Page 106 of Deuce

“I’ve been calling and texting you for at least an hour now. I went by and you could literally smell the gasoline in the air. Somebody set that shit on fire. Firetrucks and police are everywhere.”

I could feel my blood boiling. My brothers moved to stand, and the girls did too.

“Let’s go,” Kerrion said.

I grabbed Salima’s hand and pulled her behind me as we filed out of the lounge and to our cars. Traffic was heavy, and it made the five-minute drive turn into twenty. By the time we got there, it was nothing but smoke, burned bricks, and ashed. My brothers and I exited the cars and went over to Benson, one of the officers on our payroll.

“What the fuck happened?” I demanded.

“It was definitely foul play. Looks like they pried the back door open and doused the place in gasoline. It spread pretty quick.”

“You got any leads?”

He shook his head. “Nah. Not enough to go off of. The person that called it in said they saw a black car speeding from the area just before the flames engulfed everything. They didn’t get a plate, but I have someone pulling the camera footage from surrounding buildings.”

“Make sure you get that and send it to Jaeda so she can analyze it. I don’t trust these muthafuckas. Somebody is fucking with me and I’m getting my shit back in blood.”

“I hear you. I’ll be on the lookout.”

“You know anything about a Detective Ian Pearson?”

His brows furrowed. “Pearson… Pearson… nah, that doesn’t ring a bell. I can look into it. You think it’s him?”

“All I know is he blackmailed Willis into signing that warrant that got the feds to raid my place the other week. I wanna know what that muthafucka is doing in my city and who sent for him.You get me that and I’ve got you. I have a feeling I know who it is. I just don’t know the connection between the two. ”

“I got you.”

We left him with a head nod and headed back toward the cars. I stopped when we were a few feet away.

“This shit has Mirron’s ass written all over it,” I stated confidently.

Maceo frowned. “You think he’s working with the feds?”

“I’m sure he thinks by fucking with me, he’ll wear me down. As soon as I find out what the connection is between him and Pearson, I want both of those niggas head on a fucking platter.”

The news of Judge Willis and his dirty dealings already broke headlines. Jaeda was able to confirm transfers to his bank from every person on the list he gave me. She also located records of his convictions and it was no surprise that the charges didn’t match the crimes committed. There were at least fifty people serving extra time for petty crimes and about ten serving time for crimes with no real evidence they committed.

I had her send an encrypted email of her findings to the director of the FBI along with the deputy director and a national news station. It didn’t take long for the story to hit every news outlet. All of Willis’s cases were being investigated and arrests were being made.

It seemed as though he had opened the can of worms with his confession, but unbeknownst to anybody on the outside, I orchestrated the whole thing. I didn’t like to do shit without concrete proof. As much of a menace as I could be, I needed to justify my actions. I couldn’t act on impulse, even if my gut was telling me to. I couldn’t be reckless. I was nothing if not a calculated muthafucka.

Mirron had better count his fucking days.

A week had passedsince Deuce’s lounge had been burned to the ground. I could tell he was on edge and his angering was beginning to fester. He was irritable and distracted. Last night, I literally had to make him turn his phone off so I could talk to him. His irritation was irritating me. We had our first real argument last night, and, of course, it was about Mirron and this damn detective.

I didn’t like that shit.

I mean, I knew our relationship wouldn’t be perfect. I knew we’d have ups and downs, especially given his line of work. I’d gotten used to the thrills, the passion, and the somewhat loving nature we had. I didn’t like fighting with him at all.

He’d left the apartment, returning an hour later to apologize.

When we woke up this morning, I could tell he was still a little irritated, but he put it aside to come with me. I had an appointment with my advisor about getting back into school tofinish my program. I was only about six months shy of being finished when I had to leave, so she said there wouldn’t be a problem with getting me re-enrolled for the upcoming semester in a few weeks.

She had me fill out all the necessary paperwork and sent me to financial aid. The moment we sat down at the desk, Deuce asked that lady how much it was going to cost and that he would cover it. I tried to protest, but he basically told me to sit my ass back and let him handle business.

So I sat my ass back and let him handle it.

With enrollment taken care of, we left the school and headed to have lunch to celebrate.

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