I thought their motive was robbery, but they wanted Seven and wanted me to tell them where she was. Seven was hard-headed; I told her she had fucked up by coming out of the shadows. As long as she was underground, we didn’t have any problems. We were all getting money. But no, she just had to be this big Queen Pin, and one of her rivals was already after her, going through me—her business partner. I swear, if I get out of this, I’ll kill her myself.

I got caught slippin’. And the truth was, I didn’t know where she was. I thought of Tasha’s call from a month or so ago. What did I know about this girl?

“You know somethin’, nigga. But if you’d rather die here today. So be it.”

Once they were convinced that I wasn’t going to say what they wanted to hear, they started on some ransom bullshit. They untied me and gave me back my cell phone.

“Call yo’ bitch!”

I did, and it went straight to voicemail.

I was feeling weak, but I knew I was fucked if someone couldn’t pay my ransom. I tried Seven’s number again and got the same thing. I wanted her to answer because if she came here, they would kill her.

“Where the money? We know you got it.” The one nigga with the thick football neck threatened me.

“Call Bo.”

“I don’t know his number. I didn’t.”

Dude came and slammed a gasoline can smack dab in front of me. “No. No. Wait!” I yelled. I was scared now. “Let me see my phone. His number is in my phone.”

“I was gettin’ ready to say. I know you worth something to somebody. To her, Bo. Call somebody if you want to get out of here alive. Tell them one mil’, and they only have twenty-four hours.”

I called Tasha and got the same thing. Voicemail. My hands were shaking. I could see blood on my hands smearing the phone as I dialed Trae’s number. My heart was pounding.

Nigga, please answer the phone, I prayed.

“What’s up?”

“It’s not good, dawg.” I knew my voice sounded slurred because of all the blood and pus in my mouth, but I knew Trae recognized me. “I can’t reach Seven and these muthafuckas want one mil’ in twenty-four hours. I—”

He hung up on me. I called him back. It went straight to voicemail.

The next thing I knew, one of the three men started pouring gasoline on me.

“No! Please!” I begged.

I thought about the warning Faheem had given me at the baby shower. “Yeah, right. I know you think you got nine lives. But you done used up how many already?” So, this was how it was going to end for me.