“Where’re we going?”

“I got somewhere for you to go. Shit is about to go down. Y’all can’t stay here. I’m quite sure Suef knows where you live.”

“Butta, I don’t think they’d run up in here, and if they do I got burners.”

She is so damn hardheaded. “Yo, we about to handle this shit on your behalf. The next time Suef or his boys come at you, it’s going to be more than gun pointing and fondling lil’ Cenise. The next time it’s going to be kidnapping, rape, and murder.” For some reason he wanted to protect her, maybe because she had an innocence about her, or her naïveté about how serious the game really was. On the low, he really liked her, but he thought she acted too much like a dude.

Reluctantly, Arnessa agreed. Quickly gathering clothing and toiletries for herself and Cenise, she gave everything to Mannie, who left in her car.

She and Cenise left in Shawn’s silver Navigator with him and Butta. The dark tints on his truck concealed their identities as Shawn drove slowly by the barbershop where Suef and his crew hung. When Cenise saw Trenton standing out front chatting on his cell, she lowered her eyes, too afraid to look up.

“Is that the dude?” Arnessa asked. “Don’t be scared, he can’t do nothing else to you.”

Still afraid to look at his face again, she nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”

Butta looked over at Shawn. “Go to my crib, scoop Mannie, then we’ll come and deal with him.”

Butta’s house was amazing, to say the least. Arnessa hadn’t even known such houses existed in New York. Hidden behind tall trees, the three-story brick home sat atop a hill on a winding road in the posh Riverdale section. Arnessa’s Magnum was already parked in the driveway when they arrived. Mannie came out of the house and got in the front passenger seat of Shawn’s truck.

“Y’all stuff is in the guest rooms upstairs,” Butta told Arnessa and Cenise as he ushered them through the garage into the house. “The kitchen is fully stocked. Make yourself at home.” He walked out, shutting the door behind him and leaving the two girls standing in the kitchen entry. The huge gourmet kitchen had marble countertops, a massive stainless steel refrigerator, and a stainless steel double oven built into the wall. A center island with a gas stovetop separated the kitchen from the den area.

“You want something to eat?” Arnessa asked Cenise.

“No,” she replied, staring at the floor. “I wanna go lay down. Just feel like when I wake up tomorrow it will all be over.” The poor girl’s spirit was broken. She’d been violated in the worst way.

Arnessa hugged her little sister tightly. “I’m sorry this happened to you.” She began crying.

“There’s no reason for you to be sorry. You didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t protect you.”

After a long hot shower Arnessa put on her favorite Victoria’s Secret pajamas—a fitted pink cotton T-shirt and a pair of pink-and-white-striped boy shorts. She removed her hairpins and brushed her hair down as she did every night. Instead of wrapping it right back up, she let it hang; the hairpins had been giving her a slight headache.