Page 11

The next day, I was getting some work done at my Club Wynwood location, but I couldn’t get my mind to settle.

The Paradox had too much going on for me to do some reckless shit, so the only cure I could think of was reaching out to my brother, Sinceer Crowne, to see if he had a kill job in Miami that I could knock out real quick.

Sinceer ran his own Dark Trinity division and although I hadn’t completed a mission with my family in a while, they always had a job I could hop on when I wasn’t fulfilling Paradox business.

“You betta be confirming your attendance to my wedding,” Sinceer stated the moment he answered his phone.

“Shiddd, hello to you too big Bruh.”

“Nah, fuck all of that,” he spat. “I’ve been reaching out to you for months for your RSVP.”

I sighed into the phone. “I know. Look, a lot has been goin’ on, but I guess since you aren’t getting married until later this year, I’ll be there.”

“For real?” he asked, sounding surprised. “I know I’ve been giving you shit, but I understand what you’re dealing with. Losing Rev hit you hard. He was a good dude, and I hated to hear he was taken out.”

I swallowed back my grief. “Yeah, the shit is fucked up. But we’ll crack the case soon.”

“I know y’all will. And if you need me, I got you,” he said, before asking, “How is his family doin’?”

I fiddled with the pen holder on the desk in my office. “His sister is stayin’ with me and the fellas right now.”

“Oh word! You mean to tell me little, doe-eyed Santari is staying with you, Storm, and Titan?”

“She ain’t so little anymore,” I huffed, causing him to laugh harder than necessary. “What’s so damn funny?”

“You, muthafucka,” he spat. “I know that tone in your voice. I’m guessing you called me because you want to fuck Santari and since I know you assholes share and shit, it’s prolly making things more complicated.”

You have no fuckin’ idea. “Is this your way of telling me to keep my dick in my pants?”

Sinceer snorted. “Hell nah. I’m the one who taught you how to fuck a woman right. Us Crowne men have healthy sexual appetites, so if anything, I think fuckin’ through grief is the perfect remedy for all of you.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “That may be true, but right now, my thoughts are gettin’ too jumbled, which is why I called you.”

“You need some work?” he asked.

“Yeah. Something quick though, and not too complex.”

“Say less. This ain’t Dark Trinity business, but I’ve got a weasel I’ve been tracking for a couple weeks. Just got word he’s in the Miami area, so your timing is perfect. Can you handle it tonight?”

“Bet,” I stated, grinning from ear to ear. Nothing soothed my soul better than torturing someone who deserved it.

Having the same father wasn’t the only thing Sinceer and I had in common.

Mentally, we understood each other in ways we didn’t even need to explain to one another.

Although Sinceer had three full siblings—Hendrix, Honey, and Lil Stormy—he hadn’t grown up with them much, and instead, had been raised in Black River Falls, South Carolina.

Not only were we both Midwest boys who moved to the South, but Sinceer and I had a bond closer than what I had with Hendrix, Honey, Lil Stormy, or any of my dad’s other kids—Amen, Crux, and Crusade.

With so many siblings to keep track of, Rev, Storm, and Titan had become my constant support, which is why I started calling my younger sister Lil’ Stormy instead of her government name of Storm in order to differentiate the names.

By the end of our call, I made a mental note to catch up with all my siblings before Sinceer’s wedding. I didn’t want to lose any more family without telling them that I at least loved them.

An hour later, I found myself in Overtown, a neighborhood in Miami that was known as the Harlem of the South with my security guy’s Mekhi, Phil, and Tony by my side.

“Do you smell that?” Mekhi asked, sniffing the air around us with a smile on his face.

“Sho’ the fuck do,” Tony stated, tapping his knife against the palm of his hand. “Smells like piss.”

“And blood,” Phil added as we walked deeper into the dark alley.

We’d been in this alley before chasing down someone who had stolen some product from me a few years back.

But with me having so many businesses to secure, my top men were split between them.

Even when their schedules overlapped like lately with the opening of Club Havana, we didn’t always get to do shit like this together in the streets.

“He’s gotta be close,” I told them, referring to the target. “Let’s get into position and stay alert.”

We were outside the dumpsters of a gambling joint and according to Sinceer, the dude usually stumbled out the back door and into the alley around two in the morning.

My trigger finger twitched against the side of my jacket where my Glock with a silencer already in place was resting. When it reached around two-thirty in the morning, we were getting restless.

“You sure this dude is worth it?” Phil asked. “This shit is takin’ a hot minute.”

“I don’t care if he is, or if he ain’t,” I told him. “I need to kill someone.”

Tony clasped my shoulder. “You just killed that muthafucka Calvin yesterday.”

I smacked my tongue over my teeth. “That was then. This is now.”

Mekhi laughed and shook his head just as the back door opened.

“That’s him,” I stated, when the drunk asshole that matched the photo Sinceer had sent me stumbled into the alley, unaware that he had a surprise waiting for him.

“It’s our lucky day, fellas.” Mekhi nodded to the others exiting after him. “The target has friends.”

I gave a single nod to Phil and Tony, who immediately jumped into action, our target and his friends instantly running in the opposite direction. Mekhi joined them, my three best soldiers eliminating the six other men quickly, before knocking the target to the ground and towering over him.

Even as I walked to the crawling target, I couldn’t stop seeing Santari in my thoughts. Her mouth that was always begging to be kissed. Her inquisitive eyes set in defiance when she was being bratty.

I had taken this job tonight to wipe her from my mind until I could talk with Titan and Storm, but if anything, I was thinking about her even more because of the reason Sinceer needed this asshole dead.

“You gonna stand there and watch him crawl all night?” Mekhi asked, his voice full of amusement. “Or kill his ass like we came here to do?”

Cracking my neck, I stepped forward, ignoring Mekhi’s taunting as I looked down at the target.

The man looked up, his eyes wide and panicked when he said, “I didn’t?—”

“I don’t give a shit,” I stated, cutting him off. “Ralph Little, tonight, is not your lucky night. You see, my brother tells me that as soon as you got out of prison, you tracked down his soon-to-be wife with the intent on using her to bait him into giving you money.”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, piecing together who my brother was. When I pulled out my Glock, his fearful eyes were glued to the weapon.

“I ain’t mean to do it,” he stuttered. “I didn’t know who he really was.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You knew he was Crowne, yet you didn’t give a damn.”

“D—Don’t kill me,” he begged, stuttering as he got on his knees and clasped his hands together in prayer. “I swear, I just wanted to scare her a bit. I knew he’d pay to get her back. I just thou?—”

The rest of his plea never left his lips as I pulled the trigger, the sound of the bullet slicing through the right side of his chest echoing through the alley. I shot him on his left side next, before placing a final bullet into the middle of his forehead.

Ralph’s blood painted the ground red, the sight one that I never got tired of. Yet still, I felt … nothing. No relief to my impure thoughts about her .

“Get rid of him,” I told my team, looking down at the body.

“On it,” Phil stated.

Tony pulled out his phone. “Already calling the cleaning crew.”

Usually, the three of them could handle the cleanup, but there were more bodies than we originally planned and I wanted this shit taken care of promptly.

“You good, man?” Mekhi asked.

I looked up at the dark sky like it held all the answers.

“Nah,” I said, releasing a frustrated breath. “But I’ll be fine once I get my way.”

After I was back in my Hellcat, I told Sinceer that the job was done, my mind still on Ri. That conversation with Storm and Titan can’t come soon enough.

Santari wasn’t ours yet …

But she would be.

Otherwise, I guess there was a killing spree in my near future.

&

The next day, Storm was giving me that look again, like he couldn’t figure out if he needed to play my therapist or just enjoy our conversation.

“Bruh, I’m dead ass about this,” I told him. “I ain’t lyin’ to you. The interest was there, no cap.”

“What is he going on about?” Titan asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Santari,” Storm answered, resuming eating his breakfast.

At the mention of her name, Titan closed the refrigerator and leaned against the counter, his jaw tightening with focus. “What’s wrong with her?”

I threw up my hands. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong, man.

It ain’t even like that. She’s still at the spa for the facial and massage that I scheduled for her.

” I started pacing the room, because sometimes when I was hype about something, I couldn’t stand still.

“But a few nights ago, Storm set me up and sent her to my club.”

Titan pinned Storm with a stern look, causing Storm to raise his hands in defeat.

“Bruh, I needed to focus on some shit here at the house and she was too distracting. I already had to deal with her at the university. So I figured at the club, Cruz had other people to keep his focus off Santari and on work.”

Titan ground his teeth together. “Storm, you don’t dangle a beautiful carrot in front of a greedy rabbit.”

“Usually, nah,” Storm responded. “But we’ve known Santari for years. Cruz knows he can look but not touch.”