Page 46 of Kissed By the Trillest Thug 2

“He ain’t tired?”

She threw a paper towel roll at me, and I caught it easily. Well… As easily as somebody with a fresh gunshot wound could. The kitchen filled with laughter for the first time all morning.

She had bacon sizzling. Some pancakes were already cooked, and now she was working on the eggs. She had my place smelling good as hell. Maliah looked around the apartment before her eyes landed on me again.

“You know…” she dragged.

The look on her face immediately made me suspicious.

“What?”

“If I’m gonna be over here this much, you might as well get me a key made.”

I stared at her. She continued cracking eggs like she hadn’t just invited herself into my entire life.

“Maliah.”

“I’m serious.”

“Of course you are,” I said with a laugh.

This girl was taking her father’s blessing and running with it. Like damn, can a nigga’s wound heal first?

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Her words came out casually, but she had no idea how much her statement meant to me. My eyes stayed on her for a second longer than necessary. Then I looked away. I would run out and go make her copy right fucking now if she wanted me to. More than anything, the only thing us niggas be wanting is to know that the lady by our side won’t ever go anywhere.

GHOST

By the next afternoon, I had managed to push Ryan to the back of my mind. At least enough to convince myself I wasn’t going to think about him anymore. The refrigerator was almost empty, and after standing there for a good five minutes hoping food would magically appear, I finally gave in and drove to the convenience store a few blocks from the apartment. My mother usually handles grocery shopping, but she’d been picking up extra shifts at the hospital lately and spending more time at work than she did at home.

Between her schedule and everything that had been going on, neither one of us had made it to the store. I parked, shut the engine off, and climbed out. The afternoon heat hit me immediately. I locked my door and started toward the entrance. I hadn’t made it more than a few steps before somebody spoke.

“Just the man I wanted to see.”

My head turned toward the voice. Leaning against the wall near the front of the store was somebody I recognized almost immediately. Reemo. We weren’t friends, but we’d crossed paths enough over the years while playing ball around the city and seeing each other in the streets that I knew exactly who he was. More importantly… I knew who he ran with.

His right-hand man was Bashar.

“What up?” I asked.

He pushed himself off the wall.

“Ain’t much.”

Something about the way he answered made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Before I could say anything else,movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Then more movement. I looked to my left, and there were two dudes. To my right, another two.

One came around from behind a parked car while another walked out of the store carrying nothing in his hands. Without realizing it, I’d been surrounded. I slowly looked back at Reemo.

“This what we doing?”

“Depends on how this conversation goes,” he said with a shrug.

My eyes moved around the parking lot again. There were too many of them for this to be some random coincidence. Every one of them was watching me, just waiting. I let out a slow breath.

“So, talk.”

Reemo stepped a little closer. His expression had lost every trace of friendliness.