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How he didn’t know if he would come out of it and see me or his daughters again.

I held onto that each time I got behind the wheel of my car and held my gun out the window.

Quameer Inferno was my entire world, and living in a world without him wasn’t possible for me.

I saw the love that his parents had, and how Mina, even when she couldn’t remember us, was so down for Papa.

She lit up every time he came into the room, and was so in love with him now that she was healing.

The Inferno men had this aura about them, and it made you want to be inside of their skin. I never wanted Quameer to go. He saved me from myself when not even I could do that for myself.

“I always have to finish what I start, Meer. This is a career that I cherish and although I am stressed, I know when to step back and take some time.” I assured him.

“Minute I feel like this too much, I’m pulling you away from it.”

“Deal… Go bring Peach home…okay?”

He kissed me on the lips and grabbed my ass. “Make sure you feed my son, Suga.”

“It’s a girl,” I teased.

He smirked. “Being surrounded by my girls is the greatest honor. Long as my baby healthy, I could give a fuck about a gender.”

“Love you, Meer Cat.”

He kissed me again. “Love you more, Sug.”

As he opened the door, Brian was about to bust up in my office. Meer’s jaw flinched as he was about to say something, but Brian beat him to it. “Lucia wants you. The negotiator on scene just called for them to bring you to her.”

“Get the fuck outta here.” Meer raised his voice.

“FBI agents are waiting by the elevators with a car to take you on scene.” He continued to tell me, as he was catching his breath.

I stood there and thought about Irie. I couldn’t allow her to sit and possibly lose her life because I decided not to go and see Lucia. “Baby, trust me.”

“Fuck trust, Capri… that bitch has a loaded gun, and she wants you to come to her… fuck that shit.”

I walked over toward him and held his face. “You trust me?”

“Ain’t got sh?—”

“You trust me?” I asked again while searching his eyes. Words never needed to leave his mouth because his eyes told me he trusted me more than he trusted himself.

“You already know the answer to that.”

“Then let me do my job.” I walked over toward my small coat closet and pulled out my blazer, and then my gun. Checking the clip, I put it on a holster that was on my dress pants.

Meer was quiet, more than likely in his head, while Brian was quiet. The sound of my heels sounded throughout the office as I kissed my husband and waltzed out the room with Brian behind me.

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“Suga mama?” I stopped in my tracks and turned around, looking at Peach.

“Yes, Peach?”

“Promise to be careful? Please… come back to us, okay?”

Meer took place beside her and I wanted to cry seeing my family. “I’m always coming home to you guys. Never question that, okay?”

She ran over and hugged me tightly. “Okay.”

Meer stared at me and saluted me as I took off down the hall, bypassing the meeting room. I stopped short, causing Brian to bump right into me. Sigel, with a fucking detective badge around his neck and a cup of coffee in his hand, was in the middle of talking.

The picture of Khaos, Goon’s brother, was the biggest picture up on the board.

The name Menace Caselli was also on the board, but there wasn’t a picture up of him.

As stupid as Zoya had been being with Sigel, she wasn’t that dumb to bring him around her brother or even give him an inkling of what her brother was into.

Somehow, he knew.

He turned, and I ducked and rushed toward the elevators right on top. “District Attorney Fern, Lucia Parker wants to talk to you.” Kevin Robinson, the director of the FBI met me at the elevators.

He held his hand out and I shook it. “I’ve heard… you know why?”

We stepped into the elevator, and he pressed the button to the garage. Soon as we got off the elevator, I damn near did a double take when I saw my brothers standing there in FBI windbreakers and badges around their necks.

“It’s all hands-on deck with this. With Dr. Mercer being held without bond and a lot of corruption and things being uncovered, we have every agency out there.

Mercer has agreed to talk, and he has mentioned Lucia’s name.

These are Federal agents, Ross, Kinya, and Henderso—” his phone rang. “Give me a second.”

He walked away from us to take the call, and I looked at Cappadonna, Capone, and Corleon. “How in the fuck?”

“Forty called me and told me that Mercer was going to talk. He mentioned Lucia’s name and her name won’t be the only name he drops .

He knew something was going to happen, especially since Irie told him that Lucia had been spiraling and got suspended from work because she didn’t follow protocol and used obsessive force. ”

“And you made this happen?” I looked at Corleon.

He laughed. “Nah. Forty pulled some strings and got these over to me. This shit is breaking news, and they need all hands-on deck. Lucia makes them nervous because she knows too much. FBI director right there… he’s a Case House client.”

Cappadonna gave me that look. It was that look of a bigger brother worried for his baby sister, and his only sister.

Capone was giving me the same look. Neither of them rushed to speak, because they were worried and couldn’t put the words together.

As much as they both were different in their own way, they both had similar reactions to things.

The director had walked further off and was screaming on the phone. “I’m going to be alright. Both of you stop giving me that look that daddy gives me.”

“I don’t like this shit, Pri,” Capone finally spoke.

I sighed and looked at them. “Trust me to know how to handle myself. I cannot leave Irie alone and not come when she asked for me.”

Capp quickly kissed my head. “You have too big of a heart, Baby Doll. I need you to know the minute we hear a gun shot, I’m busting up in there and airing shit out and don’t care about going back to prison.”

His tone and the look in both of their eyes told me that they were serious. I quickly hugged my brothers and then stepped back. “I got that Delgato blood in me, too. Lucia can’t get one up on me.”

Capone winked. “Bitch ain’t met Capri Inferno.”

Corleon gave me a side hug. “Hopefully she has some security cameras inside her house.”

Director Robinson finished his screaming match, and we all got into the SUV’s that were awaiting for us. Corleon rode in the front of the one I was in, while Capone and Cappadonna followed in the one behind us.

The negotiator was waiting as soon as they allowed us clearance onto the block. Meer had texted me that he was having Skyler take Peach home, and he was going to come onto the block.

I knew he wouldn’t be able to get onto the block because it was locked down. Nobody was getting onto this block unless they were helping in this hostage situation.

“Rick Morty, I’ve been speaking with Lucia, and she wants you. Doesn’t want money or anything and says she will let Detective Hill out. We’re going to get you set up with a bullet proof vest and everything needed.

“Capri Fern.”

“Oh, I know who you are, District Attorney Fern… big fan of you and the work you’re doing.” He spoke so damn fast that if you weren’t paying attention, you might miss something.

“Anything that I need to know going into this?”

He took a deep sigh and looked at me. “They have a witness that saw Mercer being arrested and has come forward with evidence. She said that she was tricked into being a housekeeper and ended up being used in the egg farming scheme.”

“We have a name or just someone throwing out shit she heard on the news?” I continued to fish as he tightened my bulletproof vest.

“Thea Armstrong, however, her name hasn’t been released to the public. She says she has proof of everything and even a murder that Lucia committed.”

Shit.

It took ten minutes for him to run everything down to me, and for them to put everything into motion. He raised this big ass phone to my ear, and I listened to the phone ring.

“Get her or I’m not letting this prissy bitch out.”

“Damn, are you really that mad that I’m pretty?” Irie yelled back and I rolled my eyes.

I didn’t even know why I was surprised, being that she was Synthia’s sister. “I’m here, Lucia.”

The line grew quiet. “You came for me… I love that for us.”

I chuckled. “I’m only coming in if you agree to let detective Hill out… other than that, I have nothing to say.”

“Deal.” She quickly agreed.

I nodded and disarmed, as I walked closer to the house and came through the gates. Everyone was quiet on the block as I neared the house. My phone buzzed and I quickly grabbed it.

Meer Cat: On the block, Sug. I’m on what you on.

I smiled because I shouldn’t have been surprised that Meer was always going to find a way to get near me. Even when he should have been recovering, that man was a husband and a father always.

I knocked on the door that had weather damage and chipped white paint. The door opened, and I slid in through the crack. Irie held the door open and closed it back.

“She leaves, Lucia,” I demanded.

Irie looked at me and screwed her face up. “I’m not leaving.”

“Leave, Irie.” I told her.

Lucia laughed, making her presence known. She was in the kitchen with her back up against the kitchen counter with a gun in her hand. “Get the fuck out of here, you little pretty bitch.”

“She really mad because I’m a baddie… crazy.”

I wanted to laugh because Irie was serious, and Lucia had been on her looks since I called her outside. “I earned every fucking wrinkle on this face. Every scar and battle wound on my body, I earned. This job, too — I have grit, balls, and I handled everything the way any of the guys would have.”

“You should have handled it with some retinol, Bitch.” Irie said, and looked at me, not wanting to leave.