Page 97 of Cuffed By Your Love
He smiled, crooked, broken. “Goodbye, golden boy.”
The flash ripped first from his muzzle. Chambers shouted. My finger moved on instinct. Three rounds thundered out, lightning in the storm.
Kam’s body jerked, folded, and hit the dresser before sliding to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Rope slipped from his hand, pills scattering across the rug like teeth spilling from a shattered jaw. His blood bloomed dark into the fibers, a stain that would never come out.
His eyes stayed open, glassy, lips parting like he wanted to speak one last time. But nothing came. Just silence.
The silence after was heavier than the gunfire. Deafening. The kind of silence that swallowed whole blocks.
I lowered my weapon, chest heaving, guilt and duty twisting into one unbearable knot. I whispered under my breath, words no one else would ever hear.“I’m sorry, Kam.”
Chambers stepped up, eyes wide, voice low. “He drew first, Eli. You ain’t have a choice. Hewantedto die, bro.”
But standing over Kam’s body, watching that storm finally swallow him, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was true or if every choice we’d both ever made had dragged us right here.
Chambers nodded, camera still humming. “Whole city gon’ see this one day. You saved her life again, bro. I’ll call it in.”
Kam’s eyes glistened, the madness cracking into something rawer, more human. His voice shook, thin as a broken wire.
The house was still holding its breath when the sirens started swelling down the block. Red and blue lights bled through the blinds, painting Kam’s body in the colors of endings.
Chambers stood in the doorway, shoulders heavy, eyes fixed on me more than the scene. “Eli,” he said low, like he didn’t want to break the air. “You good?”
I holstered my weapon slowly, the metal clicking home louder than it should’ve. My hands still shook. My chest still burned with the echo of Kam’s last words.Tell her I loved her. Tell her I know you’ll love her like I never could.
The weight pressed on my chest, but I didn’t let it sit long. “Cameras caught it,” I said flatly, staring at the corner of the room where the lens winked red. “Everything he said, everything that went down. IA’ll have it. Homicide’ll have it. And once they search North Self, Taleah’s body’ll back it up.” I looked Chambers dead in the eye, my voice tightening. “So I ain’t got the luxury of burying his words. Even if I wanted to.”
Chambers studied me for a long beat, then nodded slowly. “You gonna tell her?”
I exhaled, dragging a hand down my face. My whole soul wanted to protect Jonay from more pain but protecting her didn’t mean lying to her. Not now. Not ever.
“I don’t keep secrets from her,” I said finally, the words landing like an oath. “She deserves the truth: raw, ugly, all of it. If I carry this by myself, it’ll rot me. And she’d never forgive me for keeping it.”
The sirens screamed louder, engines grinding up the street. Backup. EMTs. The circus. But in that moment, standing over Kam’s body, all I could think about was Jonay’s face when I told her what he’d said. The apology, the confession, the madness, the murder. All of it.
I tightened my jaw. “Better it come from me than a damn report.”
Chambers clapped a hand on my shoulder, grounding me. “Then you tell her. Straight, no chaser. Just like you always do.”
I nodded once, heavy. Because no matter how much it would tear her, she deserved the whole truth. And I’d be right there to hold her together after it broke her.
Outside of Jonay’s house felt too bright, too sterile, like grief and fear didn’t belong in clean white light. Jonay sat small in one of those plastic chairs, arms folded tight across her chest, locs falling into her face like curtains she didn’t want to pull back.
When her eyes met mine, they widened—fear first, then relief, then that question that split my chest in two:what happened?
I dropped down in front of her, big frame folding low so I was eye-level. My hands cupped hers, warm against her trembling fingers. “Baby…” My voice cracked, so I steadied it. “It’s over. He won’t be able to hurt you or anybody else anymore.”
Her breath shuddered out, but she didn’t speak. Just searched my face, like she knew there was more and wasn’t sure she wanted it.
I held her hands tighter. “I need you to hear me on this. Straight, no filter. Kam—he confessed before he drew on me. He said he killed Taleah. He said she switched his meds, and he blamed her for y’all falling apart. And then… then he said he was sorry. That he loved you. That he knew I’d love you the way he couldn’t.”
Her whole body stiffened, eyes glazing over fast. “Don’t…” She shook her head hard. “Don’t say that to me.”
I swallowed, my throat raw. “I have to. The cameras caught it all. IA’ll see it. Reports’ll spill it. You deserve to hear it from me first, not some cold ass transcript.”
Her lip trembled, tears finally slipping free. “Why he… Why he wait until now?”
“Because he was broken, gorgeous,” I said, voice thick, steadying her even as mine threatened to break. “Sickness, lies, guilt. It all drowned him. And when he looked at me, he wasn’t asking to be saved. He wanted me to carry his last words to you. And I will. That’s the only part of him I’ll honor.”
