Page 27

My hand went over my heart at the sight of Derrick and Tiberius when Sully and I walked into the hospital emergency rooms with our wives.

These two old heads used to be in the game heavy.

From what Geo told me, Tiberius went to jail when he was younger on a murder charge, but when he got out, his little brother Kirk flipped their money legally to the point that he didn’t have to play with the streets anymore.

Derrick was a nigga that was made for the streets, so he stayed in the game much longer.

Now, both of them were retired from the streets but received lifetime residuals.

Our teams have never had beef and would never.

That was something that Geo told me about the first day of the game.

“Sully, AK, we heard, and our team is at your disposal,” Derrick informed us. He glanced at the side of him where Seneca stood. Seneca was the head of the organization now. He was a thorough nigga.

Seneca bowed his head. “Who do you want my point people to work with? Y’all got us until we get shit to one hundred. I’m sorry this shit happened.” He shook his head. “I know how berserk I would go if someone fucked with my wife and baby girls.”

An interesting change that I’d noticed in the game was the encouragement for the men to find their forever and leave these hos alone.

Sure, we all went through our ho stage, but that shit needed to be short and strategic.

Seneca was three years younger than me but had been married for five years.

He and his wife had four girls, two sets of identical twins that were only eighteen months apart. He was the ultimate girl dad.

Sully called Joey and Ethan forward. “I’m sure you know Joey and Ethan. Everything goes through them. AK and I want to be updated on everything, so we know how to move. Right now, we need to make sure our wives and Mama Bee are straight.”

Tiberius cleared his throat. “Shit is hot out here, and I don’t know what these niggas on.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a piece of paper, then handed it to me. There was an address, two apartment numbers, and codes.

“I think you should move your family into our condos until this shit is over. The building is heavily secure, the condos are fully furnished, and our wives are having groceries put in there as we speak. We want your family to be safe.”

When you were a genuine, thorough man you attracted genuine, thorough men. They could have just offered up their team to help get these bitches, but they went a step further to ensure our family was safe. It was smart to move them into their territory and building.

“Thank you for that. We should be moved in later tonight if not in the morning. Tell your wives thank you, and we owe them a spa day.”

“Nah, nigga. You not buying my wife shit. A thank you will suffice.” Derrick’s cheek rose before we all tittered.

I appreciated Derrick because he made me comfortable with my craziness. God didn’t even waste time to give this man screws. He was held together by duct tape.

Sully extended his hand to Derrick for a dap. Once it was accepted, he pulled him into his chest. “We got you, man.”

We spoke for a few more minutes before they left. Seneca introduced Joey and Ethan to his top leads, Stitch and Blake, who was a female. She was their secret weapon that you never saw coming.

“Are they going to help get the boys back?” Reya asked in a hushed tone when I sat next to her. Normally, I was evasive when it came to my street shit. This situation was the exception.

I leaned over, took her hand into mine, then kissed her temple. “Yes, they are. What did they say?”

She and Simone went to the nurses’ station while Sully and I spoke to Tiberius and Derrick.

“They said that she’s in surgery. The doctor will be out after a while.”

It took three hours before the surgeon came out.

These fuckas shot my ma three damn times.

One bullet was close to her heart. The doctor said that she was blessed to still be here.

The other two bullets were in her arm and leg.

Her other injuries were a broken rib, leg, arm, and wrist. Both of her eyes were black, and there was significant bruising to her face.

As the doctor spoke, Reya wrapped her arms tightly around my waist. I didn’t know I was crying until she wiped tears from my chin. She said nothing as she laid her head on my chest and rubbed my back. Nothing needed to be said because I felt her love, her care, her peace.

The surgeon let us know that the nurse would be out to allow us to go back once she was in a private room.

He warned us that she wouldn’t be awake when she got into her room and that it could be a day or two.

Corp texted Sully to let us know that he assigned officers to her room for twenty-four-hour coverage.

It was another hour before the nurse told us that we could go back. I heard the injuries that were listed by the surgeon, but I was not ready for what it looked like. When I walked into the room, I immediately walked out.

“Fuck!”

I started to fight the damn wall—punch after punch after punch as I cussed God, those niggas, and myself. This was on me. I fucked up. I slipped. Arms wrapped around me and a head laid on my back. I knew it was my love.

“I got you, Lo’ak. We’ll get through this, love.” She held me tightly.

We walked back into the room hand in hand after I calmed down.

My chest heaved as I took my seat. Sully sat in a chair with his forearms on his knees and his head lowered.

Simone stood beside him with her hand rubbing his back as her shoulders trembled with her silent cries.

I knew that Sully and I would get it together because we had bodies to drop.

When we told the girls about staying at the condo until all of this was over, they were fine with it. However, they refused to go there until we brought their sons to them.

“You said that we would have our sons by sunup, so we will spend the night here. Tomorrow, Simone and I will go to our houses to get what we need, then go to?—”

Her words were cut off by the door opening. My eyes tightened when the person came into the room. Yeah, God was testing me, and I would willingly fail the test.

“Oh my God, Lo’ak. I came as soon as I heard,” Alexi said. “I know we have our problems, but this is bigger than… aaaahhh!”

Oh, shit! Reya jumped up and punched Alexi dead in the center of her face.

“Bitch, you got me and my husband fucked up. Coming in here like shit is sweet.” She punched her in her shit again. “I should have been went to your ass, ho.”

I grabbed my wife around her waist and pulled her back. “Hold on, slugger. You bopped the Mario coins out of her.”

Simone’s ignorant ass stood next to Sully bent over laughing. Alexi stood there holding her bleeding nose. Because of her skin tone, the bruises on her face were already starting to form.

“Bitch, fuck you.” Alexi finally got herself together to say, “It doesn’t matter that you married him. You will always be a bum fuckin’ bitch.”

I pushed Tsireya behind me. “Alexi, she already popped you twice. What the fuck do you think will happen if I let her ass loose on you? What will happen if Simone decides to assist her friend? Watch how you talk to my fuckin’ wife.”

I glanced over at Ma. Although she was out of it, I was sure she probably heard this bullshit. If she was awake, she would have tried to get out of bed herself to whup Alexi’s ass.

“Fuck you, too, Lo’ak! With your bitch ass. That’s why your brat ass, read-the-room son got snatched.” As soon as it left Alexi’s mouth, she knew she fucked up. She gasped at her own words and fear danced in her eyes.

I didn’t even feel myself rush to her. My hand wrapped around her neck so tightly that I lifted her off the ground against the wall. Her nails scratched at my hand. When I heard the hammer to a gun pull back, I knew Sully was turned on. His gun went to the side of her dome.

See, Alexi had never been around Jedi to know that he said read the room. I never told her that shit. That told me that she had been around my son. The only chance she would have had to do that was after he was taken.

“Bitch, where the fuck are our sons? You’re on my to be dead list anyway, so if I kill you today, that will take something off my list. You know… eat the frog first mentality.”

“Lo, she can’t talk,” Reya said before she hit my shoulder. “Loosen the hold a little so the stupid bitch can tell us where our kids are. Don’t let go, though.”

I peeked over my shoulder at this perfect woman. “Come here, Tsireya.”

With Alexi’s neck still in my hand, I leaned my body toward my wife and slammed my lips onto hers. Like we weren’t in a dire situation, I tongued her sexy ass down. When our kiss ended, I loosened my hold on Alexi’s neck like she suggested.

“Now, where the fuck are our children?”

“Please, I’m sorry. Jer-Jeremy had his people get them. I didn’t know that they were going to hurt anyone. Mama Bee shot Logan,” she cried.

Reya punched the shit out of Alexi again. “Bitch, did you say Logan? How the fuck do you know Logan?”

Before she could answer, Simone punched her ass from the other side. Damn. Alexi started to get a little too loud with her whimpering and crying. I tightened my hand around her neck.

“Shut that shit up. Where are our fucking kids, bitch?”

My hand loosened around her neck again.

“I have the address in my phone. I-I can get it.” Alexi tried to convince me to let her go.

“Nah, bitch, I got it.”

Simone grabbed Alexi’s purse that fell on the floor when Reya reached back to hell and punched her in the face. She rifled through the purse then threw it back on the floor once the phone was in her hand. There was a facial lock on the phone, so she held the phone to Alexi’s face to unlock it.

“Where the shit at?”

She told her to go to the first text message thread. Simone laughed before her attention went to Reya.