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I heard another boom. My fingers curled so tightly against the phone, it was a miracle I didn’t crack it. “Open the door when I get there.”

“Saadiq—”

I hung up. I made the twenty-minute drive in twelve. Topaz lived in a nice little neighborhood full of young professionals and their families. She didn’t need the kind of disturbance this mothafucka was bringing to her door. I saw a car parked crooked, almost on the curb as I approached Topaz’s house. Adam Milhouse come with bullshit on his mind. Unfortunately—for him, at least—his dumb ass was still on the porch. I killed the engine and stepped out of my truck. His bitch ass was so busy pounding on Topaz’s door that he didn’t see me at first.

“Open this fucking door, girl!” he demanded.

He wasn’t overly loud. Of course not. An up-and-coming lawyer couldn’t risk that. But he was mad and insistent. I shut my truck door. His head turned slowly; if I hadn’t been so pissed off, that slow motion shit may have been funny. The expression on his face changed as soon as his eyes met mine. I smiled. Guess he remembered me.

I heard the way he scoffed from the foot of the driveway. “Of course.”

Ignoring that, I swung the gate open and walked up the stone driveway toward him.

“Man, this ain’t got shit to do with you,” he groused.

I didn’t say shit; just kept walking. His weak ass glared at me.

“I got my things, and I’m trying to talk to my woman.”

I reached the porch. “She ain’t your woman.”

His nostrils flared, anger twisting his face. “Stay the fuck out of this, Masters.”

“Back away from her door.”

“She changed the fucking codes. I spent nights here. I got a right to check for all my⁠—”

“Nigga, did she say you got your shit?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Your belongings. Did she say she gave you all of them?”

“How can I know I got it all if she won’t let me in to look?”

He said that shit with a straight face, like I wouldn’t see straight through it.

“Leave. I’ll check for you.” I would. I’d gather any shit he had left and take it straight to the firepit at my house.

“This is between me and Topaz.”

I looked at her door. He had been beating long enough that fresh marks surrounded the frame. I had known from the sounds through the phone that he was banging hard as hell, but I hadn’t realized how much damage he was really doing. Then I had another thought. Was she inside that house, scared? Something inside me went quiet. I looked at Adam again.

“I said leave.”

This fool actually laughed. “You think ’cause you got money and prolly fucking that bi⁠—”

I yanked him off the porch before he finished the sentence. My hand twisted in the front of his shirt, and I dragged his ass down the steps so fast, he stumbled trying to keep his feet underneath him.

“Get the fuck off me!” He shoved at me.

“Not a good choice, my guy,” I taunted.

My fist slammed into his mouth. His head snapped back, and I hit him again. He tried to swing. I ducked that shit and punched his stomach hard enough to fold him in half. I caught him across the jaw as he bent forward and hit the grass.

“Saadiq!”

I hadn’t heard the door open, but I heard her. I didn’t look at her, but I heard her. Milhouse groaned, struggled to his knees. He spit blood into her pretty landscaping. I wanted to hit his ass again for that.