Page 30 of Mister Fireman

Her eyes rolled as she laughed. “Boy, stop. I just hope you don’t hold losing to me over our heads for the rest of our lives.”

“As long as this is your way of saying you’ll be in my life no matter what, I’m okay with taking that risk if you are.”

My arms wrapped around her, and she stood on the tips of her toes to give me a kiss.

“What are you doing after this?” I asked.

“Going to see my grandma.”

“Has she taken another turn?”

Her head shook. “No, it’s still the same stuff, thankfully. The attitudes and mood swings. The forgetfulness. If she gets overwhelmed, she freezes and can’t remember what she was doing or how to do certain things.”

“And they still haven’t decided what they’re going to do for her living arrangements?”

“Nope. Daddy is trying to honor her wishes but knows she needs someone there with her. Auntie really don’t give a fuck. She is okay with her being there by herself. Somehow, she got Grandma to make her power of attorney, so Daddy can’t really go against what she’s saying right now. He’s trying to get her to see things from his perspective.”

“How in the hell did she get POA?”

Enjell’s head shook as she sighed. “Honestly, bae, I feel like she had Grandma sign it without knowing what it was.”

“Was it notarized? Y’all can challenge that. If she signed while she wasn’t fully in her right mind, it can be reversed, but it’ll have to be done legally.”

“I’ll tell Daddy so we can prepare, but hopefully, it won’t come down to that.”

We talked for a little while longer before heading to the parking lot.

“Are you sure you parked over here?” I asked, not seeing her car.

Her purse dropped as she stomped. “You have got to be kidding me! They wait until I pay the balance down to come get my shit?”

Gripping her shoulders, I turned her to face me. “What are you talking about, love?”

“My loan company,” she whined with watery eyes. “He was three months behind on the car note too. I was trying to work with them, but they said because he was so behind, they couldn’t make any promises. It would have been different if he’d been communicating with them and trying to work something out. Apparently, they’d already started the repo process, and my payments didn’t matter.” Sniffling, she pushed my hands away from her and began to pace. “Had I known they were going to do this, I wouldn’t have even made the payment yesterday. That was eleven hundred dollars that I could have saved or put toward something else.”

Every time something happened because of her ex, I wanted to do more than knock his ass out. If he was still in Memphis, I would pay his ass a visit. Though, with my connections, I could have Antonne or Merc find him regardless of where he was.

I took her into my arms, and her body immediately relaxed as she sniffled.

“Don’t worry about this, aight?” She nodded. “Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate advancing to the next round. Let me handle this.” … And him. Enjell looked up at me. “I’m not going to buy you a car, but I am going to be a partner and support you and make sure you have transportation, okay?”

Her eyes shifted as she considered my words. Watching the battle of choosing my help and trusting me versus trying to handle this herself was different compared to just hearing her say what was going on. I could see the effects of his actions play out in real time, and regardless of how she would feel about it, her ex was going to have to see me. The way he’d abandoned her gnawed at her ability to feel safe and secure with me, and that was some shit I simply wouldn’t tolerate. Even if she never said she loved me, I needed to know she trusted me, respected me, and felt safe with me. Knowing that would take some time, if it happened at all, because of his bitch ass…

“Okay,” she agreed softly.

I picked up her purse and handed it to her. We left that parking lot hand in hand, and I knew my next set of moves would either pull us closer together or cause her to push me further away.

Later that Evening

It didn’t take much work to find Gino. I reached out to Asylum, and he gave me Dallas’s number. Between her and Malaysia, I was able to get Gino’s number. Merc tracked his location, and I knew exactly where he was.

I ended up taking Enjell to the movies so we wouldn’t have to actually talk until she was in a better mood, then we went skating. After that, we met up with her girls and a few of my guys to go bowling. At that point, the second part of my plan was ready to go.

When we pulled into her driveway, my Charger was already there. I’d asked Aspen to bring it over since his crooked ass knew how to break into my apartment to get the spare key.

“Baby,” she said, sitting up in her seat.

Cutting off the Challenger, I bit back my smile. “Hmm?”

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