The knock on the door pulled us both from our conversation. “Yo… Havoc told me that the same few cars keep driving past the entrance of the lake house… security on it, but I’m about to make my way back up there with Kincaid.” Capella told me.

“You straight?”

“I’m good… my wife and seed is there… niggas not getting through them gates.” He dapped me up, then headed out the room.

For a while, I worried about Chubs and if he was going to pull his shit together. He had that Delgato flowing through him, so he had no choice but to step into that power that his father, uncles, aunt, and grandfather possessed.

“You can go with him.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

She looked away from me. “Can you just go with him, Quasim. I want to be alone, please.”

I paused and looked at the TV before gently grabbing her face. “Why you beefing with me, Angel?”

I watched as she reached for my phone and scrolled before she came across a song. She let the song play out loud as she stared at me. I sat on the edge of the bed and listened to the song. My chest felt tight because it was everything she told me in Bali.How she would walk through the fire because she knew I would never let her get burned.

When the song ended, she handed me back my phone and stared at me. “If you can listen to that song and still think walking away is the best decision, then go.”

“Blair…”

She held her hand up. “You’re letting them win, Quasim. I told you that I will walk through the fire with you… yeah, I didn’t think it’d be an actual fire, but I am here. If you’re going to become distant, I would rather you do it now. God and everyone else knows how much I love you.” She started coughing as she removed the rosary from around her neck. “Take this and go if that’s what you plan on doing. I’m not chasing you this time… I deserve to have someone choose me like I have been choosing you. Go with Capella and make sure Elijah and everyone is safe.” She held the rosary out for me to take and I didn’t move from where I was planted.

“You think you run shit?”

“When it comes to my heart, I do. If you can’t handle it, then leave me the fuck alon?—”

Her words were cut off when I softly grabbed her chin and kissed her lips, inserting my tongue into her mouth as she stared into my eyes. When I was done, I sealed it with a soft peck on her lips. “I own your heart, Anjo. That shit beats for me.”

I paused and grabbed her hand, as she stared at me. “I can?—”

“And mine beats for you because you own this shit.” I realized that I was the reason for her fear. I’ve made shit so inconsistent when it came to us trying to love each other that she knew my pattern. I’m not going to front and say the thought of stepping away from her didn’t cross my mind.

Allowing her to find a love that wouldn’t have her hurt was something that made sense. Except, I couldn’t do that becauseI loved this woman with everything. Not having Anjo in my life would be like tossing dirt onto a coffin, although she was alive.

I couldn’t picture my life without her, and all the guilt I was carrying was hard to push to the side. A nigga felt like a bitch for allowing someone to touchmywoman.

MyAnjo.

Blair

I was being dischargedfrom the hospital.

The doctors told me that I was lucky to be pulled out when I was, or else I could have had some real damage done to my lungs. They discharged me with inhalers, and some device that I had to breathe into until the ball popped up at the top.

I had never been so happy to be out the hospital.

Quasim had been on go since everything happened. Every other day, the news was reporting some death, and I hadn’t seen him since the morning he left the hospital after kissing me. He checked in with me regularly, and I could always hear the exhaustion in his voice.

I missed him.

I prayed that he took what I said into consideration. As much as I loved that man, I wasn’t going to continue to chase behind him. I’ve shown him my heart and opened up to him, despite knowing his ass was a flight risk.

He needed to understand that to have the kind of love that we had, you had to fight for it. Someone wanted to come between what we had and if he fell back, he would only allow them to win. I was also smart enough to know that there was a sinister sideof the man I loved, and what I had witnessed wasn’t anything compared to how he could get down.

“You are not going back to your apartment, either… you need to be around family. Quasim told me to bring you to his lake house.” Capri said, as she closed my door behind me and quickly rounded the car.

I was a little down that Quasim didn’t come pick me up himself. Shaking it off, I smiled because my girl was always going to make sure I was good. Even with a million things going on in her life, she was here early and ready to bust me out of the hospital.