Page 51 of Memphis

“I have guns, too. Please leave.Now,” I said bluntly.

Bo looked at me with pure adoration in his eyes.

“We’ll leave, but do we have an understanding now?” his mother directed at me.

“Didn’t your man just get killed? Shouldn’t you be in mourning instead of over here fucking with me?” I countered.

Something flashed in her eyes before she gave me a weird ass smile. Nodding at her companions, she said, “I think our work here is done. Let’s go.”

The intruders filed out of my bedroom, the front door soon closing behind them.

I moved back to my dresser, finding a pair of panties in the drawer and pulling them on, although my pussy was a sticky mess from the previous night’s festivities. Then I stood and stared into the drawer, trying to process what had just happened. Bo’s familiar aura surrounded me as he pressed his body to the back of mine, and I shook my head.

“Bo…” I sighed.

His arms encircled my waist as his lips met the side of my neck, and I closed my eyes.

“Tell me what I can do to make you stay with me. We can get married today. Whatever you want,” he offered.

“I’m still getting over my mother’s death. I’m adjusting to a new job that I love, I’m…”

“Please, baby.Please. I can fix this. Just…just let me.”

Against my better judgement and completely engulfed in this man’s love, I said, “Okay.”

28

Then…

Istood in my mother’s living room, so fucking angry I could burn her motherfucking house to the ground. I loved my mother despite the fact that I knew she could be ruthless and downright evil in the pursuit of reaching a desired end. Iknew she loved me and Zaccai and our father, however toxic and twisted that love might’ve been, but for her to bust into Memphis’s place and threaten her life? She’d taken shit miles past too far.

Seated on the sofa as I stood before her, my mother crossed her legs and pursed her lips as she played with the strand of pearls around her neck. Her appearance was neat, well put together, and expensive, as usual.

“You’re angry. Surely you knowyourlife was never in danger,” she said, her affect flat.

“You threatened to kill my woman! That’s the same as threatening me!” I thundered.

She tilted her head to the side, recognition appearing in her small eyes. “Oh…you’re in love.” Sucking her teeth, she shook her head. “And I suppose she loves you, too?”

“She does.”

My mother sighed and clicked her tongue. “That’s a shame.”

I shook my head, my fists clenched at my sides. “Nah, what’s a shame is you thinking you can make decisions for me. I’m fucking grown!”

“Your father made a deal?—”

“Fuck the deal! We got a company full of killers who can take care of Layla’s father. Hell, I’ll do it!”

“You will not! No harm will come to him!”

I frowned. “Why? Why not? I mean,fuck him.I didn’t make the damn deal with him, and the man who did is dead.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I noticed this Memphis girl doesn’t have security. Strange, with her father being a blues legend, but also fortuitous for me. It would be nothing to get rid of her. You can’t be with her all the time. For instance, right now, she’s home all alone…isn’t she?”

I could feel my pulse banging in my temple. “Is that a fucking threat?”

“No…” she sang, tapping on her phone—a Japanese model most Americans didn’t even have access to yet—and holding it up so that the screen was facing me. It was a grainy photo of Memphis sitting on her sofa. “It’s a promise. This picture was taken by one of our company’s killers, as you put it. He’s just waiting for me to give him the go ahead. He’s a great distance shooter.”

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