Page 27

Brice

T he room was dark, aside from the TV playing Baby Boy.

The sound was background noise to the voice in my head.

We’d decided to watch it when we came home before Tayla fell asleep on my lap.

As we watched, we both reminisced on our time in LA.

Aside from when my parents were alive, we couldn’t think of any recent times that would make us want to return.

Tayla turned over in my lap and was now facing me.

I looked down at her beautiful face, which was illuminated by the TV, running my finger down the front of her lip.

It caused her nose and mouth to twitch and a smile to form on my face.

Tayla was happy. The smiles, joy, and laughter that she carried throughout the night were something that I wanted to provide to her until we both died.

To secure her future happiness, I needed to rid her life of everything that took that beautiful smile off her face and keep her from getting herself killed in the process.

That was Nina and all her baggage. Everyone included in that baggage would all suffer the same fate.

Tonight, that was Sincere. Quietly, as Steph and I sat on his mother’s living room floor, we hashed out a plan that started with a simple snatch and grab of Sin.

I glanced at the time and saw that it was eleven thirty.

We had planned to meet up by twelve. If I wanted to be on time, I needed to get moving.

I gently slid Tayla from my lap and stood, covering her with the blanket from the back of the couch.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, I climbed the stairs and headed straight to my closet, where I put on black sweats, a black t-shirt, and a black hoodie.

Lastly, I stooped down and grabbed my black Timberlands, holding them in my hands until I could leave the house.

I didn’t want to do anything to wake Tayla because there would be questions I wasn’t willing to answer.

Then she would ask to be involved, and I didn’t want that either.

I needed her ass safe and sound right there on the couch where I left her.

I quietly slipped past the couch and out the front door, throwing my shoes on once I was on the other side.

I trekked across the yard to the carriage garage and hopped in her EV because it was soundless.

Then I headed downtown to the Haven Computer Sciences Executive garage to meet Rock.

There was no further irritation tonight as I cruised through every green light.

I was leveling out on my body’s natural dopamine.

Like every other time I had to put on this mask, my adrenaline began to spike in anticipation.

It was the high I gained from knowing I would soon be fucking some shit up.

As I drove, my mind returned to the countless nights I’d spent learning everything about the game with Devin.

I thought my father had taught me everything, but he had only scratched the surface compared to what I knew now.

However, one fact remained the same: cutting the grass reveals the snakes that were already there.

Pulling up to HCS, I used my fob to enter the garage and traveled to the executive floor. As I rounded the last corner, reaching the top, I saw that Rock was already there waiting. I parked beside his truck and got out to dap him up.

“You left the house in that loud ass truck?”

“Yeah. I told Jourdan I was about to handle some shit and she just let me leave no questions asked. Now that you mention the shit I still don’t trust the fact that those two are into some shit they aren’t telling us about.”

“You’re probably right, but Tay was asleep when I left,” he nodded.

We both tucked our suspicion away as we walked to the Altima and retrieved the key from the fender.

I popped the trunk and lifted the spare tire latch to reveal three guns.

There were two twin forty-caliber Smith we didn’t want to alert anyone in this quiet neighborhood to our presence.

Rock stood phone in hand, following the precautionary measures of erasing our ride here and scrambling all the surrounding cameras.

He nodded once we were to move. Masks down, we slipped into the shadows running between the houses until we arrived at the house.

As before, the familiar car was in the driveway.

We could see a light creeping through the front window that looked like it was from a TV, so we decided to go in through the back.

I took my lock pick as quietly as possible, jimmying the door open.

Rock and I walked through with our guns aimed and ready to shoot.

The house was dark, except for the light coming from the living room.

Rock turned down the hall towards the back rooms to check for anyone else before returning with an all clear.

Together, we stepped into the living room.

We found Sin sprawled wide onto the couch with his head thrown back and eyes closed.

Audible moans escaped his mouth along with the indistinguishable slurps and gags of him being pleasured.

“You think we should let him finish,” I said as I stepped behind Sin cocked my gun and placed the tip directly to his head. The sound and feeling of the cold steel caused his eyes to pop open. His hands immediately searched for his gun. I was sure he had stashed it in the cushions.

“Now, why would you want to go and do that? You’d be dead before your finger could even find the trigger.

” Rock walked around, retrieved it, and tucked it into his pants.

The woman kneeling on the floor between his legs fell back, immediately throwing her hands up in fear.

I looked at her face, and my eyes widened in recognition.

Charise Newton? The car out front is hers.

I was momentarily saddened by the fact that she’d found herself caught up in some shit she had nothing to do with.

“Ice,” Sin said, bringing me out of my revelation. I took the butt of my gun and cracked him across the temple.

“Shut the fuck up, you had to know I would eventually come for you so please don’t beg I hate that shit,” I said as he groaned in pain.

“Shhh! You hear that?” Rock whispered and slowly took out his other gun, aiming it at the kitchen entrance. In walked two women dressed the same as us and also masked up.

“You think your trigger finger is faster than mine?” She spoke. Rock immediately dropped his weapon. For the second time tonight, I stood in disbelief. A fly could’ve flown into my mouth had this mask not covered it.

“What in the entire fuck!” I belted out.

“I thought you said you didn’t fold,” Lynx said, as if she hadn’t heard my exclamation .

“I didn’t, I told you that. Well, at least not about this. I was folded, though, and enjoyed every minute of it. So, it must have been you then.” Lioness said.

“Girl, I enjoyed my folding the same as you, but I didn’t say shit!”

“What in the hell are they doing here then?” Lynx asked.

“You two know we can hear you, right? Explain, now, and do it quickly,” I barked out.

“We came here for her ass,” she said. I didn’t need further explanation to piece together the fact that Charise was the reason Tay left the hospital so abruptly.

I would get all the details from her later.

We needed to move. I quickly reached into my band and got the ketamine and stuck it in Sin’s neck.

I heard a whiz, and Charise’s body immediately dropped to the floor.

“What the hell, Lynx, did you just shoot her?”

“Relax, it was only a ketamine tranquilizer dart. You two are so primitive. Step into the new age. Besides, I wouldn’t have shot her. I know you two would like to get all this information first,” she said nonchalantly, and Lioness giggled behind her.

“I know you ain’t laughing, miss stick a chick in the neck,” Rock said. Lioness snarled from what I could see of her exposed eyes.

“Fuck you Rock, I wasn’t about to run up in Porter’s and draw a weapon on the poor girl. I couldn’t fit a gun under that tight ass skirt I was wearing anyhow. You would’ve seen it,” she said.

“Will you two stop and help us get these motherfuckers out of here. You and I will talk,” I turned and said to Lynx .

“I can’t believe this shit! If this is what family missions will look like, count me the hell out,” I said, grunting and complaining under my breath. They thought it was somehow funny and knelt over, laughing.

“Rock, do you have some catnip, a damn ball of yarn anything to wrangle these damn cats,” I said as they continued to laugh this time louder than the last.

“I swear I’m in the same boat as you. Your father didn’t leave a damn handbook? He trained these feral ass kittens,” Rock said. When he said that, they both threw their hands up like claws, hissed, and then kneeled over laughing again. I threw my hands up in exasperation.

Somebody send help!