I had to make him think he was cornering me and killing me in Bear’s honor, solidifying him with the circle. I had to make him think he had the upper hand and that I was terrified. His entire visit was supposed to catch me off guard. He had no idea what was waiting for him.
“What’s up, Mario? What’s going on, man?” I chuckled a bit and stepped back to let him and the four other motherfuckers he had with him inside.
“What’s good, Shadow? We need to have a little talk.” His stance was wide and strong like he knew everything would go his way. I smirked inside.
“Okay…if we need to have a talk why did you bring them?” I pointed to the men flanking him and he laughed, rubbing his chin.
“Your sexy ass cousin around?” He walked deeper into the house and peeked into the kitchen on the way to the living room. Ivy looked over her shoulder and smiled at him then gave a little wave, wiggling her fingers. “There she is. What’s up, gorgeous?”
“Hi, Mario.” She managed to say it like her skin wasn’t crawling.
“When you gonna let me take you out on a date, girl?”
“Come see me later on tonight,” she smiled and went back to loading the dishes in the dishwasher.
“Oh, definitely. Let me take care of some business.” He leaned over to one of Bear’s guys and spoke in his ear. He was rude as fuck.
“So what’s up?” I walked to the backdoor and leaned against the wall. I stroked my beard with my hand over and over. Mario’s eyes honed in on the faux nervous tick like I wanted.
“I wanted you to hear it from me first that I’m in Bear’s circle now.” I took one look at him and could tell he had a pistol tucked in the front and each of Bear’s men had two pistols. One on their hips and another one somewhere hidden. My eyes were trained to search for the familiar bumps and bulges of a tucked gun.
I stood up straight and rubbed the back of my neck. “Oh…okay. Is that why you brought them?” I flicked my gaze to the men behind Mario.
“Yeah. We all need to get some shit out in the open. You wanna go outside and talk? I don’t want your cousin to hear all this. She won’t like it.” His arrogance was palpable. I nodded and opened the back door. I didn’t need to look to know Bear was sitting under a tree on a bench on the far side of the yard. The setting sun and storm clouds cloaked him in shadows.
How fitting?
“Look, man. I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t want any trouble.” I kept my voice low enough so Mario would think I didn’t want Ivy to hear. A sinister smirk lifted one side of his mouth.
“Come on, bro, let’s talk.” He clapped my shoulder and we moved further from the door. Bear’s men walked around behind me and I knew Mario thought it was a maneuver used to block me in if I ran.
He was fatally wrong.
“You wanna tell me what this is about?” I asked, looking behind me for a myriad of reasons.
“Shadow, I need to be upfront with you. I never fucking liked you. You always got shit you didn’t deserve and I’m sick of it. I told Bear I’d kill you for killing his soldier during Mardi Gras. Did you know it was Bear’s brother?” Mario laughed and lightning flashed in the distance.
“I didn’t know that but I didn’t kill him.” I lied my ass off but Mario only had a hunch that the person who killed Wolf was me. He didn’t know for sure. It was a damn good hunch but it wasn’t tangible.
It was my turn to smirk now. I saw a shadow emerging from the dark shade of the willow tree. Bear walked up behind Mario and signaled his men to pull their guns by flicking his hand up like an orchestra conductor. No words were needed. I heard them uncover their pistols behind me but I had no fear.
The guns weren’t for me.
“Well, Bear doesn’t know that. Bear doesn’t know who the fuck killed Wolf and guess whose name fits in perfectly with the narrative?” Mario was so cocky he didn’t even draw his gun. Stupid motherfucker.
“So you’re lying on me without knowing the facts? What the fuck kind of shit is that?” I frowned, folding my arms. He had to realize I wasn’t fazed. He had to see the steady, calm look in my eyes and wonder why I wasn’t bargaining for my life.
“I told you. I don’t fucking like you, Shadow. I don’t give a fuck if you did or didn’t kill Wolf.” His brows lowered on his forehead.
“So you had my mother killed,” I said, smoothing my beard. I hated the fucking air around him. I wanted to shoot him myself. I hoped Bear understood that was my only requirement. His men were in place in case things got messy.
“You’re asking questions while you have guns pointed at you. Still so fucking confident, huh?”
“Yeah. I am.” I wondered why he hadn’t felt Bear’s presence behind him yet. If it weren’t my goal to kill Mario myself, he would have been dead two minutes ago.
“I didn’thaveyour mother killed.Ikilled her. Pulled up on her when she got home from the grocery store and offered to help her bring bags in. She never saw it coming.”
In a flash of blind fury, I pulled my gun and aimed it at his fucking head. My heart pumped venom through my veins.