Page 59 of Priest

I leaned forward with my hands clasped on my desk. “You know we got you covered with school. Tell me what else I can do to help.”

“That’s all I need, Priest. Everything else, I can work out on my own.”

“All right. Download the paperwork from the website, fill it out, and get it to Double R,” I replied, referencing my treasurer, Road Rage, by his other nickname.

“Okay, thanks.”

She hesitated and stared at me for several seconds.

“You got something you wanna say? Spit it out.”

She smirked and replied, “I’ll miss that about you. Your bluntness. I just wanted to say that you’ve never really let anyone in. You keep everyone at a distance with that wall you built. It’s time to start taking it down, Priest. Let someone in and let them love you. If it’s her, then I hope she makes you happy because you deserve that. Let go of your past and let someone in.”

She shrugged. And when I didn’t say anything, she stood and walked to the door.

“Cheekz.”

She stopped and turned to look at me over her shoulder. For the first time, I noticed something about her. The look in her eyes whenever she looked at me was different than how she looked at everyone else. It was the same look that September now carried whenever she looked at me.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry ’bout how everything shook out.”

She waved a hand. “It’s okay. It was meant to be. If you hadn’t forced my hand, then I wouldn’t know what I was capable of. I’d have settled for this life. I hope she makes you happy.”

I watched as she walked out of the door. I pulled my computer screen up and tapped a couple of keys. The living room and kitchen were both empty. I expected her to be in either of those enjoying her freedom while I was away. I panned to my bedroom, and it was empty. Then I panned to her bedroom, and it was empty.

I frowned and scrolled to the other bedrooms in the house and saw they were empty, also. I went back to her bedroom to see if she would come out of the bathroom, but then I noticed that the bathroom door was open, and it was dark inside.

Although I had cameras in all the rooms, I never used them. There wasn’t a need to until now because I was worried abouther. I quickly scanned the other rooms in the house to check out their bathrooms and noticed all the doors were open, and they were empty because it was dark.

I sat up in my chair, and then I switched camera settings and went to the outdoor cameras. After I panned the area for three minutes and saw nothing, my stomach dropped. I tapped into my notifications and realized that I had missed several of them. One alert showed that someone left the house, another alert showed that my gate had opened and closed, and the final alert showed that someone passed a certain point on my private road between the woods and my land. I had missed them all, and that had been over an hour ago during a meeting with Sunny, Jagged, and Road Rage.

Pissed the fuck off because I couldn’t believe her little ass had pulled this shit, I jumped up, grabbed my keys and phone, and headed out of my office.

“Yo, Priest,” Sunny called as I jogged by his office.

“Hit me up on the phone. I got somewhere I need to be,” I shouted back.

“Yeah, like Morgan’s house in one hour.”

“I can’t. Get your ass over there and rep for me, nigga,” I yelled.

“He was very specific about it being you, Priest,” Sunny shouted.

I hopped on my bike and looked Sunny in his eyes. “I can’t. I gotta find the princess. If I don’t, ain’t gon’ be no muthafuckin exchange,” I snarled.

“Fuck!” Sunny shouted as he punched the air. “What about his guards? We can’t go in the front the way we did before.”

“He’s expecting you. You alone can roll up in there in my place. Have the rest of the men stand down so he doesn’t suspect shit.”

“Ain’t no way we gonna hide fifteen bikes, nigga.”

“You ain’t gotta hide ’em.”

“Security will alert them that we coming.”

“Nah, tell them niggas you there for me. Tell the rest of the crew to stand the fuck down.”