I didn’t answer. Because the fucked up part was he was right.
Booda squeezed my thigh. “You know I wouldn’t play with you like that.”
I looked down at his hand resting against my leg.
“You better not,” I said, still angry with him.
A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Crazy ass.”
“Fuck you.”
“Nah.” He laughed softly. “Fuck Giani.”
That pulled a reluctant laugh out of me despite the pain eating away at me. The laughter didn’t last long because the more I thought about it, the uglier the feeling became.
We pulled up to our destination ten minutes later. The block looked different tonight. Usually, people crowded the sidewalks out here no matter the hour. Music blasted from passing cars while niggas posted up on the corner, and women drifted between clubs.
Tonight, the street looked half asleep. Most of the storefronts were dark, and nobody lingered outside. Even the liquor store across the street looked empty.
Booda turned behind the building without saying much, and darkness swallowed the truck almost immediately. Most of the streetlights back there barely worked, leaving only a weak security light flickering near the dumpster farther down the alley.
My attention drifted back to Giani before I could think too hard about any of it.
She’d been my sister in everything but blood. The one person I thought would ride with me no matter what happened. And she’d tried to seduce my man. My man. The one person in this world who actually gave a fuck about me beyond what I could do for them.
The betrayal hit differently now that the shock was wearing off.
Giani didn’t just want what I had. She wanted to take it. To replace me. To slide into my life like I was nothing but an obstacle in her way.
Booda reached into the backseat and grabbed his choppa before resting it across his lap.
I checked both of my guns before placing one beside my thigh and keeping the other in my hand.
Then we waited.
Minutes dragged by quietly. Booda glanced at his phone again before tossing it into the cupholder with visible irritation.
“They late.”
I glanced at the clock on the dashboard.
By almost twenty minutes. That should’ve bothered me more than it did.
A pair of headlights swept past the alley entrance before disappearing farther down the street. Both of us looked up automatically, but the vehicle kept going.
Booda rubbed his jaw.
“You hear from him?”
I shook my head while checking my phone, even though no new notifications waited for me.
Somewhere nearby, metal rattled loudly, and I glanced toward the side mirror before everything went still again.
Booda’s fingers tapped the side of the choppa.
“You think they changed their mind?” I asked eventually.
“Nah.”
