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“I have an older sister,” Roc explained without looking my way. His mood had visibly gone to shit and there was now a troubled dip in his brow. “She had Malik when I was like nine or ten.”
Oh.
I was about to ask another question when Rowdy suddenly tensed again. “Aye, homeboy,” he barked aggressively. “There’s no smoking in here.”
My alarmed gaze traveled among the group until it landed on the silent fourth leaning against the door.
Ruen’s bag was now resting at his feet while he lit up, the casual bad-boy demeanor at odds with the tailored black suit he wore. I could see a hint of the colorful artwork that traveled from his long neck and disappeared underneath his crisp white shirt. His black hair was tousled, strands falling over his dark eyes, the longest one almost reaching his small nose. However, the two tiny hoops he wore in each ear were what I liked the most about his style.
My admiration lasted until he opened his mouth.
“Really, homeboy?” Fourth toked on his cigarette. “I don’t see a sign.” He blew out a puff of smoke, and before I could blink, Rowdy’s arm left my shoulders. One moment he was next to me, and the next, he was pinning Fourth to the door by his throat.
“How about I cut you open and use your intestines to make a sign?” Rowdy suggested.
I didn’t like the gleam in Fourth’s eye when he smiled.
“Ky, chill, man!” Malik yelled at his friend. “This is not going to go how you think it will. Rowdy doesn’t make idle threats.”
“Neither do we,” the sexy vamp responded darkly. He’d been so quiet and still up until now. My heart seized in my chest at the gun now pressed against Rowdy’s temple. I hadn’t even noticed him move. “Let him the fuck go.”
I looked around for someone to diffuse this situation, but everyone around me was either at or holding someone else at gunpoint. The only ones who seemed uncertain were Malik and Roc, but still, they were both locked and loaded, obviously willing to live with the consequences if this went left.
Even Ruen had a silver gun with a long barrel and some kind of beaded charm tied around the trigger housing pointed at the back of Rowdy’s thick skull.
Where the hell had she even hidden that thing?
Glimpsing movement in my peripheral, I looked away in time to see Tuesday slowly step off the stairs, pause, and then with a straight face, turn and haul her scary ass back upstairs like she hadn’t seen a thing.
If the situation wasn’t so dire, I might have laughed.
A choking sound forced my focus back into the fray, and I saw Ky was no longer smiling. He was slowly turning an awful shade of blue as Rowdy suffocated him with the weight of his arm.
“You might as well kill me,” Rowdy warned. “Either way, I’m taking this disrespectful bitch with me.”
Hearing the sincerity in Rowdy’s tone, Ruen moved her finger from the barrel to the trigger.
“Nooo!” Before I could register the screaming voice as my own, I had once again thrown myself between Ruen and Rowdy. “Ruen, please,” I begged from the end of her crosshairs. “You have to stop this.”
“Sorry, Twinks. I like you and all, but they’re family.” I thought I’d seen Ruen look cruel before, but that was nothing compared to the coldness in her eyes now. There was no warmth or humor when she spoke either.
“What about Remedy?” I asked out of pure chance and desperation. “Your sister. Your twin. Wouldshewant you to do this? Do you really want to leave her all alone? You said it yourself. Idlewild can be ruthless if you aren’t careful.”
The shift in Ruen’s eyes was minute, but it was enough. I’d reminded her of herrealAchilles heel.
“All right, Atlas,” she said, her tone sweet but dripping venom as she slowly lowered her gun. “Since you’re so persuasive, I’ll give you fifteen seconds to convince your boyfriend to let my friend go. A second more, and I pull the trigger.”
Shit.
Whatever it was that I had with Rowdy was still new and resting on a foundation that teetered with the wind. It was impossible to think I had that kind of pull with him yet.
One look around at all the grave faces, and I knew I had no choice.
I had to try.
They all still had their guns aimed.
I gave Ruen one last pleading look, but she only raised her brow and mouthed, “Tick tock.”
