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I shook my head. “No.”

“I met with one of the old guards. He remembered the two SUVs before the shooting.”

“You still haven’t proved Q did anything,” I stated.

“I talked to him.”

“You talked to who?”

“I confronted Q today. He admitted his men were there. He said his men blocked the road and fired the first shots at Rah.”

The living room was starting to close in on us. I grabbed the arm of the sofa. This wasn’t real. I had this man around my kids. My heart was beating so fast, it was giving me a headache.

“I’m sorry,” Kyenna said.

“Did he know it was Rah?”

Kyenna’s face balled up. I knew it was a dumb question. My heart just didn’t want it to be true.

“Hell, yeah he knew.”

I covered my mouth. That hurt worse than anything else she had said. I wasn’t stupid. I knew Q wasn’t an innocent man once he said he had a past that he no longer was connected to. He knew exactly whose life was being destroyed. Only to later walk into mine like none of this happened.

“That man was around my kids.”

“I know.”

“He made me fall in love. My kids were falling in love with him,” my voice cracked.

“How long did you know?” I asked, my eyes filled with tears.

“A few days. I wanted proof before I came to you with anything. I knew how happy y’all were. The last thing I wanted to do was come and fuck up your world, and it ended up being nothing.”

“Here you go, keeping shit to yourself again. Just like you did when you found Rah. You should’ve told me the minute his name came up.”

“With what, Averie? I didn’t have anything solid to come to you with at first.”

“Do you hear yourself? You had enough to investigate.”

“And what if I was wrong?”

I laughed bitterly. “If you had been wrong, I would’ve been mad at you. So, fucking what? Instead, I had that man sleeping in my bed. I was at his house. Alone.”

Kyenna didn’t say a word. My anger was valid. We weren’t best friends, but I expected her to protect my kids more than she had.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s dead,” she said.

My heart stopped. It was like I had gone deaf for a minute. There was no way she was sitting here telling me that Q was dead. Now I had more questions, and I didn’t know if I wanted the damn answers, the way she was sitting here like nothing was bothering her.

“Dea…dead?”

“Q is dead,” she said again.

“How?”

Kyenna didn’t answer. Her silence was her answer, and I knew it.