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“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?”

I sucked my teeth and grunted, glaring at Cruz’s narrowed eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with me. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He glanced at Storm. We were back at The Omega House to regroup and come up with a better game plan. But Cruz had a chip on his shoulder that needed to be addressed.

“Why would you go to warehouse forty-nine alone?”

I squinted. “Is that’s what you’re bitching about?”

“Titan, don’t fuck with me, nigga. Now is not the time. You knew that was a trap. We both did. Why would a sane man go running towards a trap? Alone, no less!”

“Who said anything about me being sane?”

He slammed his hand down on the tabletop. “Stop fuckin’ with me!”

I frowned, taking in his dipping brows and deep-set angry mask.

“You know the answer to that.”

“No.” He folded his arms. “Enlighten me, because we were supposed to be tag teaming motherfuckers.”

I laughed, the sound dark and chaotic. “Is that it? You’re mad because you didn’t get to kill anyone?”

“Oh, I killed a few outside but that’s not the point.”

“Then what is?”

“We’re a team, nigga! What if something was to happen to you while you’re inside a burning fuckin’ building?” he screamed. “I can’t find you in darkness and smoke, motherfucker!”

“You weren’t supposed to find me. There’s always a method to my madness.”

“Got damn it, Titan!”

I can’t lie, his anger surprised and confused me.

“What the fuck is this really about?”

He turned in a full circle, planted his hands on his waist, and dropped his head. When he looked back at me, his expression was reminisced of a bull going into battle.

“We. Are. A. Team,” he spat. “You can’t just decide to take on a fight of this magnitude alone! I thought we were passed this?”

“Oh, are you going to get all soft on me and shit?”

His jaw locked and I saw the muscle in his face jump. Laughter bolted from my gut, and I glanced at Storm who hadn’t said a word but stared at me in disbelief.

“You motherfuckers are trippin’ me out. Look,” I reined in my mirth. “We don’t have time for this. We’ve got to come up with another plan to find Santari before the sun rises. Every minute counts.”

“You think we don’t know that?” Cruz’s eyes were daggers on me.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Cruz wanted smoke. But not my kind of smoke. I smirked at the thought.

“You think this is funny, nigga? We just lost a brother! Do you think we want to lose another one?”

I stared at them both as a revelation dawned.

It all made sense. I glanced between Storm and Cruz and narrowed my eyes.

I wanted to be annoyed as fuck. But instead, I understood the impact that Rev’s death had on us all.

They were processing his death differently than me.

Where they wanted to make sure we stuck together, I’d rather run into the fire to protect them.

After all, we were all together when Rev died weren’t we?

So, to me, it was sometimes better to go at it alone and it had nothing to do with not needing them or wanting them there.

But there was another thing driving my decisions…

“You and Storm know me by now. You’ve got to give me grace.”

“What – No!” They said simultaneously.

“You have to.”

“The fuck we don’t!” Cruz shook his head. “Not when it comes to this.”

“Okay, enough of this shit. Let’s get back on topic or I’m walking out this door to go look for Santari myself.”

“You still don’t get it,” Storm said.

I rushed my hand over my head repeatedly. Now, I was annoyed.

“For fuck’s sake.”

I turned and strolled to the door.

“We are not your father or your mother, Titan!”

My footsteps paused, and my body stiffened.

A slew of profanity dropped from Cruz’s mouth.

“We won’t abandon you like they did.”

“We never will,” Storm added.

“So don’t do it to us.”

I locked my jaw, my heart ricocheting like a drum.

There it was… that thing that sat so deep in my soul it often times ruled my choices.

I was used to being left to fend for myself.

It was the story of my life. While my father’s side of the family lived and thrived heartily in St. Louis, I had no idea if my mother was even still alive.

I could find out, but my disdain for the way she left me halted my curiosity about her.

Storm, Cruz, and Rev were the only ones who knew my truth.

I’d gotten close to spilling my trauma to Santari, but she was so pure and untainted to me that I’d left it alone.

When it came to her, I knew she’d changed by being around us, but I also knew when it came to the darkness that lived within, that was something that lay dormant inside you until you fed it, stroked it, and pursued it until it was second nature.

I turned back to them, watching them watch me.

“What are you motherfuckers saying? You love me or something?”

Storm’s facial expression changed. His jaw relaxed, and his lips curled into a smile he tried to fight. Then, he burst into laughter, breaking the tension between us as Cruz shook his head but held back a smirk.

“You raggedy bitch,” Cruz said.

I guffawed, and Cruz joined in, neither of us could contain our seriousness. He strolled to me and slapped my shoulder.

“For the record, yes, we do! Now tighten up and stop running off to kill motherfuckers by yourself.”

I shook my head. “I know that’s why you’re really mad.”

“Titan.”

“In all seriousness, the last motherfucker I burned said, we’d never make it to her in time.”

All smiles dropped and their eyes widened.

“They wanted to get me alone to delay something. Maybe time to move her or whatever they’ve got planned. They also were supposed to kill me. Whoever this is has a vendetta towards me.”

“Towards us,” Storm added.

We glanced at him. “If I needed to take out four professional killers, and I only succeed with getting one the first time, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to try it like that again. I’d take someone they loved, disorient them, and pick them off one by one.”

Cruz shut his eyes. “Like when they came for me at the gym.”

Storm nodded. “Exactly. Rev was the start when it was supposed to be all of us.”

“And now they’re trying to finish what they started. But they knew you would go alone to warehouse forty-nine,” Cruz said. “It’s definitely fuckin’ personal.”

“This means the person behind the McAllister contract was aiming for us and used McAllister like a casualty of war,” I murmured.”

“What I was trying to tell you when our comms kept getting intercepted was, I recognized the shell account that rented out warehouse forty-nine,” Storm said. “It’s the same one who sent our offshore payment for the McAllister contract. They’ve been playing us the entire time.”

This new revelation left us silently in our thoughts until Cruz spoke again.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“We find out who’s behind Santari’s kidnapping and that will lead us to who’s behind Rev’s death. The fools we tied up at the dock, where are they?”

“At The Pit.”

I turned. “I’ll be back.”