Page 79 of Unexpected Pass

I shoved him hard in the chest, making him stumble back. He didn’t even get to say her name.

“You paid someone thirty Gs to make sure Phileigh lost the baby.” I growled. “What? You didn’t want the baby, so you didn’t want me to want the baby either?”

“She playing you, KB,” Reggie snapped, trying to regain control. “That baby ain’t even yours?—”

That was it. My fist cracked him across his jaw before he could finish the sentence. I was done talking to his bitch ass. He stumbled back, crashing into the wall. I followed, landing blow after blow, making sure I left his bitch ass exactly how he planned for the masked man to leave Phileigh.

I landed one last punch to Reggie’s already bloodied face before I backed off, panting and shaking. I stared at his barely conscious body slumped against the floor, laying in a pool of his teeth.

“You ever come near Phileigh or my son again…” I crouched next to him, making sure he heard me. “I won’t leave your stupid ass breathing next time.”

I turned away. My adrenaline surged as I made my way to the kitchen to get Lolo. We needed to get out of here. The police would be here at any minute.

“Talk that hot shit now, bitch!” Lolo’s voice rang out as she pounded Natalie’s face into the kitchen island. “You thought killing my best friend was gonna keep your nigga?” Lolo shouted. She was stomping Natalie’s ass into the ground. I stood there for a minute, allowing her to finish the job I recruited her to do.

“Stupid ho!” she shouted, standing up out of breath and brushing her hands off like it was nothing. “She ain’t gonna be talking slick or setting up shit for a while.”

She walked past me to the entrance. Monte was already pulling the car around as we stepped out the front door.

“Any stops before the landing strip?” Monte asked as we slid into the back of the SUV.

“Naw. I’m ready to get back to NYC,” I told him.

“Me too. I need to check up on my bestie,” Lolo consigned, and Monte wasted no time getting us the hell out of there.

By the time we boarded the plane, Monte’s LAPD connect was calling to let us know they had arrested him, Natalie, and Ariel too. After gaining information from the hitman, the detectives traced everything back to those three—the burner phones brought by Natalie, the payments from a PayPal account owned by Reggie, the license plate numbers on my cars given to them by Ariel.

I looked over at Lolo, who was still hyped but silent. Phileigh had a good friend in that one. She hadn’t thought twice about hopping on this plane and passing out ass whuppings. She was going to make the perfect god mom for Baby J.

“Now that business is handled, I got a few rings I need to show you,” I said, making her mouth drop to the damn floor.

“Oh my God! I want all the details. When? Where? How?” She squealed as we made our way back to Phileigh.

“You want a line-up?”I asked, holding the clippers in front of Kellon’s face.

The sound of the clippers vibrating between my fingertips was calming and exactly the peace I needed right now. I was okay and healing slowly. The bruises were fading. The nightmares still came, but I was alive. My baby was alive, and those responsible for my attack were behind bars awaiting trial without bail.

“If you mess up my hairline, I’ma have to wear a hoodie until the baby gets here. Remember that,” he joked. “Maternity pictures and all.”

“Boy, bye. I could line you up in my sleep.”

“I bet you could.” He reached up and grabbed my hand, pulling it to his lips. “I trust you. These hands are blessed.”

My heart pounded as tears threatened to escape my eyes, but I sucked them back in and finished up his cut.

“All done. You look so good, Kellon Barnes. I want to eat you up!”

I grinned as he pulled me into his lap, being careful of my belly. We sat like that for a while, just holding each other enjoying each other’s quiet company until his phone buzzed on the windowsill again making my eyes roll. I was sure it was another headline, another rumor, or twisted version of what happened.

“I’m sick of this,” I whispered. “Everyone has something to say, but none of them know.”

He nodded.

“You’re right, and that’s why we’re going to tell them.”

“Tell them what?” I stared at him confused.

“The truth. Our truth. Let’s release a statement.”

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