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“You just said he was involved in the murder.”

“He was.”

“No…there is no way Q would do anything like that. That’s not him.”

“Averie-”

“I just talked to that man today. He was in this house. You’re not about to walk your ass in here and say some shit like that without explaining yourself.”

“Well, I’m trying to,” Kyenna said.

“Then explain,” I said, flopping on the sofa across from her.

She reached into her purse and pulled out folded copies and placed them on the table between us. I didn’t touch them.

“I don’t give a damn about paperwork right now. Tell me what you know.”

“In short, Q funded routes for King Distribution. Rah was ready to shut the routes down. He pissed a lot of the investors off, so they decided to end Rah’s life. Your boy, Q, had his boys sit on our compound and wait for Rah to get home to ambush him.”

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.”