Page 74 of Love At Close Range

“Then what the fuck are we talking about?” He questioned.

“The fact that your men still put their hands on my family,” I responded calmly.

“Come on, Steele.” His jaw tightened. “ You know how this shit works. Nobody was supposed to hurt them… it was just leverage. You got them back… they’re alive, and Pierce is dead. There’s no reason for this to turn into something else.” He tried to bargain but I wasn’t hearing none of that shit.

The man beside him tried his luck and failed miserably as Rook sent a slug into his forehead before he could even aim his gun. Cyrus looked at me then his dead man before putting his eyes back on me.

“You’re really about to make this shit personal over some shit I’ain even know?” Cyrus asked.

“You made it personal when your niggas broke my woman’s window and snatched her and my son,” I replied. “Whether you knew who they belonged to doesn’t mean shit to me,” I spat.

“So what the fuck was I supposed to do? Ask every nigga in Arbor Point if they had some hidden connection to her before I made a move?” He looked like I was the irrational one in the situation.

“Nah… you did what you thought you needed to do,” I told him. “Now I’m gone do the same,” I clarified, hoping he finally got the picture.

Cyrus went quiet, and I watched him finally understand where the conversation was headed.

“You’on want to do this,” he pleaded. “If you want more money I can do that,” he tried to compromise but I’ain wanna hear that shit.

“There’s something else you don’t know,” I mentioned.

“What?” He squinted.

“Drex hired me to kill you.” I smirked.

For the first time since we pulled up, Cyrus didn’t have anything to say right away.

“Drex?” he finally questioned.

“Yep,” I countered/

“That snake-ass nigga,” he muttered, shaking his head. “We had an agreement.”

“Apparently he didn’t give a fuck about it.” I shrugged, never taking my eyes off of him.

“So this whole fucking meeting was a setup?” He asked with too much attitude for me.

“Nah,” I replied. “I came to get paid. You hired me to kill Pierce… I killed his ass, and you owed me the rest of my money. I wasn’t letting what happened with my family fuck with my money,” I responded.

His eyes went toward the duffle bag in Rook’s hand before coming back to me. “And now you’re collecting on Drex’s contract too?”

“Nah, Drex ain’t got shit to do with why I’m about to kill you,” I informed him. “He could keep every fucking dollar attached to your name for all I care,” I continued. “This one’s free.”

“Steele, hold the fuck on,” Cyrus rushed out. “We can fix—”

Before he could put a period at the end of his sentence, I shot him in the center of his forehead and watched as his body hit the side of the car before dropping to the ground.

“You a cold muthafucka,” Rook laughed.

“Nah, I’m a muthafucka that don’t play about his family,” I corrected as we made our way back to the truck.

“Drop me off at a hotel,” Rook said after a while. “Go be with your family.”

“You gone be good?” I asked him.

“I’m straight,” he assured me.

Instead of arguing, I did as he asked and dropped him off. By the time I got back to Reiana’s, it was late. When I let myself in the living room light was still on and Reiana was sitting on the couch with a blanket over her legs, but the second she saw me, she pushed it aside and stood.