangover and tried to push all the things I’d done that night to the back of my mind.

Even though I would never forget, it was seared into my memory.

I guess that was my fault for mixing henny with tequila.

The buzzing of my phone brought me out of my daze.

I looked down at my phone, watching the familiar number appear on the screen until it vanished.

It was the hospital, and it would go unanswered.

Then there was the ding letting me know that a voicemail had been left.

I ignored that as well. It was the third one.

I wasn’t on shift or call and had used my vacation time.

The reason for their call would never be known as far as I was concerned.

I set the phone beside me, then turned up the glass, swallowing the remainder of the liquor.

As I leaned forward to set the glass down, my locs fell into my face.

I flipped them back and sighed before sprawling back onto the couch.

It had been silent recently as far as the streets were concerned.

I had ensured that the men I’d chosen to lead had it under control.

But I didn’t trust it. When it came to the streets, niggas were bound to step out of line given the right opportunity.

I would wait patiently but not ignorantly for anyone bold enough to cross the line.

Finding out what had happened to my father was an eye-opener.

I didn’t want to believe someone close to him could orchestrate a hit.

I needed a break from it all, and work had been kicking my ass.

Because of that, Tayla and I had been at my home in the Canyons for the past week.

It was quiet here, too fucking quiet, But I welcomed the reset.

This house was what they called ultra-modern.

It even had the tall ass glass windows that outfitted the rear of the home.

They took the place of the wall in the living room where we were.

As I sat, I stared into the darkness, seeing the moonlight reflect off the pool.

It was beautiful, but it felt more like the calm before the storm.

I was fighting for something to take my mind somewhere else before my attention was drawn to Tayla.

She walked into the room and began pacing back and forth.

Aside from my sister, Jourdan, Tayla was my best friend.

She knew almost everything there was to know about me.

Except that I was one of the two who ran the drug empire that supplied the US.

I couldn’t trust her with that specific aspect of my life.

Most of the time, I felt I couldn’t trust anyone; I wasn’t sure I would ever.

Looking over your shoulder was a part of the game, now more than ever, and I didn’t want to do that with her.

Tayla had been acting weird all day today.

She wasn’t telling me what was wrong, and I was afraid to ask.

It seemed like life just kept throwing me one fucked up situation after the next.

First my mother, then my father, this shit with my sister all last year, and now something was up with her.

I couldn’t handle anything else, so I tried not to harp on the fact that something was off.

She’d called my sister all afternoon, but Jourdan hadn’t answered.

That wasn’t unusual, especially if she was on what she called a mission.

But ever since Steph had helped her solve my father’s murder, I thought she stopped all that extra shit she was doing.

Besides that, Steph wasn’t having that. He’d looked out when I asked him to keep his eyes on her. I think they are even dating now.

Now that she’d found someone, she thought I needed to do the same.

For the past year, and even more so after Steph, I had to hear how Jourdan thought Tayla and I were messing around.

It couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I didn’t know if she was projecting it or if it’d grown from her delusions.

Tayla stood before me, wearing a graphic tee and bike shorts.

The shirt was so oversized that I wasn’t sure if the shorts I thought she wore underneath were present.

She tossed her long, luscious locs over her shoulder.

I loved them on her; it was why I’d grown mine.

I continued my scan down her tawny, thick brown thighs to her toes, which were adorned with purple polish, and feet, which were currently wearing a path in the plush rug.

This was the third time I’d watched her pace before I grabbed her wrist, pulling her down on the couch beside me.

“Tay, Baby, you need to relax. I can help you with that.” I spoke in a tone that I’d never used with her. Tayla had always been beautiful, but I couldn’t look at her in the way that I just had.

Why in the hell did I say that? Maybe it didn’t come out how I meant it. Damn, did I mean it like that? Shit!

“I’m sure she’ll call you back,” I said quickly, firing off my next thought. I rubbed my hand up and down her back to comfort her, scorching my fingertips.

Fucking alcohol!

“Not right now, Brice,” she said as she jerked away from me, standing defensively. It was enough to cool my touch.

What in the fuck is going on?

I sat on the edge of the couch, perched my elbows on my knees, before deciding to step in. I took out my phone and called my sister. It rang only once before going to voicemail.

I know she didn’t just send my shit to …

I was dialing her number back before I could even finish my thought.

I hated it when she did that. She wanted me to pop up.

Because that was what always happened when she went too long without answering my calls.

My sister was all I had left, whom I could trust regarding blood.

And if something was wrong, I needed to be the first to know.

I didn’t give a damn if she had Stephon .

“Tay, tell me what’s wrong,” I pleaded again.

“Brice, you and JoJo are going to…”

Before she could finish the rest of her statement, I heard the keypad beep on my door.

I knew who it was before she even stepped in.

Jourdan was the only person who had access to my house, and she always knew where I was.

She stepped in with Stephon, only a step or two behind her.

However, the person who walked through the door wasn’t JoJo but The Lioness.

I knew by her demeanor and her all-black cargo and long-sleeve t-shirt.

Steph stood behind her, wearing the same.

“JoJo, what in the hell is going on?” I asked.

“Ask this lying bitch,” Jourdan said with venom in her tone. I knew this was serious. Jourdan and Tayla never fought, and calling a woman out of her name in that respect was something she didn’t do, not even as The Lioness.

“Tay,” I said, waiting for an answer. Someone needed to answer me quickly before I went the hell off. I could feel my anger rising rapidly. If my sister had a problem, then so did I.

“Tayla, tell my brother how you, your mother, and father, Julius Miller, had my father killed,” Jourdan said. My mind was racing.

“What in the fuck is she talking about Tay?” I asked.

There was silence as Tay looked between me, my sister, and Steph.

She wore just as much confusion as I did.

But something in her eyes told me she had a semblance of what was happening.

I’m guessing it was why she’d been desperately trying to get in contact with Jourdan .

“Fucking answer me!” I boomed out into the room.

Tay jumped, but I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t scared.

She was weighing her options in her head.

From where I was standing, she had none.

She was outnumbered, so her chances of getting out of here alive would be slim to none if what Jourdan had just said was true.

Before I could get the answers to the questions that I had, Jourdan had discharged her gun and had fired two quick shots at Tayla.

Tayla ducked, dodging the first shot. She tried to do the same with the second but got clipped in the arm.

Tayla winced in pain but turned and quickly made her way out of the glass window that my sister had just shot through.

Jourdan started behind her before Steph stopped her.

“I think the fuck not. We’re not doing this shit again where you run off into the damn darkness, and I have to save your ass. Yeah, nah, especially not with you carrying my child. Have a damn seat,” he said. Jourdan quickly sat down, and I was utterly shocked for several reasons.

I had no clue what was going on. Jourdan had just told me that Tayla was involved in my father’s death.

The expert marksman she was had missed her shot, which meant she had intentionally missed her target.

She also quickly followed a command with no argument, and I thought I heard Steph say she was pregnant.

Steph walked over to give me a brotherly dap and hug before he returned, lifted Jourdan, and sat her in his lap, placing his hand protectively over her stomach .

“Somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on,” I said as I sat back down on the edge of the couch.

I hadn’t moved except to stand as the whole ordeal went down.

Jourdan took a picture from her cargo pants and brought it to me before quickly sitting back down.

I took note of the small pudge that had formed around her middle.

I studied the picture. It was of Nina Nine and Tayla with a man I’d never seen before. She was an infant in the photo, but I’d seen nearly all of her baby pictures that would confirm it was her, except for this one. They were in a hospital, most likely on the day that she was born.

“Who is this nigga in the picture?” I asked.

“That’s Julius Miller, Tayla’s long-lost father, whom I was just talking about.

He was never lost; he was just hidden. I don’t know the particulars.

He and Nina have something going on between them.

Well, he had something going on because he’s dead.

We handled his ass. He was the one who had our father killed, and Tayla’s street-loving ass mother pulled the trigger at his command.

Oh, and get this, Julius was Stephon’s father, too, by blood anyway.

So Tay is his sister,” she rattled off as if she was reading me an article from a gossip site.

“Whew! What in the fuck,” I slowly belted out in a voice full of confusion that I didn’t recognize.

Tayla had always told me that she never knew her father.

I wondered if that were true now. Also, JoJo said that Tayla was Stephon’s sister.

The fact that he was about to let my sister end her bothered me, and I wanted to know why.

I would drop any motherfucker without a second thought if they even thought of bringing harm to my sister.

Maybe that’s why he stopped her from chasing her.

I sat back on the couch and closed my eyes. When I opened them, they zeroed in on the big-ass diamond ring and wedding band that was sitting on Jourdan’s ring finger. Stephon wore a matching band on his. Fresh ink also sprawled across his neck, bearing Jourdan’s name.

Ahh, there it is. The invisible leash wrapped around both their necks.

“When in the hell were you two going to tell me that you’re married?” I asked, completely bypassing everything with Tayla to focus on something that I could rationalize.

“Awww, shit!” I heard Steph say under his breath when I looked over to him.

“Nigga don’t ask me. She strong-armed my ass down to the courthouse on a Wednesday. Can you believe that shit? A damn Wednesday,” he said dramatically, like he was coerced. Steph’s ass didn’t do a damn thing he didn’t want to do.

“Yeah, ok,” I said, nodding my head up and down.

“Brice, I was going to tell you. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Jourdan, I don’t want to hear that shit. You’re married and pregnant. And you didn’t think that I’d want to be there or hear that I was about to be a damn uncle. ”

“Well, it’s not like it wasn’t your damn idea,” she said with attitude. I couldn’t argue with that, and she looked happy. Even now, she was looking at Steph with stars in her eyes.

“So, you were just going to sit here and let her trigger-happy ass do your blood?” I asked Steph, finally returning to the other question that had been on my mind.

“Man, honestly, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all this shit, even four months later.

I do know with one hundred percent certainty that motherfucker was not my father.

With Tayla, man, I don’t know,” he said, sighing.

I could tell he was stressed and still grappling with accepting it all more than he was letting on, even with his demeanor still appearing calm.

“Fuck” I belted out.

“I might finally take you up on your offer, Sis. I’m tired. I need to reset. I might be on that plane with y’all back to NC.”

“No, your ass isn’t. Jourdan is getting her beautiful ass on that plane, and we’re going to Fiji to celebrate our honeymoon,” Steph said.

“Let me catch y’all on the way back then,” I said.

“Your ass is cheap as hell, Brice. I’ll call you when we’re on the way back.” Jourdan said.

Looks like I’m moving to North Carolina. What in the hell else do I have here?