Page 98 of Vega

It was Wise, Prodigy, Lux and Lowe. My brothers came in fast, doors flying open before the cars fully stopped. Gunfire erupted behind me. Wise moved left with a precision that was controlled and deadly. Prodigy came straight ahead, face calm in a way that meant somebody was about to die. Lux and Lowe spread out behind them, both shooting with the kind of focus they usually hid beneath jokes and weed smoke.

Roman cursed and ducked behind his truck. Promise fired at all of us like she had no fear in her body. I watched her lean out from behind the passenger door and squeeze off shots so clean that Prodigy had to drop behind Wise’s car.

“Gawd damn, she can shoot!” Wise barked.

“No shit,” I fired back.

Roman jumped into the driver’s seat. Promise climbed in after him, then halfway out the window before the truck even reversed.

We lit the truck up. Bullets shattered the back glass and punched holes through the metal, but Roman floored it. Tires screamed against pavement as the truck spun around.

Promise hung out the passenger window, hair whipping around her face, firing back at us like a soldier retreating from war instead of a spoiled daughter running from trouble.

I aimed, but the truck swerved between trees and disappeared down the preserve road.

Prodigy started toward his car, but Wise grabbed his arm. “Don’t. Police hear all this, they’ll be nearby soon. If we follow, we turn this into a chase.”

I stared after the taillights until they vanished.

My arm burned, and my patience had reached its end.

“Now he knows,” I said. “He knows I know the truth, and he knows I have Sonnet. He won’t stop until we’re both dead.”

Prodigy’s face turned colder than I’d seen it in a while. “Then we stop giving that old nigga time to breathe. Roman don’t get to hunt you or her. We put him in the ground before he even learns where to look.”

18

VEGARRO “VEGA” MORETTI

Ichecked the back door for the third time in twenty minutes. Then I checked the cameras again.

Sonnet sat on the edge of the couch, watching me move through the room with those sharp eyes behind her glasses. She had been quiet since I came back, but quiet didn’t mean she wasn’t paying attention. Sonnet noticed everything.

I had changed into sweats and a fitted beater, but my gun stayed tucked in my waistband. I wasn’t comfortable enough to put it away tonight.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

I looked at her through the reflection in the window before turning around. “Roman knows you’re with me.”

Her expression changed immediately.

“He also knows I know the truth,” I added. “He tried to kill me tonight.”

She stood so fast the pillow she had been cradling fell from her lap. “What?”

I crossed the room and stopped in front of her. “He doesn’t know about this house. It’s not in my name, not tied to me, and nobody followed me here.”

“And he’s going to come for me?”

“He can try.”

“That’s not comforting, Vega.”

“It should be. I’m very hard to kill.”

She looked at the gun at my waist, then back at me. “Does anything frighten you?”

I didn’t answer right away. Usually, the answer would’ve been no. Fear was something I respected, not something I lived under. Men died. Plans failed. Enemies multiplied. That was life. But lately, a few things had started feeling different.