Before she could finish, a man sprinted from behind the dumpsters and grabbed a screaming running woman. She quieted, her voice reduced to whimpers as he put a gun to her head. It was the man from the store, from the club.Trell… This bastard.
“Let her go, bitch ass nigga! It’s me you mad at,” I screamed.
“Farrah!” Steel snapped.
“If you don’t shut the fuck up,” Kera muttered at me from between clenched teeth.
I frowned at them. “No, I’m sickuh him. Targeting everybody but the man he got a problem with. Just weak.”
“You keep running that mouth, pretty girl, and I’ma make you regret it,” he spat.
The team was moving toward him slowly, but he kept the woman as a close shield. The terror on her face; I would never forget this look. Trell backed away, but I wasn’t sure where his steps were taking him.
“You the one who’s gon’ have regrets. When Mekhi catches your ass?—”
“Stop saying his name to me! That nigga ain’t nothing! Not shit!” Trell raged.
Suddenly, he pushed the woman away from him hard. He jumped into the passenger seat of Steel’s car and slammed the door. The engine roared. Tires screeched. The car peeled out so fast it fishtailed, kicking up gravel and dust before speeding toward the road.
“Why the fuck it gotta always be my baby?” Steel muttered, taking off at a dead sprint.
Kera talked her shit while I stood there, mouth open, speechless.
That was Steel’s car. Steel’s bulletproof car. Stolen. Shot up. Hijacked. By Trell and his people.
Kera grabbed my arm. “Farrah—it’s alright, baby—get behind me—come on?—”
I snapped out of it, a smile curving my mouth.
“Bitch, what’s funny? Lord, he done finally drove you insane!” Kera lamented.
“Nah, that nigga think he slick. All that picking and talking his shit, but he fucking up, Kera. Escalating. He out in the open, broad daylight, on Seth and Mekhi’s property. Yeah, the drive by was outside, but it was outside in the hood, before anyone knew to be looking for his weak ass. And Steel don’t play about that car. I bet he can track him or something. Dumb ass,” I said scornfully.
My girl just stared at me for a minute.
“What?” I asked, frowning.
A slow smile spread across her face. “Oh, you serious, serious about this forensic psychology, huh?”
I shrugged. Jarell wouldn’t let us go to our cars. Instead, we climbed into his clean ass, silver Tahoe and he sped us out of the lot with sirens in the distance growing louder. We were on our way to Mekhi’s and one thought dimmed my satisfaction at Trell’s fuck up.
Mekhi was going to lose his mind.
By the time Jarell escorted me inside Mekhi’s house, he was already standing in the foyer.
Waiting.
Still.
Silent.
Hell, I preferred the pacing. Mekhi looked like a human storm. His eyes swept over me once, head to toe, like he waschecking for blood or missing pieces. Checking that I was still breathing. Then he walked toward me. That walk scared me a little. He wasn’t moving too fast or anything. He just seemed really, really focused.
The door clicked shut as Jarell backed out of the house without a word. I didn’t know how I felt about that. Mekhi didn’t speak until he was right up on me.
“Why?”
My throat tightened. “Khi?—”
