“You ever come near Phileigh or my son again…” I crouched next to him, making sure he heard me. “I won’t leave your stupid ass breathing next time.”

I turned away. My adrenaline surged as I made my way to the kitchen to get Lolo. We needed to get out of here. The police would be here at any minute.

“Talk that hot shit now, bitch!” Lolo’s voice rang out as she pounded Natalie’s face into the kitchen island. “You thought killing my best friend was gonna keep your nigga?” Lolo shouted. She was stomping Natalie’s ass into the ground. I stood there for a minute, allowing her to finish the job I recruited her to do.

“Stupid ho!” she shouted, standing up out of breath and brushing her hands off like it was nothing. “She ain’t gonna be talking slick or setting up shit for a while.”

She walked past me to the entrance. Monte was already pulling the car around as we stepped out the front door.

“Any stops before the landing strip?” Monte asked as we slid into the back of the SUV.

“Naw. I’m ready to get back to NYC,” I told him.

“Me too. I need to check up on my bestie,” Lolo consigned, and Monte wasted no time getting us the hell out of there.

By the time we boarded the plane, Monte’s LAPD connect was calling to let us know they had arrested him, Natalie, and Ariel too. After gaining information from the hitman, the detectives traced everything back to those three—the burner phones brought by Natalie, the payments from a PayPal account owned by Reggie, the license plate numbers on my cars given to them by Ariel.

I looked over at Lolo, who was still hyped but silent. Phileigh had a good friend in that one. She hadn’t thought twice about hopping on this plane and passing out ass whuppings. She was going to make the perfect god mom for Baby J.

“Now that business is handled, I got a few rings I need to show you,” I said, making her mouth drop to the damn floor.

“Oh my God! I want all the details. When? Where? How?” She squealed as we made our way back to Phileigh.

Chapter 25

“You want a line-up?” I asked, holding the clippers in front of Kellon’s face.

The sound of the clippers vibrating between my fingertips was calming and exactly the peace I needed right now. I was okay and healing slowly. The bruises were fading. The nightmares still came, but I was alive. My baby was alive, and those responsible for my attack were behind bars awaiting trial without bail.

“If you mess up my hairline, I’ma have to wear a hoodie until the baby gets here. Remember that,” he joked. “Maternity pictures and all.”

“Boy, bye. I could line you up in my sleep.”