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“You shut the fuck up,” Cassius pointed to him before addressing Aella. “And as for you, that was before your time. I was a different nigga then.”

“Yeah,” she snorted. “Okay.”

Snatching the underwear from the couch, Cassius tossed them into the kitchen trash can and washed his hands before returning to the living room, where Aella and Mars were still laughing.

“If y’all two are done with your lil’ comedy hour, we can get to the point of me inviting you here.”

Aella pulled herself together, clearing her throat before replying. “Okay, I’m all ears. What’s going on?”

Sinking onto the couch, Cassius grew serious. “A’ight, look. You know I told your pops I would never lie to or keep anything from you, but what I’m about to say can’t leave this room. Cool?”

Aella nodded, her eyes growing wide.

For the next few minutes, Cassius revealed to her everything he’d relayed to Mars before her arrival. By the time he finished, she was ashen, which pissed him off. The thought of her being frightened by anything made him ready to eliminate every threat to her.

“This is insane,” she murmured, licking her full lips. “Why would they keep something like that away from everyone? Away from us?”

“I can guess a million reasons, but none would matter. This is happening. And it’s already getting out of hand. I don’t know what they plan to do to figure this shit out, but I have a few ideas of my own about how to figure out who has it out for our families.”

“I want to help,” Aella blurted without hesitation.

Mars’ brows rose as he and Cassius made eye contact, almost as if to say I told you so.

“Elle, you don’t know how⁠—”

“I hope you aren’t fixing your lips to warn me about how dangerous this is before telling me I need to stay out of it,” she fussed, cutting him off. “This involves my family, too. And my life. I’m not going to sit around like some damsel in distress while waiting for everyone else to put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

This time, Mars did speak. “I told you she wouldn’t be cool with you trying to sideline her.”

“Mars, shut up,” Cassius growled before his brown orbs locked on Aella. “Do you know what you’re asking of me?”

“Do you know what you’re asking of me? I watched my father take a bullet last night. On top of that, one of his closest friends was slaughtered right in front of us, and there was nothing we could do about it.”

“And if someone was bold enough to do that to one of the most feared mobsters in this city, what do you think they’d be willing to do to you? I can’t⁠—”

Cassius broke off, clenching his fist. He wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say, only that whatever it was would have exposed how deeply he cared about her entirely too soon.

“I never said I wanted to be on the front lines,” Aella softened her tone, crossing her legs. “Just that I wanted to help. That was my initial role in all of this, anyway, right? Marrying you would have combined our families and helped us prevent a stronger front?”

Cassius couldn’t deny that.

“Yeah, that’s what my pops said.”

“So, let’s do it.”

One of his eyebrows shot into the air. “Let’s do what?”

“Get married,” Aella replied as if it were as natural as breathing.

“I don’t think that’s going to be as simple as you think, Elle,” Mars offered. “Getting married is futile unless people believe it. Who’s going to think the two of you care about each other enough to protect one another otherwise?”

“He’s right,” Cassius tried to keep his voice even. A couple of weeks ago, he was annoyed by Aella’s resistance to marrying him. He should have been fine now that she was finally on board, but something about it felt off. In a way, wrong. Maybe this was why she’d been so upset when the idea had been presented to her. Cassius didn’t want her to want him out of duty. He’d grown to want her to want him.

“Then we make them believe it,” her determination showed in her eyes.

Cassius remained silent, rubbing his hands together. Surveying his friend’s tranquil nature, Mars stood. “I’ma give y’all some space to talk and figure things out. Cass, hit my line if you need me.”

“I got you, bro.”