Shawn placed the muzzle of the gun on his right temple. He closed his eyes, “God, please forgive me,” he whispered, then pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out the left side of his skull.

Chapter 20

Look, I said that I was sorry,” Sincere roared, tired of the tongue-lashing that he was receiving from Kisa. “I don’t give a damn about that weak-ass apology.” Kisa came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. “You slapped the shit out of me and snatched me from my car. I thought I was being kidnapped, and look at my face. It’s starting to bruise.”

“You should’ve answered your phone,” he quipped, “instead of running around with CoCo.”

“You are the fuckin’ biggest idiot I know.” Kisa scowled. “I wasn’t out with nobody. My day has been too fucked up to try to keep track of three different phones. Dumb-ass Suef had the spa firebombed, and Tyeis’s shop was sprayed with bullets. By the way, she took two in the leg, if you care to know.” Kisa pulled on a pair of jeans. “I haven’t even had time to wrap my mind around any of that because I’ve been too busy tracking down the witness in your case and dealing with her.”

“You found her?”

“Yes, I found her, and if you bothered to ask me about that, instead of some dumb-ass pictures on the Internet, you would know.”

“And,” Sincere asked, anxious for the details.

“And what?”

“What did she have to say?”

Kisa ran down everything that had happened when she’d met with Maria a few hours earlier. When she finished, Sincere asked, “How sure are you that she’s going to retract her statement?”

“I’m ninety-nine-point-five percent sure that she’s going to do it. This was a fucked-up situation for her too, and my hundred and fifty K incentive for her to tell the truth was a lot better than what Rellie and Suef offered.”

“I hope so,” Sincere said, doubtful.

“At this point, all you have to do is wait until the morning.” Kisa dashed into the bathroom to answer her ringing cell. She saw that it was TaTa and answered, “Yo, Ta, I couldn’t make it, but—”

“Kane, I’m so sorry,” TaTa cried. “They made me set you up. I didn’t want to do it, I swear. You’ve got to get out of the spot right now.”

“Ta, what in the hell have you done? What are you talking about? Because I’m not at the spot, your sister is, and if anything happens to E, I’m going to stomp a hole in your weirdo ass.”

“Eisani’s there?” TaTa gasped loudly. “Oh no.”

“You better tell me what’s going on right now. Did you let Suef use you?”

TaTa hung up with no response.

Hysterically, Kisa dialed Eisani’s number.

Sincere stood in the bathroom doorway, “What’s going on?”