“I’m not,” Ethic said. “Every single day, you hear me? We gon’ walk ’em down one at a time together. Get your mind right so they can’t capture that. Your freedom is up here.” Ethic tapped his temple. “I’ma do everything I can to make sure that don’t happen, but if it comes down to it, you need to be strong. Your mental always got to be sharp. Hold your head up.”

Hendrix squared his shoulders and stared Ethic in the eyes, clearing his throat to rid his overwhelm. The sound of the locks being buzzed open pulled his attention to the door of the cell, and Ethic stood as he saw Messiah’s face. He was guided inside.

Ethic frowned.

“I’m assuming you the reason I’m in here,” Ethic said. He had no idea that this was Morgan’s doing. Messiah was the likely suspect. This had to be his doing. Something that had blown back on Ethic as a result of Messiah’s carelessness. The assumption was fair. Messiah knew it, so he didn’t take offense. He sat across from Henny.

“I don’t really know what the fuck this is about, OG.” Messiah looked over at Henny. “What you doing in here, lil’ Henny?”

“I was at Ethic’s when it went down. Fucking SWAT or something flew through there. Searched me. I was carrying,” Henny stated.

“Carrying for who?” Messiah asked.

“Crew shit. You know the deal,” Henny stated. “I’m deaf, blind, and dumb to that shit, though. I know how to stand on my own two.”

“That’s real shit,” Messiah stated. “Look like we all gon’ have to strap up our boots. Somebody want us out the way. Somebody close.”

“Somebody too close,” Ethic stated.

Ahmeek lay in bed, arms bent behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling of his loft. Her loft. Their loft. It had never felt lonelier. He couldn’t predict where his life was going next, and it was torture. The thought of the unknown. The fallout behind the secret Morgan had kept was catastrophic. He had never felt an ache so deep. He felt the buzz of his phone, and he rose a bit to fish it out of his back pocket.

The Sun.

The name he stored Morgan’s number under was exactly how he felt about her. She just melted shit inside him … warmed him. Today, she had burned him. In fact, she had burned them all. Morgan Atkins’s truth had shone down on them like a one-hundred-degree day, showing no mercy. It took everything in him to hit the red button on her.